Wrestling with God—Come let’s Reason Together

Genesis 32:24 Then Jacob was left alone; and a Man wrestled with him until the breaking of day.

All of us have had needs. All of us have had wounds cut so deep that only God could nurse. We have all received fear of men—bosses that have threatened to fire us, landlords that have issued evacuation notices, lecturers that have promised to serve us retakes and doctors that have proclaimed stage 4 cancers among others.

According to the level of knowledge we have, we’ve all prayed differently. Some have cried out. Others have wept. Others have fasted. Others have spoken.

Like all of us, Jacob was in that deep heat of the moment. The Bible doesn’t mention where the man came from. But it still leaves clues of the condition under which the man manifested. Notice it is man with a capital ‘M’. This is not just any man. This is God in flesh.

The condition states: Then Jacob was left ALONE. Once the factor of solitude is set—where in today’s setting one has to shut the door behind their room—then the Man will appear. This is the secret place!

For Jacob, it was actual wrestling. To us, it is allegorical. We do not have to engage in the physical exchange of punches and tackles, but involve the mental, the oral and the heart faculties. Jacob wrestled ALL night. That lets us know of the consistency & grit he had. That could have been hours and hours. Many of us can barely stand for 30 minutes in prayer.

This could have been Isaiah 1:18 in play. Though Jacob’s reason to wrestle was to be saved for what he’d done to Esau, it was him coming to reason together with God. He must have been saying (in today’s setting)…

‘God you said you’d give me the land on which I step on, but what use is it if I’m dead..’

‘You said you’d keep me wherever I go and bring me back to that land. You said you’d never leave me until you’ve done what you promised. Don’t leave me yet. My brother can’t kill me!’

Waiting on God in this way means waiting on His promise as well. Recalling what He said doesn’t help Him but us, for He doesn’t forget what He promised. When we don’t feel the peace or the results, we have to keep waiting & continuing to give thanks; that He answers us before we call. Waiting isn’t just begging Him to protect you! Didn’t He say He would! Why beg Him again?

The other kind is when things seem to go south—apart from what He promised. Maybe He said a job of USD10000 was coming, but then an opportunity for only half of that surfaced. Wrestling is going back to say, ‘Sir, you promised 4 zeros, and not 3!’

When God says a tithe is a tenth of our increase, why then should we think that for July, He’ll redefine it as a twentieth! He isn’t a man that He should lie nor alter the word that has gone out of His mouth. Wrestling is then waiting and tarrying for the EXACT thing He said.

Wrestling with Him is when He came to Hezekiah and said he was going to die in a few. Hezekiah (in today’s setting) must have turned to the wall—after Isaiah having left—and wept on promises like, ‘God you said you’d satisfy me with long life. Why the sudden change of mind!’ … ‘You said I’d see up to the fourth generation, and being a hundred would be just infancy...’

Isaiah said, ‘Set your house in order, for you shall die and not live.’

Hezekiah must have ricotcheted, ‘But you said in Psalms that I’d live and not die … and I’d see your goodness in the land of the living!!!’

The result? … Fifteen extra years of life!

As we have seen, there’s a place in God where deals can be made. This is beyond just attacks from the enemy. This place isn’t for those that say ‘God no longer speaks to men.‘ These are the kind who’ll ‘amen’ every voice. These are those that perish when any judgement—even that which is not of God—is spoken over them, for they lack knowledge.

Some religions have taught that God can only be accessed through dead saints and that we need those very ones to intercede on our behalf for ‘God spoke to them and can’t do it again’. Meanwhile the very Bible says the dead have no business with the living, and if claims say God can’t speak to men today, then why would He call us to reason together with Him?! The veil was torn betwixt friends—rent into two! That we may have access to the holiest of holies.

In this place is where deals can be made. In this place, we get an opportunity to also write or create the life we want to see. Here, we can change God’s mind. Abraham did when God came to tell Him that He proposed the destruction of Sodom & Gomorrah in its entirety. Abraham remembered his nephew Lot. And God accepted to save him out of the doomed ones.

God wanted to kill Moses. But Zipporah saved his life in Exodus 4:25. God’s mind was changed. When God was angered by the Israelites, He sought to kill them. Moses stood in the way, and God’s wrath passed over. We have seen Hezekiah make God change His mind as well after having sentenced him to death. Even Rebekah inquired … Her asking was some form of reasoning with God;

Genesis 25:22-23 But the two children struggled with each other in her womb. So she went to ask the Lord about it. “Why is this happening to me?” she asked. And the Lord told her, “The sons in your womb will become two nations. From the very beginning, the two nations will be rivals. One nation will be stronger than the other; and your older son will serve your younger son.”

Wrestling with God was when Rachel had no children. I imagine her today, roaring in tongues as she walks back and forth her prayer closet. God indeed remembered her, and opened her womb (Genesis 30:22). This was the same with Hannah, who later got Samuel.

These are all different ways of how men and women wrestled with God: Through fervent prayer!

Now the story of Jacob continues; ‘Now when He saw that He did not prevail against him, He touched the socket of his hip; and the socket of Jacob’s hip was out of joint as He wrestled with him. And He said, “Let Me go, for the day breaks.” But he said, “I will not let You go unless You bless me!” So He said to him, “What [is] your name?” He said, “Jacob.” And He said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel; for you have struggled with God and with men, and have prevailed.” (Genesis 32:25-28)

God wasn’t prevailing against Jacob. This is equivalent to how the amplified version says ‘keep on asking and it shall be given unto you.’ It’s like that judge who got irritated by a widow’s unceasing call for justice that he’d no longer keep her away but give her what she needed. Even when Jacob was disadvantaged from continuing to fight, he didn’t give in.

Why did the Man say ‘let me go for the day breaks?’ Verse 24 said Jacob wrestled with Him until break of day. The fighting went on for a specific duration. The coming of light, the dawning, the arrival of REVELATION indicated the end to the wrestle-match. As you pray, as you TARRY, lean in, listen in. God’s going to say something to you, that’ll answer your prayer.

Didn’t He do so for Hezekiah! Didn’t He say something to Abraham! He might come in a song. He might answer you by scripture. He might speak personally. Whatever it is, expect an answer. Don’t stop until it comes.

With the coming of day, came the change of name of Jacob. And it only happened because He not only contended (fought, argued, discussed, reasoned) with God (and men), but also PREVAILED (withstood, PERSEVERED & succeeded). Persevering with God would be standing on what He promised all the way contrary to what you see. That’s when reward will come! Persevering with men, is when they say (or do) what’s not of God, but you stand your ground.

With men, we see how Laban lied about giving Rachel for wife, but gave Leah instead. That wasn’t fair! Jacob waited anyway… When men are unjust, shall you be unjust as well? When they do evil, shall you return evil for evil? Or good for evil? The latter is the ‘prevailing’.

Back to the point of ‘the fight ending at the break of day,’ Isaiah said that the condition for arising and shining is your light (revelation) coming. (Isa 60:1) Jacob rose and shone and prospered into a nation from that point on at the change of His name. At the point of DAWN!

As you fight, as you wrestle with God, fight until dawn! Get alone! Don’t stop until that answer comes! Wait for your light! In case there’s a legislation from Him that you feel uncomfy about, reason with Him! If it changes not, then ask to see why it is so. For He alone has great plans for you! To prosper you and not to bring you harm!

About legislations that we are uncomfortable about, I have one example;

Jesus wrestled with God too! He sweated blood in the garden of Gethsemane. O boy! I imagine Him as a boxer in the preps, and He tells His coach — God the Father — that He couldn’t take it. He tries to convince His coach & manager to withdraw the fight. The coach rejects the proposal! The cup of suffering’s not taken away!

Maybe Jesus the man was overwhelmed by the weight of His purpose at that point in time. The fear that His father would forsake Him in a few clamped His heart. But like Jacob, He fought on. And His light came… This was the revelation He received ‘…nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done.’

Jesus had to stay all His power. Otherwise God’s will … would not have come to pass.

Matthew 26:53-54 ‘Or do you think that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He will provide Me with more than twelve legions of angels? How then could the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must happen thus?’

If the angels came, they’d have prevented His capture, for they’d be too glorious in battle! The prophecies of Jesus’ crucifixion would not have come to pass, and the men would have said God is a liar! Yet He is not a man that He should lie. Maybe this is a conversation God the father and son had during that prayer time. This was them ‘coming to reason together’.

When the son saw the stakes, He arose and put His boxing gloves on. The world had to trust God again! ‘You are more than a conqueror,’ the father said to the son. ‘You have all it takes! Walk by faith and not by sight. In fact, you were crucified before the foundations of the earth. You were lifted up, you won, and all men were drawn to us!’

Trust me even if I was Jesus, there’s no way I’d stay cringing after this motivational speech! Jesus therefore looked ahead and beyond the cross. He saw the joy that was set before Him and depended on it to endure the cross, to stay fighting in the ring, to despise the shame, and eventually, He sat down at the right hand of the throne of God, having had His right hand raised by the referee and declared the international-interuniversal champion of ALL TIME, having defeated Satan, sin, death, and darkness once and for all!

Therefore, be encouraged.

You have a new coach called the Holy Spirit to help you not just to wrestle with God in prayer where need arises … but to make another ALL TIME champion of you in the life ring … just like Jesus!

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Philippians 4:6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God;

James 5:16 The earnest (heartfelt, continued, fervent) prayer of a righteous man makes tremendous power available [dynamic in its working].