So we do not mistake who we are talking about Hosea goes on to say it was the Lord, the God of hosts, the Lord (Yahweh) is His Name, his covenant name with Israel. He found Him at Bethel And there He spoke with us, Even the Lord, the God of hosts, The Lord is His name.” (Hosea 12:3–5, NASB95) The prophet tells us that Jacob contended with God, that he wrestled with the angel of the Lord, which is how God appearing in the Old Testament is often described.
Yes, he wrestled with the angel and prevailed He wept and sought His favor. The prophet Hosea years later wrote concerning Jacob in Hosea 12:3-5, “ In the womb he took his brother by the heel, And in his maturity he contended with God. Who was this man? Jacob after this incident tells us that he saw God face to face. We are told in verse 24 that a man wrestled with Jacob until daybreak. But in his aloneness it was not Esau who hunted him down, but God. He probably sent them away so that if Esau found him in the night he alone would perish. Jacob was alone, it was night and he had just sent over the Jabbok all of his family and all of his belongings. But conviction alone could not solve his problems. Jacob was convicted of sin he had come to understand that he deserved nothing from the Lord. Therefore, to this day the sons of Israel do not eat the sinew of the hip which is on the socket of the thigh, because he touched the socket of Jacob’s thigh in the sinew of the hip.” (Genesis 32:24–32, NASB95) So Jacob named the place Peniel, for he said, ‘I have seen God face to face, yet my life has been preserved.’ Now the sun rose upon him just as he crossed over Penuel, and he was limping on his thigh. Then he said, ‘Let me go, for the dawn is breaking.’ But he said, ‘I will not let you go unless you bless me.’ So he said to him, ‘What is your name?’ And he said, ‘Jacob.’ He said, ‘Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel for you have striven with God and with men and have prevailed.’ Then Jacob asked him and said, ‘Please tell me your name.’ But he said, ‘Why is it that you ask my name?’ And he blessed him there. When he saw that he had not prevailed against him, he touched the socket of his thigh so the socket of Jacob’s thigh was dislocated while he wrestled with him. “ Then Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. Please stand for the reading of God’s Word and follow along as I read. Turn in your Bibles this morning to Genesis 32:24-32. Let’s pray and then get into our passage of Scripture this morning. Have you been there, have you come to a crisis of conviction? Have you realized that a part from Jesus Christ you are on the way to judgment and damnation? Last Sunday we saw Jacob come to this crisis of conviction. And whether or not God uses a tangible crisis to get us to this point, this is the real crisis to which we must come, a crisis of conviction. We will never be saved unless we are convinced that we are miserable, wretched sinners, unworthy of anything from God but damnation. This time Jacob was in a crisis that he could not see a way out of, it was in this instance that he could finally say, “I am unworthy.” This is a specific conviction, Jacob was talking about himself and himself alone when he said, “I am unworthy,” he was not making a general realization that “nobody’s perfect.” It is that specific conviction that I am unworthy that drives individuals to Jesus, the Savior. Up to this point Jacob had been prideful, arrogant, able to get out of any situation even if it had to be done in a sneaky, devious way. Sometimes God’s appointed means of grace is to get us stuck and afraid. I am sure that you have seen how the Lord has used a crisis in someone’s life to get their attention, it could be sickness, the loss of a loved one, an emergency, or a public embarrassment which God can use to humble our hearts and cause us to call on His name. God used it to show Jacob how foolish he had been and how he had offended the Lord. This crisis had arisen because of Jacob it was all his own doing. As we will see this morning, God put Jacob in this crisis, the reason the Lord had put Jacob in the middle of this crisis was so that finally he would turn his attention to the Lord. Because he was stuck, because he was afraid, he did what many of us do when we are afraid and stuck, he prayed as we learned last week. Jacob was in a crisis, he could not go back the way he had come because of the covenant he had just made with Laban, to go forward was to meet Esau and the 400 men that were with him coming to meet him.