The Fight of Faith

Prayer

When It’s Just You

*We have a bonus - Unearthing the Bible section as part of our sermon, a recent and very surprising discovery, this comes courtesy of the Babylon Bee: Archaeologists Discover Steel Cage Where Jacob Wrestled God…*

Just to be clear, Babylon Bee is a Christian satire site and this is just a fun example of their humor. It just happens to fit perfectly with our story this morning, story of where Jacob wrestled God (no steel cage was used) in Genesis 32.

So, after taking a hiatus from our journey through the Old Testament in order to focus on Jesus’ suffering, death and resurrection for Palm Sunday and Easter, we’re back to the Old Testament, back to the book of Genesis.

Three weeks ago we left off looking at the story of Jacob and the birth of his children through his wives, Leah & Rachel, and their maidservants, Bilhah and Zilpah. Jacob now has twelve children, eleven sons and one daughter.

All this took place back in the land of Jacob’s ancestors where he had fled under the guise of finding a wife among his own family (turns out he got a little more than he’d planned for), but mainly to get away from his twin brother , Esau, from whom he had stolen their father, Isaac’s blessing by pretending to be Esau.

But the promise of being the father of a great nation, that great covenant God had made to Jacob’s grandfather, Abraham, and then to his son, Isaac, and had made to Jacob himself, was still in place. And that meant Jacob had to return to his home, the land of the Canaanites, which is the land God had promised to give them and their descendants.

So God commands Jacob to return home - and Jacob asks Laban for his blessing to leave, but Laban is reluctant - he has become very wealthy with Jacob caring for his livestock. So they come to an agreement that Jacob will work a little longer in exchange for livestock of his own. Despite some trickery on Laban’s part, Jacob manages to accumulate a sizeable herd through the blessing of God.

This does not endear him to Laban and Laban’s sons, so Jacob decides to sneak away back to Canaan with all that he has - his wives, children, servants and livestock. I want you to note that in doing so, that he’s still being true to his name (which means deceiver). Laban manages to catch up to him, and though there’s some tense moments (largely surrounding the theft of Laban’s household gods by Rachel), they finally come to an agreement and make a covenant not to harm each other.

This brings us to Genesis 32 - and back into the land of Canaan, which means back to all the problems Jacob left behind. They did not magically disappear. Remember, one of the primary reasons he left was because Esau had vowed to kill him as soon as Isaac died. So, he’s got that waiting for him.

Jacob decides he’s not taking any chances - he sends messengers ahead to greet Esau and let him know that he is returning - the message is very deferential, he refers to Esau as “my lord” and to himself as “your servant.”

Messengers return - with no response from Esau, other than to let Jacob know that Esau is coming to meet him. And he just happens to be bringing along 400 men with him. If there ever was an “o crap” moment, this is it. Bible describes Jacob as being “in great fear and distress.” Uh, yeah.

Just when things seemed to be going so good - he has a good family, his wives, a lot of children, he’s got servants and lots and lots of livestock. He’s wealthy, richly blessed by God. And now it appears it may well lose it all.

Jacob goes into desperation mode - what can he do to save himself and his family? He’s going to pull out every trick he can:

First, he divides his family into two camps, the Leah camp and the Rachel camp, dividing his servants and livestock among them. The strategy here is that when Esau’s men attack, perhaps one of the camps can get away.

Then, he prays, including, “Save me, I pray, from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid he will come and attack me, and also the mothers with their children. But you have said, “I will surely make you prosper and will make your descendants like the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted.” He’s reminding God of his promises - be faithful to your promises, Lord, don’t let him kill me!

Finally, a gift-giving strategy. He’s going to try to butter Esau up with gifts, a lot of gifts. Listen to this list: two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, thirty female camels with their young, forty cows and ten bulls, and twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys. He sends them by herds, one after the next - as a way of overwhelming Esau…a gift…another one…wait, another gift. He’s trying to do whatever he can so that Esau will not destroy him and his family.

Struggling with God - that brings us to our story this morning.

Genesis 32:22-24a...That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two female servants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. 23 After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions. 24 So Jacob was left alone...

I want to stop here to try to capture this moment, because this is significant. It’s night already, and Jacob gets up, gets his whole family up, the entire two camps, and sends them across the Jabbok River - everything - family, servants, livestock. But he stays on the other side…all alone.

How powerful the sense of being alone must have been in that moment. All his lies and deceits were catching up to him - and it wasn’t just going to be him who suffered, but his family, his servants - even though they had nothing to do with an old sibling rivalry. And all those tricks and manipulations that had worked so well for him in the past were not going to save him now.

He was about to lose it all - and there was nothing he could do to stop it. He was about to lose it all - and he only had himself to blame.

So Jacob was left alone, but he’s not alone for very long - he has a very strange encounter, we’ll pick the story back up, Genesis 32:24-32...So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. 25 When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. 26 Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.” But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” 27 The man asked him, “What is your name?” “Jacob,” he answered. 28 Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.” 29 Jacob said, “Please tell me your name.” But he replied, “Why do you ask my name?” Then he blessed him there. 30 So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.” 31 The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel, and he was limping because of his hip. 32 Therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the tendon attached to the socket of the hip, because the socket of Jacob’s hip was touched near the tendon.

So, strangely, a man approaches Jacob and starts wrestling with him - and Jacob fights back. And they wrestle. And they wrestle - for the rest of the night, until daybreak. The obvious question - what the heck?! What’s going on here? Who is this person and why is he wrestling Jacob?

Jacob shows some grit here - as defeated as he must have felt, about to face his brother who’s vowed to kill him, bearing the burden of the potential loss of all he has and all he holds dear Jacob fights. He takes his guy on - you want a fight, I’ll give you a fight. So much so that when the sun dawns, the man wounds Jacob to try to get the upper hand, touching his hip socket, causing it to wrench (which, by the way, should be a good clue that there’s more to this man than meets the eye).

But even then Jacob won’t let go! Man has to ask him to! He’s tapping out. But Jacob knows something divine is happening here, so he says he won’t let go until the man blesses him. And notice the man’s reply, he asks him a question, “What is your name?”

Think about that for a moment. What is your name? It’s Jacob, and remember it means “grasps the heel”, “heel catcher,” which was a Hebrew idiom for being a liar, a deceiver. Remember what Esau cried out after Jacob had stolen his blessing, “isn’t he rightly named Jacob?” Jacob has to say it out loud…I’m Jacob. I’m Deceiver. I take advantage of others. In saying his name out loud, Jacob’s nature is being revealed, he’s confessing who he is, how he’s lived his life.

But then - here’s the blessing, the man is saying this in response to Jacob’s request (or demand, as the case may be) for a blessing. “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel.” Now Israel can be translated in a number of ways, but based on the context here it means, “struggles with God” - because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.

Though the man refuses to give his name when Jacob asks, Jacob knows that he has just had a divine encounter. Some believe it was God himself, I tend to believe that such encounters are with God’s angels, his messengers, who act in his stead. Either way, the effect is the same - Jacob has met with God face to face. So he names the place, Peniel, “because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.” Jacob knows the man could have done much more than wrench his hip socket with a touch.

So, what’s going on here? What’s this all about, this riverside wrestling match. I believe it’s revealed in the new name Jacob is given, Israel, struggles with God (this is, by the way, where Israelites get their name). Jacob - Israel, is being given a new name - a new identity. You are no longer “deceiver” you are now one who “struggles with God.”

Here’s the strange thing to consider - this is the blessing. This is the good thing God gives - that Jacob would struggle with God. Wrestle with him. It seems that this is a spiritual battle being manifested in physical reality - and Jacob fought well, he stayed through it, even when wounded.

This is a fascinating story - what it’s teaching us about engaging in struggle - particularly, struggling with God, wrestling with him. What Paul would call the good fight of faith. That faith, that truly trusting in God, leaning on him - is a battle. It does not come naturally or easily (we’d rather try our own strategies - whether that’s deception or working really hard or maintaining a certain image). But I want you to conisder three vital aspects of this fight of faith:

First, God comes to Jacob when he is utterly alone, stripped bare, nothing more he can do, he’s played all his cards, it’s just him. I want you to see how powerful this is - in this story, Jacob is in a very real sense, stripped bare. Can’t hide in his roles, or use his possessions to buy his way out or solve his difficulties by doing, keep working at it. It’s just him. He’s forced to expose his nature when he’s asked his name. I’m the deceiver, that’s been my go-to. There’s so many ways we try to do life on our own, leave God out of it (he’s there for emergency purposes only, like a parachute).

But if God is going to work in us, if we’re going to truly get to know him and learn to trust in him, we have to put all those things aside - our good deeds, our regular church attendance, how helpful we are, how hard we work, our relationships, accomplishments. We can’t come face-to-face with him until we’re willing to set that all aside, or let it be stripped away. So that it’s just us. Just us and all the messy parts of who we are - and all the beautiful aspects of who God made us to be. Alone before him.

Second, willingness to fight. To fight the good fight of faith. Here’s what I mean by that - following Jesus is hard. Confusing at times. God, why did you let that happen? Lord, everything seemed to be going so well - until it wasn’t. God, I cannot figure out what you’re doing here - or what I’m supposed to be doing.

That’s the boat that Jacob was in - God had made all these amazing promises to him - promises he reminded him of - and now it looked as if it was all going to come crashing down. But Jacob would not let go. He fought and fought and fought. Even when wounded, I will not let go unless you bless me.

Which is a way of saying, God, I trust and believe that you are good and faithful, and I’m going to cling to you until I experience your goodness, your blessing. On a personal level, this story has been huge for me in this regard. As many of you know, I didn’t get married until later in life and it was a difficult struggle being single while very much wanting to be married.

There was one particular time I had begun a dating relationship and as far as I could tell, it was going well…until it wasn’t...it crashed and burned, big time. And it was hard, I was crying out to God, God, what are you doing? If you’re get my hopes up about a relationship, just to crush them, I’d rather you not even bother, thank you very much. And in that struggle, the imagery of this story, of Jacob wrestling with God, clinging on to him, refusing to let go - fighting the fight of faith, became a vital image for me. That became my prayer - God, I trust and believe you are good. Even though in this moment I’m not experiencing that goodness in a way that makes sense to me, I’m going cling to you until I do. Until I receive your blessing.

?C.S. Lewis quote from Screwtape Letters here, faith that pleases God most?

Finally, the wounding. I don’t think this is necessarily true in every case, but I think that God is willing to wound us - or allow us to be wounded. The Bible uses imagery of wrestling, of fighting the good fight of faith - this is a battle, and in battles there are always wounds. And God’s transforming work in us can leave us wounded. God may have to humble us in order to grow us.

I don’t say this lightly. But God cares too much about our souls, there’s a battle for our souls and that may well mean wounds. The fight of faith is not for the fainthearted. Even Jesus engaged in this battle, listen to Hebrews 5:8-9...Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered 9 and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.

Listen carefully. This isn’t to suggest that Jesus was ever disobedient, it means that obedience becomes more difficult - to be willing to do anything and everything God asks, that requires growing in obedience. Jesus had to grow in obedience until he was ready to embrace the cross, to say to the Father, not my will but yours be done.

That obedience, that fight of faith, cost Jesus. He was deeply wounded - and carried the scars to prove it. Make no mistake, following Jesus is costly. And the deeper we go in obedience, the more of our lives we surrender to Jesus, the harder the fight. It is a fight, a struggle with God, and we may well bear the wounds of that fight.

Here’s the thing, having fought this fight with God, been face to face in a struggle of faith - there’s no doubt Jacob, now Israel, crossed that river - limping, wounded, but a different man, a man ready to face his brother Esau and whatever consequence his past behaviors may have wrought. Doing so in the confidence that comes from a hard-earned trust in God, having fought the good fight of faith.

So, how can we grow to be people who have struggled with God, fought the fight of faith? You’ll note that it is God who takes the initiative here, he brings the fight to Jacob, he wounds him. But here are some disciplines that can prepare us for these times:

Disciplines of Silence and Solitude - willingness to be alone with God, to be as “naked” before God as possible - with nothing else, just yourself (not your good deeds - or even your bad ones). In silence, we don’t even bring words. The goal is to bring our ourselves with as much openness and readiness to receive whatever God has for us - readiness to receive God’s love and will into our hearts.

Fight the good fight of faith…maybe you’re at a point of genuine struggle with God right now. You might be in what C.S. Lewis refers to as a “trough” - we all have times of up and downs in our spiritual life, troughs are times of dryness, God seems distant, we lack the motivation and desire to be with him.

These are times God can grow as most. Two thoughts from Lewis about what please God most: Prayers offered in the state of dryness and when we no longer desire, but still intend to do God’s will - when we look around a universe from which every trace of Him seems to have vanished, and asks why we have been forsaken, and yet still obey.

That’s the fight of faith. There is no better battle for us to engage in than willingness to wrestle with God, to be willing to struggle in our faith - and yet never let go, to keep clinging to him until we receive his blessing. To fight the good fight of faith.