Victory & Rest

So thankful for tonight. Warm welcome to all of you. Thank you for being here tonight for Encounter. It’s actually good to see a couple of new faces up on stage. Pray that God will continue to use them. Bless them abundantly. Thank you, Danny and the rest of the worship team for leading us in worship.

We had our meeting last week on the 10, not the 10 questions, but the questions that you asked. And we kind of ran out of time, right? And it was like 9.15. But there were still some miscellaneous questions that were asked by all of you that we did not get to. And at the time, me and Joel said that maybe we’ll have like a combined high school and adult English class where we can address some of those questions. But tonight, I want to focus on one of the questions that came from it. And I thought, this is a passage from which I have never preached. And it’s also a passage from which I have never heard a sermon. So I thought, well, why don’t I look into this passage? Because if someone has asked a question from this passage, maybe a lot of people don’t really understand what this passage is all about.

And so as I started kind of looking into this particular portion of Scripture, which we’ll get to in a second, what I found out is that very little is known about it. In the sense of like, there are so many different interpretations and ways of looking at this passage. But there’s also very minimal understanding of it. But the more I looked into this passage, what I found out is that there are tremendous truths that we miss if we just read this passage. The passage I’m referring to is Genesis 32:22-32.

And before we get to that passage, for those of you who don’t know what Genesis 32:22-32 is, it’s a passage that talks about Jacob wrestling with the angel of the Lord. And this is a story that is not known to all of us. In fact, if you have studied any kind of Sunday school classes, you know about this story. So you know about Jacob. Jacob was one of the sons of Isaac. And we know how he was a second born, but he was a twin, right? Born to Isaac, Jacob and Esau. The Bible clearly tells us that Esau was the first born. But Jacob literally was holding onto his heel as he came out of the womb. Almost as if to pull his brother back. Like he wanted to be the first one out of his mother’s womb. But Esau came out.

And you know the story of how Isaac loved Esau, the Bible says, while Rebekah loved Jacob. Created a little bit of a conflict within the family. The time came for the blessings. And this was something that was difficult for us to understand. But being the first born, birthright, getting the blessings of the father was something so important. Whatever the father pronounced as a blessing usually came true by the power of God that worked through that blessing.

So when Isaac got to be advanced in age, he cannot see. But he really wants to make sure that his prominent blessings of his life is given to his oldest son Esau. And Esau was a good hunter. He was a man of the field and he loved how to hunt a good game. And he was also a very good cook as we can see from different parts of God’s Word. And so his father wanted to bless him. But he first wanted to eat a good delicious game that his favorite son had hunted and brought for him. And you know the rest of the story what happened.

Rebekah overhears it and she plots and kind of with her son and make sure that the blessing of God would come upon Jacob. When Esau hears this, he is absolutely livid, right? And so Jacob has to run away from home. And there’s a very interesting passage in Genesis 27 where Rebekah comes to Jacob and says, I want you to go to my brother’s house for a few days. Think about that for a second as we go through this passage. She says, I want you to go away for a few days. After a few days, after the anger of your brother has subsided, I will send word and you can come back.

And by the time you come to Genesis 32:22-32, it’s not a few days have gone by, 20 years have gone by. In fact, nowhere in the Bible do we ever read that Jacob ever heard from Rebekah again. So you can kind of see the struggle, the loneliness, what this man went through for the last 20 years. And he goes to his uncle’s house and we know the story of them too. You know, Jacob tries to deceive him. His uncle tries to deceive him back. And there’s this fight going on back and forth.

Falls in love with a girl by the name of Rachel. For her, he had to labor on for close to 14 years of his life. First for seven years for her sister, which he didn’t really plan on. Ended up marrying the wrong person first and then ended up meeting the right person first. I mean, 20 years of lot of disappointments, ups and downs. Imagine having to wait 14 years for the love of your life. And then only to be deceived by her father. And then doing all these things, trying to gain wealth. And then kind of his uncle trying to take advantage of him. And all these things and finally he has come to his wits end. And he has this longing for the land that is left behind. The promised land that God gave to his people, the land of Canaan.

As long as he’s in the house of Laban, he is still a stranger there. But he knows that God has a plan for him to come back. But something remarkable happens while he’s on the way to his uncle’s home. He’s a deceiver, right? His name itself means supplanter, which means deceiver. And so he is running away from his dad’s house, his father’s house, from his mom, away from his brother.

Something remarkable happens that first night. One of the most amazing revelations of God that we find in the entire Old Testament. He sees this vision. There’s no reason for him to see the vision. Now many times I’ve thought to myself, why did God show him that dream that night? He’s not crying out to the Lord. Nowhere in the Bible does it say that he’s crying out to the Lord. He just deceived his brother and he’s actually a wanted man who’s running away. But why did God show up in that moment and show him that dream at that night? That didn’t happen in a sanctuary. It didn’t happen in a temple. It didn’t happen after praying. It didn’t happen after confessing.

Why? A lot of times God shows up when we don’t deserve it. You know what that’s called? Grace. God shows up when we don’t deserve it. That is the unmerited favor of God. A lot of times we think that we are loved by God because we’re good. That God has shown a miraculous in our life because we sought him. All of that can be true. But there are times when we are running away from God, that God shows up. And that’s not because of anything good in our life. That’s called the grace of God. Because whether you want to admit or whether you want to believe it, or whether it fits with your theology, God has favorites in this world. And Jacob happens to be one of them.

Now you and I have no right to ask, Lord, why would you love Jacob and hate Esau? That’s exactly what God’s word says. Why would you do that? The Apostle Paul would ask the same question in the book of Romans. And then you’re eagerly reading that passage to get an answer. What does he do? Next sentence he goes, What right does the pot have to say to the potter, Why do you make me? Who are you to ask God why he would love Jacob more? But God loved Jacob. So God would show up. And he sees angels going up and down on the ladder. And he sees God on top of the ladder. Remarkable vision that has New Testament implications about the Lord who would become our ladder and reconciling heaven and earth together.

So even a prophetic dream that foretold the coming of the Savior and reconciling of humanity to God was given to a man who was running away from home. If they had a billboard at that time, Jacob would be on it. Most wanted man, dead or alive. Esau would have paid the money for that. And here he is getting one of the most remarkable revelations in all of the Old Testament. He goes and he comes back. And even though Rebecca said few days, it took 20 years. And then we find him in Genesis 32:22-32 finally making his way and he’s running away again. He’s running away again. But now he’s coming back to the land that God gave to him with all the things that God has now given to him.

But there’s a problem. He’s about to cross his ravine, a river, and he’s about to enter into the promised land. But there’s someone that is waiting for him. And he knows he’s waiting. You know who that is? His brother Esau who has been waiting 20 years for this time. They didn’t have Facebook messenger or text messaging or phone calls to find out what the mood of Esau was. He has no idea what 20 years has done to the mind of Esau. As far as Jacob is concerned, all that 20 years has done is made the anger of Esau more and more toward Jacob who stole basically all the blessings that was rightfully his being the firstborn.

And so here we see in verse 1, him coming in Genesis 32:22-32 to that brook and he’s coming with all the people. Remarkably, as he’s about to enter into the promised land that God and he’s making the journey back, look what we see. Jacob also went on his way. And look what happens. Angels of God met him. When he ran away from the promised land and went to his uncle’s house, he saw a vision of angels. As he makes his way back, remarkably, he sees angels. Now, why angels? And why did they come to meet him? To remind him that the God who appeared to him 20 years ago is still watching over him. And he hasn’t forgotten him. And guess what? Jacob is not alone in this journey. God is there as well.

When Jacob saw them, he said, this is the camp of God. And he named that place Mahanim. Mahanim in Hebrew means two camps. Jacob is basically saying, I have camped here. And guess what? Mine is not the only camp here. There is another camp here as well. The camp of God where angels have descended into this place. A lot of times in our lives, we live our lives in such a way that we don’t realize the spiritual realm all around us.

See, it’s very easy for me to stand here and see all of you. Because you have a physical body. And I can call you by name. And I can see you. And you can hear my voice. And it’s very, nobody has to tell me there are a group of people sitting in front of me. But do you also believe there are angels all around us? That is the truth of scriptures. There are angels in your workplace. There are angels in your car. There are angels in your home. There are angels everywhere you go. Oftentimes we don’t see them. In fact, majority of the time we don’t see them. But that does not mean that they’re not there.

And when we think about the fact that in desperate times like what this man is going through, he sees angels. Many times in our lives, we may not see angels. But the reality of them is still there. I don’t know if there’s a guardian angel. Bible never even uses the word guardian angel. Some people believe there are two angels assigned to every person, every believer. But there is no proof that in the God’s word. But we know in God’s word one thing. Angels are ministering spirits sent by the Lord to minister to those who would inherit salvation. Who are the ones who inherit salvation? You and I.

So in our desperate moments, when we really need the comfort of the Lord, guess what the Lord does? He even sends angels to comfort us, to protect us, to give us what we need in our life. This happens not only in the Old Testament times, it happens in the New Testament times as well. In fact, in the book of Acts, we see angels appearing and ministering and delivering people as we will see tomorrow. Peter, when he was in prison, it is the angel of the Lord that came to assist him. He sees angels.

The first thing that I want you to understand tonight from this passage is this. You and I have to live in a constant awareness of a spiritual realm that is just as real as what you perceive physically. You and I are living in a world that does not understand the spiritual realm. Everything is about the five senses. But the Word of God reminds us that there is a spiritual realm that is more real than the physical realm that we are living in. Everywhere, just like angels, there are also demonic spirits in the world as well. There is a warfare that is going on all the time. And you and I often do not know the protection of the Lord and the care of the Lord.

One day, when we are with the Lord, we’ll understand the ways in which God often sends his angels to watch over us, protect us, guide us, strengthen us in the most weakest moments of our life. Here we see that happening in the life of Jacob as well. And as you read through this chapter, and he tries to find out where Esau is. So starting in verse three onwards, he sends messengers out, and he finds out that Esau is waiting for him. But he not only finds out that Esau is waiting for him, he finds out that Esau is waiting for him with 400 men. It’s bad enough that his brother is waiting for him. He has how many men with him? 400 men with him. Jacob does not have an army. All that Jacob has are his wives and children and all the wealth he has accumulated in his uncle’s home. And it was a lot.

So now Jacob has a problem. And he’s like thinking what to do. But first thing that he does is this. He divides in verse seven and eight. He divided the people who are with him into two groups. And he did that in verse seven. He did that because even if one group was completely destroyed by Esau, he wanted to make sure that at least the other group had a chance to escape. Because, and he divided up not only the people, and the Bible says he divided up the herd and the cattle as well. He thought if Esau comes and attacks one group, the group that is left may escape.

But then he did something right in the presence of God. After all this planning of what he does, look at verse nine. Then Jacob prayed. In fact, some people say and I think it’s one of the most remarkable prayers in the entire Old Testament. And a lot of us maybe have never paid attention to this prayer of Jacob in this desperate moment. 400 men and Esau opposing him. Jacob does not have an army. Jacob only has wives and children. And look at the prayer of Jacob. A model prayer that we should emulate in our life as well.

First thing that he does is that he acknowledges who God is. What does he say to him? Oh God of my father, Abraham. God of my father, Isaac. This cry of Jacob is not just saying you are the God of Abraham and Isaac. That’s not what all that is saying. What is basically saying is that you are a God, a covenant keeping God. A promise keeping God. Because you have made certain promises to my grandfather Abraham and to my father Isaac. That is a God that I’m praying to. I’m not praying to an idol. I’m not praying to a being that cannot respond to my request. I’m not praying to a being that is not concerned about who I am. I’m not praying to a being who does not have a plan for me. I am praying to the same God who made certain promises to my grandfather and father and even made a promise to me as well.

Then he says to him, who said to me? Look at that. Not only did he make a promise to my grandfather, he made a promise to my father, but there’s a same God who appeared to me when I was running away from home as well. What did he say? Go back to your country and your relatives and I will make you prosper. He’s saying God, I am here because you wanted me to come back. And so I am here trusting in your word and your promises and I’m believing that you are able to take care of me.

And this is something that’s very important for us to understand is that when God makes us and ask us to go certain places that are very uncomfortable for us, he is there and his promises are there and his word is there and we can be assured of the fact that if God sends you, God will take care of you as well. And Jacob is trusting on the same promise as well. Look at the next verse, verse 9. Verse 10.

And then he confesses before God that all the things that he has in his life, he is not deserving of it. I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness you have shown your servant. That is a prayer that all of us can pray even tonight as well. That Lord, I am not worthy of all the blessings that I have in my life. I’m unworthy. Nobody should sit here and think, I have all these blessings in my life because I’m good. Trust me, there are a lot of good people in the world that don’t have, much better than us, that don’t have the blessings that we have. Don’t take it for granted. It is all because of God’s grace and his blessings and his favor in your life.

When you get up in the morning and you’re able to talk and breathe and walk, don’t take those things that we normally do for granted. Yesterday I was driving and I thought to myself, you know, driving is such a normal thing here in the United States, but I remember growing up in India where we didn’t have many cars, getting in a car was like an event. I mean, you look forward to it. And where you sat and everything was important because you don’t get to be in a car very often. Here, it’s like second nature. You want to go to the store, you get in the car and you drive. Whereas growing up, you had to wait for the bus or you had to walk. And a lot of things in our life, and that’s just a small example, we take it for granted. But when you’re speaking and when you’re seeing and when you’re hearing, you don’t think about it. What if one of those things were taken away? Suddenly you understand the significance and the value of it. I’m just giving you some examples of things to be grateful for in your life. But go even beyond that.

To be in homes where parents get along, loving parents. To be in homes where God’s Word is being taught to you. To be in a church setting where you have freedom to worship like we do tonight. Not afraid of who’s going to walk in that door and shoot us because or arrest us because we are preaching Christ. Not having to look over our shoulders or keeping our eyes open because we’re afraid that if we keep our eyes closed, someone might come and grab us. Or having to keep a voice low because you don’t want the outside world to hear that you’re worshiping. A lot of times we keep our voices in on purpose. But a lot of people in the Christian world have to do it. Not because they have a choice but because if they don’t do it, it’s a matter of life and death for them.

I don’t know how many of you remember at Urbana when we were listening to the believers from North Korea. How they would talk about how they would meet in the park. Because they didn’t have a meeting place. So they would go to a park and they would walk in the park. And as they’re walking in the park, they’re talking to each other as they’re crisscrossing. And they cannot stay in a group setting for a long time because they cannot let anyone know that they belong to the same group. That’s how Christians fellowship. Whereas we take all those things for granted. And here Jacob is not forgetting the goodness of God in his life and his prayer. I think every one of your prayers while praising God also has to be a prayer of humility, acknowledging God’s favor and goodness in all of our lives. A lot of times we ask God for things but our prayer should be filled with gratitude and thankfulness for what God has already done. It should not just be a laundry list of things before the Lord as if God owes you something. It should be worship. It should be really acknowledging God for the things that you have.

And look what he says. I had only my staff when I crossed the Jordan. But now I have become two camps, two groups of people. I left with the staff, came with the staff. Now I’ve become two camps. And he continues with his prayer. Because of all this, oh God, you’re a promise keeping God. Save me, I pray. From the hand of my brother Esau. For I’m afraid he will come and attack me and also the mothers with their children. But you have said, I will surely make you prosper and will make your descendants like the sand of the sea which cannot be counted. God, I’m counting on you. Again, you’re a promise. I’m not supposed to die here because you have promised that you will make my descendants to be like the sand of the sea which cannot be counted.

So, what do we learn from the prayer of Jacob? It is this. We have to have this habit of crying out to God, trusting in the promise of God and remembering his faithfulness. This has to be something that is a pattern of Christian living for all of us. Your prayer life should be marked by this. Remembering the promises of God. You know, I’ve often repeated the phrase, throwing back the promises of God right back at him. He is a covenant keeping God. He is a promise keeping God. You can trust him and you have to remember his faithfulness as well.

So, then he does as the very smart person that he is, he does something. He starts sending animals up ahead with their servants to go to Esau. And so, you know, Esau is standing there with a huge herd of animals coming. And when they come, the first question they ask is, where are you? Who are you? And who does it belong to? And they are supposed to answer, all of these belong to your servant Jacob. And he has sent them ahead as a gift to our Lord Esau. But he does something very interesting. He doesn’t send all the animals at once. You know how he does it? In three groups, there were a total of 550 animals that he sends in three groups. That’s a lot of animals.

So, imagine Esau, you are really mad at your brother, right? And you see like, but what, 550 divided by 3, it’s like 182 or something like that. There’s like 185 animals coming towards you. And you are like, man, that’s a lot of animals. All kinds of animals, cows, donkeys, everything is listening to God’s word. And it’s coming and he’s like, who does it belong to? And the servants come and say, they all belong to your servant Jacob. And he has given this as a gift to you. So you’re like, he’s like really mad. If he’s really mad, he’d be like, oh man, he’s trying to really buy me off from being angry for 20 years by giving me this. And so his anger is still there, but he’s starting to like, what, cool down a little bit. And then he waits a little bit. And then what happens? The second group comes. And he’s like, oh wow, again, all of these are for me? And then he thinks that’s it. And then he waits a little bit more. And what happens? A third group comes. I think I’ve shared this with you before. I had a strategy when I would get grades in school on how to bring it to my dad. Many of you have strategies like that too. I’ve tried both strategies, the best grade to the lowest grade or to the lowest grade to the best grade.

So I would think to myself, if I show my dad the best grade first, he’ll be happy. But then it’s starting to go down, like 99, 97, 95. It’s like papers that he has to sign before I take it back to school, the grade report. And so it’s like, if I show him the last one, I might get an 80 at the end because the last one might be an 80. So then the other strategy is what? To start from the least and then to make him progressively happy. So you start with 80 and he’s like really mad at me. He’s like, you got an 80? And then he’d be like 85. Oh, okay. Then 90. And then by the time we get 99, I’m hoping that he forgets the 80. That’s kind of like what Jacob is doing here. Like different groups of animals send at different phases back to Esau. But it seems to work. And we’ll see that later on, it works. He sends them apart and then night has fallen. All the animals are gone. Then he does something else.

In verse 21, the Bible says, Jacob’s gifts went on ahead of him, but he himself spent the night in the camp. And tomorrow is decision day. It’s D-Day. It’s the day then he will finally get to meet his brother Esau. Then he does something else. 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 similarity between these two names is so striking. Jacob and Jabbok. After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all of his possessions. Now, no one knows really why he did this. Some people say that he was being a coward because he wanted his wives and children to get killed first before they come forward. I don’t think that’s the reason why. I think what happened here is that he allowed them to cross over and he went back to the camp to get the last of the possessions. And his plan was really to cross the river that night as well. But he could not cross the river because he thought it was Esau that was going to prevent him from crossing Jordan, entering into the promised land.

But then he finds out in Genesis 32:22-32, 24 is someone else. Jacob was left alone and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. So his wives are gone. Children are gone. We don’t know how long he’s been alone for. Suddenly in the pitch dark, there’s no lights, nowhere to be found. He’s suddenly gone a hold by a man. And you can just imagine what probably went through his mind. Could this be Esau? But suddenly he’s like, wait a minute. It doesn’t look like Esau. And then also this man is not trying to rob me. And not only that, he’s not killing me. There’s a fight that is going on. But the way it’s fighting, it’s like he just wants to keep it on going. But he’s not robbing me, he’s not killing me.

What is happening here? And it’s pitch dark. And he does not have any idea who this man is. This wrestling till the daybreak is so remarkable. Because this is exactly what has been happening in his life for the last 20 plus years. You know what it is? Constantly wrestling and trying to win the favor of the Lord. You know what he’s been doing all his life? Somehow as a young man, the Bible doesn’t say this. But we can make the assumption that he knew that he was a chosen one. That God’s blessings were supposed to go through him. That he was supposed to be Abraham, Isaac, and not Esau, but Jacob. He knew that. Maybe his mom told him as a promise of God that came to them. And that’s why they thought that they had to, when the blessings were about to be given to Esau, they’re like, no we can’t do that because that’s not the plan of God. What are they trying to do? Trying to kind of, you know, speed up the process of God’s blessings. And then he goes to his uncle and he does everything humanly possible to become wealthy and he does. But you know what his problem is? He’s still restless. He’s still not happy. He’s still worried. There is still Esau. His whole life is still a struggle. Striving. Some verses say they strive with this man till the daybreak. Wrestling. It is a perfect picture of Jacob’s life until this moment. This wrestling with this man till daybreak is what he has been doing all of his life. Running, striving. He has had a restless life because he’s always been a deceiver. He’s always trying to get ahead. He’s always trying to do things his own way. He is not trusting in the Lord fully. And he is trying to receive the blessings of God by doing things his way. That’s exactly what he has done.

In fact, when you study the life of Jacob, if you want to ever divide the life of Jacob into two parts, it will be previous chapters, chapter 27 all the way to chapter 31. And then chapter 32 is the defining moment in his life. And you can see the rest of his life being totally different in the way he lived his life. And that’s because of what happened that night as he wrestled with this man. So verse 25. When the man saw that he could not overpower him. A verse that is very difficult to understand. Because why? Look at the next verse. He touched the socket of Jacob’s hip. Go back. As that hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. So this verse clearly tells us this man whom he was wrestling with had the power to make him to be disabled with one touch. Yet he chose not to overpower the man and he chose to wrestle with him.

Have you ever wrestled with someone that you know that you can easily defeat, but you let them kind of win for a little bit? Because you wanted to keep the match going? Yeah. For instance, looking at Josh, it probably happened, right? Or I know for a fact that, you know, when… I won’t put it on the spot again, but I’ve done that with him. When he was little. And I said this a few weeks ago as well. You kind of let them win when they’re little boys because you want to, you know, you don’t want to completely demoralize them or beat them in a matter of seconds. So this clearly is not the man he was wrestling with was weaker than Jacob. But this man wanted to keep this fight going because you can see that when he wanted to disable him, what did he do? He touched the socket of his hip and he immediately became what? The Bible says, he wrestled with the man. So kind of what he did here as you’re wrestling is literally like breaking the leg of a running back or breaking the arm of a quarterback. Now, after this has happened to him, he’s in very much bad shape. He’s in a lot of pain. One leg is basically completely gone and he is not able to properly even stand up, let alone fight with this man.

And then next verse, the man said, let me go for it is daybreak. Again, another verse that we don’t fully understand why it was important for him to leave when it’s daybreak. Now, I’ll explain to you what I think here in a reason as to why the reason for that is. The man said, let me go for it is daybreak. Now, all of these things that he’s saying and doing is not for his own benefit. It is for the benefit of Jacob because he wants him to get to the next sentence. Look at what he says.

Then Jacob replied, I will not let you go unless you bless me. Wait a minute. I thought this was an intruder. You’re wrestling with somebody all night. This is a strange thing to say to somebody that you’ve been fighting with all night. I will not let you go until you bless me. What has happened at night? All throughout the wrestling, all throughout this encounter, maybe it was the touching of the socket of the hip that disabled him. Jacob finally realized, I’m not fighting with an ordinary man here. This at the least is a messenger from the Lord. And you will see in a minute, it is much more than that. But he is realizing, wait a minute. I prayed, Oh God, save me. But in a way in which it doesn’t make any sense to me. The way God chose to save me is by showing up and reminding me all throughout the night in the way in which I’ve been doing things the wrong way. And here has this man come to set me straight. This is my chance to finally get a hold of him.

And he says, I will not let you go unless you bless me. The man asked him, what is your name? Is it because the man did not know? He wanted he himself to answer it. Jacob, he answered. Probably in a very timid, reluctant way because he knows fully well what that name means. Deceiver, supplanter, somebody who has been trying to get ahead by himself all his life. Jacob, he answered.

Then the man said, your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel because you have struggled with God and humans and have overcome. Your name until this point was, you’re a deceiver. A supplanter, but guess what? From this moment on, I am going to completely change your name and I’m going to make it Israel. We’ll see the significance of that here in a minute. But this completely changes the way he would look at life again. All the mistakes of the past, I’m going to forget it. All the things that you’ve done in the past, I’m going to make sure that you let go of it. I’m going to make sure that your life from this point on is going to be radically different. So what? I’m going to give you a new name. And that new name is Israel.

See, even in God’s word, God gives us new names when we come in Christ. Because before we were in Christ, we had a lot of names that none of us want. Enemies, strangers. These are not names that are welcoming or things that we all want to ever bear. But then God changes our identity. We have the encounter with Christ and suddenly you become children of God. Royal priesthood. Holy nation. And with all of these titles come tremendous identity now. And you realize that my life is not the same anymore. Look at all these titles that God has given to me. God calls them Israel. In the book of Hosea, we see Hosea prophetically talking about this very thing that Jacob did. He says, in the womb, talking about Jacob, he took his brother by the heel. And in his mature strength, he contended with who? God. What is Hosea telling us here? The man with whom he wrestled with on the brook that day was not an ordinary man. It was God himself.

Look at the next verse. Yes, he wrestled with the angel and prevailed. And look what he did. He wept and he implored his favor, begged for his favor. So this man is fighting, right? And this is the picture that Hosea gives to us. He’s about to go. Let go of me, let go of me. It’s daybreak. And what is Jacob doing? Clinging on to him. Remember, he has become a limp man. He’s unable to stand on his own. All he can do is what? Cling, hug onto him and beg him, don’t leave me unless you bless me. What does that show to us? Complete, utter surrender before God. He is done striving, wrestling on his own. He has given up all of his crutches. He has given up all the things that he is boasting upon and he’s saying, don’t leave me. I need your blessing.

This is what God does. God sometimes had to break us like this in order to make us to be the people that he wants us to be. Sometimes he has to crush us. Sometimes he has to take away all of our feelings of adequacies and pride and everything before we come to a point where we say, God, please, I need you and you alone can bless me and make me the person that I want you to be. He begged for his favor. Look at that name that God gave to him, Israel. It’s a very famous name, right? There’s even a country that’s named after it. The people of God would be known as the people Israelites from that point on. It’s because they’ve become descendants of Jacob. But do you know, many people don’t even know what the meaning of the word Israel is. It’s a very interesting word in Hebrew. In fact, some of the modern translations, actually the meaning of Israel is this. Here it says, I am giving you the name Israel because you have overcome man and God. But do you know what the real meaning of Israel is? God has overcome. God has prevailed. What is God saying to Jacob? You have been trying to overcome on your own all your life to get all the blessings by your own attempt. But guess what? Today, I have finally proven that it is not you that has overcome. It is I who have overcome because I was always chasing after you. And finally, I got you exactly what I wanted you to be. God has prevailed.

And in our life, you know what the greatest blessing is? It’s not us prevailing. It is God prevailing over us. God’s will superseding our will. God’s desires superseding our desires. That’s why the Apostle Paul would say, every day I want I to die and him to become more and more in my life. The Christian life truly is about killing yourself daily and allowing Christ to become more and more every single day in your life. That’s why Jesus said, if anyone wants to be a disciple, what does he do? He must what? Deny himself. Take up his cross and follow after me. This denial is not an easy thing because we always think that our ways are the best ways and we know how to do things and we don’t need God. And you know, God is kind of like a byproduct, a side on the way, someone that we turn to when we are really desperate, but we don’t really need him every single day.

And here Jacob is realizing, as long as I’m trying to prevail, I’ll always fail. But if I just let God take over my life and I am now completely dependent upon him, I will finally find the rest that I’m looking for. The story of Jacob is that. One man trying to do things on his own way and finally God stopping and saying, enough is enough. I’ve got you exactly what I want you. You’re afraid, you’re alone. You don’t know what tomorrow holds for you. Tomorrow could be the last day of your life, but I’m here to remind you, I am with you. But in order to get him that way, what do you have to do? You have to give him a pain, a thorn in the flesh, a limb with which he will walk again. We also prevail by recognizing our own inadequacy and clinging to God as the only one who can give us rest. The ultimate way in which we can be victorious in our Christian life is this.

First, acknowledge that without God, you are nothing. You are inadequate. Apart from his grace, apart from his strength, apart from his constant sanctification, renewal in your life, your Christian life will be a failure. You and I cannot do anything on our own. And secondly, our greatest strength comes from clinging onto God. But for that to happen sometimes, God has to make us to be weak by making us limp. Only when we realize that I cannot stand on my own, what do we do? We cling on to God and ask him to carry us. But that’s a beautiful place to be because where he carries us is exactly where he wants us to be. And that’s exactly what we see in the life of Jacob as well.

Look at Isaiah 30:15. This is the will of God for his people. God says, For this is what the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, has said, In repentance and rest you will be saved. In quietness and trust is your strength. But here’s the problem. You are not willing. Always want to be striving, doing things our own. But how many people are able to find the strength of the Lord in the quietness and trust in the Lord? But the gracious God, even when we’re not willing, look what he does, verse 18. The Lord longs to be gracious to you. Therefore, he waits on high to have compassion on you. For the Lord is a God of justice. How blessed are all those who long for him. God is waiting for us to come to a point where all of our trust and all of our clinging is on him. But we’re not willing because we are human beings. But you know what God does? Compassionately, graciously he waits until we come back to him.

Then in verse 29 and 30, Jacob really wants to find out who this person is. Jacob said, Please tell me your name. But he replied, Why do you ask my name? Then he blessed him there. So Jacob called the place Peniel saying, It is because I saw God face to face and yet my life was spared. Peniel means face of God. I saw God face to face. This is a pre-incarnate appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ is what happened on that river. Can you imagine wrestling with Christ all night long? That’s exactly what happened in the life of Jacob. But he said, I saw God face to face and yet my life was spared because no one can see God and be alive. But obviously God had shielded his glory as he appeared. We can see this many times in the Old Testament. Him appearing to Joshua when he was about to attack Jericho. The fourth man in the fiery furnace. These are all pre-incarnate appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ. The one who appeared to Abraham as he welcomed visitors into his home. And then God would stay back and have a conversation with Abraham about what was about to happen in Sodom and Gomorrah. Again, a pre-incarnate appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The question was asked last week. How did Jacob not die after seeing the face of God? God had graciously shielded his glory and made himself to be like a man so that he can have this encounter with the man who would become the father of nations. The one who would birth the nation of Israel through whom the Lord Jesus Christ himself would be born. Now, there’s an interesting thing here. Jacob said, I saw the face of God and I was spared. But honestly, the other is also true. He saw the face of God. He was not only spared his life, but he was actually saved on that day because he encountered the living God. And the next verse is so beautiful. Verse 31. The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel, and he was limping because of his hip. What a contrast here. The rising of the sun there shows a new day, new blessing. Now, as you see, when you go to chapter 33, you will see it. Everything starts to be different in the life of Jacob. And all the fears that he had will all be unfounded as we go to verse 33. But the rising of the sun shows God’s blessings now shining upon him. But then there was also that limping that reminded him of the pain that he had to endure to come to that point.

Many times in our life when we go through this touch of the Lord that makes us to be limping, we don’t like it. And we will pray, God, take it away. But sometimes God says, my grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in your weakness. I don’t know what kind of limp you have, but don’t ever think that all limbs are bad. Some limbs are for your sanctification. And one day in glory, you will thank the Lord that he gave you a limp. I’m not just talking about physical limp. Maybe it’s a mental limp. Maybe it is another kind of weakness in your life. Maybe it is a lifelong struggle with certain sins in your life. But don’t give up. God doesn’t give up on you. Come to that place where you cling on to him and says, I can’t do this on my own. I have tried to fight this battle on my own all my life. All I can do is cling on to you. You have to carry me across. Your struggles, your pain matters to him. And Christian life is not a bed of roses. And it is not like a perfect A to B point of life where everything goes straight to heaven. You will have crooked ways and ways in which you go to. A lot of it is our own doing. But sometimes God even makes you go through that because he wants you to completely be dependent upon him for your grace that you need.

I’ll end with this. This is a song that me and Liz always listen to and we sing because we love the words of it. And it is this. Sometimes life seems like words and music that cannot quite become a song. So we cry inside and we try again and wonder what could be wrong. But when we turn to the Lord at the end of ourselves, like we’ve done a time or two before. A lot of times in our life, it’s like words that can’t quite become a song. But when we turn to him, we find that his truth is the same. As it’s always been. We never will need more than him. And here is the conclusion the songwriter comes to. It’s not in trying, but in trusting. It is not in running, but in resting. It is not in wondering, but in praying that we find the strength of the Lord.

Remember this. It is not in trying, but in trusting. It is not in running, but in resting. It is not in wondering and being worried, but in praying that we find the strength of the Lord. I pray that no matter what striving that you have in your life, that you will realize that some of the sweetest work that God does is when we cling on to him, completely depend upon him, that we find our rest. The hummingbird’s wings beat at a rate of 50 flaps per second. That’s how fast they can flap. But do you know what they do when they’re hovering? They just rest. When they’re hovering, they just rest. And those wings that are flapping at 50 beats per second just come to a standstill. You look at them, seems like nothing is happening. But things are still happening. They’re still resting. They’re still doing the thing. So, if you are trying to do things on your own, I pray that God will give you the grace to realize I need to just cling on to him. I need him more than anything else. It’s not in trying, but in trusting. It’s not in running, but in resting. It’s not in wandering, but in praying that we find the strength of the Lord, listening to the Lord.