Everything depended on the blessing this God/man could give, so Jacob hung on for dear life, even after the man mysteriously touched him and permanently crippled him. Somewhere in this wrestling match, Jacob became aware that he needed God’s blessing more than anything else, more than all his plans, more than all of his efforts. Jacob will not let go until this “man” blesses him. “But you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.” Desiring to spare Jacob’s life, God asks Jacob to let him go. Well, maybe, but what is this business about God asking Jacob to let him go because daylight is approaching? Is God afraid of the light, like a vampire? Or, is God afraid for Jacob, because of the truth revealed later in Exodus 33:20. Perhaps for the purpose of saving his chosen one, God had to enter into human history and human flesh in order to experience weakness, as he did in Christ. And then God confirms it in verse 28.īut why would God in the form of a man attack this child of the covenant? And if this is God, why didn‘t he pin Jacob to the ground in a moment? Why did the fight last all night long? Well, perhaps this God/man laid aside his almighty power for this encounter, even as a later God/man would do (cf. Jacob doesn’t know who it is at first, but as they wrestle on through the night, it begins to dawn on him that this is God. I say that this text is peculiar because it is full of strange and mysterious things, beginning with this “man.” Who is this? Some interpreters suggest that it was Esau, but there is no warrant for that in the text. “So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak.” This is surely one of the most peculiar and important texts in the Bible. But God’s first response is one none of us would hope for God attacks Jacob in the dark of night. Indeed, the success of all Jacob’s careful planning will depend on God’s answer to his prayer. It is not a stretch of the imagination to see our text for today as God’s answer to Jacob’s prayer. It’s a nice prayer, a proper prayer, in which he acknowledges the God of his forebearers, confesses his unworthiness, and begs God to save him from Esau, claiming God’s covenant promises to him. In the middle of all his wheeling and dealing, he prayed (Genesis 32:9-12). Oh, there was one more thing that Jacob did as he prepared to meet Esau, the one thing we don’t see him do very much, if at all. Having carried out his complex plan, Jacob spends the night all alone by the brook Jabbok. Finally, Jacob sends his family and the rest of his possessions over the brook Jabbok to serve as a kind of shield between himself and Esau. Then he sends gifts ahead to Esau, so they arrive before Jacob does, spaced out in a way calculated to win Esau’s favor and maybe even to impress him with Jacob’s wealth and power. Upon hearing that Esau is approaching with 400 men, a terrified Jacob divides his family and animals into two groups in hopes of saving at least half of what he has in the event of an attack from his aggrieved brother. Jacob sends a message to Esau, explaining where he has been and what he has become, and then pleading for mercy. Jacob’s response to the threat of Esau’s rage is typically Jacob-he develops a plan, a cunning way to mollify that anger, thus protecting his family and flocks and, hopefully, preserving his own life. Careful attention to this story will teach us a crucial lesson for these contentious times. Esau is justifiably furious and Jacob is rightly terrified at the potential retribution from the brother he has wronged. When we meet Jacob in our text, he is in a place we understand all too well in this troubled summer of 2020-a place of strife between brothers, caused by the mistreatment of one brother by the other and the long simmering rage of the injured brother who has been cheated out of the life to which he was entitled. But he must still deal with his angry uncle who has pursued him for 7 days and then that angry brother who looms off in the distance with 400 men. The man who had fled alone and emptyhanded from his brother’s understandably murderous anger will now return a wealthy man, married with children. After a total of 20 years working for Laban, Jacob is finally released from virtual bondage, when God tells him to return to his home territory (Genesis 31:3, 13). In the ensuing years, Jacob has continued to work for his uncle, becoming a wealthy man because of God’s blessing on his efforts. When last we saw Jacob, he had finally won his second wife from his duplicitous uncle, Laban.
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