Sermon Tone Analysis

A Divine Wrestling Match

I remember watching the famous WWE wrestling match between “Hulk Hogan” and Andre the Giant.

Watching it you thought there is no way this man, as big as Hulk was, is going to prevail over this sure descendant of Goliath.

Sure as the world, however, you soon see Hulk scoop up Andre, barely flip him and slam him to the floor.

He runs and bounces off the rope jumps in the air landing his big leg across his chest.

Then he spins around to pin him, and the ref counts to three and holds Hulks arm high in victory.

Our text for tonight presents us with a wrestling match where one of the opponents is an unlikely victor, but not without a price.

This match is not as glamorous, but it is a divine and momentous match, one of far greater significance.

Genesis 32:

This narrative of Jacob wrestling with God provides many challenges for contemporary preachers.

First, it seems such a bizarre story: God being involved in a wrestling match with Jacob.

People may wish to solve this problem by spiritualizing the match, but the fact that Jacob walks away from this encounter “limping because of his hip” (32:31) confirms that this was indeed a physical fight.

Preachers may need to remind their hearers that in the world of Genesis God sometimes appeared in human form: God walked and talked with Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden; and God dined with Abraham, discussing at length his intent to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah.

So God appears in this narrative as “a man.”

A second problem, as the history of interpretation shows, is that this narrative is extremely difficult to interpret.

Luther called this passage, “one of the most obscure in the Old Testament.”

It raises a host of questions: Why does God attack Jacob?

Why does not God prevail against Jacob?

Why does he strike him on the hip socket?

Why is he concerned about “the day is breaking”?

What is the meaning of the name “Israel”?

Why does God not tell Jacob his own name?

How can Jacob say that he has “seen God face to face” when the fight took place in a canyon in the dark of night?

And why is “the dietary taboo not included in the law?”3

What we are going to focus in on tonight from this account of Jacob’s Divine wrestling match is the process of praying Jacob is taken through by God.

This sermon is the first of 8 I am developing from a sermon library series called “prayer meeting outlines.”

The series is types of praying we find in the Bible.

Tonight’s Title or Type is “Sure Praying”

“Sure Praying”

Our prayers can at times be our own divine wrestling matches.

From Jacob’s encounter with God through the night we can find some lessons to guide our encounters with God.

These lessons are sure to set us right before God as we pray to Him about the concerns of our life.

The NT tells us that the people we read about in the OT are given to us as witnesses so that we will not fall short in the same manner.

Jacob’s wrestling match is to enable us and equip us to rightly live for Jesus.

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Here is where many commentators see Jacob’s “salvation” encounter with God.

God promises Jacob that he will be the carrier of the promised covenant.

The seed of eve that will crush the head of the serpent will run through his DNA.

(Jesus lived in him) God also promises Jacob personal safety and blessings.

(Jesus would walk with him through life)

But like any believer, any Christ follower, it is about a journey as much as it is an encounter.

The journey in fact includes numerous encounters, each one divinely designed to teach us, shape us and make us people who God can do something through.

We find Jacob now here before “crossing over” at a climatic point in his spiritual growth.

What I have come to find out, when you read God’s Word or when you hear God’s Word read and preached it will always do one of two things.

What I have come to find out, when you read God’s Word or when you hear God’s Word read and preached it will always do one of two things.

God’s Word will comfort us in our times of concern and trouble.

God’s Word will convict us in our times of concern and trouble.

Being comforted puts us at ease with God and peace about the situation.

That is not what we find here in the case of Jacob.

We find Jacob now here before “crossing over” at a climatic point in his spiritual growth.

In chapter 32 the context is Jacob’s return home after 20 years of having to make it on his own.

His own plans.

His own resources.

20 years, the result of the deceit and turmoil caused by that deceit or His father.

He flees from an abusive and conniving uncle only to hear that his brother, Esau, was coming to meet him on his journey home to the promised land.

Esau was coming and Jacob was about to meet up with his forgotten past.

Would Esau forgive him or fight him?

Would Jacob lose everything he had schemed to acquire?

How tragic it is when the past catches up with sinners.

Geography could not erase Jacob’s past nor could twenty years of history change it.

But before Jacob met Esau, and possibly faced the consequences of his deceit, he experienced three other meetings:

He we actually find 3 meetings Jacob has before He he has to face his brother and deal with the consequences of His deceit.

The Angels

The Angels

v.1 - Seeing the angels should have reminded of his “salvation” encounter.

It should have reminded him that God is in control of everything that is happening to him.

God often finds ways to remind us of our “salvation” encounter.

He brings his Word to our minds through reading and preaching to give us His promises of safety and blessing.

Jacob did something we too often do in response.

He didn’t take comfort in those promises.

He ignored the army of protecting angels.

Jacob turned back to self-reliance.

Jacob tried to figure things out on his own.

He tried to scheme and bargain with the world instead of trusting God’s plan and provision.

v.3-5 - He first tries to offer him a gift.

v.6-8 - When he hears that Esau is not coming alone he devises a plan to make sure not all of his family and possessions are lost.

v.9-12 - Then only after after making his plans he prays to God about the deep concern in His heart.

He asked God to bless what he had devised instead of seeking the plan God had designed.

v.13-21 - Jacob continues on with and checks over his plan.

The second meeting is with:

The Lord

So, we find that God has to divinely intervene to turn Jacob from himself to God’s will.

He had to get alone with God.

God had to get Jacob alone with him so he could bless him, so he could bring about the good in Jacob’s situation.

v.24 - Here we only find the word “man”.

When God appears as a man in the OT he is usually called the Angel of the Lord.

Hosea gives some confirmation of this encounter.

Jacob’s wrestling was not an encounter in the form of a dream as before.

God had to get a lot closer.

God had to touch him deeper than just in his sleep.

Jacob’s wrestling with the Lord was a real conflict of both his mind and his body, a work of the spirit with intense effort of the body.

Jacob’s wrestling was not an encounter in the form of a dream as before.

God had to get a lot closer.

God had to touch him deeper than just in his sleep.

Jacob’s wrestling with the Lord

Hosea reveals Jacob fought with his human strength and prayed with his spiritual strength.

He looks upon the weeping and supplication as the distinguishing feature of this encounter.