Sometimes It Takes a Wrestling Match

So often I find myself doing things my way, trying to get what I want, instead of keeling before the King and declaring "Lord, have Your way...Not my will be done, but Yours."

I am a lot like Jacob. I am a deceiver. I deceive in order to get my way.

Jacob has a history of deceiving others in order to get his way. In fact, the name Jacob sounds like the Hebrew word for "heal" and deceiver." Jacob began his deceiving habits with gaining his brother's birthright:

"One day when Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau arrived home from the wilderness exhausted and hungry. Esau said to Jacob, “I’m starved! Give me some of that red stew!” (This is how Esau got his other name, Edom, which means “red.”) 

 “All right,” Jacob replied, “but trade me your rights as the firstborn son.”

-Genesis 25:29-31 

Later on, Jacob deceives his father in order to receive the blessing:

"Then Isaac said to Jacob, “Come closer so I can touch you and make sure that you really are Esau.” So Jacob went closer to his father, and Isaac touched him. “The voice is Jacob’s, but the hands are Esau’s,” Isaac said.But he did not recognize Jacob, because Jacob’s hands felt hairy just like Esau’s. So Isaac prepared to bless Jacob.“But are you really my son Esau?” he asked.
“Yes, I am,” Jacob replied.
Then Isaac said, “Now, my son, bring me the wild game. Let me eat it, and then I will give you my blessing.” So Jacob took the food to his father, and Isaac ate it. He also drank the wine that Jacob served him. Then Isaac said to Jacob, “Please come a little closer and kiss me, my son.”
So Jacob went over and kissed him. And when Isaac caught the smell of his clothes, he was finally convinced, and he blessed his son. He said, “Ah! The smell of my son is like the smell of the outdoors, which the lord has blessed!"
-Genesis 27:21-27

So how did Jacob pull this off? Isaac was old and turning blind (27:1), so he could not see that this son was clearly not Esau, but Jacob. Jacob felt like Esau because his mother used to skin and fur of a goat to cover Jacob's smooth skin. Jacob smelled like Esau because he was clothed in Esau's clothes. 

Now Jacob has deceived his way into getting the birthright, meaning he gets 2/3 of Issac's estate when he die. He has also deceived his way into getting the blessing of his father. Well, Jacob's deceiving will come around to kick him in the butt down the road.

Jacob later meets a beautiful girl, named Rachel. Jacob discusses with Rachel's father, Laban, and they decide Jacob will work seven years for Rachel to be his wife. So, Jacob works seven years, they have a celebration, and Jacob wakes up the next morning to find not Rachel in his tent, but Leah, Rachel's older sister. Laban had deceived the deceiver. Jacob agrees to work another seven years in order to finally marry his love, Rachel. (Genesis 29:1-30)

One night, Jacob is alone in a camp when a man comes and wrestles him:

"This left Jacob all alone in the camp, and a man came and wrestled with him until the dawn began to break. When the man saw that he would not win the match, he touched Jacob’s hip and wrenched it out of its socket. Then the man said, “Let me go, for the dawn is breaking!”
But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”
“What is your name?” the man asked.
He replied, “Jacob.”
“Your name will no longer be Jacob,” the man told him. “From now on you will be called Israel, because you have fought with God and with men and have won.”
-Genesis 32:24-28

This man turns out to be an angel. Verse 25 points out Jacob's stubbornness once again: "When the man saw that he would not win the match, he touched Jacob's hip and wrenched it out of its socket." Jacob was so desperate to win, the angel had to break his hip. 


Jacob had three options in this scenario. Fight. Flight. Or freeze. Jacob chose to fight. He didn't just fight, he held on for dear life. After the fight, the angel renames Jacob, Israel. Jacob means "heal grabber", Israel means "God wrestles." Jacob went from a heal grabbing, deceiving man, to a man who wrestles with God. The angel did not leave Jacob, this shows that God won't let go. 
God finally gets his way with Jacob. Of course, Jacob forced him to do it the hard way, but God gets his way.

This brings me back to us. To me. To you.

Sometimes it is going to hurt. God might have to break us. We may walk away with a limp, sometimes it takes a wrestling match:

"Sometimes it takes a wrestling match for God to have His way with us."

-Dr. Mark J. Mangano