A Necessary Wrestling Match

 

Have you ever felt as if life is just beating up on you? Like no matter what you do it’s a struggle? You’re in a wrestling mismatch because you’re not winning?

Jacob found himself in a wrestling match but before getting into it, here’s the back story, which you probably already know, to give you some context.

Okay, so long story short…

Abraham’s son Isaac and his wife Rebekah had twin sons, Esau and Jacob. The younger of the two, Jacob, which means “he will follow”, “he will take a heel” or “he will supplant, deceive”, was given this name because he grabbed his older brother’s heel at the time of their birth. The name in Hebrew, Yah-kobe, is from the root “akab” which refers to a heel.

When the second baby was born, he was holding tightly to Esau’s heel. So that baby was named Jacob. (Genesis 25:26 ERV)

After they were grown, Jacob conned Esau, the first-born, into relinquishing his birthright to him for a bowl of Lentil stew (see Genesis 25:29-34). Esau favoured his belly more than his rights as the first-born son.

Isaac loved Esau, while Rebekah preferred Jacob and that’s where the real bacchanal started. You see Esau as the first-born was to receive a divine blessing conferred on him by his father, Isaac but Rebekah, overhearing a conversation between father and his first-born son, devised a scheme to deceive Isaac into blessing Jacob instead (see Genesis 27).

The deception worked and Jacob obtained the blessing meant for Esau. This resulted in a yearslong animosity between these twin brothers.

So, baby Jacob from the womb, tries to usurp his brother’s “first-born son” privilege. Later, he exploits his brother’s hunger and cons him out of his birthright after which he deceives his blind father, invoking the Lord in order to corroborate his lie, to steal his brother’s God ordained blessing. Jacob wrestled God’s blessing from Esau.

Jacob’s life was thereafter marked by lies of his own making; he lived up to his name as supplanter, living life in his own strength through manipulation and deceit. Conniving and conning his way into acquiring worldly blessings from man.

My goodness. And imagine this sort of thing still happens today.

People scheming and lying to get that which is not meant for them or which they are not entitled to.

Anyway, there came a time when there was going to be a planned encounter between the two brothers (Genesis 32:1-6).

Not surprisingly, Jacob was scared out of his wits to meet Esau and prayed to God (see Genesis 32:7-12). He then prepared gifts for Esau, sent his family away and remained alone. That night, Jacob had an encounter before the planned encounter.

And Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day. (Genesis 32:24 ESV)

Jacob and this unknown man were in a wrestling match all night. Eventually, 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. Then he said, “Let me go, for the day has broken.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” (v 25-26)

Who was this man, Jacob may have thought.

Then the man asked Jacob his name and he told him, then the man said (v 27-28),

“Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.” 

Jacob had been in an all-night wrestling match with God! A damaged hip, a name change, the realisation that he had seen God face to face, and yet [his] life [had] been delivered (v 30)? This was not without reason.

For years I could not understand how Jacob could have won this wrestling match with God, surely to wrestle with God would be a mismatch in God’s favour. But then I realised something and maybe you realised it too.

In verse 26, when the man told Jacob to let him go and Jacob refused, it wasn’t that Jacob won the bout, he simply continued to cling to the man refusing to let go not because he knew it was God but because he was up to his old tricks of obtaining a blessing any way he could and for this Jacob ended up with his hip being put out of joint.

Beloved, God’s blessing does not come through deception or by force. Jacob ended up with a crippling in his hip socket and probably a lifelong limp; you are always rewarded for your actions right here on earth, whether those actions are good or bad the reward will be congruous with the action.

God’s blessings come only by His initiative; it’s not through scheming or schmoozing or conning or cunning or trying to control outcomes.

Yet still, because God’s gifts and calling are irrevocable (Romans 11:29), the blessing Jacob stole from Esau was honoured however, for it to take effect, the means by which it was acquired had to be transformed and that could have only been accomplished by a necessary wrestling match with God; it was then and is now, only by honest dependent struggle with God Himself.

It’s no coincidence that Jacob meets God and receives His blessing in the right way just before he is to meet Esau, from whom he received the blessing in the wrong way.

After wrestling with God Jacob is unable to stand on his own all he could do is cling to God and then and only then does he acquire a new identity, God gives him a new name and he becomes Israel, “he will rule with God”.

Beloved, transformation comes through surrender. God does not want to hurt you but just as He did with Jacob, He wants to change how you walk and move; He wants you to stop trying to control outcomes and cling to Him in a necessary wrestling match.

Amen †

Shelley Johnson “A Necessary Wrestling Match” ©2026 January 29, 2026