A Wrestling Match With God

Alba 4-21-13

A Wrestling Match With God

Genesis 32:22-32

Most of you probably know about the song called “A Boy Named Sue” that was recorded by Johnny Cash. It is about a boy whose father left him and his mother when he was little, but before leaving named the boy Sue. Part of the song goes like this:

Well, he must o' thought that is quite a joke

And it got a lot of laughs from a' lots of folk,

It seems I had to fight my whole life through.

Some gal would giggle and I'd get red

And some guy'd laugh and I'd bust his head,

I tell ya, life ain't easy for a boy named "Sue".

You couldn't blame a boy named Sue for wanting to change his name. Today we will look at a guy who had change in his name. He had a name that had a bad meaning but then was given a really good name. But it took a wrestling match to get it done.

I am talking about Jacob. We find this story in Genesis 32:22-32

Here we find Jacob deciding it was time to go home. Twenty years before, Jacob had left home alone with nothing but the clothes on his back. Now he heads back with flocks that number in the thousands, scores of servants and eleven sons.

But it could be hard to go home. Would he be welcome? Would his parents accept his children? Would Esau try to make good on his twenty year old threat to kill him? Would he be accepted back as a grown man? Or would he still be little Jacob “The Cheater?”

As he neared the border of his homeland, Jacob sent word ahead. It wouldn’t be good to surprise everybody after all of this time.

His messengers return with word that his parents are overjoyed. Apparently his brother Esau is too. Esau even was heading out to meet him with band of four hundred armed men.

“A security force to insure your safety,” the messengers suggest. Jacob doubts it. Four hundred men sound more like a threat.

Jacob panics. In his distress he does something unusual. He prays. It is not that he never prayed. In fact, he had gotten pretty close to the Lord just after he ran for his life twenty years before.

But prayer had never been his first impulse. Yet alone, on the night before he goes home, Jacob prays. “God help me. I don’t deserve it, but help me.”

Does God hear his prayer? Will he rescue him? Jacob never liked uncertainty. There’s enough of the old Jacob still there that he determines to hedge his bets. He makes a plan. He sends his messengers back with a gift for Esau. A little bribery couldn’t hurt.

He then orders his herds and servants divided into two groups. If Esau attacks, maybe the second group can get away, and he puts his family at the rear. The last group crosses the border just as the sun goes down. The next day, Jacob will be home—one way or another.

Then Jacob finds a place to be alone. Just as the darkness settles in, Jacob hears a noise in the brush behind him. Before he can reach his weapon, a man grabs him and throws him to the ground. What follows is hard to describe.

Two figures wrestle. It is hand to hand combat. Jacob is fighting for his life. At first, he probably thought it was Esau or one of his men. At some point, he realizes that this is no mere man in whose grasp he found himself. Later, he would say he had wrestled with God. Hosea the prophet describes Jacob’s opponent as an angel (12:3-4).

However you describe it, Jacob was in the hands of God. He had prayed for God’s help. But this wasn’t what he had expected. Let's read the text.

Genesis 32:22-32

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. 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.”