Title : STRICKEN BY GOD
Genesis 32: 22- 35
That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two female servants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions. So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man.
Acts 9: 3- 4
As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”
A man who had an encounter with God is a man who was stricken by His hands.
Jacob and Saul were both men of troubles.
Jacob was a supplanter while Saul was a persecutor. Jacob deceived his father and brother while Saul brought havoc to the church and the early believers. But when struck by God, they did not remain the same. Jacob became Israel and Saul became Paul.
Today, I want to share on, “Stricken by God”
- The Stricken Man
- God’s Way Into Man
- The Rise of the Stricken One
I. THE STRICKEN MAN
Anyone who was struck:
– will be in pain or agony.
Jacob limped after the encounter until the day of his death.
Paul turned blind for a while. Sometimes scars remain as a reminder that there are consequences to every wrong step we make.
– will lose stability.
Jacob walked with a staff after the angel struck his hip.
Paul fell to the ground when the light from heaven flashed around him.
– will lose preciously.
E.g. Earthquake in Turkey and Syria
Jacob had to bow before his brother Esau and offered him everything, he lost self- confidence.
Paul disappeared for 3 years after his conversion because he had to unlearn and forget his accomplishments and learn from the Lord.
II. GOD’S WAY INTO MAN
How does God deal with the man He chooses? How does He deal with a man He wants back?
– He breaks him.
God had to stop him from running by striking his hip. He was so broken that he just clung to Him until daybreak.
Paul seized men when he received permission to destroy the Christians but God broke him and his plan.
We should not be surprised when we experience pain and humiliation because God has to break our legs and disrupt our plans to stop us from running into mischief and sin.
– He removes things he trusts.
Jacob trusted in his abundance. But that night he had to be alone and he became desperate. Whatever he had couldn’t help him.
As for Paul, he said in Philippians 3:
If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless.
But all these became nothing. He considered them as loss. He said “I consider everything as loss…” Philippians 3: 8
– He disables him to enable him.
When the angel struck Jacob’s hip and came out limping. It was that moment when something wonderful started happening inside him.
And God had to remove Paul for 3 years so that when he reappears, he is ready for the greater task. God disabled him to enable him.
We are broken, we have losses and we feel unable and disabled. God is breaking us, removing things from our lives and disabling us.
In Genesis chapter 4, God respected Abel and his offering but despised Cain and his offering. Cain was stricken for his wrong heart and offering. He was hurt and became angry. He rebelled and committed murder.
Many times we respond to God’s dealing like Cain. God strikes us for the wrong things we are doing because our hearts are not right. And it hurts us, then we become angry. We rebel and like Cain, we commit “murder.”
Murder is premeditated killing or planned killing. We purposely kill or end anything that has something to do with God and the church. We QUIT!
Quitting on God is a form of premeditated killing.
God strikes the heart through many ways to affect man’s will.
“It is better for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire. ”Matthew 18: 9b.
When God strikes, a man dies but he can rise again.
III. THE RISE OF THE STRICKEN ONE
It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God. But when God deals with a sinner, He strikes him so he can come to repentance.
And when he deals with his child, he also beats him and breaks him like a shepherd who loves the lost ship.
The man God strikes can rise again.
– he can rise with a new name and identity.
– he can rise with a new character.
– he can rise with a new purpose.
– he can rise with a new destiny.
– he can rise with God’s glory.
When God strikes you, he wants you to wake up. He strikes you because he wants to kill that sin in you. He wants to destroy that stubbornness and pride in you. He wants to destroy that rebellion in you. He does not strike to destroy you… Why? Because His own Son already received all the blows upon him on the cross.
With the 39 stripes on his body, the crown of thorns on his head, the nails on his hands and feet not counting the spear that pierced his side, Jesus was stricken with the most excruciating physical pain.
As the Man of Sorrows he was stricken with the deepest emotional pain when his disciples forsook him and went through great mental anguish when His own Father abandoned Him.
He received those strikes which were intended for us so that today when we are stricken, in Him we will be changed.
The bible says, “Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.” Isaiah 53: 3
Jacob and Paul were stricken for their own sin and unrighteousness but were changed by the mercy of God. Jesus the greater Jacob and greater Paul was stricken for the sins of mankind and He died on the cross. But by the power of His resurrection those who believe in Him are given the right, not mercy, as children of God who, like Him, will be changed gloriously.
Jesus, the Stricken One did not need to change but was named among sinners and stricken as a sinner so that through His death we are stricken and through His resurrection we will rise with a new name, new identity, new purpose, new destiny from glory to glory.
2 Corinthians 4: 8, 9, 16 & 17 “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.”
CONCLUSION:
Testimony:
When you are stricken, how do you respond? Do you respond in anger or rebellion, like Cain? Or will you respond like Jacob who just held on to God until the light of the morning came and like Paul who waited patiently until his eyes were reopened to the plan and purpose of God?
Look at the Lord Jesus. He received all those physical, emotional and mental beatings but He turned everything into a bright morning for all of us. Even death and the grave could not hold him down because He rose again on the 3rd day. And so for all who are stricken by God.
Remember, when God strikes you, he is changing you from being fallen to glory, and from glory to glory. As Christ was stricken, so we were stricken with him and because He rose from the dead so we can rise from our fall. We have fallen, and that fall in Christ changes our name, our character, our purpose, our destiny and glory.
