Prayer: Our Dust-Covered Serenade with God
It’s called the boombox serenade.
It’s where a guy stands outside his girlfriend or ex-girlfriend’s house with a boombox, blasting love songs at high volume.
It comes from the 1989 romantic comedy titled Say Anything, from the iconic scene where John Cusack’s heart-broken character is standing below his ex-girlfriend’s window, holding a boombox over his head, blasting Peter Gabriel’s song In Your Eyes.
Even though the “boombox” is so 1990s, the boombox serenade is ubiquitous throughout modern movies and TV shows.
Because the boombox serenade isn’t just a creative way of saying “I’m sorry” or “I love you”.
It’s an obnoxious, annoying, persistent way of saying “I’m not letting you go. You can’t give me the silent treatment forever. I’m going to keep blasting this music until you take me back. I’m not leaving until you talk to me face to face.”
Would you characterize your prayer life as persistent as a boombox serenade?
We see that kind of persistence in Jacob - as he would not let go of God.
Literally.
Not until he knew God wasn’t going to let go of him.
And in the story of that dust-covered serenade where Jacob wrestles with God himself, God shows Jacob - and us as well - that we can cling to our God with confidence.
Prepared for the Worst
When we meet up with Jacob and his family in our story for today, they’re on their way back home. But Jacob isn’t excited about this homecoming.
In fact, he’s terrified. Specifically, he is terrified of his twin brother, Esau.
And he had reason to be. Jacob had tricked Esau into giving up the birthright that he, the oldest son, should have gotten. On top of that, Jacob played another trick on his brother, disguising himself as Esau to fool their aged father – all to get a special blessing that their father intended on giving Esau – a blessing God intended to be given to Jacob; nevertheless, Jacob got it, but quite dishonestly. When Esau heard about this, he was furious. In fact, he started thinking of ways he might kill Jacob. So, Jacob ran away - fleeing to the northern country to hide out among extended family.
For over twenty years, Jacob lived with his uncle Laban and served him as a hired hand. During those twenty years, Jacob got married – twice for that matter (because Laban, ironically, played a trick on Jacob). Jacob now has eleven kids, and an abundance of flocks, herds, and camels.
But his time up north had come to an end. God told him it was time for him to head back home, so Jacob did; but he was terrified.
I’m sure you can imagine why. Imagine, the last time you saw your brother, he was ready to kill you – he had set it on his heart to tear you apart limb from limb – and now you’re heading back home, where he is!
When Jacob sends word to Esau that he was returning home, the messengers return to Jacob saying, “We went to your brother Esau, and now he is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him.” This wasn’t a welcome party: Esau was coming to meet him with a small army.
Jacob then divides up the people who were with him – even the herds and flocks he owned - into two groups, thinking if Esau comes to attack one group, the other group might have a chance to escape. As he readied to start the final trek by crossing the Jabbok River, he instructs several servants to go on ahead and meet Esau with gifts of sheep and cattle – hoping these gifts might pacify his angry brother. But there was no telling any of that would work. Distressed and terrified, he prepared for the worst.
And that’s the state that we find Jacob in Genesis 32. That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two female servants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions. So Jacob was left alone…”
Then, something really odd happened.
Wrestling with God
As Jacob was alone in his distress and terror, a man appears. And then, they start wrestling.
Literally, they were grappling with each other, rolling around in the dirt and dust.
Sometime during that scuffle, Jacob realizes that this man he’s wrestling with is God – God in the form of a man. They wrestled for hours – all the way until daybreak. But Jacob wouldn’t quit. He wouldn’t stop wrestling with God. Finally, the man dislocates Jacob’s hip, and then says, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.” But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”
“So, what does Jacob’s restless night wrestling with God have to do with me?” you’re wondering.
Well, Jacob is not the only one wrestling with God.
You’ve spent countless mornings, afternoons, and evenings rolling around in the dust of prayer, because the challenges in your life have you feeling like you’re up against an army.
The massive workload that only seems to get heavier
The insurmountable debt that only keeps piling up
The gnawing feeling of loneliness, fear, and rejection
The weight of your schedule that buckles your knees
The heartache from the burned and broken relationships in your life
The chemo that absolutely drains you
The emptiness after losing a loved one.
That’s a lot on your heart.
And you know you can’t make it all better. You know it’s beyond your ability to control and beyond your ability to fix.
So, you wrestle it out with God in prayer.
You pray that God would take it all away, that he would fix it. You pray, and pray, and pray – like you’re banging on the doors of heaven itself, like you’re standing outside God’s house with a blaring boombox - and it seems like no one’s home. God, where are you when I need you? Why don’t you make this right? Don’t you care about your people? I can’t do this without you! I’m not letting you go!
And as the dust settles, your God asks you in His Word, “What is your name?”
What’s Your Name?
You see, when God asked Jacob that question, he’s drawing attention to Jacob’s identity. The name “Jacob” literally means “heel-grabber”, a name that also came with the cultural connotation of “the cheater” “the hustler” – a name Jacob had rightfully earned.
And Jacob remembered that.
He hadn’t forgotten he had screwed up. He hadn’t forgotten that, if God wanted, he could do far more than simply dislocate his hip: he’s wrestling God, after all!
But, Jacob remembered something else, too.
He remembered that the God he worshiped, the LORD, is a God of grace and compassion, slow to anger and abounding in love and faithfulness. He remembered that it was only by God’s grace that he stood at the border of his homeland now a father of eleven and owner of an exceptionally wealthy estate. He remembered that God had given him some serious promises, one promise in particular – a promise not only that his offspring would inherit the land of Canaan, but that the Offspring through whom all nations would be blessed, the Offspring that would undo sin, death, and hell would come from his family.
Those hours of wresting with God was Jacob’s non-verbalized prayer: “God, you promised to make my family into a great nation. You promised Your Messiah would come through my family – the Messiah who would crush the head of Satan and restore our relationship with you forever! Fulfill your promise to your people! I will not let go of you until you assure me you will be faithful to your promise!”
And God lovingly says to the “heel grabber” “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.”
The God who formed mankind from the dust of the earth now deigns to roll around in the dust with us in prayer. And just as Jacob wasn’t the only one who would wrestle with God in prayer, he’s not the only one who has been given a new name: you’ve been given a new name, too!
On our own, apart from God, we were God’s enemies. We were born sinful, born spiritually dead, lost in sin, unable to save ourselves from our sinfulness, unable to meet the perfect demands of God’s perfect law, unable to undo the power of death – let alone control, even quarantine the chaos in our broken lives.
We are but a speck of dust, undeserving of God’s love and affection, unworthy to be called his child. But the God who made you is a God of boundless, abundant grace!
Though we are but dust and ashes, our God, in his grace, felt we were dust and ashes worth dying for! God the Father sent his Son, the promised Messiah, who was to come through Jacob’s family. That descendant was Jesus, the Son of God, God incarnate, who overcame the world for us! Jesus has conquered sin, death, and the powers of hell for you! Jesus has faced the the greatest adversaries you will ever face! He dragged them onto the mat of Calvary and won!
The same God who graciously allowed Jacob to tangibly cling to him and his promises does the same for you, at the tangible waters of your baptism, or through the giving of Jesus’ true body and blood in, with, and under bread and wine, the same God who preserved His Word throughout the ages so you could hold it in your hands. Because of Jesus, we too will stand before God one day in heaven and see him face to face, not with fear and distress, but with joy and confidence, the same joy and confidence we already have now in Christ! You, in Christ, are a redeemed, rescued, reconciled child of God!
Pick Up Your Boombox
Jacob limped away from his boombox serenade that day - a loving reminder from his wrestling with God that it would be God who would deliver him. And God did! Jacob would rename those wrestling grounds “Peniel” which means “the face of God” because, as Jacob exclaims, “I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.” And can you see how that is a tremendous comfort?
Your God isn’t annoyed by your persistent prayer: he welcomes it.
You are not standing below God’s window: you, in Christ, stand before God himself! Because, in Christ, God’s face shines on you! In Christ, we see the very face of God!
We see the face of God weep over the lost sheep of Israel - just as we see his face weep at the funeral of a loved one. We see the face of God stricken and spat upon by the very people he came to save. We see the face of God muddied with blood from a crown of thorns. We see that face radiate with hope as our Risen Lord says to his followers, “Peace be with you!” And that’s the same face of God that now smiles on you as his dearly beloved, redeemed child and will smile on you when you see him face to face one day in heaven.
You’re not obnoxiously annoying God by the boombox serenade that is your prayer life. After all, he’s the God who delights in rolling around in the dust with his people.
So, don’t be afraid to take your God to the mat. Don’t be afraid to storm the throne of grace in prayer. Don’t be afraid to boombox serenade your God in heaven with your fears, worries, and petitions.
And do so with confidence.
Because God invites you to. Because your God knows you by name. You are His.
Cling to the God who clings to you - and cling to him with confidence.