5.3.34 7.21.2024 Jacob Wrestling God Hebrews 11.9, 20-21 Genesis 28.10-21, 32.22-32

Start:

Entice: At some point a person must decide.

Who will I be?

How will I treat people?

Will I always play the victim?

Will I be a bully,

a whiner,

a complainer.

Will I own my life and my relationship with God.

It sure took Jacob a long time.

When God renamed him, he gave his name to his people, yet other than that mention in genealogies or the invocation of the “God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob”, he’s hardly a character in the New Testament. When he is mentioned, it is to highlight the sovereignty of God. The Hebrew author spares a very few words on him.

Hebrews 11.9, 20-21

Hebrews 11:20–21 ESV

20 By faith Isaac invoked future blessings on Jacob and Esau. 21 By faith Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, bowing in worship over the head of his staff.

Engage: He is mentioned at all because he did not give up. If anything, he was stubborn. This stubbornness caused him to reverse his ancestral migration returning as a stranger to Uncle Laban’s house. On his way to Paddan-Aram we read this incident

Genesis 28:10–21 (ESV)

10 Jacob left Beersheba and went toward Haran.

11 And he came to a certain place and stayed there that night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place to sleep.

12 And he dreamed, and behold, there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it!

13 And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring.

14 Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.

15 Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”

16 Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.”

17 And he was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.”

18 So early in the morning Jacob took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up for a pillar and poured oil on the top of it.

19 He called the name of that place Bethel, but the name of the city was Luz at the first.

20 Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear,

21 so that I come again to my father’s house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God,

At Beth-el the processes begins. He is learning to live by faith not by his wits This process culminates as his father’s God becomes his God. At this point, He still has a way to go.

Expand: In Paddan-Aram he learned what it was like to be on the other end of a scam. He learned discipline. He matured. He acquired a substantial family and became wealthy. When it was time to return to Canaan, he was ready to deal with his brother, and his father, but more importantly with the God to whom he had made promises years before.

Genesis 32:22–32 (ESV)

22 The same night he arose and took his two wives, his two female servants, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok.

23 He took them and sent them across the stream, and everything else that he had.

24 And Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day.

25 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.

26 Then he said, “Let me go, for the day has broken.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”

27 And he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.”

28 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.”

29 Then Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” And there he blessed him.

30 So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered.”

31 The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip.

32 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.

Excite: Virtually everyone has come kind of Spiritual experience. It can unfold quickly or develop over time. Usually both. Though they are usually celebrated afterwards for many of us they felt like it did for Jacob. Wrestling with God. From Jacob we learn this valuable lesson…

Explore: When God embraces us, He pins us to the canvas.

When we wrestle with God we are changed for life.

Expand: From Jacob we find a few characteristics of this process of wrestling with God.

Body of Sermon: First, there is

1 Solitude.

When we are left alone with God we can go through a period of

1.1 Reflection.

When we are left alone with God we can come to

1.2 Repentance.

Only after examining our own heart and changing our mind can we change our direction and begin

1.3 Reconciliation.

We cannot be reconciled with our Esau’s until we have been alone with God.

An even more uncomfortable characteristic of wrestling with God is the

2 Struggle.

The struggle itself is uncomfortable because of the risk it entails.

There is great risk in approaching the Creator-Sustainer of the universe even in faith, even with humility, even with obedience. When we box with God, we discover how short are our arms, how limited our vision, how needy our condition. The struggle begins with the slap on the behind by the delivery doctor; from that moment forward we are struggling to decide who will be in charge of our life.

There two important revelations that emerge from this struggle…First

2.1 What it reveals about ourselves.

To struggle with God puts us in our place. Reminds us that we are creatures, mortal and limited.

The other side of the struggle is

2.2 What it reveals about God.

His strength, majesty, grace, and goodness. That He is both transcendent and present.

The last characteristic, as you might imagine is what happens after a life and death struggle…we are

3 Scarred.

God does not wrestle us for His sake but for ours. He is unchanged by the encounter, we are transformed. This transformation, this limp can manifest itself in a variety of ways.

3.1 Physically.

3.2 Emotionally.

3.3 Culturally or Socially.

There are a lot of people who love God who remain distant from Him because they have faith enough to walk with Him, but don’t trust Him enough to support them as they limp off into the rest of their lives. That may be the biggest contemporary challenge.

Shut Down

I’m virtually certain you know the rest of the story. Jacob reconciles with Esau. His children wear his new name and the Sons of Israel turn out to be a lot like him. Some scheme, some dream, some are peaceable and level-headed others are violent men of action. Jacob’s family ends up reflecting the human family.

Jacob had changed. His wrestling with God turned him into a man of faith. An imperfect man of faith, because that is the only kind.

He spent the night at the house of God and was strengthened for years of labor in Paddan-Aram.

He wrestled with God for a night, and limped forward as a man who was willing to listen to God.

How is your listener? Are you alone enough for it to even be calibrated? Do you engage with God, do you struggle, or do you flee? What marks do you bear that wrestling with Him has changed you?

We sang a Jacob song at camp as well. Often around a campfire, at the ending of the day, each individual looking inside to their own thoughts, and prayers, and wrestling’s with God. We are climbing Jacob’s ladder…It takes a lifetime of climbing, a lifetime of wrestling to rest at last at the house of God.