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In the Beginning…
#10. Jacob,
When God Is All You Have Left!
So Jacob was left alone,
and a man wrestled with him till daybreak.
Genesis 32:24
Jacob, in distress and all alone, spends a
night wrestling with God. When the sun comes up, he is a changed man, ready to play his part in God’s wonderful plan of redemption. What happened?
1. First, some context…
Then Rebekah said to Isaac,
“I’m disgusted with living because of these Hittite women.
If Jacob takes a wife from among the women of this land,
from Hittite women like these, my life will not be worth living.”
So Isaac called for Jacob and blessed him and commanded him:
“Do not marry a Canaanite woman.
Go at once to Paddan Aram, to the house of your mother’s father Bethuel.
Take a wife for yourself there,
from among the daughters of Laban, your mother’s brother.”
Genesis 27:46- 28:2
Jacob heard that Laban’s sons were saying,
“Jacob has taken everything our father owned
and has gained all this wealth from what belonged to our father.”
And Jacob noticed that Laban’s attitude toward him was not what it had been.
Genesis 31:1-2,
Then the Lord said to Jacob,
“Go back to the land of your fathers and to your relatives,
and I will be with you.”
Genesis 31:3
Esau said, “Isn’t he rightly named Jacob?
He has deceived me these two times: He took my birthright,
and now he’s taken my blessing!”
Genesis 27:36
Where Jacob (he thinks) is going… Jacob, knowing his brother’s anger has been simmering for 20 years, fears the worst…
Esau held a grudge against Jacob
because of the blessing his father had given him.
He said to himself, “The days of mourning for my father are near;
then I will kill my brother Jacob.”
Genesis 27:41
In great fear and distress
Jacob divided the people who were with him into two groups,
and the flocks and herds and camels as well.
He thought, “If Esau comes and attacks one group,
the group that is left may escape.”
Genesis 32:7, 8
Jacob is at a point in his life where the
ghosts (sins and mistakes) of his past are now haunting his future. He is, simply put, between Iraq and a hard place (sorry, couldn’t resist!). This fear of the consequences and his helplessness to avoid them
provide a “rock bottom” for God to enter into his life and teach him how to finally let go of his pride and self-sufficiency. What “Laban” am I running from? What “Esau” am I afraid to face? What is keeping me from
giving it to God and trusting Him for the result, whatever that result may be?
- The encounter itself…
Before the encounter… - Jacob is _ALONE_.
So Jacob was left alone…
Genesis 32:24
- _GOD_ initiates the “fight.”
…and a man wrestled with him till daybreak.
Genesis 32:24
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.
Genesis 32:25
- ii. Jacob gives up trying to _BEAT_
God, and settles for _JUST_HOLDING_ON_
to Him,
Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.”
But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”
Genesis 32:26
The man asked him, “What is your name?”
“Jacob,” he answered.
Genesis 32:27
Then the man said,
“Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel,
because you have struggled with God and with men
and have overcome.”
Genesis 32:28
Jacob said, “Please tell me your name.”
But he replied, “Why do you ask my name?”
Then he blessed him there.
Genesis 32:29
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
Jacob looked up and there was Esau, coming with his four hundred men…
Genesis 33:1
- What do I learn from Jacob…?
Running from the consequences of my sin just _DELAYS_ the inevitable reckoning. Running away from God is _IMPOSSIBLE_.
An honest encounter with God will be _HUMBLING_
, but it is my only path to blessing. God loves me too much to leave me the way I am. - God wants to change _ME_, not my circumstances.
If I’m _RIGHT_ with God, then all my other relationships have a chance to be healthy, too.
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