Wrestling With God

     I wrestled with God and God won! He won because he let me win. Although enlightenment is from God, it takes true grit to be enlightened enough to submit to God. People can believe in and even trust God but the most difficult part of being born again is serving God. Serving is hard work! A decision needs to be made: I trust God but do I trust Him enough to do His will? That decision-making process is mentioned in scripture:

And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. (Phil 2:11-13)

     As anyone who is a Christian knows, regeneration, or born again, is hard work. Just as the unborn baby fights for life as he or she struggles down the birth canal, once Christians get to the point of spiritual crowning, it becomes harder and harder just as  the pelvis and the uterine muscles try to prevent  childbirth. In natural birth their are contractions as the muscles both aid and prevent delivery. Spiritual rebirthing is much the same way. Demons impede delivery but God relaxes the spiritual muscles - maybe the conscience, until the new born spiritual babe is a babe in Christ.
     Natural birth is wrestling with oneself. It is the mother who endures the labor. She works out the delivery of her child. It is hard work, and guess what; delivery labor is a penalty for sin! "I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children" (Gen 3:16). To be honest, Eve did little to work out her salvation. Because of naivete, God did all the work, and whatever contribution Eve made was an effort in futility. (God covering their sins with coats of skins.)
    Because of the penalty of sin, henceforth mankind has needed to work out his own salvation. It isn't physical work, but it is indeed wrestling with God! The spirit wants God to win but the flesh cheers on Satan (Mat 26:41). When converts are converted, for most it's not simple, unless it is done in the manner of a little child (Mat 18:3).  (Conversion is "born again" as is regeneration.) Because conversion requires a change in attitude and lifestyle, which old style sinners want to maintain, a spiritual battle ensues. There are two "Mahanaims" - God's Host (His angels) and mankind (Jacob's tribe) (Gen 32:2).
     With conversion, there exists two camps as well: heavenly hosts and demons:

For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. (Ephes 6:12).

     Conversion is the Mahanaims of potential Christians.  That is the Holy Ground on which the spiritual battle is fought - a battle for who gets our soul. As our spirit is willing to serve God, within us (original sin) is a desire to do as we please. Our flesh has a problem with submission, and the Serpent's emissaries keep sending the message: Eat of the pleasurable fruit; you won't surely die! Who hasn't thought, I'll live for the pleasure now and repent later? You believe but will not submit. Your flesh wrestles with God and your soul with demons.
     Now let's look at some symbolism because there, indeed, is nothing new under the sun:

And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him. And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me. And he said unto him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob. And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed. And Jacob asked him, and said, Tell me, I pray thee, thy name. And he said, Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name? And he blessed him there. And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved. (Gen 32:24-30)

    In one corner of the ring we have Jacob wrestling for mankind, and in the other, God wrestling for Himself. Jacob is wrestling with God, and saw Him face to face. How could that be? If anyone looks God in the face they would die, let alone wrestle with Him (Exod 33:12–18)? But Jacob did that and lived! How could that be? Jacob wrestled with Jesus - the very "face" of God. When anyone looks at Jesus they are seeing God. Jesus told Philip, " He who has seen Me has seen the Father" (John 14:9).
     One purpose for God manifesting Himself is to show His "face". Anytime God showed Himself, the patriarchs were seeing Jesus - the very face of God. Jacob was wrestling with Jesus who was there in the beginning (John 1-2, 14). God, being Almighty, appeared to mankind in many different forms. God appeared to Jacob in the form of a man, a temporary-type of flesh, perhaps glorified, and much different than the flesh of Jacob or even the baby Jesus's!
     Esau, Jacobs brother, who he feared was about to meet in battle, was on the way. They were to have their "Mahanaim" as well. Esau is symbolic of those principalities Christians know to fear. It seems the battle was whether Esau would be Jacob's Lord or would Jacob be God's servant. I believe Jesus wrestled with Jacob to decide the outcome. By grace, Jesus wrestled with Jacob but Jacob won! Why is that? When people wrestle with God, and trust that it is God, they are safe, Christians always are the winners! It's by grace Christians are rewarded, and Jacob was rewarded as well.
     Before the wrestling match, God was the God of Abraham and Isaac (Gen 32:9). After the wrestling match, Jesus was the God of Jacob as well. Jacob was changed just as Abraham and Isaac before him had changed. First off, Jacob's name was changed from Jacob to Israel - from "heal grabber" to "wrestles with God". Jacob worked out his own salvation face to face with God, and didn't die. That wrestling match represents life - eternal life! Thereafter, Jesus was the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 
     Jacob trusted in Jesus. He did not have any fear in the wrestling match. Just as fathers playfully wrestle with their children, God wrestled with Jacob. He had no desire to kill Jacob but to change him. Change is what people miss most with what is supposed to be transformation. Not only did Jacob have a name change but God changed his flesh as well. The thigh has meaning many places in scripture, and it is always symbolic of grace. After the wrestling match, Jacob's thigh was dislocated and he limped. It was Israel who limped, because Jacob won the wrestling match by grace! Thereafter, God was his "crutch". Israel depended on the Lord! 
     The change which occurs with regeneration, as Jacob was regenerated, is change. Christians are to become new creatures. Jacob did; he became Israel, and his flesh changed as well. He became more dependent on God, and that's the outcome of Christian conversion. 
     Jacob was in a camp of angels. They protected him from the other unseen camp. Jacob could have lost the match. If that had occurred, Jesus would have not been so graceful. We must remember that as we work out our own salvation, we too are in a wrestling match. We are in "Mahanaim" as well, protected by God's angels, but we must still wrestle with God! The camp of hosts are referees of sorts to ensure that Satan can't cheat. We wrestle with God knowing demons are watching on and discouraging, but only we can work out our salvation. It is us wrestling with God. God makes us the winners!