Daily Manna, Year Two · Day 255 · September 12
Except Thou Bless Me
“And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.”
And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.
That line ends up on wall plaques and in sermons about holy stubbornness. Hold on, do not let go, refuse to release God until he yields. Said plainly, it makes prayer a contest of grip strength, and anyone who has held on for years and received nothing knows what that teaching costs at four in the morning.
So look at who is gripping. This is a man with a professional record in obtaining blessings, and his brother's summary is ungenerous and accurate: is not he rightly named Jacob? for he hath supplanted me these two times: he took away my birthright; and, behold, now he hath taken away my blessing. He is hours from meeting that brother, gifts sent ahead in waves, family already across the river, and alone.
Then read the order. Before any blessing: he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint. Crippled first. Then the name, then the blessing, then the line Genesis prints as the sun comes up. As he passed over Penuel the sun rose upon him, and he halted upon his thigh. Hosea adds what Genesis leaves out of the wrestling: he had power over the angel, and prevailed: he wept, and made supplication unto him. There was weeping in that grip.
Anyone selling you this scene as a method is selling the hands and leaving out the hip. The man got his blessing, a limp he carried to his grave, and a name that meant he had been wrestled with. Ask for the blessing. Ask yourself first whether you want it on these terms.
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year one reading for day 255 is Answered Before Calling (Isaiah 65:24).