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.
- Nutshell w/kids (<5 min)
- Why do you
obey your parents? (fear of punishment, the right thing to do, they give me
stuff).
- We should
obey out of love for them.
- The same is
true of our relationship with God.
‘If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”
- 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.
- Jesus came
and wrestled with Jacob (read the story).
- God was
offering Jacob a chance to repent and submit, but he would not. He was still focused on his blessing.
- God gave
Jacob the blessing, but it still didn’t result in worship.
- 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.
- Deeper w/ adults
- Recap
Jacob’s story up to this point.
- 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.
- There will
come a time of repentance (Ch 35), but it not yet.
- Hemmed in
by old sins (Esau’s approach with 400 men) and more recent ones (a
monument boundary between himself and Laban).
- Gen 32
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.”
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Christ
connection (explicit)
- This was a
manifestation of the “Angel of the Lord” Hos 12:3-4. As such, it was a
Christophany.
- 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.
- Jacob
identifies this angelic wrestler later on (Gen 48:15-16) as the “angel
of His presence.”
- Christ
connection (allegorical). Jacob’s story is an allegory for the experience
of the nation which bears his name.
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Jacob
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Israel
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Prophesied that He would be the heir of promise and be a blessing to
all (Gen 25:22-23).
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Generically, the Abrahamic covenant promises this as well (Gen 12).
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Early on, he was sinful, disobedient, and self-serving, following
other gods and rejecting the faith of his fathers.
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Israel’s early history in the wilderness wanderings is full of
grumbling, complaining, willful sinning, and the pursuit of foreign gods.
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Several encounters with God result in short-term commitment and
half-hearted repentance.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Twenty years later, Jacob finally repents and puts away the foreign
gods, turning to God in true faith and worship.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Discussion
Questions:
- Why do you
think Jesus chose to wrestle with Jacob?
- Are there
issues in your life over which you are wrestling with God? Surrender before he has to dislocate
your life!
- 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?
