OLD TESTAMENT READING: GEN 32:13-34:31
What a wonderful God we have! He is willing to get right down into the nitty, gritty, rough and tumble of our crazy lives. He meets with us in a personal way, comforts us, challenges us, resists us, encourages us and deals us loving blows of correction that will humble us where and when we need it. He is willing to wrestles with us when we are wrestling with our personal problems, our fears, doubts and uncertainties.
We see this in Jacob’s wrestling match with the angel of the Lord in Genesis 32.
In Genesis 32, Jacob’s cleverness is at work again as he intends to soften what he anticipates to be Esau’s anger by appeasing him with a parade of peace offerings- his possessions, and if necessary, his people. Jacob’s self-defense mechanisms are working overtime. He puts what he considers the more dispensable possessions and people up front to offer them as gifts to Esau and keeps his beloved Rachel and Joseph close at hand so he can escape with his life.
God had given the promise that the elder (Esau) would serve the younger (Jacob). But rather letting God fulfill his promise, Jacob’s story has been one of his efforts to fulfill this on his own. Jacob has had prior experiences of God’s favor. God displayed His greatness and glory with angels ascending and descending on a staircase to heaven with the Lord Himself speaking to him from the top. He assured him that He would accompany him, bless him and bring him safely into his inheritance, the promise given to Abraham of land and a nation and the promised Seed in whom all the nations of the earth would be blessed (Genesis 28:10-17). Angels of God met him at Mahanaim (Gen 32:1) to assure him of God’s accompanying presence as he parted after making a treaty with his father-in-law, but this was not enough. These magnificent encounters have yet to have any transforming effect on his behavior.
On the night before Jacob is to meet his arch-rival, Esau, he sends his family across the ford of the river Jabbock, a river east of the Jordan.
Genesis 32:24 (NASB)
24 Then Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak.
Jacob was left alone. But he was not alone. Very interesting. A man wrestles with him until daybreak. This was no simple arm-wrestling match with a stranger. When it is over and done, Jacob knows that he was left alone with God. God was dealing with Jacob. God was there in this man to bless him. But Jacob was fighting off the Blesser with his own efforts to be blessed!
What we learn here is that God wants to bless us but He has to deal with us and at times resist us when we are relying on our own strength. So the angel of the Lord had to deal with Jacob. Jacob’s thigh bone was dislocated during the wrestling match. You would think that this blow to Jacob’s strength would have caused Jacob to call it quits. But Jacob finally articulates what he is after. “I will not let you go unless you bless me!” Does Jacob know to whom he is speaking? He is speaking to ‘the blessed God’ who is the source of all of Jacob’s blessings up until now. He is the One who blessed his grandfather Abraham, his father Isaac, and blessed him, Jacob, with His presence and prosperity. Jacob is predisposed to bow before his fears (Esau- he will do this seven times the next day; Gen. 33:3) but not yet before the Lord.
Instead of reprimanding Jacob, the angel of the Lord presses him with a question.
“What is your name?” the angel asks.
“Cheater,” for this is what the name ‘Jacob’ means, and it certainly fit the man who bore it. “Heel-catcher; supplanter, deceiver” All of this is implied in the name “Jacob”. All his life Jacob, the younger had been fighting for the blessing of his elder brother. He grabbed the elder brother’s heel at birth. He cheated the elder out of his birthright. He deceived his father to give the blessing of the first born to him when it appeared his father was on his deathbed. But it was the will of God to bless Jacob before Jacob had been born! The LORD said to Rebekah, "Two nations are in your womb; And two peoples will be separated from your body; And one people shall be stronger than the other; And the older shall serve the younger." (Genesis 25:23)
And all this time he had been fighting for this blessing, which God had foreordained, with his own efforts. (How often we resist God’s grace through our unbelief! Instead of resting in what God has promised, we strive in our own efforts. Like Jacob, as we cheat, we find ourselves cheated. As we deceive, we find ourselves deceived. As we fight for a blessing, we find ourselves resisting the One who has wanted to bless us from the start!)
The Lord has a way of bringing us to the place of conviction and confession; repentance and faith. After Jacob’s admittance of his name, the angel of the Lord blesses him with a new name.
“Your name shall no longer be Jacob (cheater) but Israel ('ruled by God'); for you have striven with God and with men and have prevailed." (Gen 32:28).
What grace! A new name! Israel is a compound of two words. “Isra” means ‘ruled’ instead of ‘ruler’ and ‘El’ is the name of God. So the name means, “ruled by God”. Up until this point, Jacob had contended with men and prevailed. This had been through the efforts of his flesh, his own natural cleverness and strength. He even tried bargaining with God this way. But the only way to really prevail with God is to receive His grace. Let Him name you.
This really is a picture of God’s gracious dealing with us in conversion. We strive to save ourselves before we submit to the Savior. We strive to get a blessing before submitting to the Blesser.
G. Campbell Morgan writes, “Jacob had contended with men and had prevailed. That had been his story all through, and the effect of his successes upon his character had been that of making him more self-reliant, and in that measure forgetful that these very successes had resulted from the fact that all his life was arranged and ruled by God. That was the lesson he had to learn in order that he might be delivered from a self-sufficiency which must inevitably have ruined him. That explains all the story of that night. God crippled him to crown him, revealed his weakness to teach him the secret of strength, defeated him that he might find victory.”
Don’t think that you need to compel a reluctant God to bless you. Remember who He is.
Martin Luther observed, "Prayer is not overcoming God's reluctance, but laying hold of His willingness."
This is the third name change we have come across in the book of Genesis. Each name change is a revelation of God’s grace. ‘Abram’ becomes ‘Abraham’. ‘Sarai’ becomes ‘Sarah’. ‘Jacob’ becomes ‘Israel’. God’s promises are coming to pass. Not by might nor by power, but by His Spirit. So at the end of the day we see lives transformed through the Promised Seed to the praise of the glory of His grace.
Israel walks away from this experience with a limp, a permanent reminder that he has been dealt with by grace in order that he might rely upon God. Like Jacob, we are all to bear the mark of being crucified with Christ, weak in Him, that He might be our strength.
Concerning Jesus, Paul wrote “4 For indeed He was crucified because of weakness, yet He lives because of the power of God. For we also are weak in Him, yet we will live with Him because of the power of God directed toward you.” (2 Cor 13:4)
2 Corinthians 1:9 (NASB) 9 indeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves so that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead;
When the ‘Promised Seed’, Jesus Christ, does arrive on the scene, John the Baptist, the forerunner, prepares the way. Who is this mystery man, the last of the prophets?
Jesus tells us the truth about John the Baptist. He is the fulfillment of the prophecy of Malachi 3:1
Malachi 3:1 (NASB)
1 "Behold, I am going to send My messenger, and he will clear the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple; and the messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight, behold, He is coming," says the LORD of hosts.
Jesus was coming to inaugurate the new covenant. John would be the last of the Old Covenant prophets. He would point people to Jesus as the One who fulfills the Law and the Prophets as God’s promised Messiah.
What does verse 12 mean? 12 "From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and violent men take it by force.
John the Baptist was a man of conviction and courage. You have to be strong in the Lord and the power of His might (Eph 6:10) if you are going to withstand the violent opposition that is set against the kingdom of God.
Warren Wiersbe writes: “John's ministry was to prepare the nation for Jesus and to present Jesus to the nation (Luke 1:15-17; John 1:29-34). Had the people received John's witness and accepted their Messiah, John would have fulfilled the prophecies literally. Instead, they were fulfilled in a spiritual sense in the lives of those who trusted Christ. Jesus made this clear in Matthew 17:10-13. Many Bible students believe that Malachi 4:5 will be fulfilled literally when Elijah comes as one of the "two witnesses" spoken of in Revelation 11.” (Bible Exposition Commentary (BE Series) - New Testament - The Bible Exposition Commentary – New Testament, Volume 1.)
It is clear from Jesus’ remarks that the people of the Galilean cities were not responding to either the message of John or Jesus. They were an unresponsive audience (Matt 11:16-19). Yet Jesus trusted that God who had sent both John the Baptist and Himself, knew what He was doing. “Wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.” (Matt 11:19).
Jesus denounces the Galilean Cities (Matt 11:20-27). They had heard the words of John the Baptist and seen the works of the Messiah, but they had not turned from their sins and turned to God.
Concerning Capernaum.
Matthew 11:23 (NASB)
23 "And you, Capernaum, will not be exalted to heaven, will you? You will descend to Hades; for if the miracles had occurred in Sodom which occurred in you, it would have remained to this day.”
Five of the ten miracles that occurred in Matthew 8-9 after the Sermon on the Mt. took place in Capernaum.
We get the clear picture that miracles do not necessarily result in revival. Unless there is a response to the conviction of the Holy Spirit, contritition and a turning from sin to God (11:20) we await certain judgment.
Jesus concludes with a wonderful promise to those who repent and believe.
Matthew 11:28-30 (NASB)
28 "Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. 29 "Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. 30 "For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."
