BROKENNESS

Gen 28:17  And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven. 

Gen 28:20  And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, 

Gen 28:21  So that I come again to my father's house in peace; then shall the LORD be my God: 

As I think of the word brokenness, I can only explain it with this analogy of a wild horse or stallion.

You see, when a wild horse is caught by a cowboy, it can not be riden immediately by a man. It must be broken.

The cow boy will keep the horse, till it trusts him to come near it and then he will put a saddle on the horse. 

When a saddle is put on the horse, the horse kicks out rebelling against the strange weight that has come on its back. 

It kicks to rid itself of this "yoke" or weight. It exercises it's whole body until it wears it's strength out and then a time comes when the horse accepts the weight of the saddle as a reality to be endured daily(have you accepted the weight of the cross daily upon your life? The cross is a daily weight not an occasional convenient weight)

When the Horse gets to this point, the cowboy then proceeds to the next phase.

He now attempts to ride the horse or stallion. 

When he mounts the horse, a new struggle begins, it kicks out viciously, uttering neighs and trying to unseat its rider.

Several times, it will succeed in throwing off this new weight(the cowboy) and then resumes it's activities of eating grass.

Again and again, the cowboy tries to mount and remain mounted. This he tries ,for as long as he can, and doesn't give up, until the horse gives up.

The struggle continues until the horse accepts the weight of its new master.

Without getting to this point of utter surrender, the horse cannot be ridden by anyone. 

The point at which the horse accepts the weight is the point of brokenness!

A long analogy, I know, so let me try and make the application short.

Jacob was a perfect example of a man that God needed to break. Imagine a man  after encountering God in Gen.28, still give terms upon which He will accept God as his God! He was a man full of his own agenda, that the yoke of surrendering to another, even if that other was the God of his fathers, was too much to bear. He gave conditions to God after the encounter, upon which He can accept God as HIS GOD. The vision of God and angels did not change his agenda. It took a breaking of his waist by an angel for the man to finally yield completely. What a man!

Many times we are like this, ever struggling with God and resisting HIS will. 

You may have wondered why God tested Abraham with killing of Isaac, if he did not want Isaac, it is the issue of brokenness. 

Many struggle with the yoke that Jesus places until the incur several needless wounds.

A broken vessel is useful in the hand of God. Let's ask him to help us on this. Stop the struggle but may God also not give up on us as he attempts to ride us.

Lord break me.