From Heel Grabber to Israel
Text : Gen. 32:22-32
Introduction
1. Read Gen. 32:22-32
2. Illustration: "You must pray with all your might. That does not mean saying your prayers, or sitting gazing about in church or chapel with eyes wide open while someone else says them for you. It means fervent, effectual, untiring wrestling with God...This kind of prayer be sure the devil and the world and your own indolent, unbelieving nature will oppose. They will pour water on this flame." Booth, William
3. As fallible, fallen, and imperfect human beings, a relationship with a holy and righteous God is not always easy.
a. Sometimes it is painful
b. Sometimes it is confusing
c. Sometimes its hard work
4. However, like all things in life that are worthwhile, it is worth it.
Proposition: Wrestling with God brings victory!
Transition: First, we see that...
I. Wrestling With God Can Be Painful (22-25)
A. A Man Wrestled With Him
1. Jacob is preparing to go and meet his brother Esau, and at night he sends his family, servants, and possession across the ford at Jabbok.
2. For some reason, Jacob decides to stay behind. We are not told why Jacob stays behind.
a. Perhaps he was anticipating an encounter with Esau, and so he began a night crossing to establish his ground in the land (Ross, Creation and Blessing, 552).
b. Perhaps he felt he had some unfinished business.
2. While he was alone, he was attacked and finds himself in the wrestling match of his life.
a. It was dark, and so all that Jacob knows at this point in the story is that this is a man, or so it seems.
b. As the story progresses, Jacob will discover the true identity of his opponent.
3. Now Jacob is pretty strong, and a little wirery, so he puts up a good scrap with his assailant.
a. We know from a few chapters ago that Jacob is strong because he moved the stone away from the well.
b. His dealing with his father-in-law caused his to be crafty and wise, so he puts up a good fight.
4. His assailant sees that he is not winning the fight, so "he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob’s thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him."
a. This person’s touch, as we shall see later, is unmistakable.
b. This "touch" was enough to throw his thigh out of joint and therefore, breaks his hip.
c. With his hip out of joint, Jacob could not effectively wrestle any more, all he could do was prevent his adversary from escaping (Horton, Complete Biblical Library - Genesis, 309).
B. No Pain No Gain
1. Illustration: As a young doctor in India, Paul Brand had made the groundbreaking medical discovery that leprosy does its damage merely by destroying nerve endings. People who lose pain sensation can inadvertently damage themselves by simple actions as gripping a splintered rake or wearing tight shoes. Pressure sores form, infection sets in and no pain signals alert them to tend to the wounded area. Paul Brand knew what he was talking bout. “Most people view pain as an enemy. Yet, as my leprosy patients prove, pain forces us to pay attention to threats against our bodies. Without it, heart attacks, strokes, ruptured appendixes, and stomach ulcers would all occur without any warning. Who would ever visit a doctor apart from pain’s warnings? Virtually every reponse of our bodies that we view with irritation or disgust – blister, swelling, fever, sneeze, cough and especially pain – demonstrates a reflex toward health. In all these things normally considered enemies, we can find reason to be grateful.” (Philip Yancey in Soul Survivors –Doubleday)
2. Sometimes growing in our relationship with God can be painful.
a. It can be painful to be confronted with our sin.
b. It can be painful to be humbled by a righteous and holy God.
c. It can be painful to go through times of difficulties.
3. However, it is in that pain that we often find blessing.
a. Jacob may have broken his hip in the encounter, but it led to blessing.
b. Jacob may have broken his hip, but his life was changed forever.
4. James 1:2 Dear brothers and sisters, whenever trouble comes your way, let it be an opportunity for joy (NLT).
5. Wrestling with God is not always pleasant, and it is often painful, but in the end it leds to blessing.
a. It may be painful for a season, but when that season is over we will know the goodness of an almighty God.
b. It may be painful for a season, but joy will come in the end.
c. Ps. 126:5-6 Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy! He who goes out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, bringing his sheaves with him.
Transition: One of the positive aspects of wrestling with God is...
II. Wrestling With God Transforms (26-28)
A. You Have Struggled With God
1. They must have wrestled all night long because the adversary says "Let me go, for the day breakes."
a. For some reason this person needs to go by day break.
b. Perhaps he had to go before day break in order to keep his identity a secret (Hamilton, NICOT Genesis 18-50, 332).
2. However, in spite of a broken hip, Jacob is fiesty and hangs, refusing to let go until he gets a blessing.
a. By now Jacob knows that this is no ordinary man because there was something different about the way he "touched" his hip (Horton, 311).
b. Jacob knew that this person could give him a blessing and he wasn’t going to let go until he did.
3. So he asked Jacob what his name is, and Jacob told him what his name.
a. Names do mean something, and he was no longer going to be the "heal grabber."
b. Giving a name change in Bible times meant either a change in nature or change in relationship (Horton, 311).
4. He is given a new name "Israel."
a. The name means "he who struggles with God."
b. He had struggled with God and man and had prevailed.
c. It is a title of victory and speaks of contending for the faith with the power of God
5. God gave many Bible people new names (Abraham, Sarah, Peter).
a. Their new names were symbols of how God had changed their lives.
b. Here we see how Jacob’s character had changed. Jacob, the ambitious deceiver, had now become Israel, the one who struggles with God and overcomes. —Life Application Bible Notes
B. Changed Life
1. Illustration: “A young woman, eight months heavy with child, waddles into her mother’s house. Flops on the sofa. Kicks off her tennis shoes. Props her puffy feet on the coffee table. And groans, “I don’t think I can make it.”
Wise from the years, the mother picks up the photo album and sits beside her daughter. She opens the album to photos of her children in diapers and ankle high walking shoes. Slowly the two turn the memory filled pages. They smile at the kids blowing out candles and sitting in front of Christmas trees.
As the mother sees yesterday, the daughter sees tomorrow. …for just a moment the daughter is changed. … A transformation occurs. …” (Max Lucado. Eye Of The Storm . Dallas: Word Publishing, 1991, pp. 169-170).
2. We all go through many transformations in life.
a. We transform from toddler to school age.
b. We transform from teenager to adult.
c. We transform from married to single.
d. We transform from parent to grandparent.
3. However, no transformation in life is greater than the one the Apostle Paul desrcibes in Eph. 2:1-5 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ— by grace you have been saved—
4. This is the greatest miracle of all - the transformation of the human heart.
5. Unfortunately this is not a one time transformation, but it is a gradual purging away of our old natures. It is a process of changing a heart of sin to heart tender toward God.
6. We may have to struggle to achieve it, but the result is I once was lost but now I am found. I once was blind, but now I see.
7. Rom. 12:2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
Transition: Transformation only happens as we wrestle with God.
III. Wrestling With God Brings Confidence (29-32)
A. For I Have Seen God
1. The question we still need to answer is who is this guy?
a. Obviously, he is more than a mere man, but who is he?
b. Some say it was an angel.
c. Others, like an early church father named Jerome, have tried to make the episode a portrayal of long and earnest prayer. —Hard Sayings of the Bible
d. Another early church father named Clement of Alexandria, argued the wrestler was the Logos of John’s Gospel (Jesus), but he argues that the Logos remained unknown by name to Jacob because Jesus had not yet appeared in the flesh—Hard Sayings of the Bible
2. Well Israel wanted to know too, so he asks him what his name. He says "Tell me Your name, I pray."
a. He begs him to tell him his name.
b. However, the wrestler says "Why is it that you ask about My name?"
c. He is telling Israel, "Why do you ask when you already know?"
3. Then it says that he blesses him. Why does Israel need to be blessed?
a. He has possessions
b. He has descendents
c. He has a new name
4. The answer to the question comes in the next verse. "And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: "For I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved."
a. The blessing that he received was confidence!
b. He had been afraid of meeting up with Esau, but that was no longer a concern for him because he had come face to face with God.
c. If he could wrestle with God, face to face, then he had no reason to be afraid of Esau any longer.
d. By wrestling with God, he had overcome his greatest fear.
B. Spiritual Confidence
1. Illustration: There was this young lad of seven who went into his room and picked up a baseball bat and three baseballs. He marched outside and said "I’m a hitter"! He tossed the ball up into the air and swung, "strike one" he said. He picked up the second ball and tossed into the air, swung and said "strike two" With great confidence he reached and picked up the third ball and tossed it into the air. "Boy! Am I a great hitter," he said as he tossed the ball up and swung for the third time. "Strike three" was the call. "Boy am I a great pitcher," said the boy.
2. Heb. 4:16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
3. Wrestling with God gives us spiritual confidence.
4. We know that without God we are nothing, but with God we can do all things.
5. When we are in Christ we can:
a. Accomplish the impossible
b. Believe the impossible
c. Receive the impossible
6. Rom. 8:37-39 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Conclusion
1. Wrestling with God can be painful, but it transforms us and gives us confidence.
2. Are you wrestling with God today?
3. What are you struggling with?
4. Whatever it may be, remember that wrestling with God brings victory!
