May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two maidservants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions. So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. When 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. Then the man said, "Let me go, for it is daybreak." But Jacob replied, "I will not let you go unless you bless me." The man asked him, "What is your name?" "Jacob," he answered. Then the man said, "Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome." Jacob said, "Please tell me your name." But he replied, "Why do you ask my name?" Then he blessed him there. So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, "It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared." The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel, and he was limping because of his hip. (Genesis 32:22-31)

In Christ's name and to his glory, dear friends: This is a beautiful and amazing account. Jacob is alone praying in the darkness and suddenly a man is next to him. The man is God in human form. Jacob's sighing and pleading suddenly become physical as well as spiritual. Jacob wrestles with God, struggles with him in the darkness, pleading for the Lord's blessing.

There is much in this account that reminds us of our Lord Jesus. There is the mystery of God in human form, the pleading and sighing-the wrestling with God in prayer-as Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane, there is the bitter agony of his wounds as Jesus in his passion, and there is the glorious victory as the sun came up as on Easter morning. Jesus Christ, the Son of Man, had fought for our Salvation and after the bitter battle he was victorious. And not only he, but also he shares his victory with us.

Today we want to look at this account from the viewpoint of our struggling with God in prayer, especially our struggle for forgiveness. But let us not ignore what I just said of how this account reminds us of the Lord's struggles for us. For without Christ's victory over sin for us, we dare not approach God to wrestle with him in prayer, nor could we hope for victory. Our sin would condemn us every time. Today we learn of ISRAEL - ONE WHO STRUGGLES WITH GOD. We will see the bitter struggle and the sweet victory.

This is the bitter struggle and sweet victory that the Jacob had that day. Jacob is returning to the Holy Land as the Lord commanded him (Gen31:3). It's been 20 years since he left. He left, you may remember, scared and in a hurry. He had tricked his blind father Isaac into blessing him instead of his twin brother Esau by dressing in Esau's clothes and making his blind father think Esau was in the tent. Do you remember? Esau had murder on his mind after that so Jacob ran. He went to uncle Laban's house. Here he continued in his trickery. The competition, envy and jealousy between Uncle Laban and Jacob made for bazaar events-a wedding where the groom was surprised to see who he had married, another wedding, wages for work being manipulated trying to get the upper hand in Uncle Laban's shepherding business. Do you remember all these events? Now God asks Jacob to go back, and Jacob is scared to death. Twenty years has not made Jacob forget what he had done to his father and to his brother Esau. His conscience still bothered him. And Jacob knew that if he still remembered then Esau would too, and Esau would still have murder on his mind.

So Jacob arrives near the Jordan River going into the Holy Land. He camps for the night on the north side of the Jabbok, a stream running east to west into the Jordan. News comes that makes Jacob anxious and worried for his family and his own safety. Esau is coming north to meet him with about 400-armed men! Esau must still have murder on his mind. Jacob prepares a lavish gift for Esau, some 580 sheep and goats, in hopes of winning Esau's favor. (The Lord has blessed Jacob amazingly over the past 20 years!) He sends these animals and shepherds south toward Esau and his men while Jacob, his wives and children stay north of the Jabbok. During a sleepless night he rouses his wives and kids--get across the Jabbok, start heading south. He stays alone on the north side of the Jabbok. He wants time alone to pray.

He begins to pray and suddenly in the darkness the man is next to him. He struggles and pleads. His praying is both physical and spiritual. The two wrestle. Picture it--banging against each other, one throwing the other down, muscles tense in grasps-and all the while the two speaking to each other in heartfelt, earnest conversation. After what may have been hours of wrestling with God, God touches Jacobs hip to dislocate it. Still Jacob clings to the Lord. Let me go, says God. No, says Jacob, not until you bless me. The Lord concedes and blesses Jacob.

What are we to make of this wrestling? Just this-here is a sinner, burdened with a guilty conscience, knowing all his problems are his own fault, in a hopeless position, helpless and pleading for help for the only one who can help, from the Lord himself. Here is a sinner even when he knows he's in a hopeless state, still foolishly thinks that if God would just give him one more request, do it "my way, God", the whole mess could be cleared up. Here is Almighty and merciful God who is too wise to be fooled into thinking that sinful man's ideas could ever succeed and not willing to bend one inch. Here is merciful God who knows he wrestles with a putrid sinner who made his own bed and now he ought to just lie in it and be damned, but God's mercy will not let the sinner suffer for his sins. Here is angry God and sinful man contending and you know who is stronger-the Lord Almighty's plans shall succeed! Finally, God makes his power known-he knocks Jacob's hip out of joint with just a touch. "You cannot keep your sinful plans and win!" But the Lord of power lets Jacob hang on. And behind the Lord's Almighty anger and power, Jacob sees something else-a Lord who loves to bless. He clings, he does not waver in his faith-"bless me as you have promised."

Here is our daily, hourly struggle with God. We stand on the bank of the Jabbok and Jordan every day. Across the river is not Esau, but the Lord Almighty with all his holy angels, and we cannot say, I choose not to cross. Today, tomorrow, sometime soon we must meet our Maker. Here we are in the darkness, all alone with our guilty consciences. What is our life, but one deception after another? I have not honored and love God always. I have not loved. I have hidden it from others, but my conscience and my God know. Now what will come of me? We cry out in the darkness, and suddenly God has come to meet us! We wrestle. We think we can make him see things our way that our excuses are legitimate that we have our reasons for not doing as he commands. The struggle gets fierce. God will not concede one jot of his law for us. His word cripples us-curse is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the law (period!). Wrenched with pain, we hold on. It's something he has quietly put there that makes us hang on. It's called faith. We see something behind the power that crushes us-it's his mercy. We cling. I will not let you go until you do as you promised!....I have, he says. I have carried your guilt. What you are so worried about...your sin...it is gone. I have filled you with the righteousness, the sinlessness, that is needed by the work, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. You are forgiven. I have a new day waiting for you, an everlasting day of peace. My victory is yours.

You are Israel - you wrestle with God and God has soundly defeated you. But in that defeat is victory, the victory that is yours in Christ. It is the victory that knows it's own sin and weakness and limps from it, mortal and living in a dying world. But God's grace comes with each new day. His mercies are new every morning. Our victory is sure in his grace.   Amen.