Good Morning Everyone,
This morning during morning devotion God revealed to me that there are a lot of people having Jonah and Jacob experiences. I promised that I would share a break down of Jacob's wrestle with an angel here. Jacob knew God, his father knew God but I don't believe Jacob was a true follower of God. For example or to put in perspective, let's say Jacob dad was a pastor of a church and Jacob was a musician at the church. In that scenario, obviously Jacob is aware of God's existence and power but does that mean Jacob has a true relationship with God outside of church? He could definitely just attend church out of routine and go on with his life how he wants to go on with it outside of going to church on Sunday. 🤓 I hope yall are following. Lol.
Let's pull from the bible:
“Then Jacob made this vow: “If God will indeed be with me and protect me on this journey, and if he will provide me with food and clothing, and if I return safely to my father’s home, then the Lord will certainly be my God. And this memorial pillar I have set up will become a place for worshiping God, and I will present to God a tenth of everything he gives me.” Genesis 28:20-22 NLT
Did you see that? "IF I return safely to my father's home, THEN the Lord will certainly be MY GOD."
Jacob knows to address and acknowledge God, but here we see God isn't Jacob's God even though God is the God of his dad and granddad.
Now the rest of this explanation I pulled from the Enduring Word Commentary starting at Section B.2.
(Verses 24-25 of Genesis 32) A Man wrestles with Jacob.
Then Jacob was left alone; and a Man wrestled with him until the breaking of day. Now when He saw that He did not prevail against him, He touched the socket of his hip; and the socket of Jacob’s hip was out of joint as He wrestled with him.
a. A Man wrestled with him until the breaking of day: Jacob didn’t wrestle with the Man. Instead, a Man wrestled with him. Jacob didn’t start out wanting anything from God; God wanted something from him. God wanted all of Jacob’s proud self-reliance and fleshly scheming, and God came to take it, by force if necessary.
• i. “It does not say that he wrestled with the man, but ‘there wrestled a man with him.’ We call him ‘wrestling Jacob,’ and so he was; but we must not forget the wrestling man, — or, rather, the wrestling Christ, — the wrestling Angel of the covenant, who had come to wrestle out of him much of his own strength and wisdom.” (Spurgeon)
b. A Man wrestled with him: As the following verses show, this was no mere man. This is another special appearance of Jesus in the Old Testament before His incarnation in Bethlehem. This was God in human form.
• i. “I suppose our Lord Jesus Christ did here, as on many other occasions preparatory to his full incarnation, assume a human form, and came thus to wrestle with the patriarch.” (Spurgeon)
c. Until the breaking of the day: We can only imagine what this scene looked like. Perhaps sometimes it looked like a barroom fight, and perhaps at other times it looked like an intense wrestling match.
• i. “How did Jacob ever manage to keep up his struggle throughout the entire night? I do not know. But I do know that his determination to hang in there was no greater than our frequent determination to have our own way and eventually win out over God.” (Boice)
• ii. “It was brave of Jacob thus to wrestle, but there was too much of self about it all. It was his own sufficiency that was wrestling with the God-man, Christ Jesus.” (Spurgeon)
d. He saw that He did not prevail against him: As the fight progressed, it seemed Jacob was somewhat evenly matched against the Man, but the match was only evenly matched in appearance. The Man could have won easily at any time, using supernatural power.
• i. Sometimes we feel man really can contend with God. A man or woman in rebellion against God might seem to do pretty well. The match seems even in appearance only. God can turn the tide at any moment, and He allows the match to go on for His own purposes.
• ii. It isn’t hard to imagine Jacob working so hard and feeling he is getting the best of his opponent, until finally the Man changed the nature of the struggle in a moment. Jacob must have felt very defeated.
(26) Jacob’s plea to the Man.
And He said, “Let Me go, for the day breaks.” But he said, “I will not let You go unless You bless me!”
a. Let Me go, for the day breaks: The Man let Jacob know this would not last much longer. Even though Jacob clung to him desperately, Jacob had lost. A better, greater Man defeated Jacob.
• i. This is an invaluable place for everyone to come to: where God conquers us. There is something to be said for every man doing his wrestling with God, and then acknowledging God’s greatness after having been defeated. We must know we serve a God who is greater than us, and we cannot conquer much of anything until He conquers us.
b. I will not let You go unless You bless me: This wasn’t Jacob dictating terms to God as he did on previous occasions. God overcame Jacob here, and we know from Hosea 12:3-5 that Jacob sought this blessing with weeping. He knew he was defeated, yet desperately wanted a blessing from this Greater One.
• i. He took his brother by the heel in the womb, and in his strength he struggled with God. Yes, he struggled with the Angel and prevailed; he wept, and sought favor from Him. He found Him in Bethel, and there He spoke to us; that is, the LORD God of hosts. The LORD is His memorable name. (Hosea 12:3-5)
c. Unless You bless me: Through his past, Jacob was always clever and sneaky enough so he never felt the need to trust in God alone. Now he could only rely on the blessing of God.
• i. Jacob was reduced to the place where all he could do was to hold on to the LORD with everything he had. Jacob could not fight anymore, but he could hold on. That is not a bad place to be.
• ii. Here, God has answered Jacob’s prayer in Genesis 32:9-12. Yet before Jacob could be delivered from the hand of his brother, he had to be delivered from his own self-will and self-reliance. “It is evident that, as soon as he felt that he must fall, he grasped the other ‘Man’ with a kind of death-grip, and would not let him go. Now, in his weakness, he will prevail. While he was so strong, he won not the blessing; but when he became utter weakness, then did he conquer.” (Spurgeon)
• iii. Jacob thought the real enemy was outside of him, being Esau. The real enemy was his own carnal, fleshly nature, which had not been conquered by God.
As I mentioned this morning, there are a lot of Jacob experiences where God is conquering those who have put up a fight against him for so long. These people may have appeared to be winning their fight against God but in a moment they are about to be conquered by God.
You can expect to see these people come to you brand new and humbled.
Well, that's all. God said what He said. Continue making your specific requests to God and have a great day. Love you. 😊
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