Jacob’s name originated at his birth. Rebekah’s second son received the name Supplanter. The word is linked to the lifting of the heel and, by inference, wrestling. This is the tactic of the wrestler, to lift his opponent’s heel to destabilize him and then take advantage to overcome him. Thus Jacob’s natural tendency is seen the moment he emerges from the womb, Gen. 25. 26.
Jacob’s early life was one long wrestling match, but there are four incidents in particular that we ought to find instructive because we, too, are born wrestling ‘against flesh and blood’, Eph. 6. 12, and need to learn, as Jacob did, how to do battle in the spiritual realm. We must discover that ‘the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God, to the pulling down of strong holds’, 2 Cor. 10. 4.
Jacob lost his first wrestling match in the womb; his brother emerged first. Jacob wrestled then for the birthright and the blessing. In the first case, he took advantage of Esau’s carnal desire for food and, in the second, took advantage of his father’s hunger (Isaac loved Esau because he loved his venison, Gen. 25. 28). In both instances Jacob seemed to have won. Esau fumes, ‘Is not he rightly named Jacob? for he hath supplanted me these two times: he took away my birthright; and, behold, now he hath taken away my blessing’, 27. 36.
But, as in the womb, Jacob’s wrestling was of no avail. Fleeing for his life, he had to leave behind the birthright’s role of family leader and the double portion of the blessing.
Once more Jacob wrestled, and this time he prevailed. Hosea links his first and last wrestlings, ‘He took his brother by the heel in the womb, and by his strength he had power with God: Yea, he … prevailed …’, Hos. 12. 3-4.
Jacob wrestled the Lord that night (‘I have seen God face to face’, Gen. 32. 30). And Jacob prevailed, not because God didn’t have the power to subdue him, but because He didn’t have the will to do it. Yet Jacob did not receive the blessing by wrestling. God showed him the weakness of his flesh by touching his thigh, and when Jacob stopped wrestling and could only cling, at that moment the blessing came; see 2 Cor. 12. 7-10.
