Genesis
32:22-31
The same night he got up and took his two wives,
his two maids, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the
Jabbok. He took them and sent them across the
stream, and likewise everything that he had. Jacob
was left alone; and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. When
the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he struck him on the hip
socket; and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. Then
he said, “Let me go, for the day is breaking.” But Jacob said, “I will not let
you go, unless you bless me.” So he said to him,
“What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” Then
the man said, “You shall
no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have
striven with God and with humans, and have
prevailed.” Then Jacob asked him, “Please tell
me your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” And there he
blessed him. So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “For I
have seen God face to face, and yet my life is preserved.” The
sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip.
“You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for
you have striven with God and with humans, and have
prevailed.” Then Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your
name.” But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?”
·
Have any of you ever
wrestled with God? Have you ever struggled with questions about how or why God
does thing… or how or why God DOESN’T do things? These are really hard
questions, questions that have caused any number of people to leave their
congregations, their church, their faith.
·
Compared to that, what
Jacob does in our first reading today seems like a breeze. Grapple with some
guy on the river bank, get punched in the hip (what sort of wrestling rules
were they using?) and then get a new name.
·
A little background is
necessary here and I’ll try not to bore you. Jacob on the run from his brother,
Esau, who is coming with his gang intent on killing Jacob… who has, in truth,
cheated Esau out of his inheritance from their father, Isaac. (It cost him a
bowl of stew or maybe, chili.) Jacob has divided his family and his belongings
into two groups in the hope that if Esau and the boys catch him and one of the
groups the other will get away and Jacob’s line will survive.
·
So Jacob waits by the
river Jabbok and then wrestles with “a man” all through the night. Is it a man?
An angel? God? It’s hard to say although we have clues. In any event, Jacob is
called by a new name- “Israel, for you have striven with God
and with humans and have prevailed.” Jacob limps off and eventually
works thing out with his brother. He ends up having twelve sons and the family,
the “Israelites”, end up in Egypt during a famine with the help of one of the
sons, Joseph.
·
So have any of us here
wrestled with God? How often have you grappled with the Almighty? Did it leave
you changed? Do you still “limp” from that encounter? Remember that Jesus also
wrestled with his Father… in the Garden of Gethsemane… where his sweat fell to
the ground like drops of blood. (Luke 22:44) I’ll tell you that I’ve wrestled and
it was not easy. God won in the end (which means I won, too.) and I have a new
name and I limp.
·
The wrestling is an
interesting idea. It wasn’t an argument or a discussion; nor was it a test or a
simple disagreement. It was part of a larger relationship.
·
Jacob is told you have striven with God and with
humans.] and have prevailed. Jacob’s opponent asks to be let go since it is almost sunrise, but Jacob
will not let go until his opponent blesses him. Jacob becomes Israel and, in
the Bible, a new name means a new person; not an alias or a new identity, but
an entirely new creation.
·
Israel has a new name as a new man and asks the name of his opponent. The
opponent answers mysteriously: Why
is it that you ask my name? Does it mean “Don’t you know already?”
Or does it mean “Why do you want power over me?” To know someone’s name gave
you power over them… and no one can have that sort of power over God! (Hence
the commandment not to use God’s name “in vain.”) Still the fight has to end
before dawn, so Israel cannot see the face of God; even in a close-up hand-to-hand
struggle, the mystery will remain. "he
said, "you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live."
(Exodus 33:20)
·
No matter the outcome of
the wrestling match on the riverside, the dawn WILL come. No matter what we
contend with, whether physical, psychological, or spiritual, dawn will come to
such “dark nights of the soul.”
·
Now we need to be real.
Just as Jacob/Israel limped away from his grappling with God, we have no
promise that the wrestling will leave us unhurt. We will have to struggle to
meet the challenge and there is a good chance that such a struggle will change
us and scar us. If it really is a face-to-face meeting with God, we will
continue our way as a transformed person. Like Jacob/Israel, we may receive a
new name and be a new person. As many of us know, bringing a new person into
this world is not an easy task. It has its risks and its pains and it can even be
a terrible joy.
·
There is another sure
thing. Wrestling with God can make God very real to us. When we wrestle, we
really can’t ignore the one wrestling with us. The British writer, C.S.Lewis
wrote “God whispers to us in our
pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pains.”
·
Through all of this, we
still depend on the grace and mercy of God, whether we wrestle with God at the
riverside or sit in the Garden of Gethsemane and ask that the cup pass us by.
Even in the struggle, there is grace. As people of faith, we await the new dawn
even if we limp like Jacob/Israel did. Every dark night holds the promise of a
new dawn as well as a blessing and we can look forward to that with both wonder and joy. Remember the
words of the mysterious figures at the tomb of Jesus: He is not here; for he has
been raised, as he said.
Then the man said: “You shall no longer be called Jacob, but
Israel,] for you have striven with God and with humans,] and
have prevailed.” Then Jacob asked him, “Please tell me
your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?”
-- Although the doors
were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas…
“Do not doubt but believe.”
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