“Defiance to Reliance”
Original sermon given October 16, 2022, written and delivered by Pastor Gregg Ramirez at First Saint Paul’s Lutheran Church
Watch the sermon live here
“Defiance to Reliance”
Genesis 32:22-30
Genesis 32:22-30
Back in 2014, a book came out entitled Deep Down Dark. It’s the riveting story of the 33 miners in Chile who were trapped underground for 69 days in 2010. The 500-foot stone that sealed the miners off was twice the size of the Empire State Building. There was no way for them to get to the surface and the rescue seemed impossible. Any attempt to drill would cause a cave in. One report put the chances of survival at 2 percent.
What did these tough miners do down there where there was absolute darkness a thousand feet down? They thought about their lives – the people they loved – their decisions – what they could have done differently – and of course they couldn’t help but think about what would happen to them after they died. One of the miners was Jose Enriquez, and the others knew he was a follower of Jesus. So, they asked him to pray for them. He said yes, but on one condition. He liked to pray on his knees as a way to humble himself before God. If he was to pray for them, he would appreciate their doing the same. The miners gathered around him, knelt, and closed their eyes. Jose began to pray: “We aren’t the best of men, but Lord, have pity on us.” Jose made it clear that they were desperate sinners and that God was their only hope.
After he finished his prayer, the men asked what they should do now. Jose told them they needed to confess their sins out loud. So, they began doing that – alcoholism with its effects – trouble controlling their tempers – not being good parents to their children. One after another, each man looked back on life and repented the wrong paths taken. Day after day as they were stuck down there, Jose told them more about Jesus. There was no light so his voice resonated in the dark. He could only preach from the Bible verses found in his memory bank. The men hung on to his every word, prayed, worshipped, and cried out to God for help. They promised God if He would rescue them, they would make changes and live their lives differently. These men with their once tough “I’m not going to use God for a crutch” mindset switched from defiance to reliance.
In your moment of desperation, when you feel like there is no hope, what do you do? So many people live with quiet desperation. Do you? I’ve had my moments. Do you give up inside? Do you fret about things in the present or the uncertain future? Times like these can provide a life-changing opportunity to experience God’s strength and provision, and can end up being your day to meet God—and that’s exactly what happened to Jacob in today’s lesson. Like those miners, Jacob found himself stuck between a rock and a hard place. A little background on Jacob: twenty years earlier he deceived his blind father, Isaac, and so cheated his brother Esau out of his birthright. After hearing death threats from Esau, Jacob ran for his life to the home of a relative Laban, whose two daughters Leah and Rachel would become his wives. There, Jacob continued his behavior of pulling the wool over people’s eyes with Laban, who was a manipulator himself. Jacob by nature was a smooth operator and as his life story progresses, he becomes more of a cunning, slippery, sly soul. Through his manipulations Jacob collected wives and concubines – 12 of them – along with money and livestock.
But then came the rock and hard place as Jacob discovers that his brother is coming his way with 400 men. Fearing vengeance, Jacob reverted to his old tricks by sending a conciliatory message, dividing his large family to perhaps save some, and arranging for a generous gift to Esau. After doing all he could think of, Jacob then chooses to be alone where he is pouring out his heart in despair. He’s in the deep dark down of the miner’s cave – but by himself. He’s lying awake wrestling with his fear. His family might be massacred and it's his fault. He's terrified – thinking the worst. In the past, he would run, but there’s nowhere left to run. Then suddenly he hears something behind him – the sound of footsteps getting closer. It’s too dark to see where he’s going. Who is it? Jacob’s heart is pounding in his chest. Then out of the dark the stranger pounces, grabs hold of Jacob, and throws him to the ground. The two men begin to wrestle. Through the night they flop and plop in the River Jabbok’s mud. As the sun begins to arise Jacob seems to be getting the best of the mysterious stranger who then decides to settle the matter once and for all. The man then reaches out and touches Jacob’s hip which then dislocates – wrenching it out of its socket. Jacob is writhing in pain, and the man cries out, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.” But Jacob won’t let go. The jolt of pain clears Jacob’s vision and he realizes, “I’m tangling with God.” Eventually he grabs the man and holds on for dear life. “I will not let you go unless you bless me,” he insists.
What are we to make of this episode? God in the mud? A tooth and nail fight to the finish? Bizarre. So much so that some commentators have said it was a nightmarish dream and not reality. Jacob would say differently. He’s got a limp that would last the rest of his life. Then what is happening? Jacob is finally facing the fight he had avoided all his life. Like Jonah with the whale, there’s nowhere to run. His life is in the balance, and for the first time he realizes that he can’t make it with his own devices. As they say in AA – he’s bottomed out. His destiny is in the Hands of the Lord – the One and Only Higher Power.
Have any of you ever wrestled with God? Are any of you wrestling with God about something now where you’re pretty dug in about having your way? Jacob has to do something that is hard for our fallen human natures to do - to give up a life long pattern! He’s got to throw the keys of his life to somebody else to take the wheel. Somebody else: the Lord is in the driver’s seat rather than the god of me.
In our family, I have an ex-son-in-law—I’ll call him Stan—who is in a real wrestling match. Stan used to play bass in his church’s praise band, but when things went south in the church Stan went AWOL and began doing more and more when it came to drugs and alcohol. It lost him first the great job he had – DUI with the company car. Then he lost his wife—my daughter—and soon fell under the influence of a like-minded girlfriend. If that wasn’t enough, he lost his three daughters because of the terrible things he called them, which got him into further trouble with the law because already he was a deadbeat dad who paid no child support. Then he lost his house-painting job for being a bad influence on a minor. Talk about falling into the deep down dark! And then, just lately, Stan was in the hospital for major colon problems and sepsis.
What a wrestling match as Stan goes further deep dark down, and you wonder what it’s going to take. How are we to understand this? In your bulletin there’s a couple of graphics of a throne. Do you see one with “S”? That stands for a person on the throne of his life. That’s Stan with the drugs and alcohol. Then the graphic shows Christ on the throne – the Lord of one’s life. What’s God’s goal for each of us? In all areas of our lives – He wants to be on the throne. But how? The wrestling. As we see God merely touching Jacob’s hip, it’s all too clearly that He could have easily crushed Jacob like an ant. But he doesn’t want to do that with any of His children. There’s that verse printed out from Psalm 32 in your bulletin that explains His method of dealing with us:
I will instruct you and show you the way to go; with my eye on you, I will give counsel. Do not be like a horse or mule, without understanding, that must be controlled with bit and bridle or else it will not come near you.(Psalm 32:8-9)
God wants not to crush us, but to tame our wayward spirits like horses to channel our energies for the work of the Kingdom. But unfortunately, this only happens as we get to the end of our rope of self-efforts. It’s for a wonderful purpose, and it’s exemplified when the man asked, “What is your name?” “Jacob.” Yes. He is Jacob the supplanter, liar, deceiver, conniver. But no more, as the stranger says, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel” – which means “God contends”. Yes, Jacob lost the battle, but he won the war. In his brokenness he prevailed. He finally let go and let God, and we find as the story continues that God has so softened Esau’s heart from hate and murder to the point that the two brothers embrace. Have you come to the point in your life where you let God contend for you – where you don’t try to get things done by your knowledge and skills, but instead you ask God to go ahead of you? So many times, I’ve had to fall on my face. I’ve learned the hard way to first pray as I travel, at meetings, or call people, I ask Him to contend to make things happen – knowing that by my own efforts, I’ll screw it up.
That’s Jacob’s story – from defiance to reliance. For the rest of his life, he would be a humble and changed man. His limp reminded him of his dependency on God. It’s this great work of God as he wrestles with us all with the purpose of bringing us to that point of letting go and letting God. Where are you wrestling with God now in an area where you are still exerting your lordship with self on the throne? – in the area of money, or in a relationship with someone, or sexual proclivities, or an eating or drinking issue, or some other addictive behavior? Indeed, know that we can make it the easy or hard way for ourselves. For me it took a bypass surgery over issues of anger – but God is committed to being on the throne of our lives as with Jacob. He has His ways that lead to the surrender of the rebel strongholds in our heats.
God the wrestler. He has His ways of slowly breaking down all resistance. In today’s lesson, He had to step in. Otherwise, Jacob, from whom there would come the line of the Messiah, would die. That’s the story of Jacob moving from defiance to reliance, and across the world and thousands of years after Jacob, a thousand feet underground in a Chilean mine as a revival broke out among those 33 men. Maybe you saw the news coverage. If not, you’ll never guess the name of the first rescuer who got down there with them. Manuel – that’s short for Immanuel, “God with us”. That’s the name given in Matthew’s Gospel to God incarnate who would step in as Jesus, our Savior, into this world for the main wrestling event in all of history. The stakes were high when Jesus had his deep dark down night at Gethsemane, where in desperation He sweat blood, amidst the deadly conflict as, in His passion He contended for us against the power of sin, death, and the devil in order to save the world from the deep dark down of God’s wrath. Does not the hymn “A Mighty Fortress” proclaim it so well? “But for us fights the valiant One whom God elected. He holds the field forever” – this One who rose from the deep dark down of the tomb.
If you find yourself in the deep dark down, know that the isolation can allow you to better connect with God. In your fear, there is an opportunity to discover His peace. In your weakness there is the opportunity to discover His strength. In your shame there is the opportunity to discover His grace. Refuse going the way of a self-made, independent, imagined self-sufficient attitude. Refuse holding everything in and fretting in your confused dark nights. As the song “What a Friend We Have in Jesus” expresses it so well: “O what needless pain we suffer. O what needless pain we bear. All because we do not carry – everything to God in prayer.” God, the wrestler delights to yield to our prayers. Let Him contend and thus prevail for you in all your wrestling.