Wrestling is hard work. Just ask anybody who has ever been on a wrestling team. No timeouts. No substitutions. Just you, your opponent, and the mat.
Now imagine a wrestling match that lasted all night long. Against God.
Jacob was on his way home after 20 years away. The next day, he would face his brother Esau, the brother he had cheated out of his birthright and his blessing. The last time Jacob saw him, Esau wanted to kill him. Esau was now coming to meet him with 400 men.
So Jacob sent his family across the river and spent the night alone. And that’s when a mysterious man showed up and wrestled with him until daybreak.
When the man saw he couldn’t win, he touched Jacob’s hip and wrenched it out of its socket. Most of us would tap out right there. But not Jacob.
“Let me go, for it is daybreak,” the man said.
And Jacob answered, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”
That’s persistence.
So the man blessed him, and gave him a new name: Israel, meaning “he struggles with God.” Jacob realized he had been wrestling with God Himself, face to face.
Jacob walked away from that match with a limp. But he also walked away with a blessing and a brand-new name. And the next day, Esau ran to meet him, threw his arms around him, and kissed him.
Jesus said we “should always pray and not give up.”
So hang on. Keep wrestling. Don’t let go until you get your blessing. You might walk away with a limp, but you will never walk away the same.
Prayer:
Dear Heavenly Father, thank-you for letting me wrestle with You in prayer. Thank-you for giving me the persistence of Jacob, so that I will hold on and not let go until You bless me. Thank-you for the new name You have given me. In the name of Jesus, Amen.
Wikipedia: Jacob, Jacob wrestling with the angel, Esau
Look-It Up:
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, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.” But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” The man asked him, “What is your name?” “Jacob,” he answered. 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.”
Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.
Free Bonus:
Jacob named the place Peniel, meaning “face of God,” saying, “It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared” (Genesis 32:30).
The entire nation of Israel takes its name from this wrestling match.
Jacob was the father of twelve sons, who became the twelve tribes of Israel. His favorite son was Joseph (see Pray 4 Favor).