A New Man - Genesis 32:24-32
INTRODUCTION:
Jacob was in a crisis, he could not go back the way he had come because of the covenant he had just made with Laban, to go forward was to meet Esau and the 400 men that were with him coming to meet him. Because he was stuck, because he was afraid, he did what many of us do when we are afraid and stuck, he prayed as we learned last week. As we will see this morning, God put Jacob in this crisis, the reason the Lord had put Jacob in the middle of this crisis was so that finally he would turn his attention to the Lord. This crisis had arisen because of Jacob; it was all his own doing. God used it to show Jacob how foolish he had been and how he had offended the Lord. I am sure that you have seen how the Lord has used a crisis in someone’s life to get their attention, it could be sickness, the loss of a loved one, an emergency, or a public embarrassment which God can use to humble our hearts and cause us to call on His name. Sometimes God’s appointed means of grace is to get us stuck and afraid. Up to this point Jacob had been prideful, arrogant, able to get out of any situation even if it had to be done in a sneaky, devious way. This time Jacob was in a crisis that he could not see a way out of, it was in this instance that he could finally say, “I am unworthy.” This is a specific conviction, Jacob was talking about himself and himself alone when he said, “I am unworthy,” he was not making a general realization that “nobody’s perfect.” It is that specific conviction that I am unworthy that drives individuals to Jesus, the Savior. We will never be saved unless we are convinced that we are miserable, wretched sinners, unworthy of anything from God but damnation. And whether or not God uses a tangible crisis to get us to this point, this is the real crisis to which we must come, a crisis of conviction. Have you been there, have you come to a crisis of conviction? Have you realized that a part from Jesus Christ you are on the way to judgment and damnation? Last Sunday we saw Jacob come to this crisis of conviction. This morning we will see the outcome. Let’s pray and then get into our passage of Scripture this morning.
--PRAY--
SCRIPTURE:
Turn in your Bibles this morning to Genesis 32:24-32. Please stand for the reading of God’s Word and follow along as I read.
Genesis 32:24-32,
“Then Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. When he saw that he had not prevailed against him, he touched the socket of his thigh; so the socket of Jacob’s thigh was dislocated while he wrestled with him. Then he said, ‘Let me go, for the dawn is breaking.’ But he said, ‘I will not let you go unless you bless me.’ So he said to him, ‘What is your name?’ And he said, ‘Jacob.’ He said, ‘Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel; for you have striven with God and with men and have prevailed.’ Then Jacob asked him and said, ‘Please tell me your name.’ But he said, ‘Why is it that you ask my name?’ And he blessed him there. So Jacob named the place Peniel, for he said, ‘I have seen God face to face, yet my life has been preserved.’ Now the sun rose upon him just as he crossed over Penuel, and he was limping on his thigh. Therefore, to this day the sons of Israel do not eat the sinew of the hip which is on the socket of the thigh, because he touched the socket of Jacob’s thigh in the sinew of the hip.” (Genesis 32:24–32, NASB95)[1]
A WRESTLING MATCH (Genesis 32:24-26)
Jacob was convicted of sin; he had come to understand that he deserved nothing from the Lord. He was an unworthy sinner. But conviction alone could not solve his problems. He still needed God to intervene. That is exactly what God did. Jacob was alone, it was night and he had just sent over the Jabbok all of his family and all of his belongings. He probably sent them away so that if Esau found him in the night he alone would perish. But in his aloneness it was not Esau who hunted him down, but God. We are told in verse 24 that a man wrestled with Jacob until daybreak. Who was this man? Jacob after this incident tells us that he saw God face to face. The prophet Hosea years later wrote concerning Jacob in Hosea 12:3-5, “In the womb he took his brother by the heel, And in his maturity he contended with God. Yes, he wrestled with the angel and prevailed; He wept and sought His favor. He found Him at Bethel And there He spoke with us, Even the Lord, the God of hosts, The Lord is His name.” (Hosea 12:3–5, NASB95)[2] The prophet tells us that Jacob contended with God, that he wrestled with the angel of the Lord, which is how God appearing in the Old Testament is often described. So we do not mistake who we are talking about Hosea goes on to say it was the Lord, the God of hosts, the Lord (Yahweh) is His Name, his covenant name with Israel. Jacob wrestled with the Lord, theologians call this a Theophany, an appearance of God in human form in the Old Testament. What a wrestling match this was as they wrestled all night until daybreak. Jacob had recognized his sinfulness, but he was not yet willing to yield or surrender completely to the Lord. He had always done everything his own way and in his own strength and he thought this would be the same. That is why the Lord allowed him to wrestle with him all night, He needed Jacob to come to a point of brokenness. Jacob was not wrestling to get a blessing from God; rather, he was defending himself and refusing to yield. God had to allow him to wrestle with Him until he was brought to a point of brokenness where he could truly say, “Not I, but Christ.” All night long Jacob defended himself and refused to yield to the Lord, then as the eastern sky began to lighten the Lord reached over and touched Jacob’s thigh and his hip was dislocated. The Lord weakened Jacob so that he could no longer fight, and he had to yield. He could no longer fight, he could only cling, no more scheming for the blessing, no more bargaining for the blessing. All Jacob could do was ask for the blessing, and that is what he did, he yielded and surrendered to the Lord and he asked for the blessing. He knew that the Lord could escape his grasp, but he did not want to let go of Him until he knew the blessing of forgiveness and hope.
A MAGNIFICIENT DEFEAT (Genesis 32:27-29)
Why did the Lord ask Jacob what his name was? The Lord wanted Jacob to admit who he was. Do you remember what the name Jacob means? It means “heel holder or supplanter.” A supplanter is someone who supersedes another by force or treachery. This is exactly who Jacob was and this is why the Lord wanted Jacob to tell Him his name so that he would have to admit who he was. Then the Lord told Jacob that he would no longer be called Jacob, because that was not who he was any longer, from now on he would be named Israel. The name Israel means “One who strives or struggles with God.” The Lord said that Jacob had struggled with the Lord and he had struggled with men and he prevailed. Jacob did not understand until this moment that winning with God is yielding and surrendering to him. Jacob had won the harder battle, the battle over himself. Jacob had prevailed in the real issue, the struggle of all mankind, the issue of pride and self-reliance. Jacob, you have struggled with God, and though magnificently defeated, you have overcome that prideful, scheming, egotistical self and you are blessed. You will be forever different. For Jacob God had become not just the God of Abraham and Isaac, but also the God of Jacob.
Jacob knew who He was talking to, so why did he ask for His name? Jacob wanted assurance that this was the Lord and I think he did not want this encounter with the Lord to end. The Lord does not reveal His name to Jacob, because Jacob knows who He is, but He does bless him before He departs.
A NEW MAN (Genesis 32:30-32)
Jacob named the place where he had wrestled with the Lord Peniel or Penuel, both words mean the same thing, just a different spelling. Both words mean “the face of God.” Jacob named this place the face of God because he saw God face to face and lived, his life was spared. How is this possible when John says in John 1:18 that no one has seen God at any time? Remember that God in His essence is Spirit and therefore invisible. Paul declared to Timothy that no one has seen God or can see Him. These verses are referring to the essential nature of God which no one can see and live, the glory of His holiness would be too great for sinful man to behold. God, however, can appear in a theophany and be seen, but only in Jesus Christ do we see the fullness of God, for Paul declares that it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness of deity to dwell in Jesus Christ (Colossians 1:19). So in this sense Jacob saw God face to face and his life was spared.
The great preacher Martyn Lloyd-Jones was once asked, “What does a person look like who has truly met God?” Alluding to Genesis 32:31, he replied, “He walks with a limp.”[3] I find that amazing, yet very perceptive. We read in verse 31 that Jacob walked with a limp, I believe he limped the rest of his life, a daily reminder to him of his surrender to the Lord. No longer could he strut around arrogantly as he had done before. His pride was turned to humility and we see a much different man, a new man, no longer Jacob, but Israel. Now crippled in his natural strength he became bold in faith. It is interesting that this encounter took place on the border to the Land of Promise, the land promised to the descendants of Abraham. God, the true “owner” of the land, opposed him entering as “Jacob.” He could never enter the land in his former self-will or his own strength. Now he would enter fully surrendered to his God.
This passage ends by telling us that this encounter with God, and Israel’s limp was remembered by the descendants of Israel in that they never ate the sinew that is attached to the hip, but out of honor for their ancestor they did not eat the hip muscle.
CONCLUSION:
This was truly a defining moment in Jacob’s life, his struggle with God helped him to prevail over himself. Jacob learned that once we understand our sin, and that we deserve nothing from God, then God can meet us and change our life. Jacob struggled to come to that point of yielding and surrendering, but in the end when he knew that he could not in his own strength win against God, he yielded and found that the best place to be is in God’s hand, because then God can bless you. There must come a point in our lives where our human pride must be broken, the physical picture of that is Jacob’s dislocated hip, the spiritual side is a changed life shown to us by Jacob’s name being changed to Israel. Jacob’s limp daily reminded what it took for God to bring him into His will. Jacob limped away from this encounter with God a new man and with a whole new outlook on life. He was no longer prideful, I can do it myself Jacob, he was now limping, God will have to do it Israel. His new name would constantly remind him of his struggle with God that ended in magnificent defeat, which simply means losing is winning.
What is your crisis? Has your crisis become the crisis of conviction? Have you struggled with God over your pride? Surrendering to the God of mercy and grace brings about the magnificent defeat, where with God losing is winning. God desires to be your God in everything. What needs to be broken in your life for that to happen. What is your limp?
[1]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. LaHabra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995
[2]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. LaHabra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995
[3]Strassner, K. (2009). Opening up Genesis (p. 132). Leominster: Day One Publications.