Genesis 32:22-31
Jacobs’s life was a struggle from the beginning. And by the beginning I mean actually from conception! When his mother was pregnant with him and his twin
brother she received a prophecy that said that two nations were struggling in
her womb. It was also
said that the elder would serve the younger.
His brother Esau was born
first all red and covered in hair. He must have been an ugly baby! Jacob followed quickly behind clutching
his heel. He was determined to take his brother’s place and so his name, Jacob,
means “he who grabs the heel” or “supplanter.”
The two brothers could not be
more at odds. Esau was the rugged outdoorsman type who enjoyed hunting. He had
the favor of his father Isaac. Jacob, who preferred to stay at home, had the
favor of his mother Rebekah. Esau was the jock but Jacob was the brain.
Jacob would not accept his fate beneath his brother
but schemed for the higher place. He
was always able to out think and out strategize Esau. One day when his brother
returned famished from the fields, Jacob manipulated him into handing over his
birthright for a bowl of stew. He even
deceived his father into handing over his blessing to him instead of his
brother. He had to flee for his life when Esau vowed to kill him.
Jacob even had to struggle to marry the woman he
loved, Rachel. He agreed with her
father Laban to work seven years for her hand, but in an ironic reversal it was
Jacob this time who was deceived into marrying Rachel’s older sister Leah. He
had to work another seven years before he could finally marry Rachel as well.
Today we read about the climax of his life of
struggle, the turning point when Jacob became Israel.
Jacob is preparing the meet
his brother Esau whom he has not seen since he had to flee for his life to
escape him. He has sent his wives, his children, and their entire household
away and he is left alone. That evening he wrestled with God, in a quite
literal way, until daybreak. When the battle is over he receives his new name.
Israel would not
be named for him unless his life in some way represented who they were called
to be as a God’s covenant people. So what can this story teach us about what it
means to be the people of God? What does this story teach us about our own life
of faith?
First, We
too like Jacob are engaged in struggle from the moment of our conception. Life
is difficult, and for the person of faith it is not easier. We are marked as
Christ’s own in baptism, but that is not the finish line. It is the starting
line for a race we all must run. We must
struggle against the world, the flesh, and the devil.
-We struggle to keep our
integrity in a corrupt world that is constantly trying to pull us into its
orbit of selfish ambition.
-To live a life of faith is
to struggle against anger, lust, and pride and all our wayward passions that
lure us away from the love of God.
-We also must contend with
the lies of the devil who is constantly seeking to lead us off course and
discourage us. We must be on our guard and resist him.
But we also wrestle with God.
We strive to know him and to understand his will. Some see faith and doubt as
opposites, but behind every person of strong faith there is someone who has
wrestled with difficult questions. It is not the case that the believer does
not have the doubts and struggles that the unbeliever has. The difference is
that the person of faith clings tenaciously to God through those struggles. Those struggles are in fact the
caldron of our transformation. The life
of faith is a constant struggle, but the one who receives the blessing is the
one who perseveres in the struggle and refuses to give up.
The second lesson about faith we learn from Jacob’s
story is that we only finally find God when we come to the end of our strength. Jacob’s wrestling match with God is an echo of the
wrestling match with his brother in the womb and the struggle that has
continued throughout their lives. God wanted to teach him that if he wanted to
prevail this time he needed his help. Although they wrestle to daybreak, God
puts an end to their battle when he touches Jacob’s hip and sets it out of
joint. He forces Jacob to confront his own frailty and brokenness. Until this
time Jacob had swaggered through life relying on his own cunning and
determination, but now he was humbled. His swagger was changed to a limp.
He was made to confront and
confess who he had been. “What is your name?” God asks him. He answers that he
is Jacob, the supplanter, the schemer, the deceiver, the one who grabs the heel.
God tells him,
"You shall
no longer be called Jacob, but Israel,
for you have striven with God and with humans, and have prevailed."
There alone in
the desert, stripped of everything, Jacob comes face to face with who he has
been. He faces God and refuses to let him go. He realizes he cannot go on
without him, and it is there in his weakness that he is the strongest that he
has ever been.
Finally, the story of Jacob teaches us
something important about how God has decided to relate to us. The Early Church
Fathers saw in the story of Jacob’s wrestling match with God a symbol of the
incarnation, of God becoming one of us in Christ.
God is far above human beings,
yet He wants us to know him and be in relationship with him. No man is a match
for him in power, and yet God stoops to our level. He comes to us eye-to-eye,
face to face, as fellows and allows us to contend with him. The great creator of
the universe condescends to be our sparring partner. He allows the fragile
creatures that he has molded out of the dust to stand up and confront him, to
resist him, and to disobey him and ultimately even to lay cruel hands on him
and crucify him. God could destroy us at any moment yet he has held back his
hand. Instead he shows us mercy. We are the ones who have seen God face to face
and lived.
