If God is a loving and caring God, would He actually break you in order to make you more like Him?
In a message steeped in biblical insight and personal application, Rabbi Schneider unpacks one of the 613 commandments of the Torah that has often puzzled people: the commandment not to eat the sinew of the hip. Rooted in Jacob’s life-altering encounter with God in Genesis 32, this commandment, Rabbi Schneider says, carries a deep spiritual message for believers today.
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“This commandment… is rooted in the episode that occurred in Jacob’s life when he wrestled with God,” Schneider begins. “In the Torah, it says that Jacob wrestled with a man all night. And we find out that that man was God Himself.”
Genesis 32:32 explains the origin of the Law: “To this day, the sons of Israel do not eat the sinew of the hip which is on the socket of the thigh, because he touched the socket of Jacob’s thigh in the sinew of the hip.”
But the physical injury Jacob sustained—a dislocated hip—was not a punishment; it was part of the transformation. “Jacob was a strong man. He was strong-willed,” Schneider explains. “He had a lot of natural ability, a lot of natural intellect, a lot of natural cunning. But before God could really bless him, God had to break him.”
This breaking was both literal and symbolic. “God touched the socket of his thigh… the place that represents pride, natural strength, self-will and self-sufficiency.”
Schneider ties Jacob’s limp to a broader spiritual principle: “Before God can really use us… He has to break us of self-reliance, He has to break us of self-will, and He has to break us of pride.”
This principle echoes through both Old and New Testaments. Schneider draws a parallel to the apostle Paul, who pleaded three times for God to remove a “thorn in the flesh,” only to be told: “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness.” As Schneider puts it: “God’s power is manifest in us through our weakness.”
For Jacob, the limp became a lifelong reminder. “God changed Jacob’s name to Israel after breaking him,” Schneider notes. “Israel means one that strives with God and overcomes. But before Jacob could be renamed Israel, God had to touch the socket of his thigh and break him.”
Schneider urges believers not to resist these divine dealings: “Often it’s through our trials and our weakness and our pain and our difficulties that the greatest measure of God’s Spirit is released into our life.”
Ultimately, Schneider believes that God takes us through shaping and molding so that we may draw closer to Him. “God breaks us not to destroy us, but He breaks us to bless us. He breaks us to humble us so that we can become truly dependent on Him and know Him as our all in all.”
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In the breaking, there is blessing. It is in surrender that we discover our true identity and purpose. When we allow the Lord to wrestle with the parts of us that need to change, He doesn’t leave us wounded—He marks us for destiny. Let every struggle become an altar, every breaking a doorway into deeper intimacy with the One who calls us by a new name.
Abby Trivett is content development editor for Charisma Media.
