Jan 23

Part 64: The Glorious Defeat

Todd Pruitt |Series: Genesis |Genesis 32:1-32


The events described in this passage represent yet another turning point in the life of Jacob. His determination to be reconciled to his brother and subsequent encounter with God are revealing moments, both in the life of a human being but also in the history of redemption. Though we will not have the same sort of experience as Jacob did that fateful night by the River Jabbok, we can be sure that we each need to come to the same realization about ourselves, our sin, and our God. The question pressed upon Jacob by the LORD – “Please tell me your name” – was a means by which Jacob was acknowledge the truth of Esau’s angry words so many years before, “

Chapter 32 opens with Jacob setting his face toward reconciliation with his brother Esau. “In Jacob’s pilgrimage, the way to the heights now led through a valley of humiliation which he made no attempt to skirt” (Kidner, 167). Before Jacob meets with God he must first be reconciled to his brother. In this way Jacob enacts the principle Jesus taught so many generations later (Matthew 5:23-25).

That night by the River Jabbok, Jacob trembled with fear of his brother Esau even as he sought the Lord in earnest prayer. Had Esau’s anger against him diminished over the years? Was he still determined to kill Jacob? In the middle of that anxious night God came to Jacob, literally, in the form of a man. This was what theologians refer to as a Christophany, a pre-incarnate appearing of the Son of God. And there, The LORD initiated a physical struggle with Jacob. It is a fascinating and mysterious scene. Like a father wrestling with his 3-year-old child, God allowed Jacob to prevail up until that moment Jacob was ready to yield to necessary defeat. It was the glorious defeat of everything that made Jacob’s name such a fitting label. All Jacob could do was plead for the blessing of God. There was no bargaining, only need and the faith that God was sufficient.

What is true faith, after all, but just that state of mind in Jacob that caused him cling to the Lord and then to say, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” It is what a man says who realizes that he needs nothing but that which only God can give him. It’s been said that, “Christianity is not for the well-meaning, it is for the desperate.” The other religions of the world may well be for the well-meaning, but the infinite-personal God who reveals himself to sinners, he is for those who know themselves to be hopeless without him and who desire nothing beside him.


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