Let me tell you a story found in the Bible about Wrestling. Who here wrestles with their brother or sister, or mum or dad?
I need a big Jacob. [get a Jacob actor]
Jacob had used some mighty fine cooking to steal a lot of money from his twin brother Esau. Esau was so angry he wanted to kill Jacob. So Jacob has been running away from his brother for a long time.
Hop up, and lets run run run away form Esau [ jogging on the spot, slowly moving over to other side of stage]
But eventually Jacob decided to go and see his brother for the first time and say sorry and ask for forgiveness. He took with him all his family and lots of farm animals as gifts for Esau.
lets walk this way [walk 3/4 across stage] STOP! we've come to a river. IT's getting late so everyone camped on this side of the river.
Lie down and pretend to sleep.
Sometime, in the middle of the night, Jacob decided maybe it would be safer to be on the other side of the river.
So Jacob woke up all the family calling out "Wake up" [Jacob: Wake up!"]
Jacob took over all the things he owned, and then sent his family over to the other side of the river in the middle of the night. And Jacob ended up away from everyone, all alone on one side of the river.
And Jacob felt a little bit scared, all alone in the dark, knowing his brother could be close by and wanting to attack him.
I need another man [get angel actor, and follow along with the story's actions]
Suddenly out of the darkness, a man came and grabbed Jacob, maybe on the shoulder.
Jacob didn’t know who it was, it was so dark, and he wasn’t going stop and find out, because it could be his angry brother, or one of his brother’s soldiers, who was about to attack him with a sword, and even kill him.
So do you know what Jacob did?
He instantly grabbed this person, held him as tight as he could, and didn’t let go.
He didn’t want to let this person start hitting him, or even worse get their sword out to start poking him with the sword.
Jacob probably didn’t have anything to fight with, just his hands. So all he could do to save himself was to grab hold and wrestled this person in the dark.
Do you know how long Jacob wrestled with this person? The Bible says until the sun was coming up. So that is hours!
Have you ever been awake all night, until the sun starts coming up. It’s a long time.
Can you imagine wrestling all night. Holding on to this man as tight as he could.
When the other man saw that Jacob would not stop wrestling him, do you know what he eventually did? He touched Jacob's hip [boop], and the most amazing thing happened? His leg popped out of its hip socket. And he would have screamed in pain. [AAUUGGHH!!] but STILL held on tightly.
The man said,
"Can you please let me go? We’ve been here for ages, and the sun is coming up!" [REPEAT]
But Jacob, still holding on, had now figured out that this was no ordinary man, because no one can just touch a hip and be hurt so much. Jacob, thinking it must be someone from Heaven, and it was! and Jacob called out
"I will not let you go unless you bless me." [REPEAT]
the man asked, "What is your name?". [REPEAT]
He replied, "Jacob." [REPEAT]
"Your name will no longer be Jacob." said the heavenly man [REPEAT]
"From now on you will be called Israel," [REPEAT] ,
"Because you have fought with God and with men and have won." [REPEAT]
Then Jacob asked, "Please tell me your name," [REPEAT]
The man replied "Why do you want to know my name?". [REPEAT]
Then the man blessed Jacob, and Jacob finally let go, and the man left and went and sat back down and watch the rest of the church service.
Jacob said, "I have seen God face to face, yet my life has been spared." [REPEAT]
The sun was rising as Jacob left, and he left, limping because of the injury to his hip, all the way back to his seat. And along the way he did meet Esau who did forgive Jacob.
What a strange story. What do you think it means? Why include that in the Bible?
I think sometimes we don’t even know we are wrestling with God, by going against what he wants us to do. And sometimes it may take something painful for us to wake up and realize, the person we’re wrestling against, is actually the one who can bless us – if we just ask.
But I just want you to remember one thing from this story, God loves you so much, that even if you wrestle with God, or your brother or sister – he still loves you.
Presentation: Castle Hill Seventh-day Adventist Church - Nov 9, 2024