Blessing Wrestle (Genesis 32:24-32) September 25, 2005
Blessing Wrestle
Genesis 32:24-32
When I was growing up in the United States, we used to watch wrestling matches on television. We watched every Saturday evening wrestling matches. The show took place locally in Houston, and then later in Madison Square Garden. This was a big show. There would be men who would come together and wrestle each other. They would wrestle in a huge ring in the center of the room. They would go a long time around the ring in the hopes of winning the match. The match was won when one man could pin the other man down on the floor mat for longer than three minutes.
Of course, this was a sport and the people were playing. They would tell you it was serious. They would brag about their strength and how they could easily beat their opponent. But you knew it was a show. They never came in crutches for the next match a week later. There were never any long-term scars. They were heroes in a sense.
In wrestling, (or rassling as they say in the United States), each person had a nick-name. This name would match their supposed strength.
Hulk Hogan, who later would be known as Hollywood Hulk Hogan
Adrian Adonis
The Dynamite Kid
“Macho Man” Randy Savage
Rowdy Roddy Piper
Davey Boy Smith
Moondog Spot (not just Moondog, but Moohndawg)
Cowboy Bob Orton
The Iron Sheik
And my personal favorite: The Junkyard Dog (Dawg)
We have the same thing here in this passage. We have a wrestling match. It is a match between “The Deceiver” Jacob and “The Man”, or perhaps we should call him “The Mighty Stranger.” Of course, “The Mighty Stranger” is none other than God in human form. The word originally says man. There are references in the Bible to angels who took human form. Jesus took human form in the Old Testament. No matter whom you think this is, whether it is an angel or God’s Son in human form, Jacob clearly came into the presence of God.
When we meet Jacob here, he is a point of crisis. His group and company are too big. He has a huge family to support, and now the brother who hates him is coming to meet him. Will there be a family civil war? Jacob needed a blessing from God. The definition of a blessing is when God does you good. When God does me good, that means that I receive a blessing. God’s promises are meant to do me good. Now God gave Jacob a promise. Jacob recalls it earlier in the chapter.
But you said, 'I will surely do you good, and make your offspring as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.'"
(Genesis 32:12 ESV)
God gave Jacob a specific promise. He said: Jacob, I will do you good and this is how. I will give you so many children, and so many descendants, that they will be more than you can count. But Jacob has a problem. He is on the eve of meeting his brother. And these two don’t have a good relationship. Jacob started this by grabbing Esau’s heel at birth. Then Jacob stole the inheritance from Esau. Needless to say, Esau is not happy. So Jacob was concerned, even worried. He needed a blessing from God. So he prays and asks God to help. He asks God not just for regular help, but a special, power-working, miracle-showing blessing. But in order to get it, Jacob was going to have to wrestle for it.
On the night before Jacob meets his brother, Jacob gets into a special wrestling match. Jacob is wrestling with God. Jacob is wrestling for the promises that God gave.
I learn that God promises to do me good. His promises are certain. I may struggle sometimes, especially in prayer. But God will confirm His promise to do me good in prayer. How does He confirm it to Jacob? He changes His name to Israel. Jacob – The Deceiver becomes Israel – the Prince of God.
God was going to take someone who by nature manipulated other people and make him a prince. God takes a murderer named Moses and makes him an Egyptian prince and a leader of a new-born nation. God takes a foreign widow named Naomi and makes her the great-great grandmother of a king. God takes a prostitute Rahab and puts her in the royal line of Jesus Christ. God takes what is bad in me, or what bad I have learned to do, and gives me a promise. Then He changes me so that He may do good to me – even when I see difficult times ahead.
HOW DOES GOD DO ME GOOD?
1. He gets me to the point where He can really change me. (32:24)
Then Jacob was left alone…
(Genesis 32:24 NKJV)
He strips me of my defenses and gets me alone with Him. John Piper has said: “When God is all I have, God is all I need.” Jacob sent his servants and his family away and got alone with God.
It is not an easy time. But God does not work through us when want to cling on to other sources of security. God want to really change me and to do that, He gets me to the point where I have to trust only Him. Then comes the next step:
2. He weakens me. (32:25)
Now when He saw that He did not prevail against him, He touched the socket of his hip; and the socket of Jacob's hip was out of joint as He wrestled with him.
(Genesis 32:25 NKJV)
During the struggle, The Mighty Stranger touches Jacob and gives him a limp. Jacob then begins to hang on the man. When a wrestler has a hip injury, he can’t wrestle. Jacob cannot continue without the Mighty Stranger’s help. God does me good much better when we have to depend on Him. “God is most supremely good to me when I derive all my strength from Him.”
And He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness."
(2 Corinthians 12:9 NKJV)
A modern British paraphrase of the Bible entitled “Word on the Street” says it this way:
“My energy works best in you when your energy level is on zero.”
3. He reveals more about my relationship with Him. (32:28)
Then he said, "Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed."
(Genesis 32:28 ESV)
God tells Jacob the manipulator that he is not a manipulator, but a “Prince with God” “Prince that prevails with God”, or “soldier of God”. God changed Jacob’s name during the match. This is Jacob’s new name – God’s Soldier.
God has a name for you. He has a special relationship just with God. God in essence wants to give you a “spiritual nickname.”
We all have physical nicknames that reveal a special relationship with other people. Some are good and some are mean. Let me give you an example:
My formal name is James. But for some people I prefer to be called “Jimmy.” These people include my immediate family – my parents and my sister and her family. You are in privileged company when I allow you to call me by that nickname. For others, especially those I knew when I was working with the Boy Scouts, it was “Jimbo.” When I was Program Director for a Boy Scout camp, one person called me Jimbo, and it stuck. It was a gimmick, like they use in wrestling – Jimbo, our hero. So, for some time afterwards, every person in the Boy Scout area that I worked in, called me Jimbo. I don’t think they knew my real name.
With others, I received a bad name – “Brace.” I received than name when I was a teenager – my first year in high school. I had a back brace that I wore to keep my back straight during puberty. Someone in my German class called me “Brace” and it stuck with some people.
My preferred name is Jim. It is simple. I use with my all of my friends. God wanted to show Jacob something new. He wanted to open up His relationship with Jacob, become a closer friend with Him, so that God could reveal something new for Jacob. Therefore, He changed Jacob’s name to Israel. This leads to the next way that God wants to do me and you good.
4. He will give you a new direction. (32:29-31)
Then Jacob asked him, "Please tell me your name." But he said, "Why is it that you ask my name?" And there he blessed him. So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, saying, "For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered." The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip.
(Genesis 32:29-31 ESV)
Israel knew that now that He has met God, things would never be the same. Maybe he knows he is weak, but He has seen God. This assures him of the promise that God gave him. He can face the next challenge because he has met God.
The scene between Israel and the Mighty Stranger ends with Israel going into the sunrise – limping.
Many times in books, television, and movies, you see the main hero riding into the sunset having ended his adventure. But with God, the adventure continues.
There is a new sunrise after the deep, dark night-wrestle of prayer. God doesn’t want us to just end the adventure with Him. No, God wants us (me and you) to begin new each morning. We encounter together with God new challenges, and at the same time new chances for God to fulfill His promises to us.
God has relationships He wants to heal.
God has families He wants to bring together.
God has promises He wants to keep with you.
God has new adventures He wants to share with you.
God wants to do you good. God wants to wrestle a blessing out of you.
