Genesis 32

CHAPTER 32THEME: Crisis in the life of Jacob; wrestling at Peniel; Jacob’s name changed to IsraelChapter 32 is the high point in the life of Jacob and can be called the turning point in his life. However, this is not Jacob’s conversion, by any means. In spite of the fact that he was living in the flesh, this man was still God’s man. This is the reason that we are told to be very careful about judging folk as to whether they are Christians or not. There are a lot of people who do not look like they are Christians, but I am almost sure that they are. Whether they are or not is in the hands of the Lord.

They just don’t act like Christiansthat’s all; they give no evidence that they are. And this man Jacob gave no such evidence, except in very faint instances when God appeared to him and he did respond in a way. Jacob, who is God’s representative and witness in the world, has been a bad witness, but he cannot continue that way, and so God is going to deal with him. To tell the truth, God will cripple him in order to get him. The Lord also disciplines us: “For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth …” (Heb_12:6). That is His method. He disciplines in that way. Lot also did not look like he was a child of Godbut he was, for Peter says that Lot “vexed his righteous soul” (see 2Pe_2:7-8).

But I tell you, Lot certainly was put through the fire. He escaped the fire of Sodom and Gomorrah, but the Lord put him through the fires of testing. This is Jacob’s experience also. He got his college degree at the college of hard knocks. Uncle Laban was president and dean of the school. At graduation, this boy Jacob gave a pitiful valedictorian address.

It took him twenty years to get his degree, and he certainly worked for it. Old Laban changed the requirements ten times. Every two years, Jacob had a new contract with Uncle Laban, and it was always to Jacob’s disadvantage. This was the experience of this man. We come now to this test in which God is going to have to deal with Jacob because he is going to represent God. God will deal with him and will move in on him in this thirty-second chapter. At the beginning, I would like to write this verse of Scripture over this chapter: “He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength” (Isa_40:29). This is the experience of Jacob.

Genesis 32:1

CRISIS IN THE LIFE OF JACOBGod is beginning to deal with Jacob directly in order to bring him into the place of fruit bearing and of real, vital service and witness for Him.

Genesis 32:3

This fellow Jacob is still clever, isn’t he? He just cannot let go, even after his experience with Laban. He is returning back to the land, and he remembers the last time he saw Esau twenty years ago, when Esau was breathing out threatenings against him. Notice that Jacob sends servants and instructs them, saying, “When you get to Esau my brother, say to him, ‘My lord Esau.’” Of all things! And then he has them refer to himself as “Thy servant Jacob.” That’s not the way Jacob had spoken before. He had manipulated for the birthright and had stolen the blessing. He had been a rascal, but now his talk is different. I guess he had learned a few things from Uncle Laban. “My lord Esau …thy servant Jacob.”

Genesis 32:6

This message absolutely frightened poor Jacob because he didn’t know what all that meant. Esau did not indicate his intentions to the servants at all. I suppose that Jacob quizzed them rather thoroughly and said, “Did you detect any note of animosity or bitterness or hatred toward me?” And I suppose that one of the servants said, “No, he seemed to be glad to get the information that you were coming to meet him, and now he’s coming to meet you.” But the fact that Esau appeared glad was no comfort to Jacob. It could mean that Esau would be glad for the opportunity of getting revenge. Anyway, poor Jacob is upset.

Genesis 32:7

Jacob is in a bad way, he thinks. With this brother of his coming to him, he divides up his group. He is being clever. He reasons that if his brother strikes one group, then the other one can escape. Notice what Jacob does now. He appeals to God in his distress:

Genesis 32:9

This man now appeals to God and cries out to Him on the basis that He is the God of his father Abraham and the God of his father Isaac. I begin now to detect a little change in Jacob’s life. This is the first time I have ever heard him say, “I am not worthy of the least of thy mercies.” For the first time, he is acknowledging that he might be a sinner in God’s sight. Do you know that there are a great many “Christians” who do not acknowledge that they are sinners? For years I knew a man who was incensed that I would indicate that he was a sinner. He told me all that he had done and that he had been saved and now was not a sinner.

My friend, he is a sinner. We are all sinners, saved by grace. As long as we are in this life, we have that old nature that isn’t even fit to go to heaven. And do you know that God is not going to let it go to heaven? Vernon McGee cannot go there. That is the reason God had to give me a new nature; the old one wasn’t even fit to repair.

This fellow Jacob is beginning now to say that he is not worthy. When any man begins to move toward God on that basis, he will find that God will communicate with him. Jacob makes this very interesting statement: “for with my staff I passed over this Jordan; and now I am become two bands.” He went over the Jordan with just his walking stick, his staffthat’s all he had. Now he is coming back, and he has become two companies. This is Jacob for you.

Genesis 32:11

Jacob really cried out to God. That night was a very difficult night for him, and he didn’t have any aspirins he could take.

Genesis 32:13

Jacob is pretty generous with his stock now.

Genesis 32:16

This is Jacob’s tactic. He will send out a drove, a very rich gift, for his brother, and when that first drove arrives, Esau will say, “What is this?” The servants will reply, “We are bringing you a gift from your brother Jacob.” Esau will receive that gift and then ride on a little farther to meet another drove of the same size. He will ask the servants, “Where are you going?” They will say, “We’re going to meet Esau with a gift from his brother Jacob.” And he will say, “I am Esau.” Believe me, by the time Esau gets down where Jacob and the family are, he will be softened. Jacob has prayed to God and has reminded the Lord, “You told me to return to my country. You said You would protect me.” But does he believe God? No. He goes right ahead and makes these arrangements, which reveals that he isn’t trusting God at all. I am afraid that we are often in the same position. Many of us take our burdens to the Lord in prayer. We just spread them out before HimI do that. Then when we get through praying, we get right up and put each little burden right back on our back and start out again with them. We don’t really believe Him, do we? We don’t really trust Him as we should.

Genesis 32:17

Esau will be met by one drove after another like that. This is the plan that Jacob is working on.

Genesis 32:21

This is the night of the great experience in Jacob’s life. The land where he crossed the Brook Jabbok is very desolate. When I was there, I purposely got away from my group and took a walk across the bridge that is there today. The United States built a very lovely road through that area for the Hashimite Kingdom of Jordan. There are several things in that area which you would not be able to see if there wasn’t that good road, because it is quite a wilderness area. I took pictures of sheep that were drinking down at the Brook Jabbok.

The crossing there is a very bleak place, right down between two hills, in that very mountainous and very rugged country. Here is where Jacob came that night. He is not a happy man, and he is filled with fear and doubts. You see, chickens are coming home to roost. He had mistreated Esau. God had never told him to get the birthright or the blessing in the way he did it.

God would have gotten it for him. That night Jacob sends all that he has across the Brook Jabbok, but he stays on the other side so that, if his brother Esau comes, he might kill Jacob but spare the family. And so Jacob is left alone.

Genesis 32:24

WRESTLING AT PENIELThere are several things I would like to get straight as we come to this wrestling match. I have heard it said that Jacob did the wrestling. Actually, Jacob didn’t want to wrestle anybody. He has Uncle Laban in back of him who doesn’t mean good at all, and he has his brother Esau ahead of him. Jacob is no match for either one. He is caught now between a rock and a hard place, and he doesn’t know which way to turn. Do you think he wanted to take on a third opponent that night? I don’t think so. Years ago Time magazine, reporting in the sports section concerning the votes for the greatest wrestler, said that not a vote went to the most famous athlete in history, wrestling Jacob. Lo and behold, the magazine received a letter from someone who wrote asking them to tell something about this wrestler Jacob. The writer of the letter had never heard of him before! And evidently he had never read his Bible at all. Jacob is no wrestlerlet’s make that very clear here at the beginning. That night he was alone because he wanted to be alone, and he wasn’t looking for a fight. This is the question: Who is this one who wrestled with Jacob that night? There has been a great deal of speculation about who it is, but I think He is none other than the preincarnate Christ. There is some evidence for this in the prophecy of Hosea: “Ephraim feedeth on wind, and followeth after the east wind: he daily increaseth lies and desolation; and they do make a covenant with the Assyrians, and oil is carried into Egypt. The LORD hath also a controversy with Judah, and will punish Jacob according to his ways; according to his doings will he recompense him. He took his brother by the heel in the womb, and by his strength he had power with God: Yea, he had power over the angel, and prevailed: he wept, and made supplication unto him: he found him in Beth-el, and there he spake with us; Even the LORD God of hosts; the LORD is his memorial” (Hos_12:1-5). “The LORD is his memorial"or, “the Lord is His name.” It was none other than Jehovah, the preincarnate Christ, who wrestled with Jacob that night.

Genesis 32:25

Old Jacob is not going to give up easily; he is not that kind of manand he struggled against Him. Finally, this One who wrestled with him crippled him.

Genesis 32:26

What happens now? Jacob is just holding on; he’s not wrestling. He is just holding on to this One. He found out that you do not get anywhere with God by struggling and resisting. The only way that you get anywhere with Him is by yielding and just holding on to Him. Abraham had learned that, and that is why he said amen to God. He believed God, and He counted it to him for righteousness. Abraham reached the end of his rope and put his arms around God. My friend, when you get in that condition, then you trust God. When you are willing to hold on, He is there ready to help you.

Genesis 32:27

JACOB’S NAME CHANGED TO ISRAELHe is not Jacob anymorethe one who is usurper, the tricksterbut Israel, “for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.” Now the new nature of Israel will be manifested in the life of this man.

Genesis 32:29

Jacob had seen the Angel of the Lord, the preincarnate Christ.

Genesis 32:31

God had to cripple Jacob in order to get him, but He got him. This man Jacob refused to give in at firstthat was typical of him. He knew a few holds, and he thought that after awhile he would be able to overcome. Finally, he found out he couldn’t overcome, but he would not surrender. And so what did God do? Certainly, with His superior strength, in a moment God could have pinned down Jacob’s shouldersbut He wouldn’t have pinned down his will.

Jacob was like the little boy whose mama made him sit in a corner in his room. After awhile she heard a noise in there, and she called to him, “Willie, are you sitting down?” He said, “Yes, I’m sitting down, but I’m standing up on the inside of me!” That is precisely what would have happened to Jacob. He would have been standing up on the inside of himselfhe wasn’t ready to yield. Notice how God deals with him. He touches the hollow of Jacob’s thigh. Just a touch of the finger of God, and this man becomes helpless. But you see, God is not pinning down his shoulders. Now Jacob holds on to Him. The Man says, “Let Me go,” and Jacob says, “No, I want Your blessing.” He’s clinging to God now.

The struggling and striving are over, and from here on Jacob is going to manifest a spiritual nature, dependence upon God. You will not find the change happening in a moment’s notice. Psychologists tell us that certain synaptic connections are set up in our nervous systems so that we do things by habit. We are creatures of habit. This man will lapse back into his old ways many times, but we begin to see something different in him now. Before we are through with him, we will find that he is a real man of God. First, we saw him at his home and then in the land of Haran where he was a man of the flesh. Here at Peniel, at the Brook Jabbok, we find him fighting. After this, and all the way through down into Egypt, we see him as a man of faith. First a man of the flesh, then a man who is fighting and struggling, and finally a man of faith. In the New Testament another young man, a son of Jacob by the name of Saul of Tarsus, tells us his struggle in chapter 7 of Romans. There were three periods in his life. When he was converted, he thought he could live the Christian life. That’s where I made my mistake also. When I became a Christian, I frankly thought I could live the Christian life. After all, Vernon McGee didn’t need any help. I thought it was easy, but I didn’t do it, and that was the hard part. That is where Paul had his problem: “For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do” (Rom_7:19). Paul found out that not only was there no good in the old nature, but there also was no strength or power in the new nature. Finally we hear him crying out, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (Rom_7:24). Then something happened, and in verse Rom_7:25 he says, “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord….” It is through Him that you will have to do all your thanking, because that is where your help is going to comethrough Him. “…So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin” (Rom_7:25). That is the way that it is with all of us. We have that old nature, and it cannot do anything that will please God. In fact, Paul went on to say that it was against God. “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God” (Rom_8:7-8). We cannot please God in the flesh. Finally, Paul found victory by yielding to the Spirit of God. What the law could not do, the Spirit now is able to do in our lives. How does one do it? It is not until you and I yield to Him that we can please Him. Yield means that it is an act of the will of a regenerated person submitting himself to the will of God. And that is exactly what Jacob did. Jacob won, but he got the victory, not by fighting and struggling, but by yielding. What a picture we have here in him, and we are told that all these things happened unto them as examples to us (see 1Co_10:11).