Now I trust that you have your Bible open to Genesis 32.  This is one of the great chapters of the Bible.  Have I said that before?  Well, I think so.  There are a great many great chapters of the Bible, and this is one of them.  This is actually the high point in the life of Jacob and can be called the turning point in his life.  Now this is not his conversion by any means.  This man, in spite of the fact that he was living in the flesh, and believe me he was living in the flesh, why he was still God’s man.  

That’s the reason that you and I are told to be very careful today about judging folk about whether they are Christian or not.  There are a lot of people that don’t look like they’re Christian; I’m sure that they are—or I’m almost sure that they are, but I don’t know.  And that’s in the hands of the Lord.  They just don’t act like it, that’s all, and they give no evidence.  And this man Jacob gave none at all except these very faint instances of where God appeared to him, and he did respond in a way.  But now this man, who is God’s representative and is God’s witness in the world and has been a bad witness, but he can’t keep that up, and so God’s going to deal with it.  To tell the truth, God is going to break his leg to get him, but God will break his leg in order to get him.  

And the Lord disciplines us.  “For whom the Lord loveth, he chastens.” (Hebrews 12:6) That’s His method.  He disciplines in that way.  And we have already seen that Lot didn’t look like he was a child of God, but he was.  Peter says, “He vexed his righteous soul.”  (See 2 Peter 2:7-8.)  And I tell you he certainly was put through the fire; only he escaped the fire of Sodom and Gomorrah, but the Lord put him through the fires of testing.  

And now that is Jacob’s experience.  He’s got his college degree, the college of hard knocks.  Uncle Laban was the president-dean of the school, and he had graduation, and this boy Jacob gave his valedictorian, and it was a pitiful thing.  Twenty years it took him to get his degree.  And he says, “I certainly worked for it.”  And the requirements, oh, Laban changed them ten times.  That means every two years, why he had a new contract with Uncle Laban, and it was always to his disadvantage.  This is the experience of this man.  Now we come to this test.  And God’s going to have to deal with him because he’s going to represent God, and God will deal with him.

GOD TESTS JACOB

Now we come here to this 32nd Chapter, and God will move in on him.  I’d like to write over this chapter as I’ve written verses of Scripture elsewhere over certain chapters we’ve come to as this one.  It is Isaiah 40:29, “He giveth power to the faint, and to them, and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.” That’s the experience now of this man. 

And Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him.  And when Jacob saw them, he said, This is God’s host: and he called the name of that place Mahanaim.  (Genesis 32:1-2)

God is beginning to deal with this man directly in order to bring him into the place of fruit bearing and real vital service and witness for Him.  

And Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau his brother unto the land of Seir, the country of Edom.  And he commanded them, saying, Thus shall ye speak unto my lord Esau; Thy servant Jacob saith thus, I have sojourned with Laban, and stayed there until now:  And I have oxen, and asses, flocks, and menservants, and women-servants: and I have sent to tell my lord, that I may find grace in thy sight.

This boy Jacob is still clever, isn’t he?  He just can’t let go, even after his experience with Laban now, and he’s returning back.  And he remembers now the last time, 20 years before that, why Esau was breathing out threatens against him.  And notice now he sends servants.  And he says to the servants—he says, “When you get to Esau, my brother, you say to him, ‘my lord Esau’” of all things.  And then he says, “Thy servant Jacob.”  Well, that’s not the way Jacob had done it.  He’d stolen the birthright—and he didn’t steal the birthright, but he manipulated for it and he stole the blessing.  He’d been a rascal, but now his talk is different.  He’d learned a few things, I guess, from Uncle Laban; “my lord Esau—thy servant Jacob.”  And so he sent the messengers.

And the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, We came to thy brother Esau, and also he cometh to meet thee, and four hundred men with him.  (Genesis 32:6)

And that absolutely frightened poor Jacob, because he didn’t know what all that meant.  And Esau didn’t indicate to the servants at all.  I suppose Jacob quizzed them rather thoroughly and said, “Did you detect any note of animosity or bitterness or hatred toward me?”  And I think the servants said “No,” they said, “He seemed to be glad to get the information that you were coming to meet him.  And now he’s coming to meet you.”  But the fact he was glad didn’t mean anything to Jacob.  It could mean that he’d be glad for the opportunity of getting revenge.  Well, anyway, poor Jacob’s upset.

Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed: and he divided the people that was with him, and the flocks, and herds, and the camels, into two bands; And said, If Esau come to the one company, and smite it, then the other company which is left shall escape.  (Genesis 32:7-8)

He’s in a bad way, he thinks.  Here he is with this brother of his coming to him, and so he divides up the group.  He’s being clever, and he says, “If this boy, my brother, if he strikes one, then the other one can escape.”  And now notice Verse 9.  What does he do now?  He appeals to God in his distress!

And Jacob said, O God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, the Lord which saidst unto me, Return unto thy country, and to thy kindred, and I will deal well with thee:  I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth, which thou hast shewed unto thy servant; for with my staff I passed over this Jordan; and now I am become two bands.  (Genesis 32:9-10)’

This is Jacob.  And this man now appeals to God; cries out to him on the basis of that He is the God of his father Abraham and the God of his father Isaac.  And I begin now to detect a little change in his life.  This is the first time I’ve ever heard him say, “I’m not worthy of the least of thy mercies.”  Here he’s, for the first time, acknowledging that he might be a sinner in God’s sight.  

You know, we got a lot of fundamentalists that I don’t think they’ve acknowledged they’re sinners for years.  I had a man that wrote me quite a lengthy letter; he was incensed that I would indicate that he’s a sinner.  And he told me what all that he had done, and that he’d been saved and he now was not a sinner.  I bet he is.  Ha!  May I say to you, we’re all sinners SAVED BY GRACE!  As a long as we’re in this life, we’ve got that old nature that isn’t even fit to go to heaven.  And, you know something else, it’s not going to heaven.  God’s not going to let it go.  Vernon McGee can’t go there; that’s the reason he had to give me a new nature.  The old one wasn’t even fit to repair.  And so this boy’s beginning now to say he’s not worthy.  And when any man begins to move toward God on that basis, he’ll find that God will communicate with him.  

And he makes this very interesting statement that he says, “I went over this Jordan here, just with his walking stick, ‘my staff.”  That’s all he had.  Now he’s coming back, and he’s got two bands.  This is Jacob for you.  And now will you notice…listen to him, Verse 11.

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.

I tell you he really cried out to God.  And that night was a very difficult night for him, and he didn’t have any aspirins to take that night; it was difficult.  Verse 13.

And he lodged there that same night; and took of that which came to his hand a present for Esau his brother;  Two hundred she goats, and twenty he goats, two hundred ewes, and twenty rams, thirty milch camels with their colts, forty kine, and ten bulls, twenty she asses, and ten foals.  (Genesis 32:13-15)

You see he’s pretty generous with his stock now.  

And he delivered them into the hand of his servants, every drove by themselves; and said unto his servants, Pass over before me, and put a space betwixt drove and drove.  (Genesis 32:16)

Now you see his tactic is this.  He’ll send out a drove, a very rich gift for his brother, and when that first drove would arrive, Esau would say, “Well, what is this?”  He says, “Well, we’re bringing you a gift from your brother, Jacob.”  And then he’d receive that.  He’d ride on a little farther and meet another drove, same size.  And he’d ask them, “Where you going?”  They said, “We’re going to meet Esau.”  “Well,” he said, “I’m Esau.”  “Well,” he said, “Here’s a gift for you.  From your brother Jacob.”  Believe me by the time he got down to where Jacob and the family were, he’d be softened by then.  

You see, he prayed to God and he’s reminded the Lord that, “You told me to return to my country.  You said you’d protect me.”  But does he believe God?  No.  He goes right ahead and makes these arrangements which reveals he wasn’t trusting God at all.  And that, I’m afraid, is our same position.  Many of us take our burdens to the Lord in prayer.  We just spread them out before Him.  I do that.  Then when we get through praying, we get right up and put each little burden right back on our back and start out again with it.  We really don’t believe Him, do we?  We don’t really trust Him as we should.

Now, let me put in at Verse 17.

And he commanded the foremost, saying, When Esau my brother meeteth thee, and asketh thee, saying, Whose art thou? and whither goest thou? and whose are these before thee?  Then thou shalt say, They be thy servant Jacob’s; it is a present sent unto my lord Esau: and, behold, also he is behind us.  (Genesis 32:17-18)

“He’s coming.”  And there would be one after another like that.  This is the plan that he’s working on.  And now we find Verse 20.

And say ye moreover, Behold, thy servant Jacob is behind us. For he said, I will appease him with the present that goeth before me, and afterward I will see his face; peradventure he will accept of me. So went the present over before him: and himself lodged that night in the company.  And he rose up that night, and took his two wives, and his two women servants, and his eleven sons, and passed over the ford Jabbok.  And he took them, and sent them over the brook, and sent over that he had.  (Genesis 32:20-23)

Now this is the night.  This is the great experience in his life that came to him.  Now you’ll notice that he came to this very desolate place, the brook Jabbok.  There’s a crossing.  I’ve been there, and I got away from the group purposely, and I took a walk across the bridge that’s there now.  The United States has built a very lovely road through that area; did it for the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, and it takes you into that area to see, well, several things you wouldn’t be able to see if you didn’t have a good road because that’s quite a wilderness through there.  And I took pictures of sheep that were drinking down at the brook Jabbok.  It’s a crossing there, but a very bleak place.  It’s right down between two we-call-them hills.  They’re not really mountains, but it’s very mountainous country.  It’s very rugged country, and here is where this man came that night.  He’s not a happy man, and he’s filled with fear and doubt.  You see, the chickens are coming home to roost.  He’d mistreated Esau, and God never told him to get it that way.  God would have gotten it for him.

And so that night he sent across the book Jabbok all that he had, but he stayed on the other side because even if his brother came, it might be spare the family and just maybe kill Jacob.  So Jacob’s left alone.  

WRESTLING GOD

Now Verse 24.

And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day.

Now there are several things I’d like to get straight as we come to this wrestling match.  I’ve heard it said that Jacob did the wrestling.  Actually, Jacob did not do any wrestling at all.  He didn’t want to wrestle anybody.  Let’s be very frank.  He has Uncle Laban back of him, who doesn’t mean good at all, and he has his brother Esau ahead of him, and actually Jacob is no match for either one.  And he’s caught now between a rock and a hard place.  He doesn’t know which way to turn.  Now do you think he wanted to take on a third one that night?  I don’t think so.  

Time magazine quite a few years ago, they put in the sporting section of the magazine the writer there, he says concerning the vote for who was the greatest wrestler, says, “Not a vote went to the most famous athlete in history, wrestling Jacob.”  And, lo and behold, they got a letter in the mail from someone who wrote in and says, “Can you tell me something about this wrestler Jacob.”  They’d never heard of him before.  And, evidently, they’d never read their Bible at all.  Well, he’s no wrestler; let’s make that very clear here at the very beginning.  That night he’s alone because he wanted to be alone, and he wasn’t looking for a fight that night.  

Now this man who wrestled with him, that’s the question, “Who is this one that wrestled with him that night?”  Well, again, there’s been a great deal of speculation about who it is.  But I think it’s none other than the preincarnate Christ.  And I have some evidence for it.  

Over in Hosea, the 12th Chapter, and I’d like to turn to that.  Let me read this.  Chapter 12 of Hosea, Verse 1.  “Ephraim feedeth on wind, and followeth after the east wind:  he daily increaseth lies and desolation; and they do make a covenant with the Assyrians, and oil is carried into Egypt.  The LORD hath also a controversy with Judah, and will punish Jacob according to his ways; according to his doings will he recompense him.  He took his brother by the heel in the womb, and by his strength he had power with God: Yea, he had power over the angel, and prevailed: he wept, and made supplication unto him: he found him in Bethel, and there he spake with us; Even the LORD God of hosts; the LORD is him memorial” or the LORD is His name.  (Hosea 12:1-5).  May I say to you:  It was none other than Jehovah, the preincarnate Christ, who wrestled with him that night.  Now:

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, as he wrestled with him.  (Genesis 32:25)

Now old Jacob is not going to give up easy.  He’s not that kind of man.  And he wrestled.  And finally this One who wrestled with him broke his leg, and he said, “Let me go for the day breaketh.”  And he said, “I’ll not let thee go except thou bless me.”  And what happened now?  Jacob is just holding on.  He’s not wrestling; he’s just holding on to this one.  And he found out that you don’t get anywhere with God by struggling and fighting.  The only way that you get anywhere with Him is by yielding and just holding on to Him.  Abraham had learned that.  That’s why Abraham said, “Amen” to God.  He believed God; he counted it to him for righteousness.  Abraham reached the end of his rope and put his arms around God.  

And, Friends, when you get in that condition, then you trust God.  I’ve read several letters recently from folks; one fellow that had been on dope, another one who lost a little boy, a precious little boy in the home and had to reach out for help somewhere.  My Friend, when you’re willing to hold on, He’s there ready to help you.

JACOB’S NAME CHANGED TO ISRAEL

 And he said unto him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob.  And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob – not Jacob any more, the one who is the usurper, the trickster–but Israel:  (Why Israel?)

–for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.  (Genesis 32:27-28)

And now the new nature of Israel will be manifest in the life of this man.  

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.  (Genesis 32:29-30)

He had seen the angel of the Lord, the preincarnate Christ. 

And as he passed over Penuel the sun rose upon him, and he halted upon his thigh.  (Genesis 32:31)

You see, God had to cripple him to get him.  God broke his leg, but He got him.  And you’re going to find out from here on, he’s going to manifest a spiritual nature, dependence upon God.  Another young man in the New Testament, a son of Jacob by the name of Saul of Tarsus, he tells us his struggles in the 7th of Romans that he couldn’t win, and finally he found out by yielding and letting the Spirit of God: what the law could not do, the Spirit now is able to do in your life.  How does He do it?  By an act of the will.  By yielding to Him.  And that’s exactly what Jacob did.  Jacob won—but he won, he got the victory not by fighting and struggling, but by yielding, and that’s the only way you and I will get anywhere with God today.  We’ll leave off right there.