The Wrestle

Many years ago, an ancient Israelite prophet was born. Not just any man, but the namesake of the people. He lived his life cunningly and became rich in the things of the world. When standing at the face of destruction or victory, one of those weird biblical stories happens to him. He wrestles with a man, dislocates his hip, and is blessed by God.

When your name is the same as someone else’s, there’s always a sense of comradery. You don’t have to know anything about them. You have a default similarity that unites you. It doesn’t mean that connection will last longer than an introduction, but it’s there. Hence, an interest in the ancient Hebrew prophet Jacob. He was a man like many others who sought after the pleasantries of life.

When Jacob was young, his older twin brother returned from the fields tired and hungry. Jacob, who was in what could be loosely be described as a homebody, sat with food he’d spent some time making. Esau, the elder twin, begged his brother for some food. Jacob, whether in jest or seriousness, told Esau he was welcome to it, at the price of his birthright. Esau, annoyed but too tired to care, agreed and ate selfishly.

This single event defined the beginning of Jacob’s life. Later, he and his mother would trick his father into giving him the birthright blessing in place of Esau. He would flee to his uncle Laban, where he met Rachel, the most beautiful woman he’d ever laid eyes on. He convinced Laban to let him marry Rachel for seven years of labor. This led to one of my favorite descriptions of love for a woman in the bible.

“And Jacob served seven years for Rachel; and they seemed unto him but a few days, for the love he had to her.”

Now Laban was almost as cunning as Jacob. Through some trickery of his own, he caused Jacob to marry his elder daughter instead of Rachel. After realizing the deception, Jacob worked another seven years for Rachel’s hand in marriage. In the next years with Laban, Jacob would use his own cunning to gain many of Laban’s flocks, building up his wealth until eventually being called back to his homeland by God.

He would return a wealthy man of his time in many regards. He had many wives and many children with flocks he’d gained from his labors with Laban. Only one roadblock stood between him and his ultimate glory, Esau. His trip home was filled with distress for this uneasy reunion. What would his brother do with him? It didn’t help hearing the hosts Esau planned to meet him with. Jacob sent gifts ahead, hoping, pleading it would be enough to stave of the anger from all those years before.

The night before their reunion, Jacob encountered a heavenly visitor. This is not the same as the dreams that have guided him in the past. He and this “angel” wrestle for a time, dislocating Jacob’s hip and resulting in one of them getting pinned. It’s not clear who was pinned, but whoever prevailed refused to release their opponent without receiving a blessing first. Here, Jacob was blessed and received a new name.

That day, Jacob reunited with his brother, who welcomed him with open arms. From that day, though he saw sorrow, he was blessed by the Lord.

What can we make of this encounter? To wrestle with God is not an uncommon analogy, but to dislocate your thigh doing so?

Each story in the Bible holds symbolic meaning. Whether the events took place or not, the story tellers integrate eternal truth so they may be ingrained in the hearts of the fervent listener. I believe that night Jacob did wrestle with God, but it was not a physical encounter. For instance, the Hebrew phrase used is “gid hanasheh”, a reference to the sciatic nerve. What can cause issues with that nerve? Kneeling through the night probably isn’t great.

Esau represented all of Jacob’s deception. He’d bought the birthright and stolen it from his blind father. In many regards, Jacob probably wondered if he was truly capable of receiving the blessings of his father. That night was a night he knelt before the Lord in repentance. He was terrified of not being forgiven by his brother, and it was that terror that turned him to God. If God could forgive him, maybe everything else would work out.

Now, the moment of pinning. The scripture says “he touched the hollow of his thigh” This was the moment Jacob felt the weakness in his legs begin. Yet, Jacob refused to stop. The spirit of God even recognizes this weakness and demands to be released from his pleading. The fact this heavenly being doesn’t simply leave gives the hints of a test being presented to Jacob. Now that you are weak, will you let me go?

How often do we fall into that ourselves? We put our best foot forward to God, but when our legs are tired, do we let him leave us behind? For Jacob, the spirit of God would not leave him, and he demanded a blessing. What was that blessing? According to him, he saw the face of God. It was that moment Jacob became a witness of God in a way many could only hope. Up till that moment, God had spoken to him through dreams and the revelation of his parents.

Jacob became forever bound to the Lord. That sacred moment of covenant between God and man came as the messenger placed hand on thigh, a binding covenant only used two other times in the Bible. The moment between Abraham and Isaac when Isaac covenants not to marry a Canaanite daughter, symbolic of man’s covenant to forsake the things of the world. The other is Joseph’s covenant to Israel that he be buried in the land of his father’s, symbolic of our own return to God after death.

Jacob’s own covenant is given through his new name, a symbol of becoming a new person through God. Israel, to strive with God, to persist with God. It’s the covenant Jacob makes to walk with God in this life. It’s the covenant that ties the three together. We avoid the things of the world and walk with God with a promise that when we die, we will return again to the promised land, the land of our Father.