Stephen M. Miller for Tuesday, 20 June 2017 - Bible blog of award-winning bestselling Christian author, Stephen M. Miller "Can we tie up God? by Stephen M. Miller"

 Stephen M. Miller for Tuesday, 20 June 2017 - Bible blog of award-winning bestselling Christian author, Stephen M. Miller "Can we tie up God? by Stephen M. Miller"

. "Can we tie up God?" by Stephen M. Miller GET READY TO RUMBLE. One of the oddest stories in the Bible has God, or possibly an angel, wrestling a nearly 100-year-old Jacob all night long. What to make of that? Adapted from painting by Fidelis Schabet, Wikimedia I’LL BET YOU DIDN’T KNOW that Jacob was almost 100 years old when he wrestled all night long with what seems to have been a celestial being—possibly God. It’s one of many strange and mysterious stories in Genesis. Some wonder if it ever really happened, or if it was a dream Jacob had, or perhaps a vision of the night. I’m working on a Q&A leader’s guide and atlas to accompany the Casual English Bible’s paraphrase of Genesis. I’m nearly done with the leader’s guide and should be able to start on the atlas this week. Genesis is a whopper of a book. Fifty chapters. My guide is over 150 pages. I haven’t figured up how many maps I’ll need to create. Here’s a sample Q&A from Genesis 32. It’s question 10 for that chapter. Question LIFE APPLICATION. If Jacob wrestled God in this story, he was somehow able to tie up God in a wrestling hold all night long. Do you think we can actually tie up God, spiritually speaking, and at least temporarily keep him from doing the work he wants to do for us? If so what are some techniques for tying God up? Answer The image of tying up God in a camel clutch wrestling hold—or any other hold—is hard to imagine. It’s a whole lot easier to imagine tying ourselves up in a knot, perhaps by making a series of bad decisions. Jacob certainly made a lot of bad decisions: exploiting his brother, stealing his brother’s deathbed blessing from their father, robbing his father, Isaac, of Isaac’s last wish, not checking under the veil to see which woman he married. He could not undo any of that. He had to live with all of that. But through all of it, God stayed with him. Maybe one of the take-home messages from the story is that no matter how badly we trip up or fall down were tie ourselves up in knots, we’re never alone and we’re never beyond the reach of God’s kindness. Casual English Bible Bible Gateway The post Can we tie up God? appeared first on Stephen M. Miller.  Recent Articles: Jesus to demon: “Shut up” How to bless a kid Original sin and original sinners Demon to Jesus: “Hey!” Copyright © 2017 Stephen M. Miller Inc, All rights reserved.