The story of how Jacob wrestled with God fascinates me. It is actually rather difficult to understand at face value. Why would God hurt Jacob? Why would He not allow himself to “win?” Why wrestle all night with a human anyway? There are some tricky questions there.

Some commentators say that Jacob grappled with God himself and others think it was an angel.
Hosea describes it thus:

“In the womb he grasped his brother’s heel; as a man he struggled with God. He struggled with the angel and overcame him; he wept and begged for his favour. (Hosea 12:3,4)

Notice that we are NOT told that Jacob wrestled with a man . . . . What it says is that the man (or Angel of God) wrestled with Jacob. Is it significant that it is this way round? I think so. It shows us that God is the initiator of this conflict. It tells is that God started a fight! Don’t you just love that?! As F.B. Meyer writes,

“It was as though God knew it was His only chance. He wanted to lift Jacob up to a new royal life, and so He actually wrestled with him as though to compel him to yield to Him.”

But the question remains, how could a mere human such as Jacob fight a Supernatural Being for ANY length of time? How is it possible that The Lord, or one of His mighty Angels, could not overpower Jacob (v. 25)? It is an important question. Is God ever weaker than man? Is God ever nearly beaten?

Well, not the God I know. No.

I believe He chose to allow Jacob to believe he could win.
Why?
There is something very intimate and dirty about a fight. There is closeness, eye contact, physicality, mud, humanity. In it we see God allowing something incredible :Face-to-faceness with Himself.

I want you to realise something again with me. The supernatural man (or angel of God) had the power to disable Jacob at ANY time. So why didn’t He just beat him and leave him to realise that you DON’T mess with God?

Because our God is not like that. Is He?

I believe God wanted to impart something of intimacy to Jacob. Albeit in rather a strange way!

When it began to get light and the Angel wished to leave, all He had to do was touch Jacob’s hip socket and it wrenched out of place. Let’s all pause to say “ouch.” I am currently having Physio for a neck problem and KNOW the pain and power of any kind of manipulation. But dislocation? That’s a whole other level of pain. Surely.

The Hebrew word used here certainly can mean “dislocated”. I checked. So why did the Angel wait for a whole night before inflicting a final blow? Perhaps He was biding His time until He knew Jacob had used up all his strength and come to the end of his struggle. Whatever the reason, the fight was certainly necessary for Jacob’s transformation and personal revelation.

At the point where Jacob was exhausted and had nothing more to fight with, the Angel relieves him of his equilibrium.

The message is pretty clear . . . “you have striven with all your might. Yet, with one single touch I can defeat you.” Jacob needed to see the superiority of his opponent with eye-watering clarity. And how often have we experienced the same?

Jacob knew the right words and could perform the right actions . . . but his heart still was did not belong completely to The Lord. And they both knew it. The fight proved this.

It’s easy to have superficial faith. Fair -weather faith disappears the minute a storm brews. However, a crisis forces us to grapple with our real feelings and our true faith. Storm proves the depth and strength of what we believe.

What I am about to say will hardly ever be preached about. It is a very unpopular theology in our feel-good-nice-God western christian church culture.

I believe that the people God loves deeply He provokes deeply. Let me say that again another way. If God loves you, He will bring (or allow) trouble upon you. Is that a revelation to you? Well I can assure you it’s a very biblical position to hold. Look at Daniel, Joseph, Moses, David, Abraham and even Jesus.

There is no doubt that God loved these people. Enormously. And yet that love encompassed huge struggles, problems, pain and difficulty too. See?

God causes trouble for His favourites. He may well be looking for a fight with you right now.

God provokes this crisis in Jacob to bring him to a point of genuine faith. That is why He provokes crises for you and me too. When Jacob called out for a blessing from God, the wall had been broken down. Blessing could finally flow again. He knew who he was dealing with and what He needed God to do. Blessing means release. It means the end of the fight. But the start of living it out.

God did not just want Jacob’s worship. He wanted his heart. And He wants the same from us. He is not interested in what you say in church, or to the babysitter about how wonderful your kids are… Or what you pretend to be in front of your boss. He wants honest reality.

Do you understand that?

So don’t be all upset when you’re all upset. It may not be the devil causing you distress, but God allowing your stress. So relax!

Back to our amazing story. Why do you think that the Angel asks Jacob for His Name (v.27)? Do you find this question ever so slightly odd? I do. Erm. I mean, he knew it already didn’t he? If this is God’s messenger (and I totally believe it is) shouldn’t he already know the Jacob’s name without having to ask it? Listen to the words of Ravi Zacharias as he explains this,

“Think of all that God could have said by way of reprimand. Instead He merely asks for Jacob’s name. God’s purpose in raising this question contains a lesson for all of us, too profound to ignore. In fact, it dramatically altered Old Testament history. In asking for the blessing from God, Jacob was compelled by God’s question to relive the last time he had asked for a blessing, the one he had STOLEN from his brother. (Da! Da! daaaaa! )

The last time Jacob was asked for his name, the question had come from his earthly father. Jacob had lied on that occasion and said, “I am Esau,” and stole the blessing. (Whoops!) Now he found himself, after many wasted years of running through life looking over his shoulder, before an all-knowing, all-seeing heavenly Father, once more seeking a blessing, Jacob fully understood the reason and the indictment behind God’s question and he answered, “My name is Jacob.”

“You have spoken the truth,” God said, “and you know very well what your name signifies. You have been a duplicitous man, deceiving everyone everywhere you went. But now that you acknowledge the real you, I can change you, and I will make a great nation out of you.”

Amazing isn’t it?

So why did God choose to hurt Jacob’s Hip in this bizarre encounter? I think the answer to this question may well be this: scars remind us of what we have been through and what we have learned. Just like a debit card reminds us which Bank our money is with (or isn’t) so our scars remind us of our need for God.

Perhaps you have had a wrestling match with God in your life. Perhaps you now feel you walk with a pronounced limp.

I am learning that my greatest problem is not the circumstances of my life but my heart attitude. See more tomorrow.