Gen 32:22
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, because you have struggled
with God and with human beings 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,
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, and he was limping because of his hip.
Ok, this week we're continuing on
with the story of Jacob, and once again we find the lectionary has us in one of
the most well-known and fascinating episodes of
his life. As usual, however, the reading itself constitutes only a
narrow slice of the larger story. In the previous chapter Jacob's living situation
with Laban finally becomes untenable, and God instructs him to go back home,
saying that He will be with Jacob (31:3). This is not a 'clean break,' as the
rest of the chapter details Laban's pursuit of Jacob--almost in a
Pharaoh's-army-chasing-Israel preview. Jacob and Laban finally come to terms
for an amicable separation ( 31:55).
But, now Jacob has bigger problems.
Going "back home" means confronting his past--and in particular confronting
the fact that, last he knew, he had a brother who wanted to kill him. Chapter
32 begins with this major dilemma for Jacob: how to return, but not be killed
in the process. This dilemma is maximized for Jacob when he learns from
messengers that Esau is coming to "meet him" with 400 men (vs 6). In
desperation Jacob divides his enormous resources into two groups, prays
fervently reminding God that it was **GOD who instructed him to come back in
the first place; and as a last ditch effort he sends vast amounts of his wealth
ahead to give to Esau--a move that some commentators interpret as Jacob
"giving back" the stolen birthright. That brings us to the beginning
of this week’s text: 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…
Many commentators breeze over
vs 24a So Jacob was left alone, but
at least some try to wrestle with it. WHY was Jacob left alone? Why did he not
cross the river with his family and possessions? My own favorite answer to that
question is… because Jacob wasn’t entirely sure that *he would be accompanying
them. I’m not saying that Jacob was considering ‘bolting’ and never coming
back—doing the disappearing dad trick that we so often see in our culture—but
we do know that he was beside himself with fear… and Esau was on the other side
of that river, coming fast with 400 men. It seems that in this story all of
Jacob’s chickens were coming home to roost. If ever there was a good time to
turn tail and run—at least temporarily, now seems like a pretty good time. With
that explanation as a possibility, it certainly gives one pause to consider the
reason the “man” showed up to wrestle
with Jacob all night. Perhaps it was to keep him there!
Regardless,
we find out after the fact that this was more than merely a ‘man.’ Hosea 12
refers to the incident and at first calls the ‘man’ an angel, but then ratchets
it up and refers to him as God. And Jacob himself interprets the event as a
struggle with God (v30). [note: the Old Testament frequently entails accounts
of theophanies—God appearing in the
form of a human or angel]
In the
end, the passage is rich for mining lessons for the life of faith. Jacob has
been a ‘grabber’ all his life. He was born grabbing the heal of his brother; he
grabbed his brother’s birthright; he grabbed his brother’s blessing; And now in
what surely amounts to the darkest moment of his life to date—perhaps at the
moment of considering chucking it all, he grabs and won’t let go of God. We’ve
seen over and over again that Jacob doesn’t have a lot of commendable character
traits. He lacks the unwavering faith and hospitality of Abraham; he lacks the
steadfastness of Isaac; but no one could ever accuse Jacob of not being
tenacious. When he wanted something, he stopped at nothing to get it. In an
interesting turn-about, at his darkest hour, and with what must have been a
level of desperation, Jacob tenaciously held on to God.
There is
certainly a lesson there for the Christian. The old radio preacher used to
occasionally scoff at the bumper stickers that boldly proclaimed “Jesus is all
I need.” I always liked his response: you
never know that Jesus is all you need until Jesus is all you have! The old
hymn says it well: I will ever cling to
Jesus, gracious teacher all Divine; In his works of love and mercy, in
compassion shown for me.
Cheers,
T.M.
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