GENESIS 32.23-32
JACOB AND THE STRUGGLE WITH GOD.
If I were to say the letters WWF would you know what it meant? My immediate answer to that is World Wildlife Fund. Ask the children and you will probably get World Wresting Federation. I am not a great fan of wrestling but I know a lot of the children, especially the boys, are. In the OT lesson this morning we have a wrestling match – probably the most famous wrestling match ever. It is between Jacob and ‘the angel of the Lord.’ Turn with me to Genesis 32.23-32.
Let me put this in context for you. Jacob is the younger twin son of Isaac and Rebecca. He is returning home after being away for some 14 years. With him are his wives Leah and Rachel. Jacob is about to cross over into the Promised Land and encounter his brother Esau – however he is fearful what this encounter might entail. He had tricked Esau out of his birthright and then with the help of his mother he had tricked his father, Isaac, into blessing him instead of Esau. Having done so he then fled to his mother’s brother Laban, whose daughters he married. He also deceived Laban. So the whole of Jacob’s life till this point has been one of deception and deceiving people. If you look at verses 9-12 of chapter 32 you will see Jacob’s prayer concerning this moment in his life. He turns to God and prays for deliverance from Esau and claims God’s promise to bless and prosper him and his seed. So that is the context of this night beside the river Jabbok in the valley of Peniel.
JACOB ALONE – VERSE 24.
Jacob has sent his two wives and the rest of the camp across the Jabbok and then verse 24 says ‘so Jacob was left alone…’ we could pass that phrase by as an incidental piece of information but it is significant. Jacob is alone – all the things he had previously depended upon, valued, treasured have gone – there is only him in the valley of Peniel. He is alone before the night and alone to encounter God. Solitude with God is important. It is good, important and vital that we have fellowship with others but there comes a time, a moment, a God-ordained moment in time, when it is necessary for us to be alone with God. This was just such a moment in the life of Jacob. All his life he had manoeuvred and manipulated situations and people to get what he wanted but now he is alone. He is alone in the darkness of the night which only reflects the darkness of the situation before him. Jacob thought he was alone but the next sentence tells us more: ‘and a man wrestled with him till daybreak.’
Again, a simple statement which is full of significance. ‘A man wrestled with him till daybreak.’ Here is a battle of the soul. A battle to and fro for authority, for superiority and for control of Jacob’s life. It is significant that when the new day dawns, when the light shatters the darkness that Jacob is defeated. The symbolism of the darkness of Jacob’s soul being shattered by the light of the angel of the Lord is reflected the darkness of the night being overcome by the dawn of a new day. (Similar imagery to that of Nicodemus in John 3 – coming to Jesus the light of the world under the cover of darkness). Jacob had wrestled, he had struggled all night. Refusing to submit until it was unavoidable – due to the dislocation of his hip. A doctor will tell you that it takes immense force to dislocate a hip and their can be long term consequences as a result. The angel of the Lord touches Jacob’s hip and he is rendered defenceless and yet even in defeat he will not let go of the one with whom he has struggled. If he must submit and admit defeat he wishes for a blessing from the champion. Jacob refuses to let go (verse 26) of the one with whom he has done battle throughout the night. He will only release his grip when he has been blessed. The greater always blesses the lesser. Jacob bows in submission to the greater, to the one who has touched his hip, rendered him helpless and seeks his blessing. Then what follows will change Jacob’s life forever.
JACOB BLESSED – VERSES 27-28.
The man (the angel of the Lord) asks Jacob his name and then proceeds to give him a new name. His name is changed from ‘Deceiver’ to ‘God Strives (for him), Israel. He is given a new name, along with his new walk (he limped the rest of his life). The night that he was crippled became the night of his greatest blessing. The night he was crippled was the night he entered upon a new relationship with God which flowed into a new relationship with his brother Esau. Every step Jacob took from this moment forward reminded him of the night he wrestled with the angel of the Lord at Peniel and how God blessed him through the pain of a dislocated hip.
Read on with me what happens next. Jacob now seeks some answers. He asks ‘who have I been wrestling with?’ But the one whom he has been wrestling does not reveal his name, instead he blesses him (verse29) and it is in the blessing that Jacob comes to realise who it is that he was struggled with all night – verse 30. Jacob realises that he has encountered, struggled with God and has been touched by God, painful though it was, and is, he has been touched, blessed by God. He realises too the immense mercy of God in that he is still alive. He has been blessed with a ‘face to face’ encounter with the living God and is still alive. Jacob is humbled by this. He can only be thankful that his life has been spared. Then in verse 31 the sun rises and the new day dawns – the first day of a new way of life for Jacob. A new name, a new relationship with God, with Esau and a new walk to constantly remind him of the night he struggled with God until day broke and he was blessed by God.
APPLICATION
The truth is that for all of his life till this moment Jacob had been struggling against God. He had been struggling against God’s will and plan for his life. He had been struggling against God’s timing of events. He had been struggling with God all his life to let go of the reins and to allow God to be in control. He had sought to manipulate and manoeuvre people and situations to speed things up. Jacob thought that he was in control and he probably thought that even this night was in his control. After all he had sent his family and camp away so that he would be alone. He had held on to the angel of the Lord and refused to let go. But the truth was that God had taken the initiative all along. Look at verse 9 – it was God who had told Jacob to head home. It was God who had brought him to the valley of Peniel to have this ‘face to face’ encounter with the living God. God had awakened a hunger in the heart of Jacob for home, for the Promised Land, to be where God’s people were supposed to be. Just as in the parable of the Prodigal Son the hunger for home and his father’s house was stirred when he was in the pigsty – so it is with Jacob. This crisis awakened that hunger but it did not determine the outcome – God determined the outcome.
Jacob’s new name attests to his new standing before God and before the people of God. This mark of grace wiped away the old reproach of Genesis 27.36 – of being rightly named Jacob – he deceives. He is now called Israel – God strives for him, he struggles with God (and men) and overcomes. His new name becomes also and accolade to live up to.
New Walk – he has a new walk both physical and spiritual. He is no longer walking in deception and sin but in forgiveness and grace.
New Relationship – with God which would result in a new relationship with Esau. Jacob’s restored relationship with God led him to no longer fear meeting Esau. If God had forgiven him for his deception and past life then so could Esau.
New Blessing – Jacob had deceived his father Isaac into blessing him. There is no deception in this blessing. This blessing is not tarnished by deception. This blessing did not rely on an old man being blind, or being confused by goat skin or the taste of food. This blessing relied solely on the grace and mercy of God. The old blessing was stolen this one was freely given. What a difference.
So what do we learn from Jacob’s struggle with God?
Well I believe there comes a point in all our lives were we will have just such a painful encounter with the living God. I truly believe that even here this morning there are some of you and God is bringing you to the valley of Peniel, a face to face encounter with him. He has brought you to the moment of crisis in your life, not to hurt you but to bless you. The experience will be painful, let us not lie about that but like Jacob when morning comes, when the new day dawns a new light dawns in your soul, a new relationship with God begins which flows down into new relationships with your family and others. You may well like Jacob limp the rest of your life because of this struggle with God – but that limp will forever remind you of the night, the dark night, when you struggled with God and refused to let him go until he blessed you and blessed you he did. And there my friends is the secret of this whole encounter with God – Jacob refused to let go of God. He refused to let go until God had blessed him – it is not that he forced God’s hand but that God was not, and does not, bless those who are half-hearted in their encounters with him. It is the warning of the letter to the church at Laodicea who was lukewarm in their relationship with God and he spat them out of his mouth. It is the teaching given by Christ in the parable of the persistent widow – we must persist, we must hold on and refuse to let go until we are blessed. For someone here this morning that is God’s word to you this day – hold on tight, refuse to let go until the morning breaks and the blessing comes. Friends I think there are many of us here this morning who can readily identify with this passage – we have struggled in the night and we know the blessing that came in the morning. There are some of you and right at this moment you are struggling with God and a great battle is being waged over who holds the reins of your life – and God is about to touch you (painful it will be) and you will have no choice but to submit – but then hold on for the blessing that will come with the dawning of the light. For some of you here this morning I want to say that I believe you need to remember your limp. You need to remember where God dislocated your life (your hip) in order that he might be God in your life – you have forgotten and you have started to wander away again. You need to remember what that limp signifies – your new name
Christian. Your new walk – holiness of life. Your new relationship with God and your family. Maybe, just maybe this morning for someone this day is the dawning of the light because at this moment God is saying to you the struggle is over and the blessing is about to come into your life – if that is you then hold on even tighter at this moment.
Wherever you are today there is a lesson here – we are all called to hold on to God, to struggle in prayer and wrestle with God in prayer. It took 20 years for Jacob to reach this point in his life. 20 years in which he walked many roads away from God, deceived many people, manipulated many situations but in God’s time he was touched by God and moved from death to life, from self-help to faith and encountered the God who cripples in order to bless. I pray this morning that each of us will have a face to face encounter with God which even if painful, even if we are left with a limp will bring about God’s blessing in our lives. That we might have a new name, a new walk and most important of all a new relationship with the living God. AMEN.
