Wrestling With God

INTRODUCTION

Take your Bibles and turn to Genesis 32.

This morning we are picking back up in our journey through the book of Genesis and today we come to one of the most popular stories in Genesis if not the entire Bible.

It is THE climactic moment in the life of Jacob, son of Isaac son of Abraham.

We’ve entitled this series “The Patriarchs” because God’s dealings with these three men set a trajectory for the dealings of God with his people throughout the rest of the OT.

The LORD is often referred to as “The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.” It is through their lives that God reveals his true nature and intentions for humanity.

And each of them had their own climactic moments.

For Abraham it was the potential giving of his son Isaac.

For Isaac it was the giving of the blessing to Jacob instead of Esau.

For Jacob it’s going to be a night of wrestling with God.

Wrestling With God

Have you ever wrestled with God? You might ask, “What does that even mean? Wrestling with God?”

I mean has there ever been a time when you came to the end of your rope, had no place left to go, came face to face to the core problem in your life and came out the other side a totally different person?

If you have, you know it’s simultaneously one of the most difficult painful beautiful and liberating experiences of your life.

You say, “those adjectives don’t sound like they fit together.” And they typically don’t. But to wrestle with God is each of those things.

When it comes to wrestling with God there should be a sense of dread because nobody comes out of that experience the way the went in.

But through the hurt comes a healing, restoration through devastation. Those who wrestle with God and win find victory through losing.

Set the Table

Let me set the table for our passage today.

After destroying the world through the flood and scattering the nations at the tower of Babel God decided to hit that reset button with a man named Abraham.

He called Abraham out of his idolatry into a covenant relationship with the true creator God. He promised if Abraham would walk by faith that God would bless him with many descendants and bless the nations through his seed.

After many ups and downs and decades of waiting that promised seed was born and his name was Isaac.

Isaac was married to a woman named Rebecca and they too waited decades for their child of promise and had not one but two children named Jacob and Esau.

Esau was born first and Jacob was born second. Jacob came “grabbing the heel of Esau” and there was a natural enmity between the two.

God had given Rebecca a prophecy that of these two children the older would serve the younger and that Jacob, not Esau, would be the child of promise.

Against all odds this ends up being the case. Jacob tricks Esau into selling his birthright for a bowl of stew.

Afterwards Jacob tricked his Father into giving the spiritual blessing to HIM instead of Esau.

As you might imagine Esau got VERY angry and resolved to kill his brother after his Father’s death so Jacob fled to Haran to live with his uncle Laban.

Early on Jacob was cunning, deceitful and prone to self-reliance.

During his time in Haran God begins to transform Jacob’s character.

While there he met a girl named Rachel who became the love of his life. He worked for Rachel 7 years and was tricked by his uncle Laban into marrying her younger sister Leah instead.

Angered by his deception Jacob pleaded for Rachel and was given her as a wife as well but only after another 7 years of hard labor.

Added to those 14 years was six more years of managing Laban’s flocks while building up wealth of his own.

Finally, 20 years and 12 children later - Jacob, Rachel and Leah leave Laban and set out Jacob’s hometown to build a life for themselves.

Laban, the dog that he was, wouldn’t let them go and pursued them until he confronted Jacob face to face. After an explosive conversation they make peace and Jacob is released to build a new life with his family.

His old life is behind him and he’s headed back home to confront his brother who last left wanted to kill him for his trickery and deception.

Last time we were together Jacob had sent messengers ahead as a peace offering for Esau and got word back that Esau was coming to meet him with 400 OTHER MEN.

Jacob would’ve rightly assumed Esau was coming to finish the job so he splits his camp in two, cries out to God for help and begins sending his servants ahead, in sections, with hundreds of livestock as a peace offering to assuage the wrath of his brother.

Through trials and tribulation God transforms Jacob into something new.

WHEN WRESTLING WITH GOD

Jacob has no where to go and no where to hide. He can’t go back to Laban because he’s burned that bridge.

He can’t go East or West because he has no connections there. The only way forward is through and it seemed like an impossible feat.

Our passage opens with Jacob having sent all of his possession and even his own wives and children ahead of him so that he’s left all alone at the very end of his rope.

Genesis 32:21–24 CSB

So the gift was sent on ahead of him while he remained in the camp that night. During the night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two slave women, and his eleven sons, and crossed the ford of Jabbok. He took them and sent them across the stream, along with all his possessions. Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak.

Early on we’re not told who this man is but Moses comments that he and Jacob wrestled with each other all night long.

The End of Your Rope

The background to this event gives us some insight about wrestling with God.

Wrestling with God will bring you to the very end of your rope.

Jacob has no one and nothing left when he wrestles with God that night.

He has sent all of his wealth ahead of him. He has sent all of his servants in sections as a peace offering to assuage his brother’s wrath.

It’s literally just him, his children and their mothers who remain and even they are on the other side of the river than he.

I know it’s easy to think God is punishing you when everything gets stripped away. And sometimes our suffering can be the result of foolish and sinful behavior.

Irrespective of the cause, however, God has a purpose in our pain. And often that purpose is to bring us to the end of ourselves so that we can receive the blessing he wants to give.

The Lord can’t bless a person who’ve not ready to receive it.

God resists the proud but he gives grace to the humble.

Part of God’s preparation process is bringing us to the place that we’re ready and willing to receive the grace and blessing he has to give.

A lot of people want the blessing of God but they don’t want to pay the price in order to be a position to receive it.

What if for you to receive the blessing God wants you to give he has to strip away all of the other things you’ve been leaning on in life to stay happy or feel like you’re in control?

What if you’re more like Jacob than you want to admit?

You’re prone to self-reliance and keeping up appearances and you’re so oriented in that direction that to bring you to a proper understanding of the Gospel the the sufficiency of God’s grace he has to make it so that Jesus is all you have left?

Would you be willing to pay that price?

Or, if God was going to make you pay that price would you be willing to keep wrestling with God so that his purpose would prevail?

You can’t ride on the rollercoaster if you don’t pay the price of admission.

Face to Face With Sin

At the bottom of his rope, with nothing left to give, Jacob wrestles with a man all night long.

I’m sure Jacob might’ve assumed it was Esau but we find out later it isn’t.

Genesis 32:24–25 CSB

24 Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. 25 When the man saw that he could not defeat him, he struck Jacob’s hip socket as they wrestled and dislocated his hip.

I don’t know if you’ve ever had anybody pull you finger out of it’s socket but it’s extremely painful.

The hip is one of if not the largest bones in the human body. To dislocate the bone from the hip had to have been unbearable pain and incredible strength!

But Jacob keeps on fighting. All the talk about him being a momma’s boy and softie I take it all back. He’s a scrapper this one.

Genesis 32:26–27 CSB

26 Then he said to Jacob, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” 27 “What is your name?” the man asked. “Jacob,” he replied.

This wrestler isn’t asking Jacob’s name because he doesn’t know it.

In fact, this the first time in the story of Jacob that he calls himself by his name.

Remember when Isaac asked Jacob “who are you?” He said “Esau.”

Remember when mom asked him to deceive his dad he said, “I don’t want to be seen as a Jacob (deceiver).

Jacob’s name literally meant “grasps the heel” but symbolically came to mean supplanter or trickster. It carried overtones of deception and thievery.

So this wrestler is forcing Jacob to come face to face with the heart of his problem which was the sin in his heart.

It’s obvious that this wrestler isn’t just a human because no human could touch the hip socket and knock it out of place.

This is either an incarnation of the Lord or some angel of the Lord and he’s asking Jacob his name so that he’s forced to come face to face with his greatest problem.

We know Jacob cared a great deal about what people thought about him. He was probably very keen on keeping up appearances and being seen in a certain way.

As most self-righteous people do he likely pointed the finger at other people and blamed them for the problems or weaknesses in his life.

This wrestler is bringing Jacob face to face with the sin of his heart. He’s a deceiver. The person he presents himself to be is not the person that he REALLY is.

Wrestling with God will bring you face to face with your sin.

The Lord can’t bless you if you’re not willing to look your sin in the face and acknowledge it for what it is.

The Lord is reminding Jacob who he’s been wrestling with all along.

It hasn’t been Esau - as much as he wanted to make Esau the main problem.

It hasn’t been Isaac - as much he might’ve blamed his dad for his problems.

His main problem was his own sinful heart. His main problem was a sinful self-reliance.

More than that, his main resistance in life wasn’t coming from these flesh-and-blood sparring partners. It had always at the end of the day been the LORD.

When wrestling with Esau he was wrestling the Lord.

When he was wrestling with his Father he was wrestling the Lord.

When he was wrestling with Laban he was wrestling the Lord.

When he was wrestling with Rachel and Leah he was wrestling with the Lord.

Now that he’s approaching his brother again thinking HE’S the main problem he’s reminded the biggest problem he faces is the sin in his own heart and the God against whom that sin has been committed.

Application

I wonder if the Lord was wrestling with you and asked you, “what is YOUR name” what would you say?

I don’t mean what is your first name or last name. Most of us aren’t named by our greatest weakness or the idolatry in our hearts.

But if the Lord was going to force you to get real honest about the sin in your life what would you say?

What’s that thing you’re constantly trying to keep up appearances so that nobody else can see it about you?

What’s that thing that you constantly seem to point the finger at other people and away from yourself so that you don’t have to accept that truth about yourself?

What is it that seems to come up in most of your relationships and you’re tempted to always put it off on everybody else but if you were really really honest it’s actually more about you than anything.

If you want to wrestle with God and win you’ve got to come face to face with that sin in your heart. It’s part of your pathway to liberation and restoration.

Transformed Self

When Jacob confesses his sin and owns the fact that he is indeed a deceiver and has been trying to control appearances so that they suggest otherwise, the wrestler the responds with a change to his name.

Genesis 32:28–29 CSB

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

Some people wonder why Jacob asks this guy for his name. If I was wrestling with somebody and they knocked my thigh bone out of my hip then I’d be asking for his name as well!

Another interesting thing about this experience is the wrestler asks Jacob to let him go because it was daybreak. Almost like he’s a vampire and afraid of the sun. (don’t laugh - people have gone there!)

Most people think Jacob was wrestling with God himself. Many believe this was a Christophany - a preincarnate appearance of Jesus in the Old Testament.

I tend to lean in that direction myself.

Whoever it was, they bestow a blessing on Jacob and he’s transformed into a totally different person.

He’s given the name “Israel” instead of Jacob.

The name Israel means “one who wrestles with God.”

As far as name changes go that’s a pretty good one! From trickster to one who wrestles with God.

The name change is given because Jacob struggled with God and with men an prevailed.

So wrestling with God brings us…

to the end of our rope.

face to face with our sin.

Now we see that wrestling with God results in a transformation of the self.

Blessing of Transformation

Is a change to Jacob’s name really what he had in mind when it came to the blessing of God?

I’m not sure that it was. If I were in Jacob’s shoes I’d be wanting something a little different than a name change.

His whole life Jacob had been looking for a blessing. It’s the reason he tricked his brother for his birthright so he could secure financial prosperity.

It’s the reason he tricked his Father into giving him the spiritual blessing so he could ensure the blessing of Abraham for him and his descendents.

But Jacob’s mind was historically always on the material and the physical.

Prior to this experience Jacob had be praying to God and his prayer was for protection and deliverance from his angry big brother!

And ultimately the Lord is going to answer that prayer for deliverance and protection but not in the way Jacob had in mind.

The best blessing we can receive from the Lord is a transformation of our identity.

That’s ultimately what it means to struggle against God and man and “prevail.”

Think about it: In what way did Jacob “prevail” against this wrestler especially if the wrestler was an incarnation of God himself?

It can’t mean that Jacob physically overcame this wrestler. Because he didn’t. Nobody overcomes somebody who can touch your hip and knock it out of joint.

His prevailing against God wasn’t one of physical strength or intellectual triumph.

Jacob’s victory was his personal transformation.

Persistence, Repentance and Faith

And notice how that personal transformation comes about.

I could sum it up in three words: persistence, repentance and faith.

The persistence can be seen in the fact that Jacob wrestled with God all night long. Many people fail to experience a transformation of the self because they’re unwilling to keep fighting until the process is complete.

For some, the presence of pain and resistance causes them to quit and just give up.

But it wasn’t just his persistence. He also humbles himself enough to admit his main problem. This is what the Bible calls “repentance.” Repentance is “agreeing with God about the facts.”

The fact Jacob had to agree with was his greatest problem wasn’t Isaac, Esau or Laban. It was the sin in his own heart.

Finally you can see Jacob’s faith in his insistence that the LORD not be released until he had given him a blessing.

I don’t think Jacob is insinuating that he somehow DESERVED the blessing. He is merely quoting God’s Word back to him that he had been PROMISED a blessing and that he wasn’t taking another step without receiving into his own life what had been promised by the Lord.

Lifelong Limp

After receiving this change to his name and transformation of identity Jacob commemorates the event.

Genesis 32:30–32 CSB

30 Jacob then named the place Peniel, “For I have seen God face to face,” he said, “yet my life has been spared.” 31 The sun shone on him as he passed by Penuel—limping because of his hip. 32 That is why, still today, the Israelites don’t eat the thigh muscle that is at the hip socket: because he struck Jacob’s hip socket at the thigh muscle.

We know from Moses’ conversation with the Lord that nobody can see God face to face and win. That might be why God was wrestling him in the dark.

The sun shining on Jacob is a stark contrast to the image of wrestling in the dark.

Out of the struggle comes blessing and transformation. But even so, Jacob limps across the scene.

That brings me to last truth about wrestling with God.

It brings you to the end of your rope.

It brings you face to face with your sin.

It results in a transformation of the self.

It leaves you with a life long limp.

Nobody wrestles with God and comes away unscathed.

I love the Tozer quote, “It’s doubtful whether God can bless a man greatly until he has hurt him deeply.”

Eventually Jacob is going to have his 12 son (13th child) Joseph and they will together form the 12 tribes of Israel.

Out of that will come the Levitical priesthood, the 10 Commandments, the prophets of God and ultimately the Lord Jesus Christ.

All of this begins with a sinful man wrestling with God and coming away with a limp.

Your potential in leadership is proportional to the level of PAIN you’re willing to endure. Great leaders can endure great pain.

If you want God to use you in a great way it will not come without a cost. Without pain.

Wounds of Love

But whatever wounds God leaves when wrestling with his children, they do not come from a place of wrath or anger. They come from a place of love.

Ultimately, it is the limp given to us by the LORD that enables us to walk with Christ-like humility. Because we came face to face with God and our lives were spared.

Paul’s thorn in his flesh became a reminder of God’s greater grace in his life as well.

This is another reason we know Jacob didn’t “triumph over God” in a physical or even competitive way.

Nobody says “I faced God and my life was spared” when they’ve gotten on over on the Lord.

This is an admission of weakness and the experience of God’s mercy and grace. And the same will be true of any of who wrestle with God and come out transformed..

WRESTLING TO WIN

What do we learn from this story about Jacob? Sometimes the battles we fight are preparation for the blessing of God.

In the middle of the fight it doesn’t feel like a blessing. It feels like a battle. God might even feel distant and disconnected.

I know the times in my life when I’ve had to wrestle with God it wasn’t a pleasant experience.

Some people have even raised the question, “Why does the Lord seem distant and disconnected in those seasons when we need him the most?”

It’s like the example in the Gospels (Mark 7) of the Syrophoenician woman who comes to get healing for her daughter. At first he tells the woman, “It’s not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs…” (Mark 7:27)

Why does Jesus seem so hostile to this grieving mother who’s pleading for help for our daughter?

It wasn’t because he didn’t want to heal the daughter. It wasn’t rudeness for the sake of rudeness. He was testing the resolve of this woman’s faith. And she passed the test!

The apparent hostility of God is just that, apparent.

We know he’s not ACTUALLY hostile or indifferent because the cross of Jesus Christ proves otherwise.

There’s no way to look at the cross and assume God is indifferent or uncaring about our suffering.

So it must be something else.

Like a child wrestling their father sometimes the Father will press just enough to maximize the effort of the child to help them grow under the weight of that resistance training. It’s not an act of hostility but of love.

So also the Lord will resist us to test our resolve in his goodness.

Weakness, Repentance & Faith

If that’s the case, then what does it look like for us to wrestle God today and win?

In many ways our approach should be similar to Jacob’s.

We must come to a place of humility and acceptance that God has us where we are for a purpose and a reason.

He might not’ve been the direct cause of every negative thing that has happened in our life but he has allowed what he has allowed and can work things together for good if we’ll embrace it.

It begins with a commit to be “poor in Spirit.”

Like Jacob we must come to the end of our rope and embrace our weakness and spiritual inability before the Lord.

After weakness comes a spirit of confession and repentance.

Jesus said “blessed are those who mourn for THEY WILL BE COMFORTED.”

It might be this morning that what God needs to hear you say is, “I’m sorry God, you’re right. My biggest problem is them or that or even you. My problem is the wickedness in my own sinful heart.”

Wrestling to win requires weakness and repentance but it also requires an enduring faith in Jesus.

Conclusion

Like Jacob and his wrestler we can never lose our confidence that the source of God’s blessing for us resides solely in the person and work of Jesus.

Like Jacob, our promise has already been made. The covenant has already been established through Jesus’ death on the cross and resurrection from the grave.

All that is required of us is to believe God for that blessing and exercise faith in that promise.

When we exercise faith in Jesus then we too will have our names changed and our identities transformed.

We’ll go from child of wrath to child of God. From sinner to saint. From orphaned to adopted. From rejected to accepted.

That’s the identity God has for us in Christ. The question is will you receive it?

Moreover, if you HAVE received it - does your life show the evidence?

The greatest evidence we’ve wrestled with God and won is a limp in our walk that looks like humility.

Humility that enables us to love the unlovely, to forgive the unforgivable, to be critical even of ourselves. Because our confidence no longer resides in our own strength or personal effort.

But in the God who has saved us.

If you’ve stopped limping then maybe today God is calling you into the wrestling ring so he can remind you of what’s most important today and forevermore.