Most of you remember the story of Jacob wrestling with God….or perhaps God’s angel. In Genesis 32: 22-30, we find Jacob on his way home to Canaan after being gone for 14 years or more. He now has acquired two wives, a couple of concubines, 11 sons, and a daughter. He is a rich man…cattle, goats, sheep and lots of shepherds to help.
However, he must meet with his estranged brother, Esau, whom he cheated out of his birthright, or inheritance. Didn’t God tell his mother, that the older would serve the younger? That’s Jacob. He was the younger one. Now he is nervous and upset. He is a cheat, he also got cheated (He wanted Rachael but was given Leah first) and now God has more teaching to do.
Jacob sends his family ahead and prepares to spend the night by himself, perhaps to make plans as to how to preserve his family if, indeed, Esau decides to take revenge and kill him. However, later that night a “man” (God’s angel perhaps) wrestles with Jacob. Jacob prevails although he is injured in the process. He throws his hip out of joint. This story is simple in its telling but there remains many questions as to who the “man” is; why would Jacob need to wrestle him; why did Jacob win the fight? Surely God could have defeated him.
We might not know the answers to those questions but here are some things we do know. Jacob’s story is a retelling of the nation of Israel and the continual wrestling with God. God changes the name of Jacob to Israel and in doing so effects the history of the people that will come from his linage.
If Jacob had not won the wrestling match his name would not have changed. He asked the “man” for a blessing…..which he received in the form of a change of his name.
We are left with a story in which God is bound to this man. Jacob has wrestled and won…….God’s blessing carries with it a covenant of protection. God would be with these people. They were “bound” and would face the future together.
We sometimes “wrestle” with God. It’s our daily struggles in life. God is testing us in many ways by allowing us to challenge His care for us. He sometimes wounds us, just as Jacob was wounded but also blessed.
Can you see yourself in this story?
When have you ever wrestled with God? Have you been both wounded and blessed?
AbideLines 