START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Genesis 32:22-31
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OBSERVE:
Jacob experiences a climactic crisis in his relationship with Yahweh, with his brother Esau, and with himself.
Jacob worked for his uncle and kinsman Laban for twenty years (cf. Genesis 31:38). But despite receiving his heart’s desire (the hand of Rachel, Laban’s daughter, in marriage), Jacob’s sojourn with Laban has been difficult. Part of the difficulty has been the rivalries between the two sisters Jacob has married — Leah and Rachel. Jealousy has been manifested by competition — who can have the most children for Jacob? These contentious sisters have even used their maidservants (Zilpah and and Bilhah, respectively) as proxy surrogate mothers and pawns in their “game of wombs.”
Moreover, Laban has consistently cheated Jacob out of his share of the profits from Jacob’s successful management of Laban’s flocks. Jacob has had to resort to creative breeding practices with the flocks entrusted to him in order to balance the tally. Jacob has become aware that Laban’s attitude toward him has changed, and a dream from the angel of God has warned him to leave Haran. So, after consulting with his wives Leah and Rachel, he returns home to Canaan.
However, Jacob is aware that Esau is waiting for him back in Canaan — Esau, who had threatened to kill him when he laid eyes on him again. He has left one stressful situation for yet another — out of the frying pan, into the fire?
Jacob has sent word to Esau ahead of his arrival that he is returning. Jacob seems to try to impress his brother:
I have cattle, donkeys, flocks, male servants, and female servants. I have sent to tell my lord, that I may find favor in your sight (Genesis 32:5).
But an ominous report is brought to Jacob by messengers — Esau is coming to meet him… with four hundred men! (Genesis 32:6) Jacob is understandably distressed. This seems menacing. Jacob divides his flocks and stock into two companies, so that if Esau hits one the other might escape.
Jacob also sends a gift — a bribe? — to his brother Esau:
two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, thirty milk camels and their colts, forty cows, ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten foals (Genesis 32:14-15).
All of this sets the stage for our lectionary passage for this week. The night before Jacob is to have his “reunion” with his brother Esau, Jacob sends his two wives and two servants and eleven sons across the ford of the river Jabbok, which is a tributary river feeding into the Jordan River from the east. He has not yet even crossed over the Jordan into the land of Canaan! Presumably, Jacob sends his family from north of the river to south of the river, in the region of Gilead.
That night, Jacob is left alone with himself — and with a supernatural visitor. We note that a little earlier, when Jacob learns that Esau is coming with a small army, he prays to Yahweh asking for deliverance from Esau, and reminding God of his promises of blessing and offspring (Genesis 32:9-12). But we have no evidence that God responds to Jacob’s prayer — until now:
Jacob was left alone, and wrestled with a man there until the breaking of the day.
Astonishingly, the “anonymous wrestler” cannot — or chooses not — to prevail over Jacob, until he touches the hollow of Jacob’s thigh and injures him. If, as we suspect already, the wrestler is an angel of God or Yahweh himself, why can’t the Almighty defeat Jacob?
The answer is two-fold: first, he does deal Jacob an injury that will remain with him the rest of his life. And second, the only way God doesn’t simply destroy Jacob is because he chooses not to do so. He limits his power in order to transform Jacob.
What happens next is spiritually significant. The supernatural “wrestler” seems to cry “uncle”:
The man said, “Let me go, for the day breaks.”
Jacob, presumably holding on to this “being” for dear life, refuses to let go until the wrestler blesses him. The “being” asks a question to which he already knows the answer:
He said to him, “What is your name?”
When Jacob gives his own name, the “wrestler” reveals himself clearly for the first time, and simultaneously gives Jacob his blessing:
He said, “Your name will no longer be called Jacob, but Israel; for you have fought with God and with men, and have prevailed.”
The blessing is a change in Jacob’s identity — he is to be known as Israel, which means one who prevails with God or is Triumphant with God. Because words and names are vested with such inherent power in the Hebrew culture, this “renaming” is significant. Jacob’s name was interpreted earlier by his brother Esau as derogatory:
Isn’t he rightly named Jacob? For he has supplanted me these two times. He took away my birthright. See, now he has taken away my blessing (Genesis 27:36).
But now Jacob is honored as Israel.
And even this is not enough for Jacob/Israel. He also wants to know the name of this “being” with whom he has wrestled all night long. Again, we see the significance of a name. To know the name of someone, especially a supernatural being, is to have a measure of power and leverage — either over them or through them.
We are reminded that many centuries later, one of the descendants of Jacob will seek the identity of God, who speaks to him through the burning bush:
Moses said to God, “Behold, when I come to the children of Israel, and tell them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you;’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ What should I tell them?” (Exodus 3:13).
God’s answer there is enigmatic — God’s name is not a proper noun, like Zeus or Baal or Brahma — instead, God’s answer to Moses is more a description of his nature than a name:
God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM,” and he said, “You shall tell the children of Israel this: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” (Exodus 3:14).
And when Jesus speaks of prayer, he suggests the power that is imputed by invoking his own name:
Whatever you will ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son (John 14:13).
As it turns out, God is not overpowered by Jacob, though he allows Jacob to prevail. What that may really mean is that Jacob is allowed to live despite the fact that he has wrestled with God. Nor is God to be manipulated by a mortal. He responds to Jacob’s question by asking rhetorically:
He said, “Why is it that you ask what my name is?”
Nonetheless, God does bless Jacob. And in keeping with the importance of language and words, Jacob memorializes this place as Peniel (which means “face of God):
for, he said, “I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.”
When the day dawned, Jacob had been profoundly blessed — but he did walk away with a limp.
APPLY:
Jacob’s story seems to be an archetypal story in many ways. By that I mean that people of faith, and even simply people in general, can find much in Jacob with which we can identify.
After twenty years, Jacob returns for a family reunion. An uncomfortable and tense family reunion. Many of us can identify with tense family gatherings. We may not face the fear of violent retribution, but we may experience passive-aggression and sarcasm.
Jacob uses common sense. He divides his assets so he can survive a “hostile takeover.” Those of us who have watched powerful families in the media — and the movies — can imagine such an attempt even by family members.
Jacob also attempts to placate Esau by sending him a very expensive gift — or gifts, in his case. This may seem manipulative or cynical, but we may argue that it is practical.
But what is even more relevant is the spiritual example that this story provides. Jacob seeks out solitude so that he may prepare for the inevitable reunion that is to take place the next day. When we are facing an emotionally difficult time, don’t many of us find refuge in solitude, if only to prepare ourselves and think things through?
It may be argued that even before Jacob wrestled with the Angel of the Lord, he was wrestling with himself. Was he feeling some remorse for the ways in which he cheated Esau out of his birthright and his blessing? Certainly, Esau’s threats against his own brother were inappropriate and excessive — but Jacob was a supplanter and a cheater!
When we begin to wrestle with our own conscience, I would argue we are beginning to wrestle with God. And I would argue that we will always lose! How is it, then, that Jacob prevails?
My answer is that Jacob doesn’t defeat Yahweh. That would be impossible. No, he prevails because despite his weakness, his fallibility, and his failures, he doesn’t let go! Through this entire experience, Jacob holds on to God as tightly as he possibly can.
I would argue that the way we can prevail, when we are filled with doubt, when we have failed, when we feel abandoned, is to never let go of God. Hang on with every fiber of our faith!
There is one more way in which we can identify with Jacob’s experience. When we encounter God — really encounter God — there will be transformation. Jacob the Supplanter became Israel — Triumphant with God.
Oh, and one more thing — it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. We will be changed by our encounter with God. And we also may be scarred or marked or damaged in some way by the experience — Jacob limps away.
RESPOND:
It is somehow reassuring to know that the friends of God have been “wrestling” with him for millennia. Jacob’s story seems to be as modern as a Facebook post today.
Our struggles often begin with a personal crisis — like Jacob’s family dysfunctions with his father-in-law, or stress with spouses (in his case, plural!), or sibling rivalry. And such personal crises usually are connected with a larger spiritual conflict.
I have tasted a bit of what St. John of the Cross called The Dark Night of the Soul. He says of the Christian:
There will come a time when God will bid them to grow deeper. He will remove the previous consolation from the soul in order to teach it virtue and prevent it from developing vice.
What seems to be happening to Jacob, though, is different. When Jacob prays for God to deliver him from the hand of his brother Esau, God instead comes and engages Jacob even more directly. Spiritually, God “wrestles” with Jacob.
The purpose for this engagement isn’t so that God can reveal his superiority. That’s a given. God chooses not to prevail over Jacob. Instead, God permits Jacob to remain locked in this “wrestling match” so that Jacob can grow through the experience. Jacob becomes Israel.
Simply put, I have learned that when I have a spiritual crisis, a dark night of the soul, a period of doubt, depression, or a sense of failure, what I must do, for my own soul’s sake, is hold on to God for all I’m worth. Holding on to God is the only way that I may prevail. Only by holding on can I receive God’s blessing.
And I have also learned through the years that it is imperative that I hold on to God, whatever my struggles, doubts and difficulties may be. What I have discovered is that God is not wrestling with me — instead, God is embracing me!
Lord, life is full of crises and challenges — personal, financial, family, national. I know of no other way that I — or any of us — can prevail unless we hold on to you. Only then, when we stay connected to you, can we be blessed by you. When I hold on to you, I discover that you aren’t wrestling with me — you are embracing me! Amen.
PHOTOS:
“Don’t Let Go“
SOAR Lectionary Bible Study 