Sunday Musings: Wrestling

Genesis 32:24

Then Jacob was left alone, and a Man wrestled with him until the breaking of day. Now, when He saw that He did not prevail against him, He touched the socket of his hip, and the socket of Jacob's hip was out of joint as He wrestled with him. And He said, "Let Me go, for the day breaks."

But he (Jacob) said, I will not let You go unless You bless me!"

So He said to him, "What is your name?" He said, "Jacob." And He said, "Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have struggled with God and with men, and have prevailed."

Then Jacob asked, saying, "Tell me your name, I pray." And He said, "Why is it that you ask about My name?" And He blessed him there.

So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: "For I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved."

Just as he crossed over Penuel, the sun rose on him, and he limped on his hip. Therefore, to this day, the children of Israel don't eat the muscle that shrank, which is on the hip socket, because He touched the socket of Jacob's hip in the muscle that shrank.

I'm going to be honest here.

This passage is very confusing to me. It raises more questions than it answers.

Jacob would tell people that he wrestled with God.

Does that even make sense? At least physically?

Let's say God the Father came down to earth and had a physical wrestling bout with a man. Wouldn't God be able to vanquish him right away? Why would God ask Jacob to let Him go as if Jacob had all the power? Does this mean that God the Father has a physical body? Or that He shows up in the bodies of ordinary men? Or that it was Jesus, but Jesus hadn't been born yet and wouldn't be born for a few thousand years. The all-powerful God wrestled with a man and asked him to let him go? Of course, if it were God, it would be just like a dad wrestling with a child and pretending to let the kid win.

Or perhaps this was an angel of God that Jacob wrestled with. Someone sent by God, and representing God. But again, wouldn't an angel be more powerful than a man?

Or maybe, other than the dislocation of the hip, this was not a physical wrestling, but a spiritual one. Jacob had a lot of spiritual wrestling to do. He was a con man. He took advantage of people. He didn't own up to his mistakes (was he really fooled into thinking Leah was Rebekah when he went to her on his wedding night?). He willingly slept with his wives' handmaids. He didn't have fatherly control of his family. We find out later that his sons are pretty dastardly, and we know his wives are at each other's throats. And yet he received great promises and blessings from God. He was also afraid of facing Esau after the shameful way he had treated him.

Have you ever had to wrestle with God? Something bad happens, and you wonder where God is in that. Or you are expected to do something you don't want to do. (Jacob really didn't want to face Esau.) You want to follow God, but the path is too hard and too dark, and you have no idea what you're doing, and besides - it really, really, hurts! Maybe it involves leaving behind the people you love, moving away from family, giving up a career, foreclosing on a house, leaving your church, losing a job, losing all your money, a divorce, a death, an illness or injury, betrayal, facing a serious mistake, being silenced, or being cut off.

Jacob wrestled with God. God left him a reminder of that incident by injuring his hip. Jacob walked with a limp for the rest of his life. Jacob could never forget that night. The evidence was with him all the time.

God would rather we wrestle with Him than ignore Him. He would rather we question Him, argue with Him, plead our case, ask for understanding - than abandon Him.

Perhaps when God (or God's representative) said to Jacob, "Let me go, for the day breaks," it was not God saying Jacob was too strong for Him. It was God saying to Jacob, "It is enough. Trust me. I will take care of you. A new day is here." The injury He gave Jacob was not a punishment. It was to humble him and remind him. We often have to deal with physical problems that we do not deserve. It's not a punishment. It's to keep us humble and to remember God.

If you need to wrestle with God, then do so. If it's time to let go and trust Him, do so.

It's a new day.