"A Break and A Blessing" - Genesis 32:24-32
Pastor Antonio Torrence,
Cross of Life Lutheran Church
For the last fourteen days during the Millennium Summer Olympics in Sydney, we have marveled at some of the world’s greatest athletes as they seized every opportunity to meet opposition, break the odds, and come out as champions. We held our breath, as divers like Laura Wilkinson seem to defy the gravity of the world’s expectations and make the pages of history books. We cheered as track stars, like Marion Jones, Michael Johnson, and Kathy Freeman seem to run on the electricity of thousands of voices chanting their names as broke the finish tape in the race of their lives. We were even surprise that baseball coach, Tommy Lasorda, could take a team of minor leaguers and win an Olympic gold medal. But if there were one Olympic moment that seemed to capture the spirit of determination, struggle, and success it would be the defeat of the three time Russian Olympic Wrestling champion, Alexander Karelin, by the unknown American Rulon Gardner. It was a moment that startled the likes of Henry Kissinger and IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch who came to the wrestling event to present this famed undefeated Karelin with his fourth Olympic gold medal. However, this mysterious man, Rulon Gardner who was never a world medallist or a champion was able to beat a champion who never lost a wrestling match in 13 years. When asked how he was able to accomplish such a feat, Gardner said, “it’s not like I tried to win, I just refused to give up. One moment my opponent was struggling against me and the next I heard him say, ‘I give up’.” No one could be it that a man who wrestled his opponents to defeat for thirteen years would surprisingly bow his head in defeat, and give up. It seems that those words “I give up” indicated the breaking of Alexander’s Karelin’s will to contend with an opponent who would not be outdone.
In our text, we read the story about another wrestling match that occurs when a mysterious man wrestles with Jacob and Jacob seems to be an opponent who will not be undone. Jacob seems to be a man who seems as though he would never give up. He spent his life struggling to achieve, trying to take hold of things and people he felt he deserved. From his birth Jacob was a man of struggle – a person of strife. His mother, Rebekah, was in great labor with him and his twin brother, Esau, because while in her womb Jacob struggled constantly with his brother. You see, in ancient times, the first-born son enjoyed certain privileges. He was the eldest son – he would have the family inheritance and his father’s blessing. At their birth, when Esau came out first, the infant Jacob would not be outdone. Jacob wanted to be first. So, he grabbed his brother’s heal in an attempt to pull him back him. Thus, he was named Jacob –meaning (one who supplants or deceives). And so his life would become a life spent supplanting, conning people to get his way, taking hold of other people’s possessions. For instance, when he was cooking a pot of stew, his brother Esau came in desiring to satisfy his hunger from a day of activities. Esau begged him for some of the stew; however, Jacob would make Esau promise to give him his birthright and only with his promise would he give him some of his food. Esau not thinking much of the situation simply agreed and gave him his birthright. But having a birthright wasn’t enough for Jacob, he also wanted Esau’s blessing. And being the con artist that he was, he disguised himself as his brother, went into his father’s tent pretending to be his twin brother, Esau, and asked his father, Isaac for the blessing. Now we must understand that in his day and even in certain cultures today it is critical and important for children to receive their parents’ blessings. To receive a blessing was to receive the favor of God upon one’s life. It was to receive your parent’s approval on your life and once it was given it could not be taken back. It meant that your future, your destiny, was certain. Any goal you set would be accomplished. Any vision perceived would be obtained. A blessed child would be a confident child – a child who knew that they could do no wrong because they had the blessing of their parents. They had their parents’ unconditional love. You see many of us are still seeking to obtain our parents’ blessing. Many of us, subconsciously are still seeking to get their approval. We may have made some decisions that went against their desires, like marrying somebody they did not like or having a child out of wedlock, or going into a career they did not approve of. So we spend a great portion of our lives trying to live up to their expectations. That’s why as children we often came home glad if we had good grade on our paper or accomplished some great deed because we hope to hear the words from them – “this his my child in whom I am well pleased.” We struggle for that parental blessing over our lives – their unconditional love.
Jacob had the nerve to steal this from brother, Esau. And Esau just happened to be a father’s favorite. So when both Esau and his father, Isaac, learned that Jacob had succeeded at this great deception both of them were distraught. And as a result, Esau put a contract out on his brother’s life. Jacob had to go into hiding. The deceiver, the liar, the con, was now on the run. And in his running he happened to run into a place called Bethel – the place of God. There, God would touch Jacob’s dream and cause him to have a vision of angels ascending up a ladder that seemed to touch heaven itself. And in that vision, God would promised him that one day, that land would be his and his descendants. Here it is, Jacob has lied and stole and God has the audacity to promise him more wealth. But God did not see Jacob the liar and thief. No god saw something in him that his own parents and others could not see. And that’s a message for some of us who feel that we have to get ourselves together first before joining the church or coming to God. No, God will take just as you are because he sees you not as the liar, thief, prostitute, alcoholic or sinner that you are. God sees you in your finished state. That’s why he is both alpha and omega the first and the last, beginning and ending. He has your beginning and your ending. Like Jacob, god knows what we shall become. We shall be changed. We shall be like him.
And from that point in Jacob’s life god would begin a process of sanctification. He would begin to shape Jacob into vessel he would want him to become. It begins when Jacob goes to his uncle Laban’s estate, falls in love his Laban’s daughter, Rachel and decides to work seven years for Laban just so he could marry his daughter. Now ladies, that’s love. When a man decides to put his life on hold and work seven years just to marry you – that’s when you know a man really wants you. After seven years of hard struggle – the wedding day finally arrives. And in those days the bride was veiled in layers and would not be seen by her husband until the wedding night. You see it was not like this modern culture of couples moving in with each other for seven years then getting married. No, Jacob would not see his bride until that night and it just so happens that he gets so drunk that he doesn’t even remember it. The only think he remembers is waking up to find not Rachel the woman he loved, but her older sister, Leah. How many know what it is like to wake up realizing that you made a big mistake? We wake up to find out that the person we married was totally different from that person we dated and courted for some years. No more flowers. No more love letters. No more opening doors and pulling out seats. No more sweet nick names. No you wake up saying who is this person? Jacob, the con artist, has been conned. He finally met someone who knew the art of deception better than him. He couldn’t return Leah because he had already consummated union. It was one of the situations; you break it you buy it. Laban told him you broke Leah’s virginity now she’s yours. But if you still want Rachel, give me another seven years of labor. And for seven more years he worked to get the woman he loved. Fourteen years total, and when he finally married her, they found out that she couldn’t have children. I tell you God knows how to work a situation. What was he doing? He was working that spirit of deception out of Jacob. He was giving him a taste of his medicine. God was slowing breaking away that old habit of lying and stealing. Jacob was becoming morally conscious that he had wronged some people in his life. And one day he decides to return home and finally face those people who he had wronged. That’s what I like about one of the steps in the twelve-step program used by NA groups – it requires you to face those people you have hurt. And many of us need to know that we will not go any further in life until we have come face to face to those people we have lied on, stepped on, cussed out, etc. we have to go back and make it right. Jesus told his disciples to make a mends with those you have wronged before coming to the house of God.
Jacob had made up his mind that if was time to make right some wrongs. And he knew that his brother had promised to kill him if he ever saw him again. He has sent out messengers telling his Esau he coming home. Esau sends messengers back, telling him I coming to get you with my army. He wants to make a situation right. He concludes that he should send Esau some gifts and to protect his family and servants he divides them into two groups hoping that Esau doesn’t catch hold to them and kill them. So, just before he takes told last steps towards home, he comes to a place called Jabbok (in Hebrew meaning – emptying or to devastate). Every now and then we find ourselves struggling in a situation that seems to devastated us. This is the situation of Jacob. He can’t con his way out of this one. He finally has to face the consequences of his actions. Tomorrow he meets his brother. Tomorrow he meets his fate. However, tonight he is left alone praying and asking God for deliverance. He is alone and in the darkness. Who are you when you are alone? Who are you when you are in the darkness? Jacob had to come face to face with who he was. It was a struggle that manifested itself with a mysterious man coming to wrestle him. Some say that this man was an angel. Others say it was to pre-incarnated Christ. But what’s important for us to know that this person represented God. Jacob would conclude that this mysterious wrestler was some emissary from Jehovah. And it’s not Jacob wrestling with him but this man who wrestles with Jacob. God initiated the struggle and God would end it. God finally has Jacob in a place were he has his complete attention – Jacob is alone – family is gone. Friends are gone. His fortune is gone. Often we wonder why we are left alone. Often it may be God attempt to finally get our attention and get us to a point were he can work with us and in us. It’s to get us to that place of struggle where we have to deal with who we are.
Jacob now deals with his identity- who he is. He struggles with his past (his deceitfulness). He contends with his present condition (his fear). And he fights for his future (God’s promise to him). It is a struggle that begins at night and continues to the breaking of day. It is a struggle that does not end until there is a breaking. God will not end his struggle with Jacob until there is a breaking. He will not let him go until there is a breaking in Jacob. Like many of us, there must be a breaking: a breaking of old habits and addictions: a breaking of old traditions and procedures; a breaking of cliques and social clubs. Just look around you church, there is a breaking occurring in our lives; denominational walls are breaking, social classes are breaking. God is breaking up unhealthy relationship. He is breaking up finances – breaking up corporations. He is loosing up money so that his kingdom can be blessed. Like Jacob God is breaking into our lives.
There must be a breaking in Jacob - a breaking of his will. He continues to defy. Jacob continues to resist – to struggle. He will not let God prevail against him. So God touches him in the hollow of his thigh. It’s a touch that in Hebrew is categorized as a striking or a plague. It’s a touch that doesn’t kill Jacob but it damages him enough whereby Jacob can longer struggle against God. In essence he breaks his hip – it becomes dislocated.
You see the Hebrew word used here for break is the same word use for offering a sacrifice to God – a lifting up. In order for Jacob to be lifted up he first had to be broken. In order for us to present ourselves as living sacrifices unto god we must first come to him with a broken spirit and broken and contrite heart. Those are the sacrifices of God. We must be broken. Even our Lord Jesus demonstrated this in his life. When he fed the five thousand, Jesus took two fishes and five loaves, blessed them, and broke them. On the night he was betrayed, he took bread and when he had given thanks, he broke it. The real blessing for Jacob was his breaking. Because when he was broken, he changed the nature of his struggle. Jacob was now broken. He no longer stands on his own. All he had was God to hold on to. He went from defying God to depending on him: from rebellion to reliance: from striving to surrendering. Jacob was able to get a blessing when he finally gave up. He gave up depending on his own wit and will. He could no longer depend himself.
God wanted to get him in a state so that when he got out of it this time, he could only give God the credit and the glory. It wasn’t because he was articulate and educated. No, it was not due to financial portfolio or professional connections. No this time, there would be no doubt that God was behind this blessing. Many of us, wonder why we are going through what we are going through and it may be due to the fact that God wants you to depend on him. Stop coming up with trying to come plan. Stop trying to come up with a scheme. Depend on him. Hold on to him. Trust him to bless you.
