Genesis 32:22-32 English Standard Version
Jacob Wrestles with God
22 The same night he arose and took his two wives, his two female servants, and his eleven children,[a] and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. 23 He took them and sent them across the stream, and everything else that he had. 24 And Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day. 25 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. 26 Then he said, “Let me go, for the day has broken.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” 27 And he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” 28 Then he said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel,[b] for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.” 29 Then Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” And there he blessed him. 30 So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel,[c] saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered.” 31 The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip. 32 Therefore to this day the people of Israel do not eat the sinew of the thigh that is on the hip socket, because he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip on the sinew of the thigh.
Word of God for the Children of God
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
Genesis 32:24 is a Bible verse from the Old Testament where Jacob was faced with a great trial and wrestles with a man who turned out to be God.
Wow, that sounds almost too wild to be true.
Can we envision or imagine ourselves in 2026 wrestling with someone intent on causing harm to us and then discovering that someone turned out to be God?
God has a way of keeping the true shock value of a trial tucked away from our consciousness until after we’ve come out of it.
Thankfully, many times He hides the most severe part of what we are going through until it’s passed.
He knows all too well the fragility of our human nature, but He also sees the streaks of determination and resolve within us.
He created us with this miraculous blend of gifts, and He delights in growing them within us, causing them to emerge, mature, be revealed, brightly shining before Him and too before others, like the brilliant bloom of a fragrant flower.
Jacob had been through a lot of deception, wondering what trick was coming.
He worked twenty years of hard labor for his Uncle Laban, who deceived him when he promised he could wed Rachel his daughter, but instead he gave him Leah. He made him work another seven years before he could wed Rachel, and intentionally cheated him of his wages 10 different times (Genesis 31:38-42).
In all this, God blessed Jacob, and when Jacob left Laban and headed back to his home country, he was accompanied by his wives, children, flocks and herds in abundance.
Jacob didn’t just wrestle with God for a night.
He wrestled with him 20 years during Laban’s authority and oppression over him. But God was subtly growing something better in Jacob through this time.
As a young man, Jacob along with his mother, had deceived his father into giving him his brother Esau’s birthright blessing.
Esau was furious and vowed to kill Jacob, and so Jacob fled for his life.
But after 20 years of working for someone who had successfully deceived and oppressed him, and at the exact right moment God said it was time to go home.
Now Jacob was hemmed in by an oppressive and angry boss behind him, and a brother before him, who twenty years earlier wanted him dead , and now God in the form of a man was brought into the light and observed wrestling with him!
Do not we feel like that sometimes, like there are crafty deceptive forces all around, closing in on us, surrounding us, squishing, with no escape in sight?
Jacob had a lot at stake.
He didn’t give up.
Hung onto Him as if his whole life and his future would just vanish.
He knew God had been with him and had blessed him with family and wealth, despite Laban’s efforts to keep him down.
We all will endure diverse and various trials and tribulations of all sizes and strengths, in all forms and manners possible.
Be resolute in your belief and lay claim to it.
In Genesis 32:24, Jacob was left alone as he sent his family and flocks across the stream keeping them safe from the possibility of an impending attack coming from his brother.
Matthew 4:1-10 Christian Standard Bible
The Temptation of Jesus
4 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 After he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3 Then the tempter approached him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”
4 He answered, “It is written: Man must not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”[a]
5 Then the devil took him to the holy city, had him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, 6 and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down. For it is written:
He will give his angels orders concerning you,
and they will support you with their hands
so that you will not strike
your foot against a stone.”[b]
7 Jesus told him, “It is also written: Do not test the Lord your God.”[c]
8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. 9 And he said to him, “I will give you all these things if you will fall down and worship me.”[d]
10 Then Jesus told him, “Go away,[e] Satan! For it is written: Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.”[f]
He was all alone,
There was no person, to cling to or connive, for help or comfort or protection.
Isn’t that usually when we become aware of God’s Presence, when no one else is around, and most especially when we are in between a boulder and a hard place?
We wrestle, struggling and striving for victory, for relief, for peace, for freedom and for safety, security, enduring love, for joy and sometimes for our very life.
Do we actually have that authentic, immovable unshakable resolve to hang on?
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
Praying …
Prayer for Rescue from Enemies.
A Psalm of David.
35 Contend, Lord, with those who contend with me;
Fight against those who fight against me.
2 Take hold of [a]buckler and shield
And rise up as my help.
3 Draw also the spear and [b]the battle-axe to meet those who pursue me;
Say to my soul, “I am your salvation.”
4 Let those be ashamed and dishonored who seek my [c]life;
Let those be turned back and humiliated who devise evil against me.
5 Let them be like chaff before the wind,
With the angel of the Lord driving them on.
6 Let their way be dark and slippery,
With the angel of the Lord pursuing them.
7 For they hid their net for me without cause;
Without cause they dug a pit for my soul.
8 Let destruction come upon him when he is unaware,
And let the net which he hid catch him;
Let him fall into that very destruction.
9 So my soul shall rejoice in the Lord;
It shall rejoice in His salvation.
10 All my bones will say, “Lord, who is like You,
Who rescues the afflicted from one who is too strong for him,
And the afflicted and the poor from one who robs him?”
Psalm 15 English Standard Version
Who Shall Dwell on Your Holy Hill?
A Psalm of David.
15 O Lord, who shall sojourn in your tent?
Who shall dwell on your holy hill?
2 He who walks blamelessly and does what is right
and speaks truth in his heart;
3 who does not slander with his tongue
and does no evil to his neighbor,
nor takes up a reproach against his friend;
4 in whose eyes a vile person is despised,
but who honors those who fear the Lord;
who swears to his own hurt and does not change;
5 who does not put out his money at interest
and does not take a bribe against the innocent.
He who does these things shall never be moved.
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
Loving God, Living God, Loving Hope, Living Hope, Loving Living Life His Way! "Many things are possible for the person who has hope. Even more is possible for the person who has faith. And still more is possible for the person who knows how to love. But everything is possible for the person who practices all three virtues." - Brother Lawrence (1605-1691), Practicing the Presence of God (1692). 