Jacob the Rock
From Genesis 32 ~
9 Jacob said, “Lord, God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, who said to me, ‘Go back to your country and your relatives, and I’ll make sure things go well for you,’ 10 I don’t deserve how loyal and truthful you’ve been to your servant. I went away across the Jordan with just my staff, but now I’ve become two camps. 11 Save me from my brother Esau! I’m afraid he will come and kill me, the mothers, and their children. 12 You were the one who told me, ‘I will make sure things go well for you, and I will make your descendants like the sand of the sea, so many you won’t be able to count them.’”
23 He took them and everything that belonged to him, and he helped them cross the river. 24 But Jacob stayed apart by himself, and a man wrestled with him until dawn broke. 25 When the man saw that he couldn’t defeat Jacob, he grabbed Jacob’s thigh and tore a muscle in Jacob’s thigh as he wrestled with him. 26 The man said, “Let me go because the dawn is breaking.”
But Jacob said, “I won’t let you go until you bless me.”
27 He said to Jacob, “What’s your name?” and he said, “Jacob.”28 Then he said, “Your name won’t be Jacob any longer, but Israel,[c]because you struggled with God and with men and won.”
29 Jacob also asked and said, “Tell me your name.”
But he said, “Why do you ask for my name?” and he blessed Jacob there. 30 Jacob named the place Peniel,[d] “because I’ve seen God face-to-face, and my life has been saved.” 31 The sun rose as Jacob passed Penuel, limping because of his thigh.
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Jacob’s wrestling match is one of my all time favorite stories. Riddled with anxiety and caught between trusting God’s promise and facing the horrible possibilities, Jacob wrestles all night with a stranger. My Hebrew professor referred to this stranger as “the vampire,” because he begged to be released before the sun came up. Some Jewish scholars teach that Jacob is wrestling with his own inner demons, his dark side, the parts of him riddled with mixed intentions, denial and fear. In any case, this stranger is somehow more than just a man, and Jacob perceives this to be a physical encounter with God (named elohim in this story). Though Jacob wins the fight against this God-in-the-stranger, he walks away with a permanent limp and a new name, Israel. The name of a people, a nation, which literally translates to “struggles (or strives) with God.”
What is faith if not a struggle? We want final and absolute answers so we can know we are right. So we can know WE are the good guys. We build systems that make sense to us, comfort us, help us navigate this crazy world without going totally crazy ourselves. And then, over and over again, we discover that our systems aren’t permanent. What helped some people get by actually made the world less safe for others. We either dig in deeper and put on our blinders, or we deconstruct what didn’t work in hopes of finding something better. Something more true.
The Jacob narrative runs counter to so much of our learned Christian values. Jacob is a heel-grabbing deceiver. Jacob fights God and wins (shouldn’t God always win?). And yet, in the heel-grabbing and the wrestling, we see a longing for intimacy, for connection “with God and with men.” Even as Jacob strives and fights and deceives to make his way in the world, it is all born out of a desire to know and be known. His entire life might be summed up in Genesis 32:26, “I won’t let you go until you bless me.”
“Bless me.” Wish me shalom. Speak peace and goodness into my life. Even as Jacob was humbled and terrified to face God, nevertheless he wrestled and refused to back down until he received a blessing from the Lord. And he prevailed.
PS. Today’s comic may be lost on those who don’t recall the amazing catchphrases of early 2000’s pro wrestler, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.