Tonight....we Wrestle

Tonight….We Wrestle! - By Minister Russell M. Rillie

Genesis 32:24-32

As a boy, I would love to get up on Saturday mornings, turn to channel 9 about 10 am & watch wrestling. Before the WWF ended up on cable, before there was a Wrestle mania, before they changed their name to WWE….there was simply Channel 9, 10 am on Saturday mornings.

They had men, women, midgets, etc. all running around the ring in some form of debauchery & violence. They would jump off the top rope. They would throw each other OVER the rope…into the audience. They would conveniently find tables & ladders from under the wrestling mat. They would conveniently find garbage cans to hit each other over the head with. The referee would always get knocked out & not be paying attention at the most UN-OPPORTUNE time….but ahhh…..THAT was wrestling as I know it.

I have two boys & a girl and they all LOVE wrestling as THEY know it today. My son and I often get into casual discussions about the wrestlers of today & who is, or was better. My list of favorites kind of goes like this…..Hulk Hogan, Rowdy Roddy Piper, Jessie The Body Ventura, Andre The Giant, Paul Orndorff, Greg The Hammer Valentine, Ricky The Dragon Steamboat, The Iron Sheik & my personal favorite, from the Isle of Samoa, standing 6ft tall and weighing 257 lbs, Jimmy…Super Fly…Snuka. You could throw in the Undertaker, Ultimate Warrior & Macho Man Randy Savage, but it stops there. His list…..Bret the Hit Man Hart, Shawn Michaels, Stone Cold Austin, Triple H, The Rock, Chris Jericho, Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero, Kurt Angle, Rey Misterio, Edge, Randy Orton & John Cena.

Wrestling for men….is in our genes, it’s in our DNA, it’s in our make-up. That’s what men do! Every boy has wrestled or play fought with their father. Every father has wrestled or play fought with their sons. On a good night…we wrestle with our wives…and on a bad night…we wrestle with our wives. In your teens and twenties, it’s common to see men wrestling if they are in school, competing or in the military, but after 25…30, ah men, tell it, we don’t have time to be scrapping, fighting, wrestling, we’re not really trying to have another man touch us & have their hands all over us. We’re not willing to find ourselves with another man ON TOP OF US in ANY way, much less having to humble ourselves & cry out, or tap-out in submission to another man. That would mean DEFEAT, which would mean losing, which would mean swallowing pride, which would mean admitting that someone or some thing got the better of us! Often times that’s basically it…we are just not WILLING to SUBMIT! They’re going to talk about us! They are going to ridicule us! They are going to think I am weak! They are going to question my manhood! They are going to TELL EVERYBODY! My wife will think I’m a punk! She will have thought that I can’t hang anymore! I’m getting old. I don’t have it anymore! I am now the old dude in the club. Little kids aren’t calling me by my street name anymore…they’re saying Hey Mister! or worst yet…POPS!

Our text, our text our text….revolves around a man named Jacob. His story, like most of us men in here, if we tell it…is a LONG story. It starts with his birth in Genesis 25 & runs all the way through Genesis 50 where he is buried in the same cave with his parents, grandparents & one of his wives (Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebecca & Leah).

That’s 25 chapters containing the life, times & experiences of ONE man! The Bible says he was the son of Isaac and Rebecca, the grandson of Abraham and Sarah and of Bethuel, and the twin brother of Esau. He had twelve sons and one daughter by his two wives, Leah and Rachel, and their maidservants, Bilhah and Zilpah. The children were Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, daughter Dinah, Joseph, and Benjamin. As a result of a severe famine in Canaan, Jacob resettled his whole family in Egypt, in the Land of Goshen, at the time when his son Joseph was viceroy. Jacob died there 17 years later, and Joseph carried Jacob’s remains to the land of Canaan, where he gave them stately burial.

Jacob & his twin are born to their parents, Isaac & Rebecca 20 years after their marriage. You would think after 20 years, they would have given up hope, but I presume by now they knew the story of his parents, Abraham & Sarah & didn’t want to go down the same Hagar road. Yeah, Abe had the 1st Baby Momma Drama in the Bible & Ike said I got a half brother & we am not even that tight, bump this….I’ll just wait on the Lord! So after 20 years, they get a double portion. Not one son…but 2 sons, but there was nothing ORDINARY about her pregnancy, or how they came out. They were twins, but one came out HAIRY & red all over. They were twins, but the second one came out grasping the heel of his older brother with his hand! Grasping the heel with his hand? Hmmmm.