Nineteenth Sunday After Pentecost
Nineteenth Sunday After Pentecost
Light of Christ Anglican Church
The Rev. Mike Moffitt October 19th, 2025
The Lord Gives Us A New Name
Text: Genesis 32:22–31
This morning I want to focus on the story within our Old Testament reading from Genesis 32. It’s a wonderful account of God moving in power in the life of Jacob, Abraham’s grandson. He did so to continue in his plan for restoring the world to himself.
It’s vitally important for us to know up front that God doesn’t ever choose us to be a part of his sovereign plan because we are the most qualified or the most righteous. It’s always in spite of the fact that we aren’t. It’s only by entering into a relationship with God that we can be restored to what God has for us.
Before we get to our Old Testament passage from Genesis 32 let me remind you of the background to our story which actually begins in Genesis 27.
Jacob had not seen his brother Esau in over 20 years and he was not sure what was going to happen when they met again. Many years earlier Jacob tricked his brother out of his birthright and stole the blessing that was the right of the first born. Because of this Esau was planning to kill Jacob, but their mother Rebekah found out about Esau’s plan, and arranged to have his father, Isaac send Jacob away to live among her relatives in a distant land. Along the way he stopped to sleep. In Genesis 28:12–15 we read,
And he dreamed, and behold, there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring. Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed. Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”
Jacob’s response upon waking is important because it will help us better understand who he was, before he became the man that God wanted him to be. Genesis 28:20–22,
Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, so that I come again to my father’s house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God, and this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God’s house. And of all that you give me I will give a full tenth to you.”
Jacob started out on this journey to avoid being killed and to find a wife suitable to his parents, but it had now become a religious pilgrimage. He now had the assurance of God’s promise to provide protection and aid in his quest.
When the Lord made his covenants with Abraham and Isaac he made the fulfillment of the promises contingent on their faithful obedience to his commands. However Jacob makes his worship of the Lord contingent on the Lord’s fulfillment of his promises.
I remember thinking to myself when I first read this story how brazen Jacob was in telling God that if he would keep his promise then Jacob would worship him. Later I realized that the important part of the story was the absolute mercy and grace that God was showing to Jacob in spite of his arrogance.
God knew what would transpire in Jacob’s life and what would need to happen to bring him to a right relationship with God. God kept his promise to Jacob and blessed all that he did and when he left the land of his father-in-law Laban he took with him two wives, eleven children, servants, flocks, herds, and camels.
Now after many years Jacob was returning to the land of his father Isaac and grandfather, Abraham. Because of the way that he had left 20 years before, he was afraid that his brother Esau might still try to kill him. It’s interesting that
Jacob is still not aware of the relationship that God was offering. If God promised that Jacob would be blessed because of God’s promise to his grandfather Abraham, then why did he doubt his safety?
Also in a more recent word that God spoke to Jacob it’s very important to note that the reason Jacob is returning home is that God told him to. Genesis 31:3, “Then the Lord said to Jacob, ‘Return to the land of your fathers and to your kindred and I will be with you.” So why was he scared?
Let’s return to our Old Testament lesson from Genesis 32. We read that Jacob sends servants ahead of him to inform Esau that he was coming in peace and showing his great wealth that he wanted to share with his brother. His servants return and tell him that they found Esau, and he is coming to meet Jacob and bringing with him four hundred men. I’m guessing that this news confirmed for him his greatest fear that Esau was still angry and planned to keep his vow to kill Jacob.
The situation looks hopeless, and he knows that he can’t bargain or deceive his way out this time.
• There is nowhere to turn, in front of him is Esau
• and behind him is his past: the lies, the deceptions, the stolen blessing, the home he left behind.
• He can’t go back to Laban and his wives family because things had been really heating up there and there was the command of God to return back to the land of his fathers and kindred.
• All Jacob can do is face what is before him and hope that it will work out.
So Jacob finds himself alone at the crossing point of the river Jabbok which means literally, “emptying.” I think that seemed an apt place for him to be because Jacob, stripped of all of his possessions and prestige, now had time to think and try to figure out a way of escape. It was at this point that “a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day.”
Jacob may have been planning to sit and think and possibly pray but God had something much more important in mind for him. Notice that it doesn’t say that Jacob wrestled with a man but that a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day. I don’t know how many of you have been in a wrestling match or any kind of fight, but it is exhausting if it goes on for five minutes. I can’t imagine a wrestling match that goes on all night, but it shows the intensity of the situation and the determination of Jacob to win. Continuing in the scene of the fight.
When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched his hip socket, and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. Then he said, “Let me go, for the day has broken.”
This all-night struggle symbolized what Jacob’s life had been so far, a struggle with people and with God in order to get his own way. It appeared that the two men were evenly matched until the man touched Jacob’s hip and dislocated it. It was as if God allowed Jacob to give Him his best shot and then showed his complete superiority with a single touch.
I can remember when my kids were little that we would wrestle on the floor, and they would appear to pin me to the ground. I would have to concede that they were way too strong for me. Obviously I could have easily gotten up when I wanted but I was enjoying the closeness of our relationship and wasn’t trying to prove that a 220 lb. man could overcome two 40–50 lb. children.
When God showed up as a man and attacked Jacob he was coming to him in a way that Jacob could understand. By allowing him to wrestle all night he was also showing Jacob that he was relational and willing to be wrestled with but ultimately God would prevail, and Jacob would need to submit to the will of God.
I can remember being taught that this story was an example of persevering prayer. The point being that if we hang on long enough that God will grant our request. This is clearly seen in our gospel reading for this morning from Luke 18:1–8 about the unrighteous judge and the persistent widow. The idea seems to be that persisting in prayer even moves someone who doesn’t care about us or our needs, so how much more will “God give justice to the elect who cry out to him day and night.”
We shouldn’t understand this to mean that we can only receive answers from God if we wrestle them from him, as though he were reluctant to give to those who ask.
The main point is that God would not be like the unrighteous judge who kept putting off the persistent widow. Any delay from God will be for a purpose that will lead to his glory and the strengthening of those who pray, or possibly that repentance may be needed.
Both of these passages teach us of our need for prayer and about developing a faithful relationship with God as the answer to our needs. I suspect that we need to understand the point of these two examples are not merely about the way that we approach God but an encouragement that we should. God wants to deepen the relationship that we have with him. In Jacob’s first encounter it was God who came to him and now 20 years later it was again God who came to Jacob and put him into the position of wrestling with him. God desired to move in him to change him into the man that God intended for him to be.
By crossing the Jabbok, Jacob was going to be entering into Esau’s territory, but God saw something even more significant than that. By crossing the Jabbok, Jacob would be entering into the land that God had sworn to give to Abraham’s descendants—the Promised Land.
God wasn’t going to allow Jacob to enter the promised land, the land of His blessing or favor, on his own terms or in his own strength. Their relationship had to change. Remember when Jacob first encountered God and received a promise of God’s blessing he arrogantly responded that if God kept his word then Jacob would make him his God.
Often God puts up with this kind of foolishness when we first encounter him but there comes a point where he steps in and brings the needed correction and change into our lives.
The needed correction for Jacob begins when the man (God) dislocates his hip thereby rendering the verdict as to who was going to win this fight. Even though he is wounded, and the fight is clearly over, Jacob will not let go of the man. Why would he do that? Jacob found himself in a jam. Without help he would never be able to prevail in a fight against Esau and 400 men.
At this point Jacob realized that this is no ordinary man, but that God himself had found a way to come to him. Perhaps he remembered the stories from his grandfather Abraham of the Angel of the Lord coming to him at the Oaks of Mamre, or the many stories of God appearing to Abraham and making a covenant with him.
It’s interesting that God chooses a different way of coming in every story that we read in the Old Testament. A burning bush for Moses that symbolized the purifying presence of God, but this time God chooses to appear as hidden and mysterious but still leaves no doubt in Jacob’s mind who he has been struggling with.
Jacob holds on because for the first time in his life he knows that his only hope is in God and without his blessing he will die. So he holds on even though the man
tells him to let go because even though he has lost the fight he can still hold on.
But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me... And he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” Then he said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.”
It might seem odd for God to ask Jacob his name. The question is for Jacob to answer, as a way of admitting who he was. In the Hebrew names had meaning and Jacob knew the meaning of his name and perhaps he felt ashamed to have to admit that he had lived up to the name, which basically was that of a deceiver, con-man, cheater.
Sometimes it’s hard to have to face who you really are which is often not who you pretend to be. God knew Jacob’s life story, but he also knew who he was going to be and that would require a new name a new way of seeing his role in God’s sovereign plan.
God had allowed twenty years to go by from the time Jacob left the land of his father to the time that he returned. Jacob had struggled, planned, out maneuvered, and fought to obtain all the things that he now possessed but none of that mattered as he returned to deal with who he had been. Only God could save him not just from Esau but also from the shame and embarrassment of all that he had done.
His first encounter with God came in a dream but this second encounter was up close and very personal, and it meant that Jacob would need to change forever.
An encounter with God always does that. God tells Jacob that he would no longer be the man he once was but would be who God intended him to be and his name would now be Israel—which means “God prevails.” Even though Jacob had put up a mighty defense ultimately God showed him how powerless he was against him.
Throughout the Old Testament Jacob’s new name, Israel, would stand for the people of God’s own possession. In the same way that Jacob had needed an encounter with God to transform his life, so it would be for all who follow in his example. Jacob is pointed to as the example of wisdom as one who clung to God even though injured and would not let go until he found his blessing.
Then Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” And there he blessed him. So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered.” The sun rose upon him as he passed Peniel, limping because of his hip.
Again, in Hebrew a person’s name reveals their character, and Jacob is asking God to reveal who he is in this moment. Throughout the Old Testament God often revealed a part of his nature by the names by which he identified himself. For instance El Shaddai (Lord God Almighty); Adonai (Lord, Master); Yahweh (Lord, Jehovah); Jehovah Shalom (The Lord is Peace); Jehovah Shammah (The Lord is There). Each of these names reflected another attribute of God’s nature and character. In this case God did not need to reveal his name because Jacob was the one with the new name and a lifelong limp to prove what God wanted him to know: that God prevails.
Jacob/Israel now could see the significance of the dream that he had at Bethel. The ladder coming down from Heaven was revealing that God was inviting him to have access to the Father and continuing the relationship begun by God with his grandfather Abraham. Jacob/Israel would find out that God keeps his word. The next morning when Esau shows up with his four hundred men he jumps off his horse and embraces Jacob. All is well—God has prevailed.
So what is our take away this morning from this story? As I considered this three things came to mind.
1. When we first become aware of God we are immature in our faith, and he is gracious and patient with us as we grow. Believe me I remember that. However, I also remember that the time comes when foolishness and immaturity will be dealt with, as will sins that are not dealt with.
I remember a popular teaching years ago called the “Carnal Christian Doctrine.” The idea is that some people never mature, and they just keep on living the same way. At some point they walked an aisle in response to an invitation to accept Christ as Savior and Lord or prayed the sinners prayer, so they are still Christians and God understands. You know—live and let live.
It’s a lie and the lesson at Jabbok is that God delivers us from besetting sins by changing our character. He will come after us as any good Father would. When there is an unwillingness to the change that is needed it could be because there never was true repentance and therefore there was never a true relationship with God.
2. One of the greatest miracles that God performs in our lives is creating circumstances that make us dependent on him. It often comes as trials and great difficulty. Sometimes people may feel that God has abandoned them, but it is in those times that we experience God’s mercy and love the most. We learn to hold on until we receive God’s blessing or rescue.
3. When we choose to walk faithfully with God he opens up the gates of Heaven, and we have full access to our God. We can experience all that his word promises such as peace and joy in and with Him. We hold on with certainty of our ultimate future and experience the power of His Holy Spirit. The thing is the enemy will seek to discourage, tempt, and attack you. That’s why it’s called “Spiritual warfare.” Even in this God will prevail as we hold on.
As I consider all that is going on in our country and around the world it is clear that Satan and his minions are busy planting their lies and deceptions. They want us to be anxious and fearful so that we will shut-up and gather together in safety with those who agree with us. That is not the call of the gospel which is to declare the lordship of Jesus Christ to a lost and dying world. To lay down our lives for God’s glory and the transforming of those who are without Christ should be our greatest desire. We must remember that God always prevails, and the cross is the greatest reminder of that.
Let’s pray.
