Jacob Wrestling With God

0:00Good morning. Hey, how are you? Good to see you. I'm so excited about this morning's passage because this is one of those really, really obscure passages of Scripture, and I like these. The first time you read this, inevitably you're left scratching your head, wondering, like, what just happened there? These are the passages that excite me because they give us a chance to stretch our understanding. And we must know that the truth hidden here must be really good, because our God has buried this treasure more than most. So we know that there is something very good here. I am talking about Genesis chapter 32, and you can turn there if you want to go ahead and get there. Genesis 32. I will get there myself. This is verses 22 through 32. And in these passages, we will see that Jacob finds himself in a wrestling match with the Lord himself. Or maybe it was just a man, or was it the Lord? I guess we'll have to find out. If it was God that Jacob was wrestling with in our passage, what does it mean that Jacob is physically wrestling with God? Or even more puzzling, why would God wrestle with Jacob? Is this passage meant to be only taken spiritually, as though this wrestling match was only taking place in the heart and the mind and the soul? But what about his injured hip and his limp afterwards? If this is just a spiritual battle, then how does he come away with a disjointed hip? So many good questions to consider with this passage. And we shouldn't let those worry us. I pray that they excite you and us because there is so much truth and clarity that God is going to deliver us if He will. As always, though, with these passages, we do need to be careful to stick to the context that the original readers would have taken from it. Because if we just kind of dump this into our modern context, we're inevitably going to come up with all kinds of weirdness, which I've mentioned, a few weeks ago with respect to Jacob's ladder and the weirdness that can be interpreted there. So even though this is a shorter text to read this morning, we do have a lot to get to. So stand with me if you wish. This is verse 22 of chapter 32 of Genesis. The same night he arose and took his two wives, two his two female servants, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. He took them and sent them across the stream and everything else that he had, and Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day. When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched his hip socket, and Jacob's hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. Then he said, Let me go, for the day is broken. But Jacob said, I will not let you go unless you bless me. And he said to him, What is your name? And he said, Jacob. Then he said, Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel. For you have striven with God and with men and have prevailed. Then Jacob asked him, Please tell me your name, but he says, Why is it that you ask my name? And there he blessed him. So Jacob called the name of that place Peniel, saying, For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered. The sun rose upon him as he passed Pinuel, limping because of his hip. Therefore, to this day the people of Israel do not eat the sinew of the thigh that is on the hip socket, because he touched the socket of Jacob's hip on the sinew of the thigh. This is the word of the Lord. Let's pray. We thank you again, Lord, for your word. We pray that you would give us clarity here, Lord, and that you would speak for Christ's sake. It is in his name that I pray. Amen. Why is it a virtue in our culture to be self-sufficient? It is, isn't it? It is a virtue to be self-sufficient. We talked about it a little during our time in Ecclesiastes, but the man who considers himself to be self-made or self-sufficient is the man living in vanity, right? Despite that, making a name for oneself, it seems, is the chief aim in life, at least in our Western culture, making a name for oneself. It is not simply enough to glorify God and enjoy Him. We need to make a name, we need to be self-made. It is for this reason, as we mentioned on Wednesday, that Jesus said it is nearly impossible for a rich man to get into heaven. Not because of money or material blessing, in and of itself, these things are not in and of themselves bad, but because of the autonomy that such wealth and possessions bring. There is little to no dependence on God, which always leads to disordered loves. The one who has often feels self-made. Not always, but often, and self-sufficient. This is what we see and observe. And consider the prosperity gospel, a good example. And those prosperity gospel preaching megachurches that are increasingly popular, right? They've taken it upon themselves to devise all manners and ways to grow their church, right? And increase the giving of their people. And they say, look how much God is blessing us. Is he, though? Or have you just become self-made and self-sufficient and have no need of the way in which God provides? In such instances, these remarkable buildings look fantastic, right? From the outside. But upon closer inspection, one would find that they are built with hay and straw and would not stand for a minute if hit with a gust of wind or a single spark. All of our work is tested with fire. The self-made stuff will burn. And the saddest part about it is that many who think that all their self-made, self-sufficient doing is going to get them into the kingdom of God. They do. They think that their doing is going to get them into the kingdom of God. Matthew 7, 21 and 23, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven, on that day many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name, and then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness. This is the position that Jacob finds himself in. To begin our story this morning. Jacob has to this point been a self-made man, at least in his eyes, right? He has been true to his namesake, Jacob, the heel grabber. Every chance he has had to date, he has grabbed heels. Coerced his brother to grab the birthright, tricked his father to grab the blessing, neglected prayer to grab the girl that he wanted, tricked Laban to get back at him to grab material wealth. When we get to this point in the story, despite the promised blessing that God has given him, which clearly had nothing to do with the inherent or earned righteousness of Jacob, everything he has has been self-made, or at least so he thought. Jacob was a self-sufficient heel grabber. Do you see that, though, this morning? It is very important that we do because Jacob, or you for that matter, can only be corrected upon the realization that there is indeed a problem to be corrected. It is rather easy to see the problems with Jacob, but maybe not so much with us. Self-sufficiency wears many faces. I pray, however painful or revealing it might be, that the Lord breaks us of those self-sufficiencies this morning. So speaking of painful breaking, let's turn our attention to Jacob wrestling with this man. Before we get there, though, I want to demonstrate that Jacob approaches this situation in this evening when he's wrestling with this man, God, that he is already a broken man here. The disjointed hip that he receives during this encounter is only the physical manifestation of this already realized internal reality for Jacob. We skipped it past it, but I want to go back just a little bit and read from Genesis chapter 32. This is verse starting in verse 9. If you wanted to turn back there, it just should just be one page back to the left. Genesis 32 and verse 9. This is the prayer of Jacob immediately following the message that was given to him that his brother Esau is coming to meet him, and that Esau has with him a group of 400 men. Terrifying for Jacob. And as such he prays this. And Jacob said, O God, my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, O Lord, who said to me, Return to your country and to your kindred that I may do you good. I am not worthy of the least of all the deeds of steadfast love and all the faithfulness that you have shown to your servant, for with only my staff I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two camps. Please deliver me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear him, that he may come and attack me, the mothers with the children. But you said, I will surely do you good, and make you offspring as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude. We've thoroughly established that Jacob has been to this point in his eyes self-sufficient. He has made a number of choices that have put him at odds with his brother, put him in very difficult situations, and very seldom has he ever thanked God for what God has done for him. And even more seldom has he prayed and asked God to guide him and to lead him. Again, based on what was given to us in the Word. And this prayer of Jacob here is possibly the first time that Jacob has intentionally prayed, asking God for guidance, at least recorded for us in Scripture. This is the first time. And that, of course, all changes when he is faced with the proposition that his brother with 400 men has finally caught up with him. Then he prays. It's very common in our lives as well, right? We all tend to rock along in our own wills, making our own decisions, rarely consulting God in his will. Rarely do we cry out to him for guidance, that he would reveal to us his character, that we may act according to his desires and his plans for us, until what? Until our situation becomes so dire that we are forced to. It's generally the pattern of our lives. We generally live how we want until we can't any longer. That is a personal confession. That was certainly the case with Jacob, and his prayer is very instructive for us. Jacob's prayer prior to the wrestling match that we're going to get to in just a second is very instructive for us. First, he prays and reminds the Lord of his promises. He prays and reminds the Lord of his promises. Not for God's benefit, right? As though God has forgotten them, but for himself. To remind himself of the promises that God has made to him. So that he may be comforted in the reality of those promises. We see the same thing many times throughout the Psalms. So that should be our first prayers, to remind the Lord of His promises. Two, he confesses his unworthiness and his dependence on God through the realization that everything he has was not his doing, but God's. He said, I came across this river with only a staff. And now look what I have become. By this point that we read, Jacob has two wives, he has two servants, he has eleven children, he has hundreds of goats, ewes, rams, camels, cows, and donkeys. He is blessed and prosperous far beyond his actions, deserved, certainly. And in the face of possible death and potential threat to his family, he is broken to the degree where he confesses his unworthiness and his dependence upon God. And this is his disposition as he enters into this wrestling match with this mysterious man. So as we read, Jacob sends his family ahead of him, possibly, and it tends to lend this way a little later in the text to put some distance between he and them in case things go south with his brother. And it was then that a man showed up and began to wrestle with him. It's dark. Imagine the scene. It's dark. You have just sent your family away, you're alone, you're already on edge and restless, fearing for your life, and seemingly out of nowhere you were attacked by a man and are literally wrestling for your life. We can only assume that he had to at least initially think that this was Esau or somebody connected with Esau trying to catch him off guard at night, right? When I was thinking through this, my thoughts were somewhat confused as to how Jacob could have not at least had some idea who it was he was striving with here. Seems odd. Could he have really not seen anything? Was it that dark? You know? But modern people having grown up our whole lives with electricity, uh, we have no concept of utter darkness, really. Even here in the country, we still have light pollution everywhere. So try to imagine, though, a world with no lights whatsoever. Right? For the people of this day, if the moon had not yet risen and there were some clouds in the sky, you wouldn't be able to see your hand in front of your face. It was that dark. So it is not at all unreasonable that Jacob could have been totally taken by surprise here and would have had no idea whom he was wrestling with. He could not see anything. So he struggles with this man through the night. And just before the day breaks, this man touches his hip and puts it out of joint. It's interesting the power that this man has that he is able to touch a hip socket and put it out of joint. Right? Interesting that a man could do that. Many times uh the girls, more so when they were younger, but actually just the other day, um, would try to arm wrestle me. And it's always a little humorous watching them struggle. Not that I'm particularly strong, but you know, they're they're little girls. Uh red faced trying to move my arm, and I usually pretend for a second that they might have me before I, you know, bring my arm back to the center. And that little dance would continue through the night if one of us didn't just give up and finally let the other win, right? And that's kind of the picture that I imagine in my head thinking Jacob wrestling with God. The Lord just touches his hip and puts it out of joint. We're not even to consider thinking through this scene that Jacob was actually putting up a fair fight against the Lord, right? But rather that the Lord was allowing him to fight with him for a very specific reason. The reason why God allows Jacob to strive, and all of us to strive, against him is to break down our self-sufficiency so that we fully rely on God. Why is it easier for a camel to go through an eye of a needle than for a rich man to get into heaven? Again, it's not about money. The issue is relying on God or relying on self. God does not allow his children to continue in independence and self-righteousness and self-sufficiency. He forces you against your will to strive with him, that he may break you of your sins, so that you would rely solely on him. Consider the words of Paul in 2 Corinthians. This is verse 7 of, I didn't write the chapter number down, and I don't know it, I don't want to guess. He says, So to keep me from being conceited, because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, and a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he has said to me, My grace is sufficient for you. For my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast the more gladly of my weakness, so that the power of Christ may rest on me. For the sake of Christ, then I am content with weakness and insults and hardships and persecutions and calamities, for when I am weak, then I am strong. Strength, then. True strength. Comes not from self-sufficiency or personal strength, but from dependency on God. Whose strength do you want? Your own? Or Christ's given to you in your weakness? How often do we depend on our own strength? When the Word of God says, no, when you are weak, then you are strong. Because it is not you striving, but Christ in you striving. This is the lesson that Jacob had to learn, and it ultimately took a full-on wrestling match for him to get it. In Jacob's defense, though, as I've pointed out, his heart was already primed for this lesson through his hardships, which is evident in his prayer right before this. So let's look lastly at the result of this wrestling match. The first of which is a confession of sorts from Jacob to the Lord. The Lord makes Jacob give his name. Right? He makes him confess his name. But there is much more here than Jacob simply confessing his name. Remember back with Adam, we talked about the significance of names and the identity that names carry for us, right? They mean something. For God to make Jacob give his name, this is really God making Jacob confess his identity. Who was Jacob? He was a heel grabber. He was self-sufficient, self-made, independent heel grabber who acted on account of his own desires, and then he figured the rest out later. There was such shame and guilt tied to his name, his reputation, his past, all of his mistakes and all of his failures, these were all wrapped up in Jacob. How often have so many of us wished that we could be disconnected from the sins of our past and be given a new identity, a new name. This is precisely what is offered to us when we strive with God. Jacob was given a new name, Israel. A new identity with that new name. One who has striven with God and prevailed. This is what Israel means. Striving with God. Jacob is not the selfish heel grabber anymore, right? He's Israel, one who struggles with God. As Jacob learned, this striving, that is, putting off his old self and putting on his new self is not easy work, but it is necessary work. Again, the words of Paul from Colossians 3. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices, and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in the knowledge after the image of its Creator. Here there is not Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free, but Christ is all and in all. Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another, and if one has a complaint against one another, forgiving each other, as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these, put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. The mercy of God meets us in our striving, in our striving against ourselves, and our striving against man, and forces us to strive against him, so that we may not be defined by our old self, but our new identity that he has so graciously given us. He forces us to rely on him alone, and in doing so transforms us into people with compassionate hearts, kind, humble, meek, patient. And the list goes on. We are forgiving people because of how great we have been forgiven. And as Lindsay pointed out again providentially this morning, we are loving people because of how great we have been loved. This is certainly how Israel would have read this text and the message that they would have received, which was to fully depend on God and not on self. So let's consider some applications too as we close. First, we receive God and more specifically his kingdom and promises, not by our own strength and not by our own cunning, but only by his grace. This is how we receive the kingdom and his promises. This is something that Jacob again had to learn. Something the vast majority of people still need to learn. We are programmed from an early age that you define your own destiny, that you are what you make for yourself, that you define your truth for yourself, goodness for yourself, happiness for yourself. These are lies. God defines all of these things. And we only find them when we struggle with Him. And we receive the name that He has prepared for us. How do we receive that identity and that name? Luke chapter 18, Jesus gives us the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. It's a familiar parable about the humble way in which we receive justification. We've read that at least a couple times before. I want to read the end of that story and that narrative that immediately follows that story as they are connected and informative. This is Luke 18, starting in verse 14. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted. Now they were bringing even infants to him that he might touch them, and when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them. But Jesus called them to him, saying, Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them. For to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a small child shall not enter it. How much independence and autonomy does an infant have? An infant can't be left alone for more than a couple hours without some kind of attention and care. They're fully dependent on their parents, aren't they? Christ says this is the only way we enter the kingdom of heaven. As babes in the arms of our Father. If we rely solely on him for everything, I think we will see our prayers transformed, our obedience and our holiness transformed, our lives transformed, our churches transformed. Rely on him alone. Finally, God graciously gives us reminders of our dependence upon him. That's our second point of application. God graciously gives us reminders of our dependence on him. Verse 31 of our text this morning. Paul had a thorn, right? And thankfully and hopefully, as strange as that sounds, each of us have some sort of scar or limp that serves as a constant reminder to us of our constant dependence upon God. That's a grace, actually. And do not curse God because of your thorns. These are graces that should remind us that His grace is sufficient for you. In our weakness, His power is displayed. When we are weak, only then are we strong. We must also not neglect those God-ordained signs of remembrance. Nor should we neglect creating cultural habits that remind us corporately to rely on God. That's what the people did. We take the supper every week to point us to Christ and to remember how much we rely on Him. That's the most obvious thing that we do, but there's many more, almost forgotten commands and even traditions like fasting, corporate prayer, family worship. Those are just to name a few. In general, we have created cultures of self-reliance, right? As opposed to cultures of God reliance. I'm just as guilty as everyone, but I personally say that I long for the day when even the food that we eat serves as a constant reminder of our dependence on God. Can we begin to reclaim that now? Can we find remembrance and meaning and joy in everything that we do now? By the grace of God and in our striving with Him, I do think that we can, and I think that we must. And may it please the Lord to make us like infants in His care, fully dependent upon Him and to remind us of that every day. Amen. Let's pray. Lord, we again thank you for this story. We thank you for forcing Jacob to strive with you, Lord. We thank you for the grace that you gave him. We thank you for the promises that you gave him and the promises that are then extended to us. We ask you, Lord, in taking a cue from Jacob, to not forget the promises that you've made to us, Lord, to take care of us, to lead us. Please help us. Please help us, Lord, to strive with you and to rely on you and to be dependent upon you. Give us opportunities every day to remember that. Lord, and we do that now as we take your supper. We remember you, Lord, and the sacrifice that you have made for our behalf. We love you and we thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.