Genesis 32:22-32

Welcome into a new season (summer!), and to the start of a new series, Signature Moments!  

A “signature moment” is one in which a person reveals something of their true nature and character.  During this series, we will look at the ways God encounters people throughout Scripture and “writes his name” on that person or set of circumstances.

We begin with one of the Bible’s most complicated characters, Jacob.  Quick backstory: Jacob is the son of Isaac and the grandson of Abraham, so he is the third of the great patriarchal figures in Israel’s history. He is thus the inheritor of God’s promise to and blessing upon Abraham. Jacob is a twin, but the second-born; older brother Esau is Number One Son.

Even while in their mother Rebecca’s womb, these two boys were fighting!  She cries to the LORD, “what is going on?” and the LORD answers, “The older will serve the younger” (Genesis 25:23).  So even before Jacob or Esau have done anything, God announces that the Abrahamic blessing rests upon Jacob.

Despite God’s word, Jacob schemes to get what God has already given.  He cheats Esau out of his birthright, then (aided and abetted by his mother), deceives Isaac into giving the paternal blessing to Jacob instead of Esau.

Jacob has to hustle out of town, goes to stay with his uncle Laban.  For twenty years, Jacob and Laban manipulate and scheme against each other.  Finally, Jacob has had enough (and gotten enough), so he and his two wives and many sons and abundant flocks and herds (can God bless something of a scoundrel?  Apparently, at least in this case …) and heads towards home.

As he gets close, news reaches him: Esau is coming to “meet” him, accompanied by four hundred armed men!  Fearing the worst, Jacob divides all he has into two groups, hoping at least one will make it past Esau, and spends a long night … wrestling.

Apparently, with God.

Jacob has been the kind of guy who always found a way to get his way.  Suddenly, he finds himself grappling with – grappled by – someone he can neither manipulate nor control.  The passage portrays the match as something of a stand-off (“When the man saw that he could not overpower Jacob,” verse 25), until Jacob’s “opponent” has had enough.  (One gets the feeling he is bored, hardly defeated.)

Jacob receives two gifts from this encounter: a new name, Israel.  And a disability, a wrenched hip that makes him limp the rest of his days.

Israel means something like “He who struggles with God.”  Or, as the man/angel/God puts it to Jacob, “Your name will be … Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome.”=

Wait, what?  Jacob out-wrestled God?

No.  He wrestled with God, and God blessed him for that.

Where do you need to grapple with God?  Are there some places God is grappling with you?  Hang in, hang on!  Say, with Jacob, “I  will not let you go until you bless me.”