now to the reading of God's Word. This is one of those passages that according to going through Jacob's life is rather short, so pay attention. We'll be done reading it before you know it. Now he arose that same night and took his two wives and his two maids and his 11 children and crossed the Ford of the Jabbar. He took them and sent them across the stream and he sent across whatever he had. 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 that 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 you ask my name and he blessed him there? So Jacob named that place, the place penile, 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 Penuille 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 and the sinew of the hip. A modern reader of this text may say, why in the world would anyone spend any amount of time at all reading such a story where the creator appears as a man and wrestles with a man and blesses him and changes his name and maybe there's someone here who's tempted to believe the critics. The critics are the Bible who say that the Bible is full of myths and legends and it's not to be taken seriously. Why reads such a story like this? If you're tempted to think that way or if you do think that way, let me ask you to reconsider. First, while science can neither prove nor disprove the existence of God, we can think with our minds that it is reasonable for God to reveal himself to his creatures. And if God does reveal himself to his creatures, if there is a God, and I believe there is of course, and he does reveal himself to his creatures, then he is going to have to condescent to speak in terms that humans can understand because our scientists can already tell us that both our world and this universe is phenomenal. It's greater than we're able to perceive or comprehend or understand. And so the creator of all things would certainly have to condescent to speak in ways we can understand. Another reason why not to dismiss this story and the Bible is the Bible is unique. It's unique in comparison to all the other books that claim to be holy books or spiritual books or books that tell us about God. In the Bible we have a God who comes to us and saves us rather than us being good enough to save ourselves or to live such lives that please him. In fact, the heroes of the Bible are all flawed, a little bit different than the other books that claim to be holy books. It's worth looking at and seeing how the Bible is unique, how it shows that God is both transcended and creator of all things, and yet gracious and compassionate and comes to man, defines man as we really are and shows mercy to us. Another reason to take the Bible seriously is when you read the book of Genesis it's just incredibly rich literature. Just like I'm a neophyte in this, a novice I have no right to talk about what is good literature or not. I realize that, but as a novice as one who reads and looks at things and who studies the scriptures, it's amazing the beauty of the literary style. As I studied this out, I've told you what a chiasm is, how you have this structure of ABC, CBA or ABCD or whatever, and you have it going back on itself. There's one of those in this passage and in the middle of it there's even a smaller chiasm. The integrity of the scriptures, the beauty of its literary style is amazing and that Moses could write this book in such a way that it speaks about a real person in real space and time and in such a way that prefigures what God will do in history so that a thousand years later when writers are writing, they're saying with the same themes, the same scope, the reality of God, we can trust the Bible. We can see that it is unique and it's writing, it's unique in its message, it's beautiful in its literature, it's an amazing story where God condescends to talk to us and so if you're willing to consider to engage God by faith, I believe he'll meet with you even today, he will cause his word to speak to you in a way that gives you hope that brings change into your life. Let's see if God won't meet with us today as we seriously work with this story and I'd like to kind of start with a question or a series of questions. Here it is, a ponder for a second, who is the person who has caused you the most grief in your life? The person you fought with the most, the person who just thinking about them now makes you a little bit uncomfortable. You got him yet? Sorry to turn the juices in your stomach, do you know who it is? Maybe it's maybe it's more than one person and maybe it's two or three, that was Jacob's story. Let me ask you a question connected to that. When you think about that person who's caused you or people who have caused you the most grief, is fear related to it at all? Maybe you're not afraid like we'll find it with Jacob that he's afraid that Esau will kill him, maybe you're not afraid of a physical hurt but just afraid to talk with this person again to try and work through it or to have to feel the pain again or that sort of stuff is their pain related or fear related to that person or those people who have caused you the most grief in pain. Well, I want to suggest that this story will teach us how we should let God resolve all our conflicts and be our victory. God will ultimately resolve all conflicts and he is the one who gives all victory. Jacob was a scrapper. That's clear, right? I mean all our studies show us that he was a scrapper and this passage today he's wrestling with God. It's a little bit weird I understand but let's consider it for a minute. I put in bold letters the part I want to focus on verse 28 where God says to him and I believe this is part of the blessing. I know the text that he God blessed him afterwards but I think there's blessing connected to this. Your name shall no longer be Jacob but Israel for you have striven with God and with men and have prevailed. God changes his name from Jacob, the subplanter, the one who grasped by the heel to Israel, the one who strives with God. And I want us to look at that. The angel of the Lord, this man rustling with him says that he wants to do this name change because Jacob has striven with God and with man and has prevailed. So Jacob the striver is where we first start. Jacob the striver. Jacob has strived all his life. First of all, he strives with Laban. If we just kind of look at the context a little bit, the chapter that precedes this chapter 31 is where Jacob has a bit of trouble with Laban. Laban is his uncle and his father-in-law and when Jacob first went to visit his uncle Laban 30 days after he had been there, month after he had been there, Laban said you shouldn't work for me for free. What do you want? And he said I'll work for you seven years for your wife, for your daughter Rachel to be my wife. And Laban's like okay better I give her to you than anyone else. And after seven years, Laban tricked him and gave him his older daughter less lovely, shall we say, Leah. And Jacob was furious. He went to him and he said was it not for Rachel that I worked for you these seven years? And Laban talked him into working another seven years. Laban got him to work seven years for Leah which you would never do plus another seven years for Rachel. And there was conflict related to that. After that, after 14 years he worked another six years where Jacob began to take the wealth of Laban for his own. And he did it in such a way that was rather tricky himself. He may have had some divine revelation about how to negotiate wages, but he shows no care for Laban. He gives Laban all the weak animals and works it out to where he gets all the strong animals. So much so that we read in chapter 31 of verse 1 that Laban's sons are mad. They say Jacob has taken away all that was our fathers. And from what belong to our father, he has made all his wealth. And the next verse, not only Laban's sons, but Laban himself, it says Jacob saw the countenance of Laban. And indeed it was not favorable toward him as before. There's conflict, there's strife, there's fighting, there's fighting over the family situation, there's fighting over the job situation, it's not a good situation. In fact, if, you know, it's clear that when it's, excuse me, it says that Jacob left, it does say that God had spoke to him in two different verses. God said, leave, go back to the promised land to your family and such. So there is God's calling, but there's also this word that appears two or three times. Jacob fled. Jacob fled, you know, he left, he was secret about it. There was conflict. And so he had to run away, Jacob strives with Laban. It's not just Laban. Again, if we look at the context, even further away and closer at hand, Jacob strives with Esau. The reason he went to visit Uncle Liban, remember 20 years ago, it seems like we've been in this series about, nah, that's not that bad. But 20 years earlier in Jacob's life, he had angered his brother to such an extent that his brother wanted to kill him. In fact, there was a piling on effect in his striving with Esau. Jacob had strived with Esau in such a way that he stole his birthright. I imagine Jacob knew about the oracle of God that the older would serve the younger and all. And it was like Jacob didn't like the way God was going about things. And the way his father preferred the older brother and such. And so Jacob took advantage of Esau and got him to sell the birthright. And then after doing such things, he stole the blessing. He deceived his father. He lied. He took God's name in vain, saying God provided for me these things. And there was strife there. So Jacob, and we could extrapolate even further, right, with the striving with his father, the striving with his wives. We'll see in the future that he strives with his kids or at least those kids are striving and there's conflict in the family all about. But let's move to he strives with God. Jacob strives with God. And I know we need to look at the wrestling match and we will do so in just a second. But I think God has more in mind when he says that that Jacob has driven with God and with men and has prevailed than just the wrestling match in all of Jacob's striving or with men. He's been striving with God as well. When Jacob was not satisfied being the second born son, he started striving by when he was taking advantage of his brother. He was striving with God. He wasn't satisfied. He wasn't letting God lead and provide and keep the oracle and promises that he made. He took matters into his own hand and he tried to make it happen by abusing his brother. He's striving with God in that he's rebelling against God. He's doing it his own way. He's not trusting in God. The same with Laban. Laban, he doesn't pray about the wife situation when he works. He's not faithful in doing what is right in that situation and he's not content to love Laban and honor him as his father-in-law and work hard for him and let God take care of him. But he wants to take, he wants to give Laban what Laban so richly deserves. There's a bit of bitterness. There's a bit of a grudge. There's a bit of giving him vengeance instead of love. Let me go back to the questions I asked you earlier. The person who's caused you the most grief. One, you've struggled with the most in your life. Let me ask you. You don't answer out loud. But is it a family member? Is it a work-related situation? I wouldn't be surprised. These are the people we spend the most time with. They know us the best and we know them the best. They often hurt us the deepest. Let me ask you and in your striving with them, you know, if Jacob were here and we were asking about him, in fact, the way it's recorded for us in the scriptures, Jacob understands with pretty good clarity how his father wasn't loving to him, how his brother wasn't kind to him, how Laban tricked and deceived him, how Laban changed his wages ten times. He could speak with incredible clarity, the grief in his life, how that person had sinned against him and done what is wrong. I wonder if he saw with equal clarity,
his own faults, his own weakness, his own lust to have what he wanted to have, his own taking matters into his own hands. How about that in your relationship with that person who causes you grief? Can you see? I imagine you can see with great clarity how they have done wrong to you and where their sin is. Probably what we do in our thinking is we think it through and we keep examining it and how they are wrong. But we're kind of slow for that self-examination. And I think one of the reasons is in theory we believe in God and I think in reality we believe in God but somehow in the practical living, in the practical theology, in the moment, we forget all about him and what he says and what comes natural to us is what we want and how we ought to go about it and we end up striving with God in the very struggles we have with other people so that we can say in every struggle we have with another person we also struggle with God. There's at least the temptation not to love to become bitter, angry, full of rage and resentment, to not forget, to keep the record and if there's any forgetfulness it's not us for getting their sins, it's our for getting our own sins. And when that happens we're striving with God as well. Jacob strives with God and God nails him for it in a sense in these words. You're not just the supplanter, Jacob. You're not just one who goes around grasping by the hills and taking advantage of other people. You not only strive with men but you're Israel. You're the one who strives with God. All your life, you have been fighting for what I promised to give you and none of your fighting has brought it about but all of my grace has. That's true in our lives. So often we fight and we struggle for things that we think are important.
It take matters into our hands. It's so hard to trust that God will take care of us, that his way is better than our way, that we can have confidence in him. Well, let's move forward and think about Jacob, the wrestler in this wrestling match with God, consider it for a few moments. I've got two things I want to say in this regard. The first one is just this. Understand God's amazing condescension. We mentioned it that if God is to speak to the people that he has created, he has to condescend by the very nature of being a transcendent being, above and beyond all space and time and all of creation, for him to enter into creation and to speak to us at all is a condescension on God's part and granted when he becomes man and wrestles. That's great condescension. There's a picture of Jesus there, isn't he? The one who humbles himself condescends to become man and be made like us and to live among us. We'll come back to that in a few minutes, but I just want you to see him. By the way, if you're struggling with, is this really God who is wrestling with him? There's a place in Hosea, chapter 12, verses three through five that tell us without any shadow of doubt that that's exactly who it is. It's not just Jacob's perception from the story, which I grant you. He could be wrong. He seems to not always have it right, but the prophet too says it. It's God's condescending mercy to be there, to wrestle with him, and he has a reason for doing it, and I want to look at that under the next question I have for you, why the wrestling match? I mean, why would God do that? Why didn't God just say, Jacob, you've been striving with me all my life? Let me tell you and just kind of work through it. Look, you were fighting for this, and I promised it to you. You've estranged yourself from your family, and you had, look how I've blessed you and multiplied you and taken care of you. I've blessed you. Not you're stealing the blessing. You've made things worse. You've brought conflict into your life, and now I'm going to help you face it. Well, I think God wants to teach Jacob this way, and he often does this. He rescues us. He saves us from our problems, but often he saves us by bringing us through, not just rescuing us from it, you know. Oh, how I wish God would give me a million tax-free dollars so that I could just live on my own and not have to worry about this or that, right? Oh, how I wish I could, and you fill in the blanks, and we make our life so much better, and we address the struggles that we face with daydreams that will probably never come true. And yet, God's way seems to always be to bring us to the very problem, the very thing we fear, the very relationship that's broken, not always, but often. He brings us back around to it and calls us to address it. And he's doing that with Jacob. We saw that a little bit. The last time we looked at this text, and I think that's what's behind God wrestling with him, too. There's two aspects. There's Jacob, the wrestler, and there's Jacob, the representative, as Jacob, Jacob the person, excuse me, as Jacob the person, he wrestles with God and God wrestles with him personally. God is doing something in Jacob's life. Wrestling, if any of you wrestled in school, or wrestle, or coach, or this sort of stuff, you know that when you wrestle, you are exerting a lot of energy, a lot of your strength. In fact, wrestling matches are usually a couple minutes long. It's been so long. I really don't remember. I think it's three, but maybe two minutes or something like that. And you go after it, and there's a little bit of break, and maybe two or three rounds, but it's not wrestling all night till summer. It's exhausting because not only are you exerting all your energy, but the person you're wrestling is doing the same thing, and he's pushing against you, and you wear yourself out fat quickly. And not only that, you are so focused when you wrestle because not only are you trying to find the way to trip him up and pin him, but he's doing that to you, and you've got to be watching for the opportunity as well as defensive. It's exhausting both physically and emotionally, and I think God's wearing him out. He's exhausting, Jacob, because Jacob, who used to dwell intense and not in the fields, you know, from the time he ran away from home, he had a long hike, and by the time he gets to the Ravens house, he could pick up the big rock over the mouth of the well so that the sheep can be watered, and for 20 years he's been out in the fields keeping the sheep, and now he's strong, and God takes a strength. And if that's not enough, he touches his hip in such a way that it reveals to Jacob who it is, wrestle, wrestle, wrestle, no prevailing thing, and it's done. And now he's not only exhausted, he's hurting. Makes me think of the conflicts I hate to face, exhausted and hurting. He can no longer depend on his wit, on his strength, on his ability to run away if Jesus attacks the first part that he sins. Now he has to stay. He has to meet his brother. He has to go through the conflict resolution, and he has to trust in God. That's what I mean. The scriptures are amazing. God is working in his life in a unique way that is personal and intimate to Jacob in a situation. And at the same time, in a way that is for all of God's people, Jacob is also the representative. This is what I mean. Jacob's name is changed to Israel. If I just say, hey, what do you know about Israel? Are you going to tell me about Jacob or about a nation of people we sometimes call the Jews? The nation. It's a kind of an amazing thing really when you start to look at it. I did a little bit of a scripture study on this. Abraham's name is used two hundred and thirty times. Moses's name is used eight hundred and thirty four times. David's name is used one thousand and eighty times. Jacob three hundred and sixty one. This is all from the new American standard. And Israel two thousand five hundred and sixty nine. It's because it's not just the man. It's the people of God. Israel is the name for the people of God. And isn't that an appropriate name? I don't mean to be at all prejudice against a nation of people at all, but just a reading of the scriptures. Israel is a people who strives with God. Let me say they've striven with man as well, can't we? I mean, just the biblical history alone shows us that that is true. Where's the blessing in that? Well, if Jacob is the representative for Israel, Jesus is the representative for Jacob.
We already mentioned the fact that there's something about the condescending nature of God, the condescension of God, a good thing, that he stoops as well. He gets down to our level much as an adult will talk with a little kid or play on the floor and stuff. In fact, that's how God could wrestle with him. It's just like a father who wrestles with his children, right? The father could crush the child at any moment, especially some of the dads, you know what I mean? But he manages his strength in such a way as to where the kids have the time of their lives. So God condescends, he wrestles, he struggles in such a way that Jacob can spend it all. But now how is Jesus the representative? Well, Isaiah, by the way, I've put some sheets on the little table out there where the Bibles and Bulletin's are. There's only 10, but if you're interested in studying this out, Isaiah speaks about Jacob and Israel as the people of God several times in that book. And he makes these comments about Jacob, my servant or Israel, my servant. And interestingly, there's often a call, do not fear. But the way it ends up is that the servant, Jacob, the servant Israel is the suffering servant, the Messiah, the one who is to come. And that's why I put that text in your Bulletin's in the outline. It says, and he said to me, you are my servant Israel, whom I will show my glory. But I said, I have twiled in vain. I've spent my strength for nothing and vanity, yet surely the justice to me is with the Lord and my reward is with my God. Now, and now says the Lord who formed me in the womb to be a servant, to bring back Jacob to him. And so that Israel might be gathered to him, where I am honored in the sight of the Lord and my God has been my strength, who's he talking to, it's my servant Jacob. And yet it's not Jacob. He says, it is too small a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved ones of Israel. I will make you a light of the nations so that my salvation may reach the ends of the earth. And you follow this, my servant. And it's both Israel and Jacob, the people of God. But now it becomes the suffering servant, the one who is spoken of in Isaiah 53, the one whom the Lord lays all his iniquities on. Think about Jesus when he comes and he wrestles upon the earth. He strives with man and they crucify him. He strives with God and he crushes him and he does so as a representative. He becomes the Israel of God. He lives as it were vicariously, a perfect, righteous life. Without sin, he comes to his own, he represents them and he loves them even though they crucify him. And he does exactly the thing God tells him to do. He doesn't seek his own revenge, he doesn't give them what they deserve. And study says, Father, forgive them for they don't know what they're doing. They kill him. And the Lord, the Lord himself, it tells us in Isaiah 53 yet it was the Lord's will to crush him and thus make atonement. That's how we win the victory too, isn't it? I mean, who won in the wrestling match? God says you've striven with God and with man and have prevailed. Who won in the Lord Jesus Christ, they killed him. God crushed him. He won. He conquered sin and death. He defeated all of God's enemies. He fully satisfied the Father's will.
So what about those people who cause you grief? What about the fear of facing that? How does Christ in you lead you to deal with those who have hurt you the deepest? We saw as our assurance of pardon that we're new creatures in Christ. We saw in our assurance of pardon that God made Jesus who knew no sin to be sent on our behalf that we might be the righteousness of God. Christ in you, how will Christ in you address your enemies and those who cause you grief? I can guarantee you, you who love the Lord, you who have been redeemed, you who trust Jesus, you will win the victory. You have the victory. But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brother, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord. Father, it's amazing to see the majesty of the scriptures and how they speak to real human needs, how you can work in the individual Jacob. And as we kind of think about some of the ramifications of the story, see how it deals with us in our own situations. And we're moved to worship when we see our Lord Jesus. How grateful we are that when we're reconciled to you, his blood, atones for every sin, and you give us his victory. We thank you in Jesus name. Amen.