Jacob's wrestling match with God stands as a profound example of God's providence in shaping character and purpose. Jacob, a vigorous and gifted man, often resorted to deceitful contention with both man and God to achieve his desires, revealing a controlling nature through crafty scheming. God provided a painful and humbling wrestling match to teach Jacob a vital lesson: within God's purpose, it is He who orders life, commands, and arranges events. Jacob endured this struggle but did not overcome God; instead, he emerged transformed, understanding that submission to God's will is essential. This turning point marked the change of his name to Israel, signifying that God rules, not Jacob. Through this encounter, Jacob learned to trust God and overcome his own will, a struggle that mirrored his spiritual contention against God's purpose. Though he did not prevail over God, Jacob prevailed with God by prevailing over himself, submitting and repenting. This event, provided by God, underscored that no one, not even someone as beloved as Jacob, can enter God's Kingdom by controlling life through personal means. It is God who orders life, and submission to His way is required to be in His image. Approximately 800 years later, God inspired Hosea to apply the lessons of Jacob's wrestling match to the nation of Israel. Just as Jacob had schemed and deceived, the nation surrounded God with lies and deceit, seeking to control their destiny through manipulation and power. God held Jacob's example before them, noting that he emerged a better man through repentance, weeping, and supplication. Jacob's victory was in humbling himself, not in overcoming God, and God urged Israel to follow this pattern of submission. God marked Jacob's lesson with a lasting reminder by injuring his hip, ensuring every step he took recalled the wrestling match and the truth that God rules. The name Israel constantly reinforced that God commands and orders the life of His elect. Through Hosea, God spoke to Jacob's descendants, applying the same principle of submission to His will across time, emphasizing His faithfulness in dealing with those in covenant with Him.

Jacob saw angels of God at Mahanaim and recognized divine protection around him. He sent messengers and gifts to Esau while dividing his company to safeguard his family if attack came. In prayer Jacob acknowledged his unworthiness of mercies shown by God yet reminded God of the promise that his descendants would be as the sand of the sea. He viewed all physical blessings received from Laban as gifts from God to be used for restitution rather than personal gain. Jacob wrestled through the night with the One who proved to be Jesus Christ and refused to release his hold. At that moment his name changed from Jacob to Israel because as a prince he had struggled with God and with men and had prevailed. This encounter sharpened his vision of the future family he was to build and protect while he remained willing to sacrifice himself for its safety.

Jacob had a very difficult time learning that it is God who orders life. God prevails is what Israel means. Jacob supplanted, but he could not supplant God's will for him. It took a wrestling match with God for Jacob to finally learn that lesson. Although Jacob was a physically strong man he was driven to a great extent by his fears rather than his strengths. What he feared was living by faith. He was fearful that if he did not follow his will he would not get what he wanted out of life. His will was at times quite carnal. He was blind to the spiritual implications of what he was doing. His vision of where he was headed with life was blurred. Jacob kept supplanting others in situations by bending them to his will rather than patiently waiting for God to fight the battle for him. He instead exercised the great gifts God gave him. Sometimes it was his physical strength. Sometimes it was his intellect and he deceitfully manipulated people in order to make sure he got what he wanted out of life. Jacob would use deceit to get what he wanted. He would take advantage of another person's weakness such as Esau. God never lost patience with Jacob. God kept working with him to finally bring him to stop contending and wrestling with Him in order to live his life much more than he ever had before by faith. Jacob is the name associated with his fears and frailties when he managed his own affairs. All he had to do was make use of those wonderful gifts in work. Israel is the name associated with him when he truly surrendered to God. In fact God became his ruler and all he had to do was worship by yielding to Him. A spiritual Israelite is one whose own wild self-centered stubborn will is broken so that God's creative work can be completed. A spiritual Israelite is one who sees his spiritual and moral poverty. He becomes poor in spirit before God. He is one who mourns over what he is as well as his sins. He is meek and compliant in God's hands. God's providence is what supplies us with the events by which we are to learn and to inculcate that lesson. God must see through our life experiences that He rules us. That is the issue in life. Jacob is shown as a man having very difficult wrestlings bringing his will into line with God's will. The wonderful thing is that God patiently never gave up on Jacob. He kept working and working and working with him until Jacob finally got it. He was a changed man after that.

God broke Jacob's contentious, manipulating, controlling will by providing him with a wrestling match. It showed Jacob that in his deceitful, manipulating contentions with man to get what he wanted to get out of life, he was in reality wrestling against God's will for him. God blessed Jacob by putting his hip out of joint as a constant, humbling, somewhat painful reminder so that from that time forth every step he made in his life served to remind him of a wrestling match that he lost. Then God further blessed him by changing his name to Israel which means 'God prevails' or 'God rules.' That incident marks the time when Jacob finally had his will broken because he much more thoroughly got the picture. In Hosea 12 Jacob had power over the angel and prevailed. He wept and made supplication unto him. He found him in Bethel and there he spake with us. The wrestling match took place in Mahanaim. Jacob got his relationship with God straightened out. But God really had to take him down a peg or two because honestly he was quite a man. Jacob endured what must have been an enervating and emotionally draining situation there. He did not come out of the battle unscathed. He was blessed with a limp to keep him humble as a constant reminder of the battle that he both won and lost. Jacob's problem was the bottom line a lack of faith. He was afraid to live by faith. He really did not believe God as he should have. Jacob got the picture. He went on and God shows in the Joseph incident that Jacob had learned his lesson. It was so significant that if you look in Hebrews 11 the Hall of Fame He only mentions Jacob one time. It was the incident that proved that Jacob had learned his lesson. He now believed God with all of his heart. That episode proved it. It is when he blessed Ephraim and Manasseh. For the first time Jacob did not listen to the will of man. His father was not making a mistake. He knew the will of God and he followed through with it regardless of the one person on earth who probably could have persuaded Jacob to do it some other way and Jacob rejected it. That is what God put in Hebrews 11. Jacob had learned his lesson. He now believed what God said explicitly and then he died.