and the text you'll find in verse
26. And he said, Let me go, for the
day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee
go, except thou bless me. During our meditations this morning
we looked at John the Baptist and the Lord Jesus Christ and
the apostles as they began to proclaim the gospel of the kingdom
of God. And that kingdom began in the
hearts of men by grace. The Lord changed the hearts and
entered in by his spirit. A new heart would he give them,
a new spirit would he put within them. and he would take away
their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. And we
saw that those with whom the Spirit began a work of grace
in the heart would not be satisfied by just continuing on in that
pathway that they would strive to enter into the kingdom of
God. They would give no rest, that
they would persevere and press hard. upon the Lord Jesus until
they received the blessing of the Lord, which is the forgiveness
of sin. And we saw that the Church of
the Lord Jesus Christ, from its very foundation, suffered violence
by the hands of sinful men. John was beheaded, the Lord Jesus
Christ crucified The apostles suffered persecution and death
and Christians throughout the ages have suffered at the hands
of sinful men and even in the times of peace There is still
no peace for the Christian, no real peace in this world. We
know as we suffer because of the kingdom of darkness, we suffer
that daily onslaught of unbelief, doubts and fears, weaknesses
of the flesh. And our true peace comes in heaven. And one day we will be with the
Lord, which is far, far better. There are times in our lives
when we can experience the peace of God and the blessings of God.
Those are few and far between. And often the Christian pathway
is an up and down experience. We are on the mountaintops. and
then we are brought low, we are brought low and then we are brought
up and there are times of real blessing and there are times
of real persecution and spiritual attack and all of these things
are working together for the good of the Lord's people and
often weaning them from the things of this world the things that
we pass through are in every sense really to wean us and to
draw us closer to the Lord Jesus Christ Jacob was a man who needed
to be drawn closer to the Lord. We know that he was named Jacob.
His name means a supplanter or a deceiver and we know how he
deceived his father and tricked him into giving him a birthright
and then he had to flee from his brother Esau and he ran to
his uncle Laban and he worked there for some years and the
Lord blessed the labors of his hands. He was given the two wives
and the Lord blessed his cattle. He increased and he increased
And he says that he originally passed over the brook with a
stick, with a staff, but now he was in two bands. We read of the multitude of the
animals and the things that he had and that he was now coming
back to meet with his brother. He was walking in obedience to
God. The Lord had told him that he
was to go back and he obeyed and he goes back to
meet his brother. But he was left alone and there
wrestled a man with him until the breaking of day. This man
can only really be the Lord Jesus Christ because he says he has
seen God face to face and his life has been preserved. We know
that there are times in the Old Testament when the Lord Jesus
appears in his pre-incarnate state, Christology, as he appears
to men, we see him as he appeared to Abraham before the destruction
of Sodom and we see him here wrestling with Jacob before he
blesses him. Jacob had been alone before He'd been sent out from his family
home and been sent on a journey to his brother or his uncle's
house. And on the way the Lord met him
and he was alone. Sometimes being alone can be
a bad thing but sometimes being alone can be a good thing. When
you are alone there is no distraction. You're able to walk, you're able
to sit and to meditate and to think. without any distraction. It's often as you look through
the scriptures at times when people are alone that the Lord
comes and blesses them with a blessing. He blesses them with his presence.
He blesses them with his help. Think of Hannah when Hannah went
into the temple to pray. She left her husband and the
other wife and she goes into the temple to pray and she was
alone. with the Lord in prayer, pouring out her heart to the
Lord. And Jacob, as he journeyed from
one place to another place, he was alone. All he had with him,
as he tells us, is his staff in his hand. And as it comes
to night time, he lays down upon the floor and he takes a stone
for his pillow and he goes to sleep. But as he sleeps, he dreams
a dream and the Lord meets with him. Genesis 28. Verse 10, And Jacob went out
from Beersheba and went unto Haran. And he lighted upon a
certain place and tarried there all night, because the sun was
set. And he took off the stones of that place and put them for
his pillows and lay down in that place to sleep. And he dreamed,
and behold, a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it
reached to heaven. And behold, the angels of God
ascending and descending on it. And behold, the Lord stood above
it and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham, thy father, and the
God of Isaac, the land whereon thou liest, to thee I will give
it, and to thy seed. And he gives him a promise in
verse 15. It's a wonderful promise. And
behold, I am with thee and will keep thee in all places whither
thou goest. And I will bring thee again onto
this land, for I will not leave thee until I have done that which
I have spoken to thee of. And so the Lord is now transferring
that covenant blessing which he gave to Abraham and to Isaac,
and he passes it on to Jacob. He establishes his covenant with
him. And he appears to him and blesses
him. And Abraham calls the place Bethel. I can't see where he says that
but he calls the place Bethel. The Lord met with him. And he called the name of that
place Bethel, but the name of the city was called Luz at first.
And Jacob vowed a vow saying, if God will be with me and will
keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat
and raiment to put on, And so that I come again to my father's
house in peace, then shall the Lord be my God. And this stone
which I have set for a pillar shall be God's house. And of
all that thou shalt give me, I will surely give a tenth unto
thee. And so he named the place Bethel. As you read through the Old Testament
you see time and time again that they came to Bethel and as Jacob
passes through he is alone. And the Lord meets with him and
blesses him and brings him into this covenant that he is going
to be the one by which that kingdom, the physical kingdom is going
to be established and one day through Jacob and the people
of Israel would be the Lord Jesus Christ. But here he is alone
again. It's like he's done a full circle. As he leaves his brother Laban
he is surrounded with animals and family and he takes them
across this brook. They pass over the brook and
he puts them on the other side and then he comes back and he
is alone again. And he is alone and the Lord
meets with him again. And there was a man that wrestled
with him until the breaking of the day. Jacob was filled with
fear. As he had sent out his messengers
to try and find out where his brother was, they came back to
him and tell him, your brother is also on the way to meet with
you. And he is not alone. He is coming
with 400 men. And Jacob immediately, no doubt
his mind goes back to when he left and his brother Esau had
threatened to kill him. He immediately thinks that trouble
is going to come his way. And so he makes these different
plans as how he's going to protect his livelihood. He divides them
into two bands but he is filled with fear. Verse seven, and Jacob
was greatly afraid and distressed. Yes, he makes plans. He makes
plans as he divides his household, but he also comes to the Lord
in prayer. The Lord who met him there at
Bethel The Lord who spoke to him and blessed him in his labours
with Laban. The Lord who told him to now
leave Laban and to return to his father's house is the God
by which he was going to commune with. And he reminds God of the
promise that he made. He says Lord it is thee which
said return unto thy country and unto thy kindred and I will
deal well with thee. And you can imagine how he's
thinking, well, how is this all going to work out? The Lord has
said, go forward, go home. And now my brother is coming
to me with 400 men. He's obviously going to kill
me. The Lord has told me to do this and everything is going
to fall apart. So he goes to the Lord. And he
asks God, what is going to happen? He asks the Lord, Lord, I've
walked in obedience. It is you who have said to me,
return to thy country. It is you who has commanded me
to do this. And I know that I'm not worth
the least of thy mercies. I know I deserve to be beaten
by my brother. He says, I am not worthy of the
least of all thy mercies and of all the truth which thou hast
showed unto thy servant. For with this staff I passed
over this Jordan and now I am become two bands. He acknowledges
the greatness of God's blessing upon him. He says, I crossed
over with just a stick. Just a walking, sticking my hand,
I made my way to my uncle's house. But now I have returned in two
bands. And I acknowledge, Lord, that
it is all of your doing. It's nothing to do with me. I'm
not worthy of the least of thy mercies, but please deliver me.
I pray thee out of the hand of my brother and from the hand
of Esau, for I fear lest he will come and smite me and the mother
and the children. That was his concern. He was
filled with fear that his brother was going to go through with
the threat that he made to kill Jacob. And he thought, well,
he's going to kill all of my family as well. Fear didn't drive Jacob away
from God. fear drove Jacob to God. He knew it was God who initiated
the move. He knew it was God who would
be able to deal with his brother and so he comes to God in prayer. And really the wrestling on the
other side of the brook is the answer to the prayer that Jacob
prayed. He was left alone and there wrestled
a man with him. Desperate prayer or desperate desperation drives
people or should drive people or drive us to prayer where there
are situations that are out of our control, out of our hands. We come in desperation to a God
who is able to do far more than we can ask or think. Especially
if we have been commanded by the Lord to do something. And
the Lord has shown us the way. The Lord has made the way clear.
And we perceive that obstacles and difficulties are in the way
and we can come to the Lord and we can acknowledge we're not
worthy for the least of thy mercies, but we are seeking to walk in obedience to thy will. Deliver me and help me from this
present situation or this situation that I perceive is going to come
my way. And so these desperate situations
drive us to the throne of grace, to the God who is able to help
us. And as we saw this morning, that
desperation of the concern for the forgiveness of our sins that
drives us to the throne of grace, drives us to the one who is able
to forgive us of our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. It drives us to the Lord Jesus
Christ, the friend of publicans and sinners. It drives us to
the one who is able to redeem us and to save us from the consequences
of our sins. And so these heavy burdens that
we feel drive us to be like Jacob, to
be alone, to be alone with God and to confess our sin and our
iniquity. As David says, my sin and my
iniquity is ever before me. I wonder if that is how we are
this afternoon. Is our sin and our iniquity forever
before us? Does it drive us away from the
crowd? Does it cause us to be alone for a little while with
the Lord to confess our sin? It was where Jacob received his
blessing. There when he was alone at Bethel
the Lord met with him and showed him himself and entered into
that covenant relationship with him. And here now as he walks
in obedience to the Lord and the Lord answers his prayer by
a wonderful Christology and he there wrestles with a man until
the breaking of day. Christ had come to help him but
not in a way that he thought. He had seen hadn't he already
a host of angels but now the Lord Jesus Christ came to help
him in a different way. He came to wound him by making
him halt or limp but also he changed his name. He used to be called Jacob, the
deceiver, the supplanter, but now his name was to be changed
to Israel, for he had prevailed with God. He received the answer
to his prayer and he wrestled with the Lord. And thinking about wrestling,
we would probably say that if our children were wrestling,
we would tell them to stop being so violent. And so in comparing what we looked
at this morning, that the kingdom of heaven suffers violence and
the violence take it by force. Here is Jacob wrestling with
the Lord Jesus Christ. You could say he is being persuasive,
he is being violent, he is wrestling
with the Lord Jesus and he says, I will not let thee go except
thou bless me. It's hard for us to understand
at some point it seems that Jacob is winning in this wrestling
match. He says, when he saw that he
prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh.
It seems as though Jacob would not let this man go. And sometimes in our lives when
things are so desperate, we can't walk away from prayer.
We don't really know how we're going to say amen. We don't know
how we're going to cut off that communication and to walk away
and continue on with our lives. And Jacob was in a similar situation. He was so desperate that he couldn't
just allow this man who he was wrestling with to walk away. And so he says, I will not let
you go except you bless me. And the blessing that he received
was a name change. He prevailed with God. Throughout the Bible there are
those whom the Lord has met with when they were alone. We think
of Zacharias, John the Baptist's father when he was going about
the work of the priest, the angel Gabriel came and met with him. And the Bible says he was in
there alone and all of the other people were outside and they
were praying. The Lord, or the angel, he says,
I stand in the presence of God. The angel came and met with him
and blessed him. Jesus when he was in the garden
of Gethsemane he was in wrestling prayer he sweat as it was as
it were great drops of blood and if it be possible let this
cup pass from me it was it was wrestling prayer it was a prayer
I will not let thee go except thou bless me we read that the angels came
or an angel came and strengthened him. In James he tells us about Elijah
chapter 5. He says, the effectual fervent
prayer of a righteous man avails much. Elias was a man subject
to like passions as we are and he prayed earnestly. that it
might not rain and it rained not on the earth by the space
of three years and six months. And he prayed again and the heavens
gave rain and the earth brought forth her fruit. And so there
are these men in the scripture that are set as examples for
us to persevere and to lay the kingdom of Christ's siege by
persuasive and persistent prayer. That we will not let thee go
except we receive the blessing. Not in an arrogant way but in
a desperate way. Like as a beggar coming to the
one who has the food. He cries, don't send me away
empty for I'm completely desperate. And so he's happy to wait there
and to wait there and to wait there until the food is provided. Those who are not truly in need
will get bored and will walk away. Those who are not in a
desperate state will not be content to wait and wait and wait until
what they require is provided. Jacob cried, I will not let thee
go except thou bless me. The Lord Jesus Christ, if it
be possible, let this cut pass from me. Nevertheless, not my
will, but thy will be done. Wrestling a prayer and the angel
comes to strengthen the Lord Jesus Christ. I will not let thee go. And this
true prayer is woven into the will of God. You see when a sinner is brought
to a knowledge of their sin and they immediately cry out to God
for salvation, that prayer is woven into the will of God. The prayer itself doesn't save
but it is a response to the effects of the spirit in the heart and
it cries out to God. God has chosen that way, the
way of prayer. and he has woven the prayers
of his saints into his will so that when they cry unto him and
they receive the answers to their requests they're able to return
thanks unto him. Jacob did not know that in response
to his prayer he would wrestle with the Lord Jesus Christ. And often God doesn't answer
our prayers in a way that we perceive. He answers in accordance
with his own will in a better way. Although it may not be the
way that we had expected yet he comes in a way that is better. And so he comes to Jacob in a
better way and he wrestles with him. and he changes his name to Israel and he limps for the rest of
his life. Whether we can use this as an
illustration of that he was born again, that the Lord had already
been dealing with him for some time Yet he was definitely changed. And the true work of God brings about a true change. It
is like a name change. It is like a different James
or a different you. Such is the transformation. when
you look back over your life and you maybe can see the rough
point or time when you felt the Lord had dealt with you in comparison
to what you are now, you are different. It's as though it
was a different person. The Lord has changed you and
the Lord changed Jacob to Israel for as a prince he had power
with God and he has prevailed. In that time when you first sought
the Lord you had power with God and you prevailed. You wrestled
with him. You asked him for forgiveness.
You asked him for mercy. You said I'm not worthy for the
least of all thy mercies and he answered you and he changed
you and he changed your name and he forgave you. He cleansed
you from all of your sin and you walked in newness of life. You were altered like Jacob was
altered. He halted on his thigh for the
rest of his life and you also will walk in a different way
after you meet with the Lord Jesus Christ. It doesn't just
affect your name, it doesn't just affect your inside but it
also affects your outward walk and conversation. Jacob now entered
into a new and who walk with the Lord as he went back to his
father's house. And the Lord heard his prayer.
He prayed, deliver me I pray thee from the hand of my brother,
from the hand of Esau, for I fear him, lest he will come and smite
me and the mother with the children. As he continues on his journey,
all his fears are washed away. Often that's the case isn't it. We can be filled with fear about
tomorrow. We cry unto the Lord about tomorrow. We explain to him our fears and
our concerns and our worries and then tomorrow comes and all
that fear we realise it was not needed. before the Lord dealt
with it. Or maybe the fear was needed
to drive us to the Lord in prayer and we're able to witness the
answer to our prayers that the Lord has dealt with it just like
he dealt with Esau. Esau still came to him with 400
men. Nothing had changed about that.
What changed was maybe the way in which Esau was coming. Esau
ran to meet him and embraced him and fell on his neck and
kissed him and they wept. And he lifted up his eyes and
saw the women and children and said, Who are these with thee?
And he said, The children which God hath graciously given thy
servant. And so all his worries melted
away. His enemy became the one he thought
that was his enemy became his friend and they embraced and
they kissed. What is essential is that the
Christian casts care upon the Lord. What is essential is that
the believer does not rest until they receive that answer, that
wrestling prayer. Jacob laid it all out before
the Lord. The Lord answered it in a unique
way and he received a greater blessing and there wrestled with
him a man until the breaking of day. And he said, I will not
let thee go except thou bless me. And he called the name of
the place Peniel, for I've seen God face to face and my life
is preserved. And so those two times in his
life when he was alone, he was in need and the Lord blessed
him and met with him. He wrestles with the man and
that man is the Lord Jesus Christ. He says I've seen God face to
face and today you and I we can come to the Lord Jesus Christ
and we can wrestle with the Lord Jesus Christ in prayer. We can
come any time of any day and come to the throne of grace and
we can see God as it were face to face. We can come and commune
with our Creator through the Lord Jesus Christ and we can
receive the power of the Holy Spirit, the presence of God with
us, the Comforter, the Holy Spirit with his people and he is able
to alter those things that we are fearful about, those things
that maybe you're troubled about even during this coming week
that you see as mountains before you. The Lord Jesus Christ is
able to change those mountains that they may become a plain,
those fears that they may become a friend. Esau ran to meet him
and he embraced him and fell on his neck and he kissed him. And so Jacob, we know, as he
continued on in his life, becomes the father of the children of
Israel. Joseph, as he enters into Egypt
and the wonderful things that Jacob would be able to witness,
the hand of God going before him as he meets with Pharaoh,
as he sees his son, Joseph. and all the way in which the
Lord unfolded his will in the life of that man. May the Lord then help us to
have true wrestling prayer that we may have power with men and
God and prevail. Amen. May the Lord help us as we close
this service by singing hymn number 767. Gracious spirit of
divine, let thy light within me shine. All my guilty fears
remove with atoning blood and love. Hymn number 767 to tune
490. Dear Lord and Almighty God, we
do thank Thee for Thy Word. We pray that we may know something
of being drawn to Thy Kingdom. Do teach us how to pray do grant
us that desperation, that wrestling prayer. And we ask, Lord, that
we may witness those answers to our requests, that thou wove
our prayers into thy will. We ask, Lord, that thou be with
us now, be with those who will leave us, to be with them on
the road and Protect them on the way and do be with us as
we sit around at thy table. Do draw near and open up our
understanding to thy truths and enable us to commune with one
another and to commune with the Lord Jesus Christ. Do bless us
then we pray and forgive us of our sin. May the grace of the
Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God the Father with the fellowship
and the communion of the Holy Spirit to be with us all now
and forevermore. Amen.