New Salem Baptist Church

Wrestling with God

August 18, 2024

Read Genesis 32:22-32.

This fascinating account takes place after Jacob had left his uncle Laban’s dwelling where he had lived and labored for twenty years. He was on his way back to the land where his parents, Isaac and Rebecca, lived. To get to that place he had to travel through the land where his brother Esau lived.

Esau had become both wealthy and powerful. Jacob’s wealth and power were small compared to his. So, he feared Esau greatly. He suspected that Esau would kill him. Jacob had cheated Esau twice. Jacob did not have good character. He was a deceiver. While it is true that the Lord favored Jacob and even hated Esau, that was not an excuse for Jacob’s cheating. First he cheated him out of his birthright. The birthright was a double portion of the land belonging to the father and headship of the family once the father passed. When Esau came in from a hunting trip he was exhausted and famished. Jacob used his extreme hunger to ply the birthright from him. Later, he would steal the blessing from him by pretending to be him. The blessing was the pronouncement by a father, usually reserved for the oldest son. At this time in history the words spoken by a father at or near the time of death were actualized. That is, what a father would speak would come to pass.

So, Jacob had cheated him twice and he was expecting him to slay him. Before he meets up with his brother he encounters a stranger who comes to him in the wilderness and wrestles with him. What is this about?

This really happened. Jacob wrestled with this man. But why is this account recorded in the Bible besides it being an interesting story?

This man who wrestled with Jacob was actually God Himself! In verse 30 Jacob says, “I have seen God face to face…” And, lest you think that Jacob was mistaken, verse 28 has this personage saying, “You have striven with God…”

The reason this is recorded for us is because it is a metaphor. A metaphor is something, usually written or spoken, that is symbolic of something else. This account of Jacob wrestling with God is representative of prayer.  It is a metaphor for prayer. The same way that Jacob struggled with God physically, we are to struggle with Him in communion.

I wish for us to observe four things about this encounter:

1. Jacob put forth great effort into this contest.
2. Jacob did not yield to the resistance of the other man.
3. Jacob persisted. He did not give up.
4. Jacob prevailed.

[1] Jacob put forth great effort. For those who have never wrestled or known someone who wrestled, you may not know how demanding it is. Many believe it is the hardest sport. All four of my boys wrestled. Coulter and Christian each only wrestled one year as youths and did not wrestle in High School. Kai and Clark not only wrestled throughout Middle School and High School but were very successful. They both won second in the state. Kai was 50-0 his senior year going into the gold medal match. Clark was state champion as a youth (below High School). I watched all four of them wrestle. I remember watching one of Coulter’s matches and, although he didn’t win that match, he wrestled so hard! He gave it all he had and pressed on so well. I was proud of him. When that six minutes was over he was spent. This was true of all the boys, unless they just happened to be wrestling a boy that wasn’t very good.

But think of who Jacob wrestled. Do you think this man was good or not good? Of course, he was proficient because he was God! Thus, Jacob was compelled to exert much energy in wrestling this person!

So it is with us. God desires and we desire (if we know our own hearts) to put forth great effort in our prayer struggles. Now, on the surface, at first blush, we may not feel that desire. We might rather watch tv or look at our phone. That’s because we are lazy. You lazy donkeys! Yes, I’m talking to you…and to myself. We all have this problem. Maybe some of us have it more than others. But deep down inside we long for communion with God. We only need to overcome our laziness. And, that is why this story is in the Bible! To motivate us to do that! Jacob put forth much effort. We need it, too.

[2] Jacob did not yield to the resistance of his opponent. Brian Simko recently competed in the Taw Kwon Do World Championships. He won gold in one category and placed high in three others. In Tae Kwon Do, as in all martial arts and wrestling, too, one does not relent to the offensive maneuvers of your opponent. When your match partner attempts an offensive move you do not just allow him. You parry and fight back.

The person that Jacob was wrestling was attempting to overcome Jacob and Jacob was strongly resisting every attempt. This signifies that when we are struggling with God in prayer we are not taking “no” for an answer. It will seem as if God is denying our request or even communicating some different course of action than that for which we are asking. It may be through circumstances. It may be through dreams. It may be through the counsel of others that is contrary to our desires.

By the way, that is what prayer is. Prayer is communication our desires to God. When we pray, it may be that God is seemingly denying our desires. The point of this true story is that we do not accept this denial. We press on. We resist and we keep trying to get the Lord to submit to our request. “That can’t be, pastor. We must just bend our will to God’s every time.” In the grand design this is true. Ultimately, we will acquiesce to the Lord’s will. But a wrestling match is just a moment in time. In a real wrestling match its just six minutes. (But Jacobs match appears to have gone on for a much longer time. Still, it was just hours at the most.) With respect to prayer, its just a season. Maybe a week. Maybe a month. Maybe a year. But its not the grand vision. Its just a short season in the story of our lives. Besides this story there is another teaching of our Lord that reveals the same thing. We are not to bend at the first sign of resistance in prayer.

[3] Jacob persisted. The text does not tell us how long this match lasted. However, it appears to have gone on a long time. They wrestled until dawn! Again, the passage does not say when they began, but they certainly didn’t begin six minutes before sunrise. The implication is that they began sometime in the middle of the night and just kept on going. They both must have been exhausted. God, in the form of a man, allowed himself the frailty of physical human weakness, just as he did when he came in the Person of Christ 1,500 years after this.

They were evenly matched and Jacob was close to winning. Because we read this:

²⁵ When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched his hip socket, and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. ^[1]

In his natural limitations, the man could not defeat Jacob. So he exercised supernatural power. He touched his hip and put it out of joint. Even then, with his hip in pain, Jacob did not give up! He held on to the man!

²⁶ Then he said, “Let me go, for the day has broken.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”^[2]

God is asking Jacob to let him go. What did Jacob say? “I will not!” Jacob would not let go of the man.

This reminds me of a match that Kai had at the District Wrestling Championships. The state of Missouri is divided into four districts and only the top four in each district are permitted to enter the State Championship. One year Kai had to wrestle a state placer from the previous year who had a strong reputation. Josie and I were nervous for him. The match was a nail-biter. It went back and forth with only a point here and a point there either way. If my memory serves me correctly, after three periods of wrestling the score was tied so they had to go into overtime, which is only two one minute periods. Each period begins with one opponent on bottom and then the other. If you can escape from your opponent you earn one point. Kai’s opponent could not escape from him. When Kai was on bottom he could not escape at first. But near the end of the period he did escape, winning the point and the match. Winning first in the Districts seeds you into a good position in the pairings at State. Kai won the Districts that year.

During his match both he and his opponent were tired near the end. But neither gave up. Kai could have given up a few times during that match but he persisted and won. This is exactly what Jacob did. Even when his hip was out of joint he didn’t give up.

This experience of Jacob matches the teaching of our Lord Jesus in one of his short parables.

    5      Then He said to them, “Which of you has a friend, and will go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves;

    6      for a friend of mine has come to me from a journey, and I have nothing to set before him’;

    7      and from inside he answers and says, ‘Do not bother me; the door has already been shut and my children and I are in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.’

    8      “I tell you, even though he will not arise and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will get up and give him as much as he needs.

    9      “So I say to you, ^aask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.

  10      “For everyone who asks, receives; and he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks, it will be opened.^[3]

In verse 9 Jesus tells us to ask. Ask whom? Of course, ask the Father. In the parable, the neighbor represents the Father. Understand that the Father may deny your initial request. In verse 8, the Lord Jesus says that the neighbor will not grant his request even though he is his friend. But he will grant it because of his persistence.

Hence, the Father may not grant your request even though you are already in a special and intimate relationship with him. But, because of your persistence, he will!

The word in the original language for persistence is anaideion (αναιδειον) which, in many translations, is translated as importunity. Well, we don’t use that word very often in modern English and I think most people will have to look it up.

I got a new Study Bible in the CSB version. This is an accurate and reliable translation. I love the way the CSB translates verse 8:

⁸ I tell you, even though he won’t get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his friend’s shameless boldness, he will get up and give him as much as he needs.^[4]

It translates the word as “shameless boldness!”

Jesus is teaching that we be unrestrictedly bold in our requests and that we persist in them. This is like wrestling! You press on even when there is great resistance!

[4] Jacob prevailed. This is amazing isn’t it? He wrestled with God and he prevailed! God even changed his name at this very time to Israel, which means, “He strives with God.” This means nothing less than that we too can strive with God and prevail! This ought to be a great encouragement to us.

[Application] Therefore, how should we pray? How do we wrestle with God?

1. First, bring your desire to him. It should go without saying that this should be a good desire. In the parable of the persistent neighbor, Jesus uses the example of receiving the Holy Spirit. However, it is not restricted to just the Holy Spirit, as wonderful as that is.  We can ask the Father anything Jesus said elsewhere (John 14:13-17). The only thing that we should never ask for is something sinful. Not only will God not answer that prayer but he will be sorely displeased with you.  I think most of us have good desires that are yet unfulfilled.

Someone may say, “But I don’t have anything that I want.” To those I would say that you can ask the same thing for which Jacob asked. He asked to be blessed by God. Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”

See that Jacob was already blessed by God. When he worked for his uncle Laban his uncle even said to him: “I have learned by divination that the LORD has blessed me because of you.” (Genesis 30:27) Jacob then confirms what his uncle said three verses later (30:30). Thus, Jacob was seeking a greater blessing from the Lord.

You are already blessed if you belong to Christ. Yet, you can seek a greater blessing!

2. After you bring your desire to him you continue to bring it to him shamelessly, both often and boldly. How long should you continue? Until you prevail! You persist until he answers positively. It might be a week. It might be a month. It might be a year or longer. The only times you desist are either if he grants you something even better than what you have asked (he does this at times!), or it becomes known to you that the granting of your request would be harmful.

[Conclusion] Are you ready? Are you ready to have your dreams fulfilled? Or, are you ready to receive a greater supply of the Holy Spirit? Or, are you ready to receive a greater blessing, just leaving that blessing up to God? Then today is the day to imitate Jacob. Not in his prior deceptiveness, but in his struggle with God. Today is the day to apply the parable of our Lord to yourself.