In Jacob’s all night wrestling match with the ‘man’/’angel’/ “God” way down in the details I believe we can glean the secret wrestling hold he used to overcome. Truly amazing is that as he overcame then God bestowed on him the gifts He promises to us in Revelation 2 and 3… The way I read that we will get at least:

  • A New Name
  • Power over the Nations
  • Name not blotted out but confessed before the Father
  • A Pillar in the Temple of God with the God’s Name, your new name, New Jerusalem
  • Shall sit on the Father’s Throne
  • Inherit All Things

Clearly, Jacob’s new name was made Israel and Israel is all that and then some isn’t it……

Four things God showed me about this super wrestling hold of Jacob’s.

  1. Let Go Of Your Brother’s Heal:As Jacob/Israel hung on he received his own identity finally letting go of his brother’s heal. The details in the verses following the match seem to make no sense unless you go back to the two blessings Jacob got before he left. The first he stole from his brother note the end of the blessing Genesis 27:29 “May the nations bow down to you, may your mother’s son’s bow down to you” Check all the bowing Israel and his wife and their children and servants did when they met Esau in Genesis 33-3-7. Israel was giving back/letting go the stolen blessing so he  grab hold of his rightful blessing Genesis 28:3-4 The Abrahamic covenant that changed the world… JESUS. Yes Jacob, heal grabbing, hairy arm poser, let go of his brother’s heal and grabbed on with all his life to God and overcame…
  2. Hang on: Simple, but so very hard especially all night. How many times have I tried wrestling with God in prayer all night and like, Peter, James and John then fell asleep… “The Spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.”
  3. Harness: Matthew 11:12 “Since the time of John the Baptist The Kingdom of God is forcefully advancing and forceful men take hold of it.” As John Bunyan portrayed in the house of the interpreter about this verse in The Pilgrim’s Promise, we are in for the fight of our life if we grab hold of the advancing Kingdom and we are going to have to harness ourselves to that advancing violence. So if we wish to hang on we had better harness ourselves in as it will be a violent ride, thus the word “Chazak” was given to Joshua in Joshua 1:6 “Be Strong” a Hebrew word picturing to lash or tie down.
  4. Hip: Here is the real secret I believe; it was Jacob’s hip, his weakness. Like Paul tells us all over 2 Corinthians, his thorn in the flesh, power is perfected in weakness. Picture yourself wrestling with this man/angel/God, your standing will all your might and he touches your hip…BAM..You have to hang on tighter than ever with no leg or legs to support you.

Think about the results of this match and things come even more clear. Israel is remembered to this day for his weakness, according to Genesis 32:33 the Children of Israel don’t eat of the tendon of the hip to this day. My own story, when I survived cancer is how many remember me for my weakness, the point where I had to hang on with all I had. James 1:2 “Consider it pure joy when you fave various trials” Yes, you will hang on tighter than ever and don’t let go till He blesses you.

We too may need to let go of our brother’s heal in order get the overcomer grip on God with our weakness providing the extra harness of nothing else to hold us up or hang onto, harnessed in to the Forcefully Advancing Kingdom of God.