In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

In order to understand what was going in our Old Testament lesson where Jacob wrestled with God, and what it means for us as Christians today, we need to know the rest of Jacob’s story. If you remember, a few chapters earlier in Genesis, Jacob ran away from home because his brother Esau vowed to kill him after he found out how Jacob had tricked their father and stolen his blessing. While Jacob was running way, though, God appeared to him in a dream at night and made him a special promise. He said, “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring. Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed. Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”

After that, God blessed Jacob and made him rich. He gave him eleven sons and a daughter, and a great number of flocks and herds. Then God appeared to Jacob again and this time told him to “Return to the land of your fathers and to your kindred, and I will be with you.” So, Jacob did what God said and took his family, and his livestock, and all that he had, and traveled back to the land that God had promised. On the way, Jacob was met once more by angels of the Lord who encouraged him yet another time that God would be with him and carry out what He had said. Everything seemed to be going according to plan.

But then all of a sudden, we learn that Jacob’s attitude changed. A report was brought to him that his brother Esau was on his way to meet him with a large host of four hundred men, more than enough to wipe out Jacob and his entire family. When Jacob received this news, he became afraid, and he sent massive gifts ahead of him in the hopes that it would appease his brother’s anger and maybe save the lives of himself and his children. Jacob even divided up his household into two different groups thinking that if of them got attacked the other might still be able to get away. 

But what was Jacob so afraid of? What had made Jacob doubt that God would keep His Word to him? Had God appeared to Jacob again and told him that He had changed His mind and that it was no longer His plan to multiply his family and give him the land of Canaan as a possession? Had God made it known to Jacob in another dream that it wasn’t His intention anymore to bless all nations of the earth through his offspring, or that He had now departed from Jacob’s side? No. The only thing that had changed was that Esau was on his way with an army, and God’s promise had become harder to believe. Jacob’s spirit was willing, but his flesh was weak.

And yet, in the midst of his doubt and weakness, Jacob did what every child of God should do. He turned to Lord in prayer. He 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,’ 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. Please 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. 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.’”

Here we see an example of a true Christian prayer. Jacob did not ask God for something on the basis of his own righteousness. He did not demand that the Lord help him and do what he wanted because he deserved it. On the contrary, Jacob admitted that he was a sinner, and that he wasn’t worthy of any of the things that he asked for. But still, Jacob clung to God’s promises. Jacob put everything back on what God had told him, and pleaded with the Lord to keep His own Word. For that’s what true Christian prayer is all about. It’s about faith in God’s promises. The Bible tells us that God only hears the prayers that we ask in faith. As Jesus says elsewhere, “Whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” This doesn’t mean that we can make God do whatever we want if we want it bad enough, like the prosperity preachers say, but rather that when we ask for the things which God has already promised, the Lord will surely give them. Jacob had a promise. And so, Jacob prayed to God on the basis of that promise alone. He petitioned to Lord to do what He said.

And yet, even after Jacob prayed that wonderful prayer, God did not immediately answer it. In fact, God made things harder on Jacob and appeared to Him in the form of Man and wrestled with him all throughout the night instead. After Jacob poured his heart out in prayer, and after he had physically drained himself by moving his entire household across a small river in the middle of the night, God pressed him even harder. God even knocked Jacob’s hip out of its socket so that the wrestling match would be that much more difficult for him. But again, what did Jacob do? He insisted that God keep His promises. When Jacob realized who it was that he was wrestling with, He said the Man those wonderful words that every Christian should learn by heart, “I will not let you go until you bless me.” That is to say, “I will not stop trusting in You, Lord, until you do as you have promised.” And God did. He answered Jacob’s prayer and did exactly what He said He would. The next morning, when Jacob arose and Esau came to meet him, the two of them embraced one another, and cried. Esau forgive Jacob for stealing his birthright, and Jacob’s family was no longer in danger.  God kept His promises, and Jacob’s faith was strengthened in the process. For just as Jacob had clung to the body of the Man he wrestled with, even as his hip was put out of joint, so his heart had clung to the words His Savior, even though it felt like it was going to break. Jacob may have been limping at the end of the match, but his faith in the Lord had never been stronger.

What we, of course, learn from this text is not only that God always keeps His promises to us, but also that even in the midst of our greatest trials and deepest suffering, even when it appears as if God Himself is the One who is attacking us, He does so only for the purpose of strengthening our faith in His Word. God knows that we are saved through faith alone. He knows that we’re not saved by our works, but solely through the redeeming work of Christ. God knows that we receive the benefits of that work, only through believing the promise of the Gospel, that for Christ’s sake our sins are truly forgiven.  And because, God knows that, and because He wants all people to be saved, sometimes God puts our faith to the test so that it does not grow weak and die, but stays alive and clings even more tightly to His Word.

That’s how it was for Jacob, who’s name got changed to Israel, and that’s how it is for us too, who the Bible says is the true Israel of God, all believers. At times our lives can be very difficult. At times it can feel not only like the world is out to get us, but that God is out to get us too. Sometimes it seems as if the Lord has left us completely, or that He is pushing us away from Him entirely. We suffer from sickness, the death of loved ones, and the certainty of our own death too. We deal with regret, temptation, and our own lack of faith. Day after day, month after month, year after year, one trial is replaced with another, and life never seems to get easier. But just like Jacob, God has made us very special promises.

Are you afraid like Jacob was that God has abandoned you and that you are all alone in this world. Then listen to the promise of Jesus from Matthew chapter 28, “And behold I am with you always even to the end of the age.” Are you confused like Jacob was about the things that are going in your life and nervous about what the future will hold. Then hear what God’s Word says in Romans chapter 8, “All things work together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.” Are you worried like Jacob was about the needs of your body and the safety of yourself and your family? Then listen to what Jesus tells us about the lilies of the valley in Matthew chapter 6, “They neither toil nor spin,” He says, “and yet I say to you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. If then God clothes the grass which today is in the field and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you.” Are you afraid of your enemies and what others who don’t like you or your faith might do to you like Jacob was? Then consider the words of Saint Paul in Romans 8 again, “If God is for us who can be against us. He who did not spare His own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” And do you have a guilty conscience like Jacob did? Have you done things that you are ashamed and wish that you could take them back? Then hear what God’s Word says to you in 1 John chapter 1, “If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 

God’s Word is filled with promise after promise that assures you of the love the He has for you in Christ. God does not wrestle with you, and allow difficulty to befall you in order to be cruel to you or to punish you. If the Lord wanted to destroy you, and get revenge, He could do it at any moment, just like He could have pulverized Jacob whenever it pleased Him. But that’s not what God did. God wrestled with Jacob to help him. God struggled with Jacob so that Jacob would cling to Him all the more. God put Jacob to the test so that Jacob would learn to walk by faith and not by sight, and to believe even more firmly that His promises are true and cannot fail even if it seems it is impossible for them not to. That’s why God wrestled with Jacob. And that’s why He wrestles with you too. He does it because He loves you and He wants you to trust in Him. He wants you to hold Him to His Word, which He always promises to keep. He wants you to learn that man does not live by bread alone but by every Word that comes from the mouth of God. He wants you to know Him not by what you see with your eyes, or experience in the world around you, but by what He declares to you in the Scriptures. 

The Bible tells us elsewhere that every one of God’s promises are fulfilled in Christ. As Saint Paul writes in 2 Corinthians chapter 2, “For all of God’s promises find their ‘yes’ in Jesus.” The assurance of God’s love and mercy towards is forever bound up in the life, death, and resurrection of God’s Son. Nothing can undo what Jesus did for you when He suffered and died for your sins. And when you are clinging to Jesus as your Savior, when you are holding on to what He promises you in His Word, you can be certain of where those promises will lead you. Even if holding on to them results in you limping your way through life because of many great and difficult challenges, you are limping your way into the land that God has promised you, your heavenly home. So, may the Lord teach us to pray along with Jacob, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” In Jesus’ Name. Amen.