Where Only Broken Men Can Go
The fight that changed everything
Jacob’s entire life, as chronicled in the Bible book of Genesis, was all about breaking protocols. The man couldn’t just stay in line, or wait for his turn and time — even in the womb.
This obsession with outsmarting others and supplanting the establishment turned him into a fugitive. He had to run for his life after playing a fast one on his older brother, Esau.
He stole the birthright but lost his peace and family in the process.
While in exile, he couldn’t stay out of trouble either.
We are taking our lessons today from the night before Jacob met his estranged brother, Esau as recorded in Genesis 32.
He had just made a peace deal with his father-in-law, who had been outsmarted yet again by Jacob.
Just when it seemed all was well, he got into this wrestling match with a man who turned out to be God. God came to him but the visitation turned into a fight.
How do you fight God and not know it? Who can battle with the Lord and live to tell the story?
Know your battles
Jacob was wrestling without even knowing what the fight was all about.
This was the problem with Jacob, and still the problem with many of us today.
You may be fighting so relentlessly without even knowing what the fight is all about, or who you are fighting.
Jacob kept on fighting and wouldn’t let go. He thought he needed a blessing, but what God wanted was to change the man.
That encounter proved that it wasn’t God who was holding Jacob from walking in the blessing.
What is holding you back is within you.
It is your ego. You tend to fight battles that you have picked by yourself and for yourself.
It is your lack of understanding of what to hold on to and what to let go.
It is the lack of understanding of times, seasons, and the covenant your fathers had with God.
Know what the fight is about
You have been wrestling against the will and purpose of God for your life. The fight is between you and what God desires to make of you.
It is a fight between the “you” that you want and the ‘you’ that God wants.
So how do you end this fruitless fight, Jacob or whatever is your name?
Daybreak beckons and the Lord must move on to more willing and yearning hearts.
Would you let go or would you that the Lord leaves you to your own devices?
The Lord had to put His finger on the hollow of Jacob’s thigh, dislocating the joints. He would not leave Jacob stranded in his old deceitful, egoistic, and prideful self.
Know your opponent
But Jacob still wouldn’t let go.
So, God also gave him a new name. Jacob’s identity has to be changed inside out. His name did not match his covenant promise.
And then Jacob did something he should have done all night. He made a simple request to his wrestling opponent, “Please tell me your name.”
How do you know what you have been wrestling with all your life if you don’t ask?
For the first time, Jacob looked beyond himself. He suddenly realized that he had been punching above his weight category.
By this time, Jacob was aware he wasn’t just wrestling a man. He had seen the face of God. He finally knew that he had been messing around with his maker and was mercifully spared from destruction.
This is a new man. A broken man. Knocked out, surrendered, and humbled.
Only such a man can walk in the covenant of God’s blessing.
God will not fulfill the covenant any other way. The covenant cannot be sustained by deception and fraud.
As the new day dawned, Jacob walked with a limp. He was never the same again. He became limited in what he could do by himself and couldn’t move without divine support.
The breaking and brokenness
The breaking of Jacob’s joint was the only opportunity he had to be re-formed after God’s pattern.
Brokenness still holds relevance for all stubborn wrestling hearts today.
It means submission of self-will to the will of God. It means recognizing the limit of your abilities, trusting and relying on God’s unlimited grace.
Like Jacob, many of us would not willingly surrender. We will wrestle until sunrise and will need God by His mercies to break us into submission.
If God loves you, He will not only knock you out of the fight, but you will also have scars — a permanent reminder of the encounter.
Your scars or limp is evidence that you struggled with God for a long time, and God had to conquer you.
Your scarred tissue marks when you stopped relying on yourself and started depending on God.
It marks when human ability and craftiness fail, and you come to the end of yourself. It marks where confidence in the flesh failed, and the arm of flesh could not deliver.
Your scars are a reminder that it is not of him that wills or him that runs but God that shows mercy.
Broken but blessed
The broken Jacob was the best version of the man yet. He was broken but changed. Broken but with a new name, a new identity, and a new mandate.
From now onwards, Jacob would no longer be a man, but a nation.
As the new man arose on his limp to continue his journey, the sun began to rise on him.
The man is now broken, so God’s grace can accompany him.
What a privilege to be broken but graced by God so that from now onwards, all the glory would be to God.
Broken to heal
When a man or woman is broken, God will melt the hearts of their stubborn enemies.
Relationships broken when we were hot-headed and hard-hearted can only be mended if we are broken.
Esau could recognize a transformed heart from afar off. He had mobilized a 400-man-strong army to welcome the man who robbed him of his birthright.
But Esau could see from a distance that the man coming to meet him was no longer the same as he expected. He walked with a limp. There was humility in his steps. He appeared to be more gentle and less threatening.
Esau went for a warm embrace. Years of bitterness had melted just because the man had been broken.
The other thing that happens when God breaks a man or woman is that they conquer territories with ease.
It’s no longer by striving in the flesh but through God’s power.
This was going to be the beginning of the new Jacob, a man whose family will cross biological lines and will be reckoned with for eternity.
Conclusion
The crafty and deceitful Jacob became a nation (Israel) when he came to the end of himself.
He couldn’t fulfill his potential until God broke him.
He could have continued struggling if he hadn’t realized that he was wrestling against God.
Many of us are stressed and stranded because we are stubbornly fighting instead of surrendering to God.
And many more are limping and broken with battle wounds. When they look at their scars, they are ashamed or angry.
If that is you, I want you to know that your scars are proof that the mercy of God preserved you for God’s purposes. You can arise and limp into a new life of blessing and peace.
Receive the grace to be transformed and emerge as a new person with fresh hopes.
If that is you, say a big Amen!
