06/20/2026 – “The Mystery Wrestler” / Genesis 32: 24-30; Ephesians 2: 12,19 / “Messiah in the Torah”
“It was evening. The school was having an outdoor tournament, lit up by the torchlight. The teacher and I were watching a wrestling match involving two of the students.
“Why is wrestling included in the curriculum?” I asked.
“It’s a part of life,” he said, “even in God.”
We continued watching for a time. Then he broke the silence.
“Israel is the name of God’s people,” he said. “Do you know where it came from?”
“No.”
“From a wrestling match… in the night. It is recorded that Jacob was alone and and a man wrestled with him until the breaking of dawn. Finally the man said to Jacob, ‘What is your name?” He answered, ‘Jacob.’ The man then replied, ‘Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel. For you have struggled with God and with men, and have prevailed.’ That’s how the name Israel can about and the name of God’s people and nation. It all came from a wrestling match. But the man who wrestled with Jacob wasn’t just any man. Jacob would call the ground on which it all took place Peniel, which means the face of God. For he had ‘seen God face-to-face.’ What happened there that night was a prophecy. No nation has ever wrestled with God and man in this world as has the nation of Israel. And in that wrestling match is contained the mystery of the Jewish people. They are called Israel because they wrestled with a man who turned out to be God. That is their prophecy. And so they have wrestled for ages with one particular man, whose name means Messiah and who, in the end, turns out to be God. But they aren’t the only wrestlers. The Scripture say that everyone who is born again becomes a citizen of Israel.”
“Israel… the wrestling nation,” I said. “Then we are all wrestlers.”
“It is not a bad thing to wrestle, even with God, as long as you come to the point that Jacob came to… to the end of your strength… where you can do nothing else but cling to Him and ask Him to bless you. In fact that’s how most come to the kingdom… at the end of a wrestling match.”
“And what about His people Israel?”
“They will come so as well… at the end of the night, at the breaking of the dawn.”
The Mission: Is there something you’re wrestling with God about, or resisting? Surrender today to His will. And in that surrender, ask for His blessing. “
Genesis 32: 24-30; Ephesians 2: 12, 19.
Messiah in the Torah
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Soli Deo Gloria!