Who did Jacob wrestle with all night? In Genesis 32:22-32, Jacob wrestles a mysterious "Man" through the night and walks away with a limp and a new name. Dr. Toby Holt explains this strange and pivotal encounter.

Returning home after twenty years, Jacob is terrified of meeting Esau. Left alone at the river, he wrestles until daybreak with One he realizes is God Himself — a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ. He clings to Him: "I will not let You go unless You bless me." God touches his hip and renames him Israel.

Questions this study answers:

1. Who did Jacob wrestle with? Not an ordinary man, but God Himself appearing in human form. Jacob said he had seen God face to face.

2. What was the point of the wrestling match? To break Jacob's self-reliance and bring him to cling to God for blessing. He stopped fighting God and started holding on to Him.

3. How was Jacob changed? He received a new name, Israel, and a permanent limp. He left the encounter humbled and transformed.

"I will not let You go unless You bless me!" — Genesis 32:26 (NKJV)

Dr. Toby Holt is President of New Geneva Theological Seminary, and his sermons have been downloaded more than 1.9 million times on SermonAudio. Find more verse-by-verse Bible teaching at newgeneva.org; support this ministry at newgeneva.org/give.

In Genesis 32, Jacob was preparing for a fight.

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Over the years, he'd angered a number of powerful people,

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including his own brother Esau.

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And now, alone in the dark,

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he thought a final battle with Esau was approaching.

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However, it was a different figure who he met in the dark,

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a figure that he wrestled with all night long.

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So who was this mysterious individual?

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And what's this chapter all about?

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That will be the focus of today's study.

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In Genesis 32, Jacob fully expected to fight someone.

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As this chapter opens, you have this man named Jacob, the scoundrel of a man,

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and he 100% expects a fight on his horizon.

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In fact, if you were to look at Jacob's life up to this point,

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his entire life up to this point was one fight, one contention,

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one bit of animosity after another, after another, after another.

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Everyone, everyone except his mother, everyone else that he encountered in all the chapters before us,

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There's antagonism and animosity.

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It started in the womb.

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What do we read about with regards to Jacob's birth?

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Well, Jacob was a twin.

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His brother was who?

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His brother was Esau.

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Jacob and Esau.

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And what we see in the text is that the mother,

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the mother, Rebekah, was so anxious about having the twins,

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anxious that they seemed to be literally at war within her,

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which indeed they were.

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And she brings the question to God, what's going on?

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Why do I feel this way?

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What is taking place?

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This can't be normal.

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And God says, this is, in fact, a battle that's being waged,

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and it's a battle that's going to continue.

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You have two nations in your womb, and they will forever be at odds with one another.

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And sure enough, the moment that these twins are born, who is born first?

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Esau.

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Jacob followed, but Jacob, when he followed, even from the womb, he had grasp of Esau's heel.

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He had grasp of the heel of his brother, which is what the word Jacob even means.

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He's a heel grabber.

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With that said, from the womb forward, Jacob's story is that of animosity and friction.

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It's also the story of a rat, of a scoundrel, of a swindler,

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one who steals birthrights, one who steals blessings, one who fools his father.

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And more recently, it wasn't just fooling his father,

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it wasn't just deceiving his dad to think that he was someone else, which he did.

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But after that, he flees and he goes to Uncle Laban's place,

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and Uncle Laban was also kind of a scoundrel,

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but he goes to Uncle Laban's place, and then his relationship with Laban is also strained.

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Now that's in large part due to Laban's own sinful issues.

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Nevertheless, in the chapters just preceding today's text in Genesis 32,

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we see that after spending some time in Haran, after spending time at Uncle Laban's place,

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after 20 years there, after marrying two wives, Rachel and Leah,

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and after having all these children, it's time to return home.

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But he doesn't return home on great terms with Laban.

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Laban sends out troops after him.

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Now they make some peace. God stays Laban's anger with Jacob.

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Jacob is sustained, and yet Laban, for what it's worth, was not the person on this earth that

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Jacob feared the most. The person Jacob feared the most is the person Jacob fully expected to

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fight with in Genesis 32. The person Jacob feared the most was his brother Esau. And the reason why

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is because before he departed, after stealing his brother's birthright, after stealing his

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brother's blessing, after departing, Esau had sworn vengeance. He was determined to kill his

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brother Jacob for what Jacob had done. And Jacob knew it. And because of that, in the time since,

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after Esau swore to kill Jacob in Genesis 27, after Laban's troops pursued him in Genesis 31,

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Jacob at this point, he's returning home, but he's returning home with great trepidation because he

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knows he's made enemies. One of them, Esau, he fears is going to come for him, which in fact is

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exactly what was happening in a sense. Esau's troops were very close. And as Esau's troops are

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close, and as Jacob knows he can't avoid this fight that he expects to have with Esau, he

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determines that he's going to try to make peace with Esau in advance of any possible fight. And

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so in the previous chapter, in chapter 30, 31, what you see is that he begins to send gifts. He

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sends gifts to Esau. He sends him all manner of things. In the first part of chapter 32, he says,

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all right let's we gotta appease the wrath of my brother and so he sends wave after wave and gift

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after gift and the people who delivered the gifts were supposed to tell him these are from your

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servant jacob to isa so he tries to assuage the wrath of his brother and the verses leading up

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to today's text but he's worried he thinks to himself you know i've tried to give him all sorts

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of stuff wave after wave of gift after gift money and mules and all these different things but he

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probably still hates me. He probably still wants to kill me. And so what I'll do, he thinks to

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himself, is I can't avoid this encounter on some level. I know it's been coming for decades.

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I can't avoid it. But what I can try to do is to survive it. And I'll try to survive it by splitting

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my people, my belongings into two groups because he can't kill all of us. So that's what he does.

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He says, all right, some of you will go over here and some of you will go over here. But then,

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then he and his family separate. Because again, the idea is that he's trying to preserve that

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which is most precious to himself. When Esau's wrath comes, he is trying to look after those

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around him. With that said, ultimately, what we see in the text that we're looking at this morning,

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starting in verse 22, what we're going to see is that he's going to be left with his wives and his

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servants and his sons, and then he's going to take even them, and he's going to send them across

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the brook, and it's going to be Jacob by himself expecting a fight. But with who? Well, the answer

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is not going to be the answer that Jacob expected. Let's pick up this text again. Let's look at

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verses 22 through 24 to see what's going to happen in the night, to see what's going to happen

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in the darkness. Chapter 32, verses 22 through 24. And so Jacob arose that night, and he took his

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two wives, his two female servants, and his 11 sons, and he crossed over the fort of Shabbat.

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And he took them, he sent them over the brook, and he sent over what he had. This is the equivalent

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into, you know, take my car keys, take my phone, take, just take everything. He sends them with

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everything that he's got. Verse 24, that Jacob was left alone, and a man, capital M, a man wrestled

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with him until the breaking of the day. All right, as we said a few moments ago, Jacob was expecting

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a fight. He was expecting a clash. He was expecting a battle. He was expecting a battle royale with

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somebody, but the somebody in his mind was his brother. He thought that was around the bend.

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it was imminent and he had done everything he could to isolate everyone else in his group

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from that wrath that it might be more singularly aimed or directed towards him so verse 22 he's

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trying to protect his family from Esau's murderous approach wherever Esau might be but then in the

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dark when he's all by himself there in the dark he's waiting he knows that his lifelong nemesis

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will be coming for him he doesn't know what's going to happen that night he doesn't know exactly

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when it's going to happen but as he's alone as he's anticipating this there in the dark one does

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come for him. There in the dark one does come for him and lay hands upon him. But he has no idea who

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this is. And here in verse 24, it's only identified as a man, capital M. Who is this man? And who and

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why would he be wrestling with him? Well, let's look at the next verses and try to determine what's

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going on here. Verse 25 and 26. Now, when he, when this man saw that he did not prevail against him,

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meaning Jacob, he touched the socket of Jacob's hip and the socket of Jacob's hip was out of joint

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as he wrestled with him. And he said, he said, let me go for the day breaks. But he said, meaning

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Jacob, I will not let you go unless, unless you bless me. All right. At a certain point, Jacob

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realized a couple of things. Remember, Esau had been the only thing on his mind. He'd been

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wrestling with Jacob in his mind and figuring out what's going to go on in the future with him,

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whether he's going to survive it, how to scheme and plot. Remember all the scheming he did earlier

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in his life, what we studied in the past few weeks, all the scheming, he's still doing it

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when he's trying to figure out a way to get around the wrath of Esau. With that said, there in the

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dark, someone comes out of the shadows and begins to wrestle with him. He's only identified here as

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a man. And initially, Jacob had no idea who this was. He knew it probably wasn't Esau. He'd wrestled

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with Esau before. He knew of Esau techniques and takedowns. He understood that this was not Esau,

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but that left him even more confused. If it's not Esau that's wrestling with me in the dark,

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who is this guy? Well, pretty quickly he discovers this is not an ordinary individual.

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Whether it was the manner of the wrestling itself or other things during that encounter that went

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on for hours and hours in the darkness, he realized this is not Esau and this is no man

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whatsoever. Now let's stop here for a moment. Jacob had encountered God before. Jacob had

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encountered God in the ladder. Remember we talked about this last week. He has this vision. He's

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sleeping. There's a rock for his pillow. He goes to sleep and he has a vision of a ladder that's

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coming down from heaven with angels going up and down upon it. And God is at the top of the ladder

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and he speaks to Jacob. Remember all this? Jacob had had brushes with the supernatural. He'd had

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brushes with divinity and in some way here in the darkness he begins to realize that the one i'm

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wrestling with is of divine origins supernatural origins and we know that because because he asked

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him to bless him this is what we call a christophany for those unfamiliar with it the story of jesus

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christ does not begin in the book of matthew sometimes people in our culture think well the

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old testament's that you know angry god of the old testament but then we get to the book of matthew

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and you get loving, graceful God as we find him in the personal work of Jesus.

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So some people think that Jesus' story begins in a manger in the book of Matthew.

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Well, wrong.

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It continues in a manger in the red letters in the book of Matthew,

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but it begins in Genesis, inclusive of Genesis 32.

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What we believe here in Genesis chapter 32 is that Jacob is wrestling with Christ.

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He's not wrestling with the Father. He's not wrestling with the Spirit.

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He's wrestling with Christ.

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And as we've said before, Christ shows up a lot in the Old Testament.

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it started in the garden of Eden you have the garden of Eden you have Adam and Eve and they're

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in the garden and they're frolicking before the fall they're having a grand old time and we read

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that God would come and talk with them in the cool of the afternoon that's how they knew his

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footsteps when he approached them after they'd sinned they knew his footsteps because they knew

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what it was like for him to come talk with them now who came and talked with Adam and Eve in the

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garden well it was God we know that much but specifically it was Christ it was the son of God

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who talked with him just as he would talk with others down the road.

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When we talked about Abraham, remember Jesus shows up with two angels

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and they talk about events of Sodom, Gomorrah, and the like.

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Jesus shows up a lot in the Old Testament,

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several times just so far in the book of Genesis.

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Well, here on some level, although his theology was not fully rounded,

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on some level, Jacob figured out this one,

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this guy that I'm wrestling with that seems to have a never-ending repository of energy,

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this one is him.

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This one is divine.

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And so what happens, what appears to have happened,

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at one point they're wrestling, and he's probably wrestling for his life initially,

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but at a different point his wrestling changes.

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He's no longer fighting against this figure, fighting against God, so to speak.

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He's no longer doing that.

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At this point he's contending because he wants something from God.

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What does he want?

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Well, he tells him he wants a blessing.

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At one point he'd been fighting against God in order to try to overcome him.

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There in the darkness, as all rebels do at one point.

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You at one point were fighting against God.

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but in this case something changes and now it's a desire to get something to attain something

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specifically a blessing you know over the years we've adopted these dogs in our backyard and

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they're kind of angry formidable looking two dogs if you want them they're yours just come talk to

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me i got these two dogs in the backyard we adopted they were strays they're a mix of angry looking

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breeds and they look you know they look like these angry looking dogs and i have no doubt

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whatsoever that if someone were to come into our backyard with malfeasance in the wind, that these

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dogs would take after them. I have no doubt about that whatsoever. These dogs, that's their temperament.

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They're fighters. They would fight. So don't come over unexpectedly. With that said, you know what

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happens when I go back and visit with them? Well, they still jump and they still want to wrestle and

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play, but it's different. They want something from me. They want my attention. They want me to pet

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them. They want any number of things. They want the treats I've got. Whatever the case is, it's not

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fighting to overcome me. It's fighting because they desire something from me. Well, it may be

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the world's worst anecdote, but it's what comes to mind when I think of this. I think of Jacob.

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I think at one point he's fighting to overcome, to defeat this enemy. Someone came at me in the

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dark. But then, then something changes and he desires something. I will not let go unless you

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bless me. And so that's what he says. Now, before we get onto this blessing in our next verses,

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let me ask you a question. Why would God come to wrestle with Jacob to begin with?

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Why this? Why does God do this? He didn't do this with everyone. When he came to Moses,

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it wasn't, let's go wrestle on Sinai. No, nothing like it. It was a burning bush. It was different.

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When God came to Joshua as the captain of the Lord's army, he came to people in different

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ways and different seasons. But here he comes as a wrestler. Why? Well, let's see a hint as to why

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as we look at our next verses. Let's look at verses 27 through 29. And so he, meaning God,

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Christ, said to him, what's your name? He knew the name. And Jacob responded, it's me, it's

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Jacob. And verse 28, and he said, your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel. You'll no

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longer be called heel grabber, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have

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prevailed, which is what Israel means. Verse 29, then Jacob asked, saying, tell me your name,

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I pray. Remember, he wants something good. He wants something positive from this one. Tell me

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your name, I pray. He says, why is it that you ask my name? And then he blessed him there.

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You know, fighting with God is not the most unusual thing in the Bible. The Bible is chalk-filled to

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people who are fighting with God. Chalk-filled. What's the story of Pharaoh? The story of Pharaoh

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is of a king among men, a ruler among nations, a giant towering individual, Pharaoh, fighting

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against God. God says, let my people go. Pharaoh says, no deal, no dice. And God says, here come

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the plagues. And Pharaoh says, I can stand against them. And so he attempts to. Plague after plague

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comes, and Pharaoh just hardens his heart, grinds on his heels, contends against God, like, man,

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shaking his fist at the clouds. This is Pharaoh fighting against God. Now, how did that turn out

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for pharaoh well not so well you remember the story the red sea you know sweeps away his chariots

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sweeps away his people pharaoh dies goes to hell pharaoh's story is not a good one what about

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goliath totally there's a lot of people that fight against god or blaspheme god or fight against his

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people or kill his people in the bible we could come up with a lot of this but how about goliath

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goliath this is a towering man this giant beast among men and he blasphemes the god of israel

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and he blasphemes them from a point of such strength and such authority that no one among

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to see Israelites, dares to lift a finger to go mess with this guy. Well, how did things turn out

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for Goliath? Well, it didn't turn out well. God sends one shepherd boy with a rock, and he's dead

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moments later. The point is, there's all manner of people. Herod, we could come up with this

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laundry list of villains, this rogue gallery of people who fought against God throughout the

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course of Scripture. Scripture is littered with God's enemies. It's a virtual boneyard of people

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who fought against god and died in their sins so it's not surprising that people would fight

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against god in this book it happens all the time what is surprising is that jacob wrestled jacob

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fought with god so to speak and seemed to prevail in fact that's the word that's used

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god says your name shall no longer be jacob but israel for you have struggled with god and with

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men and have prevailed now what in the world how do you prevail against god let me step back for a

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stolen and say, was his power and his authority greater than God's? No. Is he a better wrestler

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than Jesus? No, nothing like that. All Jesus had to do, just touch his hip and it was over, right?

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So it wasn't a function of that. And yet there was a sense in which he rested, rested something

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from God, which was his blessing. Have you ever wrestled with God in prayer? I hope so. And here's

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the thing, God wants you to. God wants you to come to him with your hurts and with your angst and

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with your baggage and with your hardship and with your scar tissue and all that and lay it before

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him. He wants you to wrestle with him, so to speak, in prayer. Not with the idea that you're

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going to boot him from his throne. That's not going to happen. But he absolutely wants you to

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wrestle with him in prayer. He wants you to take your hardships and your angst and lay it before

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him. He's okay with that. You can come to him with your heartache and your hurts. The prophets did

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this all the time. They regularly came to God and said, God, I don't get this and I don't like this

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and I don't know what's going on. I don't know why you'd permit this, why you'd allow such a thing.

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I know you're big and powerful and you're in charge, and yet I can't explain how then a good,

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loving, providential God would allow this hardship to happen, or why you would let your people go

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crazy, or allow your own temple to be ransacked, why you would allow this stuff to happen. I don't

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get it and I don't like it. The prophets wrestled with God all the time. It wasn't with the intention

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of kicking him off his throne. Rather, it was taking the heartaches and hardships and all the

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things that they were feeling and bringing it to him and struggling for the outcome, seeking his

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blessing at the end of it. That's the sort of wrestling God's just fine with. That's the sort

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of wrestling that we see here. What's happening in Genesis 32 is something that desperately needed

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to happen to Jacob. Most all theologians in the Reformed tradition believe that this is the moment,

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this is the time when he was converted. It wasn't even when he saw the ladder, you know, when God

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spoke to him from there. It wasn't all the decades previous. It was here. This one man, this one

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scoundrel, this one swindler, this one rat went from one who was fighting against men, earning

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every bit of friction that he had attained up to this point, but also fighting against God. He was

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trying to upend God's plan. He had already told him you'll get the blessing and told his mother

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you'll get the blessing. You'll get the blessing, don't worry about it. And he says, you're not doing

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it on my timeline, so I'm going to go swindle my old man out of it. Don't ever think you can help

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God in that sense, that you can somehow, you know, he's not doing things fast enough in a way you

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need to. So you'll sin in order to help him get to A to B faster. That's what Abraham did with

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Hagar, right? You promised me a kid. There's no kid yet. Maybe instead of having a kid with Sarah,

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who you said it would be through, we'll try out Hagar and see if that works. Don't get in the

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business of thinking you're going to help God through sin. Jacob had done that. He had tried

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all manner of shortcuts and workarounds to attain his end. He'd wrestled against God's will, against

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God's decree, even against God himself. But here, something changes, possibly when he's touched,

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possibly when he's touched. And at this point, something happens to him. He's no longer wrestling

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with the intention of dominating God or kicking him off his throne, but rather in order to wrest

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the blessing and even the name and encounter the knowledge of God. Wrestling with God in order to

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know him better, that's the sort of wrestling God's just fine with. That's what Jacob does.

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But notice it comes after the way they see this touch.

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What's that all about?

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What's that all about?

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If you seek an encounter with God, or more to the point, if God seeks an encounter with you,

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it'll oftentimes come with a touch or something that will happen to you that will leave you changed,

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maybe not in a way that you desired prior to the encounter.

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Sometimes God must wound us in order to save us.

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God knocked Paul off his horse, put blinds on his eyes, changed him from solitarsis

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into the Apostle Paul. Is it the way that Paul would have desired or scripted for himself? Not

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necessarily, but God comes for us in ways we don't necessarily see. And sometimes the scar tissue on

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our life, sometimes the baggage, sometimes the sins, sometimes that which we are doing

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needs to be fractured in a way that leaves us very different than before he entered our lives.

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Whatever the case is, God touches him, leaves him an outward sign of his dependence,

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upon God, his need for God. He touches him, and he's changed thereafter. So that's what we see

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there in verses 27 through 29. He's been touched. He now will receive the blessing. He will now

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learn the name of this one. Let's look at our last verses now, verses 30 through 32.

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So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel. He said, I've seen God face to face, and my life is

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preserved. And just as he crossed over Penuel, the sun rose on him, and he limped on his hip.

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Therefore, to this day, the children of Israel do not eat the muscle that shrank, which is on the

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hip socket, because he touched the socket of Jacob's hip and the muscle that shrank.

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All right, verses 30 through 32, daybreak has come. Jacob is now different than the man

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in the darkness. Jacob is now different. If anyone was to see Jacob at this point,

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And just even to see him walk, they would know he had had some sort of encounter that night.

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Jacob is now different in verses 30 through 32.

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And as I said earlier, most scholars believe that he was converted, that he was changed.

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Spiritually speaking, he was a new man.

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His heart had been dead.

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He had been dead in his sins and trespasses.

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He had been doing all manner of things wrong.

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He had been wrestling and fighting and contending against God.

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He was a rebel in God's eyes.

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And yet God came to him, not to Esau.

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God came to Jacob and he changed him.

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He changed his heart.

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He touched his hip.

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His whole life was different from there forward.

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We said it last week, and I said it in Sunday school class this morning,

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but it bears repeating since we're focusing on Jacob and Esau.

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The proof that God loved Jacob but not Esau.

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The proof that Paul was right when he said,

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Jacob I have loved and Esau I have hated.

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The proof that all that's legitimate is what God does with Jacob.

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Jacob had been a scoundrel and a rat and a swindler,

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and he had angered everybody in the world around him.

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From uncles to brothers, people you would think would be on his side.

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He had managed to have this relationship of animosity with just people, let alone with a holy God.

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Jacob was a rat. He was a scoundrel. He deserved death. He deserved all of that.

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If the wrath of God had been poured out upon Jacob, he would have earned every drop of it.

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And yet, from the womb, God had told Rebekah, the mother, I'm choosing this one.

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Before they had done right or wrong, before they had done good or evil,

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God said, I will choose the one and not the other.

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I will choose the younger and not the older. I will choose the Jacob, not the Esau.

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Jacob I have loved, Esau I have hated.

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And the proof of his love for Jacob,

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well, we see it here in verses 30 through 32.

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We see it in chapter 32.

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The proof of his love for Jacob is that he pursued Jacob.

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Jacob wasn't looking for God in the conventional sense,

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in the traditional sense, in the spiritual sense,

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in the right sense.

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He might have wanted God's, the handouts.

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Everyone wants God's handouts.

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Few want God, which is why everyone want heaven.

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They just don't want him to be there when they get there.

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Jacob had a very temporal view of what he wanted.

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from God. And he had done all manner of things wrong. Yet God comes though. He disciplines Jacob,

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not just here, but across the balance of his days. God shapes Jacob. God disciplines. He pursues him.

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He wrestles with him. He does all manner of things in order to refine Jacob and to make him a man

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that at the day of his death was better than the day he was born. To make a man who at the day of

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his death was better than the night he wrestled with him. God chose Jacob. He wrestled with him.

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He disciplined him. He followed him. He was with him all the days of his life. That's the evidence

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he loved Jacob. He disciplined him. He pursued him as a father does. What is the proof he hated Esau?

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He cut the rope on Esau. He let Esau be Esau. Esau died. There's no evidence whatsoever in

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scripture, not a drop, not a lick, not a dot, not an iota, that God ever pursued Esau, that God ever

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wrestled with Esau. He let Esau do Esau things. Esau got famous and wealthy and all that,

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Died and went to hell.

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That's the story of Esau.

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But the story of Jacob is altogether different.

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And here in Genesis 32, here, wrestling in the dark,

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we see that God of his volition came down to wrestle,

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to touch, and to set on the right path

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this very wayward son.

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This morning, it goes without saying,

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at one point, you were Jacob.

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At one point, you were the Jacob of Genesis 31.

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At one point, you were the Jacob who was a swindler

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and a rat and all manner of other things. Not everyone might see that stuff in you, but God

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knows every thought you've ever thought, every deed you've ever done. God knows it all. At one

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point, you were fully deserving of his wrath. At one point, you were actually the Esau in the story.

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At one point, you're outside, outside of the kingdom of God. And yet, God looked down upon you

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and said, Jacob, I have loved. At one point, if you're a believer this morning, if you're a son

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or daughter of God, it's because of this. God looked down upon you before you were even born

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and said, this one is mine. And in due time, I will not only call and not only regenerate this

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one, but I will sanctify this one. He who started a good work will finish it. And this morning,

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if you sense his discipline, if you sense his leading, if you sense his guidance, if you sense

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your conscience, sometimes we think the conscience is just some thing in us, some ethereal, like we

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have this gland in the back that tells us what's right or wrong. No, the Holy Spirit is leading us

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and convicting us and directing us. And if you're a child of God, the Holy Spirit continues to do so

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even more so as you get older. He who started to repent in the times past, the proof that you're

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saved now as you continue to repent, and even more so. Not perfectly, not flawlessly, not without

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sins. Yet he who started this good work will finish it. The story of Jacob is the story of one that

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God loved. But because he loved him, not in spite of that love, because he loved him, he allowed

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things to happen in Jacob's life, from his hip now being permanently changed, to any number of other

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things that occurred. He allowed things into Jacob's life that were part of his forming,

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his character. If he loves you this morning, he will discipline you. If he loves you this morning,

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he will touch the hip, so to speak, in some way. It might be unique to you, but in some way he will

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touch your life. He'll leave an impact. And the good news is that after he has done so, he does

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not just depart into the clouds, but he stays with you every step of the way. Jacob, I love the

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evidence of that is not only the discipline, but the fact he would hold Jacob's hand right up to

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the very end and beyond. This morning, that's our hope. Our hope's not our own strength. Our hope's

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not our own virtue. Our hope is that God, out of his grace and mercy and patience and forbearance

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for we who are sinners, has not only saved us from sin's condemnation, but even now is seeking

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to save us from sin's corruption and pollution in our lives. This morning, dear heavens,

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yield to it if you have not yet. Let's pray.