We are looking at some of the prayers recorded in Scripture so that, from the example of other people at prayer, we ourselves may learn more of what it is to pray. In the last of our studies we looked at Abraham praying for Sodom. In this study we shall look at Jacob, and particularly at the incident of Jacob wrestling with a 'man' at the brook 'Jabok'.
Here is one of the Bible's most remarkable pictures of prayer – a man wrestling with God. It is a picture which has inspired several hymns such as Charles Wesley's "Shepherd divine, our wants relieve”, in which he writes,
The spirit of interceding grace
Give us in faith to claim;
To wrestle till we see Thy face
And know thy hidden name.
Till Thou Thy perfect love impart,
Till Thou Thyself bestow,
Be this the cry of every heart,
I will not let Thee go.
I will not let Thee go,
unless Thou tell Thy name to me;
With all thy great salvation bless
And make me all like Thee,
And yet, this is no easy passage to understand. In many ways it would be easier to preach on Jacob at prayer were this incident of the wrestling match not here. In verses 9-12 of Genesis 32 we have a record of Jacob at prayer. As we read Jacob's prayer in those verses there is much which we can learn about prayer. The incident at the brook seems, at first sight, to add little but perplexity. Here is God appearing in human form, and appearing in order to wrestle with Jacob, What does it all mean?
All too often we fail to understand the significance of this incident because we focus upon Jacob wrestling with God. Here, we argue, is an example of prayer as prayer ought to be, wrestling with God for blessing. To view this incident in this way is to miss what is really going on. It is not that Jacob determines to wrestle with God, it is God who appears in human form that he might wrestle with Jacob. Jacob indeed is forced to wrestle, he has no choice, but it is God who initiates the contest and who is in control throughout. This is not a story about Jacob wrestling with God, it is a story about God wrestling with Jacob. What, then, does it mean?
We need to begin by remembering something of Jacob's character. Jacob had been a wrestler all his life; he had been a man who had fought for everything that he had got. Even before he was born he was fighting. His mother, Rebekah received so many kicks and thumps during her pregnancy that she went to inquire of the Lord what was going on. She was told that she was bearing twins and that these would be the fathers of two nations. The twins and the nations would always be fighting one another and the older would serve the younger. Even in the womb Jacob had begun to wrestle for advantage. And it was no different at the birth. Esau was the first to be born, but Jacob’s hand was locked on Esau's heel as he followed after. Even at birth he was ready to fight and to grasp for what he wanted.
And so the story continued. Jacob had been a wrestler, fighting with his brother to gain the upper hand, God had promised him the place of blessing, but it seemed to Jacob that everything was stacked against him: his brother Esau was older, was stronger, and was the favourite of his father. So Jacob had decided to fight for the promise. He bartered with Esau for the birthright, forcing a fainting Esau to sell it to him for a plate of stew. With the help of his mother, Jacob deceived his father and cheated Esau of his father's blessing. He had fought for everything he had got.
But because of his trickery and cheating Jacob had been forced to flee from home: Esau had threatened to kill him. Jacob had fled from home empty handed. And it was there at Bethel, as he fled from Esau, that God had met with Jacob, God had promised to watch over Jacob, to protect him and to bring him safely back to his promised inheritance.
In chapter 32 of Genesis we meet Jacob 20 years on. These had been 20 difficult years in which Jacob had met his match in Laban, another cheating grasper. Laban had cheated Jacob over his wife, giving him Leah in place of the promised daughter Rachel. Laban had been mean and grasping in the contract of labour which he had agreed with Jacob. Jacob had served Laban for 20 years wrestling with him for everything he had got – his wives and his flocks. Jacob had wrestled and, in the end, had not done badly by it.
Now, at God's command, Jacob was returning to his own country; now he was to enter his promised inheritance.
It was as Jacob was returning that something wonderful happened. We read in the opening verses of Genesis 32 of how the angels of God met with him. Jacob called the name of the place Mahanaim, meaning, two camps', He knew that there were two camps going back to the land of promise, one visible and the other invisible: the God of Hosts was going with him. Jacob should have been able to return in peace.
Out Jacob knows that he is going back to Esau and he is afraid that Esau will still be intent on killing him. Jacob therefore sends messengers ahead to see how Esau will react. Soon he learns that Esau is on his way to meet him, and 400 men with him. Jacob is fearful for his life. So he begins his scheming. How can he bargain with Esau for safety; wrestle with Esau to enter his inheritance?
First he divides his company into two groups so that if one group is destroyed the other may survive. Then he turns to God in prayer (verses 9-12). In many ways it is a model prayer, Jacob speaks of the way in which his return has only been in obedience to the word of God and he reminds God of the promises which God has made him. He speaks of God's goodness and grace to him, confessing that God has treated him much better than he deserved. He pleads with God now for safety and blessing, pleading only on the ground that God has spoken. In many ways it is a fine prayer.
But what does Jacob do after he has prayed? Does he rest in God's promises and trust God to look after him? No Jacob now sets about trying to win over Esau by his own craftiness: he is still wrestling with Esau for blessing. He sends five herds of animals ahead as gifts for his brother to soften him up. Then, after these have been sent ahead he sends his family over the brook Jabok and at nightfall he remains alone. No doubt all manner of thoughts are going through his mind: Will my tactics work?" Will I win over brother Esau and be able to enter my inheritance?"
It is here that God met with Jacob (v.24). We are left in no doubt by the text as to who is this 'man’ who stands in Jacob's way and who wrestles with him. God has come to wrestle with Jacob. Jacob wrestles with the 'man' not by choice but by necessity, he must wrestle even if only to be free. All night long these two are locked in combat. Why? What does it all mean?
God is seeking to teach Jacob something. Think about it for a moment. God could have destroyed Jacob in a moment if had wished to. It is not a contest to see who is the strongest or most persistent. If God permitted Jacob to hold his ground and even to feel for a time that he was doing well it was because God wanted it to be that way. He was seeking to teach Jacob something. And the lesson was not to be found in the night of wrestling but with the dawn.
God permitted Jacob to feel that he had the upper hand, but then, as dawn was breaking, God touched Jacob's hip and Jacob is lame. Now the whole nature of the contest is changed. Can you imagine it? Jacob can no longer walk properly, let alone wrestle. But still he holds on and will not let go – not wrestling now but clinging. Here is a different Jacob. He is no longer the man who can demand a blessing because he has the upper hand – like a highwayman demanding money at the point of a gun. Here is a different Jacob. In his helplessness he clings and pleads, "I will not let you go unless you bless me.' it is the cry of one who is helpless and powerless and who knows that he can be destroyed in a moment yet who clings and pleads for blessing from the Almighty God.
This is the great lesson of this incident. It is not that Jacob wrestled with God and came out top. The lesson is this, that God wrestled with Jacob and God broke the power of Jacob so that he could wrestle no more but only cling and cry, Jacob left this encounter a changed man, a lame man whose wrestling days were over. He had been forced to learn his own helplessness: that if he would obtain the inheritance it would not be because he had wrestled it from the hand of Esau; it would not be because he had wrestled it from the hand of God; it would be because, in his helplessness, God had blessed him.
What is the lesson for us in all of this? It is not difficult for us to fall into a wrong view of prayer. We argue that we need to wrestle with God in prayer if we want to see blessing. In one sense this is true but it can be made into an untruth. All too easily we can turn the focus upon our own effort and our own wrestlings. We argue that if only we will fast, if only we will cry out to God again and again, if only we would weep, surely we would obtain blessing from God. None of these things is wrong. All of them ought to have some place in our prayer life. But these kinds of argument can feed a wrong view of prayer and a wrong view of God. It is almost as though we are saying that we must wrestle with an inattentive and reluctant God, fighting to get him to notice us and to loosen his grip on blessings which he is reluctant to give.
We need to learn from this chapter that true, effective, prevailing prayer begins when God comes and wrestles with us: when he comes by his Spirit to deal with our hearts and our consciences and to break down our self-confidence. He comes to shatter any presumption that we can win blessing from his hand. He breaks us and makes us to know our utter powerlessness and brings us to the point where we can only cling to him and call upon him to bless. This is true prayer: a cry which proceeds from our weakness and not from our strength.
Let me apply this to the matter of salvation. There is a heaven to be gained and a hell to escape. Many would want to wrestle with God for heaven. They imagine that, at death, when they appear before God, they can strike a bargain with God and wrestle with him for a place in glory: 'Lord, I have done this... "Lord, I have done that ..." People who think like that simply do not know God; they have never had an encounter with the Living God. When God deals with men and women by his Holy Spirit he is the one who comes to wrestle with us and to break down all of our defences. He comes to rob us of our strength and to leave us without arguments, knowing our helplessness in his presence and that we are utterly without hope unless, in mercy, he should bless us.
Have you known God dealing with you in this way?
Having shown us our helplessness, God brings us to the cross of Christ and shows us that here is hope for the hopeless. He brings us to the point where we cling to him and cry to him:
Nothing in my hand I bring,
Simply to Thy cross I cling:
Naked, come to Thee for dress;
Helpless, look to Thee for grace;
Foul, I to the fountain fly:
Wash me, Saviour, or I die!
I do not ask whether you have wrestled with God, but whether God has wrestled with you? Has he broken your self-confidence and brought you to the foot of the cross to cling and to cry for a blessing you can never earn or even demand?
And this principle applies equally to the child of God. The temptation is for us to come to God in prayer and feel that we can wrestle blessing from his hand by the urgency of our praying, by the quantity of our tears or the urgency of our cries. Now it is quite true that we do need to be those who are earnest in prayer and who do not give up easily but are persistent in prayer. But we must never think that we have to wrestle blessing from the hand of God by the might of our prayers. God would have us know our weakness rather than have us look for strength in ourselves.
The times of prayer which are most precious to the Christian are not those times when we have earnestly wrestled with God. The times of prayer which are the most precious of all are those times when we have known God wrestling with us, breaking us and humbling us and causing us to know our helplessness but then showing us that it is when we are weak, then we are strong.
O for more limping Christians, those whose lives are marked by the touch of God. Such Christians are all too rare.
Peter Misselbrook