A Midnight Struggle

“And there wrestled a man with him.” — Gen. 32: 24.

If one has read the preceding chapter on “the double portion” of the Spirit, he has now come to the place where he is conscious of failure, and also conscious of the fact that he longs to be freed from the dominion of sin. It is also very likely that very many of us will be called upon to pass through some such experience as that which shall be described in the words that follow, introduced by the text above.

This is a part of the story of Jacob, the man in the Old Testament who really appeals to us much as does Peter in the New. When we read of his failures and his many grievous mistakes, yet read that our God is called “the God of Jacob,” we certainly take heart, because we know that, whatever may be our wanderings and failures, God will help us to overcome them.

There are many things about the life of Jacob that would apply to us.

First of all, his failings: he deceived his father; he cheated Esau; and he was exactly like ourselves, except for the grace of God. Let us not be too critical of the men who have made awful mistakes in their lives, for, were it not for God’s sovereign grace, we, too, doubtless should have been worse.

His aspirations speak to us; we, too, have had our Bethels, when we have been almost fsce to face with God, and have heard him speak. His sorrows touch us; for we also have had our struggles and our losses, and many of us are living to-day with marks upon us because of some great sacrifice we have made, of some great burden we have borne. But the story of Jacob ought to lead us, every one, to the place, where, like him, we may not only have a new name given to us, but may have a new nature as well.

I. This event in his life is most striking. He had stolen his birthright, as you know, and he had gone away, a fugitive from his home. He had stopped at Bethel to sleep, with stones for his pillow and a condemning conscience to disturb his dreams. He had gone into the far country and served fourteen vears for the woman he loved, and he is now homeward bound once more after these many years. As he journeys, he hears that Esau is coming, and, as “conscience makes cowards of us all,” so Jacob at once became afraid. He sent messengers ahead to meet his brother, and he divided both his men and his flocks so that one messenger after another should come before Esau, and Esau should thus be impressed with the greatness of his erring brother.

Finally, Jacob reaches Jabbok’s ford, and he sent his family over while he tarried on the opposite side of the stream; and one of the most suggestive texts in all the story is this: “And Jacob was left alone.” It was a very solemn place. Two gentlemen determined some time ago to spend the night at Jabbok’s ford, that they might enter more fully into the experience of Jacob; and they waited until the midnight hour, and then fled. But it may be more solemn by far for some of us in these days to come into close quarters with God, and allow him to deal with our shortcomings and our sins, than for Jacob to meet the angel and struggle as he did. But may God help us every one to be perfectly honest, and ask him to deal with us very faithfully.

II. Jabbok was the crisis of Jacob’s life. Bethel was like his conversion, and he might that night have so completely yielded himself to God that all the story of his after years would have been different. But we find that instead of so doing he had his varied experience, his sorrows as well as his joys, his days of rapture as well as his hours of depression; his was a very checkered career.

You, too, at the day of your regeneration might have apprehended all the blessing of God; for the day of your birth into the kingdom you became a child of God, an heir of God, and joint heir with Jesus Christ, and it is because you did not apprehend your spiritual blessings and live up to them that you have had the dreary experience, days when you were hot and again cold; near to God, and again far away from him; consistent, and then afterwards inconsistent. But this never was God’s plan for your life; and, if this has been your experience, may God bring you to some crisis at this present time when you shall ask him to put his finger upon the thing that has been wrong in your life, and, even though it be the giving up of the dearest thing in the world to you, ask him to give you strength to let it go.

Now is the accepted time, and now is the day of power. Claim it if you have fulfilled the conditions.

III. “There wrestled a man with him.” This is not a story to describe Jacob’s earnestness in prayer; it has too many times been used in that way. Jacob did not wrestle with the angel, but the angel wrestled with him. Jacob only struggled; the angel of the Lord did the wrestling. It is a picture of God’s faithful dealings with one of his own, and doubtless he has been dealing with many of you in the same way. If there have been in your life constant discontent and oft-repeated experiences of unrest, these are clear indications of the fact that God is having a struggle with you, and that he would lead you out of your old position of half-heartedness, and forward into the place of victory, and beyond. It is a sad thing when we know that the angel was the angel of the Lord, to see Jacob struggle as he did; but it is a more awful thing by far for one to hold out for a minute against God’s plan for one’s life.

I know how very many times we think that, if we were to surrender to him, we should be called upon to do some hard thing, to bear some heavy burden, to dwell frequently in the darkness, and altogether have anything but a happy experience; but the testimony of God’s word is quite the opposite, — “I delight to do thy will, O God.”

If my children should give me the privilege for one day of choosing for them everything that would enter into that day, I would not put upon them the things they did not like, nor bring before them the things that were distasteful to them; but I should spend hours trying to determine what would be their greatest joy, and minister to them their greatest happiness. “Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him.” We may as well learn it quickly. We can well afford to trust God in all this matter of the surrendered life.

After Jacob had struggled for all this time the angel “touched the hollow of his thigh,” and his sinew shrunk away. There must be something between you and God if you are not at rest and filled with peace. It may be as small as a sinew and counted almost as useful as a sinew, but God must touch that thing before he bestows power upon you. With some it may be pride; with others, temper; and with still others, an evil tongue or an unforgiving spirit. But, whatever it is, God will reveal it to you if you will wait honestly before him, and he will put it out of your life if you will but give him the privilege so to do.

IV. The clinging comes next, when Jacob simply yields himself to the embrace of the angel and struggles no more. “I will not let thee go, except thou bless me,” he cries; “and he blessed him there.” Have you not learned that God always waits for you to put yourself perfectly in his hands to be controlled by his mind, dominated by his Spirit, instructed by his word, that he may give you all his power to be used in your life?

A man made his way to California in the days when gold was being discovered in great quantities, and stayed away from his Eastern home for years.

but he never allowed a month to go by when he did not send back to his loved ones some token of his love. The finest pictures were in their home. The finest adornments of every sort were in every room; but at last after years of separation his wife wrote him, saying, “My husband, we are pleased with your offering, but the time has come when we want you”; and this is what God is saying. We have offered him a little of our time and a very little of our money, and occasionally displays of our strength; but he is saying to us to-day, “My child, I want you and all there is of you; throw yourself into my arms and rest, and I will give you power.”

V. When God touched him, he began to limp. If anything has stood between us and God, and we have held it as a cherished treasure in our minds, doubtless when God touches it he will leave upon us the mark of it all. Some of us to-day may be forced to limp away from our close embrace of him; but it would be better ever to limp, so far as the world is concerned, and be counted maimed, if only we might have God’s power and his blessing upon us. It is not so much a question of what the world thinks of us in these days, but altogether a question of how we stand in the estimation of God. “Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts, and see if there be any wicked way in me,” should be the Christian’s constant prayer.

VI. Did you ever notice the result of the angel’s wrestling and Jacob’s yielding?

I. Jacob received a new name. “What is thy name?” said the angel to him, and I could imagine how Jacob would hesitate for a little; but then he made confession and said, “My name is Jacob.” This by interpretation means “supplanter” and “cheat.” But the confession of his weakness brought the display of God’s strength, for the angel said, “Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel.”

If you have come to the place of crisis to-day in your life, and you have yielded to God, rise and claim his blessing and his power. You will not need to talk much about it to those who are round about you; but they will give you the new name, too. For they will notice your gentleness, and take knowledge of your peace, and bear witness to your power. It is not possible for one to be a Spirit-filled man or woman. without having his name changed in the world.

1. The angel said, “Thou hast power with God, and with men.” But you will notice that it was “power with God” first. We ordinarily put it the other way, and many of us would like power that we might be able to preach: and others, that we might sing; and still others, that we might for some selfish reason come to the possession of a great fame; but a man can never really have power with men in this world until first of all he has power with God: and only the life that is right, and the heart that is clean, and the will that is really surrendered, may claim this.

But after one has surrendered, and received the new name and the baptism of power, the more serious problem is. How shall he keep it.? It is a good thing to have a crisis in one’s life, and a date of definite surrender; but, while the memory of such an experience is very blessed, it is a fatal mistake to try to make it last for all the future days.

It is said that the Frazier gun hurls a projectile of a thousand pounds, using five hundred pounds of powder at a blast, and that this projectile may be sent through armor-plate seventeen inches thick; that it is also possible with this same gun to throw a shell thirteen miles, and, when the gun is discharged, it is automatically thrown back again for reloading; and, when it is thrown back, it charges an air-chamber, which, when the gun is loaded and again released, throws it back again in position. So the gun in use is always being fired and always being charged. This is the picture for the Christian. He is always giving forth of that which God has given to him if he is really God’s child; but he must ever be back again at the feet of the Master, receiving a fresh infilling, a new anointing, another vision of the face of the risen Christ. This is the picture of continued blessing always.