Jacob’s Wrestling Match: From Trickster to Prince of God

Last updated on: May 1, 2025 at 11:25 am by Don Myers

Jacob’s Wrestling Match: From Trickster to Prince of God 2025-05-01T11:25:54-05:00 Don Myers

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The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked,
The God who has been my shepherd all my life to this day,
The angel who has redeemed me from all evil,
Bless the boys;
And may my name live on in them,
And the names of my fathers Abraham and Isaac;
And may they grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.”

Jacob wrestling with the angel—a moment of struggle, transformation, and divine encounter

Jacob wrestling with the angel—a moment of struggle, transformation, and divine encounter. Created in Dalle for Patheos.

The Weight Of Deception

These are the prophetic words spoken by the aged Israel foretelling the futures of two of his grandsons (Ephraim and Manasseh) borne away from his eyes in Egypt. It had been twenty-one years since the Supplanter now transformed by God into Prince of God had been reunited with his beloved son, Joseph. In this visionary pronouncement with hands of blessing on the two young men, Israel reflected on his grandfather, Abraham, and father, Isaac—men who walked with God. He, too, had been on a journey of faith from a trickster who exploited his brother, Esau, and bought his birthright for a bowl of beans. Then, to add insult to injury, he cheated Esau out of his firstborn blessing manipulating his father’s failing eyesight. Because of the weight of his deceptions, he fled the murderous intentions of his brother running to his father-in-law’s house in Northern Mesopotamia under the urgings of his mother, Rebecca, who was every bit a person willing to weave webs of deceit. The apple never falls too far from the tree!

Turn The Tables

Yet, in Laban’s house, Jacob meets his match and then some in a person who puts him on the business end of swindles multiple times. Yet, Jacob served Laban for fourteen years for marriages to his two daughters, Leah and Rachel, ending up with each of their handmaids as a bonus. The four wives serve up twelve sons and one daughter. When through the blessing of God and his skill in the breeding of livestock, Jacob turns the tables on Laban and ends up with his wealth.

This Is Not “Let’s Make A Deal”

Enraged by Jacob’s clandestine maneuvers, Laban and his sons woke up to the fact that their futures had been stolen by the trickster. The promises God made Jacob twenty-two years previously of which he trusted little included the Seed Promise, Land Promise, Nation Promise, and the promise that one day God would bring Jacob safely back to his land, albeit the specter of Esau’s wrath hovered over him. Where was Jacob’s faith in those early days? He was much too confident he could make his way successfully in life by his own whit and tripping up others to his advantage. So, when God promised him the day would come that he would be returned to his land from which he was fleeing, he said to God If God will be with me and will keep me on this journey that I take, and give me food to eat and garments to wear, and I return to my father’s house in safety, then the Lord will be my God. Jacob’s future commitment to God was stated in his own words as conditioned on God doing what He had promised him. It is as if Jacob had the brass to, in effect, play “Let’s Make A Deal” with God Almighty! The whole issue was that the God of his forefathers was not His God until and if God performed His promise of protection and provision. Otherwise, God would not be his God! Yet, now the storm brewing in the hearts and plans of the enraged Laban Clan was about to make landfall! The man who fled from Esau twenty-two years before was on the run again, but, this time, with four wives, thirteen children, and the accumulation of the wealth of flocks and herds he was unwilling to leave behind. God was bringing the Trickster to his most desperate, yet, wonderful hours!

Trust In God’s Promise

As he fled Laban’s wrath, he had to realize the last time he got an email from Esau it read, I’m going to kill you! As Jacob neared his childhood home, he decided to soften Esau up a bit by sending groups of livestock gifts ahead by the hands of his servants staged at different intervals. Ole’ Trickster was still trying to figure things out on his own! Yet, one of his servants returned to Jacob from Esau reporting, Your brother is coming to see you and he is bringing 400 men with him! What would God’s twenty-two-year-old promise mean to Jacob now? Sending his possessions and family aside to protect them, he prayed alone, God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, Lord, who said to me, return to your country and to your relatives, and I will make you prosper. Jacob reached into his well-worn bag of tricks and found no solution! He finally realized that all he had was God’s promise of protection. The greatest day of his life had come when he finally realized God’s promise was all he ever needed!! The fact that the Second Person of the Godhead came in the form of a man who wrestled with him all through the night was a wrestling match that had been going on for, yea, those twenty-two years! At the dawning of the day with the MAN ready to leave, Jacob held to Him until the Divine Visitor blessed him changing his name to Israel—Prince of God! He was redeemed!

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