Genesis chapter 32 and verse
22. And we're speaking here about Jacob, we're speaking about the
history of Jacob, the history we've been thinking about the
patriarchs, and this is Jacob that rose up. We're told in verse
22, and he, Jacob, rose up that night and took his two wives
and his two women servants and his 11 sons and passed over the
ford, Jabbok. And he took them and sent them
over the brook, and sent over that he had. And Jacob was left
alone. And there wrestled a man with
him until the breaking of the day. And when he saw that he
prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh,
and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint, and he wrestled
with him. And he said, Let me go, for the
day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee
go except thou bless me. And he said unto him, What is
thy name? And he said, Jacob. And he said,
Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel. For as a prince
hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed. And Jacob asked him and said,
Tell me, I pray thee, thy name. And he said, Wherefore is it
that thou dost ask after my name? And he blessed him there. And
Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, for I have seen
God face to face, and my life is preserved. And as he passed
over Penuel, the sun rose upon him, and he halted upon his thigh. Therefore the children of Israel
eat not of the sinew which shrank, which is upon the hollow of the
thigh unto this day, because he touched the hollow of Jacob's
thigh in the sinew that shrank. Amen. May God bless to us also
this reading from his word. You will know you will be aware
that I often say we should be looking constantly for the Lord
Jesus Christ in all the scripture because he is there to be found
in all the scripture and sometimes we find him in pictures, sometimes
we find him in type, Sometimes it's a symbol, sometimes it's
a reference which is applied to him in the New Testament that
gives us the clue as to how we are to interpret the Old Testament
passages to see their proper Christology, the Lord Jesus Christ
in them. But sometimes we see him in person. And here it would seem, in this
little passage about Jacob wrestling with a man or an angel, Or is
it indeed with God himself in the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ? I believe so. And here we see
the Lord Jesus Christ in person. This one who is described as
a man and then described as a later, I think in Hosea, as an angel,
we find that that one was in truth God himself in the second
person. In a human body, the Lord Jesus
Christ appeared. And we call this a pre-incarnation
appearance, okay? It was the Lord who appeared,
so it's an appearance, but it was before he came as a little
baby in the New Testament, which we call the incarnation. So this
was pre, which is before the incarnation, an appearance of
the Lord. It's a pre-incarnation appearance. This tells us that the Lord Jesus
Christ used a physical body even before he came as the God-man
in the New Testament era. And here he is appearing as a
man to Jacob. Jacob had sent his family ahead
of him, but he waited alone. And it seems as if he waited
alone in order to spend time praying to God. No doubt praying
about the imminent meeting that he would have with his brother
Esau, which caused him considerable fear and anxiety. Sometimes we
use, when we're talking about praying, we talk about wrestling
in prayer, when we pray very seriously and very actively to
God for something that is very important to us. Yes, I know
we say our prayers every day, but there are times when we pray
with a particular seriousness and earnestness, and it seems
as if we have to wrestle in prayer. And that's a phrase that is sometimes
used, perhaps even from this passage. But Jacob was not simply
wrestling in prayer. there was somebody there with
him. He was really wrestling. Because we're told that when
he waited there in the darkness, when he waited there in the quietness,
when he waited there anticipating this time of prayer with God,
a man came upon him. And a man challenged him. And
this was real wrestling. This was a real struggle between
Jacob, and the Lord Jesus. I like to wrestle with my grandson,
and any of you who have been parents, probably dads, I guess,
but maybe mums as well, will sometimes have wrestled with
your children. And I like to think that I've
got more strength, at least for a little time yet, while I'm
wrestling with my grandson. but I admire his persistence
and I admire his commitment to the struggle. And even although
there may be a sense in which I as an adult hold back in our
wrestling, he is giving it everything that he's got. And that's what we discover here
in this episode as well. The Lord Jesus Christ as God
might easily have defeated Jacob in this wrestling. And as we
see from that final touching of his thigh and making it out
of joint, the Lord had power over him. But Jacob held on. Jacob held on, and the Lord held
on to Jacob, and this was a test of Jacob's commitment to this
fight. And from this encounter of Jacob
and the Lord, we find that three things occur. One is that Jacob
recognises at some stage that this is the Lord, and he asks
for a blessing, and he gets it. The second thing is that the
Lord gives Jacob a new name. He calls him Israel. And that
confirms God's blessing upon Jacob. And the third thing I
want us to notice is that Jacob gets an injured thigh that causes
him to limp as he walks. Jacob was there, he wanted to
pray to God about Esau because he was afraid of Esau, But he
suddenly found himself facing another foe whom he was obliged
to struggle with and he was obliged to wrestle with. And there's
a lesson there for us because in fact there would be no fight
with Esau. The Lord anticipated that by
engaging in this struggle with Jacob personally. And sometimes
the Lord uses the anticipation of one challenge or indeed one
challenge to offset the anxiety of another. And we also remember that sometimes
our trials will prove for that reason to be a blessing to us. At some point in this wrestling
contest, Jacob understood that this encounter was more than
it seemed. He wasn't just wrestling with
a man here. He realized that he was wrestling
with the Lord, and he held on tight to the Lord, and he wouldn't
let him go. He was unwilling to let him go
without first receiving the promise of his help, and God gave him
that promise. He confirmed the earlier blessings
that Jacob had received and he also supplied more blessings,
promises of more blessings. He gave him a new name. He said,
you will be called Israel. And that name Israel spoke of
Jacob prevailing with God, and notice this, and man. That was significant because
Jacob had already had promises about his relationship with God,
that God would protect him, that God would defend him, that God
would look after him and provide for him. But here, Jacob was
told, you will prevail with man as well. That was with direct
reference at least to Esau and also with other men. As a prince
hast thou power with God and with men. Jacob was a man who
probably didn't feel himself to be very powerful, especially
when Esau was coming towards him with 400 men. But the Lord
was telling him that with men, as well as with God, he would
prevail. That was meaningful to confirm
God's hand of blessing and also to grant Jacob confidence with
respect to Esau. You have power with God and with
Esau and so it proved to be. The third thing that I wanted
to mention here was that Jacob limped as a result of this wrestling
contest. He, we're told, halted upon his
thigh. This experience with the Lord
had a lasting impact on Jacob, and his walk changed. He didn't walk the way he used
to walk. Maybe he never again walked the
way he used to walk. But what this tells us is that
there was a change. It signifies that there was a
change in Jacob. As a result of this encounter
with the Lord Jesus Christ, Jacob was changed. Perhaps his walk
was changed forever. We're told that as Jacob, or
as Israel, crossed that brook Jabbok, as he left that place
Penuel, the name that he had given to that place because he
had seen the Lord face to face, we're told that the sun rose. It was a new day. It was a new
beginning, a new beginning for Jacob, face to face. Jacob had met the Lord Jesus
Christ and that meeting had changed him. He had seen God face to
face, he had touched the Lord Jesus Christ. And when someone
touches the Lord Jesus Christ, and when someone is touched by
the Lord Jesus Christ, they're never the same again. Their life
is different. Their walk is different. There's
a change takes place. There's a conversion. so it was
for Jacob, and so it is for all the princes of God, all the sons
and daughters of God, all the children of God, who are touched
and who touch the Lord Jesus Christ. May the Lord give us
grace, and may he give us faith to touch the Lord Jesus Christ
and be touched by him, and may our conversion and our lives
be changed as a result of that meeting. Amen.