Wrestlings.

In Genesis 32, Jacob comes to a pivotal moment in his journey with the God of his fathers. 

Earlier in Genesis 28, Jacob is traveling from Beersheba toward Haran in order to flee from Esau his brother, when he stops for the night and sleeps with a stone as his pillow. While sleeping, he dreams of a ladder reaching from earth to heaven with angels ascending and descending on it. God appears to him in this dream and reaffirms the covenant He had made with Abraham and Isaac—promising Jacob the land, descendants as numerous as the dust, worldwide blessing through his offspring, and God’s continual presence and protection until these promises are fulfilled.

When Jacob wakes, he realizes God’s presence in that place and is filled with awe. He declares it to be the house of God and the gate of heaven. He sets up the stone as a pillar, anoints it with oil, names the place Bethel, and makes a vow.

20 Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me, and keep me in this way that I am going, and give me bread to eat and clothing to put on, 

21 so that I come back to my father’s house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God. [Gen 28:20-21]

That “if” and “then” there reveal a lot to us about the heart of Jacob in that moment. His devotion was conditional.

Let’s fast forward now where we have been with Jacob through 7 years of service for Leah, trickery from Laban, an additional 7 years fulfilled for Rachel and then 6 additional years of service for his flocks. It has been 20 years in Harran under his uncle and now he is on his way back to Canaan to meet Esau once again. Fear fills him as he remembers his deceit towards his brother and the murderous threats that caused his mother to send him packing all those years earlier. 

22 And he arose that night and took his two wives, his two female servants, and his eleven sons, and crossed over the ford of Jabbok. 

23 He took them, sent them over the brook, and sent over what he had. [Gen 32:22-23]

He sends his family over in groups ahead of him with a succession of gifts for his brother, hoping to appease him before they come face to face.

Let’s read through Genesis 32:24-32.

24 Then Jacob was left alone; and a Man wrestled with him until the breaking of day. 

25 Now when He saw that He did not prevail against him, He touched the socket of his hip; and the socket of Jacob’s hip was out of joint as He wrestled with him. 

26 And He said, “Let Me go, for the day breaks.”

But he said, “I will not let You go unless You bless me!”

27 So He said to him, “What is your name?”

He said, “Jacob.”

28 And He said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel; for you have struggled with God and with men, and have prevailed.”

29 Then Jacob asked, saying, “Tell me Your name, I pray.”

And He said, “Why is it that you ask about My name?” And He blessed him there.

30 So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: “For I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.” 

31 Just as he crossed over Penuel the sun rose on him, and he limped on his hip. 

32 Therefore to this day the children of Israel do not eat the muscle that shrank, which is on the hip socket, because He touched the socket of Jacob’s hip in the muscle that shrank.

Let’s pick this apart here and see what we can takeaway from this portion of Scripture.

FIRST, we see God seeks to overcome Jacob in verses 24-25.

24 Then Jacob was left alone; and a Man wrestled with him until the breaking of day. 

Who was this Man who wrestled with Jacob but none other than the preincarnate Christ.

One commentator says: “Were not Jacob’s disappointments, his successes, and all the swift changes of his life God’s attempts to lead him to yield himself up and bow his will?”

Does not the Lord do the same with us?

Think about this for a moment. Think about the things which have happened in your own life that have led you to lonely places with all of the weight of the world on your shoulders. Has not the Lord met you there? Have you not strived with Him in them?

25 Now when He saw that He did not prevail against him, He touched the socket of his hip; and the socket of Jacob’s hip was out of joint as He wrestled with him. 

Alexander Maclaren says of this touch of his hip: “If His finger could do that, what would the grip of His hand do if He chose to put out His power? It is not for want of strength that He had not crushed the antagonist, as Jacob would feel with deepening wonder and awe. What a new light would be this thrown on all the previous struggle! Desiring to overcome them, God desires to do so not by mere superior. power but by their willing yielding to Him.

That laming of Jacob’s thigh represents the weakening of all the life of nature and self which had hitherto been his. He had trusted to his own cunning and quick-wittedness. Fighting with God in his own strength, he is powerless as a reed in a giants grasp if God chooses to summon His destructive powers into exercise. So this failure of natural power is the turning point. It is the path by which we must all travel.”

Have you come to this place where you have exhausted all strength in your striving against God? Has your self-sufficiency and reliance given way to His power?

The old man Jacob didn’t give up easily—he was not that kind of man! He struggled against Him until finally the One who wrestled him crippled him.

We all want to be strong when it is really in our weakness, in our surrender, in our letting go of my will, my way for the One’s whose will and way is perfect and good and everything we are longing for. Our greatest blessing lies on the other side of surrender.

Paul says in 2 Cor 12:9-10: 9 And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 

10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Paul could welcome these “infirmities, reproaches, needs, persecutions, and distresses” because in them he knew God’s power. He trusted the One who was sovereign over them and working and willing His good pleasure in the apostle’s life. He knew the greater purpose and saw the greater picture—that One was making him more like Himself through it all.

NEXT, in verse 26 we see the Lord seeks to end the wrestling match.

26 And He said, “Let Me go, for the day breaks.”

But he said, “I will not let You go unless You bless me!”

And we see the willful man cease striving. 

I love the way J Vernon McGee sums this passage up so beautifully. He says: “What happens now? Jacob is just holding on; he’s not wrestling. He is just holding on to this One. He found out that you do not get anywhere with God by struggling and resisting.

The only way that you get anywhere with Him is by yielding and just holding on to Him. Abraham had learned that, and that is why he said amen to God. He believed God, and He counted it to him for righteousness. Abraham reached the end of his rope and put his arms around God. My friend, when you get in that condition, then you trust God. When you are willing to hold on, He is there ready to help you.”

AND THEN in verse 27-30 we see Jacob renamed by God.

27 So He said to him, “What is your name?”

He said, “Jacob.”

28 And He said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel; for you have struggled with God and with men, and have prevailed.”

29 Then Jacob asked, saying, “Tell me Your name, I pray.”

And He said, “Why is it that you ask about My name?” And He blessed him there.

30 So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: “For I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.” 

So he who was Jacob, “deceiver,” was now Israel, he who “strives with God,” “God [now] rules.”

Jacob was full of self-will and self-sufficiency. All was “self” that made up the man. And God can’t use that. It is the empty vessel that He can fill. It is the one whose will has been joined to His Master’s. It is the the one whose strivings have ceased.

ENDING THOUGHTS

“We may each be blessed with the presence and benediction of Him whose merciful strivings, when we knew Him not, came to us, and to whom, if we yield, there will be peace and power in our hearts.” [Maclaren]

FB Meyer on GENESIS 32:13-32:

“Evidently much had to be effected in Jacob’s character before he could become one of the great spiritual forces of the world, and his supreme discipline came in that midnight wrestle.

The Angel who wrestled with him could have been none other than the Son of Man, who is also the Angel of the Covenant and Son of God. It was not that Jacob wrestled with the Angel, but that the Angel wrestled with him, as though to discover and reveal his weakness, and to constrain him to quit reliance on his own strength and to learn to cling with the tenacious grip of a lame man who dare not let go, lest he fall to the earth. Ah, it is well to be maimed, if through the withered thigh we may learn to lay hold on the everlasting strength of God and learn his secret Name!”

When we are weak, He is strong.

Paul the Apostle was another one whom God had conquered. The one who had once “kicked against the goads” had gone through a powerful transformation. 

The Lord allows this breaking down of self-reliance through challenges, suffering, discipline, mistakes, and failures. And as we go to Him in our weakness, we discover He is all we have ever wanted or needed.

Face to face. The intimacy of that. The beauty. 

Our faith grows. We find purpose and victory and life. Real life.

“It is doubtful whether God can bless a man greatly until He has hurt him deeply,” AW Tozer said.

Let the Lord break you—whether a limp or a thorn, He is worthy.