Jacob The Warrior

[00:00:05] Speaker A: I will start with a question and you can answer honestly with a show of hands. There's not going to be any trickery or sarcasm or anything on the other end of this question, but I wonder how many of you at some point in your life have ever looked up at the heavens and said, either out. [00:00:23] Speaker B: Loud or in your heart. [00:00:26] Speaker B: Seriously. [00:00:32] Speaker A: Again. [00:00:34] Speaker B: Haven'T I, I thought, I've already been through this. Haven't I already done enough? [00:00:41] Speaker B: Is this seriously going to be another. [00:00:44] Speaker A: Thing I have to deal with? [00:00:47] Speaker A: I don't see many hands, but I'm certain that many of you have done that. Okay. [00:00:52] Speaker B: And maybe it may. There are so many things that can. [00:00:55] Speaker A: Cause that people who have recurring challenges, relationships, can drive us into these difficult things. Financial setbacks. There's a whole world of things. And you find yourself, you know, sort of. Sort of like. [00:01:13] Speaker A: Down on yourself, down. [00:01:15] Speaker B: On life, down on the whole thing. I just want some peace. I just want to have a period of time when life is calm. Is that too much to ask? [00:01:34] Speaker A: I think we know that feeling. It's a sort of exhaustion, it's sort of an exasperation where we feel like there's one battle to the next. [00:01:46] Speaker B: But I'll tell you who I think could probably surpass us all in that feeling. [00:01:52] Speaker A: And his name is. This week's Torah portion star has been actually Yaakov Yankee, you call him as an Ashkenaz nickname. Yaakov Jacob the Patriarch. We know his story, Vayishlach. This is the Torah portion. And this is today Jacob's wrestling match. Who did he wrestle? [00:02:27] Speaker A: Good answers, all of them. [00:02:31] Speaker A: We need to understand that wrestling match because there is something for all of us in it. [00:02:39] Speaker A: As I said this morning at 9 o', clock, I think this wrestling match is the Torah at its best in terms of tackling, understanding, and not just surviving, but thriving in life. [00:02:54] Speaker A: Because you know Jacob's life up to this point. When you read about Jacob In Genesis 25, the Torah describes him as an ish tam. Anyone know what an ish tam is? It's a gentle man. [00:03:09] Speaker A: It's sometimes simple, but in this case, it's a gentle soul, a gentle man. He was dwelling in tents. That's what it says. Peaceful, contemplative. His brother, Esau Hunter thrived on action, on adventure. Jacob study, reflection, order. He was a gardener at heart, we could say. Not literally, but temperamentally. Someone who wanted a calm, ordered life where he could tend to things carefully. [00:03:41] Speaker B: You could see him like one of. [00:03:43] Speaker A: Those old Japanese boys, bonsai masters, clipping his Tree in his tent with peace and incense and the beautiful sounds of music. [00:03:55] Speaker A: A gardener at heart. [00:03:59] Speaker A: But his life was anything but peaceful. And you could say, well, it was his own fault, but that's not really true. From the moment he enters the story, he's grabbing, right? He's clutching at the heel, Yaakov. Heel is one interpretation of that name. Then we have the stolen blessing. That's a whole nother message in and of itself. [00:04:22] Speaker B: When your mom tells you to do it, is it really your fault? [00:04:28] Speaker A: Esau, murderous rage, fleeing, gets a promise. [00:04:32] Speaker B: From God, goes to Laban, 20 years there, gets completely. [00:04:39] Speaker A: Whatever the word is. It's not a nice word. I was going to say, so I brought it back in. [00:04:44] Speaker B: He gets. [00:04:47] Speaker A: Cheated. That's the word, cheated. [00:04:51] Speaker A: More than once. With the marriage thing, with the wages, with all of it. Heartbreak after heartbreak. There's family rivalry going on between the wives. There's a lot of stuff. [00:05:03] Speaker B: And so the gardener, who wants peace and banzais, gets battles. [00:05:10] Speaker A: Battle after battle. [00:05:11] Speaker B: And now in this week's portion, after 20 years, God tells Jacob. All right, buddy, line up for another one. Here we go. Go on in there. Time to face big brother. Time to walk up there confidently. It's time to say. [00:05:31] Speaker A: That'S what Jacob said. He hears it, but that's what he says. [00:05:37] Speaker B: It says in Genesis 32, he was very distressed. He was frightened and distressed. Vayura, he feared. [00:05:48] Speaker A: And it was. It says, yetzar lo. I mean, it was tight for him. [00:05:55] Speaker B: Tight, narrow. Vayetsar. He was terrified. He was constricted with fear. He was panicked. [00:06:05] Speaker B: The last time he saw Esau, he wanted him dead. What possibly could have changed? Over 20 years of bitter, harsh feelings. It could only be worse. [00:06:19] Speaker B: So he divides his camp. His wives, his children, his flocks, everything he could lose. He sends all these gifts ahead. He prays desperately to God. You told me to come back. Now you gotta be with me bargaining a little bit. [00:06:35] Speaker B: Please, please, God, don't let my brother. [00:06:38] Speaker A: Kill me or my family. [00:06:42] Speaker B: It sounds funny, but it's an honest, urgent, desperate plea. I am terrified. [00:06:51] Speaker A: God. [00:06:54] Speaker A: Now, there's an interesting thing. Rashi's grandson, his name is Rashbom. That's not his real name. That's his moniker. That's his rabbi name. [00:07:06] Speaker A: I taught this one year. But Roshbaum suggests that Jacob really, really wanted to run. [00:07:14] Speaker B: It says he did all this stuff. And then there's Jacob. [00:07:17] Speaker A: And he's left alone. He's alone, okay? [00:07:22] Speaker B: And Rashbomb says, at that point in time, he was literally Getting ready to turn tail and run. [00:07:29] Speaker A: Because he was that afraid. He just couldn't deal with it. Another challenge. [00:07:37] Speaker B: And his instinct was the same as it had been 20 years ago. I'm running. I'm going away now. His parents told him to, but he ran and he ran and he stayed away. And he escaped. Why face another battle when you've already been there? And can you blame him? Of course not. Esau was a wild ass of a man. [00:07:58] Speaker A: Nobody likes dealing with wild asses. [00:08:05] Speaker A: That's what my mom used to call me in high school. [00:08:13] Speaker A: He's tired. He's tired, and on the eve of what could be his death, all he wanted was to get out of there. But God wouldn't let him. And Rashbaum says, God. [00:08:22] Speaker B: God wasn't going to let him. And how did he stop it from happening? He sent an adversary. [00:08:29] Speaker A: And where does Jacob meet the adversary? In a wrestling match. [00:08:37] Speaker A: From God. [00:08:39] Speaker A: Now Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until the break of dawn. A man. [00:08:49] Speaker B: Or an angel? [00:08:51] Speaker A: Because Hosea says later, and we'll talk about that in a second, the text is very ambiguous about what this figure actually is. [00:09:01] Speaker B: It says a man. [00:09:04] Speaker A: But the Midrash gives us a very challenging interpretation. And other rabbinic sources. But in Bereshit Rabba, the midrash in 77, it says it was an angel. But not just any angel. [00:09:20] Speaker A: It was a guardian angel. Who believes in guardian angels? I do. And this was one. Do you know whose guardian angel it was? [00:09:33] Speaker A: Esau's. [00:09:40] Speaker A: The Sar of Esau. The prince. The guardian angel of Esau. The spiritual representation of the embodiment of everything Esau was and everything Jacob feared about him. [00:09:57] Speaker B: So was it a man? [00:10:00] Speaker A: Was it an angel? [00:10:03] Speaker B: Esau's spiritual essence? [00:10:05] Speaker A: Well, hang on, because I always get confused faces when we come to this part. [00:10:11] Speaker B: When it's all over, Jacob names the place. What? Peniel. [00:10:15] Speaker A: What's it mean? [00:10:17] Speaker B: The face of God. Saying, I have seen God face to face, and my life has been preserved. Well, that throws a whole wrench in that. Was it God? [00:10:31] Speaker A: And here's the profound answer. [00:10:34] Speaker B: Was it a man? [00:10:35] Speaker A: Was it an angel? [00:10:36] Speaker B: Was it a guardian angel of Esau? Was it God? [00:10:40] Speaker A: What's the answer? Yes. [00:10:46] Speaker A: And that's the point. It was Esau's guardian angel, the manifestation. [00:10:51] Speaker B: Of Jacob's past, his guilt, his fear, everything he'd been running from for 20 years. It was in the form of a man. Tangible, physical, real enough to wound Jacob's hip. And we saw this same thing in Genesis 18, when the three men came to Abraham's camp, but in Genesis 19, what were they really? Angels. But they were described as men. [00:11:20] Speaker A: But how can it also be God? [00:11:24] Speaker A: And here, because, like Roshbom said, God sent this challenge. He is working through this angel, and he does that. God orchestrates this confrontation. [00:11:36] Speaker B: He knew exactly what Jacob needed. Even if Jacob didn't know what he needed. [00:11:43] Speaker A: You have to understand angels to understand this. [00:11:47] Speaker B: Esau's representative in identity, but God's agent in purpose. [00:11:54] Speaker A: That's how angels work. [00:11:59] Speaker B: Jacob wanted to run from Esau again, but he needed to face this. [00:12:07] Speaker B: Everything Esau represented to him, it was his own deception, his own fear, his own guilt, his past. He needed to wrestle it. He could not avoid it. He could not run from it anymore. He had to wrestle it. He had to transform it from adversary to blessing. [00:12:28] Speaker A: And God loved Jacob enough to not let him run away. [00:12:34] Speaker B: He presented him with a supernatural struggle. [00:12:37] Speaker A: Because God knew Jacob was ready. [00:12:41] Speaker B: Why was he ready? [00:12:44] Speaker A: Because of all the hell that had led up to this. [00:12:48] Speaker B: Involuntary battles that Jacob found himself in those moments when surely he looked at the sky and said, seriously. [00:13:01] Speaker B: Seriously, God again. [00:13:04] Speaker A: All of those battles had prepared him for this moment. [00:13:07] Speaker B: He was capable, God knew it, of holding on, refusing to let go, demanding that he get this blessing that he needed. And what was the blessing? It wasn't just a new name. That is a blessing. It always is a blessing in the Torah. But the blessing was liberation. The blessing he was going to get was finally cutting ties with the past and living and walking in freedom. [00:13:38] Speaker B: The ability to face Esau not as. [00:13:43] Speaker A: A guilty fugitive, cowering, afraid, guilt ridden. [00:13:52] Speaker A: He would face him as Israel, one who struggled with God and with men. Hosea speaks of it. I mentioned it in 12. He wrestled with an angel and prevailed. He wept and sought his favor. You ever notice that? He wept? What is that? [00:14:13] Speaker A: Was Jacob a crybaby? It's a weird image. [00:14:17] Speaker B: God, please. [00:14:22] Speaker A: That's not what it was. [00:14:23] Speaker B: It was the deep, gut wrenching cry of God, please help me. [00:14:39] Speaker A: It was deep, deep, deep, deep emotion. Jacob says, I've seen God face to face. He's acknowledging this truth. God. God saw him. God knew what he needed. God sent the challenge that would free him. God blessed him through the struggle he wanted to avoid. [00:14:57] Speaker B: And Jacob saw God working for his good. He could finally see it. [00:15:06] Speaker A: To bless, protect. [00:15:08] Speaker B: It was Esau's angel. It was a man. It was God. [00:15:13] Speaker A: It was all three. [00:15:14] Speaker B: You want to talk about the Trinity? [00:15:15] Speaker A: There's a Trinity for you. [00:15:19] Speaker A: That's in the Torah. Because God works through our confrontations. He works through our past, he works through our fears. He works through the difficulties, and he even works through the adversaries in your life. [00:15:37] Speaker A: And sometimes, you ready? He puts them there. [00:15:45] Speaker A: Because you can't run. You need it. [00:15:50] Speaker A: Jacob wrestles with the sorrow of Esau at the appointment of the God of Israel for the sake of Jacob's transformation. [00:16:03] Speaker A: So they wrestle all night long, two figures grappling in the darkness. The angel strikes Jacob's hip. [00:16:09] Speaker B: He dislocates it. It's not like a little bruise. [00:16:12] Speaker A: This is going to be there forever. [00:16:14] Speaker B: This is real pain. It's real injury. It's not a metaphor. [00:16:17] Speaker A: It's none of that. He is wounded physically. [00:16:24] Speaker A: And yet Jacob doesn't let go. [00:16:30] Speaker B: Despite the pain, despite the fear, despite everything. Dawn begins to break. The angel says, let me go. For dawn is breaking. And Jacob, the Ishtam, the peaceful man who just wanted to dwell in tents, the one who has spent his whole life, life and struggle, says these extraordinary no, I will not let you go until you free me, until you bless me. I am so done. [00:17:03] Speaker B: I'm not letting go. [00:17:06] Speaker A: Can you picture that? [00:17:15] Speaker A: And Jacob transforms. [00:17:19] Speaker A: All that represented what he wanted to run from into blessing. [00:17:26] Speaker A: His worst fear. [00:17:29] Speaker A: He's wrestling his way to transformation because he knows. Guess what? There's one certainty that Jacob knows. Life is hard. Life is hard. [00:17:39] Speaker B: Chaos, uncertainty, all that, they're not really good or bad. Often they just are. It's just life. [00:17:48] Speaker A: They're the fabric of existence. [00:17:50] Speaker B: And most of the time, you don't. [00:17:51] Speaker A: Get to choose the battles. [00:17:55] Speaker A: First of all, because as human beings, we rarely would. We would choose to run. You don't pick your adversaries. You don't select the struggles. You can't negotiate the timing. You don't get to ask for better terms. [00:18:09] Speaker B: There's no. There's no timeout button when you're not ready for it. There's no holding period. When you don't like what you see, the battles come. And I read this from this young guy that I love so much named Sahil Bloom. [00:18:24] Speaker A: He wrote a blog this week, and it was right in line with what I was talking about. [00:18:30] Speaker B: And he said, because of all that you've been through, when you meet those challenges, it's the time you meet them. [00:18:38] Speaker A: Precisely at the level of your preparation. [00:18:43] Speaker B: And you may not have even known. [00:18:46] Speaker A: What was happening in preparation, but when. [00:18:49] Speaker B: They come, you meet them precisely at. [00:18:51] Speaker A: The level of your preparation. And we know what Jacob's preparation was built on. [00:18:56] Speaker B: And so he had been Transformed now. [00:19:00] Speaker A: In this holding, from gardener to warrior. [00:19:12] Speaker A: That's what happened to him. All the struggle, all of it. Now he's capable, fighting, holding on. The angel asks him, what is your name? So weird. [00:19:26] Speaker B: What is your name? [00:19:29] Speaker A: Jacob. Not anymore. Now you're Israel. [00:19:34] Speaker B: You've struggled with God and with men. Plural. Plural, okay. [00:19:40] Speaker A: With God and with men. [00:19:41] Speaker B: Not just this wrestling match throughout your whole life. And Jacob's acknowledging the entire story, every struggle with Esau, with Laban, with his family, that's struggling with men. And also, this is crucial, every struggle with God, because Jacob's relationship with God was not a passive one ever. There's a lot of talking between Jacob and God. There's some negotiating. There's a lot of things that go on. It was active with questions, with demands, sometimes with anger. From the moment he begged God at Bethel, if you'll be with me, then you'll be my God. That's pretty bold. [00:20:23] Speaker B: But he wrestled with the divine his whole life, actually. [00:20:32] Speaker A: When his. [00:20:34] Speaker A: Family was in struggle, he's saying, I thought you promised. [00:20:41] Speaker B: The angel's verdict is, you have prevailed. [00:20:46] Speaker A: Not just with me, not with Esau, not with Laban, but with God. [00:20:51] Speaker B: In those moments of question and challenge. [00:20:54] Speaker A: You kept on pressing through. You kept on pressing. [00:20:59] Speaker B: You questioned, you demanded, you fought. You didn't give up on God. He didn't give up on you. God saw you. He presented this supernatural struggle because you were ready for it, and you overcame it. And Jacob, you can see God in it. [00:21:14] Speaker A: And then Jacob asked this question. [00:21:16] Speaker B: You tell me your name. [00:21:19] Speaker B: Also weird. [00:21:23] Speaker B: And what does the angel say? [00:21:26] Speaker A: You don't need to know my name. [00:21:31] Speaker B: This isn't about me. You don't need to know my name. This is about you. And it has been all the time for you to confront, to wrestle those inner demons of your guilt and your fear and your identity and leave it here. [00:21:51] Speaker B: Not as Jacob the deceiver who. [00:21:53] Speaker A: Stole, but as Israel, the wrestler who earned. [00:22:00] Speaker A: And I love that. And I read this story also this week. [00:22:06] Speaker A: A young warrior was walking to his training when he spotted his teacher, who was a master warrior, tending to plants in the garden. [00:22:16] Speaker A: And he approached cautiously to his master. And he stood quietly, didn't want to disturb him, this guy that he loved so much and had learned so much from. And the master says, what is it you want? Without even breaking away from the plants. And the student replied, why do we train for war? [00:22:35] Speaker A: Would it not be so much more tranquil and serene to be a gardener and tend the plants? And the master turned to the Student. He smiled. He said, tending the garden is a relaxing pastime, but it does not prepare you for the inevitable battles of life. It's hard to be calm when under attack. [00:22:59] Speaker A: The student nodded and turned away. He was satisfied with the answer. But the master wasn't finished. He said, it is far better to be a warrior tending his garden than a gardener at war. [00:23:18] Speaker A: Jacob started as a gardener, as an ishtam, a peaceful man dwelling in tents. It was his natural temperament. It's who he wanted to be. But God knew what was coming. God knew his life and the future of a people who would bear his name. And they needed someone who had been tested, who had been forged. So every struggle, every battle, every moment. [00:23:42] Speaker A: He never broke. The gardener was becoming a warrior. And the beautiful thing is he didn't lose his gardener's heart. He didn't lose it. [00:23:53] Speaker B: He gained a warrior's strength. [00:23:54] Speaker A: He could tend his garden, his family, his relationships, his spiritual life. But now he could do it with the strength of someone who had prevailed, who had also a warrior's nature. And his whole life, we know, was a crucible from birth to death, as we talked about God, men, all of it. [00:24:15] Speaker B: Abraham was called by God, and he followed. Isaac was bound and submitted. But Jacob, Jacob had to wrestle for it. [00:24:23] Speaker A: He had to fight for it. He had to struggle for it. [00:24:25] Speaker B: He demanded blessings. [00:24:27] Speaker A: He refused to let go. And from him, Israel. And I am proud of that. Just as a side note, Israel, a. [00:24:38] Speaker B: People not defined in any way by ease or comfort, who trouble has sought us from the beginning. And yet we have the ability to. [00:24:51] Speaker A: Struggle with God, with a warrior's heart. I'm proud of the people of Israel, and I'm proud of the patriarch from which we are named. But the lesson here is not about Jews. It's about everybody. It's about everybody in this room. [00:25:08] Speaker A: Genesis says in this beautiful closing image, after all this has happened, the sun rose upon him. He passed Peniel limping on his hip. Read it. The son rose upon him. It says, not just the sun came up. Vayizrach lo hashemesh. [00:25:27] Speaker B: The sun rose for him. The sun rose personally after the darkest night of his life, after wrestling with his worst fear, after all of that demanding, the sun rises and shines on Jacob. And I see it as this beautiful. [00:25:44] Speaker A: Golden smile of God. Good Job, son. [00:25:49] Speaker B: Good Job. [00:25:50] Speaker A: God's affirmation. And Jacob has seen God face to face. He names the place Peniel, because God presented him with this test. And finally he could see it. But notice he is limping on his hip, right? And he carried that for the rest of his life. Now here's the question I want you to consider. [00:26:13] Speaker B: Do you think that Jacob spent the. [00:26:15] Speaker A: Rest of his life complaining about that limp? [00:26:21] Speaker A: I could think of many of my Jewish relatives. [00:26:28] Speaker B: Oy. [00:26:30] Speaker B: Oy, the hip. What's with the hip? Reuven, Simeon, come over here. Did I tell you about this hip? I. It's killing me. [00:26:43] Speaker B: Oy, GE vault. [00:26:47] Speaker B: Do you think that was Jacob? [00:26:52] Speaker B: I believe this with everything in me, that every time Jacob felt that pain, every time his gait reminded him that he was different. Now every single time, I want to believe, and I do believe that we. What he thought was I prevailed. [00:27:17] Speaker A: I wrestled with fear and I overcame it. [00:27:23] Speaker A: I'll never forget that day. That's what I think he thought. It was a testimony, it wasn't a disability. [00:27:29] Speaker B: And we know also, Jacob's life did not get that much better from here, did it? Right after this, Dinah, she's sexually assaulted Joseph. His own brothers, the bloody coat. The years wondering, why did my son get taken from me? It didn't get better. There was a famine, the family was forced to Egypt. Losing Benjamin, all of this struggle, struggle, struggle, struggle. And he wasn't perfectly optimistic either. We have to be honest about this. When Pharaoh's talking to Jacob, you remember this line later, he says, 130 years have been my life, right? Few and hard have been the years of my Life. [00:28:19] Speaker A: That's at 130, that's down the road. [00:28:21] Speaker B: He was still very aware. [00:28:24] Speaker A: The fact that he had not had. [00:28:26] Speaker B: A dream life. [00:28:30] Speaker A: But he had an overcomer's life. [00:28:34] Speaker A: And they're not always synonymous in the natural, but in here and this connection with him. [00:28:44] Speaker A: That'S worth the fight. And every time he felt the limp as he went through a struggle, I'm sure he also was thinking, you've been here before, man. God's been with you. You've been here before. You can do it, you can make it. Keep your head up. Hold on. Wrestle, don't quit. [00:29:06] Speaker B: So closing. [00:29:08] Speaker A: What's your limp? [00:29:12] Speaker A: What's your scar? [00:29:16] Speaker A: What's the wound. [00:29:19] Speaker A: That never quite healed? [00:29:24] Speaker A: What's the reminder of a battle that you fought and survived? Maybe it's a relationship, it's the loss of who knows what, but it devastated devastated part of you. It's failure, it's humiliation, whatever. It's illness, it's injury. [00:29:39] Speaker B: There's so many things. And maybe you've been looking at that scar and it just continues to bring you to this place of negativity and. [00:29:47] Speaker A: Proof of brokenness or reminders of worst moments. [00:29:51] Speaker B: But that's the wrong way. [00:29:55] Speaker B: Because here you sit listening to a message about the most fearful man in the Torah, battling and overcoming. It is your testimony. It is part of your life. It's proof that you wrestle and prevail. And what if every time you're reminded of it, instead of saying, o look what happened to me, you say, look what I overcame and am prevailing over. This is important. We all have them. We all have scars. [00:30:33] Speaker A: I know someone else who had scars. [00:30:37] Speaker A: They needed to be shown. [00:30:39] Speaker B: He came back and Thomas wanted to see those scars, Right? [00:30:45] Speaker A: Scars. [00:30:45] Speaker B: Proof of an ultimate wrestling match that Yeshua went through death wrestling, prevailing. And it's such an incredible story. And the thing is, because of those scars, we also have an advantage. We wrestle, we overcome by the power. I can do all things through Messiah who strengthens. It doesn't always feel like that. I know, but this is important. [00:31:08] Speaker A: You're not invincible, but you're capable. [00:31:12] Speaker A: And so the warrior. It's better to be a warrior tending his garden than a gardener at war. And that's what Jacob was always supposed to be. And we need warriors. You need to be a warrior, but you don't need to lose your tenderness. You got to hold on to that too. And maybe you started as a gardener and you wanted peace, but life had other plans. And battles upon battles come to your door. [00:31:41] Speaker A: And somewhere along the way, you became a warrior. [00:31:46] Speaker A: If you're not there yet, I want you to remember that. [00:31:51] Speaker A: Scars are not all bad. [00:31:59] Speaker A: So when the next one comes, you have your limp, your scar, your testimony. It's a reminder that you've wrestled, that God has seen you and you've seen God, and that together you have prevailed. And you can prevail again, especially as a disciple, the one who prevailed over all. [00:32:24] Speaker A: Got it? [00:32:26] Speaker A: Shabbat Shalom. [00:32:28] Speaker C: I'm Darren with Shalom Macon. If you enjoyed this teaching, I want to ask you to take the next step. Start by making sure you're subscribed to our channel. Next, make sure you hit the like button on this video so that others know it's worth their time to watch. Last, head over to our website to learn more about Shalom Macon, explore other teachings and events, and if you're so inclined, contribute to the work that we're doing to further the Kingdom. Thanks for watching and connecting with Shalom Macon.