The same night he got up and took his two wives, his two maids and his eleven children and crossed the ford of Jabbok. He took them and sent them across the stream, and likewise everything he had. Jacob was left alone; and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he struck him on the hip socket; and Jacob's hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. Then he said: "Let me go, for the day is breaking." But Jacob said: "I will not let you go unless you bless me." So he said to him, "What is your name?" And he said, "Jacob." Then the man said, "you shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with humans and have prevailed." Then Jacob asked him, "Please tell me your name." But he said, "Why is it that you ask my name?" And there he blessed him. So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, "For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is preserved." The sun rose up upon him as he passed Peniel, limping because of his hip. Therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the thigh muscle that is on the hip socket, because he struck Jacob on the hip socket at the thigh muscle.
Genesis 32:22-32
If there is a climax in the story of Jacob - I wonder if this would be it? Could it be that the events of this long night at Peniel, all alone with Uncle Laban behind him and his brother Esau in front of him would become a touchstone for the rest of his life? The way the his father and grandfather would never forget that three day journey up Mt. Moriah only to be dramatically rescued by God - by the ram in the thicket. This mysterious, awe/fear-inspiring God who comes down to people - it his he who Jacob has been waiting for, it is he who Jacob would face down on this on the way night.
To understand the gravity of this encounter it would be great if we could give the backstory to the children this morning - perhaps in a verbal re-telling. Some of the children might remember that Jacob stole the birthright and the coveted blessing from his older brother Esau. It is a story that defies a morality gospel - Jacob's shrewdness is rewarded - not unlike the dishonest manager we met a few weeks ago. As Frederick Beuchner puts it "he is strong on guts and weak on conscience." Jacob is a striver, he is the person who will win - he knows it and so does most everyone else. But this doesn't make life is easy for the man - most things involve a struggle with himself, with others and ultimately with God. Upon receiving the blessing Jacob lives in fear of Esau who is plotting his death. So at his mother's behest, Jacob leaves the land of his family to go and find a wife in Paddan Aram, the land of his mother's family. On the first night of his journey, all alone Jacob is not haunted by his conscience and the awful thing he has done to his brother, instead he lays his weary head on a rock and has a dream filled with beauty and wonder. In his dream the angels of heaven are ascending and descending a ladder set on earth and stretching to heaven and God himself stands beside Jacob and says: "I am the LORD, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring, and your offspring will be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and all the families of the earth shall be blessed in you and your offspring. Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land, for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you." (Gen.28:13-16)
Jacob is received by his mother's brother Laban, a sordid character with few scruples and two daughters. The younger and fairer, Rachel, captures Jacob's heart, he sets his sights on her: he will marry Rachel. Laban demands seven years of work from Jacob in exchange for his younger daughter - only for Jacob to discover, in the night, he has been given Leah. Seven more years of work for Laban and Jacob finally he weds the one whom he loves. Life for Jacob and Leah and Rachel is complicated at best - Leah is unloved, clearly the second sister and yet she brings forth an abundance, sons one after the next. Rachel is adored and yet, barren and grief stricken, until finally she brings forth Joseph. In his time with Laban Jacob begins to prosper and his wealth becomes a threat to Laban's sons. Jacob is on the run again, this time away from Laban, back to the land of his father where he must confront his brother Esau. It has been twenty years since Jacob traded a bowl of stew to get his brother's birthright; twenty years since he put goat skins on his forearms to trick his father into blessing him; twenty years since he has seen his twin brother. Jacob knows the contempt Esau holds for him, he sends messengers and gifts to appease him. But it still remains to be seen how the next day will unfold.
And in the night with the past twenty years bearing down on Jacob and the bold faced fear of what the day will bring, Jacob meets God. This isn't an encounter behind a veil of smoke or a burning bush - this is an all out, winner takes all, wrestling match. Jacob has it all on the line. What has this all been for? All of those years of hard work, exiled with an man who lied to and cheated him; and yet gave him refuge and the women he loves from whose wombs have come all those children sleeping just across the river. Tonight Jacob is a man without a home, who has lost much of his wealth, with a family just as complicated and bitter and weighed down by grief as the one he came from. The more you think about it - the more you grasp what is at stake for Jacob in this wrestling match. He still wants that blessing - he wants to lay hold of it. And with his hands on this stranger he lets it all out - the grief, the anger, the confusion, the desire. The strength of the attacker is fierce but Jacob is tenacious, his will is strong. It looks like Jacob might prevail until the attacker merely touches the socket of Jacob's hip and puts it out of joint - surely it is over for Jacob. Day is breaking and yet "Jacob will not release his grip, only now it is a grip not of violence but of need, like the grip of a drowning man. The darkness has faded just enough so that for the first time he can dimly see his opponents face. And what he sees is more terrible than the face of death - the face of love. It is vast and strong, half ruined with suffering and fierce with joy, the face a man flees down all the darkness of his days until at last he cries out, "I will not let you go unless you bless me!" Not a blessing he can have by the strength of his cunning or by force of his will, but a blessing he can have only as a gift."
Jacob has been a good name for he who supplants, from the time he was in the womb until this terrible night breaks when God gives him the name Israel, "for you have striven with God and with humans and have prevailed."
A new name, an indication that everything has changed - instead of wrestling with God, he is clinging to him. But this battle was costly, though his life is preserved he will always walk with a limp, a reminder of this treacherous and glorious night.
This is a story that is rich for the imagination - who is this God who attacks Jacob in the night and wrestles with him, who strikes his hip and blesses him - who allows man to get so near to him and preserves his life? It is a story in which we can find ourselves as we struggle with who God is and who we are, with our own strivings and our suffering. A story where we can meet a God who we can wrestle with, who we can cling to. A God who is indeed holding us and who gives us a new identity as his children.
May God inspire you with holy imagination as you bring this story to the children this week.
*** The quotes are taken from one of my favourite sermons by Frederick Buechner, The Magnificent Defeat.
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