Strength, the Result of Weakness

Over and over again in scripture we see the principle of God’s strength being manifested in weakness. More specifically in our weakness. I am reminded of a wonderful type in Scripture that is easily missed. Where it was said of Jacob “He worshipped, leaning upon his staff”, found in Hebrews, chapter eleven. Do you see the great message in this statement? His staff is a type of His God. That which supports him and is his supply, that which strengthens him and helps to keep him upright in his walk.

True worship is to be totally dependent and reliant upon your God, to lean upon Him, to cast all your cares upon him. . Most of the church world has not understood this principle. They have not entered into His rest because they have not seen the principles of rest. They have heard the words of our Lord, who overcame the world, flesh and the devil saying, I of my own self can do nothing. Yet, the church continues to trust in their ability to do something for God. We are still under the delusion that God just jump-starts us and then waits to see what we can do. To rest in the Lord as our strength is foreign to our carnal thinking.

When Jacob took his flight to avoid the wrath of Esau, he camped overnight in a place he would later call Bethel. During his sleep he saw a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to Heaven: and the Angels of God ascending and descending. And, behold the Lord stood above it and spoke unto him that He would keep him in all places where he went and He would bring him again unto his land and He would not leave him until He had accomplished all that He spoke onto Jacob.

How significant it is that when Jacob awoke and proclaimed that this was none but the house of God and the gate, or place of entering into Heaven, that he set up a pillar or an alter. But lets focus on what he used to make the pillar or alter or type of worship. Was it not the rock or stone on which he laid his head? The pillow, a type of rest was used as the place of worship. We must conclude that to enter into the gate of heaven we must rest in God, realize our weakness and know God as our strength.

Another example in Jacob’s life was in reality, a type of his death. It was when he would return to his homeland, having left his uncle Laban’s house, a rich man, and increased with goods. Great fear was upon Jacob because of his brother Esau and he camped alone at the ford Jabbok, a word which means emptying. If you recall, Jacob sent away those that were with him and was left alone without any of his earthly goods or possessions. And there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. This man touches the hollow of his thigh, the place of Jacob’s strength and causes him to be weak, to where he must halt and lean on his staff (God). Until the man did this, the man could not prevail against him. Jacob asked the angel of the Lord to bless him and the blessing came in the form of a name change, or nature change. But not without the touching of his thigh, the muscle of man’s greatest strength, which made him weak and in need of someone to be strong for him. Someone to lean on.

He was changed from his carnal, or beastly nature of Jacob, meaning supplanter or heal grabber, to the Spiritual nature, Israel, a prince having power with God and man. He entered a new day, a new enlightenment, not of the sun, but of the Son. This is a type of our new birth revealed in the new testament. But notice, it took the loss of his strength, which had been his life. It took his identity that he might identify with God. It took fear to bring him to this place and it took the divesting himself of all of his earthly goods and the riches he had gained in the realm of man, to see the face of God. In his weakness Jacob found strength in God.

And as Jacob passed over Peniel (where he saw the face of God) the sun (Son) rose upon him, and he halted upon his thigh. To reiterate, being made weak, he entered a new day with God as his strength, the sun rising being a type of this new day.

The same thing has occurred with each of us who are born from above. We have seen the face of God in Jesus Christ. We have had our name or nature changed from an earthly nature to a Spiritual nature. We have wrestled with man all through the dark night of the soul, all our lives subject to bondage through fear but the day star is arising in our hearts and we have entered a new day in which there is no night.

God had to cripple us to bless us. He had to bring each of us to the ford of Jabbok, a place of emptying. God did this that we might be filled with all that He is, that in our weakness He could be our strength. That in our inability He would be our ability, by being overcome by God, we would be overcomers, yea, more than conquerors, in Him, by Him and through Him.

This must be how we begin with God, it is not the result of our own initiative. Where do we get the idea we have the ability, or the strength to even begin in God? Paul, in Romans chapter five makes it clear that when we were without strength, Christ died for us. If we are rich, we are encouraged to become poor, and this has nothing to do with money or goods. It has to do with our perception of ourselves, our strengths our abilities and the like. They keep us from seeing God’s face, from an intimate knowing of Him, that we may know as we are known.

As we follow Jacob’s journey through Genesis, we learn that he has a family in which there are twelve sons, which become the nation of Israel. They end up in bondage, as slaves in Egypt. God raises up a deliverer called Moses in the most difficult of circumstances. At a time when all the male children of Israel were being slain, God, against all odds preserved him and gave him favor with the daughter of Pharaoh. When Moses realized his calling, he tried to deliver Israel in and with the abilities and strengths that he had acquired as the son of Pharaoh, which was a type of our fleshly nature. He had to flee to the backside of the desert to keep from being killed. He spent forty years there, being emptied of all that he had become in Egypt. All that was of value in his prior life, was of no use to God. He had to become poor to realize the true riches of God. Even as his birth and deliverance from Pharaoh’s hand was a work of God, so would his role as a deliverer be purely a work of God. He had to become weak, that God could show his supernatural strength in him. This principle still applies to God’s people today.

When God effects the deliverance of the children of Israel from the hand of Pharaoh, they find themselves in another dilemma, trapped between the Red sea and the pursuing Egyptian army. In fear, they cry out to Moses, still not having faith in God’s ability to deliver. What does Moses say? Be still and see the salvation of the Lord. Israel had not yet seen God as their strength, but their belief was in what they saw, which is never a product of faith.

Fear is a sure sign that you believe that your circumstances are up to you and that you believe more in what you see than what you do not see. How important it is to pray about all things, even without ceasing, as Paul instructed us. And this is not a religious form of prayer as we have learned, but a mindset that makes the Father our soul provider of all our needs, our strength and our fortress. This is a life lived in the power of the Spirit and not in our power, dependent on our own abilities, but in Gods power and ability. This is to worship God in Spirit and in truth.

Another example of Israel’s failure to realize this principle in their lives was when they first came to the promised land and the spies came back with their report of what they saw. If you recall, the people listened to the ten who came back with an evil report. They spoke of giants in the land of which they perceived themselves to be as grasshoppers in comparison. The mistake they made, was in thinking the battle was theirs in the first place. Of course in their own strength, they could not defeat the in habitants of the land. God always makes certain of that so that we do not boast in ourselves, thinking we delivered ourselves.

The two spies that had faith that they were well able to take the land, knew that God went before them, and the battle was the Lord’s. They worshipped the Lord in this believing God to be their strength and their ability to conquer. We worship the Lord by believing Him to be our strength.

The generation that was in agreement with the ten who gave the evil report, were turned back out into the wilderness to die. They could never enter the paradise of God, or God’s rest with the mindset that it was by their strength. They had what would latter in the new testament be called, an evil heart of unbelief. An evil heart, does not see God as their Savior, provider, healer, protector, peace, righteousness and strength. God is our very life, we are in need of nothing, all things are yea and amen in Christ.

Everyone recalls the story of Gideon and the three hundred. How God reduced the number of men required to deliver them from the Midianites. The Lord made it clear as to why he did not want the thirty two thousand saying, lest Israel should think their own hand had saved them. God had to make them weak, that He might show forth His strength in the matter. God will never allow us a chance to boast in ourselves. If we boast, we are to boast in the Lord.

This principle is also revealed in the new testament. The Lord told the Apostle Paul in the book of 2 Corinthians chapter 12 that His strength was made perfect in weakness. Paul went on to say, “most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong”.

God will always bring us to a place of weakness before His strength is revealed in us. We must learn, that if we glory, we must glory in the Lord. Speaking of the Day of the Lord in the book of Isaiah, it is written: “For the day of the Lord of Hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low: And upon all cedars of Lebanon, that are high and lifted up, and upon all the oaks of Bashan, and upon all the high mountains, and hills that are lifted up, and upon every high tower, and upon every fenced wall, and upon all the ships of Tarshish, and upon all pleasant pictures. And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low: and the lord alone shall be exalted in that day”. If we want to be strong in the Lord, it will require us realizing our weakness.

Art Groesbeck