Jacob’s Encounter

Exodus 33:11 (NIV)

The LORD would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend.

2 Corinthians 3:16-18 (MSG)

Whenever, though, they turn to face God as Moses did, God removes the veil and there they

areface-to-face!

They suddenly recognize that God is a living, personal presence, not a piece of chiseled stone.

And when God is personally present, a living Spirit, that old, constricting legislation is recognized as

obsolete.

We’re free of it! All of us! Nothing between us and God, our faces shining with the brightness of his

face.

And so we are transfigured much like the Messiah,

our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become

like him.

We need an encounter not just an explanation.

Jacob’s Encounter – Genesis 32:24-30

Genesis 32:24 (NIV)

So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak.

Genesis 32:25 (NIV)

When the man saw that he could not overpower him,

he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man.

Genesis 32:26 (NIV)

Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.” But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you

bless me.”

1. A new blessing.

Psalm 16:11 (NIV)

You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal

pleasures at your right hand.

Genesis 32:27 (NIV)

The man asked him, “What is your name?” “Jacob,” he answered.

Genesis 32:28 (NIV)

Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with

God and with humans and have overcome.”

2. A new name.

Revelation 2:17 (NIV)

I will also give that person a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to the one who

receives it.

Genesis 32:29 (NIV)

Jacob said, “Please tell me your name.” But he replied, “Why do you ask my name?” Then he

blessed him there.

Genesis 32:30 (NIV)

So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life has

been spared.”

3. A new future.

Isaiah 43:18-19 (NIV)

“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.

See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?

I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.”