Mercifully Broken

Cody Hale

The Big Story • Sermon • Submitted 4 years ago

Jacob wrestles with God

Jacob (Name)

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Transcript

Introduction

Life has valleys, doesn’t it? If I asked you to go back to the worst moment of your life, for many of you, the difficulty would be in limiting it to just one. You might think of when your husband or wife told you they wanted a divorce, or you might think of when your child grew up and abandoned you, or you might think of the day that you had to sit through the funeral of your whole world. I think back three and a half years ago when my health failed. It was at a time in my life in which it just felt like everything I touched turned into a pumpkin. It felt like nothing was going right professionally. Spiritually, I felt like a disaster. And, then, my health was gone. I kept looking at this 10 month old baby in my house and thinking of how I would never be able to do all the things with her that a young dad should. I found myself cycling through powerful emotions of anger and self-pity and sadness.

But, now, I see that time differently than I did in the moment. I see the scar down my torso as a reminder of God’s kindness to me. And, my story is not unique. For how many people, do you think of the worst moment or moments of your life only to think, “But God!” As much as we never want to go through these experiences again, overwhelmingly, we are glad that we went through them. Our lowest moments become as a theater for the demonstration of God’s greatness. That’s the type of moment we’re witnessing this morning. Last week, we met Jacob and saw that, though he was to be the son of the Promise, he was still quite a bad guy, deceptive and conniving and self-sufficient. Today, we’re going to see how it is that God takes that out of a man so that He might make him new.

God’s Word

Read Genesis 32:22-32

Security in God

Jacob had obtained virtually every good thing in his life by dishonest means. His name had come to be synonymous with deceiver. After he swindled his twin brother, Esau, out of his birthright, he tricked his blind father into giving him Esau’s blessing. Esau declared that he would murder his brother, who had now deceived him twice, and Rebekah sends Jacob on the run. Jacob ends up with his uncle Laban and decides that he wants to marry Laban’s youngest daughter, Rachel. Laban gives him a dose of his own medicine, and tricks Jacob into marrying his less eligible daughter, Leah. Jacob ends up with both daughters of Laban. Laban turns out to be such a corrupt man, that Jacob eventually has to flee his household with his daughters, and he begins his pilgrimage back to Canaan, where he’s from. But, there’s a reason that he hasn’t been anxious to come back to town. Esau has been waiting there for him for twenty years. He’s had twenty years to let bitterness build and twenty years to add to a grudge. In hopes of pacifying his brother, Jacob sends ahead of him waves of riches to be given to Esau as a gift, as a type of pay back for what he’s stolen from him. He sends them ahead with his servants, and he tells them to bow down to him and to call him lord. But, the servants come back to Jacob with his worst fears being realized. Esau is on his way to meet him, and he’s traveling with 400 men, the typical size of an ancient militia. And so, Jacob is feeling powerfully insecure about his position. This is the worst moment of his life. But, it’s going to be right here, in Jacob’s lowest moment, that we’re going to witness the strange road to security in God (headline).

The strong are mercifully “broken”.

v. 24 “And Jacob was left alone.” I call it a strange road because it’s not a road we’d take on purpose. It’s that back road that your GPS sends you down that seems to be leading you farther and farther from where you want to go until you end up there. It’s a road that’s filled with hairpin turns and blind hills and sudden drops. And, God takes us down this road because, otherwise, we think we know how to get to where we need to go alone. He takes us down this road of brokenness because, otherwise, we deceive ourselves into believing that we’re strong. But, as counterintuitive as it seems, on the strange road to security, the strong are mercifully “broken.” That’s what we’re seeing in Jacob here. He sends his family across the river with all of his men so that he can be alone with his thoughts and his God. He’s beginning to crack under the pressure. Jacob has come to the end of himself. The moment that he’s been running from for the last twenty years has come now, and it’s unavoidable. He’s lost all control.

The Stronger the Person, the More Severe the Break

To overcome “insecurity” is to face what “haunts” you. It’s to face what you can’t fix. It’s to confront what you believe you can’t live without. That’s why the strange road to security must pass through brokenness. That’s why Jacob had to face Esau. He was tempted to fear Esau more than he feared God in the same way that we’re tempted to fear the loss of our income or the dashing of our dreams or the death of our husband more than we fear God. Just like Jacob, we try to control every circumstance and situation by our own cunning so that we can hold our world and our dreams and our plans in tact. We compensate by trying to manipulate our lives and our relationships and even our God to be what we want them to be, to function as our servants make our dreams happen. That is, we try to be God. We try to be strong enough to control it all. We try to take charge of God’s promises and God’s protection and God’s provision for ourselves. You know you’re faking. But, you’re determined to fake it till you make it. SO, you just smile wider and flex bigger, assuring yourself that you’re strong enough. And then, mercifully, God brings you the end of yourself when you’ve lost all control, and He breaks you. The “stronger” you believe you are, the more “severe” the break. Flowers are broken easily by children, but oak trees are broken by tornados.

God Does the Breaking

v. 24b “And a man wrestled with him until the breaking of day.” It may sound strange to hear me say that God breaks you. That God breaks the strong. But, that’s exactly the main point of this passage, and Moses leaves us no doubt with how he writes this. Jacob is praying and repenting and apologizing and reflecting, when out of nowhere, a strange assailant takes him to the ground. They begin to struggle and wrestle and battle. All night long they wrestle until its the edge of daybreak. It appears that neither person will prevail over the other until the assailant touches Jacob’s hip, causing it to come completely out of socket. As Jacob crashes down, all he can do is just hold on to the man with both hands. He has no ability to defend himself. No ability to fight or struggle. He’s just holding on. Then, in verse 28, we’re told who it is. It becomes obvious that Jacob had already realized it as he wrestled. This assailant was none other than God himself. He says, “for you have striven with God.” God wrestled with Jacob, and God has broken his hip. God himself had brought Jacob to the end of himself.

Fear God, not Man

Why is it that God would show up right in the middle of these two great conflicts in Jacob’s life? He’s fleeing from Laban and running into Esau. Jacob’s struggle wasn’t with men; it was with God. Jacob had been afraid of Laban, and now Jacob was afraid of Esau. But, He should’ve feared God. He should’ve feared the One who puts the soul to death, not the body. Jacob was calling on God like He was a genie in a bottle to come and fix his circumstances. But, it would have just been until he could’ve taken control again. God was resolved to teach Jacob once and for all whose promise this was and who it was that would keep it. Insecurity seeks “control”. And so, you attempt to wrestle control away from God by manipulating your circumstances and relationships. But, your battle is with God. It’s a battle for your soul, and it’s a battle for God’s glory. Would it bring you more comfort to know that you have complete control of what tomorrow looks like or knowing that God has complete control? You see, we deceive ourselves in believing that we have a better way and that we can manipulate a better tomorrow. But, God, in his mercy, will rescue you from yourself by bringing you to the end of yourself.

The broken are freely “blessed”.

v. 26b “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” Rock bottom forms a stark backdrop for the glory of God in the lives of sinners. It’s there that we begin to look up. It’s there that we begin to understand. It’s there that our worship finds depth. It’s rock bottom that prepares us for sincere repentance to accept the offer of forgiveness from God. Is it any wonder why Jesus said “Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are those who mourn. Blessed are the meek”? You see, on the road to security, the broken are freely “blessed”. Jacob, at the end of himself, has only one move: he holds on for dear life. But, who holds on to their assailant? Who holds on to the one that has wounded them?

Pushed Down, then Lifted Up

It’s odd to us when we begin to realize that Jacob’s attacker is identified later as God, yet it says ‘that he did not prevail against Jacob’. How could God not prevail against a mere man? But, it’s the answer to this tension that explains why Jacob clung to the one who wounded him. Jacob knew who he was holding. The One who came against him was the One who also enabled him to prevail. God teaches you about your weakness by pressing against you with his strength, but then He teaches you about how secure you are by lifting the very burden He placed as though it was nothing. God brings the circumstance in your life from which you must prevail while, at the same time, giving you the strength that you need to do it. Calvin says: “he arranges the conflict in such a way that while he attacks us with one hand, he defends us with the other. He supplies us with more strength to resist than he uses to attack us. We may rightly say that he fights against us with his left hand and for us with his right hand.” At once, God shows Jacob how insecure the promise is in his hands and how secure it is in God’s hands. So, Jacob is left clinging to his assailant, his Deliverer pleading with him for his blessing. Jacob’s blessing had always come with an asterisk. He could only hit homeruns taking steroids and stealing signs. Finally, the blessing could be legitimate and secure. Don’t resent the heavy hand of God when it comes upon you. Let it bring you to the bottom. And, it’s at the bottom you’ll see him lift it. God often allows us to “feel” the weight of the burden before He “lifts” it. But, when He does, your security in him is confirmed. You are his child. You are blessed.

You Aren’t the Fixer

v. 28 “Then he said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel” When we see Jacob holding on to God, we finally see in him what had always been missing. He’d always looked to himself to as the fixer. He would figure it out. He would manipulate it. He would scheme his way through. But, finally, holding on the Angel of the Lord that day he was letting go of himself and reaching out to the Lord in faith. And, God responds to Jacob the way that He responds to every sinner that comes to him in faith. God “gives” freely what we “scheme” to gain. God blessed him. He’d deceived so much. He’d worked so hard. He’d slept so little. “But God.” But, God interrupted his misery, brought him to the bottom of the pit, and then gave him freely what he had always wanted. This is why He’s called the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It’s to them that God came face-to-face, and it’s to them that God gave the promise to bless that showed just how great He is. And, God’s blessing transforms him. No longer will he be Jacob, deceiver, cheat. Now, he will be named Israel, which means “God fights”. God would fight for him. God would deliver him. Things with Esau are going to be just fine. Things in Canaan are going to be just fine. The Promise is going to continue forward, and Israel will be the namesake of the Promise so that every one of his sons, and every one of their tribes will stand in the wilderness one day and know who their Deliverer is. It is God Almighty who fights for them. It is God who makes them secure.

God Turns Jacob into Israel

This is the prototype of New Testament conversion. God initiates with us, bringing us to the end of ourselves. We respond in faith, and then God delivers us from himself. We’re changed forever. We’re not who we used to be. We have a new name! Our strength is not found within. Our hope is not in our schemes or in our control. We’re not Jacob anymore. God has changed our nature so that it’s no longer striving and working and scheming. We’re Israel now. God fights for us. God delivers us. God goes before us. Only God can turn “Jacob” into “Israel”. We were insecure and broken down, but now we have freely what we always worked for. It’s secure. Does God have you at the end right now? Will you reach out in faith and refuse to let go of him until He gives you a new name?

The blessed are graciously “mended”.

v. 30b “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered” And, praise God’s name that He’s never taken one of his children apart that He hasn’t put back together. The strange road of faith takes us down the path of disintegration so that we might not be deceived by a false security or soothed by an unrealized idolatry. It’s so that we can have the real thing, not some artificial harmony. Once the broken are blessed, the blessed are graciously “mended”. Jacob sees his wrestling with God as being an experience of grace. That’s the only way to interpret the word ‘delivered’. Sinners don’t survive encounters with holiness. Unless God delivers. Three different ways in verses 30-32 we’re told how Jacob had reminders of that day. He had a memorial, a scar, and a custom that he would remember it forever. Because he wanted to remember it. God had delivered him from God, and if God will deliver you from himself, what else do you have to fear? He was secure.

All godly people “walk” with a “limp”.

v. 31 “The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip.” He was mended, but he wasn’t the same. Mended goods are never as strong as they once were. He was secured, but he wouldn’t fully recover. Going forward, Jacob would walk with a limp. With every hobble, he was reminded of his own weakness, his own frailty, his own dependence. His limp was a constant reminder of his need for God. It was a reminder of who fights for him. Through his weakness, God’s strength was made perfect. All godly people “walk” with a “limp”. Godliness is attained through scars. This is the strangest part of the journey. But, it’s through the stories of our scars that we’re reminded of our weakness and his strength. I’m a scarred man, and I praise God for it. And so is every man and woman I admire. I’ve seen most of the people in this church family shed tears at some point. Your lives haven’t gone as smoothly as you’d like. Your life right now isn’t as simple as you’d prefer. You’re limping, but praise God for your limp. God’s not leaving you Jacob. He can’t; He loves you. Your limp is the evidence of his love.

A Limping Savior

Our Savior is a “man” with a “limp”. When we have One who speaks as God but is separate from God as we do here in Genesis 32, we can rest assured that we have an appearance of Jesus in our text. It is the Son of God that veils his strength so that men can prevail against him, even allowing himself to be nailed to a cross. Jesus’ disciples could put their hands in his scars after his resurrection. But, though He looked weak, though He looked as One against men could prevail, it was apparent that it was by his strength that sinners can be graciously delivered from the holiness of God. For by his wounds, we are graciously mended. Our Promise is secured. Our limps, our scars are turned into memorials of God’s power.

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