We all grapple with issues, and then one day discover it’s actually a Person we’re wrestling with.
As we heard, Jacob sent everyone over the Jabbok River and is left alone as night falls. He could hardly be expecting a good night’s sleep as he anticipates the showdown with Esau, the man from whom he had taken the birthright and the blessing. Then suddenly, we read, “a Man wrestled with him until the breaking of day” (Gen 32:24). A Man? What Man? Hosea 12:4 calls Him “the Angel.” Jacob can’t figure it out, and asks Him His name (v 29) but only receives another question to his question: “Why is it that you ask about My name?” But in the end, he figures it out. “I have seen God face to face” (v 30), he says. Yes, this was the pre-incarnate Son of God, the One by whom God would give us, “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Cor 4:6). But here’s the fascinating thing! They wrestled all night! Why didn’t the Lord pin him? For the same reason that, when I’m arm-wrestling my grandson, I don’t pin him. I have the power to do it, but not the will to do it. Closer to home, why doesn’t the Lord make us pray and read our Bibles? He wrestles with us, all right. And He has the power to do it, but He wants us to prevail, to win in life. Thus we shockingly read the Lord’s response: “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel; for you have struggled with God and with men, and have prevailed” (v 28). You have prevailed, Jacob? How? Not by wrestling! For at the climax of the conflict, the Lord “touched the socket of his hip; and the socket of Jacob’s hip was out of joint as He wrestled with him” (v 25). The large gluteus maximus muscle allows the wrestler to lock his hip joint and hold his ground. No more of that for Jacob! All he can do now is cling, and that’s when the blessing comes.