Introduction
This morning we want to learn about and reflect on the story of Jacob, Abraham's grandson and the father of twelve sons whose descendants became the twelve tribes of Israel. Because of the amount of material (9 chapters), I will overview the story, and then we'll look closely at the key event in Jacob's life.
There is a tension that characterizes most of Jacob's life. On the one hand, God made promises to Jacob that He would provide for every important need in his life. On the other hand, Jacob struggled to attain those same provisions through his own means. This is the unresolved tension in which Jacob lived most of his life, until God intervened at a key time.
Let's survey the story to see these themes, study God's dramatic intervention – and then consider some application lessons for ourselves . . .
Jacob's early life: the tension revolved around 3 issues
God promised even before Jacob was born that he would inherit the Promise (read 25:23). Jacob undoubtedly knew about this promise from his mother (he was her favorite).
But he was named "Jacob" ("supplanter" or "ditcher") because relied on his own tricks take the promise from his older brother Esau. First, he took advantage of Esau's hunger to extract his birthright for a bowl of soup (25:29-34). Then (with his mother's collusion), he resorted to gross deception to trick Isaac into legally passing the inheritance to him (27:1-40). As a result, Jacob got what he wanted, but at what a cost! Esau was so enraged that he decided to kill Jacob, so he had to flee for his life to his uncle Laban's (read 27:41-45) . . .
On his way to Laban's, God broke into Jacob's life through a dream. In that dream, He reiterated the Promise and also promised to Jacob that He would protect him while he was gone and bring him back safely (read 28:13-15).
Jacob's response (28:16) showed he was essentially a self-sufficient man – living his life by his own resources, apart from any real awareness of God's involvement. His "prayer" to God is essentially a pagan bargain-vow (28:20-22).
When Jacob got to Laban's land, he ran up against someone who was as good a chiseler as he was! Jacob fell in love with Laban's daughter Rachel, so he hung around a month instead of the few days he had planned. Laban noticed this, and took advantage of it to extract seven years of indentured servitude for her hand. When the seven years were over, Laban took advantage of Jacob's excessive partying at the wedding feast to smuggle his older daughter Leah into bed with Jacob. When Jacob woke up the next morning, "Behold, it was Leah!" Jacob was furious: "What is this you have done to me? . . . Why then have you deceived me?" (What irony after his dealings with Esau!) Laban insisted on seven more years labor for Rachel. After those seven years, Jacob was permitted to marry Rachel. Jacob and Laban then spent six more years trying to screw each other over to get the biggest portion of their flocks.
So because of his own scheming, Jacob successfully turned a few weeks into twenty years. He wound up fleeing for his life from his father-in-law and God had to intervene to prevent Laban from killing him.
On his way back home, Jacob realized that he had to travel through Esau's land. God spoke to Jacob again and promised to be with him (31:3). He followed this promise up by sending some angels to reassure Jacob of his protection (32:1,2).
But Jacob was still scheming rather than trusting. He sent some of his servants to bribe Esau with shmoozing and the hope of gifts (read 32:3-5).
But they returned with news that sent chills down Jacob's spine – Esau was coming to see him with 400 men (read 32:6,7a)! Now in desperate straits (and for the first recorded time in the text), Jacob prayed to God in a humble, promise-based, and dependent way (read 32:9-12).
Alone that night before he had to face Esau, Jacob had an encounter with God that was the defining moment of his life . . .
Jacob's "wrestling match" with God
Read 32:24-31. Some people interpret this event as one more case of Jacob finding a way to get his own way – this time by bullying God through "prevailing prayer." This is defective because it rips this event out of its context, and because it portrays God as tight-fisted and ultimately coercible by us. No, God initiated this wrestling match to illustrate how Jacob related to God up to now, how God had been working to change that relationship, and how Jacob will be different going forward.
God initiated the wrestling match, and Jacob responded by fighting back all night long (32:24). This was a picture of Jacob's relationship with God all this time. It wasn't primarily Esau or Laban that Jacob was resisting and trying to get around – it was God Himself. God had a will for Jacob's life and made promises to him pertaining to that will, but Jacob stubbornly resisting trusting God's leadership at every step.
After wrestling all night, God dislocated Jacob's thigh with a touch (32:25). This showed Jacob whom he was fighting (Someone with immense power who could easily beat him). God had been taking progressively more drastic steps (first through Esau, then through Laban, and then again through Esau) to teach Jacob to abandon his self-sufficiency and trust Him.
Now crippled, Jacob could only hang on to God – a picture of his proper relationship with God. (This may portray what Jacob had begun to do when, with the news that Esau was approaching, he initiated a "desperate" prayer to God in 32:9-12.) Now that Jacob's tenacity was expressed in a dependent posture, God blessed him (reiterating the Promise?) and renamed him to cleanse him from his old identity/ways ("supplanter;" "deceiver") and give him (and the nation that would come from him) a new identity/way ("one who strives effectively with God"). God had always wanted to bless Jacob. He had only been waiting for Jacob to ask with a trusting, dependent heart.[1] Jacob's dislocated hip (32:31) would serve as an ongoing reminder of this lesson.
Jacob learned the lesson. The next morning, he dropped his elaborate and self-protective plan with Esau and instead passed ahead of everyone to meet him directly (33:3), trusting God's promise to protect him. He discovered that Esau had forgiven him, and he went on to do a better job of being a godly leader of his family.
Spiritual lessons
Jacob is not a special case. His wrestling match with God is a picture of all of us to some degree, and of some of us to a great degree in at least three ways.
First, all of us struggle with God. We are all deeply distrustful of God's goodness, and committed to making our lives work apart from personal dependence on God's direction and power (read Rom. 3:10,11,17,18).
It's not just that we are ignorant about God, have misconceptions about Him through poor authority figures, defective churches, etc. We also have a deeply ingrained suspicion that God is neither wise nor good – that He can't be trusted. In fact, we tend to project on to God what we are really like (selfish, controlling, etc.)!
It's not so much that we doubt that a personal God exists or that He has a will for our lives. Deep down, we know both of these things. That's what we're afraid of, because we don't want to surrender the control of our lives to anyone, including (most of all) God.
Some of us express this overtly – we say we want nothing to do with God, scream at Him, cite reasons why He is untrustworthy, etc. The rest of us are more subtle and passive, but the suspicion and struggle are still there. If you are in the latter group, you may be in greater danger than the former because you deceive yourself into thinking you don't resist God, when in fact you do.
What enabled us to survive as a young person often becomes a formidable barrier to trusting God as an adult (e.g., SURVIVING ABUSE/NEGLECT BY PUSHING PEOPLE AWAY; SURVIVING CHAOS BY CONTROLLING YOUR ENVIRONMENT; SURVIVING CONFLICT BY ENABLING; etc.)
Second, God works through various adversities to "break" us of our self-sufficiency. Because the problem isn't merely misinformation about God, the solution requires more than simply learning that God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. Since the problem is deeply-rooted self-sufficiency, God works to "break" it through adversity so that we see our need for deeper trust in God. If even spiritually-minded Christians need this treatment (see Paul in 2 Cor. 1:8,9), how much more those of us who aren't so spiritual!
Often (like Jacob), He just allows us to reap the consequences of our poor choices (ALIENATION WITH ESAU >> BROKEN RELATIONSHIPS DUE TO YOUR SIN; LOST JOBS DUE TO YOUR IRRESPONSIBILITY). Sometimes, He intervenes with specific discipline (LABAN >> PEOPLE IN THE WAY OF YOUR AGENDA; RELATIONAL & CAREER DISAPPOINTMENTS; CONFRONTATION & DISCIPLINE BY OTHERS). He loves you enough to "take you to the mat."
Finally, we choose our response – either to surrender more deeply to God, or to become more deeply committed to our own schemes and resources. Even after this event, Jacob had a choice, and so do you and I. God won't make you submit to Him, but He will polarize you. You will either admit your inadequacy and submit yourself to God, and experience His goodness and wisdom – or you will harden in your commitment to control your own life, and deepen your suspicion about God's goodness.
GOSPEL: Conversion to Christ is not only saying: "I'll take the free gift You offer me;" it is also saying: "I am willing to bow to You and trust Your goodness and wisdom by submitting to Your leadership." This is why coming to Christ is often painful (ME), because it hurts the ego to admit you can't take care of your own life. But it is a pain that is worthwhile because it leads the way to your real home . . .
Even after you come to Christ, there are still areas you don't yet trust God with, or areas that you take back under your control. God will make an issue of these, both because they hinder His purpose for your life and because they injure you and others in the process.
EXAMPLES: ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIPS (focus on spiritual growth & developing close friendships vs. sexual &/or partner compromise); CAREER & MONEY (focus on serving God & trusting him to provide vs. fixating on career & fitting fellowship & ministry in around it); RELATING TO OTHERS (forgiving, confronting, honesty & vulnerability, submission vs. writing people off, distancing self., etc.)
POSSIBLE SIGNS OF CONTROVERSY: dried up appetite for and reality of God's Word & prayer; chronic absence of seeing God working in & through you; increased vulnerability to temptation; inordinate frustration and anger with people and circumstances that are "in the way;" alienation from mature Christians who know you well; etc.
Vital Christians regularly ask God to expose their hearts so they don't allow themselves to become hardened in controversy with God (Ps. 139:23,24) It's a great thing to have a heart that is sensitive and responsive to God's conviction rather than being a "moral mule" (Ps. 32:8,9)!
[1] "The nature of Jacob's prevailing with God was simply that he had held on to God while God weakened him and wrought in him the spirit of submission and self-distrust; that he had desired God's blessing so much that he clung to God through all his painful humbling, till he came low enough for God to raise him up." J. I. Packer, Knowing God (IVP Books, 1993), p. 96.