Jesus in the Old Testament 009. Wrestling with Jesus

Jesus in the Old Testament

009. Wrestling with Jesus

Thesis: Jacob’s name is changed here to Israel, and as such he is a type of the nation which bears his name.  This encounter is a foreshadowing of the salvific history of Israel, including a time of wrestling, rejection, and eventual repentance.

1. Nutshell w/kids (<5 min)
1. Why do you obey your parents? (fear of punishment, the right thing to do, they give me stuff).
2. We should obey out of love for them.
3. The same is true of our relationship with God.  ‘If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”
4. Jacob was focused on his own blessings and what God could do for him.  God had blessed Jacob, but he was still not following God out of love for him.
5. Jesus came and wrestled with Jacob (read the story).
6. God was offering Jacob a chance to repent and submit, but he would not.  He was still focused on his blessing.
7. God gave Jacob the blessing, but it still didn’t result in worship.
8. We need to follow God because of who He is and submit to him out of love, not only be interested in what He can do for us.

2. Deeper w/ adults
1. Recap Jacob’s story up to this point.
1. He knows the call of God upon his life and his family, but he has not bent his knee in worship of his grandfather’s God. He has, rather, fought, wrestled, and cheated his way through his life up to this point.
2. There will come a time of repentance (Ch 35), but it not yet.
3. Hemmed in by old sins (Esau’s approach with 400 men) and more recent ones (a monument boundary between himself and Laban).
2. Gen 32
1. Vs 22-24a

a)    Jabbok stream

(1)  Means “emptying” or “emptiness”

(2)  Enters the Jordan from the West half-way between the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea.

b)     He has sent his possessions and family on ahead of him in multiple groups (diversifying) so that he will not lose everything to Esau’s attack

c)    Jacob knows the promises given to Abraham and confirmed to his father Isaac.  He knows that he is the son chosen by God to carry out those promises, but he has no faith in God’s ability to uphold those promises in light of his current situation.

d)    His actions and manipulations are all done to protect his life and his family’s lives and goods, not to continue walking in the plan and promises of God.

e)    Jacob is alone and at the bottom.

2. Vs 24: Jesus tackles him when he is alone.

a)    “A man”

(1)  Jacob’s own testimony of the event (vs 30) tells us that it was God. 

(2)  God’s testimony of the event confirms it (vs 28).

(3)  Hos 12:3-4

b)    If we will not make time to get alone with God, he will arrange things so that we must do business with God.

c)    If Jacob had been meeting alone with God throughout his life, as his grandfather Abraham had, he would not have needed to be tackled by God.

3. Vs 25:

a)    “He did not prevail against him.” (ESV, NIV) vs “could not win” (KJV, NLT).  It is better stated as a fact of the historical narrative that Jacob did not surrender.  It is certainly within God’s power to act and defeat any human component.

b)    God had been inviting Jacob to surrender all night.  Having brought him to a point of weakness, hemmed in by his own sin on all sides, he gave Jacob an opportunity to surrender and yield to the Lord.  Jacob refused.

c)    As a testimony of the power of the “man,” when Jacob refuses to surrender or yield, a “touch” of his hip dislocates the joint and injures Jacob forever.

4. Vs 26:

a)    Daylight breaking: no man can see God’s face and live?  Probably not. God had simply given enough time to this invitation to surrender. God was bringing this time to an end.

b)    “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”

(1)  Jacob was the one through whom the promises of Abraham were to flow (Gen 25:22-23), and surely Jacob knew it, but he had never received the blessing from his father.

(2)  He had never been freely blessed by this uncle and father-in-law, Laban, either. Only through deception had he prospered.

(3)  Now, the unblessed child of promise, knowing with whom he struggles, seeks the blessing he had never freely received.

(4)  Children who have never been the “beloved son”

“Without this bedrock of affirmation, this core of assurance, a man will move unsteadily through the rest of his life, trying to prove his worth and earn belovedness through performance or achievement, through sex, or in a thousand other ways. Quite often he doesn’t know this is his search. He simply finds himself uncertain in some core place inside, ruled by fears and the opinions of others, yearning for someone to notice him. He longs for comfort, and it makes him uneasy because at thirty-seven or fifty-one shouldn’t he be beyond that now? A young place in his heart is yearning for something never received.”

― John Eldredge, Fathered by God: Learning What Your Dad Could Never Teach You

5. Vs 27-30

a)    Names: The two have been wrestling in the dark all night without proper introductions.

b)    Jacob to Israel. 

(1)  The first use of the word in the Bible. This is where the nation derives its name

(2)  Jacob is not referred to as Israel in personal address in the balance of the narrative.  He didn’t go by this name, unlike his grandfather.

(3)  Another sign that this was not a point of personal conversion or of a changed identity, as it was for Abram-Abraham.

(4)  Israel means “struggled with God” or could be “fights for God,” although the context here is clearly one of conflict with God.

c)    God refuses to identify his name

(1)  Cf. Judges 13:18, Isa 9:6-7

(2)  Jacob knew who he was. There is a sense in the scriptures that you can win mastery over a spiritual being by knowing its name, perhaps that was what was in Jacob’s mind?

(a)  Adam named things in Gen 2 as an exercise of his dominion

(b)  Jesus asked the demoniac in Gennesaret its name Luke 8:30

(c)  Mute demons, which do not allow their name to be spoken, are “hard to cast out” Mark 9:29

(d)  Knowing and using the name of God brings power (Luke 10:17) and judgment if misapplied (Ex 20:7)

(3)  God will not be overpowered or manipulated by Jacob

d)    God blessed Jacob, despite his refusal to yield, even after being dealt a severe wound. We don’t know what he said. Private moment.

e)    Jacob knows with whom he is wrestling (vs 30). Knows that he is meant to yield (why else wrestle?), and yet refuses to do so. 

f)     All he seeks is a blessing.  He is uninterested in the life of faith, only in the magical superstitious religiosity that says that the gods will be a source of blessing and prosperity.

6. Vs 30-32

a)    The knowledge of what has transpired is there, but there is no worship: no altar, no pillar, no confession, no faith, and no prayer.

b)    He leaves the encounter with a private blessing, a sign of God’s love, and a permanent limp, a sign of his rebellion.

c)    He renames the place “face of God.”  Ex 33:20. Must have been Christ.

d)    Not eating the flesh of the hip the socket is not recorded as a command anywhere in scripture or narratively anywhere else.  It is listed as a code in the Mishnah.

7. Ex 33-34 (nutshell)

a)    Esau shows up, having forgiven his past sins and embraces Jacob.

b)    While Jacob is relieved to have a reprieve, he does not settle and live with his father and brother but stays in Shechem, four days’ journey away. 

c)    He does build an altar, but he also worships foreign gods.  Divided heart.

d)    When Isaac dies, he buries his father alongside his brother, but there is no other story of cooperation or fellowship.

e)    Eventually, Jacob repents (ch 35) and lives in fellowship and followship with God, but his family bond is loosely held, to the best of our knowledge. Like his limp, it is never the same.

3. Christ connection (explicit)
1. This was a manifestation of the “Angel of the Lord” Hos 12:3-4. As such, it was a Christophany.
2. Jesus had appeared to Jacob before as the Ladder, now as a wrestler.  He is the only way to God.  If Jacob will not take up a relationship with God the easy way (the ladder), he will be forced to wrestle with God.  There are no other ways to approach God on our terms.
3. Jacob identifies this angelic wrestler later on (Gen 48:15-16) as the “angel of His presence.” 
4. Christ connection (allegorical). Jacob’s story is an allegory for the experience of the nation which bears his name.

Jacob	Israel
Prophesied that He would be the heir of promise and be a blessing to all (Gen 25:22-23).	Generically, the Abrahamic covenant promises this as well (Gen 12).
Early on, he was sinful, disobedient, and self-serving, following other gods and rejecting the faith of his fathers.	Israel’s early history in the wilderness wanderings is full of grumbling, complaining, willful sinning, and the pursuit of foreign gods.
Several encounters with God result in short-term commitment and half-hearted repentance.	Throughout the days of the Judges and the kings, there are numerous times when God intervenes and people repent, but it is never complete sold-out worship of the Lord that is sustained throughout generations.
The closest encounter with God in Jacob’s life is when he wrestles with Jesus all night. In the end, he knows clearly with whom he is wrestling, but instead of surrendering, he is only interested in a blessing, what he can get out of it.  He is blessed, but it still does not result in a relationship.  Jesus leaves him wounded but blessed.	Israel’s closest encounter with God is when he comes to wrestle with them during his earthly ministry.  They clearly know who he is (triumphal entry), but they are only interested in the blessings they receive from him (free food, medical care, and the potential overthrow of Rome). When that is not what He is going to do for them, they reject him.  After his resurrection, while some Jews believe and are blessed, most reject Him.  The nation of Israel is left unrepentant.  It will cease to exist within one generation of his ascension, only recently coming back on the scene.  God’s hand is still on his people.  They are blessed, but they are also wounded.
Twenty years later, Jacob finally repents and puts away the foreign gods, turning to God in true faith and worship.	There will come a time when the nation of Israel fully and completely repents and turns to Jesus, but it will take the great tribulation to bring that about.
At the end of his life, Jacob speaks blessings over his children (next time), confirming God’s plan of blessing all nations through his family, of establishing Israel as the prime nation of the earth, and of the Messiah coming through his line.	In the tribulation, it will be Jews who have embraced Christ who will be the principal evangelists.  In the Messianic Kingdom, Messiah will rule and reign from Israel, and the Jews will continue to lead their gentile neighbors into a closer relationship with Christ.

Discussion Questions:

1. Why do you think Jesus chose to wrestle with Jacob? 
2. Are there issues in your life over which you are wrestling with God?  Surrender before he has to dislocate your life!
3. Why do you follow God?  Is it out of love and a desire to worship?  Or are you only after the blessings that He can (and does) provide?