Genesis 32:24-32
24 Then Jacob was left alone; and a Man wrestled with him until the breaking of day. 25 Now when He saw that He did not prevail against him, He touched the socket of his hip; and the socket of Jacob's hip was out of joint as He wrestled with him. 26 And He said, "Let Me go, for the day breaks." But he said, "I will not let You go unless You bless me!" 27 So He said to him, "What is your name?" He said, "Jacob." 28 And He said, "Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel; for you have struggled with God and with men, and have prevailed."

Are you Jacob or Israel?

Have you ever wondered why on earth Jacob would wrestle all night with an angel? Some scholars even believe that this was actually Christ Himself. Why would he dare to wrestle with God or even an angel for that matter? Let's look at his life. He was called Jacob because it mean 'supplanter'. He had hold of Esau's heel when he came from the womb. He took Esau's birthright and his blessing basically by means of trickery. (Of course, this wouldn't have happened if Esau had valued them as he should have.) He had spent almost 2 decades in the service of his father-in-law, who changed his pay 10 times trying to get out of paying him at all. Now he was returning home as the Lord God had told him to. But Esau was coming to meet him, so Jacob was afraid. He no longer wanted to be Jacob, the supplanter or the trickster. He wanted to change his spots, so to speak. He wanted a blessing from the Lord that he didn't have to trick anyone to get.

Now if he had quit wrestling with the Lord, would he have gotten his blessing? I don't think so, for the Word says that day was breaking when he even asked for the blessing. I believe that Jacob thought if he could win the wrestling match, he would then have the right to a blessing. But what he didn't realize is that God blesses for the strength of our resolve and hearts, not the strength of our muscle. We need that same bulldog tenacity that Jacob had that night. Christ said in one of His parables that the king, who regarded no man, would grant the request of the widow 'because this widow troubles me I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.' (Luke 18:5)

In Matthew 7, Christ says, 'Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.' Each one of these verbs is in a tense that means to not stop doing it. Ask and keep on asking, seek and keep on seeking, knock and keep on knocking. If we don't give up, we will receive the blessing. The writer of Hebrews says, 'Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession.' (Hebrews 4:14) The word profession is translated elsewhere as 'confession'. It means to say the same thing as God with the same motive of heart as God. Christ has been seated at the right hand of God and makes intercession for us. Our part is to hold fast our confession of faith and to not let go no matter what. Just as Jacob held on to the angel and would not let go except the angel blessed him, we need to hold on to God and not let go even though He blesses us. We need to hang on until we are no longer Jacob, the supplanter, but we are Israel, the prince of God.