Broken & Blessed
December 8, 2024 Preacher: Kevin Godin Series: Various Messages
Scripture: Genesis 32:22–31
Sermon Transcript:
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. It is often helpful to have an image or an illustration when we are trying to learn something. Like when you buy something that has to be assembled. We can read the instructions, but it is much easier to understand the directions when we have a visual of what it should look like. The Bible is a lot like that. There are parts of the Bible that directly instruct us in what we need to know and there are other parts, such as narratives, that illustrate rather than explain the doctrines. That is what we have in our passage today, an illustration of the Gospel.
Before we can be blessed, we must be broken. By God’s grace, we must reach the place where we recognize there is nothing within us that can earn or compel a blessing from God, and instead, cling to Him in faith, prepared to receive everything as a gift of His mercy and grace. Having been broken, we are then abundantly blessed; having been humbled, we are lifted up; having been tested, we are healed; and having received a new identity, we inherit eternal life by faith in Jesus.
If you have your Bible, please turn with me to Genesis chapter 32. We will begin in verse 22.
22 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. 23 He took them and sent them across the stream, and everything else that he had.
24 And Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day.
25 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. 26 Then he said, “Let me go, for the day has broken.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” 27 And he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” 28 Then he said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.”
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.
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.” 31 The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip.
This strange event interrupts a longer narrative about a man named Jacob who is returning home. Jacob is the son of Isaac and the grandson of Abraham. It is his 12 sons who will father the 12 tribes of Israel. God promised to bring blessing to the world through this family but Jacob was not the eldest son. He is the younger twin brother of a man named Esau.
Jacob was a trickster, always looking to take advantage of a situation. When dealing with Jacob, you had to read the fine print and his older brother Esau was often a victim of his schemes. When they were younger, Jacob took advantage of Esau’s circumstances to get his birthright from him, which meant he now enjoyed certain privileges usually reserved for the oldest brother.
A little later, Jacob stole a blessing intended for Esau by deceiving their father and that was the last straw for Esau. He was so furious with Jacob he threatened to kill him. Esau was a skilled hunter and an outdoorsman. He was strong and skilled with weapons so when Jacob hears this, he is afraid and escapes to Harran in Mesopotamia, which is in modern day Turkey, just north of the border with Iraq. He stays there 20 years. But an angel appeared to him and told him it was time to go home.
As we meet him, Jacob is returning home. Esau had said, “the next time, see you, I'm going to kill you.” And now Jacob has just heard that Esau is coming toward him with 400 men. He is scared and prays to God for protection. He even sends a gift ahead hoping it will appease his brother. Just after that is where we pick up in verse 22.
22 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. 23 He took them and sent them across the stream, and everything else that he had.
Jacob separates from the caravan, sending his family and his possessions ahead while he stays back. He is by himself on the bank of this stream when it says,
“...a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day.”
This guy appears out of nowhere. All of the sudden he’s wrestling. We can imagine Jacob sitting on that bank worried about what is going to happen when he meets his brother, who may be coming to kill him. He is all alone and here comes this guy charging at him, grabbing him, and struggling with him. He's already on edge, his nerves strained, and suddenly without warning some guy pounces on him.
We think of wrestling primarily as entertainment. Either as a sport or a choreographed show but that is not what wrestling was in the ancient world. Wrestling was a serious matter and it was dangerous. If you were hurt, there were no modern hospitals or clinics. A wrestling match was a life and death struggle. Jacob doesn't know what this man is trying to do and he can’t run away.
It says they wrestled until the break of day. Jacob is a stubborn man and he isn’t going to let this guy get the best of him. We don’t know how many hours it lasted, but it isn’t over quickly. The average street fight only lasts a couple of minutes. It takes a lot of energy to grapple with someone, especially if you're caught off guard. This is impressive. Jacob isn’t a young man but he hangs in there. He is clearly an incredibly strong and determined man. But verse 25 says,
25 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.
After hours of grueling struggle, with a single touch, the man puts Jacob’s hip out of joint. We need to understand at this point, any hope of Jacob overpowering the man to win is over. The power to leverage our upper body strength relies a great deal on our legs. A quarterback needs not only arm-strength but proper leg work. The power a boxer generates in their punches begins with their feet and legs. A wrestler needs their legs to generate the leverage they need to grapple, throw, or pin an opponent.
Jacob now realizes he is in a struggle with an opponent who has a strength and power far superior to his own. He has been putting up a good fight, probably for hours, but when the time comes, the man hobbles Jacob with just a touch. This isn’t just any man. This is one who obviously had the power to destroy Jacob if that is what he wanted, but he doesn’t do that. He has another purpose.
All along, this struggle was marked by mercy and grace. It was grace that the man engaged Jacob at all, and mercy that he did not destroy him outright. This encounter was designed to humble, not harm. The hip joint is the strongest joint in the human body and yet with one touch, the strongest part of the body of one of the strongest men is disabled. Jacob realizes he is no match for this man. There is no hope that Jacob, under his own strength and resolve can overpower this opponent. His entire life he got ahead by being smarter and stronger than others, but that won’t work this time. Then verse 26 says,
26 Then he said, “Let me go, for the day has broken.”
As the first rays of the sun begin to tease the sky, the man tells him to let go. This may be for Jacob’s own protection because by now Jacob has come to realize this is no mere man. To look upon the face of God would mean death to a sinner but Jacob refuses to let go. All his life the thing Jacob wanted the most was blessing. He has put all his remarkable talents and energy into the pursuit of favor and recognition and now here he is, face to face with the one who has the ultimate power to grant it. He is desperately hanging on. Exhausted, in pain, and probably unable to stand on his own. The man says let me go,
But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”
Hosea 12:4 tells us that Jacob is crying as he says this. He is one of the smartest, strongest, and most determined men who ever lived and yet he cannot force a blessing. All he can do is desperately cling to the man in tears, asking for one. If he receives it, it will not be due to his strength, but his perseverance in weakness that it will come.
Jacob cannot prevail by overpowering the man, but he will not let go, knowing that he has come to the one who has the power to grant what he so desperately desires. He pleads, “please bless me, I will not let you go unless you bless me.”
27 And he said to him, “What is your name?”
“What is your name?” He isn’t asking because he needs the information, he knows very well who Jacob is. You want a blessing from me? Who are you? Well, this isn’t the first time Jacob has been asked this question. Genesis 27:18–19 says,
18 So he went in to his father and said, “My father.” And he said, “Here I am. Who are you, my son?” 19 Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau your firstborn. …
Then in verse 23–24,
23 And he did not recognize him, because his hands were hairy like his brother Esau’s hands. So he blessed him. 24 He said, “Are you really my son Esau?” He answered, “I am.”
Jacob lied about who he was to steal his brother’s blessing. Then beginning at verse 34 it says,
34 As soon as Esau heard the words of his father, he cried out with an exceedingly great and bitter cry and said to his father, “Bless me, even me also, O my father!” 35 But he said, “Your brother came deceitfully, and he has taken away your blessing.” 36 Esau said, “Is he not rightly named Jacob? …
Is he not rightly named Jacob? His whole life Jacob has been scheming to get a blessing. Now he is broken, humbled, and clinging to this man pleading in tears that he won’t let go until he receives a blessing, and the man says, “who are you?” Last time Jacob lied about who he was to obtain the blessing but now in order to receive one he must admit who he is.
27 And he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.”
The name Jacob means usurper, one who takes what does not belong to me, a deceiver, a struggler. Jacob says, “please bless me” and the man says “who are you?” and probably for the first time in his life Jacob must come to terms with who he really is.
Powerless and exposed, the one who always wrestled, who always reached for what wasn’t his to take, is now stripped of everything but the truth. There is no bargaining, no deals, only confession. It is only here, left with no schemes and nothing to boast in that he will receive the blessing. It is not won by strength, but by surrender. It is not claimed, it is given.
28 Then he said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.”
You will no longer be a usurper or deceiver. You were Jacob, but now you are Israel. The name Israel means mighty with God, a prince of God, the one who strives with God. Jacob is forever changed by this encounter. The blessing comes with a new life, a new identity, what was, is gone and something new has emerged.
Jacob is transformed from taking to receiving, from deceiving to prevailing, from struggling for himself to striving with God. The old Jacob is laid to rest, and Israel rises, a man marked by God’s grace, his life a testimony to the truth that victory comes not by our strength, but in clinging to God in our weakness. Verse 29,
29 Then Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.”
But the man replies,
“Why is it that you ask my name?” And there he blessed him.
It isn’t until much later at the time of Moses that God will reveal his holy name. Jacob is blessed but he must be content to receive what is given and to trust God. He is blessed, but he will not have all his questions answered.
God is not content to be an object of our curiosity or speculation. He is sovereign. We are not his equals. Friends, we must approach God as those who receive what his gracious hand gives. We must not be like pagans who think they can manipulate divine power through incantations or speaking divine names or mantras.
Brothers and sisters, so many of our churches are filled with people who think they worship but do not know God because their pastors and preachers talk about him as if they are talking about a character in some novel they read. They speak of him as if he is manageable, as if he is tame and predictable. I tell you there is no true worship apart from a profound reverence, awe, and respect for who He is in His holiness, majesty, and glory. It is these that make his love and grace so profound and amazing.
We can depend on God’s promises, not because we can control Him, but because He, in His mercy, has chosen to reveal them to us. He has graciously given us His Word, pledging His faithfulness to His people. But His ways are beyond our understanding, and His thoughts are higher than ours. God moves in mysterious ways, often in paths that seem hidden or strange to us. He frustrates the wisdom of the world, confounds the wise and humbles the strong, reminding us that He will not be contained by our expectations. His purposes will stand, not by our ability to calculate or anticipate His moves, but by His sovereign power and wisdom.
It should astound us that he showed mercy to us at all. In Exodus 33 when Moses asks to see God’s glory, the Lord says, “I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.” God’s mercy comes to us not by obligation but by sovereign grace. It is a gift that cannot be earned, manipulated, or demanded. In our deepest need, when we cry out for His mercy, it is his to give and ours to receive, all by his grace.
Jacob doesn’t get the name, but we know who this is. Verse 24 says a man wrestled with him. Hosea in his account says he strove with an angel. And in verse 28 and 30 it says it was God he wrestled with. This is the Angel of the Lord, the Second Person of the Trinity, the one who will come as the Christ to redeem his people. In this man, a messenger of God, Jacob has met with God and has received his blessing.
Verse 30 says,
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.”
Ancient people knew that for sinners to see God meant death. People today casually talk about seeking God, but throughout most of human history people did not want to encounter the divine. They understood that to meet God without a mediator would mean death.
God hid Moses behind a rock so that the afterglow of his glory would not destroy him. Job demanded to speak to God and when God shows up, hidden in a whirlwind, Job puts his hand over his mouth and says I should have kept my mouth shut. When Isaiah sees God, he pronounces a curse upon himself saying, “woe is me, I am a man of unclean lips.” When the Lord comes to Habakkuk the prophet says, rottenness entered his bones, and his legs trembled beneath him.
This isn’t just the Old Testament. When the apostle John, who was a friend of our Lord, sees Jesus in Revelation 1:17 he says, “17 When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead…” Even the seraphim, created to dwell in the presence of the unveiled glory of God cover their faces and never cease proclaiming, “holy, holy, holy is the Lord God almighty.” It is no casual thing to meet God.
It is only by his grace and clothed in the righteousness of Jesus that we come safely. It is only because our access has been purchased by the blood of Jesus Christ that we come without fear and condemnation. The cross of Jesus provides a way for those who would otherwise be destroyed to instead be received with love as adopted sons and daughters.
This passage is a wonderful illustration of the gospel. This is a wonderful picture of the grace of God and a pattern for how his grace works in those whom he blesses. Jacob meets with God in the form of a man who has come to bless him, but he must first be humbled. He must admit who he really is. The blessing will not be a triumph of strength, but a new identity granted to one who has felt his weakness.
So it is with us. We must be broken to be blessed. God does not break us to hurt us, but to heal us, like a good doctor may break a bone to set it properly, God humbles us so that we will no longer depend on our own strength, which would lead to death, but on him so that we may live. He takes away our strength and pride so that we realize all we can do is cling tightly to him in faith, refusing to let go because we know he is the only one who can give us what we desperately desire.
I know it may be hard to tell now, but when I was younger I was a lifeguard. It was constantly drilled into our heads during training to never approach a drowning person from the front or side. You never want to get within their reach because a person, even a child, who is panicking and thinking they are going to die will latch on with such force that there is a good chance you will both drown. That’s what we see with Jacob.
When we see dear saints who have long walked with the Lord clinging so tightly to Christ, it isn’t because they are strong, it is because they know they are weak. God will allow us to resist for a time, but then he will touch us so that we see we could never have been blessed through our own strength and cling instead to him. Before we can receive a new name and a new identity, we must confess who we really are and throw ourselves on his mercy.
Brothers and sisters, every one of us in some way was like Jacob. We struggled to get ahead, loving ourselves rather than serving God. We were all usurpers and impostors, all sinners who did not deserve God’s blessing. If we were to stand before God and be judged on the basis of our own righteousness, it would mean death and eternal punishment. But in an unimaginable act of love and grace, God came down as the man Jesus Christ.
He came to us, born of a virgin, truly human and truly divine and he lived a perfect life. He never sinned, earning all the rewards of heaven. Then out of love, he took upon himself the punishment of the sin of everyone who would ever put their trust in him as their lord and savior. He died in our place, suffering for our sins on a cross, so that we would receive his righteousness and rewards. He died and was buried, but three days later he rose from the dead proving he was truly the Son of God.
He is now seated at the right hand of the father and calling all people everywhere to repent and believe. Friends, come to him and cling to him and you will find blessing and new life. Whatever you have done and whoever you are, confess it and receive a new name and a new life. No longer striving for approval but rejoicing in God’s grace and love. Come to him and receive the promise of eternal life. Come to him and be transformed even now, receiving joy in Christ and a peace that goes beyond understanding.
This passage reminds us that though we are not worthy of such grace, God is pleased to come down and give it freely. It reminds us that it is in surrender that we find victory, in weakness that we find strength, and in brokenness that we find blessing. The next verse says of Israel,
31 The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip.
Jacob was changed by his encounter with God. I do not speak of salvation lightly. We cannot meet with God and remain unchanged. If we have not felt our weakness before him, knowing that if we let go we shall surely fall, we have not known him. The great preacher Dr. Martin Lloyd Jones was once asked how we can know when somebody was really a Christian? The doctor replied, “they limp.”
Perhaps the Lord is working in you now. I know it is hard, but don’t despise the brokenness—if it leads you to cling to Him, it will be worth it. Brokenness is often God’s way of addressing our struggles with self-reliance. Maybe you’ve been trying to manage life on your own, believing that if you just work harder, plan better, or push through, you can control everything. But through the gospel God in His mercy brings us to the end of ourselves so that we see that His strength is made perfect in our weakness.
Some struggle with identity. Feeling trapped in the need to define yourself by your accomplishments, your relationships, or the approval of others. But the blessing of God is not earned through what we do, but received through faith in what he has done. In Christ we have received a new identity and are free to leave behind those masks we used to hide behind. In Christ, we are adopted children of God, forgiven, beloved, and redeemed.
For others, it is anxiety. You worry about the future, your family, your career, or your health. You feel like you are wrestling with uncertainty and fear, but you cannot overcome these things by wrestling harder. The answer is to cling to Christ and rest in His promises. He has not called you to carry the weight of your anxieties alone. He says in 1 Peter 5:7 to cast your cares on Him, for He cares for you. You may not know what tomorrow will bring, but you know you can trust that His purposes are good and His timing is perfect.
Friends, the old man will not be crucified without a fight but do not lose heart, God uses our pain and struggles to strip away all that prevents us from drawing closer to Him. We must come to the end of our strength and our will, but by his grace, when we do, we will find that He has taken hold of us to bless us and to bring us to unimaginable glory.
As we finish, I would like us to consider the words of the apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 12:9–10
9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
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