Old Testament Characters – Jacob

Have you ever been ‘blessed’? 

Jacob was a  of a blessing. 

His name – Jacob – means one who ‘ ’.

Jacob takes advantage of Esau to steal his birthright from him.

Jacob then tricks his blind father to gain his father’s blessing.

Jacob and Laban play games of deceit revolving around marriage and livestock breeding.

Jacob finds himself   in Genesis 31. 

Jacob met with God… and a  begins.

Jacob listens to God and he goes  Esau. 

Jacob is unclear and unsure about how Esau is going to . 

“That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two female servants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok.  After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions.  So, Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak.  When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man.  Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.”

But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”

 The man asked him, “What is your name?”  “Jacob,” he answered.

 Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.”

 Jacob said, “Please tell me your name.” But he replied, “Why do you ask my name?” Then he blessed him there.  So, Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “It is because I saw God face to face, and my life was spared.”

 The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel, and he was limping because of his hip.  Therefore, to this day the Israelites do not eat the tendon attached to the socket of the hip, because the socket of Jacob’s hip was touched near the tendon.” (Genesis 32:22 – 32)

Is there a BLESSING in the WRESTLING?

1. Wrestling is about .

His life-long pattern sought to  through control and manipulation.

Illustration: You’re Special, Max Lucado 

Jacob had been an … and God was calling him to SURRENDER.

The workshop can feel more like the . 

Have you ever been disabled by God? 

The blessing of God does not go to the , but to those who surrender to God.

“Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”  (2 Corinthians 12:9 – 10)

2. Wrestling is about .

To bless us, God must change us!  Our identity is to be found in connection to Him.

Jacob’s given a new name:  Israel.  The meaning: “He  with God.”

Illustration:  Jordan Peterson’s We Who Wrestle With God

We … we have questions… our wills our sometimes opposed…  we’d like to know more… sometimes what he requires stretches us…

We struggle  God… He is engaged… He is close… He is ‘in this’ with us… We are convinced that HE is for us… fighting…cutting a path…making a way… 

We struggle with .  The Creator.  The Sustainer.  The Almighty.  We are humbled that, “Our God allows us the dizzying freedom to approach him honestly, as we are, where we are.”

In the tugging, contending, and wrestling He longs to shape us into His .

Illustration:  Kent, the wrestler.

Wrestling seems to be a . 

3. Wrestling is about …and !

“…You have fought with God and with men and have .”  (Genesis 32:28)

The Hebrew name Jabbok means ‘to  oneself’. 

He was no longer fighting God, but he was very much  to Him.

“I have seen God face to face, and yet my life was spared.”  (Genesis 32:30) 

It’s  God is for me; it’s because ‘I know Him’ that my life is saved! 

“The sun was rising as Jacob left Peniel (which means ‘Face of God’)…” (Genesis 32:31)

“The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.” (Numbers 6:24 – 25)