Jamie Strickler
Sermon 5 Jacob Wrestles God

Jacob Wrestles with God
22 The same night he arose and took his two wives, his two female servants, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. 23 He took them and sent them across the stream, and everything else that he had. 24 And Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day. 25 When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched his hip socket, and Jacob's hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. 26 Then he said, “Let me go, for the day has broken.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” 27 And he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” 28 Then he said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.” 29 Then Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” And there he blessed him. 30 So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered.” 31 The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip. 32 Therefore to this day the people of Israel do not eat the sinew of the thigh that is on the hip socket, because he touched the socket of Jacob's hip on the sinew of the thigh.

Was Jacob really wrestling a physical person or is today’s story symbolic of the struggle that was going on inside of him? Well it’s not like we can ask him now is it? So I guess that we will just have to take the Bible at its Word and assume that there was someone else there physically wrestling with Jacob.
Hosea tells us that Jacob wrestled and angel on behalf of God. Far be it from me to argue with the Word of God but Jacob named the place “Peniel” which means “the face of God.” So I am thinking whether it was an angel or God in the form of flesh; something profound happened to our friend Jacob that night.
Last week I talked about Romans 8 which is God’s promise to you the elect; the promise of future glory as co-heirs with Christ. Romans 9 tells us that God chose Jacob over Esau before they were born. The promise that St. Paul speaks of for you as co-heirs in Christ was promised to you before you were even born. You like Jacob are God’s chosen.
The question might be running through your minds, “How do you know that we are the elect; the chosen?” Well it has to do with how God elects. Romans 10:14-17, “14 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? 15 And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” 16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” 17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” God calls His elect to Himself by sending to you a called and sent preacher to deliver the promise of Jesus Christ; better known as the gospel. You see I am a called and sent preacher standing before you today. This call is not in my own mind rather it was and internal call validated and confirmed by Christ’s church. The very fact that there is a called and sent preacher before you today is the very proof that God is calling you to himself and validates that you are His elect.
So what does all of this have to do with Jacob? Well like Jacob you were elected before your birth. Now up until the today’s reading Jacob certainly isn’t acting like God’s elect; wrestling his brother in the womb, taking his brother’s birth rite in a very unethical way, steeling his brothers blessing by posing as Esau, and tricking his father-in-law in a revenge scheme for having been tricked. Granted his father-in-law had it coming to him but so did Jacob.
But now at the ford of the Jabbok, Jacob has burned his bridge, so to speak, with his brother and his father-in-law and has no other place to go. Just like an alcoholic or an addict Jacob has no other choice but to surrender to a power greater than himself to return to sanity. Jacob must change his ways and he cannot do it under his own power.
The 12 steps of AA and other programs go like this:
1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become
unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to
sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we
understood Him.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature
of our wrongs.
6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make
amends to them all.
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do
so would injure them or others.
10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly
admitted it.
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with
God, as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us
and the power to carry that out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these Steps, we tried to
carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our
affairs.
Copyright _ A.A. World Services, Inc

Jacob is fulfilling these steps all at once. He is wrestling with God, because he cannot face who he has been alone. He cannot stay sane and complete step 4, searching and fearless inventory. Jacob is wrestling with his old Adam, the old self. He is God’s chosen and at this point God has decided to have him start acting like it. But this requires Jacob to wrestle have his old self put to death so that the new might come.
Jacob fights valiantly with God and holds His own. But as the day breaks God gets tired of this and commands Jacob to let Him go. Is this a test? Is God seeing how strong the desire to change is inside Jacob? I believe that God gave Jacob both the resistance and the ability to cling to His Lord and say, “I will not let you go until you bless me.” IN my own struggles with my past I hear that as, “Daddy HELP ME I CAN’T GO ON UNLESS YOU ARE WITH ME. THE PAIN IS TOO GREAT TO HANDLE ON MY OWN.” And here it is, broken, wounded, and exhausted Jacob still clings to his Lord for comfort and hope. Then the redemptive moment is at hand. God give Jacob the chance to receive a blessing but this time in a honest and straight forth way. “WHAT IS YOUR NAME?!!!” Jacob must own up, he must admit who he is and what he has done, “I am Jacob.” Jacob means “HE CHEATS.” Yes Jacob has to admit that he is a cheater. He is God’s chosen but is nothing more than a con-man and a crook. By admitting that he is Jacob he has made a searching and fearless inventory and has admitted to God, himself and one other person the nature of his wrongs; he has become entirely ready for God to remove his defects of character. By asking for a blessing; BROKEN, WOUNDED, and EXHAUSTED, the cheater is ready to have God destroy his old self and become a new creation. God gives Jacob a new identity. He becomes Israel, one who wrestles with God. Israel thinks that this is too good to be true. “Is that it? God is your grace so great that a undeserving cheat like me can simply become a new by your proclamation? PLEASE TELL ME YOU’RE NAME! I NEED TO KNOW! ARE YOU REALLY GOD? DO YOU REALLY LOVE ME?” But God has already given Israel all that he needs to know, “Why do you ask my name?” “I AM WHO I AM.” I AM AND YOU KNOW IT. BUT IF I MUST PROVE IT TO YOU THEN HERE, HERE IS YOU BLESSING.” And Israel knows for sure, “I have seen the face of God and lived.” Israel now goes to make amends to those whom he has harmed and carries the message to other.
What lasted one night for Israel, Martin Luther tells us, takes us a life time. Being prepared to have the old self put to death, Luther says, is a daily dying and rising. Today some of you are in the midst of a terrible struggle with yourselves. The law, the devil and the world, are accusing you of your sin. It is convicting you and you feel as though your hip has been wounded. You are limping through the battle. I declare to you that your Lord is with you in this time of struggle! Cling to Him as tightly as you can! Read His word, pray, and talk with other Christians. Not because you can gain the power to bring God to yourself. You cannot. Do these things because today THIS DAY God has said to you, “I HAVE ALREADY GIVEN YOU ALL THAT YOU NEED.” I HAVE GIVEN YOU JESUS CHRIST BROKEN, CRUCIFIED, AND RAISED FROM THE DEAD! FOR YOU!” Amen.