Summer
Sermon Series: Wrestling with Jacob
Genesis
32:3-32
This morning we return to our summer
sermon series “Wrestling with Jacob”. We
we have enjoyed following Jacob on his adventures and since it’s been a few
weeks I think we could do with a quick recap.
We have witnessed Jacob struggle in the womb and we have watched him
trick his brother and his father out of an inheritance. Jacob ended up fleeing his homeland in fear,
as his brother Esau had vowed to kill him.
On his journey to Haran, Jacob was visited by the Lord in a dream and
God promised Jacob safety and success.
Jacob met his uncle Laban’s family and
fell in love with his cousin Rachel, but he was tricked by Laban into marrying her
sister Leah instead. Jacob stayed with
Laban’s family for 20 years amassing a large family of 2 wives, 2 maids, and 11
children. Through the blessings of God,
Jacob became wealthy as he cared for Laban’s flocks. After continuing to struggle with Laban,
Jacob sensed it was time to finally return home to Canaan, and left Haran with
Laban in hot pursuit.
Last time we met together, we left
Jacob in an in-between place. He had
finally settled the score with his father-in-law Laban, and the two agreed to
have no further dealings together. Jacob
and his family are half way to Canaan and the time has come to face his
relationship with Esau and the family he fled from so many years ago. That is where we pick up our story today.
(Read Genesis 32:3-8)
Jacob sends word ahead of his camp
that he is coming. He sends messengers
to the land of his brother in hopes of determining if it is safe to proceed or
not. The messengers say that Esau has
been reached and that he is coming toward Jacob with a force of 400 men. Jacob is greatly afraid and begins to take
defensive action, dividing his flocks and people into two companies. If Esau is coming to him in anger then
perhaps only half of Jacob’s wealth and family will suffer the wrath of his violence.
(Read Genesis 32:9-21)
Jacob devises a two-fold plan for his
safety. First he turns to God in prayer
and supplication. In his prayer Jacob
expresses his fear that Esau will kill not only him but also his wives and
children. He reminds God that God has
made promises to protect him. Jacob
prays for mercy and deliverance.
The second part of his plan is to make
a peace offering to Esau. He gathers up
choice specimens from his many herds and sends them on ahead of the family as
gifts for Esau. Over 550 animals travel
in groups out to meet Esau and his men, each bearing the message that they are
gifts for Esau and that Jacob is on his way to meet him again, hopefully in
peace.
(Read Genesis 32:22-32)
These ten verses are perhaps the most
well-known of the long Jacob narrative.
Jacob and his family are left alone in the camp. He sends the women and children across the
river to spend the night and he himself spends the night alone on the far side
of the river. We aren’t told what Jacob
means by this. But I imagine he needed
time alone to think, to pray, and to reflect on what was coming. As far as Jacob knows, this could be his last
night on earth.
During the night, a mysterious man
appears and attacks Jacob. The two are
evenly matched and wrestle and fight together throughout the night. In his usual grasping and tenacious manner,
Jacob refuses to give up, even when he is injured by his foe. As dawn approaches the stranger asks to be released
from Jacob’s grip but Jacob refuses, demanding a blessing. The stranger offers Jacob a blessing and a
new name, disappearing before the dawn finally rises and Jacob at last limps
across the river.
This story is full of big questions,
one of which is who is this guy?
Throughout the centuries scholars have struggled to answer this
question. It is commonly thought that
this was a very old story in the Hebrew tradition and one that people would
have told each other around the camp fire long before it was ever written
down. Some say that Jacob wrestled a
stranger, and that makes sense since the two are evenly matched strength
wise. Some say he wrestled some sort of
angel or demon, and that makes sense as the creature comes at night. This view is also supported by Jacob’s desire
to know the creature’s name, which is a way one gains power over the demonic
forces.
Of course some say Jacob wrestled with
God himself. That view is supported by
the part of the story where the opponent must leave the area before dawn. No one can see God’s face and live, so if the
opponent is God then Jacob is in danger of dying if the sun rises and he is
still grasping his foe. Personally, I
like to think that Jacob did wrestle with God because it seems to me that that
is who Jacob seems to believe he is struggling with. He was there, so he ought to know!
The other big question surrounding
this text is why. Why does Jacob
suddenly find himself in a wrestling match with God in the middle of the
night? Answers abound here as well, the
most popular being that God is teaching Jacob a lesson. Somehow Jacob is too haughty, too full of
himself, (which could definitely be supported by the story so far) and God
wants to knock Jacob down to size. I
understand where people are coming from with that theory but I don’t like
it. I think Jacob’s prayer just earlier
that day, asking God for help and mercy shows that he knows where he stands in
the grand scheme of things.
This is a rich text, and a person
could be happy with lots of answers to the “why” question here, from Jacob deserved
it to God is teaching Jacob a lesson.
Lord knows, I’ve gone many different ways with it in my own preaching
career. But the more I read it, the more
I think that the “why” answer is that there is no “why”. This is just who God is. God is one who wrestles, just as Jacob is one
who wrestles. This is what an encounter
with God looks like.
The sun rises and Jacob says, I am
naming this place Peniel because I have seen God here. And who has Jacob seen, but a person
wrestling in the night. Therefore God is
one who wrestles with us, and by extension God is one who wrestles on our
behalf.
Throughout the scriptures God is
grappling with God’s people. It may not
be hand to hand combat like we find at the Jabbok that night, but is certainly
struggling and striving. Does God not
wrestle with Adam and Eve as they seek to learn what the relationship will be
between humanity and God? Does God not
wrestle with Godself as God mourns the creation of humanity, destroys it in a
flood, and then mourns that destruction promising never to do it again? Does God not wrestle with Abraham as the two
ponder the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah?
As the story of God’s people moves on we will find God wrestling with Pharaoh,
wrestling with Moses, wrestling with Jeremiah and Isaiah and the prophets. God wrestles with the ancestors of Jacob, now
Israel, as the nation struggles to remain faithful. Later we witness God wrestling with
Pharisees, with Sadducees, with the Roman Empire, and even with the
disciples. Jesus himself wrestles with
the father as he seeks freedom in the garden in Gethsemane and feels abandoned
on the cross. In that night on the
Jabbok, Jacob saw a God who wrestles, a God who grasps and fights, a God who
offers blessings but will not let us get away scot free.
So we too, wrestle with God. Like Jacob we wrestle at night, in the
darkness, as thoughts of faith and doubt swirl together in our minds, keeping
us awake. We wrestle as we face earthly foes
of cancer, sickness, and death, struggling to hold on to the faith that offers
us blessings in the midst of hardship.
Together with God, we wrestle to fight the forces of evil in our world,
from hate and greed to apathy and violence, struggling to bring about a
blessing for all of humanity. Like
Jacob, we wrestle with God in our lives. I have seen it many times in the lives of
others and I certainly can imagine my own faith journey in these terms. Our God is a God who wrestles.
Jacob leaves that night with a limp,
but it is not a sign of weakness or defeat, it is a sign of blessing. We too have our battle scars; literal fleshly
marks of struggle and strife, as well as permanent places of pain in our
hearts. But like Jacob, we continue on
into the dawn, knowing that these are signs of our strength and our willingness
to keep going forward. Like Jacob’s
limp, our scars are marks of our continued faith in the God who strives with us,
wrestles with us, and then blesses us in that striving.
As the morning dawns on Jacob, he
crosses the river to reunite with his family.
Together they must travel on to Canaan, and the frightful reunion that
lies ahead. Will Jacob be met with the
violence and wrath when he is finally reunited with his brother Esau? Or does God have others plans for this
limping chosen one, Israel, the father of nations, the one who struggles with
God and man? Come back next week as we
continue to wrestle with Jacob. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment