We Need A Hero: Jacob

Clutching the ring

The new Amazon series Rings of Power has renewed interest in the great British author J.R.R. Tolkien who wrote the Lord of the Rings trilogy in the middle of the 20th century. Tolkien’s stories were not simply great fiction, but Tolkien’s attempt to tell us a little about ourselves. The story of the Lord of the Rings is the quest of a character named Frodo Baggins. Frodo Baggins has been assigned to destroy a ring that corrupts whoever is wearing it. That ring has enormous power, but it also brings out the worst in people. The only place the ring can be destroyed is a placed called Mount Doom. At the very end of the trilogy, Frodo makes his way up Mount Doom to destroy the ring. He’s attacked by another character named Gollum who doesn’t want the ring destroyed but wants the ring for himself. Gollum takes the ring away from Frodo, but in doing do, falls into Mount Doom clutching the ring. That’s the end of Gollum. That’s the end of the ring. The world is saved from evil. And the entire story swung on a character who wanted the ring so badly he would die to get it.

Clutching an identity

Our present attention this morning is on Jacob, a man who has been on a quest. Jacob is the grandson of Abraham. He is the son of Isaac. Jacob knows about the covenant and Promises that God made to his grandpa and his dad. But he’s not all that interested in embracing the Promise like his dad or grandpa. Jacob wants all the blessings of the Promise. He’s not so sure that he wants the God of the covenant. Jacob wants to know: what’s in it for me?

This quest is all about Jacob. From the very outset, if you read the rest of Jacob’s story here in the Bible, it is obvious that Jacob believes the blessings of the covenant can be obtained by sheer willpower and masterful cunning. Jacob has lived up to his given name, the one who clutches or the one who grasps. His entire life has been marked by wrestling... Jacob was born holding Esau’s heel. He “wrestled” with Esau over a birthright and blessing, the outcome of which meant obtaining the legacy of the covenant blessings first promised to Grandpa Abraham and his dad, Isaac.

And yes, Jacob’s wrestling even extended to him trying to take on God himself. Jacob leaves home. He’s not on good terms with his brother. He will build his life and pursue his dream somewhere else. As he is headed away from home, Jacob is paid a visit by God at night. The story of the ladder going into heaven is the story of Jacob trying to bargain with God. It’s God’s ladder, but Jacob thinks the ladder is how he must climb to God. Jacob wants to make the ladder his own. God makes a promise to Jacob, promising Jacob that he will bless him and bring him back to the Promised Land. And he repeats the promise to Abraham that all the families of the earth will be blessed through Jacob.

But Jacob wants to set the terms of the covenant. He thinks God can be bargained with, wrestled with… Jacob acts as if God owes him. Jacob says, “Yeah, you do all that for me, then you can be my God.” Jacob is in it for Jacob. God… if you’re so good, you will do this for me. And then I will serve you. Then I will believe you. If not, well then, you must not be God. If you don’t live up to my expectations, I don’t need you.

And the question becomes… can God’s promises be taken by force? Is it possible to secure God’s promises by being smart enough or good enough or successful enough? Can you set your own terms with God? Does God owe you anything? Can Jacob wrestle the covenant from God? At Bethel, where Jacob met God at night, Jacob seemed to think so. Jacob is determined to be the hero of his own story.

Jacob Wrestles

Our text this morning is found in Genesis 32. Many years have passed since Bethel. Jacob did get rich. He ends up with a very big family. Lots of children and grandchildren. Jacob seemingly has it all. What he does not have yet is the land of promise. He’s living in a foreign land. God pays Jacob a visit again and says, it’s time to go home. So, Jacob gets everything arranged, he gets the moving trucks or camels and his family heads back to the Promised Land.

Before Jacob can enter the Promised Land, though, this matter of Jacob’s self-reliance must be resolved. While much has changed in the interim between Bethel and Genesis 32, not *enough* has changed. Jacob still acts like Jacob. God shows up again to Jacob in the middle of the night. This time, there’s no ladder, there are no angels, there is no glory. Jacob expects glory. What he gets is mystery, vulnerability, and darkness. There is no party. What Jacob gets is a wrestling match in the middle of the night.

It is no coincidence that what transpires here in this passage is at night. God is about to resolve once and for all the self-centered bargain made by Jacob at Bethel. In that resolution, God is going to deal with Jacob’s self-absorbed conniving. He cannot take self-sufficiency into the land. His self-reliant striving must be brought to an end; his self-rule will be brought into submission to another; his self-serving resolve must be broken.

Genesis 32:24 “Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak.”

If you’ve been following Jacob’s story this is totally unexpected. This is no bright, earth-shattering heaven’s gate. This is the blackness of night. What is this? This is the sweat of a wrestling match with a mysterious man-figure whose identity is not cloaked in glory but humanity’s darkness. Faced with the mundane rather than glorious greatness, Jacob resorts to his old ways. He’s the wrestler. He’s wrestled Esau. He wrestled his father. He wrestled with his father-in-law Laban. He tried to bargain with God. And now, for Jacob, this stranger who meets him at the gateway to the “Promised Land” is just another man to be wrestled with and conquered.

Genesis 32:25 “When the man saw that he could not defeat him, he struck Jacob’s hip socket as they wrestled and dislocated his hip.”

Jacob resorts to wrestling and, true to form, Jacob wins. Jacob prevails in his wrestling. Despite being maimed by his opponent with an apparent power that is not of this world, Jacob seemingly wins. If this has been a test of resolve, a test of internal fortitude, a test of his own ability to get things done, certainly Jacob has passed the test. He is ready to move on to the Promised Land and claim what is his. After all he has been through, Jacob’s self-reliance seems vindicated. Or has it been? Things aren’t what they seem.

Genesis 32:26 “Then he said to Jacob, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.”

The stranger tells Jacob, “Let me Go.” That’s an odd way to speak of wrestling. In fact, it isn’t a way to speak of wrestling. The change in language reflects a change in direction. Somewhere along the way, Jacob stops wrestling and now he’s simply holding on to the guy.

Funny thing about night giving way to day: the light exposes reality for what it is. As dawn breaks, the truth dawns on Jacob and his world is flipped on its head. Something has changed. The “wrestling” of verse 25 has become “not letting go” in verse 26. Such a change is not incidental. In fact, it is momentous, a defining moment in redemptive history. Jacob had been *striving with* this mysterious man. Jacob pursued the upper hand looking to gain advantage. But something has changed. Jacob isn’t wrestling anymore. Jacob now only clings. Jacob can’t, no Jacob won’t let go. The one who was born with a bent to grasp everything for his own benefit is now hanging on for dear life.

You have to ask and wonder: what has changed? It’s easy for us to say, the hip socket was touched and that’s what changed. I think there is something to that. If you no longer have your entire physical capacity, you’re going to change your strategy. But something else is also going on. This is mentioned three times here:

The Day Breaks

The day breaks. The day breaks. Jacob’s wrestling, trying to grasp and control the mysterious man has been broken by the day. The day breaks and Jacob no longer seeks the advantage. Jacob is no longer trying to get the best of his fellow wrestler.

Why would daybreak have such a life-changing impact on Jacob? Because day brings light. Day brings clarity. Jacob can now see, if he didn’t suspect it already, this mysterious “man-figure” is no mere man. And Jacob knows it.

In the book of Hosea, Hosea mentions this event and he tells us that Jacob wrestled with THE angel, the angel of the Lord who frequently appears throughout the Old Testament as God in human form. This Angel of the Lord is the most common manifestation of the Second Person of the Godhead. So, why would daybreak be life-altering for Jacob? What has been made clear? The daybreak brings light to Jacob’s eyes that see this is none other than the Lord of the Ladder with whom he has been wrestling! This is God himself, the pre-incarnate Christ he has been wrestling.

Jacob is absolutely stunned. No wonder he hangs on for dear life. If God had wanted, God had the power to maim Jacob’s strength and reduce him to nothing. Instead, the mysterious man allows Jacob to seemingly win the wrestling match. Jacob seemingly has bested the Lord of the Ladder. Jacob seemingly has beaten the one with whom he arrogantly bargained at Bethel. But it is not Jacob who is the ultimate victor. It is not a good thing to wrestle with God and win.

Genesis 32:26 “Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.””

Jacob has moved from pursuing a position of advantage and power to a desperate clinging. Jacob recognizes that he is the one in need of favor, divine favor. Jacob is now speaking from a changed heart. The conniving is nowhere to be found; Jacob is no longer attempting to manipulate God. These lips of Jacob are expressing transformed motivation. The prospect of the mysterious Divine-Man-Figure leaving the scene without blessing Jacob is more than a now broken and contrite Jacob can bear. For the one who is "undone" when face to face with the Holy, a departure without blessing is unthinkable.

This is the end of Jacob. There will be no more wrestling. Only clinging. This mysterious man could have killed him; instead, Jacob has been graciously given life and life more abundantly.

No longer is Jacob attempting to impose his will on God. He is no longer reminding the covenanting God of promised blessing. He is no longer imposing material gain onto the covenant. Gone is the cocksure attitude that would bargain Coram deo with the Lord of the Ladder. Now Jacob is clinging to the Lord of the Ladder for blessing, even if it costs him his life. It is the clinging of the spiritually bankrupt at the end of himself crying out the only hope he has: “Bless me or I die”.

Now that there is daylight, Jacob’s new eyes recognize that the wrestling man is both antagonist and Savior. The Lord of the Ladder is not here in glory. He’s here in humility, losing the wrestling match on purpose; in conceding defeat, he wins Jacob's salvation. Jacob clings to and cries out to the only Person who can save him: Bless Me or I die!”

And the mysterious man, God himself, does bless Jacob:

Genesis 32:28 “Your name will no longer be Jacob,” he said. “It will be Israel because you have struggled with God and with men and have prevailed.”

There’s the blessing. There’s the grace. There’s the life. There’s Jacob’s salvation. Jacob is given a new name and in a new name, a new identity. Jacob will no longer be known as a conniver, but as one who, in desperation, held on to the Lord of the Ladder at the risk of his life. Jacob is no longer known as a supplanter, but as one who clings to the Promised One, the One who gave His Promises to Abraham and to Isaac. Jacob clings to the only One who can Promise and Bless. The Promises and Blessing cannot be wrestled from God. They cannot be earned through human ingenuity or power. Jacob knows and believes that the only One who can Promise and Bless is the one to whom he clings for dear life.

And at the end of it all… Jacob hears what he had been longing for so long. The only thing he ever wanted.

Genesis 32:29 And the man blessed him there.

God will not be bargained with. Everything from his hand is grace. His blessings and his Promises cannot be obtained through material means, and they cannot be received trying to get God to do stuff for us, trying to get God to give us the life we think he owes us. One cannot weasel his or her way into the blessings. Jacob found out that the blessing and promise cannot be manipulated from God. They cannot be clutched by pursuing an advantage over men. One cannot buy his way in to an inheritance that is forever for a people who will be as numerous as the stars in the heavens (Genesis 12). There will be no bargaining with God over material gain, financial and personal blessing. Jacob now understands what grandpa Abraham understood: “and Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness.”

Jesus is the Hero

And what of the mysterious man? As the night fades, so too does this Man who wrestled with Jacob. The mysterious wrestler fades into the daybreak not to be seen again. The fullness of time has not yet come. Even though a new day has dawned for Jacob, redemptive history still remains cloaked in darkness. That darkness lasted for hundreds of years, until a glorious intrusion of light on a Bethlehem hillside. There the host of angels have once again intruded into the night, with a grand proclamation of good news. The Angel of the Lord has descended in humility to take on human form permanently. The Lord of the Ladder, Jesus Christ, took on flesh to secure not only Jacob’s final salvation and covenant destiny, but ours as well. Jacob’s destiny is our destiny in Christ. Jesus is Jacob’s hero. Jesus is the Hero who gives us life and salvation by losing on purpose at the cross.

Jesus wrestled humanity at the cross and again, lost. In humility and suffering Jesus conceded defeat, and in that defeat won salvation for his people. His defeat, albeit short-lived, is our victory. Our striving, our wrestling with God as people who want to do things our way has been brought to its end at the cross in the Son of Man’s death. It is at the cross we find our Promises of life, salvation, and forgiveness.

What is it that you are holding on to? What is it that I clutch, even if it kills me? What is it, when life is at a low, I want to say, you give me what I want, then I will put my faith in you. You and I will be buds. God is not a vending machine. God is your savior. Your gracious provider. Jesus is our Hero who gives us grace unconditionally.

May we cling to the Only one who can save us. It is at the cross we must cling to Christ for the salvation of our souls. It is only in him that we find our conniving, our supplanting, our pursuit of the advantage over others forgiven forever. And it is only in the Lord of the Ladder we find that righteousness necessary to see God and live to tell about it.

We cling to so many things that cannot save us. We hang on to so many things that cannot give us rest for our souls. Even as we are tempted to hang on to those things this week, may we see the beauty and the wonder of the Lord of the Ladder and cling to him.

Blessed are those at the end of themselves who prefer death to letting go of the Son of Man. As we cling to our only Hope of life, may our desperate plea forever be: bless us or we die.

Let us pray.

Jesus lost on purpose. Jesus lost his wrestling match at the cross so that we would receive His blessing: His life, His forgiveness, His salvation. Right here, right now. In losing, Jesus won. This is who Jesus is for you and for me.