Deo Gloria
Sermon for October 16, 2022
Pastor Martin Bentz
Text: Genesis 32:22-30
Theme: We Can Wrestle with God and Win!
- God wrestles with us to overcome our self-reliance.
- We can wrestle with God to win his blessings.
Imagine you’re in a contest. The prize is $50,000. But in order to get that prize you have to win a wrestling match against Harrison Phillips, the 300 lb defensive lineman for the Minnesota Vikings. Now I don’t know about you, but if that were me, I wouldn’t even bother climbing into the ring. I mean, what’s the point? Harrison Phillips could pick me up with one hand. If he laid down on top of me with all of his weight, I don’t think I’d be able to breath. The match would be over in 10 seconds. My chances of winning the prize would be zero.
Now picture yourself in another wrestling match. This time it’s not against Harrison Phillips. It’s against God, the almighty God of the universe. Should we even bother climbing in the ring? Do we even stand a chance? Believe it or not, we should and we do. That’s the lesson we learn from our story today, the story of Jacob wrestling with God. In fact, that’s the lesson God wants us to learn and wants us to remember: that we can wrestle with God and win!
Jacob and his family were on their way back to the land of Canaan. Twenty years earlier, Jacob had fled from the land of Canaan. He had run away from home for the sake of his own safety. You see, his brother had wanted to kill him. Why? Because Jacob had stolen their father’s blessing. Perhaps you remember the story: how Esau went out hunting and while he was gone, Jacob went into his father’s tent and deceived him, convinced him that he was Esau and that he should give him the blessing. Then, later on when Esau came back and went into his father’s tent, Isaac said he couldn’t bless him because he had already given his blessing to his brother. Boy was Esau angry, so angry he wanted to kill his brother. So Jacob had to leave. He fled from home and went to his Uncle Laban’s house, which was several hundred miles away, hopefully a safe distance. There he lived and worked for his uncle for the next 20 years. Of course, a lot happened in the meantime. He got married, to both Leah and Rachel. He had 11 children, all boys. He became rather wealthy, acquiring large flocks of sheep and goats and cows and camels. And now he was on his way back to Canaan.
But what about his brother? Would Esau be happy to see him again after 20 years? Or would he still be angry, angry enough to kill him and his family? Jacob had sent servants to his brother to tell him that he was coming home and to sound him out a bit. Those servants returned with this message: “Your brother is coming to meet you with 400 men.” Needless to say Jacob was petrified. He was filled with “great fear and distress” we are told back in v. 7. What was he going to do? He couldn’t run, not with two wives and two maid-servants and eleven children. Esau would overtake them in no time. He couldn’t fight. He and his servants would be no match for Esau and his 400 men. And he was running out of time. He and his family were now nearing the border of the land of Canaan. The next day he would have to face his brother. It seemed his days of deceiving people and tricking them were catching up with him; and he was out tricks.
The one thing Jacob still had was time, time to pray. And that’s exactly what he did. During the night he got up—I’m sure he couldn’t sleep anyway. Might as well get up. He took his wives and his maid-servants and his children across the Jabbok River. Then, after he had them safely across, he sent over all of his possessions, so he was left alone, which is what he wanted. He wanted to be alone, so he could pray.
And while he was praying, something very unusual happened: a man appeared and began wrestling with him. And they kept on wrestling, hour after hour. They wrestled until the light of dawn began to glow on the eastern horizon. And when the man saw that he could not overpower Jacob, he touched his hip so that it was wrenched out of place, which made matters even worse for Jacob. Now he was crippled, rendered almost completely helpless. He couldn’t fight anymore—not with a dislocated hip. He couldn’t run away—not with a dislocated hip. So he did the only thing he could do: He hung on and refused to let go. Finally the man said to Jacob, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.”
But Jacob refused. “I will not let you go,” he said, “unless you bless me”(v. 26).
By now Jacob knew that this was no ordinary man he was wrestling with. We don’t find out until v. 28; but Jacob knew. God had appeared to him and was wrestling with him to teach him an important lesson: to stop relying on himself and to rely on him. That was not easy for Jacob to do. Jacob had always relied on himself. From little on Jacob had relied on himself and his clever whit and his ability to deceive other people to get the things he wanted or to get himself out of a sticky situation; but not this time. God gave him no choice. God left Jacob injured, unable to fight, unable to run, unable to do anything except to cling to him and his promises.
That’s an important lesson God wants us to learn as well: not to rely on ourselves, but to rely on him, to cling to him and his promises. By nature you and I are a lot like Jacob. We tend to rely on ourselves. We take pride in the fact that we rely on ourselves. We don’t need anyone else’s help. We’re independent. We’re self-sufficient. With our strength and our abilities and our clever whit, we can handle anything, anything life can dish out. So God has to do a little wrestling with us. He allows some difficulty to come into our lives, some problem, some sadness—something we cannot handle on our own. Maybe it’s a sudden illness, an illness that puts us flat on our backs in the hospital. Maybe it’s a car accident, one in which our life is spared, but our leg is crushed. And now the only way we can walk is with a cane. Maybe it’s the sudden loss of the things we’ve worked so hard for: our home, our business, our career. Maybe it’s the loss of someone near and dear to us: a close friend, our father or mother, our own son or daughter. And suddenly we realize we’re not as strong as we thought we were. We do need help from others. And most of all, we need help from God. We need God’s love. We need his forgiveness. We need his help. We need his strength. Or we’re not going to make it.
And it’s important that we learn that lesson, because if we rely on ourselves, we will never see God face to face. Let me repeat that: If we rely on ourselves and our own strength and our own abilities, we will never see God face to face. Oh, I suppose I could restate that slightly. We would see God for a few brief moments on Judgment Day, but only to stand before him and to hear his words of condemnation: “Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels”(Mt 25:41). And then we would be banished from presence forever. You see, you can’t fool God. You can’t deceive God. You can fool other people. You can convince them that you’re a pretty decent guy. But God knows the truth, just as he knew the truth about Jacob. He knows the lies you have told, the lies you told your own parents. He knows the things you have stolen, including the things you took from your own brother or sister. He knows about the times you deceived other people and took advantage of them. God knows the truth: that you’re a sinner, a sinner who deserves nothing from him but punishment.
Like Jacob, our only hope of ever getting into heaven, our only hope of ever seeing God is not to rely on ourselves, but to rely on him and his love and his promises. In love, God sent his Son Jesus to be our Savior, to suffer the punishment for our sins, so that we might be forgiven. And he has given us this promise: that whoever believes in Jesus shall not perish but have eternal life.(John 3:16) That is our hope. That is our confidence of living with God in heaven and seeing him face to face. It doesn’t depend on us and what we can do. It depends on God and what he has done for us in our Savior Jesus. One of our hymns says it so beautifully:
Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to thy cross I cling;
Naked, come to thee for dress, helpless look to thee for grace.
Foul, I to the fountain fly—wash me, Savior, or I die! (CW1993, 389:3)
That’s the first lesson we want to learn from this story, the same lesson Jacob had to learn: Don’t rely on yourself. Rely on God. Cling to him and his promises.
The second lesson we can learn is that we can wrestle with God to win his blessings. Look at the blessings Jacob won. First, his name was changed, from Jacob to Israel. The name Jacob means “heel grabber” and “deceiver.” That’s what Jacob had been: one who took matters into his own hands, one who deceived others and tricked them so he could get what he wanted; but not anymore. From now on he would be known as Israel, a name that means “he contends with God.” From now on he would be known as someone who looks to God for help and relies on God, a man who actually wrestled with God in prayer. From now on he would be Israel, not Jacob.
Notice too that God blessed Jacob. Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” God answered his prayer. He did bless Jacob, giving him the confidence and assurance that he would continue to be with him and would keep him and his family safe.
Like Jacob, we too can wrestle with God in prayer and win his blessings. In fact, he wants us to. He wants us to come to him boldly and confidently whenever we are afraid or troubled and ask for his blessing, because he wants to bless us.
In a way it’s kind of like a father wrestling with his little children on the floor of the family room. Could he beat them? Of course he could. If he were to use all of his strength, he could beat them all and pin them all, no problem. But because he loves them, he lets his children wrestle with him. He lets them gang up on him and climb on top of him and hold him down on the ground. He even lets them get away with special prizes. He lets them take his keys out of his pocket. He lets them take the shoes off his feet. He lets them take the cap off his head. He lets them take those things and then chases them around the house until he catches them.
That’s what our heavenly Father does with us. Obviously, you and I could never defeat God. We could never beat him in a wrestling match and win from him some coveted prize—except for one thing: He wants us to. He wants us to come to him boldly and confidently in prayer. He wants us to wrestle with him in prayer, to hold on to him with everything we’ve got and ask for his blessing, because that’s what he wants to do: bless us.
Next time you’re troubled by your sins, go to God and wrestle with him in prayer. You can be sure that he will bless you, that he will take all your sins away. Next time you’re afraid as Jacob was, afraid for your own safety or the safety of a family member, go to God and wrestle with him in prayer. You can be sure that he will bless you, that he will send his angels to watch over you and keep you and your family safe. Next time your heart is weighed down with grief and sadness over the loss of a friend or a loved one, go to God and wrestle with him in prayer. You can be sure that he will bless you, that he will comfort you with his love and wipe away your tears. And most of all, when your time in this world is drawing to close and the shadow of death looms ever larger in front of you, go to God and wrestle with him in prayer. You can be sure that he will bless you, that when the time is right, he will take you from this world of sorrow to your heavenly home, where you will see him face to face.
It’s an amazing story, isn’t it, the story of Jacob wrestling with God? And it’s a story filled with tremendous comfort for God’s people. We can wrestle with God and win, not because we are so strong but because God is so loving. Like Jacob, he wants us to wrestle with him in prayer so he can teach us not to rely on ourselves and so he can bless us. And when God blesses us, we are the winner! Amen.