Jacob: Wrestling Out a New Name
Ordinary People; Extraordinary God • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 5 viewsIt’s been called “The Dark Night of the Soul.” It’s been called “The Wall.” It’s that moment usually of crisis when you pray, but God seems silent, and it seems as though the clock is running out on you. Most people give up trying—trying to pray, trying to trust God in the midst of it. Jacob had one of these moments. But his experience with God serves as a vivid reminder that God still sees us, still loves us, and is still working in us, through us, and on us.
Notes
Transcript
Intro
Intro
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.”
1. The Old Name
1. The Old Name
Jacob
Jacob
“One who grabs the heel (to trip up)”
“One who replaces (by deceit)”
Yet God still takes the initiative
Yet God still takes the initiative
13 And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father (due to the promise God made to Abram, Ge 12:2-3; 13:14-17; 15:5) 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.”
Jacob responds with a vow
Jacob responds with a vow
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,
22 and this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God’s house. And of all that you give me I will give a full tenth to you.”
In spite of this incredible experience in the form of a dream
Jacob is making deals
If God will be with me
If God will protect me
If God will provide me what I need
If God will let me come back home without fear of being killed by my brother
Then God shall be my God
Then I will start giving God 10% of everything I have
2. The Last Night
2. The Last Night
3. The New Name
3. The New Name
Now What?
Now What?
