Wrestled With God

 DEVOTION

GENESIS

WRESTLED WITH GOD

Gen 32:22-32

22 That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two maidservants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. 23 After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions. 24 So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. 25 When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob's hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. 26 Then the man said, "Let me go, for it is daybreak." But Jacob replied, "I will not let you go unless you bless me." 27 The man asked him, "What is your name?" "Jacob," he answered. 28 Then the man said, "Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome." 29 Jacob said, "Please tell me your name." But he replied, "Why do you ask my name?" Then he blessed him there. 30 So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, "It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared." 31 The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel, and he was limping because of his hip. 32 Therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the tendon attached to the socket of the hip, because the socket of Jacob's hip was touched near the tendon.

NIV

How does a man wrestle with God? Yet, could it have been Yahweh in human form? Could it be Jesus in human form, yet not fully human, as from a woman? Maybe this man was an angel of the LORD; however, angels do not have the authority to bless people; they are only servants of the Most High God, or act as His messengers. How was Jacob strong enough to hold on to God that He said, "Let me go, for it is daybreak?" Who else can touch a man's hip and dislodge it but God? Who else can change not only a man's name, but his very character? The name Jacob means heel-catcher or supplanter; however, God changed it to Israel, meaning he struggles with God. This is one of those great truths we should consider. We, too, have had our name and character changed. We have been renamed from sinner to saint, from lost to found, from self-reliant to one dependent on God. Jesus changed us from servant to friend.  Jacob asked this man whom he wrestled with what his name was. Why would you, brother, ask God his name, when you knew he was in the presence of the only one who could bless him? The one who could throw his hip out and heal it. The question is whether we ever wrestle with God. What would that look like? Do we have the right to wrestle with God? Because He is sovereign, can we struggle with Him, or do we just submit to his authority like a little helpless sheep? We are told that Jacob advanced and overcame all of Laban's deceptions because the LORD was with him. Yet, here is wrestling with God. We can wrestle with the Lord in prayer. We can seek his face, his blessing, his touch in our lives. Jacob had a physical sign that he had struggled with God, winning yet losing strength. Because of the condition of a man's hip, the very foundation of his strength, if we have a deformed or dislocated hip, we can no longer do certain physical activities. This makes us wonder if we show any signs of having been with the Lord or have wrestled with God over situations. Certainly, our self-reliance has been weakened to the point of being crippled, and the Lord's strength has overshadowed ours. He gives us the right to wrestle with Him until He blesses us.