Genesis 32:1-32: Wrestling with God

Genesis 32:1-32: Wrestling with God

We’ve been working our way passage by passage through the book of Genesis, and today the next passage we come to is Genesis 32:1-32, so I’ll be reading a selection of verses from that passage. It says,

1 Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him. 2 And when Jacob saw them he said, “This is God’s camp!” So he called the name of that place Mahanaim. 3 And Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau his brother in the land of Seir, the country of Edom, 4 instructing them, “Thus you shall say to my lord Esau: Thus says your servant Jacob, ‘I have sojourned with Laban and stayed until now. 5 I have oxen, donkeys, flocks, male servants, and female servants. I have sent to tell my lord, in order that I may find favor in your sight.’ ” 6 And the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, “We came to your brother Esau, and he is coming to meet you, and there are four hundred men with him.” 7 Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed. He divided the people who were with him, and the flocks and herds and camels, into two camps, 8 thinking, “If Esau comes to the one camp and attacks it, then the camp that is left will escape.” 9 And Jacob said, “O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O Lord who said to me, ‘Return to your country and to your kindred, that I may do you good,’ 10 I am not worthy of the least of all the deeds of steadfast love and all the faithfulness that you have shown to your servant, for with only my staff I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two camps. 11 Please deliver me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear him, that he may come and attack me, the mothers with the children. 12 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.’” … 22 The same night he arose and took his two wives, his two female servants, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. 23 He took them and sent them across the stream, and everything else that he had. 24 And Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day. 25 When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched his hip socket, and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. 26 Then he said, “Let me go, for the day has broken.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” 27 And he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” 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.” 29 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. 30 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.” 31 The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip. 

May God bless the reading of his Word.

Let’s pray: Father, what a blessing it is to be gathered together around your Word with the opportunity to immerse ourselves in it this morning. We pray that your Spirit would be present and at work in our midst, causing the truths and teachings we encounter to find a place in our hearts. It’s in Jesus’ name we pray, amen.

In the midst of a challenging situation, it’s sometimes difficult to know how to pray. Because there are some who would say that the godliest and most spiritual way to respond to that situation is to simply rest in God’s sovereignty and surrender the situation to God and just passively let him do as he pleases. After all, doesn’t God know what we need before we even ask him? And doesn’t he want us to trust in his wisdom rather than in our own? So, if you want a certain job, just entrust the situation to God. If you want to find a godly spouse, just surrender to God and let him bring that person in his time. If you’re struggling with infertility and have been struggling for some time, just rest in God’s sovereignty with the faith that he’ll allow you to get pregnant according to his perfect plan. That’s the mentality some people have. If you really want to exhibit great faith in all these situations, just “let go and let God.” 

However, even though the Bible certainly affirms the importance of trusting God, it actually presents a much fuller picture of what it looks like to trust God and to exhibit great faith in the midst of challenging situations. In Luke 18:2-5, for example, Jesus tells a parable of a widow who was remarkably persistent in pleading with a judge for justice against her adversary. Jesus says, 2 “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. 3 And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ 4 For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.’”  Jesus then points out that, if even this unjust judge eventually gives the widow what she requests, how much more will our loving God give his own children what they request if they persevere in their asking? 

And we find that same theme in numerous other places throughout the Bible as well. God repeatedly invites us to devote ourselves to prayer and tenaciously seek what we desire from his stores of blessing. And perhaps the clearest picture we’re given of what it looks like to wrestle with God in prayer is right here in our main passage of Genesis 32. 

To give you some background, the previous chapters of Genesis record Jacob essentially stealing some very valuable privileges and blessings from his brother Esau. And Esau was so furious at what Jacob had done that he made plans to kill Jacob. Fortunately, Jacob was able to escape and fled several hundred miles to his uncle Laban. And he stayed with Laban for about 20 years and became very wealthy. However, because Laban turned out to be just as much of a thief and con artist as Jacob himself had been, Jacob eventually decided it was time to go home. And that meant facing his brother Esau. 

And that’s where the story picks up here in Genesis 32. Look at verses 3-6: 3 And Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau his brother in the land of Seir, the country of Edom, 4 instructing them, “Thus you shall say to my lord Esau: Thus says your servant Jacob, ‘I have sojourned with Laban and stayed until now. 5 I have oxen, donkeys, flocks, male servants, and female servants. I have sent to tell my lord, in order that I may find favor in your sight.’ ” 6 And the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, “We came to your brother Esau, and he is coming to meet you, and there are four hundred men with him.” Now, what does that sound like to you? “Esau’s coming out to meet you. And, oh yeah, he has 400 men with them.” That’s basically an army. So, things aren’t looking good for Jacob. 

We then read in verses 7-8, 7 Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed. He divided the people who were with him, and the flocks and herds and camels, into two camps, 8 thinking, “If Esau comes to the one camp and attacks it, then the camp that is left will escape.” So, Jacob’s hedging his bets here. He figures that, if Esau attacks, at least half of his large family will have a chance of escaping. 

After that, in verses 9-12, Jacob offers to God a very desperate prayer in which he humbles himself and asks for God’s protection and deliverance. Then, in verses 13-21, Jacob arranges for his servants to go out ahead of him and present Esau with a series of generous gifts in an attempt to appease Esau’s anger. Jacob even sends out his wives and children as a part of this strategy of appeasement. Look at verse 22 through the first part of verse 24: 22 The same night he arose and took his two wives, his two female servants, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. 23 He took them and sent them across the stream, and everything else that he had. 24 And Jacob was left alone….

So, there Jacob is—all alone and with Esau and an army of 400 men on their way to meet him the next day. This was probably the most desperate situation Jacob had ever experienced in his entire life. And you might think this would be rock bottom for Jacob. Yet, as we’ll see, things actually get even more difficult. 

And it’s at this point in the narrative that some very strange and mysterious things start to happen. Out of nowhere, a man suddenly appears in the middle of the night and forces Jacob into a wrestling match. We read in the second part of verse 24, “And a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day.” That’s…pretty random. I’m sure Jacob was like, “Dude, what are you doing?” It’d be kind of like you or I were casually walking down the street or something and someone randomly walking up to us and punching us in the face. Like, what in the world? 

Yet this mysterious man doesn’t stop. We read that the two of them keep wrestling until daylight comes. I don’t know if you’ve ever wrestled someone before, but it takes a lot of energy. I get kind of tired just from wrestling with my kids for 15 minutes in the evening. Can you imagine how exhausting it must have been for Jacob to wrestle a grown man all night? 

And we can assume that, at first, Jacob had no idea who this man was. Yet at some point during the night, Jacob figures out that this is no ordinary man and that it’s actually God in human form. We’re not told exactly how Jacob figures this out, but he somehow does since, further down in the passage, Jacob marvels at the fact that he saw God face-to-face and even wrestled with God and didn’t die. By the way, this isn’t the first time we’ve seen God take on human form in Genesis. Back in Genesis 18, God appeared to Abraham in human form in order to predict Isaac’s birth. He actually stopped over at Abraham’s house and had lunch. And we find similar occurrences in several other places in the Old Testament as well. These appearances of God in human form are known among theologians as “theophanies.” So, in Genesis 32, Jacob was, quite literally, wrestling God. 

And this wrestling match functions as a parable of Jacob’s entire life. Back in Genesis 25:22, we’re told that, even from within their mother’s womb, Jacob and Esau were “struggling” against each other. And that struggle would continue throughout Jacob’s life. He would continue to struggle against his brother, against his father, and eventually against Laban. Not only that, through his deceptive behavior and “me first” attitude, Jacob was also engaged in a lifelong struggle against God. So, more often than not, Jacob’s life has been a wrestling match—as we see pictured here in Genesis 32. 

Now, obviously, here in this chapter, God wasn’t actually trying to win the wrestling match. If God had been trying to win, the match would have been over almost before it even began. Instead, God was deliberately prolonging the struggle in order to bring Jacob to the point of utter exhaustion. That’s what this was all about. God was bringing Jacob to the point of being utterly depleted of strength. 

We then read in verse 25, “When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched his hip socket, and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him.” So, eventually, God decides things have continued long enough and rips Jacob’s hip out of its socket. Ouch. This has the effect of breaking Jacob of his self-sufficiency in a decisive way. Jacob was already at what he thought was rock bottom when the night began. Then, he was brought to the point of utter exhaustion through the all-night wrestling match. And now, God strikes the final blow, as it were, to Jacob’s self-sufficiency by dislocating his hip. Jacob would now walk with a limp, possibly for the rest of his life. And he would definitely be in no condition either to fight or outrun his brother Esau. 

So, Jacob’s now at what’s truly his lowest point and has finally come to the end of himself. After a long struggle, he’s now been broken of his self-sufficiency in a decisive way. One commentator describes what happens here as the “magnificent defeat of the human soul at the hands of God.” 

And, by the way, this experience of coming to the end of yourself is what’s necessary in order to become a Christian. In order to become a Christian, you have to first come to the realization that you’ve sinned against God, that you deserve eternal punishment for your sins, and that, no matter how hard you try, you won’t ever be able to make things right with God on your own. 

But the good news of the gospel is that God saw our wretched and helpless condition and had mercy on us. And in his love, God the Father sent his own Son Jesus to come to this earth, live a perfectly sinless life, and then die on the cross in order to atone for our sins. That means Jesus suffered the punishment we deserved so that we wouldn’t have to suffer it. God the Father’s wrath was actually poured out on Jesus so it wouldn’t have to be poured out on us. Jesus voluntarily suffered that on our behalf. He then defeated sin and death by rising from the dead three days later. 

And in order for us to benefit from what Jesus has done and experience his saving power in our lives, we have to come to the end of ourselves and put our total trust in him. That involves coming to God with the empty hands of a beggar, recognizing that we can’t even begin to earn his favor or gain a right standing with him through our own efforts or contribute anything at all to our salvation. Essentially, like Jacob, we have to be broken of our prideful self-sufficiency and put all of our confidence in Jesus alone to do for us what we can never do for ourselves. So, have you yet come to that point in your life? Has God ever wrestled you, as it were, to the point of utter exhaustion and decisively broken you of your self-sufficiency? That’s the only way you can ever be saved. 

And then, this dynamic actually continues throughout the Christian life as well. Throughout our lives, God allows us to experience circumstances that are carefully designed to break us of our self-sufficiency and teach us to find our strength and security and joy entirely in him. 

As you might imagine, that’s not an easy process. Having your hip dislocated is painful. Yet, spiritually speaking, that injury is an essential part of the process. There’s no getting around it—no shortcut. Apart from the crucible of suffering, you and I won’t ever become the people God wants us to be. You might compare it to a diamond. Perhaps you’re aware that diamonds are only formed in environments where there’s intense heat and pressure. Without those extraordinarily high temperatures and amounts of pressure, diamonds would never come into existence. Likewise, without trials molding us and shaping us and breaking us of our self-sufficiency and driving us to God, we’d never have the kind of faith God wants us to have. 

Then, as we continue on in Genesis, we see how this wrestling match between God and Jacob plays out. After God wrestles Jacob to the point of exhaustion and dislocates Jacob’s hip, Jacob is a different man. Look at verse 26: Then [the man] said, “Let me go, for the day has broken.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” You see, Jacob now understands in a deeper way than he’s ever understood before that he needs God and that he has nothing apart from God. So, instead of relying on his own clever schemes, Jacob now clings to God in a state of utter desperation and determination for God to bless him. Although the pain of his dislocated hip must have been nearly unbearable, Jacob presses through the pain because he’s so intent on obtaining God’s blessing. He needs God’s blessing. He can’t live apart from God’s blessing any longer. 

Hosea 12:4 makes it clear that Jacob’s statement, “I will not let you go unless you bless me,” is intended not as a proud demand but as a desperate plea. Hosea says that Jacob “wept and sought [God’s] favor.” Jacob was weeping as he held on to God and refused to let go until God blessed him. 

So, the main idea of this passage is that Jacob experiences a transformation in which he’s broken of his self-sufficiency and becomes desperately determined to obtain God’s blessing. Again, Jacob experiences a transformation in which he’s broken of his self-sufficiency and becomes desperately determined to obtain God’s blessing.

After that, we see in verse 27 that the man asks Jacob, “What is your name?” He asks this not because he didn’t know Jacob’s name but because he wanted Jacob to admit something about himself. You see, the name “Jacob” means “deceiver.” So, by telling the man his name, Jacob is having to confess the kind of person he’s been. 

We then read in verse 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.” This change of name from Jacob to Israel is a monumental event in Jacob’s life and symbolizes the inward transformation that has now taken place. The name “Israel” means “he strives with God”—only now, that’s meant in a good way. It’s intended to compliment the tenacity with which Jacob clung to God and sought God’s blessing. Jacob finally understood that all of his attempts to gain the upper hand in various situations amount to nothing and that true blessing is found only in God. So, in faith, Jacob pursued that blessing with every last ounce of strength he had and, as it says, “prevailed” in that pursuit. Therefore, God gives him the name “Israel” in recognition of his faith-driven pursuit of blessing in God. 

And it’s interesting to reflect on the fact that God says Jacob has “prevailed” even though Jacob actually lost the wrestling match. God had dislocated Jacob’s hip with the result that the only thing Jacob could do was hang on like a rag doll. So, Jacob lost the physical competition. However, this physical loss actually resulted in Jacob winning in the only way that ultimately mattered. He “prevailed” in his pursuit of God’s blessing. And the same is true of us today. The great paradox of the gospel and then of the Christian life is that winning comes by losing. It’s not until we “lose” in the sense of renouncing our prideful self-sufficiency and rebellious way of living that we actually “win” in the sense of being made right with God and enjoying his presence both in this life and throughout all eternity. Winning comes by losing. 

After that, in verses 29-31, God blesses Jacob, and Jacob marvels at the fact that he’s seen God face to face and lived. The sun then rises, and Jacob limps away from the site of the wrestling match as a new man. 

And as we think about this passage as a whole, I believe it’s a wonderful picture of the way in which we also are invited to wrestle with God in the pursuit of God’s blessings. Now, obviously, that doesn’t happen physically—unless any of you have had any physical wrestling matches with God in your backyard that I don’t know about. But it does happen on our knees in prayer. You see, God’s given us a way to obtain his blessings. He’s actually spelled it out for us very clearly in the Bible. And that way is through prayer. Prayer is the vehicle through which God’s blessings are released in our lives. 

Yet so often, if God doesn’t answer our prayers as quickly as we’d like him to, what are we often tempted to do? Give up, right? Instead of wrestling with God throughout the night like Jacob did and desperately clinging to God with a single-minded determination to obtain his blessing, we just give up. Sometimes, figuratively speaking, we don’t even last until midnight. Other times, we might make it to 1am or 2am or 3am or 4am. But at some point during the night, we throw in the towel and decide that it’s either futile to continue praying or that it’s just not worth it. 

Yet by doing that, we miss out on incalculable blessings from God. I recently saw a news article that said that, each year, over 5.8 billion dollars’ worth of gift cards is left unclaimed. 5.8 billion dollars! All of that value has already been purchased but is never enjoyed. What a waste, right? Yet that pales in comparison to the blessings God’s ready to give us but that we never get to enjoy because we either don’t pray or else don’t persevere in our prayers. Those blessings are ours for the taking. They’re sitting on a shelf in heaven with our names on them—reserved for us. Yet just like the gift cards, they’re unclaimed. 

So, here’s the question: does the Judge know your name? You’ll recall from earlier how Jesus used the parable of the widow and the judge to encourage us to persist in our prayers. So, does the Judge know your name? Whenever you pray for your neighbor to be saved or for your wayward child to start walking with the Lord again or for your marriage to be healed, is the Judge like “Oh, there’s Peter again—or there’s Hannah—coming to me for the thousandth time with this same request that they want me to grant.” Is that the level of persistence and tenacity with which you wrestle with God in prayer? And who knows? God might be ready to give you what you seek when you ask him for the thousand and first time! But you’ll never know unless you press through and keep asking. 

And, of course, unlike the judge of Jesus’s parable, the reason God sometimes delays answering our prayers isn’t because he’s reluctant to bless us. Remember: God’s a Father who loves us more than we can ever comprehend and who delights in giving us good gifts. John Owen once said that the greatest sorrow and burden we can lay on God’s heart is to not believe that he loves us. In reality, we should know that God loves us because he’s already demonstrated that at the cross. So, the God who loved us enough to die the cross for our sins isn’t reluctant to answer our prayers. 

Instead, the reason he often delays answering our prayers is because he knows the effect that having to wrestle in prayer has on our souls. He knows how that experience of wrestling throughout the night strengthens our faith and draws us close to him and teaches us to rely on his strength rather than on our own. So, we’re blessed not just as a result of the wrestling when God finally answers our prayers but even in the experience of wrestling itself. In fact, I think we could even say that you’re never closer to God than when you’re wrestling with him in prayer. 

And there are two things in particular I think we’d do well to wrestle for in prayer. One of them is for people to be saved—our friends, family, neighbors, coworkers, and anyone else we know who isn’t yet a Christian. Understand that the reason prayer is even a thing isn’t to make our lives more comfortable but rather to promote the advancement of God’s Kingdom. And many times, it takes prolonged prayer for people to come to faith. So, are you willing to wrestle in prayer for the souls of people around you? Is that something you do on a regular basis? And thinking even more of that metaphor of wrestling, have you ever stayed awake at night because you were seeking someone’s salvation so fervently in prayer or wept in your prayers because you were so desperate for God to save someone? Apparently, Jacob wept as he sought God’s blessing. When’s the last time you wept? I mean, if there’s anything worth weeping for, don’t you think it’s the multitudes of people all around us who, even at this very moment, are headed toward a Christless eternity? God invites us to seek their salvation through what often ends up being a prolonged season of persevering prayer. 

One way in which my family has seen the power of a prolonged season of wrestling in prayer has been in our prayers for a family we’ve been trying to reach out to for some time now. This family used to be clients of my wife’s in-home daycare. And during that time, we tried everything we could to reach out to them. We had them over for dinner, went out on playdates together, and even saw the wife attend an Evangelistic Bible Study that my wife was leading. But eventually, their child grew older and transitioned out of our daycare and into school, and we went from seeing them every day to not seeing them at all. And we tried several times to get together with them after that, but they were always too busy. So, it seemed like the door to that relationship had closed—probably permanently. 

However, we kept on praying for them. And, actually, our kids led the way in those prayers. Those of you who attend the Prayer Gathering we have each Wednesday here at our church have probably heard our kids praying for that family. Even after close to a year of virtually no contact with the family, our kids would still pray for them every chance they got—usually at family mealtimes. And guess what? I’m happy to report that just a couple of weeks ago, the wife of that family texted Becky completely out of the blue wanting to get together and reestablish the relationship. We were then able to have them over to our house shortly after that and had a few opportunities to talk about Jesus during the conversation. This family also plans to drop off their kids on a relatively frequent basis during the summer to play with our kids. And we have no doubt that all of that’s come about because we—and especially our kids—wouldn’t leave God alone about it. So, never underestimate the power of wrestling with God in prayer. And, of course, we’re still wrestling with him in prayer about this family—until he saves them. 

In addition, one other thing I believe is especially worthy of wrestling with God in prayer for is a closer relationship with God himself. The way I often find myself phrasing it is asking God, “Show me your glory.” “Show me your glory.” You see, the greatest pursuit in which we could ever engage in our lives isn’t the pursuit of any of the earthly blessings God gives but rather the pursuit of God himself. That’s what Christianity is about. It’s not about getting God’s blessings but about getting God. That’s what should be the central pursuit of our lives. It’s what should consume us. 

And as we engage in that pursuit, we discover just how satisfying God is and how nothing else in this world even comes close to comparing with him. As David says to God in Psalm 16:11, “You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” Also, in Psalm 34:8, David invites us to “taste and see that the Lord is good.” That’s the invitation. “Taste and see that the Lord is good.” 

You know, as Jonathan Edwards points out, it’s one thing to believe theoretically that honey is sweet—perhaps based on the testimony of other people. However, it’s another thing entirely to actually taste the sweetness of honey for yourself. There’s no comparison. The taste of honey on your own tongue provides you with a much fuller knowledge of its sweetness than any merely theoretical understanding you could obtain through other means. Similarly, it’s one thing to hear and embrace teaching that tells you about God and about his love and power and wisdom. Yet, it’s quite another to actually experience God and behold his glory and “taste and see” for yourself how good he is. And that’s what God invites us to do. According to the Bible, we’re not just supposed to believe in God; we’re supposed to experience God in a very real and personal way. “Taste and see that the Lord is good.”

So don’t be satisfied with merely knowing about God. Press through in prayer until you actually know him. Wrestle with God in prayer. Don’t be satisfied until you see his glory and experience his presence and come to desire him more than all the rest of life’s blessings put together. Pursue God with the tenacity of Jacob, who said “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” Is that the all-consuming determination with which you pursue God himself?