Genesis 32:3–36:43: How to wrestle with and wait on God together joyfully

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“If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men.”
Romans 12:18 NASB

The LORD sends us into the world to be His ambassadors (2Cor. 5:20) and part of the kingdom of priests (Ex. 19:5–6; 1Pet. 2:9–10; Rev. 5:9–10). Will we go? Will we face challenges of our own making or ones that are out of our control? Division is toxic to the Kingdom of God. How are we living this out?

In this study of the Torah reading וישלח Vayishlach (Genesis 32:3–36:43), we will go over a few of Yeshua’s parables that will make Ya’akov’s WWE match with the Angel of the LORD look logical. We will learn more about how God teaches us. We have been sent to a world full of brokenness while experiencing brokenness ourselves. How we deal with the brokenness of others and divisions and disagreements in the Body is a sign of our spiritual maturity.

Ya’akov vs. Elohim

The reason the Jews don’t eat the sinew of the hip is not a relic of superstition but of commemoration (Genesis 32:22–32). Do we remember our scars and what lead to them? What do we do with our temptations? Invite them in or chain them? Those struggles with sin or our acquiescence to sin will plot the course of our entire lives just as they did with Cain, Jacob, etc.

Struggling with God has been an important part of the people of God from the beginning.
Adam and Chavah (Eve) “wrestled” with the instruction to trust the LORD or the voice of the serpent.
The appearance of an agent of Elohim to wrestle with Ya’akob is a reminder that the spiritual realm can use agents to act or speak for them, such as the serpent in Eden for the Adversary.
Abraham had a vivid vision of God as a torch in deep blackness, passing between the sacrifice pieces to seal the deal single-handedly with Abraham.

What are these epiphanies we see in the word? Jacob wrestles with God, Abraham eats a meal with God, who were Jacob and Abraham communing with in reality? The entire Heavens can’t contain the Creator so how can Jacob wrestle with Him or how can Abraham feed him a simple meal of bread, cheese and roasted meat?

There are more examples of humans wrestling with God, on a less literal level.

Though the account doesn’t say what time of day the LORD came after Moshe’s uncircumcised sons during the trip to Mitsraim from Midian, it could have been at night (Ex. 4:24–26). The account says they were “at the lodging place,” presumably after traveling by daylight. Zipporah “wrestled” with God on Moshe’s behalf.
Israel “wrestled” with God’s destroyer during the night of the first Passover, “prevailing” over the destroyer via the blessing of the blood of the Pesakh (Passover) lamb/goat.

All of these people: Adam and Eve, Abraham, Jacob, Zipporah and the children of Israel all had to learn a very important lesson. They had to decide whether to obey and follow God or obey and follow their own inclinations.

Apostle Paul admonished the Ephesian congregation to “put on all of God’s armor” — truth, righteousness, readiness of news about peace from the Kingdom of God, trust in God, God’s salvation and the word of God:

“our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.” (Eph. 6:12 NASB)

The battle they all fought was bigger than them. They fought spiritual battles bigger than all of us.

The Greek word translated struggle is πάλη palē

struggle = πάλη palē (G3823)
- wrestle in Gen. 32:25 LXX (Septuagint) is ἐπάλαιεν epalaien, from παλαίω palaiō.
- wrestle = אָבַק ’avaq (H79), “to stir up dust,” struggle.
- Eysau (Esau) was called Edom, which means red and comes from the Hebrew word אדמה adamah, or dirt.

Ya’akob really did have to wrestle with his “old man” (Eph. 4:20–24), that which was tied to the things of Earth, can blow away like dust in the wind. Struggling with God should leave us pale with fear and awe.

Jacob and the Angel were kicking up dust. The image the Sages give us would be akin to Greco-Roman wrestling match. It was not clean and gentlemanly.

Luke 18:1–8: Parable of the unrighteous judge

This parable is bizarre if you read it outside the context of the other parables.

When you read parables, you need to look at the set up and the punchline. The set up of this parable tells us to pray and not loose heart. We see in the stories of people such as Job, Hannah, Sarah, Rebekah of how to pray for a long time and not lose heart. We pray daily for the peace of Jerusalem. People have prayed that prayer for centuries, but it hasn’t come yet. What we do see is that the peace of Jerusalem will come, even if we don’t see it right now.

‘A judge who did not fear God and did not respect man’

God does not fear Himself and He does not respect man. God cannot be bribed. The judge can’t be bribed or paid off. We know that such a judge understands justice and will practice it. That judge will always issue honest rulings.

If an unrighteous judge can be worn down by a nagging widow and give her justice, how much more justice will we receive from the righteous judge who loves His creation?

Luke 11:1–13: Yeshua’s prayer lesson; parable of the reluctant friend; ask, seek, knock, scorpion?

Is God the reluctant provider? Why does God want us to keep asking? Maybe it’s because God doesn’t want us to fall into the trap of presuming that God owes us anything. Everything we have is a gift from God, freely given. The children of Israel in the wilderness received their daily bread but they did not have the faith that He would lead them to the Promised Land.

We don’t barge in and demand that God let us in “just as we are.” We must allow God to transform us through Yeshua before we go into His presence. We don’t stay the way we were.

John 16: ‘In this world you have trouble’

“…’but take courage; I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33 NASB)

We have to wrestle with this world but we can move through them and get through them. In John 17, Yeshua tells us how we will move through those struggles. There is strength in community, in numbers. There are some problems that come with being in a large group but just as the Father and Son are an example of Echad, those of us in the Kingdom should also be echad. We should all have one goal, even if we perform different jobs in the body.

Shouldn’t the Kingdom of God do a better job at creating community and following a common purpose than the Rotary Club?

1Corinthians 10:1–13: Way out of the trap

“No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.” (1 Corinthians 10:12–13 NASB)

1Corinthians 10:1–11 recaps important lessons from the Exodus:

Traveled under the cloud
Passed through the sea
Baptized into Moshe in the cloud and sea
Ate the same spiritual food — manna
Drank the same spiritual drink — water from the rock (type of Messiah)
Craved evil things
Idolaters — golden calf — 3,000 executed (Exodus 32)
Immorality — women of Midian — 23,000 executed (Numbers 25)
Maligned God’s leadership — fiery serpents (Numbers 21)

Do you want your life to be a good example or a stern warning? The Scriptures were give to us as instruction. Some of our brothers and sisters experience throughout the world experience horrendous persecution in places such as Burma, North Korea, China, Iraq and Iran. There is a war against those who trust in God. That’s a real struggle. Christians in America have nothing to complain about in comparison.

How do we deal with our struggles? How do we wrestle and wait for the Lord? Are we patient and willing to be trained or are we bratty and insolent? Do we demand that God give us stuff we don’t really need?

“Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.” (1 Corinthians 10:11 NASB)

Summary: Tammy