God Wrestling With Us and Our Wrestling with God Genesis 32:22-31 22 The same night he got up and took his two wives, his two maids, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. 23 He took them and sent them across the stream, and likewise everything that he had. 24 Jacob was left alone; and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. 25 When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he struck him on the hip socket; and Jacob s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. 26 Then he said, Let me go, for the day is breaking. But Jacob said, I will not let you go, unless you bless me. 27 So he said to him, What is your name? And he said, Jacob. 28 Then the man said, You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with humans, and have prevailed. 29 Then Jacob asked him, Please tell me your name. But he said, Why is it that you ask my name? And there he blessed him. 30 So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is preserved. 31 The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip. Extended Introduction: Before the passage is read Summary of Jacob saga Born twin #2 grasping his brother s heel. Mum s Boy Crafty, cunning, a twister. Connived with Mum to get Father s death bed blessing ahead of older brother by pretending to be a hairy baritone instead of a smooth skinned tenor. Left home in a hurry and ran of to distant relatives! Fell in love with Rachel, daughter of Laban, and served Laban 7 years for permission to marry her. In poor lighting conditions Laban switched Rachel with Leah on his wedding night and it was only evident in the morning. Jacob was not happy but agreed to work another seven years for right to marry Rachel as well. During those 14 years of service to Laban he prospered and out smarted his swindling fatherin-law. It concerned Laban s sons so tensions began to rise. Jacob was mulling this over when he heard God tell him to return to his land of birth taking his family with him. Once again Jacob took off in a hurry and Laban chased him. Laban s issue was the disappearance of the household gods. These were little statues that were very important. Archeological discoveries last century revealed an ancient library containing legal texts which suggested that possession of these household gods (small statues) gave legal advantage in disputes. Rachel was evidently not yet a Yahwist but neither was she just collecting ornaments! Jacob and Laban settled this dispute ending their business relationship and parted ways. Genesis Chapter 32 begins with Jacob experiencing God s presence described as angels. Jacob is now going to his original home to face his brother Esau whom he swindled 14 or more years beforehand when their father lay dying.
2 In 32:3 Jacob begins his diplomacy campaign with Esau. He sends messengers ahead to tell Esau that Jacob is coming home and that he will bring animals and slaves as a gifts to seek his favour. This is an attempt to buy peace. The report that comes back to Jacob is that Esau and 400 others are coming to meet him. There is no other message to interpret other than the report of imminent action in the morning. That would be typical of Esau; action is how he talks. So in 32:6 Jacob is terrified. But his wits have not left him. There is very high risk so he goes into insurance mode and divides his people and animals into two groups. One group may be destroyed but the other may get away. 32:9. In this frame Jacob now prays to the God of his Grandfather and Father, Abraham and Isaac. O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O LORD who said to me, Return to your country and to your kindred, and I will do you good, 10 I am not worthy of the least of all the steadfast love and all the faithfulness that you have shown to your servant, for with only my staff I crossed this Jordan; and now I have become two companies. 11 Deliver me, please, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I am afraid of him; he may come and kill us all, the mothers with the children. 12 Yet you have said, I will surely do you good, and make your offspring as the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted because of their number. This is the first time in his life that he is cast back to trust in the faithfulness of God and his promises. Jacob is afraid. By 32:13 Everything slows down and stops. Esau is coming. God is being called on in faith. This is the familiar pattern of faith in crisis. It is going to be a long night! In 32:13b Jacob decides to intensify the diplomacy. He sends off offerings of appeasement: o 200 female goats and 20 male goats, 200 ewes and 20 rams, 30 milch camels and their colts, 40 cows and 10 bulls, 20 female donkeys and 10 male donkeys. In 32:14. Each group was sent one at a time with a messenger to say, These are a gift from Jacob your servant who is coming to meet you. This is another attempt to buy peace. Then comes today s Passage: Genesis 32:22-31 22 The same night he got up and took his two wives, his two maids, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. 23 He took them and sent them across the stream, and likewise everything that he had. 24 Jacob was left alone; and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. 25 When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he struck him on the hip socket; and Jacob s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. 26 Then he said, Let me go, for the day is breaking. But Jacob said, I will not let you go, unless you bless me. 27 So he said to him, What is your name? And he said, Jacob. 28 Then the man said, You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with humans, and have prevailed. 29 Then Jacob asked him, Please tell me your name. But he said, Why is it that you ask my name? And there he
3 blessed him. 30 So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is preserved. 31 The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip. Exposition: After the reading: What did Jacob during this longest of nights? 1. During the night he repositioned his wives, children and their maids over the other side of the stream from where he was along with his personal possessions. 2. He wrestled a man came and wrestled with Jacob. Then in v. 26 Jacob wrestled with a man. Jacob was wounded and given a new name. Jacob s conclusion on this experience was that: 1. He had seen God and lived 2. He now had a limp. 3. Then Essau arrived Reflection: This is an amazing story. It is a classic conversion story, even a typically male conversion story It has a long lead up and a futile and violent death looms on the horizon Conversion: The hot centre and transforming moment of this conversion story is when Jacob wrestles with God in the hours before daybreak. From my schoolboy memories of wrestling the point of it is to overpower your opponent. In a sporting match this is marked by pinning both of your opponent s shoulders to the floor.
4 In v 24 a man [whom Jacob later refers to as God] wrestles with him until day break. This paints God as the active wrestler here seeking to dominate him and pin Jacob down. It does not happen and Jacob is not dominated. Jacob prevails. Friends here is the mystery: God cannot take us by force. What does it take to make someone desire and love another? Force will not do it. Neither can one buy love, peace or earn respect. At the same time Jacob could not buy Esau s peace either. Love, peace and respect are freely given or withheld subject to the mystery of the heart. God came to Jacob and wrestled with him but Jacob would not yield and resisted all night long. Then came the sunrise and without dominating Jacob, the man wounded him. To those of sporting instinct this might seem unfair of God, unsporting or less than Queensberry Rules. It seems that wounding has a special place in God s determination to capture a heart that can only be freely given. This is not the only place we hear of it. Psalm 23 has a curious line about this Psalm. 23 1. The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want. 2. He makes me lie down in green pastures; The way a traditional shepherd sometimes would make a sheep to lie down was to break its leg. That wound and the healing of it would completely change the relationship between the shepherd and that sheep. It is the mystery of transformation and love through wounding and healing. Jacob would not yield to God so he was wounded. In v 26 after the wounding we read that the contest had now turned. The man now begs to be released by Jacob. It is now Jacob has taken hold of the man and will not let him go. Something has dramatically changed. Jacob has moved from resisting God s dominance to fiercely holding on to him. He demands God s blessing and wants to know God by name. It is too early for that. [Moses will come 400 years later] But now, Jacob has become a God Chaser.
5 Jacob s heart has been converted and captured. It took much pressure, fear and a wounding but he came to be a God Seeker from his heart. Application: This was the moment in Jacob, the schemer and twister, when his self-sufficient pride was broken to the point where he wanted God above all and knew that he absolutely needed God. That often does not happen without wounding and circumstances of great pressure. There is wisdom here for the young man in particular, especially the successful, self-reliant capable young man. In the beginning they may believe in God because they choose to believe in God. That is a good start but God takes them deeper. Only after wounding does the man change to seek God out of a sober awareness of need. Getting there involves brokenness. That night half way through his life was Jacob s appointment with brokenness and it brought him face to face with God and with himself as he really was. Until that day Jacob was something like a knight in shining armor riding his horse able to cope with whatever came his way. St Paul on the road to Damascus was also something like this. That night alone wrestling in the dark, Jacob the shining young hero of his own story was knocked to the ground. He was no longer a Dude, a Rooster crowing in self confidence. He now walked with a limp that everyone could see. This was a holy wound remembered still today in the Jewish Kosher Food Laws forbidding the eating of the sinews and muscles of the thigh.1 Young men what does this say to you? Not so Young men what does this say to you? 1 Ref v 32 Therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the thigh muscle that is on the hip socket, because he struck Jacob on the hip socket at the thigh muscle. Wikipedia: The Bible mentions an Israelite tradition of not eating "the sinew which shrank upon the hollow of the thigh Within Judaism, the rule has usually been interpreted as referring to the sciatic nerve, the removal of which is a very timeconsuming process demanding a great deal of special training; therefore, cuts from an animal's hindquarters (including the filet mignon) are generally not sold as kosher. The Talmud excludes bird meat from the restriction.
6 Conclusion: Only now, as a God seeking man, was Jacob ready to face his past in the reality of Esau and the 400 men coming to meet him. What happened next? In 33:1-3 we read the outline of what happened: 33:1 Now Jacob looked up and saw Esau coming, and four hundred men with him. So he divided the children among Leah and Rachel and the two maids. 2 He put the maids with their children in front, then Leah with her children, and Rachel and Joseph last of all. 3 He himself went on ahead of them, bowing himself to the ground seven times, until he came near his brother. Qn 1: What had changed here? Ans: Jacob now went first ordering his family to follow behind him. If any one was to suffer it would now be him. He now had the courage to trust God and not manipulate or exploit others. o This is a transformation in the pattern of Jesus Christ who also wrestled in a garden with God over his call to be at the forefront of those resisting evil trusting in God s faithfulness. Qn 2: And what does Jacob (now named Israel ) experience? Ans: Grace that he could never have earned. Consider 34: 4-9. 33:4 But Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept. 5 When Esau looked up and saw the women and children, he said, Who are these with you? Jacob said, The children whom God has graciously given your servant. 6 Then the maids drew near, they and their children, and bowed down; 7 Leah likewise and her children drew near and bowed down; and finally Joseph and Rachel drew near, and they bowed down. 8 Esau said, What do you mean by all this company that I met? Jacob answered, To find favor with my lord. 9 But Esau said, I have enough, my brother; keep what you have for yourself. You may hear anticipation of the Prodigal Son here or Joseph and his Brothers in Egypt. For those with eyes to see the Gospel of God s Grace in Jesus Christ is anticipated in the Old Testament. Final thought, If you are looking for marks of a good godly pastor, get one with a limp. They have already crashed and burned. The one with everything under control and everything sorted are probably still going to.
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