Wrestling with God

Maybe he built a small campfire and ate a simple supper of cheese and bread. Maybe he paced the campsite counting the stars. We don’t know for sure, but we know the night began with haunting emptiness. Jacob had sent his family ahead of him. His possessions were split into two groups, a practical precaution in case his brother started a war. Hopefully one group could escape.

Jacob’s life had been about accumulating. He had coveted Esau’s birthright and the blessing as well, scheming to get both. He had desired Rachel and worked 14 years to her hand. Many years before, on his way to Paddam Aram where he was to meet Rachel and Laban, he had encountered God in a dream.

God made a simple contract with him: I am the Lord your God. Your descendants will be as plentiful as dust. I will not leave you until my promises are complete. (Gen. 28:10-22)

Now, the schemer sat alone. He had prayed: God, please don’t let Esau kill me or my family (in that order). Remember that you promised descendants as plentiful as the sand. Please don’t let them be killed.

After he prayed, Jacob, the man with a thousand schemes, had played his hand and spun his plans. Now he waited alongside a stream, isolated. What could he trust? An old dream about God’s promises? His strategies?

Jacob thought his problem is Esau. His problem was his allegiance. He had met God and basked in God’s provisions. “I had only my staff when I crossed this Jordan, but now I have become two groups.” (Gen 32:10) God kept his part of the bargain.

Many years before, Jacob had promised that, if God brought him back to his father’s house safely, then the Lord would be his God. Now the time of reckoning was at hand. Esau stood in his way, a formidable foe who might be looking for an understandable righting of wrongs.

And so the schemer wrestled with God. He had given the Lord lip service and had basked in the riches of provision. But when the crisis came, Jacob trusted in his own schemes. He did the “first I’ll pray, then I’ll take care of this” approach to his problem.

God was not to be set aside. He came to Jacob on that lonely campsite. They wrestled. They struggled. Jacob demanded blessing. God wanted commitment. He continued the scuffle until it was Jacob who refused to let go. Jacob was so changed by the encounter that he was given a new name. No longer was he “deceiver” but Israel, “he struggles with God.”

The schemes were over in that incredible reversal. Jacob had a new name and a new identity. He had met God in a powerful, painful battle and he had chosen to grab hold of God rather than his own methods.

His life had been about gathering in God’s promises. But now it was about hanging on to God. Once his hand had been open to receive; now it was clasped tight on the Lord.

“I saw God face to face”

Gen 32:30