He found himself in a stressful situation. The last time Jacob had seen Esau, he had vowed to kill Jacob. And now he was returning home to meet Esau and he has taken all he has and put it out in front of him as gifts to his brother hoping to avoid a conflict.
Esau heard of Jacob coming home and he rode out with 400 men to meet him. Why take 400 men unless you are preparing for a conflict? And why shouldn't he prepare for battle. The last time he saw his brother he had deceived him and cheated him out of the blessing of their father Isaac. It is likely that Esau was taking men with him just in case Jacob was coming to steal more from him as a deceiver.
Jacob had taken his wives and children across the brook of Jabbak and remained alone on the other side. Jacob than begins to wrestle with a man who is later revealed to be God.
Genesis 32; 24And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day.
25And 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 prevailed not against Jacob, so he knocked his thigh out of joint. He wounded him, and what did Jacob want? All he wanted was a blessing. We tend to think of God as eager to bless his children, but there are some things in God that are NOT easy to obtain, and some levels of favor that are not easy to gain.
Remember when Elijah was going to go to heaven. He had told Elisha, if you see me when I go, you will receive a double portion. Elijah new that Elisha was eager to get that blessing, but everywhere they went, Elijah told Elisha to stay there. Elisha refused each time to stay behind and stayed by Elijah's side. And he did get the double blessing. The whole time though, Elijah was trying to shake him lose.
So here we see Jacob trying to get a blessing, and the LORD injuring his thigh trying to shake him lose from the blessing.
How many times have we missed the blessing of God because we didn't want it bad enough?
What is the price. Well in Elisha's case he had to keep following his mentor even when his mentor was being rude and trying to shake him lose. There are some blessings you will miss if you don't stay with your God given mentor even when they don't want you THERE.
In Jacob's case he had to wrestle with God all night long, sustain an injury and still keep holding on. Are you wrestling in prayer and haven't seen God move yet? A thigh injury would be a good reason to QUIT the struggle don't you think? That would be a good time to say, "Hey, I guess God just doesn't want me to have this blessing." But even with a hurt thigh that produced a limp, Jacob held on and would not stop until he received the blessing. Right when you are seeking God for a blessing in prayer, all kinds of hurtful events and trials will hit to try to shake you lose, but you have to hang on and prevail. So how bad to you want it? Do you want the blessing enough to stay and fight for it?
Is God really trying to withhold the blessing, or is he just testing their resolve. We don't know the answer to this but one thing we do know is that God is righteous. God is Just. Everything he does is HOLY. There is no evil in God. There is no wrong in him. His ways are above our ways, his thoughts above our thoughts.
Sometimes God puts the blessing just out a bit beyond our reach, and we must grow, we must fight, we must persevere to reach it. There are some blessing from God that only those who want it bad enough are ever going to obtain it!
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