Blessing and Naming

Genesis 32:9-13, 22-30

Motif- a dominant idea in an artistic or literary composition

Genesis 16:8 He said, “Hagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?” She replied, “I’m running away from my mistress Sarai.”

Genesis 16:13 So she named the Lord who spoke to her: “You are El-roi,” for she said, “In this place, have I actually seen the one who sees me?” 

Genesis 21:2-3

2 Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the appointed time God had told him. 3 Abraham named his son who was born to him—the one Sarah bore to him—Isaac.

Genesis 32:6 When the messengers returned to Jacob, they said, “We went to your brother Esau; he is coming to meet you—and he has four hundred men with him.”

Genesis 32:24-32

24 Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. 25 When the man saw that he could not defeat him, he struck Jacob’s hip socket as they wrestled and dislocated his hip. 26 Then he said to Jacob, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.”

But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”

27 “What is your name?” the man asked.“Jacob,” he replied.

28 “Your name will no longer be Jacob,” he said. “It will be Israel because you have struggled with God and with men and have prevailed.”

29 Then Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.”But he answered, “Why do you ask my name?” And he blessed him there.

30 Jacob then named the place Peniel, “For I have seen God face to face,” he said, “yet my life has been spared.” 31 The sun shone on him as he passed by Penuel—limping because of his hip. 32 That is why, still today, the Israelites don’t eat the thigh muscle that is at the hip socket: because he struck Jacob’s hip socket at the thigh muscle.

"Jacob was left alone..." vs. 24

"What's your name?"

"Jacob"

"Who are you?"

"I'm a heel."

Genesis 32:28 “Your name will no longer be Jacob,” he said. “It will be Israel because you have struggled with God and with men and have prevailed.”

Jacob's identity was defined by struggle, but that struggle was defined by his unwillingness to let go.

Important Statements:

• Jacob was left alone.

• Jacob's story is characterized by struggle.

• Struggle is a better descriptor for faith than comfort.

Genesis 32:30 Jacob then named the place Peniel, “For I have seen God face to face,” he said, “yet my life has been spared.”

"For I have seen God face to face, yet my life has been spared."

Genesis 32:31 The sun shone on him as he passed by Penuel—limping because of his hip.

"limping"

Genesis 32:31 The sun shone on him as he passed by Penuel—limping because of his hip.

Genesis 32:28 “Your name will no longer be Jacob,” he said. “It will be Israel because you have struggled with God and with men and have prevailed.”

"struggled with God..."

Let faith be characterized by the struggle.

Your name is _______________________.

Will you tell us about your limp/struggle?

We can trust the God who ____________________, ____________________, ____________________, and ____________________ struggled with because it is the same God who named Jacob, who gave him a limp, who delivered Israel from the slavery of Egypt and resurrected Christ on Easter morning.