Transcription
Have you ever read the story where Jacob wrestles with God and thought, "Wait, what's actually happening here?" This is one of the strangest scenes in the entire Bible. A man appears in the middle of the night. Jacob wrestles with him until sunrise. You remember this? The man dislocates Jacob's hip. Jacob refuses to let go and then the man blesses him. And afterwards, Jacob says, "I have seen God face to face." Hey, what's up with that?
This moment is one of the most important turning points in the entire book of Genesis. And once you see what's actually happening here, it reframes everything about blessing, identity, and what it really means to walk with God. So, let's open our Bibles and get right into it.
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Welcome back to Wise Disciple. I'm Nate Saul and I'm helping you become the effective Christian that you are meant to be. Before YouTube, I was a pastor and a Bible teacher. And it's from that experience that I make these videos. And my prayer is that this blesses you wherever you are.
All right, let's go to the account. Genesis 32:23. He took them and sent them across the stream and everything else that he had. Okay, hold on a second. Right, this is Jacob. Why is Jacob here? What happened to cause Jacob to be here late at night? And why does he send his family away like this? Does anybody remember? You remember this story?
Verse 24. And Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day. 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. Then he said, "Let me go, for the day is broken." But Jacob said, "I will not let you go unless you bless me." And he said to him, "What is your name?" And he said, "Jacob." Then he said, "Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men and have prevailed."
So Jacob wrestles with a man. But wait a second. This isn't any old man. How do we know that? Well, because in verse 30, Jacob calls the place Peniel because he said that he saw God face to face there and he was delivered. Later, the prophet Hosea will say that Jacob wrestled with an angel of God. Okay? So, Jacob wrestled with God. But the question is why?
Well, this is where you have to know the backstory, right? So, a moment ago I asked you what what's Jacob doing sneaking around in the middle of the night and sending his family away, right? It's because he's about to confront his brother who he hasn't seen since the moment that he what does anybody remember this?
So, Jacob went into his father and said, "My father." And he said, "Here I am. Who are you, my son?" This is the moment that Jacob lies to his father, deceives his father by dressing up as his brother, and stealing the blessing that was going to be given to Esau. Jacob said to his father, verse 19, "I am Esau, your firstborn. I have done as you told me. Now sit up and eat of my game that your soul may bless me." All right. But Isaac said to his son, "How is it that you have found it so quickly, my son?" And he answered, "Because the Lord your God granted me success." That's a lie. All of this is a huge lie. And worst of all, did you see that Jacob invoked the Lord in order to further the lie? All of that. So he could sneak in while Esau was out hunting and pretend to be his brother to steal Esau's blessing.
Now, here's where it gets truly fascinating. All right. Jacob and Esau were twins. And before they were born, the Lord spoke to their mother and told them that Jacob, not Esau, but Jacob would actually be the son of promise. Okay. Genesis 25:23. The Lord said to her, "Two nations are in your womb. Two peoples from within you shall be divided. The one shall be stronger than the other. The Here it is. The older shall serve the younger." That's not the way it typically goes in these families, right? Uh that's not how it's supposed to go.
So what happens next? Esau is born first. And in this type of culture, that means Esau would receive the greater blessing and Jacob would be under Esau's authority. So there's a promise here, but things aren't going according to plan. So what does Jacob do? He and his mother concocted a scheme to take the blessing into their own hands. As if God's promise needed their help, right? So, Jacob disguised himself. He lied to his blind father and he took what did not belong to him.
So, he came near him and kissed him. And Isaac smelled the smell of his garments and blessed him and said, "May God give you of the dew of heaven and of the fatness of the earth and plenty of grain and wine. Let people serve you and nations bow down to you. Be lord over your brothers and may your mother's sons bow down to you. And cursed be everyone who curses you. Blessed be everyone who blesses you."
And ever since that moment, Jacob's life has been marked by this same pattern. Manipulation, control, getting the outcome that he wants by relying on his own strength. Right? That's who Jacob is. And so now here he is years later. He's about to face the brother that he betrayed by stealing his blessing.
Wait a second. Wait a second. Hold on. What did Jacob say to the Lord when he was wrestling with him? Right. Verse 26. Then he said, this is the Lord. Let me go for the day is broken. But Jacob said, I will not let you go unless you what? You bless me. Ah, are you seeing what's happening here? And then right before that, the Lord took Jacob's hip out of joint. And the scripture says that Jacob limped ever since that day. Uh that Israel because that's his new name. Limped because he wrestled with God.
All right, here's the meaning of the story. Are you ready? God's blessing cannot be secured by deception or strength, but only through honest dependent struggle with God himself. It's no coincidence that Jacob meets God and receives his blessing in the right way right before he's about to meet his older brother who he stole the blessing from in the wrong way. Right? You you with me so far?
This is God showing Jacob that the blessing stands. Why? Well, because the promise was given before he was ever born. But the means of the blessing must be transformed. You cannot manipulate the promise of God. You you certainly cannot lie and use God's name to manipulate his promise. You must receive it only by divine blessing. for Jacob to steal Esau's blessing was to basically wrestle God's plans out of his hands. And guess what? You cannot do that, ladies and gentlemen. God shows Jacob his promise only comes through his initiative, not human scheming and not human strategy.
Think about that. I said it before, but it bears repeating here. Jacob's entire life has been about controlling outcomes, right? Uh remember what happened when he was born? He actually held on to and grabbed his brother's heel. Look at this. Genesis 25:26. Afterward, his brother came out with his hand holding Esau's heel. So, in other words, because of this, his name was Jacob. The name Jacob is tied to heel grabber. Did you know that? somebody who um uh trips up another to get ahead. That's that's what a Jacob is. And and that's how Jacob's story begins. By trying to control his own destiny before he's even born. And then what happens next? He exploits his brother's hunger to purchase his birthright. Uh and then he actually steals his brother's blessing. Then he tries to outsmart Laban. Right?
But this night right here is totally different. Jacob cannot overpower God. He cannot manipulate. He cannot trick God. He cannot negotiate terms. He can't even stand on his own afterwards. All he can do is cling. And that's the moment that Jacob becomes Israel. Because not when he wins, but when he refuses to let go of God. Are you with me?
By the way, did did you notice that right, Jacob is not wrest like we read the story, you know, and we we hear this in Sunday school and and uh this was one of the more stories that I really appreciated when I was younger, but like we read the story and we think, "Oh, yeah, he's wrestling to get away from God." No, he's not. He's he's struggling because he's trying to hold on to God, right? I will not let you go unless you bless me. Did you see that? And in that moment when God touches his hip and takes away his strength, Jacob won't let go until God says so.
Some of you watching right now are in a season of wrestling, aren't you? You're trying to figure things out. You're trying to control outcomes. You're trying to hold everything together in your own strength. And maybe, just maybe, God is letting you wrestle. It's not because he wants to hurt you, but it's because he wants to change how you walk. Do you understand? For Jacob, the blessing of God didn't come through strength. It came through surrender. And the same is true for us today. Sometimes God does not remove the struggle. He uses it to change the way we walk with him. And that's it. May we all learn to cling to God and to him alone. Amen.
After that night, Jacob became Israel and one of the forefathers of our faith. What's going to happen to you after you surrender all to the Lord? Amen.
If this resonated with you, let me know in the comments. If you need prayer, uh, let me know by sending those requests down below. I'm going to make sure to circle back around and pray for you and over you, and I'll ask my friends to come back here and do the same thing.
All right. If you want to study scripture like this more deeply, come hang out with me over on my Patreon. We do this kind of thing every day. I'm doing a free Bible study over there right now, or you can jump onto a support tier to help me make these kinds of videos on YouTube. Just so you know, everything that you saw me doing with the text today, I'm using uh inside Logos Bible software. If you want to study scripture at this level, I highly recommend it. You can try it for free at logos.com/wisdisciple. And if you've ever wanted to learn the original biblical languages, which I encourage everybody to. Biblingo is the easiest and most practical way that I've seen to do that. I really only partner with tools that I believe are effective for you. And you can actually get a discount uh at Biblingo with the code wise disciple 10 at checkout. So, I encourage you to uh avail yourself of that.
All right, friends. I've got more videos coming up for you. But in the meantime, I'll say bye for now.