Genesis 32: 22-27

²² “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. ²³ After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions. ²⁴ So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. ²⁵ 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. ²⁶ Then the man said, ‘Let me go, for it is daybreak.’ But Jacob replied, ‘I will not let you go unless you bless me.’”

One might think that only Abraham saw Jesus as we have journeyed through the OLD Testament and encounters with Jesus. But a new generation of God’s people has arisen now. We are going to take a look at Jacob.

Abraham is dead, Sarah is dead, Isaac married Rebekah, and they had twin boys, Esau and Jacob. Jacob grew up and tricked his brother out of his birthright and then had to run away. He was known as a trickster, and for 20 years or so, he lived with his father-in-law, Laban. Soon, Laban and Jacob’s households were too big to exist in the same location, and Laban tricks Jacob. (Genesis 31:41, “Thus I have been in your house twenty years; I served you fourteen years for your two daughters, and six years for your flock, and you have changed my wages ten times”). Or at least he tries to, but God blesses Jacob, and when the tensions got to be too much, he heads home.

Isaac, we will learn, is still alive. We see that in Genesis 35:27-29. “Jacob came home to his father, Isaac, in Mamre, near Kiriath Arba (that is, Hebron), where Abraham and Isaac had stayed. Isaac lived a hundred and eighty years. Then he breathed his last and died and was gathered to his people, old and full of years. And his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.”

Back to the story at hand. Jacob (now in his late 60s or early 70s), his wives and concubines begin the journey back home, and along the way, Jacob encounters a man. He separates himself from his family. They head across the river Jabbok, and that very night, Jacob wrestles with the man. Later, we find out that he knows it was God, and he names the place Peniel, meaning, “So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, ‘It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.’”

We know from our previous lessons that any time one sees God ‘face to face’ in the Old Testament, it is Jesus. Jacob sees Jesus and wrestles with Him. This encounter changes a few things about Jacob, and he is never the same again.

God, Jesus, physically changes Jacob in that He dislocates a joint in his hip, and Jacob walks with a staff after that. We do not know if he ever recovers from that. Then, Jesus changes his name from Jacob, meaning ‘a trickster’ to Israel, and we see that in verse 28. “And He said, ‘Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel; for you have struggled with God and with men, and have prevailed.’”

All of us need to have our own struggle with God to have God make changes in us. Jacob was never the same again; his life would take some hard turns fraught with hurt and pain. His own children would trick him and hurt him, but he would remain faithful to God. You see, Jacob could not serve God in Abraham’s encounters; he needed his own. Your children cannot serve God through your encounters and your experiences; they need to see God, wrestle with God, and have God change them.

The change was marked by changed names as well; this seemed to be a common thing for God to do, even in the New Testament era. Abram became Abraham, Sara became Sarah, Jacob became Israel, later Saul becomes Paul, Simon becomes Peter, and we too are promised a new name one day given to us by God (see Revelation 2:17, 3:12).

Now, Jesus could have defeated Jacob at any time during the night that they wrestled, and I find it amazing that Jacob did not give up. He wanted to be blessed by God, and he held on with all his might. We see verse 26: “Then the man said, ‘Let me go, for it is daybreak.’ But Jacob replied, ‘I will not let you go unless you bless me.’” Jacob wanted God to bless him, and he refused to let go. He refused to give in and give up.

How do you and I respond when we are tested by God? Jacob refused to give up, and he was blessed. And even though his life got very hard, he lived in that blessing, and it empowered him to push through all the pain. Do we give up too soon when seeking a blessing from the Lord? Do we ‘tap out,’ as they say, and shortchange ourselves? Jacob was not a perfect man; in fact, he was very far from that. He had failed God times after time, yet God blessed him.

We see also that when we struggle, when we go through the tough fights with God, it is not to break us, and it is not for God to destroy and beat us, but to challenge us to hold on with all we have. God wants men and women who thirst after Him, who need Him and His blessings and live for Him. Men and women who refuse to let go in spite of their sinfulness and shortcoming, they understand that God, Jesus, is all they have, and their only hope.

I pray that you have had, and or that you are looking for your encounter with the Lord. Your night of wrestling, so to speak; a night that will change your forever and empower you to endure that tough time that may be ahead.

Often, we think that being blessed by God means more money, power, prestige or the like, but more often than not, it is Jesus equipping us to endure what is coming our way. When we see Jesus and experience His hand in our lives, it secures us to move forward come what may. It helps us to hold on and trust that He has the way planned, nothing surprises Him, and we can trust Him that He has it all worked out.

We who have children that we are teaching in the way of the Lord should begin to pray that they have their own experiences with the Lord, their own wrestling with the Lord, and their own blessings from the Lord to empower them to endure the dark times that are ahead. Long after we are gone, it is these encounters that will sustain them and endear them to Jesus. He will be their hope and salvation, like He is ours, like He was Jacob’s, like He was Abraham’s and Sarah’s, and all who serve Him.

Dr. Sean Gooding
Pastor of Bethany Baptist Church
70 Victoria Street, Elora, Ontario

“Peace” is a word whose true definition has eluded this planet since the time recorded in Genesis 3:6-7:

“And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.”

The cry for peace is futile, in the human sense, because since the disobedience in the Garden of Eden, humankind has continued to descend more deeply into sin. The heart is deceitful above all things, the Bible says, and desperately wicked. Therefore, there is, rather than tranquility within the lost human soul, warfare that is never ending: “[There is] no peace, saith the LORD, unto the wicked” (Isaiah 48:22). And, James the apostle says: “From whence [come] wars and fightings among you? [come they] not hence, [even] of your lusts that war in your members?” (James 4:1).

The prophet Isaiah spoke to Israel and—through his God-given words—the whole human race:

“The way of peace they know not; and [there is] no judgment in their goings: they have made them crooked paths: whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace” (Isaiah 59:8).

So, in this time of the season when many across the world (although I concede it’s a diminishing number of people) use the phrase, “Peace on earth, good will to men,” let us think a moment on peace.

We recall the grainy, black-and-white newsreel of Britain’s Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain waving a document containing the peace arrangement he had just made with the German Führer, Adolf Hitler. Chamberlain said at that time that the agreement guaranteed that there would be “peace in our time.”

Those who know the history of the time know that almost before the ink on the pact was dry, Hitler ordered the first attack that began bringing the whole world to war.

There came a time when Japan surrendered, and General Douglas MacArthur declared the matters of World War II concluded. But the issue of warfare was and remains far from concluded. Many thousands of Americans, not to mention people from other nations, have since lost their lives in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, and numerous other far-flung areas around the world.

Today, the world’s diplomats, news cameras, and microphones are focused on the most problematic spot on earth regarding the threat of the possible ignition of World War III. It is the same area where true PEACE will one day break out. But, for now, it is the lack of the humanistic version of peace in the Holy Land that is the cause of angst for earth’s powers that be. God’s prophet, Ezekiel, spoke to the dearth of peace involving God’s chosen nation:

“[To wit], the prophets of Israel which prophesy concerning Jerusalem, and which see visions of peace for her, and [there is] no peace, saith the Lord GOD” (Ezekiel 13:16).

No matter which direction we glance today, evidence of earth-quivering anxiety mounts. This is, at present, more than at any time in recent memory, a world without peace. The seas and waves are roaring, the nations are in distress with perplexity, precisely like Jesus said they will be when He breaks in upon a sinful, incorrigibly wicked world of earth-dwellers.

The Middle East is, as it has been perennially, in a failed peace process. Terroristic threats never cease to plague Israel. And terrorism is a spreading infection that has invaded most all of Europe and now threatens America’s major cities.

There is no peace because government leaders concentrate on acquiring and increasing authority to control, financial leaders and the money powers strive to attain more wealth by whatever means necessary, and most of the rest of humanity looks in every direction except toward Heaven for the peace they cannot find.

Religions of earth, too, are in turmoil, proclaiming that they are peaceful while, at the same time, they are hating each other. The religionists are making efforts to establish their own brand of peace through ecumenism. Certain of some who claim to have Christ at their center have joined the ecumenical movement toward establishment of a religious conglomerate within which all can live in peace.

PEACE–true PEACE—however, is in fact already here upon this troubled sphere. It came in the form of a Baby nearly two thousand years ago. We will celebrate His birthday this December 25. Jesus, the Prince of Peace, in truth IS here in the forever of eternity past and the forever of eternity future. He is the great I AM who is here in the present, and who chose to come in the flesh to suffer and die, then to resurrect so that fallen men, women, and children can be given the PEACE the human soul of each person on the planet must have to be resurrected from the death sin wrought.

Jesus ascended to the throne room of Heaven and is coming again:

“Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my father is greater than I” (John 14:27-28).

Rejoice! Take heart! Lift up your head and watch. PEACE will yet have the victory upon Planet Earth!