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As we come to look in the word of the Lord, I just remind my heart and your about that principle of Bible Study that is absolutely indispensable – total reliance on the Lord. This book is a precious provision of God, but if we don’t Jesus and we only see doctrine and theology, if we come academically, we’re not going to have Life. The Holy Spirit unveils the Lord Jesus, so that we can have Life.
I’m going to read this verse from John 19:30, and as we go through my meditation, you’ll see, I think, how it ties in. “And when Jesus, therefore, had received the sour wine, He said, ‘It is finished,’ and He bowed His head and He gave up the Spirit.” It is finished; the war is over. We’re going to look at a wrestling match; the war is over. Let’s pray.
Our Heavenly Father, we thank You for the indwelling Holy Spirit, and we thank You for Your word, and we trust what You’ve promised, that anything You have not planted would be rooted up. We thank You for that security, so that we can be bold and teach, and know that You are protecting Your children from anything that is not from You. Lord, You’ve promised that every word that goes forth out of Your mouth will not return void. You never promised that every word that comes out of my mouth will not return void. So, we ask You to speak, Lord; You minister to hearts, You teach us, and we thank You that You use human instruments, but as You used the mud and the spit as an instrument that caused a blind man to see, that blind man never saw Jesus until that instrument was washed away. So, we just thank You, Lord, that we can trust You to minister to our hearts, meet us where we are, and take us where You would have us. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
I always say this, but it’s always true, how quickly these weekends seem to pass away. It seems like we just arrived. Tonight, I want to meditate on that second turning point in Jacob’s life, Genesis 32:24-31. Let me just give a very simple review. It’s hard for me because in our study week by week there’s many days that go by between studies, and so I give review. But here we’ve had one lesson after another. I still feel that I should give a lot of review. So, forgive me if it’s too much, but I just want to get these things before our hearts again.
We’re looking at the Lord Jesus through His servant, Jacob, the history, the testimony of Jacob. The story of Jacob revolves around two inspired God-ordained pictures. One is the birthright, and one is the blessing. Jacob did not seek the Lord at first, but he loved the idea of the birthright and the blessing, but it was all physical. He was promises a double portion, and he liked that. He was promised real estate, and he liked that. He promised that his family would be blessed and the inheritance would pass on to them. He liked that. He was promised that he would have some kind of authority and influence in the world, and he liked that. So, he ran after the picture, but he missed completely the reality.
Let me give you, again, what is the reality of the birthright. The birthright was given as a picture by the Lord to show that the one who was born first was the privileged one to be in the line of Christ. That one had the privilege of bringing Christ into the world. The privilege which is all through the scripture is that we were created to manifest the image of God, and the birthright is the privilege we have to put Jesus on display. In that day, that chosen birth, the firstborn had the privilege for his generation to present Christ.
What is the blessing? The blessing is the enablement; it’s the promise, the new covenant that He gave to Abraham and Isaac, and pretty soon He’s going to give it to Jacob. It’s the truth that Abraham saw when God opened his eyes; it’s all by faith, it’s all a gift, it’s all by grace. It’s not by works, and he learned that it was by the Life of God. So, in simple words, the birthright is our privilege to put Christ on display in our lives. The blessing is God’s enablement to be able to do that privilege. It’s grace; it’s faith; it’s His Life, His indwelling Life.
So, we looked at that birthright and blessing. I suggested, and I think everyone who has studied under the guidance of the Holy Spirit would agree, that there are two turning points, two big events in Jacob’s life, and one is that vision he had at Bethel with the ladder going up into the presence of God, and the other is what we’ll look at this evening, the wrestling match. At the ladder, in clear words, He made it 100% clear that God above longed to bless man, sinful Jacob at the bottom; God wanted to bless Jacob, but He could only do it through the ladder. The ladder is a picture of Christ. The New Testament states it outright, “You will see the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” The Son of Man is that ladder.
God spoke to Jacob at that vision, and He showed him that; He showed him that Christ is the ladder. He showed him His grace is unconditional. Jacob saw that, but he didn’t see it. He heard those words, but he didn’t hear them, and he turned and walked away from what he was chasing all his life, the birthright/Christ, and the blessing. So, we come, then this turning point.
I’m going to read from Genesis 32:24-28, “Jacob was left alone, and the man wrestled with him until daybreak. When he saw that he had not prevailed against him, he touched the socket of his thigh, so that the socket of Jacob’s thigh was dislocated while he wrestled with him, and 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’s your name?’ He said, ‘Jacob.’ He said, ‘Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel. You’ve striven with God and with men and have prevailed.’” There are other verses that I’ll bring in later at the end at the clincher verses.
Let me bring you up to the door of this evening’s message. I told you when Jacob left to go to his Uncle’s house, in round numbers it’s about 500 miles. He spent 20 years at Laban’s house, and then he got a word to go back to Bethel. The Lord made him empty and dissatisfied. He showed him how vain it was to go after pictures. He had the picture; he was wealthy, and so on, but it was a famine of his heart, and it didn’t satisfy.
We sort of read these as Bible characters; he was a real guy; he went through this. He didn’t know God was going to use him to write a Bible, so that two thousand years later we could talk about it. He didn’t know that. He’s just a man living and struggling and running after what he thinks is going to have value. His brother saw no value even in the physical thing. He doesn’t know what to expect when he returns. But he’s sick and tired of being with Laban, and now he’s got a word to come back, but you’ve got to come to Bethel, you’ve got to come to the place where I will bless you through the ladder. You are not ever going to be blessed unless you come back to that place.
It’s 500 miles from where he was to get to Laban’s, and that means it’s 500 miles to go home. How far along the trip was Jacob before the wrestling match. The answer is that he had already gone four hundred eighty miles; he’s 20 miles from home when this takes place. He’s got a problem; he’s got to pass through Esau’s territory to get home. He has a large family, a lot of livestock; he’s got a word to return but there’s Esau. Genesis 32:3, “Jacob sent messengers before him to his brother, Esau, in the land of Seir, the country of Edom. He also commanded them saying, ‘Thus you shall say to my Lord, Esau, ‘Thus says your servant, Jacob, I’ve sojourned with Laban, stayed until now, and I have oxen and donkeys and flocks and male and female servants, and I’ve sent to tell my Lord that I might favor in thy sight.’” Jacob’s idea is that if I can just get past this last 20 miles, if I can get home, I’ve got this one problem; my past has been chasing me for 20 years, and somehow, I need to deal with my past and deal with Esau.
Well, his plot didn’t work sending the messengers. Verse 6, “The messenger returned to Jacob saying, ‘We came to your brother, Esau; furthermore, he’s coming to meet you and four hundred men are with him.’” That is not a welcoming hope; that’s not a welcoming committee. Jacob understands that. He’s terrified, verse 7, “Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed, and he divided the people that were with him, and the flocks and the herds and the camels into two companies, for he said that if Esau comes to the one company and attacks, then the company that is left will escape.” So, he is expecting that these 400 men have come to fulfill the passion that Esau has carried for all these years.
It’s at this point, such a precious point and it touched my heart when I read it, we see Jacob do something he hadn’t done in twenty years; he prayed. Listen to his prayer, Genesis 32:9, “Jacob said, ‘Oh God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaa,’ (It’s not yet his God), ‘who said to me to return to your country and to your relatives, and I will prosper you. I am unworthy of all the loving kindness and all the faithfulness that You’ve shown to Your servant. For with my staff only I crossed the Jordan and now I’ve become two companies. Deliver, I pray, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear him, that he will come and attack me, and the mothers and the children. You said that I will surely prosper you and make your descendants as the sand of the sea, too great to be numbered.” He’s still thinking physically, but there are some spiritual things going on.
That’s the occasion of what we’re calling the second turning point in Jacob’s life. He’s got to face Esau with his 400 men. So, he still schemes. Verse 13, “He spent the night there and he selected from what he had with him a present for his brother, Esau.” When you read the record, he sent three different droves of animals, reasoning in verse 20, “You shall say, ‘Behold, your servant Jacob is behind us. He said that I will appease him with the present that goes before me. Afterward, I’ll see his face; perhaps he will accept me.” “I’ll pay him off.” We’re going to see it in another connection. He said, “I think I’ll return what I stole.”
The older will serve the younger, and now he keeps calling Esau, “My Lord, my Lord.” Over and over again he refers to himself as,”Your servant, your servant, your servant.” He said, “If give back the birthright, maybe he won’t kill me.”
We come to verse 23&24 where our story begins, “He took them and sent them across the stream and sent across whatever he had, and then Jacob was left alone.” That is so very important. The event we’re about to look at is strategic. Verse 24, “Jacob was left alone and a man wrestled with him until daybreak.” It’s strategic because this event is a spiritual crossroads; there’s a fork in the road. It’s a crisis. God had been faithful and patient and He worked with him as a process, but this is not a process; now it has become a crisis. He worked gradually, arranging, appointing His times and the boundaries of His habitation, controlling circumstances without touching his will. Jacob resisted, resisted, resisted all along the way. And now at Pineal, this wrestling with the Lord, actually listen well because if you haven’t been to Pineal, you will be there, and if I haven’t, I will be there. This is a process that God does for every Christian. With what he saw here, we must see. If it takes, depending how stubborn we are… We know from Lamentations 3:33 that God only works the minimum in your life to get you to respond to Him. If you’ve had to go through a lot, it shows you how unusually stubborn you are.
We see that Jacob was alone and it was night, and there were no street lights; its dark and it’s night. Verse 24, “He was left alone and a man wrestled him until daybreak.” Who wrestled Jacob. That verse says “a man” wrestled him. Hosea 12:4, “He wrestled with the angel and prevailed.” Who did he wrestle with? Was it a man, was it an angel? Genesis 32:30, “After it was over her said, ‘I’ve seen God face to face, and yet my life has been preserved.” Hosea 12:3, “In his maturity, he contended with God.” So, who did he wrestle? A man? An angel? God? Yes, he wrestled the Lord Jesus; that was Jesus. Jesus that he met at Bethel showed up a Pineal, at the Brook of Jabbok. The same one who gave him the promises and showed that He was the ladder now comes in Person and He meets him. He’s on his way, but he hasn’t arrived, and he comes to a crossroad, and that means you’ve got to go this way, or you’ve got to go that way, and there’s no other road.
It’s a decision time, “I’ve wrestled with you since you were born. You’ve resisted me tooth and nail all the way, and now we’re at a crossroads. Now, there is a time personally am going to make it so clear to you that you have to make a decision. I’ve been trying to show you that you’ve been fighting a war that is already over; its finished and you keep trying to fight the same battle. I told you it was free. I told you of the reality. I let you taste the bitterness, the emptiness of running after pictures and just being religious. Now, it’s time for a decision, and another chance, and maybe your last chance.” That’s what this story is about. The reality before you is the ladder, “I’ll bless you; I’ll bless you through Christ, and no other way. I’ve been dealing with you for 20 years. I’ve been appointing your times, I’ve been dictating the boundaries of your habitation, I’ve been working circumstances, and all along the way you are taking credit and are trying do it yourself, and now you are at a crossroads.”
Genesis 6:3, “The Lord said, ‘My Spirit shall not always strive with man.’” He’s not going to strive forever; that’s what He told Noah. “There comes a time when I’m not going to draw anymore. A man who hardens his neck after much reproof will suddenly be broken beyond remedy.” God loves Jacob who is representing us. He loves us so much. He works in our life, times and boundaries; He’s relentless; He keeps coming after us, and He’s with us and all kinds of stuff. It’s amazing where He goes. I like in the Old Testament, people say, “I’m shocked that Saul went to the witch’s house.” I’m shocked that God went with him. That was a shocking thing, that God went to the witch’s house. The Lord is going with us all the way.
Jacob, in this story, is not the wrestler; he’s the resistor. The wrestler is the Son of God, the second Person of the Godhead, the Lord Jesus Christ, the One who has been dealing with him.
I checked with two of my grandsons, so you know this is truth. I checked Joshua Miller because he was a wrestler, and I was studying wrestling. I need to know. I checked with Brandon because Brandon is a wrestler. “What light can you give me on this?” They both told me the same thing. When you wrestle, the match is six minutes long; it’s three two minute sessions, with a little break in between. Brandon explained that when you do other exercises, if you curl, you are working on some muscles, and if you run, you are working on other muscles, and if you stretch, you’re working on other muscles, if you ride a bike or swim, you are working on certain muscles, but when you wrestle, you are working on all your muscles at the same time. Brandon and Joshua said that at the end of those six minutes, they were exhausted. They are pushing and pulling and bending and twisting and using every muscle. Even in the Olympics it’s six minutes, and that’s unless you have to go overtime, and then they have another little rule.
The point I’m trying to make is how old is Jacob? Well, I’ll tell you, when he had the first vision at Bethel, he was 77, and now you’ve got to add 20 years. This guy is 97 years old, and he’s going to wrestle for 6 minutes? All night long and no rest, twelve 6-minute rounds, if you take the night literally. That shows a couple of things. It shows how loving God is to persevere, and it shows how stubborn Jacob is, a 97-year-old man wrestling. The antagonist here, not an ordinary wrestler; this is the Son of God; this is the Lord Jesus, Almighty God. He comes in personal hand to hand combat, and He says, “I’m going to give you one more chance. This is it. When the night started, you were alone, and there is a good possibility you are going to be alone for the rest of your life.”
We just read this la, la, la. I’m going to show you how I know it was his last chance, but right now I just want you to hear it, final opportunity. “You need the reality, Jacob. You need to understand the birthright. You were created to manifest, put on display the image of God. I promised you unconditionally My everlasting covenant grace, the very life of God to perform and put Christ on display. I’m not suggesting that we know when our last chance is, so we better get on it, but I’m saying God will make it very clear when He’s just acting in a general way and organizing circumstances and setting times and boundaries, and we see that over and over and over, but when He gets into hand to hand combat with you, you might not know, “Is this my last chance,” but you will know that this is the Lord. Jacob knew it.
I want to focus on two expressions, one is from Genesis and the other is from the Prophet Hosea. Genesis 32:25, “When He saw that He had not prevailed against Him,” identify the pronouns. “When He saw,” who? That’s the wrestler. When God saw that He had not prevailed. That’s strange, and He’s not able to prevail. Hosea 12:4, speaking about Jacob, “Yes, he wrestled with the angel and prevailed.” So, what does it mean that God can’t prevail, and Jacob did? In what sense did God not prevail, and in what sense did Jacob prevail?
I made a large point of reminding you that the Lord is constantly drawing to Himself, controlling times and circumstances, and that He would never force a will. He can touch your situation, your circumstance, but faith is a matter of the will, and He’s not going to touch that. Revelation 19:6, “Hallelujah, the Lord our God the Almighty reigns.” That’s who he’s wrestling with. Don’t tell me that Jesus couldn’t overpower his own man. Great honk in the morning, he’s just a human being. He could have done it with a look or a wave of His hand, or He could have done it with a thought. Job said when God was working in his life, Job 9:19, “If it’s a matter of power, behold, He’s the strong one. I give up.” If God comes and says, “Let’s arm wrestle,” forget it. If it’s a matter of power, I surrender.
We’re going to read and maybe experience some day when antichrist comes, some of you hermeneuts who are into prophesy, and might have studied some of this. All I know is that the way the Bible presents Him, and because He is going to be empowered supernaturally by the enemy, that he’s probably one of the most powerful persons that ever lived on the earth. Here is what we read in 2 Thessalonians 2:8, “That lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will slay with the breath of His mouth, and bring to end by the appearance of His coming.” The strongest one that ever live, antichrist, and the Lord is going to show up and go whew and it’s over. You think He couldn’t win this match? 97 years old, all night long; you know God is trying to show him how weak he is. He’s trying to weaken him. Some people think it’s a real wrestling match and God is out to win. He’s not out to win the match; He’s out to win Jacob. He wants Jacob to see the reality. He’s not trying to pin, so that he can be counted out. That’s not what He’s doing. What about verse 25, “When He saw that He had not prevailed against him, He touched the socket of his thigh, so the socket Jacob’s thigh was dislocated.” If in a wrestling match if touching someone’s thigh and dislocating their hip, if that’s not forcing a will, what is it? It sure looks like it’s forcing his will. “You’ve got to give up now!”
God will appoint times and boundaries, and He’ll touch circumstances; He touched his flesh, and not his will. It’s the same thing He said to Peter, “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat. I’ve prayed for you that your faith,” (faith is a matter of the will), ‘wouldn’t fail, but I’m going to let him touch you because your pride has to fail, and your self-sufficiency has to go down, and your professed loyalty has to be broken, and your own independent energy, your flesh has to be broken.”
Before we move on to the Jacob story, I want to apply the truths that are fossilized in this amazing “He touched”. He wrestled all night and then He “touched” him. I’ll return to the wrestling match in a moment, but let me quote the verse again, verse 25, “When He saw that He had not prevailed against him, He touched the socket of his thigh, so that the socket of Jacob’s thigh was dislocated while he wrestled.” A couple of symbolic purposes for that, I think. One is pretty obvious, and He’s going to make it public; for the rest of his life, he’s going to be limping, and it’s something you can see. He’s trying to make him helplessly dependent. I love that song we sang, “I’ll depend on Him, I’ll depend…” It’s helpless dependence.
Jacob, so to speak, after this he didn’t have a leg to stand on. I’m hanging around Greenlee too much! Anyway, he was disabled. That dislocated thigh weakened his flesh. There’s an expression I’ve heard often, and it’s, “God’s hand is on that person’s life.” When we say, “God’s hand is on that person’s life,” usually we think of the power, “Boy, listen to that guy preach.” “Boy, that one can really sing.” “God’s hand is on their life.” “He can play an instrument.” “That is an artist; God’s hand is on his life.” “That missionary went out and God’s hand is on their life.” There is reality in that. But there is another way to look at God’s hand on your life, and that’ God’s hand on your thigh. God’s hand on your thigh is to weaken, so you won’t trust you, and you’ll trust the Lord. Brothers and sisters in Christ, I hope God has taught you by His Spirit that every forward step in helplessness if a forward step in the knowledge of the Lord, and the knowledge of His word. Don’t despise it where you are weakened; you are not going to trust the Lord until you have to. We always have to, but we don’t always know that. So, God arranges things so you know you have to, and that’s what he’s doing here to Jacob.
The main thing wrong with Jacob is Jacob; he’s resisting, he’s fighting in his flesh. Jacob was too strong, and God made him miserable during those 20 years; he’s at the end of himself; he should be. He’s wrestled all night and he’s got to be tired, and now God cripples him. It’s a great mercy when God touches your thigh. I know it’s not often emphasized but maturity in the Christian is not a life of strength. You say, “Yeah, but it says to be strong in the Lord.” It also says to be weak in the Lord. There is a helpless dependence. 2 Corinthians 12:9&10, “He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, I will boast about weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. I’m well content with weakness, insults, distresses, persecution and difficulty, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I’m strong.” Sometimes we think it’s after I’m weak, then I get stronger again. No, it’s when I am weak, then I am strong.
Some years ago, it doesn’t happen a lot now, I don’t know why, but it doesn’t matter to me, but I used to be asked now and then if I would send a letter of recommendation. Somebody wants to go to a Bible School or to a seminary, and they ask if I would write a letter of recommendation. There is one occasion where there was a young man and I wanted to give a recommendation. It was for a seminary out west; I won’t name the seminary. I wanted to recommend the brother, but when they sent me the recommendation form, it didn’t allow me to recommend him, because some of the questions – what are the signs of leadership you see in him? How involved is he in Christian ministry and service? Does he have an analytical mind? Does he have an outgoing personality? How does he get along with others? What do you see as his weak points and his strong points? Again, I can’t recommend that. So, what I did, I send my own recommendations, and asked my own questions – Do you see any signs that he loves the Lord? Does he have a love for the people of the Lord? Does he hunger for God’s word? Do you see any humility in this brother? Is his focus on the Lord Jesus Christ? Is there any evidences of the Spirit in his life? The seminary wrote me back and asked if they could use my letter of recommendation. That’s what we want to know. God’s hand on our thigh, to weaken us, so that we stop trusting in ourselves.
Matthew Henry lived in the 1600’s, the non-conformist preacher, he had ten children, and nine of them were girls. He made this comment one time, “Christian maturity is growing backward toward the cradle.” I think he hit on it. That’s what it is – childlikeness. If God send revival, people have different ideas. “God says that in revival there are going to be signs and wonders and miracles.” I’ll tell you, if God send revival, there’s going to be childlikeness and humility, and people are going to embrace the Lord Himself. Anyway, are you growing more dependent on the Lord? That’s the point.
Jacob’s thigh was touched, and it demonstrated his helplessness, and it was an introduction to the reality of these pictures. We look at the touching of his thigh, and we just say, “Wow, if God does that to me, if He touches me and brings me low, and brings trouble into my life,” the touch on the thigh was healing. He crippled him to heal him. That was healing, to give him a spiritual life that he needed so desperately.
Let me go back to the Jacob story, verse 25, “When He saw that He had not prevailed against him, he touched the socket of his thigh, so the socket of Jacob’s thigh was dislocated while he wrestled. The Lord saw that He did not prevail.” Let me put it in my own words, and what I’ve already suggested, Jacob has been given chance after chance after chance, and I think this was his last chance, to embrace the real birthright, the real blessing, the truth of the ladder, that blessing can only come from God through Christ to sinful man. Genesis 32:26, after He said He didn’t prevail, then he said, “Let Me go, as the dawn is breaking,” the same as to say, “I’ve been so long suffering with you, so faithful with you, and I haven’t touched your will, and I’ve arranged your times, I’ve arranged the boundaries of your habitation, Jacob, for almost a hundred years I’ve been trying to reach you, and you’ve resisted Me all along the way, but the time has come and you’ve got to make a decision.
This is decision time. You wrestled all night, and when He saw, without touching his will, it didn’t work, He said, “Let me go. I’m out of here. You had your shot. It’s your last chance. That’s when Jacob cried out with a lugubrious wail, “I will not let You go, unless You bless me.” The last round of this wrestling match, Jacob was alone, and now he’s wrestling with the Lord. God saw when He couldn’t prevail, that all of His ministry and trying to reach him wasn’t working, He said, “Let me go,” because as long as man resists, God can’t prevail. There are places where He can’t do mighty things because man was resisting.
Before we look at what it means that Jacob prevailed, again return to verse 26, “Let Me go; the dawn is breaking.” “You are blowing your last chance.” Let me ask this. It says that Jacob was clinging to the Lord, and said, “I won’t let You go until You bless me.” Don’t answer out loud, just think. Is that good or is that bad? “Clinging to the Lord until You bless me?” Some of my commentators say that’s a great model for prayer. I can’t make that my own. For one reason, God is not reluctant to bless, and He’s not going to bless depending on your clinging. He’s not going to bless depending on my clinging, though there is a right way to cling. But Jacob is not doing it the right way. He is still resisting. He is still fighting.
Let me give you a testimony. I’ve shared it before at Family Ministries. There was a season I was allowed privilege to go to France and minister for more than a week. It was the last day and I was anxious to get home to my Lillian, and two sons of the place… We were staying in a home. That was changed three times, so God was arranging things, so that we ended up in this home that hadn’t been the plan. They had two sons and the sons refused to come to any of the meetings we had. These two young men, one was 18 years old and one was 22 years old, and it was getting late at night, and we were going to leave in the morning, and I was looking for an opportunity to be courtesy and say, “Please let me go to bed. I have to get up early,” and these two brothers came in. They said to their parents, “Can we talk to the American?” I looked around and that was me. They wanted to talk to me. For the next two hours we had the privilege to talk to them. Their parents were Christians and they had just stayed away on purpose, and now they wanted to know, “What about the cross, and what about the blood, and what about my sins,” and all of that. Yannis who was the oldest, he was the one who first spoke up and he said, “Will you please help me give my life to Jesus?” Boy, I tell you, my heart flipped; I was so thankful. I was ready to pray to help give his life to Jesus, and Frederick, he was my interpreter, he said, “No! That will not happen.” I’m ready to pray and he wants to give his life to the Lord; will you leave him alone? He said, “No, that can’t happen. This is not a time to give your life to the Lord. This is a time to receive a life from the Lord. After you receive a life, you will have plenty of opportunity to give your life, but not tonight. Tonight, receive a life, and oh we prayed and they received His life. It was glorious! I wanted so much to just shout out loud. I’m not a shouter. My heart shouts a lot. I was so full of praise to the Lord.
Afterward, I said to my host, “I never thought of it that way.” And here’s what he said to me. He said, “That’s legalism’s last stand. I’ve got to do something, so I’ll give my life. That’s just works. That’s legalism’s last stand.
As I look at the Jacob story, I think clinging to the Lord was legalism’s last stand. Jacob is resisting, and he’s still fighting and God says, “Let me go. I’m not going to bless you because you cling to me. Your clinging has no merit. Let me go.” How did Jacob prevail. Hosea 12:4, “Yes, he wrestled the angel and prevailed.” I see how the Lord did not prevail because He won’t force a will. Let’s see how Jacob prevailed. The key is not in Genesis. The key is in Hosea 12:4. He wept and sought His favor, and he found Him at Bethel. He wept. When did he wept. When did Jacob weep? You’ve got to locate the time. It’s sort of like when Hebrews said the Lord Jesus was crying with tears to be delivered. When did that happen. I look at the record. Was that Gethsemane? Was that Calvary? When did that happen?
Let me suggest this. Jacob time for decision, “I’ve wrestled with you all night and I have not prevailed; let Me go.” It’s over. In his heart he says, “I will not let You go.” He said, “You’ve got to let Me go,” and he burst into tears and cried out for grace. That’s how he prevailed; he prevailed by losing; he won by losing; he prevailed when he stopped fighting, when he stopped resisting. I can hear the Lord say, “You’re asking Me for a blessing; I thought you had one. I thought you bought a blessing and a birthright.” I can hear Jacob saying, “I thought I had one, too, but I’ve discovered that anything I get on my own, I don’t have; I only have what You give me; and I need You to bless me.” Jacob received a blessing here. The Lord said to Jacob, “Jacob, what’s your name?” Jacob for the first time abandoned Jacob and Jacob, he wants the blessing, the real blessing. Let me just say this. I don’t want to embarrass Paul Greenlee but last Sunday, and it’s online at Family Ministries, our brother, Paul, gave a message on “What is Your Name?” and it’s anointed. It was fantastic. I suggest if you get a chance that you listen to that. I’m not going to cover the same ground, but we got the same idea. It’s such a wonderful, wonderful message.
Jacob has to die to Jacob to make room for Israel. I think it was more painful when the Lord said, “What is your name?” I think it was more painful for Jacob to say, “Jacob; I’m a liar, I’m a deceiver, I’m a hypocrite, I’m a supplanter, I’m a heal snatcher.” I think that hurt more than his hip, to be able to confess who he was. Genesis 32:28, “Your name shall no longer be Jacob but Israel. You’ve striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.”
He still has to face Esau, but you don’t face Esau by prevailing with Esau. You face Esau after you prevailed with the Lord. We’ll see more of that in his change. Jacob prevailed with God because he stopped fighting. I’m not going to develop this, but you can think about it. I hear so much about spiritual warfare. Because Ephesians says “wrestle”, “We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against powers and principalities.” He uses the word “wrestle”, and the Jacob story used the word “wrestle”, and I think God tells us in the Jacob story how to wrestle; by stop wrestling, by stop fighting; the war is over. I’m not going to develop that but that’s on my heart.
We prevail with the Lord when we stop resisting and God wants to speak to us. He said in verse 30, “I’ve seen God face to face; my life has been preserved.” After He said, “What’s your name?” Jacob turns around and says, “What’s Your name?” He says, “Why do you ask My name? You know who I am.” That’s why he said, “face to face.” He’s beginning to here to see the Lord. He’s beginning to see the realty. “What’s your name?” “You know who I am.” And then it says, “God blessed him there.” That’s what it means when it says, “The dawn was breaking.” The Morning Star; that’s what was breaking. “Who are You?” “You know who I am.” The dawn was breaking, and he began to see the Lord, and when you begin to see the Lord, He blessed him there. That’s when the blessing came.
There’s something pretty wonderful about that verse in Genesis 32:31, “The sun rose upon him as he crossed over Pineal.” I call attention to Genesis 28:11, that when he began to walk away from the reality, the sun set. And now that he’s beginning to see the Lord, the dawn is breaking, and then we read such a precious thing, “And the day, the sun rose upon Jacob.” And then Jacob limped out into the light, the light of the new day.
Lord willing, tomorrow we’re going to look at, “What did that life look like? What will it look like for me? Will there be evidences that he really had the birthright and really had the blessing? When he limped out in helpless dependence into the light of the brand-new day… Let’s pray.
Father, thank You for Your word. I pray, Lord, that You might give us understanding and a receptive hearts, and if there are any that are resisting You, Lord, you’ve been so faithful, touch their times, touch the boundaries of their habitations, draw them to Yourself, that they might seek You and find You because You are not far from any one of us. Lord, if the process turns into a crisis, and You have to come personally, and we’re at a crossroad, give us grace to do what Peter did and what Jacob did, and let go, weeps bitterly and cry out for grace. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.