New Year’s Eve—Staying Behind

Our thoughts go out to a man named Jacob. We read that he stayed behind at the brook Jabbok. All his possessions, his wives, children, and cattle have crossed the brook. Why is he remaining behind? He is afraid, and if you ask why he is afraid, he is thinking back to what has happened twenty years ago in his life. At that time, he had deceived his blind father and had lied to him. He had also deceived his brother and stolen from him. Now he sent gifts unto his brother to try to make things right with him. There is more—it is not right between him and the Lord. That is why he remains behind. With that guilt he cannot step across the brook and travel farther upon the way to the land of his fathers.

Readers, is there a reason to be afraid on New Year’s Eve? No, I do not mean because the world has become such a difficult place—a place where there are so many questions which no longer have answers. All these concerns, and many more, are because of our sins. Are there also people who are afraid because it is not right between God and their soul? People who must stay behind with all of their sin and the burden of guilt? Jacob stayed behind and wrestled with a righteous God. It is true, he could look back upon a Bethel in his life—a time when the Lord came over and the promises of God were dear to his soul—still his burden of guilt had never been taken away. What a privilege when one may look back and see where the Lord has become too strong for him—when in such a dark night one may hear, “I am with thee in all places whither thou goest.” Why, then, must such a one stay behind when all family and friends so easily step across the border from the old into the New Year? Why is there so much fear in his heart? It is because of the breach that is still standing open. He misses the Healer of the breach; he misses the blood pressed in upon his heart. He misses that robe of righteousness to cover him in the sight of a holy God.

We read that when Jacob was all alone at the brook, he could not cross. While he was there, One came who wrestled with him throughout the lonely, dark night. What a wonder that is in the life of God’s children when the Lord comes into their heart and they may wrestle with God. What is the reason that Jacob is wrestling with that glorious Holiness who had come down from heaven? We hear God say, “Let Me go, for the day breaketh.”

The answer comes from a man who speaks with a broken, humbled heart, “I will not let thee go, except Thou bless me.” That is where it lies with Jacob. Nothing else matters anymore—not his family on the other side of the brook or his brother Esau coming with his men; it all fades to the background. He needs the Lord to give him a blessing for his soul.

Dear reader, what do you desire? Fifty-two weeks have quickly gone by, and it is New Year’s Eve. The Lord has been good to us. We continue to have a place around His blessed Word. What are your desires now that another year has come to an end? Are there desires that are known in heaven because God has awakened them? Oh, then, cling to the One who alone can satisfy those desires and awaken in your heart a hope with which you may cross the border from the old year into the New Year. People of the Lord, do you have to stay behind? No, you need not deny what the Lord has done and given in the past. There is a Bethel in your life, but that has all been so long ago, and your heart is longing for the application of His promise to your heart. Perhaps you must say, “Oh, Lord, dost Thou not know that I am all alone here and that I cannot pass from the old into the new?” Oh, He, the One for whom your heart is longing, will certainly come, and then you may take hold of Him saying, “I will not let Thee go, except Thou bless me.” You may tell Him that there is nothing in the entire world that you desire other than that He knows of you.

Jacob may hear the Lord speak: “What is your name?” Oh, what a moment when in the dark night one may tell the Lord, “I am Jacob, a deceiver, a sinful man, a man who has ruined everything, and who will always ruin everything.” For such a man, it is now time for the Lord to speak: “You are no longer Jacob, for I have found a ransom for you. No more Jacob because there is a Saviour whose blood and righteousness cleanses and clothes such a one.” In the life of God’s dear children, Bethel always yearns for that blood. How privileged such a child of God is when he may hear in that dark night out of the mouth of Him, “Thy name shall be no more called Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.” Now Jacob can let the Lord go, for now he may know that he is forever kept in the Father heart of his God.

You are greatly privileged who one day may cross the border from time into eternity with that blood applied to your heart and when there may be a hunger for that blood in your heart. Stay behind, and when He comes to take hold of you, tell that merciful, good-doing God that you desire to hear Him say, “I have bought thee with the price of My blood.”

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