15/10/2026
THE AUDACITY OF JACOB
What We Can Learn from His Encounter with God?
I love Jacob, also known as Israel. He is one of the men I look forward to meeting in Heaven. David first, though. That’s my man!
A few years ago, I was listening to a sermon about Jacob wrestling with God. It was a familiar passage, one I had studied extensively when writing my first biblical fiction novel, Leah. I spent so much time in Genesis studying Jacob, Leah and Rachel, yet somehow, I had missed something that suddenly caught my attention.
The account is found in Genesis 32:22–32, but this particular verse stopped me in my tracks.
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.”
What audacity!
Imagine wrestling with someone all night, having your hip dislocated in the process, and then refusing to let go when told to do so. Not only that, but having the audacity to demand a blessing!
Jacob was approximately 97 years old at this point. He must have been exhausted, injured and in considerable pain, yet he held on.
I found myself wondering, what would have happened if Jacob had simply let go?
What makes this encounter even more remarkable is Jacob’s history. This was a man known for deception and manipulation. He had taken advantage of his brother and deceived his father to obtain a blessing. On the face of it, he hardly seemed a likely candidate for another blessing!
Yet Jacob understood something we must never forget: our past does not put us beyond God’s grace, and our mistakes do not cancel His promises.
Here are three lessons I drew from this extraordinary encounter.
1. Don’t become so distracted by your circumstances that you lose sight of God.
Jacob’s hip was put out of joint during the encounter. Ouch! Yet he refused to let go. He was not consumed by what was happening to him; he was focused on the One he was encountering.
What are you allowing to distract you from God? A broken marriage, financial difficulties, poor health, disappointment or perhaps the consequences of your own decisions?
Whatever you are facing, don’t allow your circumstances to become bigger than your understanding of God. Nothing you are going through takes Him by surprise.
Consider Job, who experienced extraordinary suffering but continued to seek God. His story reminds us that God’s faithfulness is not determined by our circumstances.
Jacob left that encounter with a limp, but he also left with a blessing. His injury did not mean God had abandoned him.
Keep your eyes on God, even when you don’t understand what He is allowing.
2. Don’t allow your past mistakes to disqualify you.
Jacob knew his history, yet he boldly asked God for a blessing. He did not allow his past to silence his request.
What I love most about God is that He receives us as we are, but He does not leave us as we are.
In Genesis 32:28, Jacob received a new name, Israel. His name had been associated with grasping and deception, but God gave him a new identity that reflected His purposes for his life.
I wonder how many of us are still allowing yesterday’s mistakes to determine what we believe God can do with our tomorrow.
Perhaps you need a name change too. Not necessarily from Amanda to Sarah, but from the labels you have carried for years: Rejected to Accepted, Broken to Whole, Condemned to Forgiven, Lost to Found.
God had already made promises to Jacob in Genesis 28:13–15, and his failures had not erased those promises.
Your past may explain where you have been, but it does not have to determine where God is taking you.
Don’t disqualify yourself from receiving God’s grace because of who you used to be.
3. Don’t let go of God.
This is my favourite lesson and the one that first arrested my attention.
“I will not let you go unless you bless me.”
What if Jacob had simply obeyed the instruction to let go? We cannot know what would have happened differently, but we know that he held on, received a blessing and walked away with a new name.
There is power in persistent prayer.
Jesus taught in Luke 18:1 that we should always pray and not give up. Yet persistence is not about forcing God’s hand or demanding our preferred outcome. It is about trusting His character, standing on His Word and refusing to abandon Him when life becomes difficult.
Perhaps you have been praying about something for years, and nothing seems to be changing. Perhaps you are tired, discouraged or wondering whether God has heard you.
Keep praying. Keep trusting. Keep holding on.
Sometimes God changes our circumstances, sometimes He changes us, and sometimes He gives us the grace to endure what He has not removed.
Jacob left that encounter limping. His blessing did not remove the evidence of his struggle.
He walked away blessed, but he did not walk away unmarked.
Your limp does not cancel your blessing, and your struggle does not mean God has abandoned you.
Whatever else you may need to release, DO NOT LET GO OF GOD!
The God who met Jacob in his struggle is still the God who meets us in ours.
Lots of love,
Rev. Amanda Bedzrah
P.S. If this message has encouraged you, please share it. Someone in your world may need this reminder today.
