Genesis 32:22-32 | Wrestling with God | Rich Jones

take our ballast and I please and open to the book of Genesis chapter 32 and we'll begin in verse 22 and the title of our message tonight is wrestling with God very important for us to receive from God's Word so let's pray Lord we do thank you for your word we thank you for your holy spirit that uses the Word of God in our lives and God we just open our hearts tonight to receive from you and pray that you would just speak your heart and let it stir us up we ask that now in Jesus name Amen alright last week in our study Jacob he had to leave his his mother whom he very much loved he had to leave his father whom he had deceived and he left his brother who wanted to kill him and so because of Rebekah's his mother's influence over the dad of Isaac she convinced him that he needed a wife and he needed to leave to go get that wife some 500 miles away to her relatives back in her on and so Isaac called him and said you know go and you know to your uncle Laban and find this wife so he was on the run because all around him he created heartbreak and conflict all his relationships were broken now right there that gets our attention it's a sad sad commentary when a person looks around their life and all of their relationships are broken so on the way he he has this encountered this is what we were looking at last week but he has this encounter with God he has this dream where he sees this ladder or like stairway that that extended from Earth to heaven and angels were ascending and descending this is the famous Jacob's Ladder you know vision and God calls out to him from it and gives to him the the blessings of Abraham and to Isaac and given to him and so he wakes up he said surely the Lord is in this place and I didn't know it how asked him in this place this is none other than the house of God this is the gate of heaven and so he named that place Bethel or house of God and it will play significantly into the story that placed us as we roll forward through the books and chapters to come so he arrives in Haran 500-mile journey and he comes upon a shepherdess woman and her name is Rachel and he finds out that in fact her father is Laban and so he falls in love with Rachel and so he agreed to work for seven years to take her hand in marriage because he had no dowry now a lot of people when they look at the story they see some poetic justice here when Jacob meets Laban you know the heel snaps remember that the name Jacob means heel snatcher when he came forth when he was being born he had a hold of his brothers heel there was twins and so they said oh look at that isn't that cute what are we gonna name him let's name him heel snatcher which is real cute when he's a baby but it's nots acute when he grows up and he lives like a heel snatcher supplanter person who deceives and trips other people so many people see poetic justice here Jacob meets Laban if you know anything about Laban you know he's met his match the heel snatcher meets the manipulator so after Jacob worked like seven years for Rachel Laban the uncle that be Rachel's father he did some serious conniving on his own and on the day of the wedding the day of the wedding in which he was to marry Rachel Laban put his daughter Leah in Jacobs tent instead of Rachel lo and behold when he wakes up that's not Rachel and he's not happy and then the uncle says well we couldn't that the younger one Mary first we should let the older one marry first and so he can ieave them he manipulated him and so he had to work another seven years in order to get Rachel the one he truly left then in another turnabout of manipulation Jacob agrees to work for several more years but for his wages he wants all of the goats of the flock that are spotted or speckled and all the lambs that are black then he proceeds to create a breeding program by which most of the goats are born sputtered and speckled and the Lambs are born black thus he ended up with most of what Laban had that's when we come to Genesis 22 20 years have passed and gods finally spoke to Jacob and told him to go back to the land of his father's back to the land that he had promised on the land of Canaan and they God would be with him but there's a problem a rather big problem and that is his brother Esau if you remember when he ran from home 20 years before it was because his brother wanted to kill him and Rebekah the mother said when his temper cools I will send word to you 20 years have passed and he received no word from his mother so he sends some servants to Esau announcing that he is arriving that he is on the way so the servants come back to him and they say Esau is now coming out to meet you and he has 400 men with him Jacob interprets this as a sign of great danger 400 men is not exactly what you can call a welcoming party 400 men is an army so he divides his company into two groups he's got quite an entourage with him now he divides into two groups if one is attacked then the other can fling then he sends gifts he's very strategic he sends gifts ahead in the hope of appeasing Esau then he sent his his wives and his children across the river John finally he was alone and that night he's alone an angel of the Lord came to Jacob and took hold of him and wrestled with him all night long this is the famous wrestling with God the wrestling of the angel of God this is where the scripture he has so many insights for us so let's pick it up now right from that point chapter 32 we begin in verse 22 and the rest of the verses remember we fill in the gaps between these on Wednesdays and our verse-by-verse study first 22 now he arose that same night he took his two wives and his two maids and his eleven children and he crossed the fort of the Jobbik then he took them and sent them across the stream and he sent across whatever he had then jacob was alone and the man came to him took hold of him and wrestled with him until daybreak and 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 enough let me go the dawn is breaking now in other words that that's enough but he said I will not let you go Jacob said I will not let you go unless you bless me and we understand from the Prophet Hosea he is now weeping for this he's weeping for this I cannot let you go I'm crying he's crying out please bless me so he said to him what is your name and he has to tell him my name is Jacob my name is heel snatcher and he said your name will no longer be Jacob you've been a hill snatcher long enough your name will now be Easter il-4 you have striven with God and with men have prevailed then Jacob asked him and said please tell me your name and he said why is it that you asked my name and he blessed them there so Jake name the place penny l4 he said I have seen the face of God he understand he began to understand this is like an angel of God I have seen the face of God 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 and he had a limp from there after therefore to this day the sons of Israel do not eat the sinew of the hip which is on the socket of the thigh whether it be a goat or orbble because he touched the socket of Jacob's thigh in the sinew of the hip right and this is a really very fascinating story and there's a lot for us to learn in it starting with this perspective that we are all in the process of becoming this is the process of Jacob changing he was given the name Jacob because he had all of his brothers heel they thought let's call him he'll snatcher and unfortunately he lived according to the meaning of that name which is tells you a lot about the importance of what you say to a young child but it's time to change and it's time to change that name but first see God is gonna confront him by striving with him wrestling with them contending with them he's bringing this crisis for a reason the for the purpose of transforming him here he is in this place we cannot go back to Laban that relationship is broken he cannot go back to Laban and in front of him is his brother Esau with 400 men here he is he stuck he needs now God to confront him see Jacob must learn to stop relying on his own heel catching supplanting conniving his own strength his cleverness he must learn a guard will contend with those who contend against him that God is the blesser of his life but that he must cling to God realize that God will wrestle with him God will contend with him if he must see this is important there's so much out of this story for us to learn for example God can bring purpose out of problems we're all in the process of becoming of transforming and God can bring purpose out of problems for the purpose of transforming God is the one who came initiated this God is the one who took hold of Jacob God is the one who told him to go back to the land of his father's knowing that Esau was waiting for him it's time to face the past he can't run from the past forever it's time to face the past time to make things right it's time to reconcile with Esau now when he hears that there's 400 men coming with Esau you might think that's a major obstacle but the major obstacle was not his brother it was God and God is the one who's gonna contend God is the one who's going to wrestle with him God is gonna strive with him God uses crisis their opportunities to to get things resolved in our lives there's opportunities to change our character God is preparing us for greater things God is transforming us because he is preparing us CS Lewis CS Lewis once wrote God whispers very famous a quote God whispers to us in our pleasures he speaks to us in our conscience but he shouts to us in our pain like James very famous James chapter 1 verses 2 to 4 consider it all joy my brethren when you encounter various trials knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance or strengthens you in other words so that endurance have it's perfect result so that you may be perfect complete lacking in nothing see in other words what is he saying testing of faith strengthens faith that's what he's saying if your faith cannot be tested then your faith cannot be trusted we need our faith to be strengthened because there are many challenges in front of us in this life this life is filled with challenges and there are many more to come and you know when when we when face our problems we think that they're very great but there are greater ones I remember when we had our first baby and Nicole was her name and I I thought when we had our first baby's little baby coochie I thought oh my goodness we're never gonna get a full night's sleep and in fact she had colic so bad that we had to take like 2 hours just to get any sleep at all right and I'm just like complaining this parenting thing is really hard anybody who's had a first-time baby with colic you know this parenting thing is really hard little did I know little did I know some day out there we would have five teenagers in our house at the same time that my friends is a challenge but see this is the perspective you get like from Jeremiah chapter 12 verse 5 because God says something very similar to that he says if you've run with footmen and they have tired you out what are you gonna do how are you gonna compete with horses there are greater things to come if you fall down in the land of peace how were you doing the thicket of the Jordan there are greater challenges before us and so here's what here's what Jacob does in fact the verses leading up to this like I skipped over them but they're important because what he does is he prays first time we ever see Jacob praying and what he did what does he do he prays the very promises that God gave to him he's gonna use the promises and he's gonna pray those promises now this is important for you can learn so much on this point pray the promises that God gave you is absolutely right so Jacob he hears that he starts coming with 400 men and he turns to God in this prayer and it's an example of using the promises as this very substance of prayer Oh God he prays you are the one who directed me and the one who said that you would prosper me deliver me you told me to come and now I face my brother deliver me I pray he's taking the promises and he's praying those promises but you don't see Jacob praying until this point and it's a point of crisis and oftentimes it is a crisis that brings people to a point a prayer now some people criticize that they say wow it took a crisis to which I say hey he's praying God is on the move calls out to God by quoting those promises there's something right and very powerful about using Scripture and the promises that God gave one of the great examples I think in church history has to be George Mueller if you know the story of George Mueller he became famous for his he was a missionary and famous for his for his trusting of God man who believed in the power of trusting God in prayer and relying on God's promises when he prayed he had like he had several orphanages over the course of his lifetime I think he took care of more than ten thousand orphans and and at one point he had like a thousand orphans in his care and he was out of money but see this the story of George Mueller is a very interesting story because his his early life in Prussia which is a state of Germany was marked by lying gambling drinking fraud arrested for fraud at age 15 he was playing cards and drinking while his mother was dying he had a despicable character he admits freely and it troubled him in his spirit he was troubled and soul and God contended with him you might say God confronted him and touched his soul and touched his life and he began to turn to God and learn to trust God even for the miraculous he became a preacher and a person who who trusted God taking care of his orphans one day they have food they have no money and he praise God he directed all the kids to pray God you promised that you would give us our daily bread God you know that we have no food you promised to give us our daily bread and as he was praying almost miraculously a cart loaded with bread broke down in front of the orphanage and the driver said I cannot do anything with this bread please take all of it it was a famous story 2nd Timothy 1:12 speaks to it I am not ashamed I know whom I have believed and I am persuaded see I love that I love that phrase I am persuaded I am convinced this thing has settled in me I am not ashamed for I know whom I have believed I am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have entrusted to him until that day it's a great promise Jacob prayed that God would deliver him God deliver me and God is going to answer God is gonna answer that prayer miraculously but he's got to deliver him from himself first thus he contends with them and then as we look to that let's apply that to our own lives maybe we could apply it this way surrender all to God there's that old hymn I surrender you know that's a great perspective to come to God I surrender all to Jesus I surrender all to him I freely give there's that that point that you come to and man wrestles with Jacob all night long and Jacob knew that he had an encounter with God but then verse 28 verse 28 is so amazing because he says your name shall no longer be Jacob but Ezra L for you have striven with God and men and prevailed see God contends now this is this is important because this something we need to see as applying into our lives God contends so that he might bless you see that coming out of the story he rustling with God and they keep wrestling through the night the amazing thing the amazing thing is that God doesn't just you know pin him in three seconds but he allows them to keep wrestling the he allows them to keep striving you have been striving and you have been striving and you have been striving just keep striving of course God could have just in fact as it got towards morning he touched on hip and immediately his hip was dislocated as a demonstration I think as a active demonstration of the power of God God is bigger than we are we generally must understand that we cannot win when it comes to wrestling God once when I once when our kids were younger and one of our children was having let's say difficulty obeying I took him okay so you know it was one of the two boys I took him out of bed I swooped him out of bed actually because he was being disobedient and I swooped him out of the bed in my arms and I brought him to my room and I put our room I put him on the floor and I said you will stay right there on that spot until this thing is resolved and then he said well this isn't fair you're bigger than I am to which I said I think you're starting to understand how this works God contends God wrestles with us and could defeat us in an instant that allows us until we come to the point where we say God I surrender I will cling to you now you and you alone are the blesser of my life and and Hosea tells us that he did so with weeping it broke him he was weeping for zaiah 12 see it's important to see that God initiates this God is the one who comes to Jacob God is the one who lays hold of him is contending with them and when God contends is because something needs to be contended with first Peter chapter 5 verses 5 to 7 gives us this perspective God resists the proud see that's another word resisting is another word for contending isn't it God resists the proud but he gives grace to the humble therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God what a great perspective humble yourself therefore under the mighty hand of God and He will exalt you at the proper time and therefore he says casting all of your anxiety all of your worries on him because he cares for you when God contends you can be sure it's because something needs to be contended with David has to be an example God contended with David the king after he sinned but taking another man's life and David's soul was in agony he had he he was God was contending in his soul by the holy spirit Psalm 6 verses 3 to 6 he says my soul is greatly dismayed we turn our Lord and rescue my soul I'm wearing with my sighing i dissolved my couch with my tears and so God was contending because God knew that there was something that needed to be contended with and so he back to our story in Genesis 32 he dislocates him he touches on the hip and dislocates him on there this is important because there is purpose in a limp thereafter he limps the rest of his life I remind her that he must no longer trust in his own strength and now by the way weakened dislocated hip he can't even run for me so he has to he must cling to God he has no other option but to cling to God see God gay I'm a limp in order to strengthen him now that's an interesting thing isn't it God gave him a limp in order to strengthen him say God may prune in order to bring more fruit like Hebrews chapter 12 verse 11 all discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful but sorrowful yet to those who have been trained by it afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness right great perspective in the pocket of a soldier in the Civil War there was found a prayer and that prayer became famous let me just read it to you because that prayer says at all it went this way I asked for strength that I might achieve but he made me weak that I might obey I asked for health that I might do great things he gave me grace that I might do better things I asked for riches that I might be happy he gave me poverty that I might be wise I asked for power that I might have the praise of men he gave me weakness that I might feel the need for God I asked for all things that I might enjoy life he gave me life that I might enjoy all things I received nothing that I asked for but he gave me everything that I hoped for I just love that prayer like Luke 9 verses 24 to 25 Jesus gives us this perspective whoever wishes to save his life by his own efforts by his own means his own strength he who wishes to save his life will lose it but whoever loses his life for my sake he is the one who will save it for what is a man profited if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits his soul so back to Genesis 32 the name Israel is a great name to be to him be governed by God is the meaning of the name see just before sunrise he said enough let me go the Sun is breaking if the dawn is breaking that's enough and Jacob was still this is amazing to me Jacob was still clinging to him even though he had a dislocated hip Jacob responded now we know from Hosea in weeping in tears I will not let you go unless you bless me and that statement1 God over Jacob has won God over he wept he started blessing from God Jacob is learning to cling to God and you know can we can we give a phrase to this that I think it would be so helpful for us if we could take hold of this principle and write this principle on the tablet of our heart if any good thing comes to my life if any good thing comes to my life I wanted to be from the hand of God would you agree with that if any good thing comes to my life I wanted to be that God gave it to me that I didn't take it for myself outside of God's will I want any good thing I want God's we have given it to me because the blessings of God come with it and that is what I want can you win God over can you win God over God loves to be won over by genuine faith can I give you an absolutely amazing example right out of the scriptures absolutely amazing so Jesus he was traveling and he went up to the region of Tyre and Sidon which is near the coast and on the coast just to the north of Israel it's outside of the borders of Israel and there in that region a Canaanite woman from the area she comes and she began to cry out she's a have mercy on me Lord son of David my daughter is cruelly demon possessed now she's saying the right things my lord son of David she's a Canaanite woman but she's calling him the Messiah of Israel son of David she calls a lord have mercy on me son of David my daughter has cruelly demon possessed and the disciples they came and they started imploring Jesus and they said said this woman away because she keeps shouting at us she just won't stop she won't leave us alone she just kept shouting at us send this woman away and jesus answered I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel he says to her but she bowed down and she said lord help me and he said it is not good to take the children's bread and give it to the dogs this is Matthew 15 listen watch as she wins him over Matthew 15 verses 27 and 28 but she said yes Lord but even the dogs feed on the crumbs which fall from the master's table then Jesus said oh woman your faith is great it shall be done just as you wish and her daughter was healed at once I just I don't know about you I love that story I just love that story because she wins him over by her great faith God loves to see great faith Jacob prevailed in that even when his hip was dislocated he wept and he kept clinging to God and he sought his favor he knew that God blessing him now before he must meet his brother he saw coming fast with a force of 400 men that is exactly what he needed he desperately needed now to cling to God and so the angel then asked him what is your name the question reveals his greatest weakness because the answer reveals who he is so if you can match we would think he would say my name is Jacob but in the Hebrew literally what he is saying is my name my name is the Sivir that's my name at some point he knows he has an encounter with God and so he says bless me bless me he said alright I'll bless you what's your name we had to ask that my name is Hillstrand sir my name is supplanter my name is deceiver you can just imagine God saying you lived long enough being called that no longer shall your name be he'll snap sure now your name will be ice ray oh and it has two meaning it has two two shades two parts of it you might say it means contended by God and it means God contends it's a great word contended by God and God condensed receiving in the name Israel is the very blessing that Jacob needed to be given that name as a very thing that Jacob needed Israel be governed by God and God will contend with those who contend against you but know this but know this God will contend with you if he must but if you governed by God if you submit and humble yourself under the mighty hand of God then he will contend with those who contend against you Romans chapter eight verses 31 to 32 what then shall we say to these things if God be for us who could be against us he who did not spare his own son but delivered him up for us all how will he not also with him freely give us all things let's pray father we are so thankful for the amazing insights into these verses that you show us that you are the God Almighty who contends with those who need contending with but when we surrender and surrender all you by your mighty hand will contend with those who contend against us if God be for us who can be against us he who did not spare his own son how will he not also with him freely give us all things church tonight may we come to that place of acknowledging our necessity our need to cling to cling to God no more self-reliance but now trust wholly trust in Jesus name would you tonight would you and I don't know what is happening in your life I don't know if if you sense that goddess is contending or struggling you're struggling with God maybe you've been striving against God that you've been resisting the the Holy Spirit would you know that when you surrender and you surrender all o the mighty hand of God blesses your life for he will contend with those who contend against you he who did not spare his own son will he not with that freely give us all things would you come to the place to my church where you say I surrender all I surrender no more struggling no more striving no more contending I cling to you God I cling to you God but would you bless me would you bless me church is that your heart is that your prayer would you would you come to that place where you say to God those very things I surrender all no more striving to you I cling to you I surrender bless me Oh God would you just raise your hand and say to the Lord to you I surrender to you I surrender no more striving no more contending I surrender bless me bless me Lord I need your hand I need your hand in my life thank you God for everyone who turns to you who trusts in you we love you and we thank you for your mighty hand for your grace we love you and thank you for it all in Jesus name and everyone said can we give the Lord praise and glory and honor amen

Channel: Calvary Chapel Worship Center - Hillsboro, Oregon

Views: 5,819

Rating: 4.7611942 out of 5

Keywords: The Bible, God, Jesus Christ, Holy Spirit, Holy, Pastor Rich Jones, Pastor Matthew Dodd, Calvary Chapel, Faith, Grace, Revival, Truth, Prayer, Salvation, Calvary Chapel Hillsboro, Genesis, Matthew

Id: lOyd4bFx-nU

Length: 36min 21sec (2181 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 01 2018