THE
BLESSING OF BROKENNESS
"And
Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a Man with him until the breaking of
the day. And when He saw that He prevailed not against him, He touched the
hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint, as He
wrestled with him. And He said, Let me go, for the day
breaketh. And he said, I
will not let Thee go, except Thou bless me. And He said unto him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob. And He said, Thy name
shall be called no more Jacob, but
We're going to look at
an episode in the life of the patriarch, Jacob. At the time of our story, Jacob
was a fugitive and had been running. He'd been in the school of hard knocks for
twenty years. He believed in God, but he was out of fellowship with Him.
However, we see that God did not love Jacob for what he was, but for what He
could make out of him.
Alone With
God
Now, God finally had
Jacob where He wanted him, alone. It took a while because Jacob didn't want to
be alone. You know when people are running from God,
they don't want to be alone. They don't want to face themselves, and they don't
want to face God.
But verse twenty-four
tells us that finally Jacob was alone, and he had a confrontation with God. I
believe with all my heart that the Man Jacob wrestled with was the
pre-incarnate Jesus Christ. He was face to face with Jesus, and they were in a
wrestling match. Now, it wasn't Jacob wrestling with the Lord, it was the Lord
wrestling with Jacob. The Lord started it, and it could have been over very
quickly, but the Lord wanted Jacob to prevail. He didn't want to overcome him.
The Lord was trying to do something with this man that He loved so much.
Broken By
God
Finally, when they had
wrestled all night, the angel touched the hollow of Jacob's thigh and crippled
him. Now, when a wrestler's legs are gone, he can't do anything. This is the
strongest muscle for a wrestler. Jacob was crippled; his final weapon was gone.
If all his plans and strength had failed, at least he could have run; but now,
he couldn't even run. God brought him to the place of utter, absolute, complete
brokenness and dependence.
Blessed By
God
The Angel said to this
crippled man, "Let me go." Ironically, the word "Jacob"
means "that which grabs, that which holds." Jacob was still grasping,
but this time, for the first time in his life, he got a hold of the Lord. He
said, "Oh God, I need You. God, I will not let
you go except You bless me." God had been waiting
to hear those words for so long, and at that moment, something wonderful took
place.
The angel asked Jacob
for his name. God knew it, but He wanted Jacob to confess his name which
further meant "liar, cheater, crook, fraud, schemer, and deceiver."
Then, God gave him a new name,
Do you know why many of us
are not yet truly blessed? We have not yet been truly broken. Men throw broken
things away, but God never uses anything until he first breaks it. You'll never
show me anybody who has been or will be mightily used of God who has not been
broken. There is no blessedness without brokenness.
Leaning on
God
The rest of his life,
Jacob had to use a crutch. This wasn't just something that could be fixed and
put back. He had to have a staff to lean on. The Bible says in Hebrews 11:21:
"By faith Jacob, when he was a dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph; and
worshipped leaning upon the top of his staff." Here he was 147 years old
and still leaning. Jacob had finally learned to lean. He realized that he was
stronger leaning than he was standing on his own two feet. He worshipped
leaning, and that's the only way you'll ever worship.