Genesis 32:22-31
Back to the family we have been following in the Hebrew scriptures. Today we are still in the third generation and Jacob, who we see in today’s excerpt from scripture is no other than Israel. The name of the people of God is not Abraham, not Moses, not Isaac or Rachel or Leah or Sarah but Israel.
He has been a scoundrel all his life, a deal maker, a con-man, an opportunist. Born in conflict with his twin Esau he continues to wrestle with him, finding advantage where he could and taking it how he could.
So Jacob lives in a world marked by living by your wits and ruses and scams, but all is about to catch up with him he fears as he spends a sleepless night on the banks of the Jabbok River. He has been living back in the lands of his ancestors and in the morning Jacob will be facing his twin brother Esau in what he fears will be a tense reunion. It’s been 20 years since he last saw Esau and the last words spoken between the brothers back then were that Esau was fixing to kill Jacob. Worse, Jacob’s servants sent ahead to smooth the way have returned reporting Esau is preparing for the meeting by summoning 400 men. Jacob fears they are not being invited to swell the numbers at the welcome home party.
So to today’s reading with its notorious long night of wrestling. Probably all of us have had them figurately speaking. Everything always seems longer, darker, and more gloomy during a night of insomnia. All our demons, manifest as fear, depression, anxiety, loneliness, rejection, uncertainty over decisions, health or relationship concerns. Not to mention existential angst! Who am I, what is the meaning of life, what will become of me when I die?
As in today’s situation the fear of conflict is one that is always heightened for me during a long night of wakefulness and wrestling. More than one night I have spent tossing and turning and playing out scenarios. Tomorrow, if he does that I will say this, and how dare she suggest that, and I will just play that conversation from earlier today through once more in my memory (that must make it the 34th time since this afternoon) and … damn I should have said that when she said that, and how dare they all think this about me; and anyway they haven’t done what they said they would and they are incompetent and…. That is Jacob I suspect.
But in this strange and compelling story Jacob is portrayed as more than running possible scenarios or past events through his active mind. He is said to be wrestling with… well who or what? The text says, a man, but the tradition often presents this person as an angel, and by association some even see this as a divine figure… maybe even The Lord.
But as the story unfolds this man/angel becomes more mysterious and they wrestle each other all the long night, until the dawn is about to break upon them, but neither is able to gain the ascendancy, and then the toing and froing becomes not just physical but verbal. At some stage around now it dawns upon Jacob as he is telling his assailant his name and seeks a blessing that he is in the presence of the divine.
If it truly is God that Jacob is wrestling all night how do we make any sense of that? Surely you cannot enter into a competition with God and walk away having fought to a draw? Surely with a dismissive twist of the wrist God could pin our shoulders to the mat for the 3 count?
Maybe God does not crush us because God is good and desires only the best for us.
But there is another aspect to this story; one more dark and brooding. There is also the sense in this story that Jacob is in danger; that unwittingly he has wandered into the territory of a powerful being who if does not intend Jacob evil is certainly not to be dismissed as of little regard. Someone into whose presence you would not casually saunter, ill-prepared.
CS Lewis in “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” has the character of Aslan the Lion who is a Christ figure. One of the children who travel to Narnia, Susan, has heard of this mysterious Aslan but not met him. She asks Mr and Mrs Beaver about him, and if he is a man.
“Aslan a man? Certainly not. I tell you he is the King of the Woods and the son of the great Emperor Beyond the Sea. Don’t you know who is the King of the Beasts? Aslan is a lion – the Lion, the great Lion.”
“Ooh!” said Susan. “I thought he was a man. Is he — quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion.”
“That you will, dearie, and make no mistake,” said Mrs. Beaver, “if there’s anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they’re either braver than most or else just silly.”
“Then he isn’t safe?” said Lucy.
“Safe?” said Mr. Beaver. “Don’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about being safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. ..”
Not safe, but good. Something to remember in our struggles and anguishes with God. Sometimes it does feel like God is actively opposing us, is confusing our path, hindering our progress, pinning us to the ground. That may or may not be the case. But the thing to be remembered in all of that is, while it may feel God has turned from us at times. God will not ever seek harm upon us, evil to befall us. God may withdraw from us as in the dark night of the soul experience where we feel abandoned; but God is good as we know God in Jesus, and wills only the best for us.
Richard Rohr … “Unfortunately, our natural instinct is trying to fix pain, to control it, or even, foolishly, attempting to understand it. The ego insists on understanding. That’s why Jesus praises a certain quality even more than love, and he calls it faith. It’s the ability to stand in liminal space, to stand on the threshold, to hold contraries, until we are moved by grace to a much deeper level and a much larger frame. Our private pain does not take center stage, but is a mystery shared with every act of bloodshed and every tear wept since the beginning of time. Our pain is not just our own. The normal mind can’t deal with that. That’s why mature religion always teaches some form of contemplation—to break our addiction to this ego driven, disconnected thinking.” [1] Richard Rohr
This is where the new insights and experiences are hard won. Imagine all that was learnt in the hard times were suddenly removed from your life how impoverished you would be.
I would never do it again but would not have it any other way.
Jacob does emerge from the night of wrestling changed in two significant ways: Jacob has a new name, and a new wound.
In the biblical world, names are linked with character. A name change often indicates a shift in status or character, like Abram becoming Abraham, Sarai becoming Sarah, Simon becoming Peter, Saul becoming Paul. Jacob, which means something like “heel” or “supplanter,” or “grasper” is changed to Israel, which is a bit unclear but means possibly “God preserves” or “God protects” or “God contends” or it can take on here the sense of, “One who contends with God”. The point isn’t so much in the precise name meaning, but the fact that the name has changed.
No longer is this man the “deceiver” or “betrayer,” but is something else, something more. No longer is he Jacob, he is now Israel. And it is Israel that has struggled with God and emerged, if not victorious, at least as someone changed, someone new. And there is something poignant in that idea: that in our struggles, we emerge changed, especially in our struggles with God. There will be times in life when we wrestle with God, either over those dark places in life or just with what faithfulness demands of us. Sometimes the picture of a faithful person looks nothing more glamorous than someone hanging on for dear life by the tips of their bleeding fingers. But that at that moment is faithfulness. There is something to be said for the struggle itself, and not just the outcome.
So many times we hang on to the names and perceptions of who we are that are either given to us by our parents, or our peers, or even our actions- we get so caught up in our identity; in what we call ourselves, or the bad ways we act or think, or the things we have done… that we miss the fact that God has already given us a new identity- a new name… not through a wrestling match like Jacob, but through the cross of Jesus Christ. Through Christ we leave our “Jacob” identity behind and have been given a new identity in Christ.
Rev Ray Gormann
