FBkids: Lesson 14 - Jacob Wrestles with God

Bible Story – Lesson 14

Hey boys and girls! It’s great to be back with you again this week. We are all praying that we can worship together here at church real soon. In the meantime, we hope you are enjoying our online lessons.

This week we are still talking about Jacob. If you remember, Jacob had fled his home because his brother, Esau, wanted to kill him for stealing his blessing from their father.

Many years after Jacob fled his home, he decided it was time to return. He packed up his family and all his things and headed toward his homeland. He was worried about Esau’s threat to kill him, so he sent word up ahead that he was coming. When the messengers returned to Jacob, they told him that Esau was coming to meet him. With 400 men!

I imagine that scared Jacob, don’t you think?

Jacob sent all the people and his possessions ahead of him. He camped out alone. Out of nowhere a man showed up and began wrestling Jacob. They wrestled all night! Have any of you ever seen wrestling at school or on tv? Can you imagine wrestling with someone an entire night? That would have to be exhausting. The Bible tells us that Jacob not only wrestled the man physically, but verbally and spiritually too. The Bible tells us that Jacob wept and sought His favor. Do you have any idea who the man might be that Jacob was wrestling?

It was God. The Bible says that the man was both God and the angel of the Lord. An Old Testament appearance of God the Son.

Finally, the man touched Jacob’s hip joint and dislocated it. He told Jacob to let Him go. Jacob said he wouldn’t let Him go until He blessed him. The man asked what his name was. When he told Him it was Jacob, the man said, “You will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and men, and overcome.” Jacob walked with a limp from that point on.

Later, when Jacob and Esau were reunited, Esau ran to him and hugged him. They cried together. God had changed both their hearts. All was forgiven and their lives were completely changed.

Jacob was proud and trusted in his own strength, not God’s. After they wrestled, he clung to God, showing humility. This is a picture of how we should depend on God for everything. Most importantly, we should depend on His promise of salvation through Jesus.