Summary: <br> In today’s devotional I’m taking you to Sunday School. We’re going to study a bible story, snack on a tiny cup of goldfish crackers and then we’re going to make a little craft out of cotton balls and popsicle sticks to take home. Okay, no we’re not. We’re just going to study a scripture, you’re responsible for your own snack and craft time, you’re a grown woman now. Ya’ll know I used to teach Sunday School and I sucked at really teaching but whew we played some fun games and had awesome snacks. So, I’m just here hosting this podcast to make up for all the little kids that are now in college who I failed to teach the first time around.<br> Scripture tells us a story of twin brothers. Jacob and Esau. They were at war with each other even in the womb. Stop right there and imagine being that pregnant mama. Your babies are fighting before they’re even born. I have a friend who says her first child could be described in one word from the time he was a baby, DEFIANT. Do you have one of those defiant children? Just difficult? That was this poor mama, pregnant with twins and one is so defiant they are in a full on fist fight in her womb.<br> Esau was born first, and as the first born son, he would receive the birthright. Birthright was both position and inheritance. Because he was born first, he would automatically be ruler over his younger brother, as was the custom then. Esau was a manly man out hunting and killing stuff, while Jacob was a mama’s boy always hanging around the house.<br> One day Esau comes back from a hunting trip and he’s literally dying of starvation. Jacob had been cooking in the kitchen with his mama making some delicious stew. In walks his starving brother begging for some stew and Jacob says “I’ll make you a deal, I’ll give you a bowl of my delicious stew for your birthright.” Now that ain’t right! That’s his brother for heaven’s sake. And we thought our kids were mean to each other!<br> So Esau in his delirious state of hunger says fine, I promise you my birthright and I turn over my power for your stew. So it’s no surprise a few chapters later in Genesis we see Esau coming after Jacob with an army of 400 men to kill him. Hang with me, I’m going somewhere with this and I promise it will apply to exactly where you are today! If nothing else this is going to help the mama who has two children quarreling this morning to see it could always be worse. They could be hunting down each other with an army.<br> Jacob is on the run with his family and he stops for the night to set up camp and sleep. Now remember, Jacob is the one who was defiant from birth. The one who tricked his brother and took what wasn’t his. There at the camp, Jacob has an encounter that changes his life forever. Let’s read about it in Genesis 32: 24-28<br> “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. Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.”<br> But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”<br> The man asked him, “What is your name?”<br> “Jacob,” he answered.<br> Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.”<br> Understand what just happened here, Jacob was scared for his life, just trying to get some rest and seeking comfort through prayer (because remember his angry brother who is much more manly than he is, is now hunting him down to kill him) and dang if someone doesn’t show up and wrestle with him all night long. And this man injures him, dislocating his hip. That’s the last thing Jacob needs is to be running for his life with a crippling limp,
