Merritt Scripture: Genesis 27:44-45 Title: God Wrestles
Opening Song: #441, I Saw One Weary
Three men came to a raging, tumultuous river. They had no idea how to get to the other side. The first man prayed, "Please God, give me strength to cross the river." He was able to swim across the river in about two hours. The second man prayed, "Please God, give me strength and ability to cross this river." He used a rowboat and rowed three hours across the river. The third man prayed, "Please God, give me strength, ability, and intelligence to cross this river." He looked at the map… then walked across the bridge.
Abraham’s grandson Jacob is crossing terrain traveling home. When Jacob had left home, his mother told him he would only need to be gone for “a few days.” When Esau’s anger cooled, she would send for him. Twenty years passed and far as the Bible tells, he never heard from his mother. Jacob knew Esau still held a grudge against him for stealing his birthright blessing. Jacob had good reason to fear confrontation with the brother he cheated.
Genesis 32:1, Then Jacob went on his way, and God's angels met him. When Jacob saw them, he said, “This is God's army!” So he named the place Mahanaim [meaning two army camps]. Jacob actually saw God’s army of angels. Did he have any reason to fear his brother’s revenge once he saw God’s angels were with him? NO reason at all. But obsession of Jacob’s mind remained fear. Seeing angels should have helped Jacob, but instead He sent messengers to Esau, “I have oxen, donkeys, flocks, men servants, and women servants; and I have sent to tell my lord, that I may find mercy and kindness in your sight.” Messengers returned saying, “We came to your brother Esau; and now he is on the way to meet you with four hundred men.”
Jacob was greatly distressed. Are 400 men any match for even one angel of God? NO match at all! But Jacob was very stressed! After dividing up his flocks and people, then in an afterthought, Jacob prayed, “O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, the Lord Who said to me, Return to your country and to your people and I will do you good. I am not worthy of the least of all the mercy, loving-kindness and all faithfulness You have shown to Your servant, for with [only] my staff I passed over this Jordan [long ago], and now I have become two companies. Deliver me, I pray You, from hand of my brother, Esau; for I fear him, lest he come and smite [us all], the mothers with the children.” In Jacob’s prayer he remembered he left with nothing, now had great abundance due only to God. He knew God had done him good!
Jacob stayed there that night and took from what he had with him as a present for Esau: 200 she-goats, 20 he-goats, 200 ewes, 20 rams, 30 milk camels with their colts, 40 cows, 10 bulls, 20 she-donkeys, and 10 [donkey] colts. For Jacob said, “I will appease him with the present that goes before me, and afterward I will see his face; perhaps he will accept me.” Jacob felt compelled. His message to Esau was he returned a wealthy man and did not claim father’s wealth. Jacob wanted to assure Esau his return was friendly. He sought Esau’s favor. As youth, Esau had seen the cunning character of Jacob. One large gift would not necessarily be convincing enough to Esau that Jacob changed his ways. So Jacob sends wave upon wave of gifts to Esau, stressing his new nature which makes him want to give rather than receive, serve rather than displace. This was a gift which would make Esau prosperous!
Jacob’s prayer to God was urgent. Jacob’s plight was desperate, but his was a foxhole prayer. Jacob recognized God’s mercy yet STILL he relied on his own works, efforts and cunning. Jacob didn’t trust God to open the way before him; instead he planned best way he knew. Jacob would appease his brother, bribe his brother, buy forgiveness, earn acceptance, purchase his love. Are WE much different? He sent over the brook all he had. Jacob was left alone, and a Man wrestled with him. Jacob thought his power alone would deal with threat of his brother. He was on red alert, walking on egg shells, scheming, hyper. So when a Man came in the night, can you imagine Jacob’s first reaction?!
Jacob was a bargainer, even with God. After he fled his parents’ home, God gave him vision of the heavenly ladder joining earth to heaven. Jacob made a vow, but it was really a bargain with God, not surrender. Genesis 28:20-22, Jacob made this vow, "IF God will indeed be with me and protect me on this journey, and IF He will provide me with food and clothing, and IF I return safely to my father's home, then the Lord WILL certainly be my God. And this memorial pillar I set up will become a place for worshiping God, and I will present to God a tenth of everything he gives me.”
IF God will protect, IF God will provide, IF I return safely, THEN the Lord will be my God and I will pay God back. Oh, how we humans try to bargain with God! If God comes through for us, when He does this for me, THEN I will let Him be God. In return for God’s presence, protection, provision, Jacob would let God be his God. Jacob has made God his agent and offered God the going rate. 10% is a normal fee for an agent. Such was Jacob’s bargain with God, not faith and gratitude.
All Jacob’s deceitful life are result of misconception. Jacob believed blessings are secured by human methods. Jacob believed God promised to make him, not Esau, heir with rights of the first-born. He valued this blessing while Esau despised it. What Jacob didn’t know was he did not have to connive and scheme to obtain God’s promise! So God comes to show Jacob.
God wrestled with him. Don’t you know, Jacob, how much I love you? How I have never left you? How I have always been here for you? How trustworthy I am? You don’t have to make your own way in life. Here I am, always with you. I am on your side, it doesn’t matter who else is against you, I am for you. I showed you the divine ladder that leads from Me to you, I showed you My angels are all around you, I am God. WHY do you have to do it in your own power?
SONG: ABOVE ALL
But in all of these things, Jacob is still resisting, holding back, relying on himself. The Bible does NOT say Jacob wrestled with a man. The Bible says the Man wrestled with Jacob. It shows God is the initiator. God actually wrestled with Jacob to touch his life. And when [the Man] saw that He did not prevail against [Jacob], He touched the hollow of his thigh; and Jacob's thigh was put out of joint as he wrestled.
The bone was moved out of the hollow place it’s located. This was done to let Jacob know the person he wrestled with was superior and could easily overcome him; Jacob should stop fighting and resisting! The struggle was not by his own strength, but by God’s allowance. So Jacob had nothing to boast of, plus this shows the truth and reality of this conflict; it was not a vision but real to teach Jacob his weakness in spiritual conflict. Jacob realized then it was God, for no man could disjoint his thigh with just a touch.
Then He said, Let Me go, for day is breaking. But [Jacob] said, “I will not let You go unless You declare a blessing on me.” [The Man] asked him, “What is your name?” And [in shock of realization, whispering] he said, “Jacob [supplanter, schemer, trickster, swindler]!”
Why did God ask for his name? Do you find this question odd? God knew who He was wrestling with! Think of all that God could have said in reprimand. Instead He asks for Jacob's name. Jacob was compelled by God's question to relive the last time he had asked for a blessing, the time he had stolen blessing from his brother. The last time Jacob was asked for his name, the question came from his father Isaac. Jacob had lied to his old blind father saying, "I am Esau," in order to steal the birthright. Now he found himself, after many wasted years of running through life looking over his shoulder, once more seeking a blessing. Jacob fully understood the reason behind God's question.
In that moment, Jacob was triggered to see himself for who he really was. He thought his father Isaac was blind, but how truly blind Jacob had been. How much in darkness! How fear and worry for what he wanted had consumed his whole life. "You have spoken the truth," God said, "and you know what your name signifies. Pitifully you have been a duplicitous man, deceiving everyone everywhere you went. But now you acknowledge the real you." God asked Jacob his name not because God didn't know it. He wanted Jacob to know it.
He wanted to know if Jacob was ready to come to grips with who he really was. We need to realize that we are the problem and we need God to change our very identity. In Jacob's case he was given the name "Israel" which means "God Prevails". His new name was reminder of this encounter and need of God. Jacob felt his life was filled with problems. But what Jacob didn't realize was greatest battle being waged was waged in his heart.
Jacob wanted God's blessing but not surrender to God. He wanted God to "bail him out" in hard times but he did not want to submit. Jacob wanted benefits of God but not a relationship. Jacob’s problem was not his upcoming meeting with Esau but lack of trust in God! We see even though we resist God, He wrestles with us. Why would God bother to go to all this effort just to turn the heart of Jacob? Why didn't God just say, "Fine, go your own way, trust your own strength. See where it gets you." Why does God bother with me? During struggles of life, God is calling to us. I wonder, “Is God wrestling with us?”
The writer of Genesis, Moses, did not tell us God could not overcome Jacob, only that He did not. God disabled Jacob by dislocating his hip. It’s devastating to a wrestler, like breaking the arm of a quarterback or leg of a running back. Now helpless, Jacob clung in desperation. Jacob had come to himself. Verses 29-30, Then he blessed Jacob there. Jacob named the place Peniel (which means "face of God"), "I have seen God face to face, yet my life has been spared."
Esau could not provide nor prevent the blessing of God. It was not Esau that stood in way of Jacob’s blessing! It was Jacob himself, who by his trickery, treachery, cunning and deceit tried to produce spiritual blessings through his own power. Blessing of God must be obtained from God Himself, by clinging to Him in helpless dependence, not by our power. Realizing this transformed Jacob to Israel.
Verse 28 is puzzling. And He said, “Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel; for you have striven with God and with men and have prevailed.” Does this mean somehow God was blessing Jacob because of his trickery or deception? NO, God did not refer to Jacob’s past here but of future confrontations, the one Jacob would have with Esau soon. Literal translation: As thou hast prevailed with God, thou shalt also prevail with men. God is calling things that are not as though they already took place!
SONG: GOD’S ALREADY THERE
Prayerfully prevailing with God is the way to prevail with men. If God is for us, who can be against us? The lesson Jacob learned is for every Christian. Jacob saw why all his previous “victories” were really disasters, ending in discord, hatred, hostility. God promised spiritual blessings, which can’t be obtained through fleshly means. All Jacob’s life up till then was human striving. Now Jacob learned foolishness and futility of self-effort. A happy life is achieved the same way Jacob received the blessing, by clinging to God.
How can God love a cheater, liar, embezzler, fraud, trickster like Jacob? Good news is not our love for God, but God’s love for us. The tragedy in Christians is that much of what we do is by our willpower. We rely on our strength; our human nature is so inclined. We don’t let God change hearts.
First, we must come to the end of ourselves and our own devices. Jacob could not fight Esau, nor could he defeat the “Man” who wrestled him. Second, we must trust what God promised to do. Jacob didn’t prevail with God in a new path. He prevailed with God in what God already said, blessings God promised to pour out on Jacob. God’s promise was only claim Jacob had upon God.
God touched Jacob's hip. The message was clear. You tried with ALL your might, yet I can with one touch defeat you. Once Jacob was able to see himself for who he really was, he was able to see God much more clearly. When Jacob called out for a blessing from God, the wall had been broken through. God didn’t want just Jacob's worship; God wanted his heart. And He wants the same from us.
SONG: THAT’S WHAT I LOVE ABOUT HIM