You ever read Scripture one day and the next time you read it, a totally different light is shed upon it and it speaks to you in a totally different way?
Okay, so, we should all be familiar with the story of Jacob and the rivalry between him and his twin brother Esau that had its beginnings in the womb…
Then at last she became
pregnant. And it seemed as though children were fighting each other inside
her! (Genesis 25:21, 22 TLB)
Upon their birth, Esau, emerged first with Jacob following
closely and clinging to his brother’s heel (v 26). This is the reason for him
being named Jacob which means, supplanter or tripper.
A supplanter is a person who purposely takes over or takes the
place of someone else that was there first by means of trickery or deceit; it’s
derived from the Latin word supplantare, meaning to trip up or
overthrow.
So that was who Jacob was born as and he lived up to his
name; Jacob cunningly induced Esau into trading his birthright to him for red stew
(v 29-34) then, together with their mother, Rebekah, took advantage of the blindness
of his father Isaac and deceived his father into imparting to him the paternal blessing
meant for Esau, the first-born son (Genesis 27).
And with that, the rivalry between the two brothers became ominous,
with Esau, upon hearing of his twin brother’s treachery, vowed to kill him. Aware
of this threat, Rebekah persuaded Isaac to send Jacob away to his grandfather’s
hometown where he chose a wife, which is a whole other sordid tale (Genesis
29:46-30:34).
So Isaac sent Jacob away, and
he went to Paddan-aram to stay with his uncle Laban, his mother’s brother, the
son of Bethuel the Aramean. (Genesis 28:5 NLT)
Many years had passed and God tells Jacob to return to his
homeland, after outsmarting his equally as conniving father-in-law Laban (he
just couldn’t help himself) he, along with his entire household pack up and
leave, this too is a whole other mess of a story with Laban pursuing Jacob and
so on and so on (Genesis 31).
Jacob’s route back to his homeland would take him through
Edom, where Esau lived so he sent messengers to his brother (Genesis 32:3-5).
After delivering the message,
the messengers returned to Jacob and reported, “We met your brother, Esau, and
he is already on his way to meet you—with an army of 400 men!” (v 6
NLT)
So, Jacob learns that Esau is coming to meet him, he is near
and he is accompanied by a formidable force. Jacob was not just scared; he was terrified at the news (v 7) so he did what
came naturally to him, he devises a scheme to win his brother over by sending
gifts (v 13-21).
Jacob thought, “I will try to appease him by sending gifts ahead of me. When I see him in person, perhaps he will be friendly to me.” (v 20)
Jacob sent everyone and everything away that night. He’s completely alone at night in the wilderness, yet a man appears out of nowhere and they begin to wrestle. And they wrestle, not for half an hour, not for 2 or 3 or even 4 hours; Jacob and this stranger wrestle until the breaking of the day (v 24).
Throughout his life Jacob had wrestled with everyone, but
this was different.
As dawn approached, the stranger touched Jacob’s hip socket and
instantly cripples him and still Jacob clung to the stranger more tightly, refusing
to let go of him until he blessed him and the man blessed Jacob but not before
asking Jacob his name and not until Jacob told him his name.
Jacob eventually realizes that it was God with whom he had
wrestled.
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.” (v 30 ESV)
This all seems unusual but it’s all very significant.
First, why would God wrestle with Jacob?
You see, we’ve always looked at this account as Jacob
wrestling with God and we often use it to justify the things we hear and repeat
like “We have to wrestle with God’s Word” and “You must wrestle with
God when faced with problems” and “Wrestle with God in prayer” but
it is not about Jacob’s or our wrestling, this lesson is about God wrestling
with Jacob.
Yes, we have it the wrong way round, Jacob didn’t wrestle
God, God wrestled Jacob.
And Jacob was left alone.
And a man wrestled with him (Genesis 32:24 ESV)
Also, the story isn’t really about the wrestling; it goes
deeper than that.
Beloved, God had already promised that Jacob would be
blessed before he and Esau were even born (see Genesis 27) but Jacob spent
years trying to obtain God’s blessings by manipulating circumstances and depending
entirely on his wits and his clever deception to get through life.
Also, the blessing was never the issue, the issue was Jacob’s
inability to trust God.
Can you relate?
Throughout his life, Jacob keeps attempting to accomplish God’s
purposes by his own efforts. He knew of God’s promise, however, Jacob went
about his whole adult life trying to make it happen; he lived life trying to fulfil
the promise himself.
It reminds me of a televangelist I came across once, who was
asking people to send money so that the Russian Jews could go to Israel to
hasten the second coming of Jesus.
Trusting in himself, Jacob tried to control every possible
outcome. He trusted in his own abilities, determined to accomplish through
flesh what God had already promised through grace.
Second, why didn’t God just zap Jacob into submission?
Yes, God could have defeated Jacob instantly and easily, but
the issue was neither God’s strength nor His ability to wipe the floor with
Jacob, the issue was Jacob’s surrender.
Jacob had believed God’s promises but he had never
surrendered anything to God – not himself, not his circumstances, not his life,
nothing at all. It was time to surrender.
Can you relate?
As you know, God has unlimited power and had that power the
entire time that He wrestled with Jacob, but He persisted with Jacob for a
reason.
In Hosea chapter 12 we read,
In the womb he took his
brother by the heel, and in his manhood he strove with God. (v 3-4a
ERV)
God allowed the wrestling to continue in order to bring
Jacob to the end of himself; to break Jacob’s self-reliance, to greatly diminish
his self-confidence and so that he would lose his self-sufficiency.
Jacob had to understand that he could no longer depend on
his way of living, he had to trust in and depend on God’s way. It was time to
surrender.
Third, why did God ask Jacob his name, seeing that He already
knew who Jacob was?
And he said to him, “What is
your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” (Genesis 32:27 ESV)
Jacob – deceiver, supplanter, trickster, schemer, liar, thief,
tripper, heel grabber.
Jacob, the man who characterized all the meanings of his
name, by confessing and acknowledging who he is, was forced to finally come to
terms with the truth about who he is and what he has been.
It was necessary for Jacob to make a declaration of his
identity out loud. Then God changes his name to Israel (v 28). God gave Jacob a
new identity and Jacob was re-born.
But one question remains unanswered.
Why did Jacob cling and refuse to let go?
Jacob said, “I will not
let you go unless you bless me.” (v 26 ESV)
This was the moment that Jacob realized that the only source
of blessing is God, and then and only then did he fully understand that the
time to surrender had come and he let go. He had become Israel and God established
a new relationship with the new man.
Beloved, isn’t it time to surrender?
Amen †
Shelley Johnson “Time
to Surrender” © 2026 July 1, 2026
