Genesis 32.24-Jacob's Wrestling Match Symbolizes His Struggles with God and Men

Wednesday August 30, 2006

Genesis: Genesis 32:24-Jacob’s Wrestling Match Symbolizes His Struggles with God and Men

Lesson # 196

Please turn in your Bibles to Genesis 32:1.

This evening we will continue with our study of Genesis 32:24.

On Sunday morning we noted the first part of Genesis 32:24 where we saw Jacob alone in prayer prior to his encounter with Esau and entrance into the land of Canaan, which was in obedience to the Lord’s command.

Last evening we noted the second half of Genesis 32:24 where Jacob wrestles the God-Man, the preincarnate Christ.

This evening we will continue with our study of Genesis 32:24 where we see that Jacob’s wrestling match with the preincarnate Christ is symbolic of his struggles with both God and men.

Genesis 32:24, “Then Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak.”

Genesis 32:25, “When he (the Lord) saw that he (the Lord) had not prevailed against him (Jacob), he (the Lord) touched the socket of his (Jacob’s) thigh; so the socket of Jacob's thigh was dislocated while he wrestled with him.”

Genesis 32:26, “Then he (the Lord) said, ‘Let me go, for the dawn is breaking.’ But he (Jacob) said, ‘I will not let you go unless you bless me.’”

Notice, that the Lord initiates the wrestling match and not Jacob since it states that the Lord “wrestled with Jacob” and not “Jacob wrestled with the Man.”

Jacob did “not” want to wrestle anybody.

Remember, he had just left his uncle Laban who abused him for twenty years and now he is about to face his old rival, Esau who had sought to kill him in the past.

Therefore, the last thing that Jacob wanted to do was pick a fight with someone.

This wrestling match between God and Jacob is a “microcosm” or “symbolic” of Jacob’s struggles in life with men, which in reality were with God.

The wrestling match with Jacob did “not” teach any spiritual lessons to Jacob but rather the divine discipline that he underwent in the form of the fourteen years of hard labor for his deceitful uncle Laban taught Jacob many spiritual lessons, which are symbolized in the wrestling match with the Lord.

Jacob’s problems with his father Isaac (favored Esau over Jacob), his brother Esau, and his uncle Laban, and his wives were in reality problems with God since God permitted these people to come into his life to draw him closer to God.

Since the wrestling match depicts Jacob’s struggles with God and men, the Lord initiating the wrestling match with Jacob symbolizes that the Lord is the one who gave him his father Isaac and his brother Esau and brought his uncle Laban into his life who were the source of great adversity in Jacob’s life.

God not only prospered Jacob but also permitted adversity to take place in his life in the form of people such as his father Isaac, his twin brother Esau and his uncle Laban.

Ecclesiastes 7:14, “In the day of prosperity be happy, but in the day of adversity consider -- God has made the one as well as the other so that man will not discover anything that will be after him.”

The Son of God appeared as a man at night to illustrate this to Jacob and to the reader that Jacob’s problems with people were in fact problems with God.

In the same way that Jacob thought he was wrestling just a mere man when in reality he was wrestling with God so Jacob erroneously thought that his struggles in life were with his father Isaac, his twin brother Esau and his uncle Laban when in reality they were with God.

Jacob’s entire life could be characterized as a wrestling match with both God and men.

The first manifestation of this wrestling match was in the womb of his mother Rebekah where both he and his twin brother were crushing each other (See Genesis 25:22).

The actions of Jacob at birth grabbing the heel of his brother Esau was the second manifestation of this wrestling match (See Genesis 25:26).

Genesis 25:19-20, “Now these are the records of the generations of Isaac, Abraham's son: Abraham became the father of Isaac; and Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel the Aramean of Paddan-aram, the sister of Laban the Aramean, to be his wife.”

Genesis 25:21, “Isaac prayed to the LORD on behalf of his wife, because she was barren; and the LORD answered him and Rebekah his wife conceived.”

Genesis 25:22, “But the children struggled together within her; and she said, ‘If it is so, why then am I this way?’ So she went to inquire of the LORD.”

Genesis 25:23, “The LORD said to her, ‘Two nations are in your womb; And two peoples will be separated from your body; And one people shall be stronger than the other; And the older shall serve the younger.’”

Genesis 25:24, “When her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb.”

Genesis 25:25, “Now the first came forth red, all over like a hairy garment; and they named him Esau.”

Genesis 25:26, “Afterward his brother came forth with his hand holding on to Esau's heel, so his name was called Jacob; and Isaac was sixty years old when she gave birth to them.”

Another manifestation of Jacob’s struggles with men was when he exploited Esau’s hunger by getting him to exchange his birthright for a bowl of red lintel soup (See Genesis 25:28-34).

Genesis 25:29-30, “When Jacob had cooked stew, Esau came in from the field and he was famished; and Esau said to Jacob, ‘Please let me have a swallow of that red stuff there, for I am famished.’ Therefore his name was called Edom.”

Genesis 25:31, “But Jacob said, ‘First sell me your birthright.’”

Genesis 25:32, “Esau said, ‘Behold, I am about to die; so of what use then is the birthright to me?’”

Genesis 25:33, “And Jacob said, ‘First swear to me’; so he swore to him, and sold his birthright to Jacob.”

Genesis 25:34, “Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew; and he ate and drank, and rose and went on his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright.”

Then, there was Jacob at the instigation of his mother Rebekah deceiving his father Isaac who was blind at the time in bestowing the blessings of the birthright to himself rather than his brother Esau (See Genesis 27).

Genesis 27:1, “Now it came about, when Isaac was old and his eyes were too dim to see, that he called his older son Esau and said to him, ‘My son.’ And he said to him, ‘Here I am.’”

Genesis 27:2, “Isaac said, ‘Behold now, I am old and I do not know the day of my death.’”

Genesis 27:3-4, “Now then, please take your gear, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field and hunt game for me; and prepare a savory dish for me such as I love, and bring it to me that I may eat, so that my soul may bless you before I die.”

Genesis 27:5-7, “Rebekah was listening while Isaac spoke to his son Esau. So when Esau went to the field to hunt for game to bring home, Rebekah said to her son Jacob, ‘Behold, I heard your father speak to your brother Esau, saying, ‘Bring me some game and prepare a savory dish for me, that I may eat, and bless you in the presence of the LORD before my death.’”

Genesis 27:8, “Now therefore, my son, listen to me as I command you.”

Genesis 27:9, “Go now to the flock and bring me two choice young goats from there, that I may prepare them as a savory dish for your father, such as he loves.”

Genesis 27:10, “Then you shall bring it to your father that he may eat, so that he may bless you before his death.”

Genesis 27:11, “Jacob answered his mother Rebekah, ‘Behold, Esau my brother is a hairy man and I am a smooth man.’”

Genesis 27:12, “Perhaps my father will feel me, then I will be as a deceiver in his sight, and I will bring upon myself a curse and not a blessing.”

Genesis 27:13, “But his mother said to him, ‘Your curse be on me, my son; only obey my voice, and go, get them for me.’”

Genesis 27:14, “So he went and got them, and brought them to his mother; and his mother made savory food such as his father loved.”

Genesis 27:15, “Then Rebekah took the best garments of Esau her elder son, which were with her in the house, and put them on Jacob her younger son.”

Genesis 27:16, “And she put the skins of the young goats on his hands and on the smooth part of his neck.”

Genesis 27:17, “She also gave the savory food and the bread, which she had made, to her son Jacob.”

Genesis 27:18, “Then he came to his father and said, ‘My father.’ And he said, ‘Here I am. Who are you, my son?’”

Genesis 27:19, “Jacob said to his father, ‘I am Esau your firstborn; I have done as you told me. Get up, please, sit and eat of my game, that you may bless me.’”

Genesis 27:20, “Isaac said to his son, ‘How is it that you have it so quickly, my son?’ And he said, ‘Because the LORD your God caused it to happen to me.’”

Genesis 27:21, “Then Isaac said to Jacob, ‘Please come close, that I may feel you, my son, whether you are really my son Esau or not.’”

Genesis 27:22, “So Jacob came close to Isaac his father, and he felt him and said, ‘The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau.’”

Genesis 27:23, “He did not recognize him, because his hands were hairy like his brother Esau's hands; so he blessed him.”

Genesis 27:24, “And he said, ‘Are you really my son Esau?’ And he said, ‘I am.’”

Genesis 27:25, “So he said, ‘Bring it to me, and I will eat of my son's game, that I may bless you.’ And he brought it to him, and he ate; he also brought him wine and he drank.”

Genesis 27:26, “Then his father Isaac said to him, ‘Please come close and kiss me, my son.’”

Genesis 27:27, “So he came close and kissed him; and when he smelled the smell of his garments, he blessed him and said, ‘See, the smell of my son is like the smell of a field which the LORD has blessed.”

Genesis 27:28, “Now may God give you of the dew of heaven, and of the fatness of the earth, and an abundance of grain and new wine.”

Genesis 27:29, “May peoples serve you, and nations bow down to you; Be master of your brothers, and may your mother's sons bow down to you. Cursed be those who curse you, and blessed be those who bless you.”

Genesis 27:30, “Now it came about, as soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, and Jacob had hardly gone out from the presence of Isaac his father, that Esau his brother came in from his hunting.”

Genesis 27:31, “Then he also made savory food, and brought it to his father; and he said to his father, ‘Let my father arise and eat of his son's game, that you may bless me.’”

Genesis 27:32, “Isaac his father said to him, ‘Who are you?’ And he said, ‘I am your son, your firstborn, Esau.’”

Genesis 27:33, “Then Isaac trembled violently, and said, ‘Who was he then that hunted game and brought it to me, so that I ate of all of it before you came, and blessed him? Yes, and he shall be blessed.’”

Genesis 27:34, “When Esau heard the words of his father, he cried out with an exceedingly great and bitter cry, and said to his father, ‘Bless me, even me also, O my father!’”

Genesis 27:35, “And he said, ‘Your brother came deceitfully and has taken away your blessing.’”

Genesis 27:37, “But Isaac replied to Esau, ‘Behold, I have made him your master, and all his relatives I have given to him as servants; and with grain and new wine I have sustained him. Now as for you then, what can I do, my son?’”

Genesis 27:38, “Esau said to his father, ‘Do you have only one blessing, my father? Bless me, even me also, O my father.’ So Esau lifted his voice and wept.”

Genesis 27:39-40, “Then Isaac his father answered and said to him, ‘Behold, away from the fertility of the earth shall be your dwelling, and away from the dew of heaven from above. By your sword you shall live, and your brother you shall serve; But it shall come about when you become restless, that you will break his yoke from your neck.’”

This was followed by Jacob’s problems with Laban who was brought into Jacob’s life to discipline him so as to break his sinful patterns of deceitfulness and treachery (See Genesis 29:21-28).

This discipline came in the form of Laban deceiving Jacob by sending Leah and not Rachel into his tent on his wedding night when he had just worked seven years for Rachel.

This discipline succeeded as manifested in Jacob’s thoughtfulness and consideration of Esau’s feelings and his desire to offer Esau restitution for cheating him out of the blessing of the birthright (See Genesis 32:13-20).

Jacob’s wrestling match with God and man also manifested itself in the love life of Jacob where he chose Rachel to be his wife because of her physical beauty rather than based upon her character (See Genesis 29:10-20).

This physical attraction blinded Jacob as to the true identity of his right woman, which was Leah who was not as beautiful as Rachel.

As a result of this poor decision Jacob had to deal with Leah and Rachel competing with each other in order to gain his affection and love (See Genesis 29:31-30:24).

So we can see that the wrestling match is indicative of Jacob’s life up to the birth of Joseph.

I say that this wrestling match with God and people was indicative of Jacob’s life up to the birth of Joseph because when Joseph was born, at the end of the fourteen years of service for Laban, we see Jacob demonstrates a tremendous act of faith in dealing with a problem with Laban.

If you recall in Genesis 30, Laban had cheated Jacob out of his wages for fourteen years and after the fourteen years was completed Jacob wanted to leave Laban.

Laban didn’t want Jacob to leave because he was prospered by God for being associated with Jacob.

Therefore, Laban asked Jacob to name his wages.

Jacob asks for nothing from Laban but instead proposed to Laban that all the spotted, speckled and striped of Laban’s flock be removed so that only solid colored animals remain, which he would care for.

Jacob proposes that his pay would consist of only those animals yet unborn that would be less desirable to Laban because of their markings.

Therefore, it would be entirely up to the Lord as to how many animals would become Jacob’s.

Jacob’s proposal put himself entirely at the mercy of the Lord and was a great act of faith in the Lord on his part.

This great act of faith was the first ray of sunlight in his life and was the beginning of the end of his divine discipline.

Tomorrow we will see that the fourteen years of hard labor for Laban was divine discipline, which is symbolized by the wrestling match with the Lord taking place at night.

Whereas the daybreak symbolizes Jacob demonstrating great faith in the Lord in dealing with a problem with Laban at the end of his fourteen years of service for him.