The Wrestling Match- That Changed Everything.
Genesis 32:24-30AMP
As Jacob turns from his Father-in-law, Laban who tricked Jacob more than once, with years of hard labor in earning Laban’s daughters hand in marriage.
Jacob should be pretty fed up with bad relationships and so forth.
However presently, Jacob returns to his own country, he must face another fearful potential conflict.
His twin brother Esau is coming with 400 men. Esau and his 400 men seemingly approach Jacob to take revenge for cheating Esau out of the family blessing 20 years earlier. (By the way, that’s only what Jacob thought).
Jacob is so afraid that he splits his company into, two camps even as he prays for deliverance.
Jacob also prepares an enormous gift to appease Esau.
Finally, while alone in the dark of the night, Jacob is unexpectedly forced to wrestle a mysterious man, who turns out to be God Himself in some manifested form.
In a profound moment of symbolism, God forces Jacob to state his own name, which God then changes to Israel.
Israel is the name of God's people, do you know where it came from?
Again, From a wrestling match… In the night.
It is recorded that Jacob was alone, and a man wrestled with him until the breaking of dawn.
Jacob wrestled God and received a name change. A Word: There’s folk who don’t feel worthy to praise the Lord. You can’t believe that God sees or hears your prayers, your praise, your worship, it seems fake because you don’t know your position. -You won. If you believe, then you win!
Still, there are folk who have a hard time believing God could give them anything good, much less, that He hears their prayers.
Finally, the man (God) said to him, what is your name? Jacob, (heel-grabber, wrestler, supplanter, deceiver), he answered. Your name shall no longer be called Jacob,(heel-grabber, wrestler, supplanter, deceiver) said the man, but Israel.
For you have struggled with God, and with men, and have prevailed. This will be fulfilled prophecy.)
With the intention of being persistently redundant to get my point across, I read to you, Genesis 32:24-30AMP “So Jacob was left alone, and a Man [came and] wrestled with him until daybreak. When the Man saw that He had not prevailed against Jacob, He touched his hip joint; and Jacob’s hip was dislocated as he wrestled with Him. Then He said, “Let Me go, for day is breaking.” But Jacob said, “I will not let You go unless You declare a blessing on me.” So He asked him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” And He said, “Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel; for you have struggled with God and with men and have prevailed.” Then Jacob asked Him, “Please tell me Your name.” But He said, “Why is it that you ask My name?” And He declared a blessing [of the covenant promises] on Jacob there. So Jacob named the place Peniel (the face of God), saying, “For I have seen God face to face, yet my life has not been snatched away.””
Notice, Jacob won’t let go. And as this great prophecy unfolds, and a nation is birthed, The Israelites therefore do not eat the displaced [sciatic] nerve on the hip joint to this very day because he [the stranger] touched Jacob’s thigh on the displaced nerve” (Genesis 32:25-33).
7- Things that stand out from this text.
1. Jacob was left alone.
“Sometimes alone is a good thing.” PH
Bear your soul, ask for courageous things. -Preach to yourself. Teach Gods word to any audience, and you will be the one edified.
Remember, No one listening, but you and God. -Ask bold!
2. God is into name changes.
I once had the name Happy Howard, but for around 3 years, I lost that. However, for over 37 years, God restored my happiness to eternal happiness. God gave me back my name! Thus, Happy Howard, my motto:
Psalm144:15KJV Happy is that people, that is in such a case: yea, happy is that people, whose God is the Lord.
Maybe you’ve labeled yourself because of your past, or maybe others labeled you. -Receive a name change.- In Jesus name receive!
The great thing about it is, He already knows your new name. You might not know it yet, but God does!
1 Peter 2:9-10TPT “But you are God’s chosen treasure —priests who are kings, a spiritual “nation” set apart as God’s devoted ones. He called you out of darkness to experience his marvelous light, and now he claims you as his very own. He did this so that you would broadcast his glorious wonders throughout the world. For at one time you were not God’s people, but now you are. At one time you knew nothing of God’s mercy, because you hadn’t received it yet, but now you are drenched with it!”
Peter proclaims you are now drenched in mercy. -Not because of what you feel, but because of your position.
Because of Jesus you have been renamed and repositioned! -We are carriers of Jesus; We house the very Spirit of God, 1 Corinthians 6:19.
When you are born again- There’s a name change. From sinner to saint, From lost to found.
Isaiah 62:2AMP “The nations will see your righteousness and vindication [by God], And all kings [will see] your glory; And you will be called by a new name Which the mouth of the Lord will designate.”
Another scripture reference, Isaiah 65:15….God will call his servants a new name…
In, Isaiah 65:15, The Amplified Bible adds like changing Jacob’s name to, Israel. You will have a new name.
3. Jacob wrestled with God.
So that is how the name Israel came about? -It all came from a wrestling match.
Listen, A nation was birthed out of pain, fear and frustration. This Jacob who was renamed by God, Israel is birthed!
I’m getting ahead of myself, but you are now called, “the spiritual Israel.”
Was Israel’s birth easy? Did it seemingly die? Yes, from 70AD to May 14,1948?
Hear this word, “Gods into name changes, and they’re usually birthed out of groaning’s.
Romans 8:26NLT “And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groaning’s that cannot be expressed in words.”
4. You won’t forget your wrestling match with God.
Put your testimony on the front-line.
Tell about your wrestling match. How God won, and now you win!
Remember, After this wrestling match Jacob, would call the ground on which it all took place Peniel, which means the face of God.
Our Church Of God has a drug rehabilitation longterm hospital/Clinic in Pennsylvania called, Peniel. -The face of God. Bishop Harold & Dr. Marion Spellman Peniel's Founders.
When did you find God’s face? How did He touch you?
Where is your Peniel? -The place where you saw the face of God?
5. Refuse to let go until He blesses you.
For Israel had seen God face-to-face. Jacob refused to let go until God blessed him. -Israel shall be your new name.
And then God declared this blessing over Jacob. This declared birthright made Jacob the recipient of a double portion of the inheritance, and the blessing was a gift of God by which the patriarch passed on the promised family blessings.
Here lies Jacobs/Israels blessing:
Genesis 27:29NLT May many nations become your servants, and may they bow down to you. May you be the master over your brothers, and may your mother’s sons bow down to you. All who curse you will be cursed, and all who bless you will be blessed.”
I hope you guys see why satan hates Israel. However, Israel belongs to God. Israel is God’s country. PH.
What happened that night was a prophecy. No Nation has ever wrestled with God and man, in this world, as has the nation of Israel.
And in that wrestling match is contained the mystery of the Jewish people.
They are called Israel, because they wrestled with a man… Who turned out to be God. That is their prophecy. -Rabi Jonathan Cane,
So what is Israel’s prophecy? Jacob wrestled with God and birthed a nation, Israel!
6. One wrestling match win, sometimes requires another.
And so they have wrestled for ages with one particular man whose name means Messiah, and who, in the end… Turns out to be God. -Rabbi, Jonathan Cahn,
“Receive God, receive your new name.” -So far, Israel fights believing and trusting Messiah, Jesus!
However, they aren't the only wrestlers. The scripture say that everyone who is born again, becomes a citizen of Israel. Israel… The wrestling nation, Then we are all wrestlers.
Ephesians 2:12NKJV that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.
-We were all wrestlers! It's not a bad thing to wrestle, even with God, as long as you come to the point that Jacob came to… To the end of your strength…
A place, where you can do nothing else but cling to Him and ask Him to bless you.
Listen to the apostle Paul, as he speaks from,
2 Corinthians 12:7-10NLT …“even though I have received such wonderful revelations from God. So to keep me from becoming proud, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from Satan to torment me and keep me from becoming proud. Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
Again remember, 6. One wrestling match my require another.
7. What did I learn through my wrestling with God?
When God asked Jacob what was his name, Jacob owed up to his name...He confesses...You learn a lot through confession.
Have you owned up to your own failures and sins? Listen, “get them out!”
Ephesians 2:19NKJV Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God,
Once you are a Saint, you become spiritual Israel. You are no longer bound to the past. Past hurts, past failures, God defined you as His!
Listen to this clear definition of who you are:
Ephesians 2:19-22TPT So, you are not foreigners or guests, but rather you are the children of the city of the holy ones, with all the rights as family members of the household of God. 20You are rising like the perfectly fitted stones of the temple; and your lives have been built up together upon the foundation laid by the apostles and prophets, and best of all, you are connected to the Head Cornerstone of the building, the Anointed One, Jesus Christ himself!
21This entire building is under construction and is continually growing under his supervision until it rises up completed as the holy temple of the Lord himself. 22This means that God is transforming each one of you into the Holy of Holies, his dwelling place, through the power of the Holy Spirit living in you!
Benediction. -So the mystery of the wrestler has been revealed, Israel/Spiritual Israel. Again the end of the text, Genesis 32:30, So Jacob named the place Peniel (the face of God), saying, “For I have seen God face to face, yet my life has not been snatched away.”
