QT 11/17/2025 Gen 32:22-32, Wrestling with God, not with life

Genesis 32:22–32 (ESV) —

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.

 

NOTE: The wrestling match is understood better at the end of the passage. Jacob was left alone and wrestled with God. God's tremendous power is evident in his touching Jacob's hip and putting it out of joint, and that Jacob understood that his life was spared. But God wrestles Jacob at his own strength. Jacob figures it out and realizes that the real blessing in life that he wanted was not what he could scheme or come up with on his own, but it was God's blessing.

 

For myself, it is also a metaphor of a period of time that probably began with Jacob's terrible prayer / vow at Bethuel.

 

Genesis 28:20–22 (ESV) — 20 Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, 21 so that I come again to my father’s house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God, 22 and this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God’s house. And of all that you give me I will give a full tenth to you.”

 

Twenty years later after being out schemed and cheated by Laban, but rescued by God at every point, Jacob's new prayer is different.

 

Genesis 32:26 (ESV) — Then he said, “Let me go, for the day has broken.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”

 

Gone are the deals, just a plea for God's blessing.

 

Twenty years is a long time to learn a lesson. The new name is a reminder to Jacob (as well as the limp) that he was only partially wrestling with Laban but was really wrestling with God.

 

Genesis 32:28 (ESV) — 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.”

 

How did he prevail? He prevailed by giving up. He prevailed by recognizing God in his life. He prevailed by not demanding the things of the world, but rather a relationship with God.

 

PONDER:

1. Am I wresting with God and not realizing it? I think I was a year or two ago.
2. What is the lesson I learned and how am I doing at implementing it?

 

PRAYER: Father, I trust you for the things you are doing. I don't understand them all but I believe you are in control. You will provide, my job is to give to you my worries.