“So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak.  When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man… Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.” (Genesis 32:22-32)

I’m a very non-confrontational person. I prefer peace and don’t like to make waves. If someone offends me and I’m not close to them, I will probably ignore it. If I see a stranger steeped in sin, I likely won’t interfere. However, I love my family. If I see one of them struggling, I have to try to help them. If my kids disobey, I need to give consequences and try my best to teach them what is right and wrong. When my husband or I are sinning, we have to confront each other about it, even if it causes tension. That is what love does. It wants the best for the other person. It doesn’t give up, because the person we love is worth fighting for.

Now Imagine God’s love. The kind of love that goes to the cross so that we can be saved. That’s an overwhelming love for us. He loves us so much that He thinks that we are worth fighting for, even if it means wrestling with us as he did Jacob.

Jacob made a mess of things when he stole his brother Esau’s blessing and ran away to live with Uncle Laban. I think God used that separation to work in Jacob’s heart, to help him own his sin. God promised to prosper Jacob if he returned to his home country and his relatives. Of course that meant confronting what he expected to be an angry, murderous Esau to ask forgiveness for what he had done.

I think Jacob had been wrestling with God in his heart before this encounter where he wrestled Him in person. This is evident because of his great fear. He was so scared that his brother would destroy him and his people, even when God had promised him the opposite. He didn’t trust God. He didn’t believe in God’s promise for him.

God could have turned his back on Jacob. He could have punished him for his unbelief. He could have just left him to the consequences of his sin. He deserved it, but that’s not God. God is love. 

I think God wrestled with Jacob because he loved him. I think the wrestling took until daybreak because Jacob was so darn stubborn that he chose to fight God, rather than surrender. He had to be delivered from his own self-will and self-reliance before he could be delivered from his brother. However, it wasn’t until God injured Jacob that things changed. Instead of fighting God, Jacob held on to Him for dear life begging him for a blessing. I think this was a signature moment for Jacob.

 It was the moment when he changed from his self-focused life of being Jacob and became Israel. After this encounter, he had the confidence to face his brother. And if you read Genesis 33, you will see that God did such an amazing miracle that Jacob could have missed out on if he didn’t have that encounter with God.

Sometimes we wrestle with God and other times God wrestles with us. He is not willing to let us live in our sin and fall away from Him. He loves us so much that He will fight for us.