Mystery Man

Remember the story of how a man wrestled with Jacob the night before Jacob reunited with his brother Esau? In the story, the "mystery man" blessed Jacob but only after realizing that Jacob wasn’t going to let him go until he got the blessing.

That man’s blessing included a change of Jacob’s name to Israel—a name which means “he struggles with God.” So, the "mystery man" called Jacob a person who struggles with God.

Do you get it? The mysterious man, by christening Jacob with a new name, revealed the mystery of who he was—he was God!

Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. Then the man said, ‘Let me go, for it is daybreak.’

But Jacob replied, ‘I will not let you go unless you bless me.’

The man asked him, ‘What is your name?’

‘Jacob,’ he answered.

Then the man said, ‘Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome’ (Genesis 32:24-28).

Jacob understood the meaning of his new name. It meant that he had wrestled with God! That caused Jacob all kinds of concerns. He wondered what exactly it meant.

Jacob spoke with the man who was God a little more. He wanted to push the conversation a little further to discover the exact identity of this anonymous man.

Without a Name, With an Identity

Jacob asked him his name, but got no answer. Jacob then concluded that he had indeed wrestled with God.

Jacob said, ‘Please tell me your name.’

But he replied, ‘Why do you ask my name?’ Then he [the man] blessed him [Jacob] there.

So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, ‘It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared’ (Genesis 32:29-30).

Jacob’s reaction to the situation was fear—the good kind of fear—the fear of God. He couldn’t understand why he hadn’t died during that night of struggle, knowing that the man he had wrestled with was God.

Jacob knew that no man is allowed to see God. Jacob learned from his grandfather Abraham and his father Isaac that it’s certain death if a man sees God.

Jacob was left perplexed, and that was good because it caused Jacob to start to wrestle on another level--the spiritual level. Jacob was left wrestling with the mystery of the Christ.

That mystery was disclosed when Jesus came. It has been revealed to you and me. Now we can look back at the passage of Jacob's encounter and know that Jacob met Jesus!

The Mystery of the Christ

Jesus right now is the same man he was in the Old Testament—a man who is God. But what does that mean? What does it mean for Jesus to be God? It means that he is a man with the divine nature. It means that Jesus has a human body and is a legitimate man--but his nature is not a human nature.

Jesus was in the flesh—the human nature of sin—for +30 years, but now his nature is that of God. Jesus has the power of God, the intelligence of God, and the authority of God. Jesus has the divine nature, and that's why we call him our God.

Jesus has the power of God, the intelligence of God, and the authority of God. These qualities, the qualities of the divine nature, Jesus received from the Father. Jesus called these qualities my glory, but he made sure everyone knew from whom he obtained them.

He said that his glory was the glory God gave him.

Father, I want those you have given me… to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me… (John 17:24)

Did you get that? God loves Jesus. Because of his love for Jesus, God gave Jesus glory. This glory is what makes us look at Jesus and call him God just like Jacob did. But Jacob didn’t know even a fraction of what you and I know now.

Mystery Solved

When Thomas saw Jesus resurrected, he proclaimed ‘My Lord and my God’ (John 20:28) and nobody in the Upper Room told Thomas, “But Thomas, Jesus is not God, he’s the Son of God.” Everyone in the room, even Jesus, agreed that Thomas was looking at his God—the one who was with the One God in the Beginning!

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with [the One] God, and the Word was God. This one was in the Beginning with [the One] God (John 1:1-3; LEB).

Thomas solved the mystery of Christ.

Thomas discovered the answer to the question Jacob asked the man at Peniel: ‘Please tell me your name’ (Genesis 32:29). Jacob got a mysterious reply from the man ‘Why do you ask my name?’ (Genesis 32:29) but Thomas got a direct reply.

We also now know the name of the Son of God—it’s Jesus! We finally have resolved the mystery of the Christ.

Solomon wrestled with that mystery also.

I am certainly more stupid than any man, and I do not have the understanding of a man; nor have I learned wisdom, nor do I have the knowledge of the Holy One. Who has ascended into Heaven and descended? Who has gathered the wind in his fists?

Who has wrapped the waters in his garment? Who has established all the ends of the Earth? What is his name or his Son’s name? Surely you know! (Proverbs 30:2-4; NASB)

Jacob saw the same glory Thomas saw when Jacob encountered the man he wrestled with face-to-face. He called the place of his encounter the Face of God (Peniel) because he was astounded that he could see the face of God and live!

But you can see the face of God if you have an encounter with Jesus.

The two disciples who walked to Emmaus on Resurrection Sunday had an encounter with a stranger. At the end of their journey, they also realized the mystery of the Christ. The Christ--who is God's chosen Messiah--is Jesus! They saw him in his divine nature, so they also saw their God.

The Greatness of Jesus

You won’t live if you have an encounter with the One God (our Father) face-to-face. But you can live if that encounter is with his Son, who is God. In fact, an encounter with him will give you life!

Jesus had the divine nature before he came to us in the flesh—before he came to us as a baby in Bethlehem. He gave up that divine nature for 33 years, but he has received the divine nature once again, and he received it from the One who resurrected him--the One God!

Jesus served God so faithfully that God rewarded Jesus with a resurrection. Now Jesus is alive again. He's alive and he'll never die because he has the divine nature. He is immortal.

Have you really come to believe that Jesus is this great? The disciples on the road to Emmaus encountered him. They saw his greatness, and believed in him.

Thomas also encountered the Lord. And through his encounter, we discover how privileged we are. Thomas had to see Jesus with his physical eyes to believe. But we see Jesus with the eyes of faith, and that makes us stronger believers than Thomas.

Jesus said to Thomas:

Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed (John 20:29).

How amazed are you with Jesus? You live in a very special time in history--a time when you can know Jesus--the one who appeared to Jacob as a mystery man. Jacob knew that he had seen God. And you? Can you see in Jesus the glory of the Father?

In Jesus you have the spitting image of God. He is God’s Son, so you see the glory of his Father in him. That's what a son is--the image of his father. God made Jesus what he is so that you could know God through Jesus.

The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being (Hebrews 1:3).

Jesus is the exact representation of God’s essence. He is not the One God, but the fullness of the divine nature lives within the body of Jesus.

… in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form (Colossians 2:9).

Get to know him better! Walk with him. Ask him questions. Let him lead you. God sent him to us to guide us and to lead us back to Himself. Listen to what Jesus said to Thomas:

I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me (John 14:6).