He said he thought it meant just an exclamation and so we all had to look it up (you know, research it) and we found out it was now being used as an exclamation by young people when you doing something good like when you score a goal or something and you say it real loud. Yeet! So, of course, we used it all through the meeting to make ourselves feel young again.
I’m not going to get used to saying it though, because, like so many other slang words that young people come up with, it’s probably not going to last. I doubt if the next generation will continue to say “yeet” and that’s okay with me. Some things are meant to last and some aren’t. It’ll be just groovy with me if I never hear “yeet” again.
But, while some things don’t last and that’s okay, some things do last and it is regrettable. Anger, unforgiveness, bitterness and hostility are all things that we often wish would go away but don’t. Sometimes we experience it coming from others and sometimes we know we have it inside us and we wish it would go away.
Have you ever done something wrong to somebody and twenty years later you see them and it’s obvious they still hold it against you? You know where I see this the most? In families. A brother hurts another brother and they go twenty years without seeing each other and then at mom’s funeral, they can’t even be in the same room. All the rest of the family is wondering why they can’t just let it go and it’s embarrassing to everybody but pride ruins everything.
There is a story in the Bible where this just may be the case. Jacob is worried sick that this is the situation he is in and he should be concerned. You remember the story of how Jacob tricked Esau out of his birthright and his blessing? You can find those stories in Genesis 25 and 27. Esau has every right to be mad at Jacob. He has been tricked and deceived by Jacob since they were boys growing up as brothers and now, twenty years later, Jacob is going home and he knows he is going to have to face his brother, Esau, and it is eating him up. The last he heard from Esau, he had vowed to kill him.
So, let’s read what happens in this wild story. I want to start with just one verse in Genesis chapter 31 and then we will go to chapter 32 and read some more. As we read, be looking for all the ways that God shows up; all the miracles and incredible things that happen that show that God loves Jacob and is in control of the situation. Start with Genesis 31:3. It says, “Then the LORD said to Jacob, "Go back to the land of your fathers and to your relatives, and I will be with you." Now, skip over all kinds of drama and craziness to chapter 32, verse 3 and we will go through verse 11. Jacob sent messengers ahead of him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom. 4He instructed them: "This is what you are to say to my LORD Esau: 'Your servant Jacob says, I have been staying with Laban and have remained there till now. 5I have cattle and donkeys, sheep and goats, male and female servants. Now I am sending this message to my LORD, that I may find favor in your eyes.'" 6When the messengers returned to Jacob, they said, "We went to your brother Esau, and now he is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him." 7In great fear and distress Jacob divided the people who were with him into two groups, and the flocks and herds and camels as well. 8He thought, "If Esau comes and attacks one group, the group that is left may escape." 9Then Jacob prayed, "O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, LORD, you who said to me, 'Go back to your country and your relatives, and I will make you prosper,' 10I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness you have shown your servant. I had only my staff when I crossed this Jordan, but now I have become two camps. 11Save me, I pray, from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid he will come and attack me, and also the mothers with their children.
Stop there for a second. Do you see what’s happening? Jacob is going back to his homeland but his brother Esau is still there. He did Esau wrong twenty years ago and now he is afraid Esau is going to make good on his promise to kill him, so Jacob tries to bribe him, essentially giving him back the blessing he stole from him all those years ago.
Now, let’s read the good part. Go to verses 22-31. “That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two female servants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. 23After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions. 24So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. 25When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob's hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. 26Then the man said, "Let me go, for it is daybreak." But Jacob replied, "I will not let you go unless you bless me." 27The man asked him, "What is your name?" "Jacob," he answered. 28Then the man said, "Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome." 29Jacob said, "Please tell me your name." But he replied, "Why do you ask my name?" Then he blessed him there. 30So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, "It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared." 31The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel, and he was limping because of his hip.”
I remember reading this as a kid and wondering what in the world was going on. Then I read it again lately and I asked myself, “What in the world is going on?” It’s funny, I told my mother I was going to preach on this and she said, “I have always wondered what in the world was going on in that story.” Maybe you are thinking the same thing. Well, I’ll be honest. I still have some questions about this passage. I read every commentary and several other sermons and none of them explained this very well. Thankfully, we don’t have to understand everything about this to glean some wisdom from it.
Over the last few weeks, we have seen Jesus show up in the Old Testament one way or the other. We have seen picture of Him and types of Him. We have read prophecies that only He has fulfilled and we have recognized that the Old Testament is filled with Jesus and is written to make people want Jesus.
Can you imagine having to sacrifice an animal to cover over your sins and be right with God? Can you imagine not fully understanding God or what He wants or what He is like? Can you imagine having to follow a bunch of Laws that regulate every aspect of your life? That would be hard, especially for a church like us that doesn’t have any rules.
But Jesus came and changed all that. We are not under the Old Testament Law anymore and He is our model for who God is and what God wants and best of all, Jesus is the perfect sacrifice for our sins and all we have to do is believe in Him. But that word “belief” will mean a life-change and we see that in this passage because I believe that Jesus is in this passage in flesh and blood and I want you to see how He changed the life of Jacob. This is called a Christophany when Jesus shows up in person.
No, it does not say that the man in this story is Jesus. Jacob never uses that name. He never heard that name his whole life, but I guarantee you when Jacob got to Heaven and saw Jesus, he said, “Hey, I know you. You’re the guy I wrestled with that night. My hip still hurts because of you! Every time I walk, I think of you.” And I bet Jesus said, “Exactly!”
There are several times when Jesus showed up in the flesh in the Old Testament. Some of them are more obvious than others but one thing to notice and one thing that differentiates Jesus from any other heavenly being or angel is that when He comes, people are saved and changed, one way or another. They might be saved from the fire like the Hebrew boys in the book of Daniel or changed like Abraham and Sarah in Genesis 18 who thought they were too old to have kids. For Jacob here in Genesis 32, he was saved and changed and you will be too if you ever have a real encounter with Jesus Christ.
Do you remember when you fell in love and got married (hopefully to the same person)? Do you remember thinking how much you loved that person and how perfect they were…except for that one little thing? But you knew you would be able to change that person. It shouldn’t be too hard, right? It was just a small thing. Well, how did that work out for ya?
One of the hardest things to overcome in a marriage is thinking you are going to change that other person into who you think they ought to be. A happy marriage is accepting the fact that your partner is flawed and choosing to love them anyway. Going into a marriage expecting the other person to change is just asking for trouble.
But God’s relationship with us is not like this. All through scripture the church is referred to as the Bride of Christ but Jesus loves us too much to leave us as we are. I know that is how some people think about their spouses but it just doesn’t work for us. With God, it doesn’t work any other way. If you claim to be a Christian, a disciple of Jesus, part of Christ’s bride, then you will be changed - constantly and forever.
Look at this story of Jacob. He is worried sick. He has good reason to believe that his brother is going to come and kill him and probably kill his whole family for revenge. That’s why he split his family up, just hoping that when Esau attacked, at least some might get out alive. I can appreciate Jacob wanting to spend the night alone, away from anybody else so he could spend some time in prayer out in the middle of nowhere. There is nothing better when you wrestle with God.
Have you ever wrestled with God? Well, let me ask you something. What do you desire most? What is the one thing you want more than anything? If it is something physical, let me advise you to rethink it. Stuff breaks. Things wear out. Even people don’t last very long. What God wants most for you is change. So that ought to be what we want most. We should want what God wants even if it makes us uncomfortable or even brings pain because it is change that makes us most like Jesus.
Well, sometimes we have to wrestle with God to get the change we want. If you want to overcome addiction, it will require wrestling with God in prayer. If you want to save your marriage, it will require wrestling with God in prayer. If you want to see your loved ones come to have a relationship with Jesus, it will require wrestling with God in prayer. If you want anything big, know this, that Satan does not want that change in your life and he will fight you so we first have to wrestle with God in prayer.
It’s not that God is trying to be difficult. He’s just asking, “How bad do you really want it?” Jacob really wanted to live and not have Esau and his 400 men cut him into ribbons so he started praying. I want you to see that the first thing God did for Jacob and what He will do for you is to change your mind. He changed Jacob’s mind by putting him in this position and God often does similar things to us.
In verse 9, before the wrestling match, it says, “Then Jacob prayed.” God allowed him to be in this position, maybe even caused him to be in this position to change his mind and cause him to realize that he can’t get through this life on his own. Literally since Jacob was born, he was trying to get something over on somebody else. He was a trickster and a fraud. His very name means, “supplanter” or “heel-grabber” which is trying to get something that is not his. And so far, it was working out okay but God changed his mind by allowing him to be in a position that he couldn’t handle on his own.
I hear well-meaning people say all the time that God will never give you more than you can handle. That sounds good and sweet and nice but it is not true. God often times gives us more than we can handle just to show us that He can handle it. That is the very meaning of Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ Who gives me strength.” Without God there is not much that we can handle. I don’t want to try to get out of bed and make it downstairs without God’s protection, provision and grace, much less face this world and the prince of this world, Satan. I can’t handle that and I have proven it by all the mistakes I’ve made.
But it’s when I make those mistakes that God changes my mind and makes me understand that He is in control and He loves me. I don’t have to handle it. I don’t have to be strong enough or smart enough. Good grief, thank you, Lord! Sometimes I think I can handle what’s going on but, just like He did for Jacob, God changes my mind and oftentimes it takes allowing me to be in a position of helplessness like it was for Jacob.
So, God first changed Jacob’s mind but the next thing He did was change Jacob’s name. Did you see that in verse 28? "Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel.” If you’re ever on the island of Anglesey, Wales, be sure and visit a town with one of the longest names in the English language. It’s the quaint little village named Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch. No joke. (The short form is Llanfairpwllgwyngyll). The name means: “The Church of St. Mary in a hollow of white hazel, near to the rapid whirlpool, and to St. Tisilio Church, near to a red cave.” It’s a long name but it is very descriptive.
In Revelation 2:17 and 3:12, it says that when we get to Heaven we will get new, more descriptive names. But, when you come to have a relationship with God through His Son Jesus, we are given a new name right then. We are now Children of the One, True King and do you know what Children of the One, True King do? THEY ACT LIKE IT! They act like their lives have been changed because they have been changed.
Children of the One, True King don’t act like the rest of the world. They look different. They talk different. They don’t go to the same places. They don’t watch the same movies or listen to the same music. You don’t have to be a snob like royalty and look down on the rest of the peasants. You act like your Father acts. You act like Jesus acts. When people see you, they should see love and wisdom and purity because we come from a family that is loving, wise and pure.
Children of the One, True King don’t worry. What is there to worry about when your Father is the sovereign King, in control of everything and in love with you? Children of the One, True King don’t use coarse language. That would make the Father look bad and shame the Bride of Christ. But, Children of the One, True King are forgiving when other people do that because we have been forgiven much more.
Jacob was completely different after his wrestling match with Jesus. He thought different because his mind had been changed. He acted different because his name had been changed and he walked different because…his future had been changed.
I told you I don’t understand everything about this passage. I don’t know why Jesus wrestled with Jacob or why Jesus couldn’t take him down sooner. Jacob was nearly a hundred years old. That would be about like wrestling Troy so I don’t understand why they had to wrestle until daybreak. But in this wrestling match, Jesus evidently popped Jacob’s thigh out of joint or something equally as painful and it made Jacob limp.
The commentaries are full of ideas about why it happened just like it did but I think Jesus wanted to give Jacob a reminder that his future had changed. He no longer had to worry about Esau. He no longer had to try to do everything himself. He no longer had to be tough enough or strong enough or clever enough because he wasn’t any of those things and Jesus wanted to remind him of that and now, every time he stood up, sat down or walked there was a constant reminder.
I don’t know how people do it that don’t have a relationship with God through His Son Jesus. How do you go through life without the Holy Spirit of God living inside you giving you wisdom? How do you get by without a church family to support you? That’s how Jacob had been all of his life and now Jesus has changed his mind, his name and his future and Jesus wants him to remember that he has this new source of power and peace and so Jesus gives him a permanent reminder.
From 2010 to 2012, I wondered every day how much longer this church was going to last. We were in a huge beautiful building in Runaway Bay that we couldn’t afford and every month we were getting closer and closer to running out of money. Between the electric bill and the rent, it was considerably more than the 10-20 members could afford and on top of the finances, this church was full of what my dad calls Brother Thundermuffins.
You know the kind: old, grouchy, complaining and looking for somebody to boss around. Yea, this church had more than its share and I was just waiting for the money to run out so I could get out of here. But, to make a long story short, God provided this place for us to move into and provided another church to move in over there and pay all the bills. So, to honor that and to remember what happened, I got some gravel from that old parking lot and did sort of what the Israelites did when they crossed the Jordan in Joshua chapter 4. I put those pebbles in this little container.
Again, making a long story short, that situation lasted one year and we were back to having to pay for that building that we weren’t even using now but God provided a way we could just give it to the bank and be rid of that responsibility forever. It was just God providing for our finances and He even allowed all the Thundermuffins to go someplace else and so I got another little container and put another twelve pebbles in it as a reminder.
Ask me about it later and I will give you more details about all the miracles God did but as a reminder to me and everybody else, we have these two little containers to remind us of how God took us from across the Hwy 380 Jordan and brought us over into the land where we are called to be; where we minister by His grace and for His glory to the poor, the addicted and the incarcerated and we do it because that is what God wants.
God wanted Jacob to have a constant reminder that his future had been changed and so He made Jacob limp. He wants us to have a constant reminder that our future has been changed and so we keep these silly little rocks to remind us. He wants you to remember that your future has been changed too because Satan loves to attack us by making us question what really happened.
He did it to Eve in the garden when he asked, “Did God really say that?” and he has been using that method of attack ever since. He loves to say, “Hey, come on. Let’s go do that thing we like to do.” And when you resist, Satan says, “Did God really say it was wrong?” So, you have to know what scripture says.
He loves to make you think you have never been saved so you need to write the date and time and place down in your Bible so that when Satan comes at you with that lie, you have a permanent reminder. The other way that Satan attacks is by making you think that you are a Christian when you really aren’t. I hear people say all the time, “I’ve just always been a Christian” and immediately a red flag goes up for me.
Your testimony ought to include a definite time in your life when you submitted your will to God like Jacob did. You might not know the exact time and place but that decision ought to be concrete in your mind. Was there ever a time in your life when you were like Jacob and felt scared and alone and then one day Jesus came along and changed your mind, changed your name and changed your future?
If you don’t know for sure that your future includes Heaven for eternity, I need to pray with you right now. Ask God to forgive you of your sins. Repent of that lifestyle and allow God to change you today and every day to come to be more like Him. This relationship with God through His Son Jesus will not solve all your problems or remove the consequences from your bad decisions but your future will be changed and it includes peace and joy in this life and Heaven in the next life. Make that decision right now as the music plays.
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