Jacob’s Midnight Wrestling: The Night He Became Israel
by Jeremy Painter
August 26, 2026 · Abundant Hope Fellowship, Bremerton, Washington
Kind: Bible study
Scripture: Genesis 31:1-55, Genesis 32:1-32

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/jeremy-painter--jacobs-midnight-wrestling
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

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Brother Jonathan went through it last week, but because of camp and other events, he was not able to make it last week. So I think I should at least read through 31. Our main topic today though will be chapter 32, Genesis 32. All right, but beginning with 31, as you recall, the previous chapter, chapter 30 had been a passage of scripture telling us about the birth of the first eleven sons of Jacob, between his wife Leah and his wife Rachel, and then there were two maid servants in there. Also, we read a little bit early, we studied the subject of God's blessing upon Jacob, and the growth of his flocks. He attributed his success to a kind of what I might call about or has been called sympathetic magic, but it was the Lord that was favoring him, despite of laden trying to shortcut him and trying to make sure Jacob didn't thrive. And now we have 31. Jacob heard that the sons

of Laban, and you recall, the sons of Laban had taken a flock of sheep three miles and separated those, that flock of sheep to make sure that Jacob would not have, he would not have molted or spotted lambs and goats. All right, so he took all of the, he took all of those kinds of sheep with that gene and separated them from Jacob, Jacob's flock to make sure, because Jacob's steel was, he was going to get to keep all the spotted. All right, but that backfired me. And now Jacob hears in verse one, that the sons of Laban were saying, Jacob has taken all that was our fathers, and from what was our fathers, he has gained all his wealth. I'd like to mention right here, trying to think of the best way to say this, best way to put this, the rumor mill, the gossip mill, the hearsay, the expectation that might be placed on someone and because they've hosted you, and

then that relationship goes however, in spite of all of the problems that have come up in all of the people tend to forget the things they've done wrong. And they tend to remember the things they've done right in a relationship. Right? That's, that's what we do is what human beings tend to do. And we tend to regard other people according to the rights we've done people, and maybe you don't even see the wrongs. Now Jacob has come along and he has blessed Laban. He has made sure that his flock has grown and grown and grown. He's become wealthy because he brought in this, he brought in this bagabond who had only the clothes on his back and a staff. That's it. That's all he had. He took him in and that was a great, big, wonderful thing that he did for Jacob. But he exploited him right away. And then he exploited him again. He cheated him. He lied to him. He fooled

him. He deceived him. And then he tried to disadvantage him. But he's forgotten all of that. Jacob's son, or layman's son to forget all of that, all they remember is taking in this one bagabond once upon a time who didn't have anything. And so they're still going off of that part of the relationship and are not really counting all the things that have happened in between. Right? And that's just one of those characteristics of fall or fallen nature to be very unaware of our faults and very aware of our virtues and then to keep score. And how in the world do we have a situation now where the sons of laymen are saying, Jacob has taken all that was our fathers? We know that we just turned the page. So we remember what the last page said. We remember Jacob must lay them with his presence, his shepherding, his stewardship. But 14 years have passed, maybe even getting close to 20 now. Right?

And so the memory starts playing games with us. I would just say in form of Don, be very careful about keeping score or trying to keep score with people in life. We have been freely given, so we should freely give. Meaning you try to keep score. The more you're tempting your flesh to say four for me, one for you for 15 for me, two for you. That's what the flesh does. We're not good at keeping the score. And we've forgotten along the way the biggest score of them all. God, one trillion, me zero. That's the one we're supposed to build off of. So if you wonder, how in the world can Jacob's sons say this for laymen sons? How can they say that? Well, they're doing something really human right here. And this is one of the wonderful things about reading scripture. If you read the scripture closely and start seeing, oh, this is mirroring life. This is a human trait right here.

Verse two, And Jacob saw that laymen did not regard him the favor as before. And the Lord said to Jacob, oh, I should mention, Jacob saw that laymen did not regard him the favor as before. And underneath this in the English text, the Hebrew text, it's a, it's a, there's an idiom here that says, laymen has turned his face from me. Which the English just kind of translates as he doesn't regard me with favoring. Okay. But the literal Hebrew is he's turned his face from me. See, if you've heard the book of songs, the songs trying out Lord, hide your face from me, from my sins. They'll regard them. The priestly blessing in the Torah is the Lord bless you and keep you and make his face shine upon me. That is for, for someone to look at you in the face is for them to have some form of favor with you. And they turn their face away. Colovrio now just means

their, their heart is in another direction. In fact, they approach you. Okay. Laymen's turned his face from me. Verse three, And the Lord said to Jacob, return to the land of your fathers and to your kindred, and I will teach where I will be with you. So Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah into the field where his flock was and said to them, I see that your father does not regard me with favor as he did before. But the God of my father has been with me. You know that I have served your father with all my strength and your father's cheated me and changed my wages 10 times. But God did not permit him to harm me. If he said the spotted shall be your wages, that is the spotted lambs, shall be your wages, then all the flock will respond. And if he said the strike shall be your wages, then all the flock will strike. And in the previous

chapter, we didn't get all these details. We didn't get the detail of late and change in the contract at times. The company changed the contract one time it seemed like. But over the course of years, there have been several attempts of Laymen to see. He keeps on getting an advantage everywhere I try to set this contract against him. And it blows up in my face every single time. And whichever language I put in the contract, in my favor, ends up being against me. And whatever is in the contract that's supposed to be against him, ends up blessing him. It's sort of like a Balaam situation later on. Balaam is a pagan prophetess hired by a king, you know, to go out and curse the Israelites. And so he goes out on a mountainside and sees all the Israelites count down there and he's like, get this great big divine curse upon Israel. And he has to curse the mind. It's probably a curse

that he thinks has worked before. And he starts to say, speak the person instead of cursing out comes blessing instead. This is what is happening to me. Thus, God has taken away the livestock of your father, Jacob says, he's speaking to us. They have jaded in Rachel and given them to me in the breeding season of the flock. I've lifted up my eyes and saw a dream that the goats that made it with the flock were strives spotted in the mud. Then the angel Lord or the angel of God is very rare by the way, Neil tests the angel of God, Melik Elohim. It's usually an angel of Yahweh, angel of Lord, said to me in a dream, Jacob. And I said, here I am. And he said, lift up your eyes and see in all the goats that mate with the flock or stripes spotted in the mud for I have seen all that lady is doing to you. I'm the God

of death. Where you anointed a pillar and made a vow to me now arrives, go out from this land and returns the land of your kindred. Then Rachel and they answered and said to him, is there any portion or inheritance left to us in our father's house? Are we not regarded by him as forers? For he has sold us and he has it indeed devoured our money. They see the reset being sold for Jacob's labor, which is that hasn't come up before. That's interesting. But he's devoured our money. So when you're start the marriage relationship, the prune to be offers the father a bride price. It's called notar. And then the father-in-law, if the marriage goes through, out of that bride price preserves what a dowry to give to the woman in case the husband ever dies or if he ever leaves or whatever the case is. So it gives her some form of security. But Maiden took the bride twice from Jacob.

That was his 14 years of service and all that was gained from that, 14 years of husband essentially, 14 years of taking care of her, she early the flocks and everything. And instead of instead of giving a dowry to his two daughters, he kept their dowry for himself. So they have nothing except for Jacob, which can, it's a violation of all the standards of marriage in the ancient world. So they have a beef with their father and Jacob taps into that. He knows they have this beef. And for 16 all the wealth that God has taken away from our father belongs to us and to our children, these ladies speaking. Now then whatever God has said to you, Jacob, do. So Jacob arose and set his sons and wives on camels. He drove away all his livestock, all his property they gained, the livestock in his possession, but then they fired him to Donald. To go to the land of King, to his

father, Isaac. Laban had gone to shear his sheet, fortuitous timing, and Rachel stole her father's household gods. And Jacob tripped Laban, the Aramean, by not telling him what he intended to flee. He fled with all that he had in the rose and frost of Euphrates that set his face toward the hill country of Gilead. When it was told Laban on the third day that Jacob had fled, it was a few days before they had started. He took his kinsmen with him, pursued him for seven days, and followed close after him into the hill country of Gilead. But God came to lay the Aramean in a dream by night and said to him, just as he had with Aldi Malik a couple of times, a couple of different kings, be careful not to say anything to Jacob either, or that. I don't know if that's a, again, a hypergidium for, don't try to make any more deals with Jacob, your time for dealing, making

covenants with him, to try to keep him, that's over. Or if it literally means, don't say anything to him, be silent. Whatever the case, if it meant be silent, Layton doesn't keep that at all, because he's going to give one of the longest speeches in the Old Testament, the nearest development. And Layton overtook Jacob. Now, Jacob had pitched his tent in the hill country, and Layton with his kinsmen pitched tents to the hill country of Gilead, and Layton said to Jacob, what have you done that then you've tricked me, and driven away my daughters like captives of the sort of nutwars. You, you had to have held off my daughters and forced them with a weapon to come with you. They're loyal to me. He didn't know his daughters very well. So he's speaking. Layton said to Jacob, oh, sorry, first twice I did. Why did you flee seeford? They entripped me and didn't tell me so that I might have sent you

away with mirth and songs with tambourine mire. Why did you not permit me to kiss my sons and my daughters there? Well, now you have done foolishly. It's in my power to do harm. But the God of your father spoke to me last night saying, careful not to say anything to Jacob. Either good or bad. Now you have gone away because you longed greatly for your father's house. But why did you steal my gods? Jacob answered, said Layton, because I was afraid for I thought that it would take your daughters from me by force. Anyone with whom you find your gods, Jacob, Jacob speaking, he's like, it's like the first time in his life he's trying to be honest. He's, he's, he's wrong because somebody in his party did steal those God of those statues. And he says, really rashly like Jephtha later, anyone with whom you find your God shall not live. And the presence of our kinsmen point out what I

have that is yours and taken. Jacob didn't know that Rachel was stolen. So Layton went into Jacob's tent and into Leah's tent and into the tent, the two female servants, but he didn't find them. And he went out in Leah's tent and entered Rachel's. Now Rachel had taken the house of God to put them in the canvas and sound. It's a really hilarious image right there. These are the gods of Layton, a lady sitting on the hilarious. This is such a pain comedic moment in the story. I mean, if I were watching this, I would just, I would laugh out loud. And then she's going to say, it's my time of the month. Double insult on those gods. So she said to her father, let now my Lord be angry that I can't wise before you for the way of layman is upon me. So we searched, but didn't find the household gods. Then Jacob became angry and berated Layton. Jacob said to

Layton, what is my offense? What is my sin? You've hotly pursued me for you have felt through all my goods. You have felt through all my goods. That is, that's really interesting because remember Jacob's last, the last time Jacob saw his father, you remember, and into his father's tent and his father felt in order to try and distinguish between Jacob and Esau. And here you've got this picture of Layton kind of stumbling around in the dark feeling around trying to find those little gods. These first 38, these 20 years I've been with you, your use, your female dotes have not been carried. I have not eaten the rands of your flock. What was tore by wild beasts I didn't bring to you. I bore the loss of it myself. So Shepard is kind of, he's a contractor of sorts for the owner. And if, if a, if one of the landsteads leaned by a wild animal, there's an attack with some time. Shepard

has to give an account for all the sheep. If he has lost one to that kind of scenario, then he's supposed to bring the cart leads to the owner so that that can be taken off. He's not in his care anymore. That's not, that's not the number that he has to bring back to the owner later on. Okay, but Jacob apparently all these years, what went on 20 years is not given up any of its lateral damage. And he swallowed that cost of, from my hand you required it, whether stolen by day or stolen by night. There I was by the heat to consume to me, the cold by night from my sleep fled from my eyes. These 20 years I've been in your house, I've been searching 14 years for your two dollars and six years to your flock. You've changed my wages 10 times. It's the God of my father, the God of Abraham and fear of Isaac. Only time in

the Bible, God has referred to as the fear of somebody. The fear of Isaac had not been on my side. Surely now it would have sent me away empty handed. God saw my affliction and labored my hands and rebuked you last night. Rare, that's a great speech. He's been waiting 20 years that's been pinned tight all of these years and it just comes out and it's even a poetic flourish in here. Then Lincoln answered and said to Jacob, the daughters are my daughters, the children of my children, the flag of my thoughts, all that you see is mine. Yeah, this is just as we said. What can I do this day for these my daughters and for their children? Come now, let's make a covenant you and I, let it be a witness between you and me. Jacob took a stone to set up as a color and Jacob set to his tent and gather stones. They took stones and made a heap.

They ate there by the heap. Layden called it Jadr Shahad. But Jacob called it the bead. I'm really like that right there. Layden is speaking in Aramaic. That's his mother tongue. Somewhere along the way Abraham's line speaks Hebrew. Aramaic and Hebrew are very closely related. Abraham came out of Syria where Aramaic was spoken. So over the course of time, a distinct dialect of Aramaic has developed in that Hebrew. And they set up this stone and Layden's going to call it an Aramaic name. And Jacob's like, I'm not going to speak your language. I'm going to call this after the language of my fathers. And so he uses a Hebrew word, the lead. Layden said, this heath is a witness between you and me today. Therefore, he named it the lead and misfa. For he said, the Lord watch between you and misfa means watch. The Lord watch between you and me. When we are out of one another site, if you oppress my

daughters, if you take wives beside my daughters, all of them know what is with us. See, God has witnessed between you and me. Then Layden said to Jacob, see this heath in the pillar, which I have set between you and me. This heath is a witness to the pillars of goodness. I will not cast away this heath to you. He will not cast away this heath. And this pillar to me is to do harm. And the God of Abraham and the God of Nahor, the God of their father judge between us. So Layden is a polytheist of some kind. So he believes in the God of Abraham to some degree, but doesn't really know who he is. And then he speaks of the God of Nahor as possibly another God, even though Abraham and Nahor were brothers. Remember, Abraham came out of a polytheistic pagan worshiping fan. So he's calling, he's trying to cover all of this basis. Layden is saying, this God

is going to hold you to it. This God is going to hold you to it. This God is going to hold you to it. I'm going to call out on all the gods. Well, what's Jacob do? Jacob was kind of a little bit of a pagan chapters earlier, but something's changed in there over the course of 20 years. He says, the God of Abraham, sorry, so Jacob is swerved by the fear of his founder, Isaac. And Jacob offered a sacrifice in the young country and caused him to eat, but then he won't use Aramaic to speak of this stone that's a witness. And he won't swear by the gods, only swear by the God of his father. They ate bread, stuck the night in hill country. Early in the morning, Layden rose to kiss his grandchildren and his daughters and blessed them. Then Layden departed and returned home. Okay, so I just read through this chapter because Johnson went through that last week.

I didn't make much commentary. This is a much prefer chapter. I'm going to try and go through this strictly, our remaining 20 minutes. Jacob went on his way. He will stop right there for a moment. Jacob's about to become Israel. He's about to become the patriarch, a great nation, a nation that's going to produce Moses and Aaron, David, Isaiah, the prophet, Ezekiel, the prophet, Daniel, and then ultimately Messiah, Jesus, and Linda, bosses, Paul and Peter, James, John. That's what Jacob's about to be. He's about to become Israel. But before that can happen, everything needs to go wrong, or, depending on your perspective, everything needs to go right. So this is the trap chapter of troubles. Jacob went on his way. The angels of God met him. If I've got angels all around me, I'm not too worried about trouble, but that might be a sign there is trouble. Do we each have angels around us? Do we? The scripture says that the angel

of the war in Egypt is around those. In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus said about little children. He said, speaking of children who are offended or children who are hurt or wounded, he said that their angels do always be called the face of their angels and child-takers. Yeah, according to the book of Hebrews, angels are ministry spirits who are sent into the world to save the or to minister unto the heirs of salvation. The trouble is, at least it seems, to be the trouble for us is we can't see them. And generally in the Bible, we can't see them either. And you read through the scriptures, and you see chapter one, there's a miracle. Chapter two, there's a miracle. Chapter three, there's an angel in the miracle. Chapter four, there's some kind of great big miracle. And it seems like if you're reading through the Bible, like in Bible times, a miracle happens just like it's Tuesday. Every Tuesday, every Wednesday, there's a

miracle on every page. It's like it is happening all the time. Do you know how many thousands of years are between some of those chapters? What was the difference back to long? Oh, he's still working in the plan. He's still doing great things. He still sends his angels to camp on those who fear him. He still takes care of us every single day. He still has angels dispatched as ministry spirits to make sure that you make it all the way to the end. He that began a good work and you finish as it is. He does that. You can't always see these things. And most of the time, it wouldn't even be good for us to see them. Jacob saw the dream of a ladder, but it was a dream and he could have just said, it was a dream. We have dreams of things that aren't actually happening all the time. I didn't actually see it. I just see you could rationalize

anything. Supernatural things could happen to us, but never underestimate the power of the human mind to rationalize it and bring it right down to earth and still us all the time. Just don't know about it. Like I said, in order for the greatness of Jacob to open up to him, everything is going to have to, but there's going to have to be a chapter in his life where everything goes. So it doesn't look like it's time of miracles. It looks like it's time of God's forsakenness. It's not the angels are there with him. And then in this case, Jacob saw it. He said, this is God's end. So he called the name of that place next to Hyatt. It's up there. All right. That place is going to be, this particular location is going to be important later on in the story of David. Story of David. David is going to learn that his son, Asimov, was killed at Mecca High. But that'll

be more important if we remember the story going forward. He called the name of that place Mecca High in which means two camps, like two military camps. Don't know what that means exactly yet. It could be applied in a whole different scenarios. It could mean that there's Jacob's camp. He's got a big group of people with him and then God's camp. That's the second camp. So there are two camps, but we're going to see in a few minutes that Esau is coming with a great big team. And so it could be the reference to Jacob's camp, to Esau's camp, or Jacob's going to split his camp in two. Don't really know yet. Jacob sent the passengers before him to Esau and his brother in the land of Seir, the country the Edom's instructing them. All right. Last time we saw Esau was 20 years ago. He had been spirit of all the birthright and the blessing of his father. And he goes out

and he marries a couple of Ishtia likes. And it seems that in the intervening period that Esau has become very wealthy, very powerful. He has a, he now has a army of 400 men. And that's big. It doesn't sound like much right now, but this is a time where the human race probably only numbers a couple of million and a whole one all playing and think or scatters spread out. And if you have 400 fighting age men with you, that's a massive force. It took a hundred less than that for Abraham to defeat the five kings of the East and their arms and we have 300 and some of them here. Esau has 400. So Esau has become rich, powerful, and maybe even famous because Jacob, Jacob sends messengers how I had where he, he hears that Esau is living now. And then here's the message to his messengers saying this, though she saw say to my lord, Esau, the change of tone

is, it's definitely kicked in here. I did not refer to him as Lord Esau 20 years ago when he was robbing and blind. All right. Thus says your servant Jacob. That's changed here. I have sojourned with Laban and stayed until now. I have oxen, donkeys, flocks, nail service, female service. I have sent to tell my lord, in order that I may find favor in your sight. In other words, I've done pretty wealthy. I went out to go find a wife and I'm coming back to the camp. I'm sending a message to you poking that I might find favor in your sight. In other words, forget everything, please, that I did to you. I'm a changed man. Now he doesn't tell how many he has. That's probably in Jacob's fate. Esau has to guess. The messengers return to Jacob saying, and dear brother Esau, he's coming to meet you. And there are 400 men with him. In other words, I'm asking, did he smile?

What was his tone? Play that back again? Say it one more time. One more time. How did he say that? What was it? Did he put the emphasis on? All he needed to hear was, and there are 400 men with him. Then Jacob was afraid, be afraid and distressed. He divided the people who were with him. There's that two camps. He divided the people who were with him and flocks and herds of candles into two camps, thinking if Esau comes to the one camp and attacks it, then the camp that is left will skin Jacob. Jacob is a planer, if nothing else. Jacob said, this is the first time in Jacob, in the story of Jacob that we see here, that he actually prays to God. This is for his first prayer. It might be his first actual prayer, but it's his first recorded prayer at least. He has referred to God in the past, like he did in the previous chapter, but

now we get to actually hearing. God of my father, he ran. God of my father Isaac, oh Yahweh, Lord, who said to me, return to your country, to your kindred, that I may do good. I am not worthy of the least of all the deeds of steadfast love and all the faithfulness that you've shown to your servant. Listen to this, this humility. He is his brother. Pretty sure his brother is about to kill him. It's all of his family. They give everything. This is a life or death prayer, and he needs to remind God to send me. I here is that you would be with me, whether I was outside the land or inside the promised land. I'm just, I'm unworthy of all the faithfulness that you've given me. The please versus I, oh, oh, I almost missed an Austin board in verse here. I'm not worthy of the least of all the deeds of steadfast love and all the faithfulness that you've

shown to your servant. Listen, for with only my staff and I crossed this door, now I become too serious. When I came into this country and I had nothing on my staff, now I have enough people and belongings to divide into two groups, camps, camps and military jobs. Please deliver me from the hand of, from the hand that he saw for a life fear him, that he may come and attack me, the mothers, but the children. You said, I will surely do good and make your offspring as the sand, the seed, which cannot be unburdened for most, he forget that for 20 years still. So he stayed there that night and from what he had with him, he took a present for his brother, he saw present. 200 female goats, 20 male goats. By the way, female goats are way more night. 200 youths and 20 grams, 30 milking camps, member of LEAs are a little bit 10 camps. And he was considered

bluffing 30 camps. There are cows, 40 cows. How fast can a cowboy walk? Pretty slow. I don't, I don't recall them moving very fast. So it's going to take a little while to get out to him. And maybe the, maybe the multi-purpose that Jacob has in mind is, first of all, maybe Butterton not going to show him that I've changed some. I'm getting him back, something that I took from him. I'm getting him gifts, but also if he's gone all these cows with it, it's going to take him a while to get to being in mind not to be able to chase him down. He's a pretty smart guy. There are 10 bulls, 20 female donkeys, 10 male donkeys. These he handed over to a servant. Every drove by itself said to a servant, pass on ahead of me and put a space between drove and drove. Okay. So he didn't have all of these animals all in one big group. He separated

them. We don't know into how many groups, but he wanted them staggered so that he would be a certain of the disgroup. And then he would hear the speech you saw and then hear all these animals and then, oh, okay. Well, I'm going to keep on going after my, my, my brother Jacob. And then two hours later he runs into the second wave. Here's another off. And then a third way, the fourth week, who knows how many he might have divided it out into as many five, six groups, something like that. That's really going to slow you saw now. Pass on ahead of me and put a space between drove and drove. He instructed the first, when Esau, my brother, meets you and asks us to whom do you belong, where are you going, and who's are these? I headed to you and you shall say they belong to your servant Jacob. They are present sent to my Lord Esau. And moreover, he's

behind us. He likewise instructed the second, third and all who followed the troves. You shall say the same thing that you saw when you find him. And you shall say all over your servant Jacob is behind us. For he thought I may appease them with the present that goes ahead of me. And after where I shall see his face, perhaps he will accept me. So the present passed on ahead of him and he stayed south that night and he came. Look at this. Get this after all of these years of trying to be first, first and everything, even out of the womb, he crashes, brothers heal. He doesn't want to come in behind anybody, even in his mother's womb. Finally, finally, he wants to be second. He wants to be behind. Man who's always wanted to be ahead is willing to be behind. There's been a complete change, complete change in Jacob. It took 20 hard years to make him into a better

man. One year on years. All right, verse 22, the same night he arose and took his two wives, his two female servants, his eleven children, and crossed the fort of the job out. The name sounds quite a good like Jacob, but it means something like wrestling. Again, to the Jabba River, it flows through a city of a long Jordan. And it's not a great big white river. In fact, it's just a tributary of the river Jordan, which itself is not a great white river. Nevertheless, I could not help feel a holiness and sanctity at that place right there and all of that very heavily muslin city. He took his family and sent them across the stream and everything else that he had, and Jacob was left alone. So now, okay, man that had a crude multitude of wealth and family members of children, he's right back where he started in many ways. And he's a lot. Some of speculate why he sent his

family across the river. Some of the speculation that I've heard is he's trying to send his family ahead of him, his children ahead of him, to hide behind them. It's a brother he saw at times this way. I don't think that's it at all. It seems to have stayed in order to encounter this particular being, whatever it is from the side. Now, look at the way the author of Genesis tells this story. He took them and sent them across the stream with everything else that he had. Jacob was left alone. And then just so casually, and a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day. I mean, that's a big deal. It starts out with an and, first of all, and then it's just one man, man, man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day. It's just just kind of casually stood there. And as if the emphasis is not upon that, it's upon something else. But look at

this wrestle message. Anybody in here did you do heisful wrestling? All right. I have some friends that did some wrestling. And those are some tough guys, tough guys. Heith doesn't always, it's not always to hear a bandage in that scenario. Strength is not always to get this to your advantage. But if you do not use it, otherwise, the way you try to be used against you. But if you wrestle with somebody, get on that mat. I've done it a few times, never competitively. It's always been with a grandpa or with my dad. One minute is all it takes to be done couple of days to be done to me for a couple of days. Wrestling is really hard. Wrestling only goes on for six minutes competitively. Six minutes. Jacob wrestled all night. It's you're trying just for an inch of leverage. Every muscle, fiber, ligament in your body, bone is being suppressed, constantly trying to gain just a little bit of leverage somehow.

Even ears are being pulled off. Shares being pulled off. Oh, my God. My favorite athlete of all time, besides Bo Jackson, is a Russian wrestler. He's still alive today. He has two doctors to give his theory. He retired from wrestling and decided to get into education. That guy just had throw people around at the Olympics. He lost one match in his entire life, one match. And that was by points. Hey, I was something else. Jacob wrestles with what turns out to be an inch all night. Jacob's a powerful man. Remember, he lifted up that stone that's on the wealth? He's powerful. He's taking care of himself against Lavin and three of his boys and all of his family by himself. He's he has handled himself just fine. But now for the first time in his life, really, he's met his match and it turns out to be an angel. But still, he wrestles with him all night. The man saw that he did

not prevail against Jacob. He could not overcome him or did not overcome him. He touched his head. All right. This is an angel who's obviously limited, brought his power mother down way, way down in order to make this competitive. But even at that, that voluntary laying down of power that reminds me a lot of the incarnation, even at that level, still he's dealing with a supernatural being and he was able to take him all night. I should mention, sometimes we think we're wrestling with God. I gotta wrestle. I'm wrestling with daughter in this. I'm wrestling with God over this problem. Just until he answers this, I'm just not going to get over this. I'm just wrestling this. And we talk often times about ourselves wrestling with God, but what if God wants to wrestle with you? He's wrestling with you. He's wrestling with me. We get to wrestle with God, but does he get to wrestle with us? We get to uphold God,

oppose God, but does he get to oppose us? When we get into that match, God can allow himself to allow himself to no humorous, wrestle with us for a while. Then it's tight. And just with a little bit of his power, just touches his hip socket. He didn't hit his hip socket. He touched his hip socket. And Jacob's hip was put out of joint as he wrested with him. What was Jacob done? Absolutely not. The angel said, let me go. The day is broken. But Jacob said, I will not let you go unless you bless me. Unless you bless me. He said to him, the angel said to him, what is your name? And he said, Jacob, it's like a confession. My name is Desima. And he said, your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you live stridden with God and with men and have pre-failed. Jacob asked him, please tell me your name. He said, why is it

that you ask my name? And there he blessed him. So Jacob called the name of the place and I will say, I have seen God face to face. And yet my life has been delivered. Remember the story is turned out with a fallen figure turning his face away from him. Amen. A more favor. Now he's face to face with God. God is in favor. God has seen the change that's come over Jacob. He wanted to make sure this change went deep. So he changed the way he walked from there. Jacob walked. If he's going to have a new name, he's going to have a new walk. He's going to walk with a limp to impressively. His life onwards, God is stripping all of his independence from him, showing him ease up against greater things. Finally, Jacob complies. The sun rose upon him as he cast a new lamping because of his hymn. Therefore, to this day, the people of Israel do not eat

the sin, the fire that's on the hymn socket. Because he touched the socket, Jacob's hymn was sinning out of the fire, not us doing. And that's it's up. All the greatest stories in the Bible have been there.