Wrestling with God (2)

Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. 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. Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.” But Jacob replied, ‘I will not let you go unless you bless me.” Genesis 32:22-32

Epaphras, who is one of you and a servant of Jesus Christ, sends greetings. He is always wrestling in prayer for you… Colossians 4:12

Last time, thinking about the story of Jacob wrestling with the stranger at Peniel, I only had space to reflect on the lead-up to the event and the event itself. But there’s a lot to think about also in what follows. So back to where we left off…

3 The aftermath of the encounter.

Morning dawns. The stranger has gone, and Jacob, no doubt shaken to the core, emerges to resume what we might call his “normal” life. But it will be very different from what it was like twelve hours earlier. Jacob has gained at least three very significant things…

First, a new blessing.

The stranger refuses to tell Jacob his name – it’s as if the mystery of God remains inviolate. But the writer nonetheless tells us: “Then he blessed him there” (verse 29).

If ever a person didn’t deserve God’s blessing, surely it was Jacob. So he stands for us as an example, right near the beginning of the Bible, of God’s grace – which essentially means God treating us exactly as we don’t deserve.

We aren’t told precisely what the blessing consisted of – perhaps it was mainly a  confirmation of the promise Jacob had received during the staircase-to-heaven vision: “I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac… Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go…” (Genesis 28:13-15). That’s quite a blessing!

Perhaps, in particular, Jacob had failed to grasp the significance of those words “All peoples on earth will be blessed through you…”, and God needed to hammer them home again. God blesses his people in order to make them a blessing to others. Is this how we view ourselves when we pray for blessing? – as channels, not simply recipients? There’s a big, big difference.

Second, a new identity.

Along with the blessing comes a new name. His birth name, “Jacob”, probably means “he grasps”, recalling his baby grip on his brother Esau at the moment of birth, and suggesting a cheat or a deceiver. His new name is “Israel” – the man who struggled with God. Struggled, yes; but also “overcame” (verse 28).

This is the kind of person God can take and use. We today, of course, take for granted the fact that Jacob’s new name was to become the name of a whole new nation, a name still in use in 2020. He didn’t know that. But we see God weaving this man into his eternal purposes.

And he wants to do exactly the same thing with us. We need to grasp that when we come to faith in Christ we too receive a new identity. All right, we may continue to bear the name we have always borne; but we are new people, born again by the power of the Holy Spirit and given a whole new destiny by God.

Here’s a question to ask ourselves: Do I live, day by day, true to my new identity in Christ? Or, in truth, am I still the old man, the old woman, living as if I had never met with God and experienced his grace?

Third, a new limp!

In some ways, stating the fact that Jacob’s hip “was wrenched as he wrestled with the man” seems rather odd. So what? Isn’t that the kind of thing that might be expected during a ferocious wrestling-match?

Well, maybe. But the writer seems to attach significance to it, for having mentioned it in verse 25, he then returns to it at the end of the story: “The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel, and he was limping because of his hip” (verse 31). And even more: “To this day the Israelites do not eat the tendon attached to the socket of the hip, because the socket of Jacob’s hip was touched near the tendon” (verse 32).

If nothing else, we are reminded that a close encounter with God, while a wonderful thing, is not likely to be a comfortable thing! I suspect Simon Peter found this to be the case when Jesus called him “Satan”. Saul of Tarsus, too, as he was felled and blinded on the road to Damascus. And didn’t Jesus himself tell his followers to anticipate it? – even to the extent of taking up their cross.

Many fine Christians down the centuries have testified to the pain that often comes along with the blessing. If today you are finding the way painful, perhaps this can serve as an encouragement…

And – who knows? – perhaps one day Jacob/Israel will greet us with a smile: “It was better to hobble to heaven than stroll to hell, wasn’t it?”

Father, thank you that by faith in Jesus I am a new person in him. Give me determination and perseverance, whatever the pain and the cost, to live out my new identity until that day when I see him face to face. Amen.