God Wrestles with Jacob
The heading in our Bibles is incorrect. It often reads above the 22nd verse in Genesis 32, "Jacob Wrestles with God." But the text doesn't say that. It says:
Genesis 32:24 (ESV) And Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day.
Who was looking for this fight? It certainly couldn't have been Jacob. He was a nervous wreck! He was praying and planning on how to appease his brother. He was devising his schemes to come home peacefully because Laban's home had nothing for him and God spoke to him about returning. The problem was Esau. Four hundred soldiers were coming with him. That's not a pretty piece of news.
So after praying and planning and sending everyone ahead of him, Jacob is alone and God comes and picks a fight. He wrestles with Jacob all night. Have you ever wrestled? It's exhausting. Jacob keeps the fight going for hours! I don't know how he did it. But the funny thing is, God has to do something tricky to get Jacob subdued. He wrenches his hip and disables Jacob but Jacob refuses to let go without a blessing.
What a weird story to be in the Bible. If anyone could imagine this was written solely by man, you'd have to think, "What kind of people invent a Deity like this?" He fights with His servants, He disables them, and then when they can only hold on, He blesses them. These stories may sound strange. Perhaps that's what makes them so Divine! If we could wrap our heads around them, would they not simply be the inventions of man? They have to be God-inspired to entail stories like this.
But what is God up to? Why the fight with Jacob?
It is because Jacob had wrestled his way to where he was in life and now he's back to his old tricks trying to appease Esau and manipulate what is a hostile situation. And this time, God says, "enough." He saps all his strength on the very important day of the meeting with his hostile brother, he disables his walk so that he limps and sends him on his way with ONE THING to his credit - the blessing of God and a new name. No longer will Jacob we the deceiver or heel-grabber. Now he's going to be Israel, "God commands". Now Jacob will get where God wants him not in Jacob's strength, but rather, in weakness. Now Jacob will see God's strength is made perfect in our weakness.
This is what God does with His people. He blesses them in disabling their greatest strength. It is the way of God to make Himself known to His chosen. He will not let you get away with thinking you did it. He will not let your works speak for themselves. He insists on blessing those who admit they've got very little to bring to the table so that His power and greatness may be known in all the Earth.
What is God fighting out of you?
What is God wrestling away from you?
Security, friendship, money, power, authority, ability, popularity, perhaps even your own intelligence? He doesn't take them away, he just shows them for what they are, far less potent than His strength in your life.
When God wrestles you into submission and all you can do is hold on. HOLD ON! There's a blessing in the making!
Amen.
Genesis 32:24 (ESV) And Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day.
Who was looking for this fight? It certainly couldn't have been Jacob. He was a nervous wreck! He was praying and planning on how to appease his brother. He was devising his schemes to come home peacefully because Laban's home had nothing for him and God spoke to him about returning. The problem was Esau. Four hundred soldiers were coming with him. That's not a pretty piece of news.
So after praying and planning and sending everyone ahead of him, Jacob is alone and God comes and picks a fight. He wrestles with Jacob all night. Have you ever wrestled? It's exhausting. Jacob keeps the fight going for hours! I don't know how he did it. But the funny thing is, God has to do something tricky to get Jacob subdued. He wrenches his hip and disables Jacob but Jacob refuses to let go without a blessing.
What a weird story to be in the Bible. If anyone could imagine this was written solely by man, you'd have to think, "What kind of people invent a Deity like this?" He fights with His servants, He disables them, and then when they can only hold on, He blesses them. These stories may sound strange. Perhaps that's what makes them so Divine! If we could wrap our heads around them, would they not simply be the inventions of man? They have to be God-inspired to entail stories like this.
But what is God up to? Why the fight with Jacob?
It is because Jacob had wrestled his way to where he was in life and now he's back to his old tricks trying to appease Esau and manipulate what is a hostile situation. And this time, God says, "enough." He saps all his strength on the very important day of the meeting with his hostile brother, he disables his walk so that he limps and sends him on his way with ONE THING to his credit - the blessing of God and a new name. No longer will Jacob we the deceiver or heel-grabber. Now he's going to be Israel, "God commands". Now Jacob will get where God wants him not in Jacob's strength, but rather, in weakness. Now Jacob will see God's strength is made perfect in our weakness.
This is what God does with His people. He blesses them in disabling their greatest strength. It is the way of God to make Himself known to His chosen. He will not let you get away with thinking you did it. He will not let your works speak for themselves. He insists on blessing those who admit they've got very little to bring to the table so that His power and greatness may be known in all the Earth.
What is God fighting out of you?
What is God wrestling away from you?
Security, friendship, money, power, authority, ability, popularity, perhaps even your own intelligence? He doesn't take them away, he just shows them for what they are, far less potent than His strength in your life.
When God wrestles you into submission and all you can do is hold on. HOLD ON! There's a blessing in the making!
Amen.
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