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Genesis 32:22-31 CEB Jacob got up during the night, took his two wives, his two women servants, and his eleven sons, and crossed the Jabbok River’s shallow water. He took them and everything that belonged to him, and he helped them cross the river. But Jacob stayed apart by himself, and a man wrestled with him until dawn broke. When the man saw that he couldn’t defeat Jacob, he grabbed Jacob’s thigh and tore a muscle in Jacob’s thigh as he wrestled with him. The man said, “Let me go because the dawn is breaking.” But Jacob said, “I won’t let you go until you bless me.” He said to Jacob, “What’s your name?” and he said, “Jacob.” Then he said, “Your name won’t be Jacob any longer, but Israel, because you struggled with God and with men and won.” Jacob also asked and said, “Tell me your name.” But he said, “Why do you ask for my name?” and he blessed Jacob there. Jacob named the place Peniel, “because I’ve seen God face-to-face, and my life has been saved.” The sun rose as Jacob passed Penuel, limping because of his thigh. After six weeks of wrestling with the difficult words of Jesus, where do we find ourselves? Do we finally have all the answers or just more questions? I shared at the beginning of this series, that the name Israel “traditionally means ‘to wrestle with God,’”[1] and here at the end of our series, it can certainly feel like we are still wrestling. It can feel wrong to wrestle with these questions, as though having questions– having struggles– is somehow the sign of a weak faith. And yet, we share in the heritage of Israel, of struggling with God, as even as Christians, we are not immune to this, for our own Lord had questions and struggles with scripture and with God. Instead, I want to turn to a story from our Bible that quite literally has Israel wrestling with God on a riverbank. I want to turn to the story to see how our acknowledgment of the difficulties leads us to the blessings a mature faith brings, the kind that turns us from sheep to disciples, from followers to teachers, from dead to sin to alive in grace.
Many in our Christian faith tradition have looked at the Bible as an answer sheet, but instead, I think it is better to look at our scriptures as a tool that helps us ask the right questions.[2] Even in just these past six weeks, we have been forced to ask questions about economics, family values, our identity, our traditions, the words we use, and even questions about who is in and who is out. As scholar Amy-Jill Levine explains, “A mature faith wrestles with these questions, and it wrestles with the texts that prompt these questions.”[3] Reading and studying our scriptures should prompt questions, and it is much more concerning if they do not. I would almost wonder if you and I are reading the same book if you have no questions. Understanding and interpreting scriptures differs “from reading a letter from a friend, an article in a [...] magazine, a newspaper account [...], or a modern novel or short story.”[4] Our scriptures addressed a different audience than our 21st-century, English-speaking, American one. The cultures, the times, the languages, and the places are all completely removed from our own. We should have questions for these reasons alone! Even Jesus wrestled with scripture and with God! Turn your attention to the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus says repeatedly in Matthew 5, “‘You have heard that it was said’” (Matthew 5:21, 27, 31, 33, 38, and 43 CEB). Jesus will say this before quoting scripture like “‘’Don’t commit murder’’”, but then adds, “‘But I say to you’” (Matthew 5:21-22 CEB). Jesus disagrees with some passages, like the one about divorce, and he expands on others like those about murder or adultery. Jesus wrestles with and interprets scripture. Jesus also wrestles with God, questioning the divine will in the garden before he is arrested, saying, “‘Father, if it’s your will, take this cup of suffering away from me’” (Luke 22:42 CEB). Now, some of you might be thinking, “Well, doesn’t he also say, ‘However, not my will but your will must be done’?” To which, I would respond of course, but Jesus is not really so passive about his fate, after all, why does Luke then tell us that he is in such anguish over this question that he begins to sweat blood (Luke 22:43 CEB)? Jesus wrestles and struggles, so why would we, as his disciples, not do the same? Jesus is not alone in this, the Jewish people had been struggling with God since almost day one. Here in our scripture this morning, we get the most famous of these wrestling matches, where Jacob– father of the twelve tribes and all the Jewish people– comes face to face with God, wrestling with the Almighty on the banks of a river all night long. Here is our metaphor for acknowledging the difficulties, struggling with the difficult words of Jesus and the hard parts of scripture. Jacob has come to face his brother, Esau, the one he cheated, the one he fled from all those years before. He fears his brother, and what he might do. He knows he must return to the land of his father, as God has told him to go, but Esau stands between him and home. Jacob decides to split his household, dividing his camp, before going forward so that if they are attacked, at least some will survive. Finally, he has his wives and children cross the river ahead of him, and he stays behind on the shores of the Jabbok River. There he has an encounter with a man, a man who wrestles with him through the night until dawn is upon them. The man cannot escape Jacob’s grasp, so he strikes his hip, damaging it. Jacob refuses to release the man until he receives of all things, a blessing. The man renames Jacob to Israel and reveals himself to be God in human form. The man blesses Jacob, and Jacob limps across the river to meet his brother Esau. Let’s go back to Jacob on the shores of the river, struggling with what to do. He is Issac's son and Abraham's descendant, someone who has been led by God every step of the way. Now, after God has told him to go, he struggles. He has divided his camp and sent his children and wives ahead, and he worries that he and the whole of his household may be killed. No heavenly messenger appears to criticize his weak faith, instead, a man shows up ready to wrestle. He shows up on the banks of a river called Jabbok, which not only sounds like Jacob, but the name itself means “wrestle,”[5] and so here a man shows up just when “Jacob appears deeply vulnerable and alone, in need of divine care”[6] on the shores of wrestle river to struggle with Jacob. In other words, God doesn’t treat Jacob as weak, “God takes Jacob seriously enough to engage [with him],”[7] but God also takes pains not to fully reveal himself. Why can’t God just show his face to Jacob? Why can’t God just give us the answers in scripture? Why make it so hard? Their wrestling match must be in the dark, and when it gets close to day, God must end it because to see God’s face is to die. God worries about Jacob here, and Jacob in turn seems “willing to risk death for the sake of divine blessing.”[8] When we struggle with questions, it can feel like we will die. After all, sometimes these questions, especially the ones raised in scripture, threaten all that we feel certain about. We would rather not wrestle, we would rather have certainty than struggle with the questions, but again, scripture is not an answer sheet. It does not give us answers! Look at the end of Jacob’s wrestling with God: God asks Jacob for a name, but when Jacob asks for God’s name, he doesn’t get an answer, he gets a question. How like God! At the end of Jonah’s story, the prophet Jonah has endured a lot! He has been tossed off a boat, swallowed by a fish, and forced to witness to Israel’s enemies, and now, he doesn’t even get to see them destroyed as God instead has mercy. When God shows up to answer Jonah, God answers with a question, and that’s where the book ends. Again, in the story of Job, after all his suffering, he insists he will not be moved until God answers him about why he had to suffer when he had done no wrong. Again, when God shows up, he does not answer Job, but instead ends with a question. Except, that’s not all God does, here with Jacob and again with Job, God also blesses them. God shows that the divine does not abandon people who are wrestling, instead, God “initiates and engages in the wrestling,” because “God’s promise [...] involves not a passive presence, but an active, engaged relationship.”[9] Wrestling with God, rather than blindly following, is the sign of a healthy relationship with the divine. God does not punish questioning, nor does God give answers. Instead, God promises to make the journey and struggle with us, even through the dark of night, near the break of day. You will notice that Jacob limps away from the encounter, but this is not a sign of weakness but rather a mark of victory. We are all marked by our struggles. We cannot go back to being the same as before, but notice again that Jacob does not go back but instead moves forward over the river. This river divides him from Esau, but it also marks the boundary line between him and the promised land. He can now face the challenges in life because he has wrestled through difficulties with God. The same can be true for us. How do we do this? Like Jacob, we cannot do it alone. Never study scripture alone. You were never meant to do it alone. Look at scripture, all those times it tells you to read scripture, that “you” is never singular, it is always plural. Find someone to study scripture with, never wrestle alone. That can be a group at church, your spouse, a group of friends, just find someone, anyone! We have also discussed how context and translation make a difference in understanding difficulties in scripture, so be sure to also use a study bible in your study of scripture. I know some religious folks frown on this, but I am not sure why! Get a study bible, and if you cannot find one, ask your pastor, and I will help you find one! These can be invaluable in making context, translations, and difficult passages easier to understand. A mature faith is not you alone trying to figure everything out, it is joining with others to wrestle together, to grow and learn through your faith struggles so that you may face the world with God by your side. Amen. [1] Amy-Jill Levine, The Difficult Words of Jesus: A Beginner’s Guide to His Most Perplexing Teachings (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2021), ix. [2] Ibid.,151. [3] Ibid.,152. [4] John H. Hayes and Carl R. Holladay, Biblical Exegesis: A Beginner’s Handbook, 3rd ed. (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2007),12. [5] Terence E. Fretheim, “Genesis 32:22-32, Jacob Wrestling with God” in The New Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. I, Leander E. Keck, ed. (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1995), 564-570. [6] Ibid.,565. [7] Ibid., 566. [8] Ibid. [9] Ibid., 566-567.
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