Read Ellen G. White, “The Night of Wrestling,” pp. 195-203, in Patriarchs and Prophets.

 “Jacob’s experience during that night of wrestling and anguish represents the trial through which the people of God must pass just before Christ’s second coming ... Such will be the experience of God’s people in their final struggle with the powers of evil. God will test their faith, their perseverance, their confidence in His power to deliver them. Satan will endeavor to terrify them with the thought that their cases are hopeless; that their sins have been too great to receive pardon. They will have a deep sense of their shortcomings, and as they review their lives their hopes will sink. But remembering the greatness of God’s mercy, and their own sincere repentance, they will plead His promises made through Christ to helpless, repenting sinners. Their faith will not fail because their prayers are not immediately answered. They will lay hold of the strength of God, as Jacob laid hold of the Angel, and the language of their souls will be, ‘I will not let Thee go, except Thou bless me.’ ...

 Yet Jacob’s history is an assurance that God will not cast off those who have been betrayed into sin, but who have returned unto Him with true repentance. It was by self-surrender and confiding faith that Jacob gained what he had failed to gain by conflict in his own strength. God thus taught His servant that divine power and grace alone could give him the blessing he craved. Thus it will be with those who live in the last days. As dangers surround them, and despair seizes upon the soul, they must depend solely upon the merits of the atonement. We can do nothing of ourselves.” — Ellen G. White, Patriarchs and Prophets, pp. 201-203.

 1. Why is Jacob’s weakness the occasion for God’s grace? How does Jacob’s experience relate to Paul’s statement, “When I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Cor. 12:10, NKJV)?
 2. Why do you think the Bible reveals so many sordid details about the lives of many of its characters? What point could be made from doing this? What message can we take from it?
 3. Dwell more on the question of idolatry. What are the idols of our culture, our civilization? How can we make sure we aren’t worshiping anyone or anything other than the Lord?