Ready To Wrestle

In the course of the night, Jacob arose, took his two wives, with the two maidservants and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. After he had taken them across the stream and had brought over all his possessions, Jacob was left there alone.

Then some man wrestled with him until the break of dawn. When the man saw that he could not prevail over him, he struck Jacob’s hip at its socket, so that the hip socket was wrenched as they wrestled. The man then said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go until you bless me.”

The man asked, “What is your name?” He answered, “Jacob.” Then the man said, “You shall no longer be spoken of as Jacob, but as Israel, because you have contended with divine and human beings and have prevailed.”

Jacob then asked him, “Do tell me your name, please.” He answered, “Why should you want to know my name?” With that, he bade him farewell. Jacob named the place Peniel, “Because I have seen God face to face,” he said, “yet my life has been spared.”

At sunrise, as he left Penuel, Jacob limped along because of his hip. That is why, to this day, the children of Israel do not eat the sciatic muscle that is on the hip socket, inasmuch as Jacob’s hip socket was struck at the sciatic muscle. (Genesis 32:23-33)

The man with whom Jacob wrestled was God.  Jacob was renamed Israel meaning “one who contends with God.” Jacob wrestled during the night, but at daybreak, his face-to-face confrontation ended.  And, he survived even after “seeing” God.  

How do we see God?  We cannot; however, we can “feel” God’s presence.  We can wrestle with God, but that presence is not physical; it is spiritual and demanding.  That wrestling can occur day and night, and it is not our hip sockets that get wrenched.  Our hearts and souls tussle with what we know is right and just but just too hard to accept.  We become wrenched.  We also become enlightened, emboldened, and encouraged to be divine-like, that is, creative.

Historian and author Paul Johnson (The Quest for God) has said: “Creativity, I believe, is inherent in all of us. We are the progeny of almighty God. God is defined in many ways: all-powerful, all-wise, and all-seeing; everlasting; the lawgiver; the ultimate source of love, beauty, justice, and happiness. Most of all, he is the creator. He created the universe, and those who inhabit it; and, in creating us, he made us in his own image, so that his personality and capacities, however feebly, are reflected in our minds, bodies, and immortal spirits. So we are, by our nature, creators as well.”

So, let’s get ready to rumble!  Let’s wrestle!

Deacon David Pierce