In the Mud of the Jabbok

Date: October 25, 2015

Audio Sermon: Click on the play button below.

Jacob is a key figure in the OT, and he is also a character who lives up to his name. The name Jacob means something like “deceiver.” When he was born, Jacob was grasping Esau’s heel, and “heel grabber” is a Hebraism that means he would be “a trickster.” There are several specific instances throughout Jacob’s life where he reveals his true colors as a deceiver and trickster. However, when Jacob is on his way back to see Esau after living with his uncle Laban for nearly twenty years, he ends up in a circumstance where he is once again struggling to get what he wants. But it is only when Jacob is at the end of himself does he begin to realize something about who he is. In Genesis 32:24-32 records an incident when Jacob was left all alone near the Jabbok River and he encounters an angel and wrestles with the angel all night. This brief account of Jacob wrestling near the Jabbok is tantalizingly obscure and shrouded in vagueness and simplicity. Few details are mentioned, but the account is a powerful turning point in Jacob’s life. Even though Jacob wrestles all night with the angel in the mud of the Jabbok, he ends up getting injured by the angel. But even with a hip out of sock, he is still unwilling to relent and concede defeat. This tenacious mentality has been what has driven Jacob much of his life, but it has also been the greatest obstacle for him. The angel of the Lord pronounces a new name over Jacob, indicative of the person (and the nation) that he would become, as well as who God would be for him. But if we will be like Jacob, trying to make everything happen and get things done our way, rather than God’s way, then we might also find ourselves wrestling with God in the mud of the Jabbok like Jacob. ~JW