Jacob Takes Up Wrestling - Genesis 32

©August 11, 2019 by Rev. Bruce Goettsche

When you read the biographies of significant people in the history of Christianity, they will often refer to an event that created an intimacy with God that was so profound, they have difficulty putting it into words. Moses had the burning bush and met with God face to face. Peter, James, and John were there on the Mount of Transfiguration; Paul met Jesus in a dramatic fashion on the road to Damascus. Many people have accounts of encountering God in a way that was so profound that it changed them forever.

We are going to read one of those stories today. This is an account that has left many people scratching their heads. Jacob has taken his family, at God's direction and left the home of Laban to head back to the land of Canaan, the Promised Land of God. He worked out a treaty with Laban, but that was not the biggest obstacle. The next obstacle was going back into the land where his brother Laban lived. It had been 20 years, but Jacob had no idea if the statute of limitations had passed.

Jacob had acted foolishly and deceptively with his brother. The thought of seeing him again was unnerving. He had just survived a close call with Laban. We are sure he was not looking forward to seeing Esau.

Our text tells us Jacob was met by some of God's angels. The angels were there to help Jacob remain calm and place his trust in the Lord. However, this didn't mean Jacob could simply waltz back into a relationship with his brother.

Guilt Ridden Jacob

The first thing we see in the account is the devastating nature of guilt and a sincere attempt by Jacob to repent. The text seems to indicate that Jacob realizes the way he treated his brother in the past was wrong. He wants to make things right. He sent some messengers to tell Esau he was coming. When his men returned to say Esau was coming to meet him with 400 men . . . Jacob assumed the worst: Esau was coming to make good on his threat.

The first instinct of Jacob is to panic (is he really much different from us)?

Jacob was terrified at the news. He divided his household, along with the flocks and herds and camels, into two groups. 8He thought, “If Esau meets one group and attacks it, perhaps the other group can escape.”

Jacob then remembered it was the Lord who sent him back home. He promised He would be with Jacob (31:3). So, Jacob turns to the Lord in prayer. Jacob has grown. In the past he would have schemed; now he prays.

Then Jacob prayed, “O God of my grandfather Abraham, and God of my father, Isaac—O Lord, you told me, ‘Return to your own land and to your relatives.’ And you promised me, ‘I will treat you kindly.’ 10I am not worthy of all the unfailing love and faithfulness you have shown to me, your servant. When I left home and crossed the Jordan River, I owned nothing except a walking stick. Now my household fills two large camps! 11O Lord, please rescue me from the hand of my brother, Esau. I am afraid that he is coming to attack me, along with my wives and children. 12But you promised me, ‘I will surely treat you kindly, and I will multiply your descendants until they become as numerous as the sands along the seashore—too many to count.’” (Genesis 32:9-12)

Jacob's instinct is correct (unlike his last meeting with Esau). He turned to the Lord and appealed to the promise that was given to him. He is overwhelmed with the kindness of God and is clinging to the promise of God that his descendants would be as numerous as the sands on the sea. Jacob is struggling between his fear and his desire to honor and trust the Lord.

Humility, gratitude and the promises of God, are always good places to start when we are afraid or standing before a crisis. Humility is a recognition that we do not deserve any good thing. We are rebels against the God of the universe. We want to do our own thing rather than submit to His ways. Yet, God has blessed us. He has blessed us more than we can even fathom. This blessing is not merely material (which we enjoy in America) it is also the blessing of forgiveness and the promise of life eternal. In addition, God promises nothing will separate us from His love; He has given us the Holy Spirit to guide us into all truth. He has equipped us with the tools we need. He has defeated our adversary, Satan at the cross and empty tomb. Jacob admitted his fear and then handed it to the Lord.

Once we remember how blessed we are, how little we deserve that blessing, and we remember how much more blessing is promised to us, the hope is, we will confidently grab hold of Him.

Repentant Jacob

I believe what Jacob does next is a sincere act of repentance. He took part of his flocks and set them aside as a gift for Esau. When you look at the gift you realize just how blessed he had been. He set aside 200 female goats, 20 male goats, 200 ewes, 20 rams, 30 milk camels and their young, 40 cows, 10 bulls, 20 female donkeys and 10 male donkeys. he set them each as separate herds (so likely at least 5 different groups). In verse 20 we read,

“I will try to appease him by sending gifts ahead of me. When I see him in person, perhaps he will be friendly to me.”

The phrase "be friendly to me" has various translations. It appears all the words are variations on the idea of forgiveness. He wanted to be forgiven, welcomed, and restored to his brother so there is a sense here where he is showing good faith . . . a measure of restoration.

When Paul wrote to the Corinthians he said:

I am not sorry that I sent that severe letter to you, though I was sorry at first, for I know it was painful to you for a little while. 9Now I am glad I sent it, not because it hurt you, but because the pain caused you to repent and change your ways. It was the kind of sorrow God wants his people to have, so you were not harmed by us in any way. 10For the kind of sorrow God wants us to experience leads us away from sin and results in salvation. There’s no regret for that kind of sorrow. But worldly sorrow, which lacks repentance, results in spiritual death. (2 Cor 7:8-10)

Worldly sorrow lacks repentance! A person may say they are sorry, but if they are not trying to make things right, they are simply trying to avoid consequences for their actions. True repentance wants to make things right in whatever way they can,

paying for damage

making themselves accountable

confessing before others

replacing what may have been taken (perhaps with interest)

Genuine repentance shows there is a recognition of offense and that the sorrow is genuine. Repentance shows a desire to restore a relationship. As the text says, "pain caused you to repent and change your ways." People who tell you they are sorry but keep doing the same thing again and again have not really repented; and they aren't really sorry either.

When we come to Christ, we must come to Him recognizing our sinfulness. Asking for forgiveness is not the magic words we have to say before we can be saved; it must be the expression of a heart that sees the foolishness of our ways out of a desire to be made new and begin to move in a different direction. This is what we are seeing, from Jacob.

Jacob The Wrestler

Jacob sets out to prepare himself for the next day's meeting by taking his family across the river and then he returns to spend the night by himself. What happens next has perplexed many over the years:

24This left Jacob all alone in the camp, and a man came and wrestled with him until the dawn began to break. 25When the man saw that he would not win the match, he touched Jacob’s hip and wrenched it out of its socket. 26Then the man said, “Let me go, for the dawn is breaking!”

But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”

27“What is your name?” the man asked.

He replied, “Jacob.”

28“Your name will no longer be Jacob,” the man told him. “From now on you will be called Israel, because you have fought with God and with men and have won.”

29“Please tell me your name,” Jacob said.

“Why do you want to know my name?” the man replied. Then he blessed Jacob there.

30Jacob named the place Peniel (which means “face of God”), for he said, “I have seen God face to face, yet my life has been spared.”

On first reading, it sounds like Jacob wrestled with God and almost wins! Verse 28 we read,

28“Your name will no longer be Jacob,” the man told him. “From now on you will be called Israel, because you have fought with God and with men and have won.”

Hosea also refers to this incident,

Even in the womb,

Jacob struggled with his brother;

when he became a man,

he even fought with God.

4Yes, he wrestled with the angel and won.

He wept and pleaded for a blessing from him.

There at Bethel he met God face to face,

and God spoke to him—(Hosea 12:3-4)

But there is more to this story than meets the eye. Notice a couple of things: First, our text says a man wrestled with Jacob. It does not say that Jacob wrestled with the man. Is that mere semantics or are we being told the angel, or being, was the initiator of the fight?

Jacob has grown a great deal but there is more work to be done. I think the Lord wrestled with Jacob because he wanted Jacob to know that all this time in his life, his battle was not with his brother, his father-in-law, or anyone else. It was really a wrestling match with God.

Jacob needed to wrestle all night until he was exhausted; until he finally reached the end of himself. When he reached the end of himself, when he was exhausted and yet held tight pleading for a blessing; that's when he won. His relationship with God became personal. He came to the end of his own efforts and looked to the Lord. That is where you find victory.

Second, all this person had to do was touch the hip socket of Jacob and it was dislocated. So, the idea that Jacob overpowered the man doesn't fit. This "man" could have defeated Jacob anytime he wanted to. So, there is some purpose in the struggle.

Up until now he had served the God of Abraham and his father Isaac. Now He was serving HIS God. Jacob needed tenacity to be the man God needed him to be. He no longer had a passing encounter with the Lord, He held on to him with all of his strength.

Third, if this person was a heavenly being why did it ask Jacob for his name? Wasn't he sent to Jacob? Didn't He already know his name?

So, why did the angel ask for his name? He asked for his name not because he didn't know it . . . he wanted to know if Jacob knew his name! The last time Jacob was asked for his name was by his father Isaac. At that time, he said his name was Esau. He cannot receive God's blessing until he stops trying to be someone else and comes to God honest, faults and all. If you remember, Jacob's name meant deceiver. Jacob had to own who he was before he could become who God created him to be.

Commentator Jon Courson wrote,

A can-do kind of guy, Jacob was clever, charming, skilled, intelligent—a man any smart CEO would want to hire. God, on the other hand, said, “I have big plans for you, Jacob. You are going to have a huge impact on the history of the world—for from you will come an entire nation. And from that nation will come Messiah. I have big plans for you—but you’re too smart, too self-confident, too clever. Therefore I’m going to break you.”

Dear sister and brother, you must understand that no matter how charming or intelligent or clever you are, or how good you may be in any given area, your skill is puny, your intelligence is nothing, your strength is scrawny in comparison to God’s. So God says, “I’m going to allow this pain in your life because then, and only then, will you lean on Me every step of the way, knowing that if you don’t, you’ll fall flat on your face. And as you lean on Me, you’ll draw strength from Me and you’ll be governed by Me instead of trying to make things happen in your own energy.”[1]

So, why did God change his name? He changed his name to denote he was on a new path. Just as Saul of Tarsus was given the name Paul when he met Christ on the Damascus Road to signify a new life and a new beginning. Jacob is no longer the deceiver; he is the one who was made new because of his encounter with God.

And the hip? Why did he dislocate his hip? That one is pretty easy. The scars of life remind us of the battles we have been through. I suspect for most of us our most profound experience of God took place during something painful. It was in that painful time we saw our own weakness and also saw God's incredible strength. As Jacob limped off to see his brother, every step would remind him of his encounter with God. He would remember his strength was not in his schemes but in the Lord. It is as surprising as it is true: our greatest hurts are often our greatest experience of the majesty and greatness of God.

It is through our scars that we reveal our faithfulness. When others see us limp, they realize that our faith is not something superficial; it is deep. It has been tested by fire. The skirmishes that we survive and the growth that comes from them, are the things that make us who we are. The limp we have, is what our family will remember most. It is our testimony; our evidence of grace.

Conclusions

Unfortunately, many of us are more like Jacob than we want to admit. We spend our lives wishing we were someone else. Perhaps we wish we were the firstborn, or had the looks or personality someone else has, or maybe we wish we were in a different family, or a different age, or even a different gender. Some people spend their lives trying to be someone else. We copy their dress, their hairstyle, and their mannerisms. Unfortunately, the only thing that will happen is you will forget what your name really is.

God called you to be someone unique. He wants you to be you. But to get there you have to stop pretending. You have to stop pretending to be someone else, or to be a person who has it all together. We need to reach the end of ourselves and cling only to Him.

Like Jacob we must get to that point where we feel true sorrow for our foolishness, demonstrate genuine repentance and cling tenaciously to the Lord. We must stop pretending to be someone we are not and come to Him just as we are.

We come to Jesus and ask Him to make us new. We need to welcome our special place in His plan. As we do this, we will find Him walking beside us, leading us to a sense of contentment and joy that comes from knowing we are right where we are supposed to be.

And yes, we may have a limp, or some bruises and scars. These don't need to be hidden. They are reminders of God's grace. And many of those wounds remind us of times when we met God most profoundly and came to love Him most fully. We may not be able to talk about it because they were such holy times . . . but every step will be a reminder of just how near and precious God really is.

[1] Jon Courson, Jon Courson’s Application Commentary: Volume One: Genesis–Job (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2005), 151.