Today we're looking at one of my favorite Old Testament stories. Jacob is going to send his family and everything he owns on across the river from him while he stays alone to pray and prepare himself for seeing his brother Esau face to face. But the Lord has another meeting planned before that one; before morning light Jacob will have seen the face of God.
"That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two female servants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions." (Genesis 32:22-23) Jacob gets everyone and everything he has across the stream during the night. Some scholars believe this signifies his faith because once they are across the stream it will be difficult to retreat if they are met by Esau and an army. Others feel that getting them across the stream during the night gives them a better chance of fleeing in the morning if Esau attacks when he appears. My pastor, who preached on this passage recently, feels that Jacob separates himself from his family as a way of saying to Esau, "I'm the one you want. Let these people go. Your dispute is with me, not with them."
The Bible doesn't tell us why Jacob separates himself from everyone and everything else during the night, but I think it may have been so he could spend time with the Lord alone. Jacob can scarcely hear himself think while surrounded by a frightened crowd of adults and children and hundreds of noisy animals. It would be very difficult to focus on prayer while camping in this company and perhaps Jacob needs silence and solitude to commune with the Lord. The reason I believe Jacob prays is because the Lord shows up. "So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak." (Genesis 32:24)
This is not a mere man. The prophet Hosea makes mention of Jacob's nighttime wrestling match, saying, "In the womb he grasped his brother's heel; as a man he struggled with God. He struggled with the angel and overcame Him; he wept and begged for His favor. He found Him at Bethel and talked with Him there---the Lord God Almighty, the Lord is His name!" (Hosea 12:3-5) Hosea clearly identifies Jacob's opponent as the Lord. This man---this angel---is another pre-incarnate appearance of Christ in the Old Testament. We've previously seen occurrences of this in Genesis. Even before His incarnation, when Christ appeared to human beings He appeared as a man. He is also sometimes referred to in the Old Testament as "the angel of the Lord" when He appears. So we find the Bible referring to Jacob's opponent as "a man" and as "the angel". The Bible doesn't describe this man's arrival, what He looked like, or how the wrestling match began. Perhaps Jacob was deep in prayer and suddenly someone laid hands on him. Startled, he would naturally have begun defending himself. But as the night wears on Jacob realizes this is not a human being like himself. This is the Lord.
There's a reason why our prayer time is often referred to as "wrestling in prayer". Prayer can be hard work. Prayer is a time when we bring all our concerns and requests to the One who is able to take care of them. Prayer is a time when the Lord brings to our attention things that need to be dealt with. Prayer is when the Lord can instruct us what to let go of and what to hang on to. Jacob and the man don't wrestle til daybreak because they are evenly matched; they wrestle til daybreak because that's how long it takes for God to do business with Jacob. That's how long it takes for Jacob to let go of anything in his heart that might have been putting distance between him and God. That's how long it takes for Jacob to fully surrender to God.
The sun is about to rise over the hills and these two are still locked together in combat. Jacob still hasn't quite reached his destination, spiritually speaking. But the meeting with Esau is imminent and time is running out for Jacob to arrive wherever the Lord is leading him in his heart. "When the man saw that He could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob's hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. Then the man said, 'Let Me go, for it is daybreak.'" (Genesis 32:25-26a)
The Lord could have overpowered Jacob at any time. He could have pinned Jacob to the mat, so to speak, and held him down until he gave up. But the Lord is a gentleman. Did He force any of you to accept Him as your Savior and King? Did He overpower you to the point that there was nothing you could do but give in and give Him your allegiance? Of course not, and He didn't deal with me in that manner either. He wants us to give Him our hearts willingly. As the sky begins to lighten, there's something Jacob hasn't yet given the Lord willingly. Jacob is continuing to struggle against something in his heart. That "something" may be his old nature---the nature that compelled him to be a liar and a deceiver in his younger days. That "something" may be his self-reliance, for we've seen he's an intelligent and crafty man who has the skills to be successful in life. We don't know exactly what it was that Jacob needed to hand over to the Lord, but he struggles all night with the need to hand it over. I've been reluctant to let go of things, haven't you? I've held onto wrong attitudes or wrong beliefs. But just as a doctor can't heal a deep cut unless we stop covering it with our hand and allow him to treat it, the Great Physician can't heal the things wrong with us until we stop covering them and allow Him access to them.
Jacob is out of strength. He can't wrestle any longer. All he can do is cling to the Lord. "But Jacob replied, 'I will not let You go unless You bless me.'" (Genesis 32:26b) Yes! This is what the Lord wants to hear! Jacob is saying, in the words of a popular hymn, "All to Jesus I surrender." He's saying, "I can't do anything on my own. I need You, Lord. I surrender! I surrender everything I am and everything I have to You. Without You I am nothing. Without You I have nothing. Without You nothing matters. Unless You bless me I have no hope because I can't do anything worthwhile on my own. I need You, Lord."
The Lord is going to bless him but begins by asking a question, "The man asked him, 'What is your name?' 'Jacob,' he answered." (Genesis 32:27) The Lord is able to make him into a new man, but first Jacob must confess to being the old man: Jacob the supplanter, Jacob the deceiver. These are some of the meanings of his name and, just as we must confess to being sinners when we come to Christ for salvation, Jacob must confess to the Lord that he is a sinner. He must admit that he has not always lived in a way that honors God. He must agree with God that he has violated God's principles. He does this and now he and the Lord are on the same page.
The Lord gives him a new name. Jacob is no longer who he used to be, and neither are we when we surrender to the Lord. The Bible tells us that we become new creatures in Christ. (2 Corinthians 5:17) Because Jacob has a new relationship with the Lord, the Lord gives him a new name. "Then the man said, 'Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.'" (Genesis 32:28) Jacob receives a name which commemorates the night he wrestled with God and overcame his old nature through God. He didn't prevail over God; he prevailed by surrendering to God.
"Jacob said, 'Please tell me Your name.' But he replied, 'Why do you ask My name?' Then He blessed him there." (Genesis 32:29) I think He's saying, "Jacob, you know who I am. You don't even have to ask."
It's apparent that Jacob does know who the man is when we see the name Jacob gives to the place where they wrestled. "So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, 'It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.'" (Genesis 32:30) The name "Peniel" means "face of God".
"The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel, and he was limping because of his hip. Therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the tendon attached to the socket of the hip, because the socket of Jacob's hip was touched near the tendon." (Genesis 32:31-32) When eating meat the Israelites would not eat that particular portion in order to remember the day the Lord touched Jacob.
Jacob will limp for the rest of his life. He will have a daily reminder of the night he surrendered his heart to the Lord. At every turn, and at every step, he will remember that the Lord touched him. Jacob could very easily sing the words of a song that's often sung in churches today, "He touched me. Oh, He touched me. And, oh, the joy that floods my soul! Something happened, and now I know, He touched me and made me whole." Jacob may have a limp in his body, but his heart and soul have been made whole. The limp is a perpetual reminder of the healing and blessing he received from God.
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