An Attempt to Make Sense Out of Two Decades

All right, so I have barely been a live for two decades, which likely means I haven't actually thought about this for 20 years.  However, this is something that has bothered me for most of my life and I have never quite figured it out.  Now, with the help of my AMAZING NIV study Bible my church gave me 3 years ago I can make an attempt at making sense out of it.  First of all, let me show you the passage in the Bible.

Genesis 32:22-40 (New International Version)

Jacob Wrestles With God
22 That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two maidservants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. 23 After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions. 24 So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. 25 When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob's hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. 26 Then the man said, "Let me go, for it is daybreak."
But Jacob replied, "I will not let you go unless you bless me."

27 The man asked him, "What is your name?"
"Jacob," he answered.

28 Then the man said, "Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, [a] because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome."

29 Jacob said, "Please tell me your name."
But he replied, "Why do you ask my name?" Then he blessed him there.

30 So Jacob called the place Peniel, [b] saying, "It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared."

31 The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel, [c] and he was limping because of his hip. 32 Therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the tendon attached to the socket of the hip, because the socket of Jacob's hip was touched near the tendon.

 I now ask, has anyone else noticed anything weird about this passage?  For some examples of “what in the world moments”: vs 24- WHAT? Try taking this verse out of context, knowing its God's word and your brain will explode. Let me get this straight. Jacob, decides to send everything and everyone across a river. Then, while Jacob is alone. Some man jumps him and starts fighting with him . . . until daybreak. This means that these two guys just randomly start fighting – for HOURS! The man, implied to be God, Jesus, or perhaps Angel (there is more debate to this than you might think) then decides that he can't over power Jacob (but the man is GOD??? WHAT?) and uses a “magic touch” to dislocate Jacob's hip. Since when is God weaker than humans and loses wrestling matches? Afterwards, the man asks to be let go because daybreak is approaching. Wait, so these guys randomly fight all night and now this guy wants to leave? But no... Jacob, who apparently figured out somehow that this man has spiritual power, demands a blessing. Wow, clearly Jacob was either very adamant or very stupid. I mean, the man already nearly ripped Jacob's leg off with a touch. Then, the man changes his name claiming that he “struggled with God and with men [Jesus?] and have overcome.” Jacob then claims to have seen God and lived. In the end, we see Jacob limping away permanently maimed. Ok... there is actually one last verse... and I am saying this with all respect and authority to God and his purpose... but vs. 32 is absolutely ridiculous. This claim is never mentioned in the Bible again, and we never see the Israelites doing this or anything ever again. One word to describe this entire passage would have to be sketchy. I cannot think of any other way to describe how I have felt about this passage my whole life; sketchy, confusing, and even weird. I am generally left with a bizarre “Why?”



Well, now that that is out of the way. I will try to explain what I have learned about this passage and its parts over the past 2 weeks. The past 7 weeks I have been attending a new young adult group at my church. We started with a book that we finished two weeks ago. This is where the passage about Jacob was rekindled in my life for the first time. The book talks about the wilderness and a silent God (something that I still have yet to put a blog about among other things that I think are cool). In the book, it actually uses Jacobs account found in Hosea.

Hosea 12:4-5 (New International Version)


4 He struggled with the angel and overcame him;
he wept and begged for his favor.
He found him at Bethel
and talked with him there-

5 the LORD God Almighty,
the LORD is his name of renown!

Just briefly mentioned in Hosea.  Basically, the book uses the example of Jacob wrestling with God alone as a way to express that we need to see our experiences in the wilderness as opportunities to wrestle with God. But as far as the Bible tells us Jacob didn't even know that he was wrestling God. I think this was a weaker argument in the book only because the Jacob wrestling passage is so strange and hard to follow.

Anyway, last week Wednesday was not the last time Jacob made a stand – in my mind . . . okOk, so apparently this passage is no going away from me anytime soon, even after 20-ish years. (By the way, the research my leader did was a little different than what I was looking for, he was very interested in 'who' exactly it was that Jacob was wrestling was and found information for a number of potential candidates for 'who'. This was interested and got us thinking but didn't really provide any more answers to my dilemma, though we were able to talk about the passage in general as well.)

Moving on to my personal point of view/findings. First of all Hosea said it was an Angel, but the NIV added the title of “Jacob Wrestles With God.” Something to note is that in the original Hebrew the word angel in Hosea often meant God or could be used to talk about God. My personal observance leads me to think that Jacob wrestled with Jesus. Jesus would be both 100% man and 100% God. This works with where Jacob got his name, Israel – because he struggled with God and with men and have overcome. Jesus, being 100% man may also have the limitations of man. This would allow Jacob to theoretically be able to win a wrestling match with him – or at least keep him at bay. The man, if Jesus, was then able to simply touch Jacob and inflict a wound that should have ended the fight. At this point I guess Jacob figured out that he wasn't dealing with an ordinary man. What man can cause such a wound, and then wish to be released because of daybreak? Jacob, after having being maimed for life and now risking death, holds on. Not only does Jacob hold on, but he demands to be blessed before letting go. Jacob was passionate. He knew what he wanted and he knew what God could do, he was going to do anything and give everything in order to be blessed by God. Jacob is then blessed and given a new name, Israel, on the spot (it's interesting to note that the name Jacob meant the ambitious deceiver). According to my study Bible, “He was persistent. God encourages persistence in all areas of our lives, including the spiritual. Where in your spiritual life do you need more persistence? Strong character develops as you struggle through tough conditions.” This is certainly one lesson that can be taken from this passage. My study Bible says about Hosea: “He constantly searched for God. Jacob wrestled with the angel in order to be blessed, but his descendants thought their blessings came from their own successes. Jacob purged his house of idols, but his descendants couldn't quit their idol worship.” I found this to be particularly interesting. This gives a purpose to the entire passage actually. This passage now shows where, why, and how Jacob was blessed. First Abraham was promised to be a father of many nations, and his grandson Jacob furthers the blessing here. The 12 tribes of Israel come from Jacob, and they were great and blessed indeed! This passage shows that Jacob was blessed by God for generations to come, however, the people forgot this and became proud of themselves for their well being and were punished frequently.

All this still does not give me any closure. I was once told that while studying the Bible you should ask yourself both what it meant to the people in the Bible, and what it means to me. Right now, I have answered what it means to the people in the Bible to some extent. But I am still left with questions and confusion. Why is this passage in the Bible? Am I supposed to wrestle with God? Is it all right to be persistent with God? Isn't this nagging? Surely God doesn't want us to be stubborn and fight with him until we get what we want. So what? What am I to take from this?

After some thought and prayer this is what I came up with. Yes, God wants us to be persistent. But he does not what us to be close-minded or nagging. We are even allowed to BEG for what we want; Jesus did to the point of sweating blood. God wants us to hold on and hold out. In the passage Jacob is physically wrestling with God to acquire a blessing, but there is some belief that he may have been emotionally wrestling. We wrestle with God issues in our mind all the time. Wrestling with issues does not mean that they are wrong and should be ignored. Neither should we accept defeat when it comes to wrestling with God. How often is God known to come right out and say things after the first prayer? Not very often. I think that this passage can also show us exactly how close God is to us when we are “wrestling.” God never leaves us or forsakes us, not even when we are wrestling with him. In fact, he is closer to us than ever while wrestling. Anyone who has ever seen two people wrestling knows that there is incredible amounts of contact going on . . . even to the point of being awkward. What encouragement this should be! While we are wrestling with God he is close. He is listening and he is possibly wrestling back putting up a “fight.” In the end, at God's time (daybreak, after 40 days in the wilderness, after 40 years in the desert) he will give us what we want or need. Sometimes we need to wrestle our way to what we want so that we can appreciate it and know that it was from God and not our own strength.

On a more personal note, I have sometimes felt like I was wrestling with God through temptation. I bet some of you have been in similar situations where you KNEW that something was wrong yet you really, really wanted to do it anyway. For me, it was like I could almost feel myself physically wrestling with God. I could almost feel Him holding me back while I was saying “No, God. I know this is wrong but I want it so badly.” In this case God did not give up. I have even given into God out of anger. This may sound weird, but I have even gotten to the point before where I was like “FINE GOD! I WON'T DO IT. JUST FOR YOU. REMEMBER THIS GOD, I DID THIS FOR YOU AGAINST MY WILL.” This is kind of like a Jonah, I did the right thing but with the wrong heart. Other times temptation strikes and I will wrestle with God for help. In this case, we are more on the same team wrestling against something bad. It reminds me of the Lifehouse video that most of us have seen where the girl is like reaching for Jesus but is being held back. Either way, I think that the word wrestling certainly is a good word to use in these situations.

My challenge for you now is to think of time where you have wrestled with God. What was the outcome? Are you wrestling now? What outcome do YOU want? Would that outcome be God honoring? Do you realize that wrestling with God is not necessarily a bad thing?

Thanks for reading. Its been a while since I posted so I guess this long one is forgivable.

Your friend, brother, and companion in Christ,

-Zachary Haas