God’s grace comes in many different forms and packages. Genesis 32 is one of them.
In this story, Jacob is afraid to come home to his father’s land and encounter his brother Esau, whose birthright he’d previously bought and whose blessing Jacob had stolen. In his anxiety, he sends his family, servants, and possessions across a stream so that he is left alone.
In his solitude, a man appears wrestling with Jacob until daybreak. Jacob was prevailing, so the man touched Jacob’s hip and put it out of the joint. Jacob wouldn’t let go of the man until he was blessed. In verse 28 the man replies, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men and have prevailed.”
The man left, Jacob gained a limp, and the encounter left him forever changed. Two defining aspects of his person were now altered: his name and his appearance. This transformation required persistence, suffering, and the hand of God. As Jacob – now Israel – came into this encounter with God anxious and desperate, he held on because he understood that struggling with God would produce far more than struggling alone.
So for us, we shall wrestle, we shall submit the moments of discomfort and discouragement before God, and we must not let go of Him. We’ll hold on while He touches areas of our lives, and we’ll live differently knowing that we will never be the same. We now walk changed, and we identify with the higher calling we have received. Wrestle on.