Jacob Wrestles with God

Once again, for the wonderful gift of music and how it draws us, Lord, to the realities of our faith, and how as we sing about the promises of God and the truth of who you really are, we ask that our lives would really fully grasp the character and nature of God Almighty. This morning, as we journey once again back to the book of beginnings, we are praying that you would open our eyes, help us to see as we examine the life of Jacob, our lives, and thus understand what he would come to understand, that we might live in obedience to the word of God.

We thank you that we have this wonderful treasure, this wonderful gift that you've given to us in the holy word, and pray that we would see it as a treasure, value it as such, and thus live victoriously because of it. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. Turn back with me, if you would, to the book of Genesis, the 32nd chapter. Today we look at Jacob's life-changing experience as he wrestles with the living God.

Jacob's going to encounter God as he has never encountered Him before, and he will leave a changed man after Genesis chapter 32. It has been two decades since he has left Esau, fled and went to Haran and met up with Laban, and now he's going to journey back to face his brother. And in journeying back, he is really obeying the call of God upon his life, for God has called him to go back to the land of promise. And in going back to where God has called him to go, he will have to face the consequences of a sin, and in facing the consequences of a sin, he's going to realize that time nor geography will change the consequences of sin, but God will change Jacob.

And as God changes Jacob, Jacob will be able to face Esau, and Jacob will come out victoriously as he understands the plans and purposes of God in his life. You will note that whenever God calls you to obey Him, you will find obstacles, you will find challenges, and this is just one of the many obstacles that Jacob faces as he obeys the call of God upon his life. If God calls you to do something, in that call there will be certain challenges before you that you will face, because God wants you to trust Him amidst the call and to realize that He is faithful through that call to make you into whatever it is He wants you to become.

So we will learn many valuable lessons. The greatest one is that God wants to show Himself strong amidst your weaknesses. That's what Jacob will learn. And the lesson that we will read this morning is going to be so pertinent to your life and to mine. As you read through the narrative in Genesis 32, you might not pick it up right away, but as we go through it, you will see that Jacob's life is a lot like your life and mine. Let's read the narrative together, Genesis 32 beginning with verse number 1.

Now as Jacob went on his way, the angels of God met him. And Jacob said when he saw them, this is God's camp. So he named the place Mahanaim. Then Jacob sent messengers before him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom. He also commended him, saying, Thus you shall say to my lord Esau, Thus says your servant Jacob, I have sojourned with Laban and stayed until now, and I have oxen and donkeys and flocks and male and female servants, and I have sent to tell my lord that I may find favor in your sight.

And the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, We came to your brother Esau, and furthermore he is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him. Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed, and he divided the people who were with him and the flocks and the herds and the camels into two companies. For he said, If Esau comes to the one company and attacks it, then the company which is left will escape. And Jacob said, O God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, O Lord, who did say to me, Return to your country and to your relatives, and I will prosper you, I am unworthy of all the lovingkindness and of all the faithfulness which thou hast shown to thy servant.

For with my staff only I crossed Jordan, and now I have become two companies. Deliver me, I pray, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear him, lest he come and attack me, the mothers, with the children. For thou didst say, I will surely prosper you, and make your descendants as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude. So he spent the night there, then he selected from what he had with him a present for his brother Esau, two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, thirty milking camels and their colts, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys.

And he delivered them to the hand of his servants, every drove by itself. And said to his servants, Pass on before me, and put a space between droves. And he commanded the one in front, saying, When my brother Esau meets you, and asks you, saying, To whom do you belong? And where are you going? And to whom do these animals in front of you belong? Then you shall say, These belong to your servant Jacob, it is a present sent to my Lord Esau. And behold, he also is behind us. Then he commanded also the second and the third, and all those who follow the drove, saying, After this manner you shall speak to Esau when you find him.

And you shall say, Behold, your servant Jacob also is behind us. For he said, I will appease him with the present that goes before me. Then afterward I will see his face, perhaps he will accept me. So the present passed on before him, while he himself spent that night in the camp. Now he arose that same night, and took his two wives, and his two maids, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Japheth. And he stood, and he took them, she and me, and sent them across the stream, and he sent across whatever he had.

Then Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. And when he saw that he had not prevailed against him, he touched the socket of his thigh, so that socket of Jacob's thigh was dislocated, while he wrestled with him. Then he said, Let me go, for the dawn is breaking.

But he said, I will not let you go unless you bless me. So he said to him, What is your name? He said, Jacob. And he said, Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God, and with men, and have prevailed. Then Jacob asked him, and said, Please tell me your name. But he said, Why is it that you ask my name? And he blessed him there. So Jacob named the place Peniel. For he said, I have seen God face to face, yet my life has been preserved. Now the sun rose upon him just as he crossed over Peniel.

And he said, limping, excuse me, and he was limping on his thigh. Therefore, to this day, the sons of Israel do not eat the muscle of the hip, which is on the socket of the thigh, because he touched the socket of Jacob's thigh in the muscle of the hip. There are five things I want you to notice with me in this morning's text.

The first is Jacob's reception. From there, we will look at Jacob's apprehension. And then we will see Jacob's petition, then Jacob's conciliation, and then lastly, Jacob's confrontation. All to realize that God is doing a marvelous work in the life of Jacob, just like he wants to do a marvelous work in your life as well. This morning, I hope you see that as we look at the text together.

First of all, Jacob's reception. Having left Laban, Jacob was headed toward Bethel, the destination that God had appointed for him. But in the back of his mind, he knew he would have to encounter his brother Esau, because he lived near Mount Seir, and therefore he would have to pass through that area in order to return to Bethel. But yet God knew, listen carefully, God knew what Jacob was feeling and what Jacob was thinking. And like always, God goes before his servants, and God prepared for Jacob a reception.

Two things I want you to see about this reception. Number one, the angels, and number two, their assurance.

It says, now as Jacob went on his way, the angels of God met him. That's important, isn't it? They didn't just appear, they met him. They were the welcoming committee. They were there specifically designed to meet Jacob as he would come to this area. God wanted Jacob to know that he was with him, that he would protect him, that he would watch over him. Our God is a gracious God. He knows what we need before we even ask him. Jacob hasn't even gone to his knees to pray yet, yet God has gone before him and prepared these angels to meet Jacob.

And what do they do? They provide for him assurance. Assurance of God's presence, and assurance of God's protection, because God had promised that he would be with Jacob. It says that when Jacob saw these angels, he said, this is God's camp. So he named that place Mahanaim, which means double camp, or two camps, meaning that the angels were in front of him and the angels were behind him. He was encamped. That is, he was surrounded by God's protection. They were in two camps, one before him and one after him.

God assured him that he would protect him. As you recall, 20 years ago at Bethel, Jacob encountered the angels ascending and descending on a ladder. And now again, 20 years later, he sees another group of angels. Maybe it's the same angels, I don't know. But they were there to meet him, to assure him that he would be protected. Angels have a unique ministry with God's people. God uses angels in a significant kind of way to cause us to realize God's powerful hand of protection. The Bible says over in Psalm 34, verse number 7, these words, the angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him and rescues them.

It says over in Psalm 46, verse number 7, the Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our stronghold. Down in verse 11, the Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our stronghold. You see, we need assurance of God's protection. All of us do. And sometimes we come to church on Sunday morning, we hear the word of the Lord, we realize the mighty power of God. In fact, the choir sing about the mighty power of God and his greatness. And we sing about that, we listen to it. And as soon as we leave those doors and they close behind us, and we get in our car to go home, we have completely forgotten about God's protection of our lives.

We drive down the highway in fear, we go home living in fear, not understanding God's powerful protection. Oh, we'll come to church, we'll hear it, we'll see of it, we'll experience it, because the word of God has been opened to us. But when we leave, everything changes. We forget. And yet God wants to assure us of his protection. That same Psalm, Psalm 46, is that key Psalm that says, cease striving and know that I am God. Cease striving, relax, and know that I am your God. I am your stronghold.

And the Lord of hosts is the one who encamps around us. And the Lord of hosts is the one who protects us. You will note that it will be Jacob who doesn't cease to strive. He continues to strive, and thus doesn't really come to know his God until he actually wrestles with God. We move from Jacob's reception to Jacob's apprehension. He has just met the angels. Can you imagine that? Meeting the angels. Now, understand this. Remember, Jacob doesn't have the opportunity to open the word of God and to read it and to understand God's protective power in his life.

It was 20 years before that he saw the angels, and now it's been 20 years that he sees the angels again. And God had told him in Genesis 31, Jacob, if you leave and go back to the land of promise, I will be with you. So he had to wait for God to speak to him. And I keep reminding you of this to help you understand that we have it much better than Jacob had it. Why? Because we have the living, revealed word of God that we can open at any moment and read and understand God's protective power in our lives.

But yet, so many times we don't even open the book except on Sunday mornings. And some of us come to church and don't even bring a Bible. We expect to understand the protective power of God. And yet, Jacob had to wait for God to show up, for God to speak. He sees the angels. But yet, Jacob has some apprehensions. So you know what he does? The Bible tells us in verse number three, he sends some men ahead to meet Esau.

He sends some messengers ahead so that they might tell him what Jacob possesses. In order that somehow he might be able to defuse the fiery anger of Esau. Now, it's been 20 years since the deception. It's been 20 years since Esau said, I'm going to kill Jacob. It's been 20 years since Jacob's mother said, you need to go because Esau is going to kill you if you stay. Does Jacob know for certain that Esau still has that bitter rage within him? No, he doesn't. But he assumes. He's apprehensive. So he has a plan to send his messengers on ahead to tell them that Jacob is coming and all that Jacob has.

Because somehow the things that Jacob has might defuse the anger of Esau. But there's a problem. The messengers return. And they say, Esau's coming. And not only is Esau coming, he has 400 men with him. And Jacob's thinking, oh no, I am a dead man. It ain't going to happen. Here he comes. He's still angry. He's bringing 400 men with him. He's going to wipe me out. He's going to wipe out my family. And the text is very clear. Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed. Folks, this was a test. This was a test by God to see if Jacob really believed in the protective power of God.

God said, this is where you are to go. This is my call upon your life. This is where you need to be, Jacob. So Jacob says, okay, I'll obey the call of God in my life. And upon obeying the call of God in his life, he knows he's going to have to face his past. And in facing his past, he wants to somehow manipulate the events of the present in order that he might win favor or grace in the eyes of Esau. And yet, the word comes back. He's coming. He's got 400 men with him, Jacob. And Jacob panics. He's apprehensive, extremely apprehensive.

That's why he sent the men on ahead of him. Now it's beyond apprehension. Now it's anxiety for what's going to take place next, which leads us to point number three, Jacob's petition.

Now, let's commend Jacob because this is a good thing. This is what he needs to be doing, right? He needs to petition his God. He needs to go before the throne of God and ask God. And you'll see three things that Jacob does. Number one, he appeals to God's faithfulness.

After he divided his company up into two camps, he said these words in verse number nine. O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O Lord who did say to me, return to your country and to your relatives and I will prosper you. He says, God, I'm going to appeal to you based on your faithfulness. Why? Because God doesn't lie. God is trustworthy. And God, you told me to do this. And you promised that if I do this, you will prosper me. In fact, it says down in verse number 12, for thou did say, I will surely prosper you and make your descendants as a sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.

God, you said it. God, Esau's coming after me. Esau's going to kill me. I am scared spitless, God. What am I going to do here? So I'm going to appeal to your faithfulness. You said to return to the land. So I obeyed. And because I obeyed, I'm appealing to you based on what you have already told me that you are going to prosper me and that you're going to bless me. That's a good prayer. Why? Because it's a prayer based on what God has already said. All good prayers stem from what God has already said.

That's how you know you're praying properly, right? That's how you know you're praying in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's how you know you're praying in accord with his will. You pray the words of God. God, you said, therefore, I'm appealing to you on your faithfulness because you don't lie. And therefore, I am coming to you. The next thing you see about Jacob's petition is that not only did he appeal to God's faithfulness, he accepted his own unworthiness. That's important. Look what it says in verse number 10.

I am unworthy of all the loving kindness and of all the faithfulness which thou has shown to thy servant. Again, that's a great prayer. He's not coming to God arrogantly. He's not coming to God because he has a unique position with God. He is not coming to God because God has specifically called him. And he's a father of a tremendous tribe of boys who are going to be a father of a great nation. He's not coming to God arrogantly. He's coming to God saying, Lord, I am not worthy of anything. I am unworthy of all your loving kindness.

I am unworthy of all your mercies. You see, we go to God thinking that we're worthy of something. We go to God thinking that we're pretty good. We go to God thinking that he owes us something. And Jacob realizes God doesn't owe him anything because he's unworthy of everything God's already given to him. That's where we need to be in our prayer life. That's how we need to see God working in our lives. And until we realize that we are unworthy of the mercies of God, of the loving kindness of God, that we deserve nothing, we will never be mightily used of God.

We never will. As long as we come to God thinking that we deserve something, as long as we think, listen, as long as we come to God thinking that we don't deserve something, that is, the bad things that are happening to us, you'll never be used mightily of God. Don't ever go to God saying, you know, God, I don't deserve this. I don't need this. This is not right. Because that's just arrogance and pride. Go to God saying, Lord, I am unworthy of your loving kindness. I am unworthy of your mercy. I am unworthy of all you've given to me, God, because really, I'm nothing.

And that goes against with everything you're taught in your school system and in your work system, that you have to think of yourself as something and think positively about yourself. Don't think of yourself as a worm. Don't think of yourself as nothing. Think of yourself as something great. But the Bible goes contrary to that. Because the Bible says you're nothing but dust.

But God is mindful that you're dust. And therefore has compassion on you and has mercy upon you. And so Jacob would come to God and he would accept his unworthiness. He would come and appeal to God's faithfulness. Remember the Apostle Paul who said, I am the least of all the saints. I'm the least. I'm the worst. I'm the chief of all the sinners. He understood that he was nothing before Almighty God. We tend to go before God and think that we're in a better position to the guy in front of us at church or the guy behind us at church because, you know, things in their family is not so good.

But things in my family are pretty good. And therefore that guy is worse than I am. And so I can go to God and appeal to him based on my standing with God. No, he can't do that. And Jacob came accepting his unworthiness. And then thirdly, he came to God and asked.

Asked for God's deliverance. Look what he says. He says this. He says, deliver me, I pray, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear him lest he come and attack me, the mothers with the children. Oh God, oh God, deliver me. I fear him. See, Jacob was really afraid. Jacob was scared that he was going to die. He was scared his family was going to die. And so he had to come and ask God to deliver him. He freely admitted his fear of man. And asked for God to intervene and to do a mighty work.

The Bible says in Psalm 56 verse number 3, What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee. Isaiah 12 verse number 2 says, Behold, God is my salvation, I will trust and not be afraid. God is my salvation. God is my stronghold. God is my king. God is my anchor. I will not be afraid. Now, when you think about this, Jacob has a reception. Here are all these angels encamped around him to assure him that God would protect him. That's a good thing. But yet, Jacob has an apprehension. He's not quite sure that things are going to work out as God said, so he devises a plan.

And as he sends forth his messengers to tell Esau that he's coming and that he has all kinds of things that he could give to him in order to find favor in Esau's sight, the messengers return and say, We have a problem, Jacob. Esau's already coming and Esau has 400 men. So what do you do? You pray. You go to God. You fall on your knees. And you appeal his faithfulness. You accept your unworthiness. And you ask for deliverance. That's a great prayer. That's what we need to do, right? That's so important.

Now, if Jacob would have done exactly as he prayed, it would have been a great story. But he didn't do that. No. Jacob still had a plan. Listen very carefully. There are times where we go to our knees. We find ourselves in an extremely difficult predicament. And we don't know what to do. So we plead to God. And we might pray the prayer properly. We might pray it as it's supposed to be prayed because it's founded on the Word of God and it's rooted in the character of God. And we are trusting God to do a great and mighty work.

And we say amen. And we get up off our knees. And you know what we do? We seek to assist God. You ever been there? Maybe you're not there. Maybe this is for another church in another community, some other place. But you know what? We've all been there, haven't we? We get up off our knees having prayed a magnificent prayer because it's true and it's right and it's biblical. And yet, what do we do? We have to be in control. We have to deal with the situation. And that's Jacob. Jacob sets out to deal with the scenario.

What does he do? The Bible tells us. It says this. He spent the night there. Then he selected from what he had with him a present for his brother Esau. Now listen carefully. He is going to try to manipulate his brother Esau. Now I know that you've never done this before but there are people who pray, ask God to do a great work in the life of their spouse and then immediately go home and begin to manipulate the events in the house. There are people who pray for their children, asking God to do a mighty work in their children and pray for God to do a mighty work and then get up off their knees and begin to set in motion a series of events that will cause their children to change.

You ever been there? I'm sure you have. That's where Jacob is. Jacob believes that he somehow needs to help God. You know, we really do believe the Lord helps those who help themselves. Right? Now that's not biblical but that's what we really believe. You know, I pray to God. Now I got to do my part. I've got to go out there and I got to do what I think is the right thing to do. And in doing that, what we're doing is doubting, doubting the power and providence and protection of God. Let me show you what happens.

The first thing you're going to need to note is that Jacob lacked confidence in God's power to change Esau's heart.

Jacob lacked confidence in God's power to change Esau's heart. That's why Jacob sent him a present thinking that the present would soften Esau's heart and change it and thus accept Jacob back after 20 years. He seeks to appease Esau. Look down in verse number 20. For he said, I will appease him with the present that goes before me. Then afterward, I will see his face. Perhaps he will accept me. I'm going to appease him. He'll accept me. If I give him enough good things, if I do enough right things, his heart will change and I can buy his friendship.

I can buy the relationship. You ever been in that situation? Thinking that if you give your children everything that they want, that you'll have a good relationship with your children? You put a phone in their room. You put a TV in their room. You put a computer in their room. You let them wear the clothes they want to wear and now you're going to have a good relationship with your kids? Thinking that if I just purchase everything, they'll love me and they'll accept me. They'll like me. Oh, quite the contrary.

You do that for your kids, guess what? They'll turn on you and rebel against you quicker than anything because they've got you right where they want you. They got a finger in your nose. They're leading you right around their house, just like this. That's what they're doing. You're not going to appease them. They're not going to accept you because you have purchased enough things for them. That's not how it works. When you pray, Oh God, help my child not to rebel. And then you go out and buy everything.

Just like Jacob. Oh God, deliver me. Oh God, protect me. Okay, now what kind of good present can I give Esau now that he'll accept me and I'll appease him? That's where Jacob is. He lacked confidence in God's power to change Esau's heart. Listen.

The Bible says, whatever is not of faith is sin. Romans 14, verse number 23. Did you know that? Whatever is not of faith is sin. That's why the Bible says that we walk by faith and not by sight.

If you walk by sight, you sin. If you walk by faith, you don't. So whatever is not of faith is sin because you see, you're not trusting God. You're asking God to do something but not believing that he's going to actually do it. And although he prayed this great prayer, he really did lack confidence in God's power to change Esau's heart. Number two, he lacked concern for God's providence to control the situation.

He lacked concern in God's providence to control the situation. How do we know that? Very simply, he calls Esau, my Lord. He calls himself, Jacob, the servant of Esau. That is a clear violation of what God has already said. God has already said back in Genesis chapter 28 that the older shall serve the younger. The older is a servant of the younger. Esau is a servant of Jacob. But Jacob sees himself as now the servant of Esau. That's a violation of God's word. God said that Jacob's descendants would be stronger than Esau's and that Esau would serve Jacob.

And yet he calls Esau his Lord. A total violation of what God has clearly stated in his word. You see, even in spite of all the deception that took place 20 years earlier, God had a plan. A plan, as we noted in Romans chapter 9, that clearly spells out to us exactly what God was doing. And Jacob lacked confidence in God's providence to control the situation. And thirdly, he lacked conviction.

This was not in your notes, this was added later. He lacked conviction in God's protection to contend for his enemies. He lacked conviction in God's protection. He prayed for God's deliverance. He prayed for God to protect him. He saw the angels round about him. But he really did lack the conviction because he would take his family in the middle of the night, cross the river, which was a dangerous thing to do, and go and hide them and go and protect them. And while we might say, oh, Jacob, you're a great man because you're protecting your family, on the contrary, he should have taken his family and said, look, this is how we're going to trust God together.

This is how we're going to watch God work because God's going to protect this. But Jacob didn't have that faith that God was going to protect him. Didn't have the conviction truly that God would protect him. A lot of people pray and sing about the mighty power of God and pray for God, the stronghold, to protect them. And they leave and they live in fear. Anxiety wells up within them because they really, truly lack conviction in their own hearts that God is really going to protect them, as he said.

So now you see Jacob's conciliation, his avenue to win over, to soften the heart of Esau. And although he prayed, he really didn't believe what he prayed. So now you come to Jacob's confrontation. Now he comes to a point in his life where God's going to get his attention. And God's going to cause him to see what he's missed and thus change his life forever. Three things. Number one, Jacob was alone.

That's what it says in verse number 24, that Jacob was left alone. That's good. That's good. Because you see, he needed to be by himself. He needed to be all alone. Now, if you read the old commentaries on this, they write voluminously concerning the fact that Jacob was left alone. If you read the new commentaries, they don't say anything about it. They skip right over it. Because the old timers knew what it meant to be alone with God. Jacob was alone. I mean, we live in the age of the cell phone.

We're never alone. Man, we're on the phone all the time. We used to listen to the radio in the car. And then they came out with the 8-track system. And so we listened to 8-tracks. Then they went to the cassette tape system. Now they're at the CD system. And now we got cell phones in our cars. We can't even get in our car and be alone. We got to listen to something or talk to somebody on the phone. Being alone is not something very popular, but very essential if we're ever going to meet and understand God himself.

We don't like being alone. Very few of us ever spend alone time evaluating our situation and our condition in light of what God has said. And yet Jacob comes to that point where he is left all alone. You see, when you're alone, you can't be distracted, can you? We love the distractions. They keep our mind occupied. They keep us from thinking bad things. It keeps us from thinking things that we don't want to think about. And so if we can watch the right sitcom to get me to laugh off my problems, if I can be occupied by many different things so I don't have to think about the realities of life, maybe it'll all go away.

But it doesn't go away. Jacob was left alone. 20 years before this, he met God at Bethel. He became a believing man. Now he becomes a broken man. He was alone with God. Number two, he battled with God.

It says, and the man wrestled with him until daybreak. Now, have you ever been in a wrestling match? You ever try to wrestle somebody? My kids like to wrestle with me. In about five or 10 minutes, I'm worn out. And that's just with my kids. Here is Jacob wrestling the pre-incarnate Christ. Now, how do you know that? Oh, that's easy. First of all, it says he named the place Peniel because he saw the face of God.

But in case you have problems with that, all you got to do is read Hosea 12, verses 2 to 6. And it tells you who the man is. It says this, The Lord also has a dispute with Judah and will punish Jacob according to his ways. He will repay him according to his deeds. In the womb, he took his brother by the heel. And in his maturity, he contended or wrestled with God. Yes, he wrestled with the angel and prevailed. He wept and sought his favor. He found him at Bethel, and there he spoke with us. Even the Lord, the God of hosts, the Lord is his name.

Jacob wrestled with the pre-incarnate Christ, the angel of the Lord. That's the man he wrestled with. Hosea 12 states it. In the own context of Genesis 32, Jacob says, I have seen the face of God, and I'm still living. He wrestled, he battled with God all night. I mean, this is a man with a strong, stubborn spirit to be able to maintain a wrestling match with God Almighty in the middle of the night. Know what that tells you? It tells you that God is merciful, and God is patient, and God is long-suffering.

Because you see, God wanted Jacob to learn a lesson, and Jacob wasn't getting the message. So God would have wrestled with him all night. Now, I like to picture that wrestling match for you this morning. I just can't do that. But can you imagine all night wrestling the Son of Man in his pre-incarnate state? What an amazing scenario that must have been. And the text says, listen very carefully, and when he saw that he, God, had not prevailed against Jacob, he touched the socket of his thigh so that the socket of Jacob's thigh was dislocated while he wrestled with him.

Jacob's fighting with the Son of Man all night. Jacob's not winning because Jacob's not learning anything. And as long as you wrestle with God and don't learn, you never win. And Psalm 103 says that God would not always strive with man. God would not always wrestle with man. God would not always contend with man. But yet God is long-suffering, and God is merciful, and God is kind and compassionate, knowing our frame that we are dust. God knows the way we are, so God has got things to do. In fact, he says, I got to go.

So before he does that, he just touches Jacob's thigh and dislocates it. Now, if you've ever had a dislocated hip, I mean, you can't move. So Jacob is clinging to this man. He's holding on to him. He's clinging to the Son of Man. And the Lord says these words, let me go, for the dawn is breaking.

Hey, Jacob, I got things I got to do, man. I got to go. I'm out of here. And he says, oh, no, I'm not going to let you go until you bless me. See, that's the key to Jacob's life, and that's the difference between Jacob and Esau. Because Jacob, at the bottom of his heart, wanted God to bless him more than anything. And listen, until you come to that point in your life, guess what? You will never be mightily used of God. Until you get to that point where you want God to bless you more than anything in the world, that you want the blessing of God more than the praise of man, you want the blessing of God more than the accolades of the world, you will never be mightily used of God.

And that's what Jacob was. I'm not going to let you go until you bless me. You see, God touched the man. He broke the man. He was in the process of breaking Jacob's spirit and crushing his self-reliance and crushing his own independent spirit. His own ideas are trying to do whatever it is he can do to manipulate the events of life. God says, you can't do that, Jacob.

You just prayed a beautiful prayer, Jacob. You got to rely upon me, Jacob, and you're not doing it. And so God comes to him. He wrestles with God all night until finally God says, enough's enough.

Touches his hip, dislocates it. And Jacob's just hanging on for dear life. I'm not going to let you go until you bless me. And what does God say? God says, what's your name?

Why does God ask him a question? Do you remember the last time he was asked that question? What did he say? He said, my name is Esau. 20 years ago, he was asked that same question. And God says, what's your name?

20 years ago, he deceived. He lied, and God said, Are you going to continue the same way, Jacob? Are you going to continue your self-deceiving ways? Are you going to keep on doing what you've always done, Jacob, or are you really going to depend upon me as a broken man? He says, what? My name is Jacob. I'm the supplanter. And what does God say? No longer will you be called Jacob, but Israel, which means may God strive for him. No longer, Jacob, are you going to strive on your own accord? I'm going to strive for you.

And you're going to live that way. You're going to believe that way, Jacob, from here on out. I am your God, and I will strive for you. And that's why even to this very day, the Jewish people do not eat the muscle of the hip. In the socket. Because it's an everlasting memorial of the name Israel. May God strive for him. And the history of Israel is the history of what? Men learning to let God strive for them. And if they would wake up today and understand that whole scenario, they would win the victory.

But they're still striving in their own strength, in their own independence, in their own desire to be what they want to be, instead of letting God strive for them. Jacob was a believing man. But on this day, he became a broken man. And thus, he became a blessed man. Because he was a branded man. God touched his hip. And Jacob would limp the rest of his life. A constant reminder of the brokenness of a man that had been branded by God Almighty in order to be blessed for the rest of his life. And you know what?

Everybody who saw him walk knew, knew he walked differently than before. When you are broken by God and blessed by God, it's because you have been branded by God. And when God brands you because of a broken and contrite heart, no one will see you walk the same again. And that's the greatness of Genesis 32. When Jacob wrestled with God, he would never be the same again. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for the greatness of your Word, what you have done in the life of Jacob. It is so relevant to our lives.

We are the same way. We try to take everything into our own hands, even after we have said, I've given it all to the Lord. And yet, down deep, we really haven't. We still are holding on to many things in our lives. And God says, you need to cease striving, cease wrestling with me, cease battling with me, and know that I am God.

And it's usually a lot, Lord, until you touch us and brand us that we ever come to realize the greatness of your character. Say, yes, Lord. You are king. You are ruler. I surrender. I give up. Just bless me, Lord. I want your blessing more than anything in the world. I pray, Lord, that that would be our prayer this morning for everybody who's here. And yet, there might be one among us who's not even a believer. They need to come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. May this be that day that they know Jesus as King, as Lord, as Creator, as Savior.

We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.