Man on the Run

TEXT: Genesis 32:22-32

TOPIC: Man on the Run

Pastor Bobby Earls, First Baptist Church, Icard, NC

January 12, 1997

(adapted from Joel Gregory’s Sermon, A Man on the Run Wrestles with God)

Our generation lives on the run. We are either running to something or running from something. Share the song “Man on the Run.”

Jacob lived like that. He was literally born on the run trying to outdo his brother Esau. He spent the better part of a lifetime running. He ran from his brother Esau. He ran from his father-in-law, Laban. In reality, he was really running from himself and running from God. Yet a time came when he ran out of resources and ran into God. That night witnessed a life-changing wrestling match with God.

Genesis 32.22-32 “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 …”

Each of us can make a life-changing decision whether to run from God, or to run to God so we can run for God.

I. A MAN ON THE RUN WILL COME TO THE END OF HIS RESOURCES

Most of the men of our day have been taught the importance of self-reliance, independence, and good old “do-it-yourself” mentality. It’s the American way.

Jacob would have made a good westerner. All his life Jacob had depended upon his own cleverness, his intelligence and his own wittiness to get him out of jam after jam.

But Jacob soon ran out of his resources of self-reliance. When he did, Jacob learned one of life’s most valuable lessons. A lesson we can learn as well.

A person without resources can prevail with God in prayer, changing his nature and his situation. Genesis 32:24

And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. (KJV)

After a lifetime on the run, Jacob ran out of resources. In that moment, he was left alone with God. Anxious fear, darkness, loneliness, confronted him. His physical situation at the Jabbok River and his family’s absence underscored his loneliness.

God can stop every person on the run and confront that person with his lack of resources.

I believe God is speaking to some men who are on the run today. Perhaps you’ve already discovered that your own resources are not enough, or you soon will.

Like the prophet Jonah, you’re running from God when you ought to be running to God. Like the marines, God is looking for a few good men, who will run out of their own resources and run into God’s inexhaustible supply.

T/S Not only will a man on the run come to the end of his resources, but

II. A MAN ON THE RUN MAY ENCOUNTER GOD IN PREVAILING PRAYER

Verse 24 tells us that Jacob wrestled with “a man.” In this case, the word for man doesn’t mean man. He was more than a man. He was God. Jacob literally wrestled with a visible manifestation of the invisible God.

Jacob’s redeeming character trait was an indomitable, undeniable desire to know the blessings of God. Jacob prevailed, but the mysterious visitor marked Jacob with a blow to his thigh.

God wanted Jacob to know that he was in the match with a power greater than Jacob that marked him for life. Jacob decidedly determined not to let go until God blessed him. (Read McVey’s testimony about his wrestling match with God).

T/S A man on the run must come to the end of his resources and a man on the run may encounter God in prevailing prayer, but last of all,

III. A MAN ON THE RUN MAY EXPERIENCE A CHANGED LIFE THROUGH PREVAILING PRAYER

Jacob had to own who he really was, a trickster and a deceiver, verse 27

Genesis 32:27 27 And he said unto him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob. (KJV)

When he had come to grips with who he was, he could disown who he was and become someone new. God changed his name and his nature, and assured him of future victory with God and man. Yet there was an element of mystery in it all beyond any human explanation, verse 29.

Genesis 32:29 And Jacob asked him, and said, Tell me, I pray thee, thy name. And he said, Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name? And he blessed him there. (KJV)

Anyone can experience a change in nature and situation through an encounter with God in prayer.