God, who spoke the world into existence, can accomplish anything he wants by speaking it. Instead, he chooses to use flawed people as tools. And he deliberately breaks them. We will consider Jacob, but first, let’s look at tools in general, then how God uses tools in general.

Whenever I need a tool, whether it’s for the garden or the kitchen or something to do with the computer, I get the best I can afford. Then I do my best to take care of it and keep it in good condition.

If something breaks, I probably can’t use it anymore. If it can be fixed at all, it may not work as well as before it broke. So I am very careful.

Good quality and keeping things in good working order are very important to me. I would guess that most of you would say the same thing. God is different from us, if you haven’t noticed.

God’s tools

First off, when God chooses to work through a human tool, he has only sinners to work with. Some even rebel against him, but he can use them anyway. Consider the Pharaoh of the Exodus. He became a tool in God’s hand to display God’s glory. A broken Pharaoh let the people go and never recovered from the humiliation.

Less well known, God used the Assyrian emperor Sennacherib to punish Israel’s rebellion. And then, just when Sennacherib thought he was on the verge of conquering Jerusalem, the angel of death destroyed his army overnight.

What about people who are not in complete rebellion? God breaks those tools before he can use them. Sometimes, a person whom God wants to use gets broken more than once. And after that comes redemption and glory, not only for God but for his tool.

Jacob in his own power.

Jacob was a cheater. He cheated his brother Esau out of his birthright and blessing. But before he was born, God told his parents, “the older will serve the younger.” Jacob obtained by deceit what God would have given him anyway.

Then he fled to his uncle Laban. He had a heavenly vision along the way and built an altar. Something in him acknowledged God. But then, he and Laban spent twenty years trying to out-cheat each other.

Now, Jacob was going back home and heard reports that Esau was coming to greet him with four hundred armed men. He prayed to the God of Abraham and Isaac, to the God who had appeared to him earlier, but whom he did not yet regard as “my God.” He tried once again to be clever and sent a sizable bribe ahead of him. Then he sent his entire family and all his provisions across the river and stayed, so he thought, alone.

Jacob’s wrestling match

But a man came and wrestled with him (Genesis 32:24-32). Where did he come from? He just abruptly showed up and jumped poor Jacob. If he had wanted a fistfight or if he had had a weapon, Jacob could have chosen whether to fight back or run away. But the man began to wrestle, and Jacob had no choice but to wrestle back.

Slowly, it dawned on Jacob that the man he was wrestling with was God himself, the God to whom he had prayed for deliverance earlier in the day. And he kept striving. He kept struggling.

He did not surrender to his divine visitor, so finally, God touched his hip and dislocated it. Now Jacob could no longer struggle against him but had to cling to him for support. That’s when God said, “Well, it’s time for me to get going, so let me go.” Jacob said, “Not until you bless me.” And God blessed him.

 

Broken to be a fit tool

Jacob, the grasper and grabber, had let go of everything he had and sent it on ahead of him. That removed everything that came between him and God. He got alone with God and engaged his presence.

Pain is part of the process. It hurts to give up cherished habits. It hurts to accept the unwanted consequences of our actions. And it hurts to keep struggling against God after we recognize his presence and his will.

Jacob’s dislocated hip was only an outward sign of an inner brokenness. Forever afterward, he walked differently than he had before.

But whatever God breaks in order to use, he blesses. He gave Jacob a new name, Israel. In a very real sense, Jacob died that night. It was not Jacob, but Israel who hobbled across the ford to join his family.

He was no longer operating under the blessing he stole from his brother; he had asked for and obtained his own blessing. By losing a wrestling match, he emerged the victor. By being broken, he became a fit vessel for God.