Wrestling with God

So grateful to the Lord for bringing us all together to worship His Holy Name this morning. A special warm welcome to the servants of God and all the guests that are here this morning. We are so thankful that you’ve come to worship the Lord with us. God has been so good and faithful in all of our lives, and we praise His Holy Name. And we worship Him this morning, giving Him the honor and glory that is due unto His Holy Name.

We’re going through the life of Jacob from deception to dependence. We find this this morning in Genesis 32:22-32. Genesis 32:22-32. I will describe this passage that we’re about to study this morning as the most important event in the life of Jacob. In fact, just as I mentioned to you last week, we can take chapter 32 and kind of put it as the turning point in the life of Jacob. He had a life before this verse that would be totally different than a life after this verse. That night would start in verse 22. The morning would come in verse 32. By that time, His name is changed. He has a new identity. His purpose is different. And He also has a limp to remind him of that happened that night for the rest of his life. Not only him, but for generations to come. Even today, the identity of His descendants are made on that night, on that encounter with God. The most pivotal and important event that would happen in the life of Jacob.

Last week, we talked about how here’s a man who’s filled with fear. Who is trying to somehow pacify and appease his brother across the river, who is waiting for him. He is longing to meet him. But also, as you can imagine, tremendous amount of fear as would happen. The word that would come back to him was not a good one. It’s not just Esau that is coming to meet you. He’s also coming with 400 other men. As we talked about last time, it doesn’t make much sense why Esau would come with 400 men. And so Jacob would send so much gifts ahead of him in different groups. And all that is left by the time you come to chapter 22. And the night has fallen is Jacob along with two wives and 12 children left on the banks of the river.

That’s what we pick up in verse 22. That night, Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two female servants and his 11 sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. The river Jabbok that flows from the east to the river Jordan. One whose name is very interestingly very similar to Jacob’s own name. The river Jacob. God has a very funny way of sometimes doing things, doesn’t He? That the encounter would happen in the name of a river that is also very similar to the name of Jacob.

Verse 23, after he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions as well along with them. Verse 24 tells us, Jacob was left alone and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. In 22 and 23, he would send his two wives, two female servants, 11 sons, daughter is not mentioned. Daughter also along to the other side. And he will remain all alone there. And that’s where he will have this mystic encounter with a man until daybreak. For the last 3000 years, theologians, Bible school students, readers of God’s Word have debated and have marveled about what happened that night. And what it was like to have a wrestling match that went on all night with Jacob and this man that he wrestled with.

Oftentimes, God has to get us to this point of being alone in His presence to really speak to us and get our attention. It’s very interesting that God waited till this very moment when everything had been left from Jacob. And he is all alone, alone with his thoughts, alone with his fear. And in the loneliness of the night, God will come to him. I remember this past week was an extremely difficult week at work for me. Not because anything was difficult per se, but because of the busyness of work. I remember just going from morning till the evening nonstop for Monday through Friday. And I was extremely physically tired by the time it came to Monday evening. And I will be very honest with you.

All night prayer was not really one thing that I really wanted to go to physically speaking at the end of that long week. But after taking a little bit of a rest, I came to all night prayer. And I can tell you, I’m so glad I did that because it was a wonderful time of meeting with the Lord. And I remember sitting there and also thinking about this passage to preach on. I’m thinking in that moment of being all alone with God, even though surrounded by so many believers that night. We’re able to encounter the presence of God that is able to rejuvenate us. And make us to be more alive than everything else that we can do physically in our lives. Because we are encountering the divine presence of God.

God sometimes need for us to be all alone. And you know one of the dangers of our present generation? We are never alone. Either the TV is on all the time. Or Facebook is on all the time. There are so many things that is vying for your attention all the time. People do not sit quietly in the presence of God anymore. And I think the time is nigh when we all find times all throughout the week when we are all alone with God. What if God is trying to speak to you but you’re too busy? What if God is speaking to you but you’re not hearing it? Because it’s being drowned out by all the voices all around you. Quiet time, alone time can never be taken to be more important. We need to find its importance and we need to definitely have those times in our life.

And the Bible says, a man wrestled with him till daybreak. I want you to imagine Jacob filled with fear. Filled with darkness all around him. Not knowing what is about to happen and suddenly there is a man who just wrapped his hands around him. It’s not Esau. He knows what Esau looks like and even smells like. Remember that from 20 years ago. Maybe it’s one of the people that Esau has spent. But here’s a strange thing that’s happening. This man is not robbing me or killing me. He is just continuing to wrestle with me. Rolling around on the ground, grabbing me and I’m grabbing him back. But somehow he is not hurting me. And there is this tussle and hustle that is going on.

Not just for one or two hours. All the way till daybreak. At least six to eight hours long of a wrestling match all throughout the night. I don’t know how many of you ever wrestled. But I don’t think any of us can wrestle for more than maybe six minutes or eight minutes. Let alone six to eight hours. And I think about this for a second. How is this man who is now almost 100 years old is wrestling for six to eight hours. There’s definitely something divine that is happening over here that he alone is not realizing. Jacob is not wrestling that night on his own strength. There is even in the midst of the wrestling. I believe God’s grace is being infused even physically into his life. Allow him to wrestle all night long till the daybreak.

Verse 25, when the man saw that he could not overpower him. He touched the socket of Jacob’s hip. His hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. Very interesting verse in verse 25. When the man saw that he could not overpower him. So that makes it seem like this man was not able to defeat Jacob. But then what he does next tells you that this man could have done this long time ago. And he was holding back because the Bible says he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip. In fact in the original language, it says he lightly touched the socket of Jacob’s hip. The question then comes, what were you doing all night? Were you not touching him? What do you do when you wrestle? You’re literally grabbing. So why is it now the Bible says he lightly touched him? See, what this man was doing with him for the last six to eight hours. And that light touch is totally different. That wrestling was not to harm him. But the light touch is definitely to get his attention as well.

It is not that this man could not win the battle against him. Divine restraint was happening throughout the night. Because there was a purpose in that wrestling. There was a purpose in that tussle. And that needed to happen in order to bring Jacob to the place where God wanted him to be. And not only that, the Bible says this man touched the hip or the thigh of Jacob. Why the thigh? Interestingly, the thigh is the strongest and the biggest muscle in your body. God touched Jacob right there. In the strongest point of his life, God touched him. And immediately the thigh bone comes out of the socket. And immediately Jacob feels an excruciating pain. And he becomes limb for the rest of his life.

Because he’s not here this morning, I can talk about him. Elijah is in Austin. I remember when he was little. When he was like six, seven years old. One of the things he loved to do was wrestle with me. Wrestle in the bed. And he would just climb on top of me and growl and would roll around. And you know, many of you have done with your kids. And he would tussle. And I’m not using my full strength against him. I would allow him to actually win for a while. Where he pins me down and he gets on top. And talks about how strong he is. All the while drooling all over me. And as he’s doing all these things. This will go on for about maybe five, six minutes. After a while, after all the trash talk and everything. I would just take him and pin him down to show who is really the dad. And I would never dare do that with him today. Because the opposite will be true. But my point is that, that’s kind of what happened here as well.

It is not that this man who was wrestling with him was not stronger than Jacob. But the purpose for the wrestling match was not to win the match. But to get his attention. Ultimately, he would touch him on the hip as well. Then verse 26. Then the man said, let me go for it is daybreak. But Jacob replied, I will not let you go until you bless me. What happened in the night? See at first, it was startling fear that crippled him. When this man got a hold of him. But as the night wore on. Something in the mind of Jacob told me. This is not an ordinary man that is wrestling with him. And after he touched him. Made him to be a cripple. It is not anger or frustration. Or more vitriol against the person who is fighting against him. That happens in Jacob. He hangs on to him and says, I will not let you go until you bless me.

Jacob realized this man was not an ordinary man. But not only that. He was a divine being who has the power, ability to bless him on that day. And he knew that this encounter was not a physical encounter. The man asked him a question. Verse 27. What is your name? Jacob he answered. Do you know that any time in God’s Word. When God asks a question. It is not because God does not know the answer. Where are you Adam? God knows where Adam is. What is your name? God knows what his name is. It is not because God does not know the answer. God wants to hear it from his own lips. What his name is. And here comes the answer. Jacob he replied.

Subplanter, deceiver, cheater, heel grabber. One who had tried all of his life to get ahead by his own means and methods. For the first 77 years of his life under his father’s and mother’s care. Rebelling against his own brother. Trying to grab everything that he can. For the last 20 years under the deception of Laban. And still trying to get ahead in his own life by his own methods. Finally the answer comes, Jacob he answered. Verse 28. Then the man said, your name will no longer be Jacob. Oh what a relief. Your name will no longer be Jacob. I’m about to change your address. I’m about to change your destiny. I’m about to change your future. I’m about to change everything about your past. You will have a past and you will have a future. Guess what? I’m about to do something different.

But Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans. And you have overcome. I’m going to give you the name Israel. For the first time in God’s Word. We see the term Israel. By which God’s people even to this day are known. The Jewish people, the remnant is known as the people of Israel. Very interestingly, many a times we have struggled with the translation of this word. Or the meaning of this word Israel. No one really knows. If you look in your Bible, you will see something that says, Israel means one who overcomes. Or one who overcame and fought with God. That is based upon what that word says. Because you have struggled with God, with humans and have overcome. But that’s not really I think the true meaning of the word Israel.

Israel literally means God struggles. But God doesn’t struggle. So what does it really mean? For example, I will give you some examples of this in God’s Word. The word Daniel, literally in Hebrew means he who judges God. But no one judges God. So you know what we say the meaning of the word Daniel is? God judges. Samuel, literally in Hebrew, the translation of it literally means he who hears God. But that’s not really making any sense. It’s not about us hearing God. Samuel was an answer to Hannah’s prayer being answered by God. So what do we say? The meaning of the name Samuel is God has heard. Just like that, this Israel is not talking about the victory of Jacob who has overcome. It is talking about a God who won the victory on that night.

It is not Jacob who struggled and won. It is God who won the battle and won on that day. But you know what is good news is? When God is winning, Jacob is winning as well. That is what the beauty of this term Israel is. God won the victory on that day. If Jacob had won the victory on that day, he will still be a loser by the time the morning comes. But when he allows God to win in your life, you are ultimately the winner. Because in allowing God to win, we find the ultimate victory of our life. You know what Israel really means? God rules, God strives, God prevails. That is the message of the Bible as well. In allowing ourselves to die and allowing God to rule over our life, allowing ourselves to become less and less every single day, and for the Lord to become greater is where true victory is found in our lives as well.

That is why our Lord will say this to us in Mark 8:35. Whoever wants to save their life will lose it. And whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. This is the paradox of the Christian life. In losing, you are actually winning. In dying, you are actually living. In becoming the last, you are actually becoming the first. In actually becoming the servant, God is going to make you the Lord of all. That is the paradox of the Christian life. It is totally opposite to the way of the world and the way the world thinks. The world says, if you want to be first, you try to be first. The world says, if you want to be a master, you try to be a master. It is only the gospel that says, come and die to yourself. Make Jesus and the Lord the most important thing in your life. And then you will have ultimate victory and glory that you have in your life. In Matthew 20:16, our Lord said the same thing. The last will be first and the first will be last. Look at Matthew 20:27. Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant. And whoever wants to be first must be your slave.

That night, all of his self-dependence. Remember the sermon title series that we have? From deception to dependence. That started on that night as he encountered God that night. He learned to go from self-dependence to dependence upon God. He learned to go from deception to completely giving his life to the Lord and says, I will walk with you, let you lead me. I will go wherever you want me to go. That is true surrender. But that is where victory is found as well. It was A. W. Tozer who both beautifully said one time, The Lord cannot fully bless a man until he has first conquered him. You know what our problem is? Our self is still remaining in us. Even as redeemed people of the God. We don’t enjoy fully the blessings of God in our life. Not spiritual blessings because a lot of our self is still in me and is still in you as well. But when we allow God to finally and fully conquer us all through and throughout. That is when God can use us to the fullest extent. It is an absolute surrender to Him. Complete surrender to Him is where we find the ultimate victory in the Christian life.

If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself. Take up his cross and follow after me. That is where true discipleship is. That is where true following of the Lord is. That night God won. But guess what? In winning, Jacob won as well. Because God’s victory is ultimately our victory. In my life, I don’t want to win. I want Jesus to win in my life. In my life, I don’t want my will. I want Jesus’ will in my life. In my life, I don’t want myself to lead me. My heart is deceptive. I want the Lord to lead me. I want God’s will to be perfectly done in my life. I want God’s leading to be the leading of my life. I want everything of me to inch by inch burn away under the grace and mercy of God. If at the end of this year, you and I are able to look back at our life and say, less of me exists in me today at the end of this year than at the beginning of the year, then that year has been a blessed year in your life.

Put to death the things that belong to you. Your selfishness, your self-motivations, your self-dependence. Completely surrender your will, your heart into the hands of a God who knows how to lead you and direct you in blessed ways that you can never lead you yourself. Then he asked the question that Moses even asked of the Lord. In verse 29, Jacob said, please tell me your name. But he replied, why do you ask my name? Then he blessed him there. The answer is not given. The answer is too profound. But he was able to bless him there. The previous verse told us that the name Israel was given to him because he overcame both man and God on that night. That gives a little bit of a picture of the identity of this man. Most likely, most probably, this is not an ordinary angel that appeared to him that night. It was the pre-incarnate appearance of our Lord who came and wrestled with Jacob on that night.

It’s so interesting that our Lord comes in His Old Testament appearances exactly where the people are in their own circumstance. To a pilgrim like Abraham, He was also a traveler and a sojourner when He came to visit him. To a warrior like Joshua, He was a warrior that stood before him. To a heel grabber and a wrestler like Jacob, God was a wrestler that night. You see the beauty of God? To the pilgrim, Abraham, who didn’t have a home, He was a traveler, just happened to walk by. Oh, to the warrior Joshua, He was the one with the flaming sword, the captain of the Lord’s army that appeared to him that night. Oh, to a wrestler, one who has been grabbing onto the heel of others all of his life, his heel got grabbed that night as God Himself became a wrestler.

Verse 30, Jacob called the place Peniel saying, it is because I saw God face to face and yet my life was spared. His life was spared only because of the grace of God. His life was allowed to live only because of the grace of God. Again, another evidence that this was not an angel, but the pre-incarnate appearance of our Lord. The Lord taking on the form of a human being, appearing to him and wrestling with him that night. Verse 31, the sun rose above him as he passed Peniel and he was limping because of his hip. Even though he is in pain, limping, I bet you his countenance is not the same as the night before. His fear, I think all vanished on that night. The God who appeared to him on the way to Laban’s place has again appeared to him in a physical form and wrestled with him all night and blessed him. Look at verse 32, therefore to this day, the Israelites, by the way, this is true even today, do not eat the tendon attached to the socket of the hip because the socket of Jacob’s hip was touched near the tendon.

You know what will happen? Generation after generation, this story will be retold. You know how we became a nation known as nation of Israel? It is on that night when our forefather Jacob encountered the living God and wrestled with him. Generation after generation is now following after the same pattern but reminding themselves of that night when God appeared and broke Jacob and made him to be the man God wants him to be. Let me leave you with three things as I end this morning. The first one is this, until we are broken by God, we can never be used greatly by God. Until we are broken by God, we can never be used greatly by God. Remember this in our life as well. When God sends brokenness into your life, contrivedness in your life, circumstances and difficulties that break you, it is not necessarily a bad thing. It is so that He can remold you according to the perfect will of the Heavenly Father. We all come into this earth molded a certain way. But that’s not good because that is our old nature. But when we allow God to break us and when we give our brokenness back into the hands of our ultimate potter, you know what He does? He reframes us. He refashions us. That fashioning might be something difficult. We end up with a limp sometimes. But that’s okay. We are now in the perfect will of God, exactly where God wants us to be. See, brokenness is not a bad thing. God always uses broken things. He uses broken soil to produce a crop. He uses broken clouds to give rain. He uses broken grain to give bread. He uses broken bread to give strength. It is the broken alabaster box that is able to put out a perfume. It is Peter weeping bitterly who returns to greater power than ever. Brokenness is always a wonderful thing as long as it is done by the Lord and given back into the hands of a loving God. Brokenness caused by your own mistakes is not necessarily a good thing. But brokenness that is divinely ordained is a good thing. That is only when God can use us for His glory.

Secondly, admitting the truth about who we are are essential to restoration. Admitting the truth to who we are is essential to restoration. What are you this morning? Unfaithful? Admit it before the Lord. What are you this morning? A cheater? Admit it before the Lord. What are you this morning? A deceiver? Admit it this morning before the Lord. What are you this morning? A hypocrite? Admit it before the Lord. When the question was asked, God wanted him to recount back to him exactly who he was. I am Jacob. God takes the Jacobs and makes them to be Israel. But first thing is to admit who we are.

Finally, it is better to limp through life trusting in God than to run through it in our self-confidence. This is so true, isn’t it? We all have scars from brokenness, from God dealing with us. But those scars are okay. One day those scars will all be gone. It is better to live life with a limp that is given by God than to run through life in self-dependence. I don’t think there for a single moment in his life he ever complained about that limp in his body. Because he knew that night God changed everything about him. God changed his name. God changed his identity. Even though he has a physical limp, that restoration, that relationship that he gained with the Lord that night, and that closeness that he gained that night, you can never put a price tag on it. Many people focus on the limp, but he will point to his heart and say, my heart has been renewed. My heart has enjoyed refreshment. My heart has once again known what it means to follow after my God. My limp is worth it because what has happened to my heart where I became an Israel and not a Jacob who is trying to get ahead in my life. As you go on to the life of Jacob, it is not a perfect life. He is not perfect, but that’s not the point of this. The point is from that point on, he is not living according to his own plans in his life. He has given his life into the hands of a living God and he is allowing God to lead him in his life.

We have to get to that point where we’re absolutely tired and given up for God to use us. Andrew Barnard in one of his writings in the Daily Bread say that in the highlands of Scotland, sheep sometimes wander off among the rocky cracks and get trapped on dangerous ledges. Attracted by the sweet grass, they leap down 10 or 12 feet to get to it. But here’s the problem. Once they get to the ledge, they can never get back up again. So what does the shepherd do? Go down there immediately to retrieve the animal? Wrong thing to do. You know what will happen if you do that? The animal will become restless, will fall off the ledge and will die. So you know what the shepherd does? The shepherd will allow the helpless animal to remain there for days until it becomes so weak. It’s unable to stand up. Finally, he ties a rope around his waist, goes over the edge of the rocky shelf and rescue the one that has strayed. Someone has asked Barnard, why doesn’t the shepherd go down right away? He replied, sheep are so foolish, just like us. That’s what we were called in the Bible, the sheep. Sheep are so foolish, they would dash right over the precipice and be killed. If the herdsmen didn’t wait until their strength was nearly gone.

This is what God does with us as well. When our strength is all gone, that is when God comes and says, My strength is made perfect in your weakness. God will break you. God will make you weak. God will take all the strength away from you. Because you know what? God does not want you to live your Christian life relying upon your own self and strength. If you have gone through that breaking in your own life, you know exactly what I’m preaching about. But if you are sitting here this morning, not broken in your life. Not having experienced the brokenness that only God can give. Today, let it be the day of surrender. Before God have to touch your hip and make you limp for the rest of your life. Don’t wait till the river of Jabbok. Don’t wait till God has to wrestle with you and hurt you physically. Give your heart to Him before it’s too late. Surrender to Him. Lot of people walk around with a limp. Why? They waited too long to surrender their life to the Lord. You need to understand one thing. God does not give up. God will pursue you. He is the hound of heaven who goes after the ones that He has. He will pursue you. He will come after you. He will come to you in the middle of the night. He will wrestle with you. Before that, give your heart to Him. Fully surrender to Him and say, Not my way. Let Your will and way be done in my life. Jacob did that that night. And his life would be different from that point on. I pray that with the help of God, by His grace and the work of the Spirit of God in our lives, that we will become less and less every single day. And He will increase more and more every single day. That by the time we come to the end of our lives, the only thing the world can see when they look at us, is not us, but the glory of the risen Lord Jesus Christ, who has become great in our lives.

Let’s look to the Lord in prayer. Lord, we praise You. We thank You for Your Word of God. Oh Lord, we are like Jacob, trying to do things our way, trying to get ahead with our own self-reliance and strength. But You come, by Your grace, looking for us. To touch us, to wrestle with us, to take away our self-dependence, and to make us people that are truly disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. Break the things that need to be broken, oh God. Remove the things that need to be removed, oh God. Change us by Your power. We surrender ourselves before You. We ask for You to do the work that only You can, oh God. We admit, oh, that we are like Jacob at times. We come before You. Thank You, Lord, for hearing our prayers. Thank You for Your grace in our life. In the name of the Lord Jesus, let me pray. Amen.