Wrestling with God

For our guests we have been going through the book of Genesis, and this morning we come to what will be the turning point and pinnacle of Jacob’s life. So turn with me if you will to Genesis chapter 32. We are skipping over some events so before we read let me give a brief overview of what’s happened since Rachel and Leah’s baby wars. As we saw last week, Jacob’s family life is a mess – it is a home that is filled with rivalry and bitterness between the two sisters married to Jacob. And yet, in spite of that, God is true to His promise to Jacob and blesses him. He blesses Jacob with children – 11 sons to date – and he blesses him with amazing prosperity. Everything Jacob puts his hand to prospers.

And after 20 years of serving his uncle Laban Jacob comes to the place where he decides it’s time to leave Laban and return to his homeland yet Laban knows that he has prospered because Jacob has been with him so he tries to talk him into staying and working for wages. Laban is a greedy and conniving man who is very willing to cheat even his own daughters and grandchildren out of what’s theirs in order to line his own pockets. As someone wrote, Laban knew the price of everything and the value of nothing.

Jacob then offers a deal that’s right up Laban’s alley: he will take as his own only the irregular goats and lambs from the flock – those whose coats were spotted and speckled and striped. Laban knew that the vast majority of the flock was solidly colored so it was a good deal for him, but as insurance he had his men remove the irregular flocks and move them several days distance so that when Jacob went to pick them out, there would be none. But the breeding season was upon them and Jacob does this weird thing of setting up sticks in front of the animals as they bred in the superstitious belief that it would cause them to produce speckled, spotted lambs. But God, once again, prospered Jacob and behold, the strongest of the flock produced speckled, spotted, and striped lambs. Jacob prospers to the point that there is friction and finally he decides he must take his family and possessions and run away.

Two important developments

As Jacob nears his homeland two important things happen. The first is found in chapter 32:1 – Jacob went on his way and the angels of God met him. Remember that when Jacob was leaving his homeland, fleeing from his brother Esau, he saw a vision of a ladder with angels ascending and descending on it and God standing at the top of the ladder and promising him He will be with him and bless him. So as he was leaving, and now as he is approaching, he has encounters with angels – indicating the activity of God in his life. Jacob knows that God is with him.

The second thing that happens is that Jacob sends some scouts out to get a sense of where his brother is at. Read with me Gen. 32:6-8. Esau is coming with a small army and Jacob is certain that Esau still wants to kill him. Splitting his family and possessions into two camps he comes to the ford of Jabbok and that’s where this pinnacle moment happens for Jacob. Let’s begin reading in verse 22 and then let's pray.

Genesis 32:22-32

Verse 24 says, and Jacob was left alone. As night approaches, Jacob is all alone. He doesn’t have his wives or servants. He doesn’t have his children with him. No flocks, no possessions. Jacob is alone and very afraid of Esau – this could be his last night on earth and he faces it all alone. And in this lonely place, Jacob came face to face with what his life has been and it must have pierced his heart to know that, yes he has been blessed materially but every blessing has come the hard way and at tremendous cost: his relationship with his father and brother was severed by his deceitfulness, he had to leave his family and flee for his life from a brother bent on killing him and then he spent 20 years in servitude for two wives who live in bitter rivalry. Jacob is weary and weak and at the end of his rope and that’s the perfect place to meet God.

And that is so often where God will meet us too – when we’re at the end of our rope. When we’ve been stripped of the things we rely on for strength, when we are left to face the raw consequences of our sinful choices, when we’re afraid but there’s no place left to run. Where we’re weary and weak and have no strength left to press on. Perfect place to meet God.

God, in His loving providence, will bring us to the end of our strength so that we might rely on His strength

That’s what God is about to do with Jacob and it happens in a very unusual way. Into this lonely, fearful night a man appears and picks a fight with Jacob. It is clear that the man is the aggressor and Jacob is defending himself. He has no idea who this man is – probably thinks it’s an assassin sent by Esau. But he fights and fights. It must have been an almost surreal sight: two men just fighting all night long. Pulling and choking and pushing and rolling until they are both exhausted – but not a word between them. Until the sun begins to rise. Then the man seems to want to just leave. But Jacob is persistent, he is strong-willed and simply won’t let go, so the man does something that begins to make Jacob think, this is no ordinary man. He just touches Jacob’s hip socket and dislocates it. Suddenly, out of nowhere, supernatural strength to instantly cripple Jacob and end the fight.

Clinging to God for the blessing

Who is this man? Before the night is over Jacob will come to realize that this man is God. More than once in Genesis God appeared to men as a man and this is one of those times. This is a pre-incarnational appearance of Jesus Christ. And notice that it’s a pretty even fight – he doesn’t prevail over Jacob all night long. God matches His strength to Jacob’s strength – until the day is about to break – then with a touch He renders Jacob a lifelong cripple.

But Jacob still won’t let go, now more than ever, and finally the man speaks.“Let me go for the day has broken.” What? You picked this fight and now you just want to leave? What, do you have another fight appointment to get to?” Jacob has no idea what this has been about, but he continues to hold to Him and will not let go. He can’t fight anymore–his leg is dangling useless– but he can still hold on and when the Lord says, “let go” Jacob answers, I will not let go unless you bless me.

For the first time in his life, Jacob is helplessly clinging to God for the blessing. Up until now he has struggled to get the blessing and schemed to get the blessing and trusted in his own resourcefulness to get what he wanted, but now his strength is at an end – he can’t even run away from Esau anymore – and he is a broken man. Hosea 12 describes Jacob’s brokenness as he clung to the man. Verse 3 says, In the womb he took his brother by the heel, and in his manhood he strove with God. He strove with the angel and prevailed; he wept and sought his favor.

Jacob was a weeping, crippled, broken man – and now he was finally ready for God’s greatest blessing to be given.

1. There is a blessing that only comes through brokenness

Jacob is a broken man, but there’s one more step of brokenness needed. Look with me at verses 26-28:

Verse 27 – In those days they considered a man’s character was revealed by his name. The name Jacob meant “heel-grabber and was an idiom for “deceiver”. When the Lord asks Jacob his name, he’s asking Jacob to confess his character as a cheat and deceiver and full of guile.

There is a place of blessing that only comes through brokenness. We need to be stripped of our pride and our self-reliance so that we can humbly come to God and rely on His strength. We need to be willing to be known by God exactly as we are – take away the image and veneer and crutches we use to prop ourselves up and confess our true sinful character for what it is. It feels like dying, but it’s where new life begins. This is clearly seen in the way of salvation – it is only when we forsake all self-effort to save ourselves, when we forsake all pretence at being a good person and come broken and humble to Christ like the publican who prayed, “Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner” that we can be saved. But that blessing through brokenness doesn’t stop at salvation – it is meant to be the Christian path.

Are you going through a time where you are very aware of your weakness? Very aware of your sin and the raw consequences of your sin? Are you tempted to be discouraged, maybe even give up? It is the perfect time to meet with God and cling to Him for His strength. Our pride thinks it’s when we feel confident and strong and in control that God can use us. Actually, it’s quite the opposite. Some of the most significant points in our lives won’t be on a glorious mountaintop, but on some lonely Jabbok ford, where all alone we wrestle with God and prevail.

2. God’s greatest blessing doesn’t change our circumstances, it changes our character

Verse 28 – The Lord didn’t ask him to confess his deceitful character just to reduce Jacob and leave him there, He was going to change his name (and his character) from Jacob to Israel – for he had striven with man and God…and prevailed. It’s not that Jacob had beaten God – God had wanted to bless him all along – but he was finally at the end of his strength and ready to cling to God. In this night of fighting, God had brought him to a place where he was weary and weak and done with his Jacob ways – and God blessed him with a new name and a new character.

We will all identify with Jacob in some aspect of his old character – most of us in more than one aspect.

a. Jacob had trusted his manipulations to get his blessing – now he would trust God

Jacob had manipulated his brother’s hunger to get his birthright. He had exploited his father’s weak eyes and his brother’s absence to steal his brother’s blessing. He manipulated people and circumstances to grab his blessing – grabbing heels and tripping people up for his own promotion.

Manipulation is a way of getting what we want (and controlling people to do what we want) through underhanded means: deception, guilt, anger, flattery or some other way of taking advantage of their weakness. The heart of manipulation is, “give me the steering wheel” – it’s a desire for control, usually over people, but sometimes over circumstances too.

We’ve probably all met people who are master manipulators – they look at people as puppets and they feel the need to pull the strings. But we all can be guilty of subtle forms of manipulation – like putting on an image to make people think a certain way about us or flattering people to get them to do things for us. We all want our hands on the steering wheel. We don’t want to give God control over our lives.

God in His love will bring us to a place where we see (as Jacob saw) that when we control things we mess things up. God will bring us to a place where we will yield control to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

b. Jacob spent his life running in fear – now he would face his fears with God

Jacob had a history of running. When his brother Esau was going to kill him, he ran for his life. When he realized that Laban resented him, he took his family and possessions and fled in the middle of the night. But running wasn’t just something Jacob did, it was something Jacob was. It was in his character to run in fear. Now he was ready to face his fear trusting that the Lord would be with him.

God says a lot to us in His word about our fears. Often when He commissioned someone for His purposes, He would encourage them with these words: do not fear. Do not be afraid. For I am with you. Fear is a reality in most of our lives. And like Jacob, we can find ourselves running from things we fear.

Fear isn’t something we can just make go away but we need to wrestle with God in prayer through the fear to a place of trust.

ILL: When I was about 8 years old I once antagonized an older boy – not sure what I did, but I found him chasing after me and I was running for my life. We lived in an apartment complex at that time and I ran into the complex and up the stairs to my apartment door – with this boy right behind me. I didn’t have time to pull out my key but I knew my dad was home so I knocked on the door for him to come open it. But the boy, now realizing that a parent was getting involved turned to get away and suddenly I had new courage and didn’t want him to get away – I wanted him to face my dad. Not sure what I thought my dad would do – maybe I hoped he beat him up or something. So I grabbed this kid and held onto him until my dad could get to the door. And the kid is yelling, let go of me! So when my dad opens the door, here’s me holding onto this bigger kid for dear life and the kid trying to get away – he must have thought I had gone nuts.

Maybe there’s a picture in there of how God calls us to overcome our fears: stop running from our fears, face our fears, and wrestle them to the throne of God in prayer asking God to deliver us from them. Asking our heavenly Father to rebuke those fears and give us courage.

Jacob wasn’t on the run anymore. He was ready to face Esau, come what may, and now he couldn’t run away from Esau if he wanted to. But he had the promise of God’s blessing and strength and Jacob was ready now to trust.

Jacob’s character was changed in so many ways. For 20 years Jacob served a cheat and a fraud to get the blessing he wanted – now he was ready to serve the Lord for that blessing. Jacob wouldn’t be a perfect man after this event, but he would be a changed man. And he would forever be a crippled man.

The touch of God had crippled his once-straight body and straightened his once-crippled character.

Where does God want to change our character? Pride? Anger? Selfishness? Unloving? Yes and so much more. When God saves us He begins to work on our character – conforming us into the image of Christ. Next to knowing Christ, the greatest blessing we can receive is becoming like Christ. It will not be a painless process – we will probably walk with a limp.

And much of that change will come in a place like the Jabbok ford – where we become weary of manipulating people to do what we want. We become weary of running in fear. We become weary of working in our own self-sufficiency. We become weak and weary, and in the perfect place for God to meet us (and for us to meet God) and wrestle through in prayer until we are humbly crying out for God’s blessing and for God’s strength. It might feel like dying, it’s the place of new life.

Conclusion:

Take time to get alone with God. And there, alone with God, wrestle through with Him the areas where you are tempted to be self-dependent rather than dependent on Him. It might not be one night like it was for Jacob, it might be a prolonged season. But wrestle through with God until He blesses you.

If you’re not a Christian, the first step for you is to abandon the idea that you are a good person who needs a little help from God. The Bible tells us that we’re sinners in desperate need of being saved and that Jesus came and died on the cross to save us. As we close in prayer, if that’s you, please pray with me and ask Jesus to come into your life and save you.