The story of Jacob in Genesis 32 is one of struggle, strategy, and surrender. He was a manipulator and would do whatever it took to move his agenda forward. He wrestled in his relationships with other people including his mother, his father, his brother, and his uncle. He wrestled with letting God be in charge of his life. We see the struggle clearly in Genesis 32. Jacob’s very name means “deceiver” or “grabber.” He was always going after what he wanted no matter who he hurt in the process.
Read the chapter to see how Jacob wavered between faith in God and trying to manipulate the situation between him and his older brother. It was after Jacob sent his people on the journey to meet his brother . . . with his possessions gone and his people gone, Jacob was alone, and in that vulnerable state without power or prestige, with no one else watching but God, Jacob had a wrestling match with God, literally with Jesus Himself, the pre-incarnate Jesus as scholars agree. The wrestling match went on ALL NIGHT LONG, verse 24.
When morning came, Jesus dislocated the socket of Jacob’s hip,which was his thigh. Why did He do that? That is a point of great strength in the human body. Where Jesus dislocated Jacob was a symbol of what God was trying to accomplish in Jacob’s spiritual life. There as they wrestled, Jacob was crippled at a point of his greatest strength.
Surely Jesus could have dislocated his hip from the onset of the wrestling match. Why let it go on literally all night? God wanted Jacob to see the strength and power of his own self will. Jacob kept wrestling. He kept fighting. He kept exerting his will. Seeing that Jacob wouldn’t yield, Jesus finally ended the long struggle by exerting His power.
With his possessions gone, with the people he had power over gone, with his physical strength gone, Jacob could see his greatest need: It was for the blessing of God. Jacob said to his wrestling partner, “I won’t let you go until you bless me.” What Jacob was realizing in that moment was without God he was truly nothing. When you realize all that you have and are, are nothing without the Lord, the only thing you can do is grab hold of God and not let go. Jacob couldn’t impress God. He couldn’t manipulate God. He could only cling to him in helpless dependence. We are like Jacob a lot of times. Until we are broken, until we see our need, we don’t cling to the Lord with all of our might.
Each of us will have to wrestle with God, and as we do, our self-confidence, self-dependence, and self-reliance, our strategies, our will, our plans and our dreams must be conquered by God if we are going to become and do what He has created us to become and do. Because Jacob wrestled with God and became broken, he was blessed of God to have his name changed to Israel and used of God to bless the rest of the world!
God doesn’t use self-reliant, but God-reliant people. A.W. Tozer said, “The Lord cannot fully bless a man until He has first conquered Him.” “I say it this way, “God isn’t someone we truly possess until He is Someone who truly possess us.” M.L. Pratt
The way to overcoming came through surrender. Israel means “he who strives with God” or “prince of God” or “having power with God.” What a change of identity, from “deceiver” to “Prince of God.” Jacob became a man of godly character. And for the rest of his life, Jacob walked with a limp, a permanent reminder of that wrestling match with God. What we see in this story is that brokenness is the pathway to blessing. Let’s allow God to break and remake us in His image today!
Pastor Melissa
Rev. Dr. Melissa Pratt
Teays Valley Church of God
6979 Teays Valley Road
Scott Depot, WV 25560
304-757-9222
