JACOB WRESTLES WITH GOD: An Exploration of Genesis 32:22-31
"The Bible, as a whole, has many different ways of describing God’s relationship to his people. God is a great King, his people are the subjects; Yahweh is like a nursing mother, Israel, her small child; God is a loving Father, we- the people of Christ- are his children. God (the Son) is a Good Shepherd, we are his sheep, and so on.
But, correct me if I’m wrong: it’s unlikely that any of you think of God as your sparring partner- as your wrestling opponent. That, to say the least, is a strange way of talking about our relationship with the Lord. However, that’s how Jacob’s relationship with God is framed in this bizarre story from Genesis Chapter 32. In this story Jacob wrestles with a mysterious figure. And this nightlong wrestling match with this mysterious figure, I believe, represents his lifelong wrestling match with God. So, the questions I want to wrestle with in today’s sermon are as follows: First, what does it mean for Jacob (or for that matter) us to wrestle with God? And, secondly, what happens to Jacob (and us) in the course of that wrestling?
Genesis 32:22-31 (NIV)
22 That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two female servants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. 23 After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions. 24 So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. 25 When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. 26 Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.”
But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”
27 The man asked him, “What is your name?”
“Jacob,” he answered.
28 Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel,[a] because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.”
29 Jacob said, “Please tell me your name.”
But he replied, “Why do you ask my name?” Then he blessed him there.
30 So Jacob called the place Peniel,[b] saying, “It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.”
31 The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel,[c] and he was limping because of his hip.
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