Wrestling with God: Meditations on Genesis 32

There are few sections of Scripture so enigmatic as the story of Jacob wrestling with God.  This is fostered, I think, by the vagueness of the language used, and exacerbated by how preposterous the idea sounds right out of the gate.  Here’s the section, from verses 24-30 (KJV):

And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a

man with him until the breaking of the day. And

when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched

the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob’s thigh was

out of joint, as he wrestled with him. And he said,

Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let

thee go, except thou bless me.  And he said unto

him, What [is] thy name? And he said, Jacob.  And

he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel:

for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and

hast prevailed.  And Jacob asked [him,] and said,

Tell [me,] I pray thee, thy name. And he said, Wherefore

[is] it [that] thou dost ask after my name? And he blessed

him there.  And Jacob called the name of the place

Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.

Note that at first, the text relates that a “man” wrestled with Jacob throughout the night, while he was alone.  And as the day began to break, and this “man” did not prevail against Jacob, the “man” touched his thigh and put it out of joint.  Jacob, however, refusing to release the “man” until he would bless him, receives a blessing from this wrestling partner that changed his name to Israel—and noted his place before God and men.  However, when Jacob asked the name of this “man,” he is rebuked, as the visitor leaves him.  Lastly, Jacob names the place where this occurs, according to what just happened to him—that he has seen God face to face, and yet his life is preserved.

This strange event begins to gain focus, in the context of the story.  Jacob has returned after having lived abroad for many years, to meet his brother from whom he has taken the birthright.  Esau was once intent on killing Jacob for having stolen the blessing of the eldest son, and now Jacob is coming home.  Jacob has already sent many gifts in procession to meet his brother, and just in case Esau’s vengeful intentions remained, he separated his camp into two, so that some of them may survive.  It is in this night before he meets his estranged brother, that this great wrestling occurs.  In the midst of Jacob’s terrors of conscience, he finds himself striving with God—but God in the form of a man, which seems a clear indication that the pre-incarnate Jesus is the one whom Jacob sees face to face, and lives.

Given the context, the story begins to seem more relatable to us, even in the modern day.  Who among us has not had a night of terror, in which our conscience, and the fear of just retribution for our wickedness, has left us broken and weak?  Who has never wrestled with their conscience, knowing that they deserved judgment and suffering at the hands of those we have harmed, or those whom we should have helped, but did not?  Such nights leave us wasted and spent, particularly if they come at a time in our lives when the sins of many years are heaped up in a single moment, and we can see our judgment just over the horizon, like Jacob could envision Esau coming at the break of day.

But in reality, with whom are we wresting, when we are confounded in our sins?  There is only one judge of both the living and the dead, and that is Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God, begotten by His Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light..  He tells us that all authority in heaven and earth have been given to Him, and that upon that Last Day, He will beckon some to everlasting life, and others to everlasting damnation.  While it may be tempting for modern man to see Jesus as just a squishy snuggle toy that we whip out to make people feel better about themselves, the reality is that in Jesus Christ the whole of the Law and the entirety of the Gospel are reconciled.  In Jesus alone is the condemnation of our sin, as it was His finger that wrote upon the stone tablets the Ten Commandments given to Moses.  Upon Jesus alone were laid our sins, from the foundation of the world until its final day, so that in Him alone might be found grace, mercy, forgiveness and life.

And so it is, that Jacob becomes a Patriarch to all the household of faith.  Just as Jacob wrestles with Jesus in the terrors of his conscience, in sight of the judgment he knows he deserves, so we wrestle with Jesus in light of the Law that shows us our sins and the just recompense due to all workers of iniquity.  But also like Jacob, we cling to Jesus, knowing that in Him alone is life, forgiveness, mercy, and redemption—in Jesus alone, through the finished work of His Cross, do we receive the blessing of grace by faith, rather than the fires of judgment in unbelief.  And like Jacob, this wrestling comes at a cost, leaving us limping and scared from the severity of our repentance, turning from a life of evil and wickedness, and limping into a new life of holiness, self-denial, and love of God and neighbor.  In Jacob our Patriarch, we see the life of the Christian writ large, before the giving of the Law at Sinai, or the anointing of David as King of Israel, or the prophecies of Ezekiel and Isaiah, or the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ victory over sin, death, hell, and the devil.  In Jacob we see Law and Gospel, faith and repentance, leading to mercy and life in Jesus Christ.  To Him be the glory, now and forever.  Amen.