Jacob’s Homecoming

There's something about coming home, isn't there? How many country songs have been written about the big man coming back to his hometown and reminiscing the days of his wild youth? How many Hallmark movies have been made about the city girl coming back home and finding love? There's something about this theme that is full of meaning and memories for many of us and I'd imagine these stories will continue to be told.

None of these stories, though, hold a candle to Jacob's homecoming story. A crazy father-in-law who wants to hurt him on one end, a brother who he thinks wants to hill him on the other end, with angels guarding the way out and the way in, there's a lot going on here with Jacob's homecoming.

But more than just an interesting story, there are events that happen today which completely re-write Jacob's story and, even, our story, even to the present day.

1. Angels (vv. 1-2)

So let's follow along, picking up where we left off last week, where we heard we heard how God spared Jacob from Laban. As chapter 32 opens with, "Jacob went on his way," we should note that this means he's safe. And yet immediately, there's more happening, as verse 1 tells us that "the angels of God met him."

Angels usually scare people when they show up. Odds are this encounter shook Jacob more than Laban did.

For the significance of these angels at this part in the story, remember what happened to Jacob when he left the promised land, 20 years ago? He had a dream of angels. And now, on returning to the promised land again, he again meets angels.

And just like he recognized Bethel as the house of God, so he says of this place, "This is God's camp!" in verse 2.

This is really important. Jacob, in coming back to the land of promise, has come back to the presence of God. And the presence of God is marked by the presence of angels. That's a big theme going back to the garden of Eden, where Adam and Eve were kicked out of God's presence and the way was guarded by angels.

And at this point in the story, God is preparing this particular place for His people to live with Him, and we can almost imagine these angels guarding the borders. We see this again when the people return to the land after their long sojourn in Egypt, and what does Joshua meet right away? An angel.

It's interesting that Jacob gives this place a name—Mahanaim, "two camps," perhaps specifying his camp and God's camp. Does the fact that Jacob names this place show some sense of ownership over this land? He doesn't ask what the locals call it—he gives it his own name. Is this an act of faith, showing that he really believes this will be his, as God promised?

2. Esau (3-8)

Perhaps, but before he can enjoy that, he has to deal with a big issue, and the very reason that he left the land in the first place: his brother Esau. After taking away getting his birthright and his blessing, Esau wanted to kill Jacob.

And even though Esau has moved south to the land of Seir, he's still within striking distance. Jacob doesn't feel safe. As far as he's concerned, Esau is still nursing a grudge. All of the words used here in verse 3 bring back memories of the earlier story. "Seir" in Hebrew refers to being hairy, which would have reminded Jacob of his brother and the goat hair he used to deceive his dad. The word "country" speaks of the wide-open field where God said Esau would live. And "Edom" means "red," speaking of Esau's colouring and the red, red stuff that Jacob used to buy his birthright.

Along with everything else in this text, this all suggests that as Jacob returns to the promised land, his mind is very much on the events that drove him from that land.

And so what he seeks to do is appease his brother Esau. He sends messengers before him—interestingly, messengers is the same word for angels—to his brother, telling him that he's back, and basically making him an offer of his wealth.

His language is designed to soften Esau. He calls him "My lord Esau," and himself as "Your servant Jacob." He's trying to placate Esau in the hopes of being reconciled to him. Next week, we'll see how this gets developed even further.

But even now we can see a major point: Jacob has changed in these 20 years. He's learned some humility. He really wants to reconcile with his brother.

And so he's really shocked when the messengers come back and say, like we see in verse 6, that Esau "is coming to meet you, and there are four hundred men with him."

What does that sound like? That sounds like a war party. Abraham took 318 men from his house to go do battle with four kings. 400 men is a sizeable force.

Jacob's fears have come true. His brother really does want to kill him and destroy what he has. After just escaping from one set of hostile forces, he's about to run right into another.

And while Jacob has become rich, there's no indication that he has a fighting force among his men. He's vulnerable. Verse 7 says that he was "greatly afraid and distressed."

So, in keeping with the name of the place where he his, he divides his people up into two camps, which is a really great strategy actually. If Esau does come to attack, at least some will survive.

3. Prayer (9-12)

But it's what he does next that is the most important. He doesn't just make plans and take precautions; he prays. And his prayer is recorded for us in verses 9-12.

This is really a wonderful prayer, giving us a window into Jacob's developing faith and even giving us a good model of how we can pray today.

There's three steps to his prayer. The first step is recognition. He starts by recognizing who God is.

“And Jacob said, ‘O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O Lord who said to me, ‘Return to your country and to your kindred, that I may do you good,’” (Genesis 32:9).

Note that God is not quite yet his God. But he is the God of his father Abraham and his father Isaac—the God who chose them and blessed them. The God who sent him back to his country and his people in order to do him good.

Jacob also recognizes that God is the one who has blessed him way beyond what he deserves. Verse 10: “I am not worthy of the least of all the deeds of steadfast love and all the faithfulness that you have shown to your servant, for with only my staff I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two camps.”

You almost picture him standing there as he divides his people and flocks and herds and camels into two camps, realizing that even if one is attacked and taken, he'll still have a lot left. He remembers leaving this place 20 years before with only a staff, and now he's two camps.

And he knows that this is God's doing, and that he doesn't deserve it. He recognizes that he owes it all to God's undeserved steadfast covenant love and faithfulness.

The second step in his prayer is the request. Having recognized God's faithfulness and grace, he prays that God will, verse 11, “deliver me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear him, that he may come and attack me, the mothers with the children” (Genesis 32:11).

It seems like Jacob really is thinking about the vulnerable here. He's not so worried about losing his many flocks and herds as much as the vulnerable being caught up in the feud between him and his vengeful brother.

So he prays for deliverance. "Please deliver me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear him."

Third, there is a reminder. Verse 12: “But you said, ‘I will surely do you good, and make your offspring as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.’ ”

Jacob reminds God of what God promised. "You said you'd do me good! You said you'd multiply my offspring!" In other words, "You have to answer my prayer. You can't let Esau hurt me and kill my wives and children. That would be to break your promise.

These three elements—recognition, request, and reminder—are found all throughout many prayers of the faithful in the Bible. Compare this to Daniel's great prayer in Daniel chapter 9, which begins with a long recognition of who God is and what the people have done. Then Daniel moves to request that God would relent and forgive and deliver his people. And he ends with a reminder that the people of Israel are called by His name.

Recognition, request, reminder. Acknowledging who we are and who God is, making our requests of Him, and laying hold of His promises, asking Him to do what He has promised to do.

This is a good model for prayer, one that Jacob used and one that you can use in your prayers to God.

This big picture in this section is that Jacob knows God is His only hope. Just like God has been the only reason he's grown so wealthy and been spared from Laban's trickery, so God is now his only hope that he will be spared from Esau's aggression.

4. Plan (13-21)

And that's what makes his next move so interesting. After praying, he makes a plan. We're not going to go into the details of this plan today, because we're going to come back to this next week, but we can sum up verses 13-20 this way: Jacob takes out of his possessions a huge gift for Esau—goats, sheep, camels, cows, and donkeys—which he intends to present to Esau in successive waves, one after the other, with space in between, apparently for Esau to reflect.

The goal here, in verse 20, is to appease Esau with the present that goes on ahead of Jacob, so that when Jacob actually sees his face, Esau won't be angry with him any more. "Perhaps he will accept me."

Now, something we'll see more of next week, is that this isn't just a random gift. Jacob took Esau's blessing. As a result of that blessing, he's grown very rich. Now, out of his blessing, it's as if he's making amends, paying Esau back for the blessing that he took from him. In so doing, perhaps Esau won't be angry and won't want to hurt his brother.

Here's a question we want to to reflect on. Was Jacob doing the right thing here? After all, hadn't he just prayed about it? Wasn't he trusting God to protect him?

Was this going back on his prayer? Was this showing a lack of faith to say "amen" and then go and take matters into his own hands?

Some Christians definitely think that way. "We prayed about it, and the work is done." Leave the rest up to God.

And we know that there are times when that is the appropriate course of action.

Centuries later, the offspring of Esau would lead a coalition of enemies against Israel, and king Jehoshaphat would pray, “O our God, will you not execute judgment on them? For we are powerless against this great horde that is coming against us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you’” (2 Chronicles 20:12).

There's times when we don't know what to do, or there's nothing we can do, and all we can do is pray.

But there's also many times throughout Scripture where we see that prayer and action are not opposed to one another but go hand-in-hand together.

If you want to see a great example of this, read the book of Nehemiah, where we get a window into Nehemiah's prayer life throughout the book, and we see how his prayer and his action went hand-in-hand.

This is how God designed it to work. From the beginning, He made us to be His partners. Like Paul says, we're His fellow-workers (1 Cor 3:9). In prayer, we ask for help from our Great Senior Partner as we work together with Him in His strength and power.

We pray for God to give us our daily bread, and we get up and go to work on Monday. And we recognize that these things aren't opposed to each other, because the very fact that we have a job, and are healthy enough to go do it, is a part of God's answer to that prayer.

We would recognize that the man who prays for God's provision, and refuses to work, is not being faithful but is being lazy. And similarly, there are many times when "just praying about it" is a cop-out. We see someone struggling, so we "just pray about it" instead of actually obeying the Lord and doing something about it. We see someone believing a lie, so we "just pray about it" instead of going to them and speaking the truth in love like God told us.

Sometimes, we "just pray" about a situation because we don't know how to deal with it. And that's fine. But maybe we need to learn how to do something about it. Ask someone to teach you. Get a good book from the library. Learn how to give counsel or make wise decisions.

We are to be people of prayer, and people of action, with both flowing in and out of each other. "Let go and let God" isn't a phrase you'll find in the Bible. And so no, Jacob is not being faithless here to pray and then to put a plan into action, a plan that he knows will only work if God decides to bless it. This is the pattern of the life of faith.

5. Wrestling (22-32)

So, Jacob has divided his camp into two, sent off his present to try and placate his brother, and verse 21 says with a note of drama that "he himself stayed that night in the camp."

Verse 22 fleshes this out a bit more when it tells us that “The same night he arose and took his two wives, his two female servants, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. He took them and sent them across the stream, and everything else that he had. And Jacob was left alone" (Genesis 32:22–24).

Jacob, who left this place 20 years ago alone, is once again alone. It's just him.

Have you ever been alone, outside, at night? I love to go camping by myself in the woods around Nipawin, and yet I'll admit that being out there alone can sometimes be unsettling.

The most unsettling part is not being alone. I love that part. The unsettling part is the possibility that you might not be alone, and not know it. It's the rustling outside of your tent, or the noise from the tree line. Was that just the wind? Or was that something else? Or, worse, someone else?

Jacob has that experience this night. He's left alone by the fords of the Jabbok, a striking place of hills and ravines. He's alone in the shadows. Except that he's not alone. In a strange turn of events, we read that "a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day."

This is introduced in such a mysterious way that gives us so many questions, but I'd suggest this is deliberate. It's supposed to be mysterious, drawing us in to the dark and murky experience of Jacob himself. We don't know who this stranger is or where he came from, because neither did Jacob. At some point he becomes aware of the presence of another, and in the shadows on the shores of the river they begin to wrestle with one another.

We might ask—why would Jacob wrestle with this man? But if we've been following with the story of Jacob, we'd be more surprised if he didn't wrestle with this man. Isn't this what he's been doing his whole life?

Grappling with his brother in the womb, grabbing his heel as he comes out, striving for the birthright and the blessing, tangling with Laban again and again. Jacob's been wrestling from birth, grabbing everybody by the heel, trying to get ahead.

Your heart goes out to this man who meets a stranger and seems to not know what to do except wrestle with him. Because that's all he's ever done.

And the man wrestles back. And it's not over quickly. The average length of a professional wrestling match is 12-14 minutes, but these two are at it all night.

Jacob is not a young man at this point. But we know he's a strong man, based on the time he single-handedly rolled the stone out of the way for the shepherds—a job that would usually take a few people.

And these men wrestle all night. What would that scene have looked like? In the darkness, a babbling brook nearby, and two grunting, panting, sweating combatants who seem equally matched.

But perhaps not equally matched. “When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched his hip socket, and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him” (Genesis 32:25).

The man just touches him, and Jacob's hip goes out of joint. Someone told me this week that the hip is the strongest and most stable joint in the human body. And this mysterious man puts his hip out of joint with a single touch.

This is one of our first indications that this man is more than a man. He's a powerful entity who has chosen to restrict himself to Jacob's strength. He's capable of doing a lot more damage than he's been doing.

But Jacob is not giving up so easily. Hip out of joint, likely in extreme pain, exhausted and sweaty, Jacob holds on.

And so the man says, in verse 26, "Let me go, for the day has broken." If you were to imagine these words, imagine them coming from someone panting, out of breath, his face rammed up against Jacob. "Let me go."

The best answer I found for why he needs to get away at dawn is, as we'll see in a moment here, he's trying to keep his identity something of a secret. Remember when Jacob spent the night with Leah, and it wasn't until the morning light that he discovered who she was?

The full light of day will show more than this man wants Jacob to see. So he asks to be let go.

But by now Jacob has figured out that this man is more than a man, too. And he wants something out of this man. He wants a blessing. And even though he knows that this man who is more than a man has the power to hurt him even further, he keeps holding on. "I will not let you go unless you bless me" (v. 26)

Jacob wants a blessing. And we might be surprised by this, because Jacob has been blessed so much already. He's been blessed by his father, he's been promised blessing by God himself, and he's experienced so much of this blessing already.

But there's a sense here that there's more. Whatever he's received so far hasn't quite satisfied him. He still hasn't found what he's looking for. All these riches, all these women, all these kids, all these flocks and herds—it's not enough. It's not what he's really after. He seems desperate this man to bless him.

And so the man responds, but not in an expected way. Verse 27: "What is your name?"

Remember that, in the Hebrew mind, someone's name is more than just some sounds you'd say to call them. Someone's name, and the meaning of someone's name, described and summed up their whole character.

"What is your name?" means something like, "what is your true identity? Who are you, really?"

And Jacob's answer is his name. יַעֲקֹב (Jacob). I'm the heel-grabber. I'm the guy whose been tricking and deceiving and clawing at people to get what they have my whole life.

And the man tells him, verse 28, "Your name shall no longer be called יַעֲקֹב (Jacob), but יִשְׂרָאֵל (Israel), for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed."

To be given a new name is to be given a new identity, and shows us just how crucial of a moment this is in this man's life. Abram and Sarai were renamed at a crucial turning point in their life (Gen 17). New names reflect new destiny.

Jacob is receiving a new identity here. From יַעֲקֹב —he grabs by the heel, he cheats—to יִשְׂרָאֵל— he strives with God, or perhaps, more accurately, God strives.

Because, "you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed" (v. 28). Here's the biggest clue yet of who this stranger is. Jacob has been wrestling with more than just a man, but with a being who is identified as God. More on that in a moment.

But just notice here how these two names are so different and yet are connected. Grabbing someone by the heel, and striving or wrestling with them, are connected. Even the meaning given to this new name Israel—"you have striven with men"—sums up his whole heel grabbing past.

Who Jacob has been is not erased. His past identity and history is not deleted. Instead, it is now framed inside of a bigger and a better story. Instead of just the sneaky trickster, Jacob will be known as the honest wrestler whose life of heel-grabbing culminated in the incredible, once-in-a-thousand-lifetimes privilege of wrestling with God.

This is the blessing the stranger gives to Jacob: the blessing of his past being redeemed and re-framed within a new identity. No longer just the heel-grabber, he will be known as the God-wrestler.

But if it's God he's been wrestling with, Jacob wants to know more. Verse 29: “Then Jacob asked him, ‘Please tell me your name.’ But he said, ‘Why is it that you ask my name?' And there he blessed him’” (Genesis 32:29).

This is the same response the angel gives when Samson's dad asks his name in Judges 13. The sense is that the name of this being is too great for Jacob to hear. And Jacob gets it. Verse 30: “So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, saying, ‘For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered.’”

"Peniel" means "face of God." Jacob knows that he's seen God.

Does that mean that this man was God himself? Or, like Hosea 12:4 says, an angel, who? Throughout the Old Testament, the angel of the Lord, though distinct from God, is identified with God in such a way that to see the angel is to see God.

There's some mystery here, but Jacob gets it now. He knows he's been wrestling with more than a man, and he's very blessed to come away with only a dislocated hip. "I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered."

Morning finally breaks. “The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip. Therefore to this day the people of Israel do not eat the sinew of the thigh that is on the hip socket, because he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip on the sinew of the thigh” (Genesis 32:31–32).

Jacob will never be the same after his encounter with God. He limps—which is, as one author suggested, the proper posture of a saint. And in honour of this wrestling match, from this point on the children of Israel don't eat that part of the animal as they remember their father's encounter with God.

Jacob's limp is immortalized in the memory of his people. And the fact that there will be a people testifies to God's mercy in sparing his life and letting him off with just a limp. Do you know that this is the first time that the phrase "people of Israel" or "children of Israel" shows up in the Bible?

Jacob will become a mighty nation. And this is how that nation will be known. Though he still will be called "Jacob" for a time, and his offspring occasionally referred to as "the house of Jacob," for the most part they will be known as the "sons of Israel." The sons of the God-wrestler. Every time their national name is used, this event, this history, this severe mercy, is recalled.

The God Who Wrestles with His Children

So what do you and I take from this? Should we look to Jacob's example? Is there something to learn from his desperation for God's blessing? Does Jacob offer a rebuke to so many of us who are content to shuffle through life with our hands in our pockets, content as long as things stay comfortable?

Have you ever laid hold of God in prayer like this, not content to let go until He's assured your soul that you're okay? Is there a lesson here for us about spiritual vitality, not being content with the status quo?

Perhaps.

But the greater lessons from this passage are not about Jacob, but the God who wrestles with him.

We can be so amazed that Jacob had the audacity to wrestle with God. Should we not be even more amazed that God had the humility to allow himself to be wrestled with?

This question is reflected right there in Israel's name. The most natural way to understand the word "Israel" is not so much "He strives with God" but rather "God strives."

And both are true. Jacob did strive with God. But for that to happen, God had to strive with him.

That's what we should see in this passage. A God who saw this man who couldn't stop grabbing at everybody's heels, and gets down to his level to say, as it were, "If you're going to wrestle with anybody, let it be me." And holds himself back all night to let himself be wrestled with.

The Lord of heaven and earth, letting Himself be put into a headlock by a creature He Himself is giving life to at that very moment. Letting himself be matched by Jacob, restraining his power, letting Jacob spend his strength on him all night when one touch could have undone him.

Wrestling is one of the ways I enjoy spending time with my sons boys. From the time they were toddlers I've loved wrestling with Judah and Asher, and they've loved wrestling with me. But dads in the room know that wrestling with a toddler is a delicate business. Your main job is actually to be gentle, to protect them from getting hurt, to hold back your strength.

And there's times you collapse on the floor and say "You've got me!" and your two-your old climbs up on your chest triumphantly, feeling like a victor, and one day they'll understand just how careful you were being with them.

That's the kind of thing that's going on in our passage today. God, gentle and lowly, getting down on the floor to wrestle with his kids.

And from this point on, Israel and his children are named for the God who stoops to wrestle with his children. Isn't that the truth we see lived out in Israel's history over the next centuries? We don't very often see a people eagerly laying hold of God, seeking his blessings with desperation. More often we see a God grabbing a hold of His wandering people, sending prophets and kings to wrestle with them again and again when He could have just destroyed them so many times.

And doesn't this humility come to its climax in the humility of Christ, who, not just for one night, but for 33 years, took on our flesh and walked with us here below? Who sweat and bled and thirsted and hungered, refusing to use His power to His advantage over and over again?

Who, one dark night, let Himself be overpowered by His own creations, who didn't just put him in a headlock but bound him with ropes, and beat him, and put him on a cross?

Who could have called on twelve legions of angels to save Him, but hung there, bearing our curse, in order that the blessings of Abraham might flow to us?

Who offers to us the grace of a new identity? Who doesn't erase who we are, but redeems who we are, giving us new and eternal life?

Who has promised to live forever with us, in the body, in a New Creation, where He has promised to give a new name to, a secret shared between that person and the Lord, to the one who overcomes (Rev 2:17)?

Be amazed at a God who loves His children enough to get down on the floor with them, to take their half-Nelsons and their hammering nails, and keeps on giving them grace, because that's just who He is.

Brothers and sisters, there is grace for you here this morning. And you don't have to wrestle the Lord for is. You just have to come. Eat and drink and remember what is yours and proclaim what will be yours when He returns.

If you don't know the Lord this morning, you can come, too. Bring your nothing and come. “‘Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price’” (Isaiah 55:1).

There is grace for the taking in the wounds of Jesus, and if you want to know this Jesus and know how this grace can be yours, please come talk to me or someone else you know around here.

Your past is no problem to the Lord. He loves saving needy sinners. Come to Him.