Don't Let Go: The Perseverance of Jacob

If you’re familiar with Jacob’s life and story, then I can almost guarantee you know at least two things about him: he worked 14 years to marry Rachel and had a night-long wrestling match with God. On a surface level, these two events in Jacob’s life can easily teach every believer about perseverance. However, when we dig deeper into the second event, his wrestling match with God, we gain a much clearer picture of what it means to have a spirit of perseverance. Setting up the context will take a few paragraphs; stay with me.    

This “wrestling match” occurs in Genesis 33, but the context necessary to understand this event takes us back to Genesis 27. Jacob’s father, Isaac, is beginning to lose his eyesight, and he is worried that he might not have much longer to live. He decides it is time for the accepted and standard ceremony of the day to pass down the birthright-blessing to his oldest son, Esau. He informs Esau of his plans, and Esau obediently goes hunting for game so that he can prepare the ceremonial meal. Rebekah, the wife of Issac, has been listening in to the conversation, and when Esau leaves, she devises a plan in which Jacob would receive the birthright-blessing instead of Esau. This plan was actually inspired by a conversation she had with the Lord 77 years earlier in Genesis 25:23. The ruse was successful, and Jacob received the birthright-blessing instead of Esau. Unfortunately, Jacob could not continue to live with his family because he feared that Esau would kill him for what had happened, so at the behest of his mother and father, he headed north to the region of Haran to find a wife from his mother’s family.

When he arrived in Haran, he was immediately captivated by a shepherdess named Rachel, who just happened to be part of his mother’s extended family. Fast forwarding the story 20 years, Jacob has two wives, two concubines, a large family, male and female servants, and a whole lot of animals. He has been under the thumb of Laban these last 20 years, but God has protected him and made him successful. Now, at the beginning of Chapter 31, God tells Jacob it is time to return to the land of Canaan. He obeys immediately, explaining to his wives that this departure must happen quickly and quietly. However, there is a crucial piece of information in his dialogue with Rachel and Leah. In verse 10 of chapter 32, he tells his wives that the reason he has been successful in gaining large amounts of livestock was because God helped him. Look at the two verses below from the ESV and notice Jacob’s dual description of God

Genesis 31:11-13a, “Then the angel of God said to me in the dream, ‘Jacob,’ and I said, ‘Here I am!’ And he said, ‘Lift up your eyes and see, all the goats that mate with the flock are striped, spotted, and mottled, for I have seen all that Laban is doing to you. I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar and made a vow to me…”

The angel of God tells Jacob that He is the God of Bethel. This means that Genesis 31:13 and 28:13 are referring to the same person: God in visible form. God in visible form in the Old Testament is a Christophany, an appearance of Christ before He was born as a baby in Bethlehem. Hold on to that information, you will need it later.  

When Laban is out of town shearing sheep, Jacob heads back to the land of Canaan.  It’s not long before Laban gets word of what Jacob has done, and he catches up to him in the second part of Chapter 31. They both have some choice words for each other and decide it is best to part ways, making a mutual covenant not to pass a specific boundary marker. In other words, they drew a line in the sand; Jacob couldn’t return to Haran, and Laban could not follow Jacob. Right after this event with Laban, Jacob gets word that Esau is coming to meet him with an army of 400 men! He can’t retreat into Laban’s territory, or he will violate his covenant with him; he must move forward. He sends his family in a different direction, and he himself continues in Esau’s direction. The night before he meets Esau is the very night he has his wrestling match with God. Interestingly, Hosea 12:3-4 comments on this wrestling match Jacob had with God. Hosea links the supernatural man that Jacob wrestles in Genesis 32:24 with Jacob’s encounter at Bethel. Putting all this together means that Genesis 28, 31, and 32 are all the same person, God in visible form – a Christophany. In the most overly simplistic way it can be put, Jacob had a wrestling match with Christ (God the Son).

It wasn’t Jacob who instigated the wrestling match; God the Son started the competition, and while God the Son could have bested Jacob, He mysteriously chose not to. It would appear that God the Son was testing Jacob’s persevering spirit. Would he hold on, or would he let go? The two wrestled the entire night, and Jacob refused to stop until God the Son told him to. Wow! What a picture of our Christian lives. Do we hold on to Christ with the same strength and perseverance as Jacob? Or do we give up when things get challenging and chaotic? Jacob knew that God was the only one who could fix this impending situation with Esau. Sometime during the match, God the Son touched the hip of Jacob, permanently injuring him, but Jacob still refused to let go! In a wrestling match, if your hip goes, you’re finished…but not Jacob! Through the pain and agony, he held on until he received a blessing from God the Son. Maybe you’ve been in prayer for a specific situation, a loved one, a frayed relationship, a marital problem, a financial crisis, a parenting struggle, or a bleak medical diagnosis. Jacob reminds us not to let go of Christ, to hang on, and to persevere. For Jacob, his preserving spirit gave him a lifelong injury that undeniably and physically changed him. Our physical bodies can also be affected when we hold on to Christ with a Jacob-like tenacity.  I sort of picture Jacob proudly walking with a limp for the rest of his days; it would be a constant reminder that he refused to let go.