An Honest And Painful Wrestling Match
Sermon
LIVING ON ONE DAY'S RATIONS
First Lesson Sermons For Sundays After Pentecost
Jacob's wrestling match at Peniel is much different from the wrestling matches we see on television today. We become extremely skeptical whenever the wrestling match shows one wrestler flat on the mat allowing his opponent to jump and kick and put on a violent display of growling and groaning, a big theatrical temper tantrum which definitely delights the howling crowd watching this "one ring circus." But rather than yell out, "Fake! Fake!" it's much easier simply to grab the remote control and switch quickly to another channel. Unlike the television wrestling match which we suspect is just a crowd pleaser, one big fake from beginning to end, Jacob's wrestling match is an honest, earnest, all-out struggle with no observers at the scene whatsoever. Neither can we find any comparison between Jacob's wrestling match and the authorized sport of wrestling at the high school and college level where the objective is not to inflict pain but to use a variety of authorized holds and maneuvers to pin the opponent's shoulders to the mat. Unlike high school or college wrestling matches, the main objective of Jacob's wrestling match was to teach Jacob a painful lesson in a big free-for-all scuffle with no official referee to take charge and declare a winner and no restricted repertoire of authorized holds and maneuvers.
The story of Jacob's wrestling match is a story of how Jacob became a better man through his strenuous all-night struggle which taught Jacob a painful lesson of what God expected of him. Jacob is on his way home after many years working for his uncle Laban, and Jacob has gotten word that his brother Esau is coming to meet him with a host of 400 men. This really terrifies Jacob, because it sounds as if Esau is out to get revenge for all the dirty deals that Jacob got away with in depriving Esau of both his birthright and also the deathbed blessing of Isaac, their father. After sending his wives, children, servants, and a whopping present of goats, sheep, camels, cattle, and donkeys on ahead of him to Esau, Jacob is all alone beside the Jabbok River. There we are told that a man wrestles with Jacob until daybreak, and Jacob ends up with a lame hip and new name, Israel. His descendants will be identified hereafter as the people of Israel.
Most of us at a certain age have enough problems with stiff limbs and creaky joints that we would not want to take part in an actual wrestling match, either the big grunt and groan circus we see on television or the authorized gymnasium sport in which two highly skilled athletes become human pretzels in every shape conceivable. But most of us know what it is to have a sleepless night in which we constantly toss and turn and struggle to come to terms with ourselves and with God. We know the kind of wrestling match that is truly a painful experience, for example, when someone is up all night struggling with matters such as what to do with a marriage that has gone from bad to worse, what to say to someone whose feelings have been hurt by cruel and unkind words, how to handle the frightening news of a cancer diagnosis, how to find the courage to speak up and take a stand, regardless of what your friends and neighbors will think. And like Jacob, we too can experience a terrible struggle when God insists upon picking a fight with us and insists that we take part in a wrestling match, because God wants to bring out the best in us, even when we are content in life to take the easy way out and avoid the challenges God would set before us. Whoever put together the story of Jacob's wrestling match in the Old Testament wanted to make it clear that it was to Jacob's credit that he did not back away from wrestling with the mysterious man who actually happened to be God present and active in the form of a human being. Jacob was determined to hang in there and gain some kind of benefit or blessing from his struggle. He says to his adversary, "I will not let you go, unless you bless me" (Genesis 33:26b).
Like Jacob, we are called by God to hang in there when God picks a fight with us and asks us to wrestle with the truth of ourselves and the truth of God. Whenever God wants to wrestle with us, God's challenge is very much the same regardless of whether we are wrestling with the terrible truth of a bad marriage, the terrible truth of unkind and cruel words that have hurt someone, the terrible truth of a cancer diagnosis, the terrible truth of an unpopular, costly stand to take for the sake of justice and fair play, or the terrible truth of how we would do almost anything to avoid God's challenge to bring out the best of us. Regardless of what it is we are up against, we are called by God and we are challenged by God to hang in there and hang in there and hang in there, wrestling with all our heart and mind and strength, until finally God blesses us with whatever it takes for us to walk forward as the kind of person God wants us to be in the direction God wants us to go.
Jacob's new name, Israel, is given to him to indicate that he has been in a wrestling match in which he has prevailed and has come out of this experience a better man. The name Israel has a double meaning. The name can mean "God strives" and it also can mean "the one who strives with God." Jacob strives with God and Jacob prevails -- not in the sense of defeating God, but in the sense that Jacob's life is preserved and not destroyed as a result of this wrestling match that left Jacob with considerable pain. As Jacob describes his painful, soul-searching experience, "... I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is preserved" (Genesis 32:30). This is not the proud boast of Jacob, the cocky, clever wheeler-dealer. This is the humble confession of a man who through severe growing pains has begun to change from Jacob the rascal to Jacob the righteous one. In many ways Jacob is still the same old Jacob who still has a lot to learn the hard way. But the wrestling match helps to make him a much better man in that it strengthens his confidence and his determination to deal steadfastly with life's most stubborn problems. It increases his desire to maintain a closer relationship with God, regardless of how difficult or complex Jacob's life may be. Jacob's wrestling match with God left him feeling deeply grateful that he had actually survived after confronting God in the dark hours of the night face to face. In the book of Exodus God says to Moses, "You cannot see my face; for no one shall see me and live" (Exodus 33:20). It was absolutely essential that the face-to-face wrestling match between God and Jacob took place at night, that God stopped the wrestling match before daybreak so that Jacob could not see God's face fully and clearly in the light of day. Jacob realized that he was lucky to be alive and did not end up a dead man from his face-to-face encounter with God, thanks to the nighttime hours' protective cover of darkness. And Jacob, therefore, named the place of the wrestling match, Peniel, which means in Hebrew "the face of God."
Now this painful experience is by no means the last of all the many experiences of spiritual growth that Jacob still must go through in order to become a much better man than the clever rascal he has always been. But when Jacob finally meets Esau, it becomes obvious that Jacob has begun to be a better man as a result of his painful wrestling match. Esau welcomes Jacob with forgiveness and with open arms and does not want Jacob to give him the huge present of so many valuable animals -- goats, sheep, camels, cattle, and donkeys. But Jacob begs him to "... accept my present from my hand; for truly to see your face is like seeing the face of God -- since you have received me with such favor. Please accept my gift, because God has dealt graciously with me ..." (Genesis 33:10-11). Yes, Jacob can be reconciled to his brother, Esau, and make peace with him, because God has dealt graciously with Jacob, allowing Jacob to see God's face and survive. God allowed Jacob to see his brother's face radiantly reflecting the God-like spirit of peace and forgiveness instead of the bitter spirit of anger and retaliation.
Have you ever wished you could change your name? There are people who for one reason or another obviously did not want to be called by the original name their parents gave them. John Edgar Hoover became better known as J. Edgar Hoover, founder of the FBI, and Norma Jean Baker became famous as Marilyn Monroe. Today there are a lot of hyphenated last names that are created, for example, when Mr. Johnson and Miss Bancroft want to get married and be known thereafter as Mr. and Mrs. Bancroft-Johnson in order to do justice to what they feel is their true identity as a married couple. It is never a small matter when someone changes his or her name for one reason or another. And it was no small matter for Jacob to be given the new name, Israel. The name Jacob was derived from the event of the birth of the twins, Jacob and Esau. Esau was born first, but Jacob was born with his hand grasping the heel of Esau, an early sign that he would take advantage of his older brother and try to take Esau's place as the head of the family. The name Jacob comes from Hebrew that can mean "to seize by the heel" or "he overreaches." Jacob certainly lived up to his name in his clever efforts to seize the heel of every opportunity and overreach well beyond the limits of what he was properly entitled to as the youngest of the twins.
We know how a name or a nickname definitely can make a difference in how someone develops a sense of self-identity. If someone is known as Stonewall Jackson or Calamity Jane, we would expect this person to be a tough customer to deal with. As the first black woman in the nineteenth century traveling far and wide to speak out publicly against the evils of slavery, Isabella Baumfree took on the name Sojourner Truth. Since a sojourner is someone who stays in a place only temporarily before moving on, this courageous woman, Sojourner Truth, lived up to her name as a person continually on the move to declare the truth about the cause to abolish slavery. It was no small matter for Jacob to receive a new name, Israel. Instead of picturing himself as Jacob, one who cleverly seizes the heel of every opportunity, Jacob now had to begin living up to the picture of himself as Israel, one who had wrestled with God and who had prevailed and survived as a better man for the experience. The name Israel, with its double meaning "God strives" or "one who strives with God," had double implications for the people of Israel. On one hand, the name Israel was a reminder that God would continue to strive with his chosen people and hang in there and wrestle with them in order to bring out the best in them. On the other hand, the name Israel served to indicate that God's chosen people would continue to strive with God and to hang in there and to wrestle with the stubborn issues and demands of what God expected with them. The relationship between God and Israel would continue to be a strenuous wrestling match with many growing pains and nothing easy or simple.
Looking at the history of Jacob and his descendants, each of us needs to ask ourselves, "Will I be remembered in years to come by my family and others who look up to me as someone who hangs in there, someone who does not back off from wrestling with the truth of myself, the truth of my life, the truth of my God?" Yes, there are times when our prayer life may be as peaceful as the lift we get when we lie flat on our backs on a beautiful day at the beach with our eyes closed, listening to the cries of the sea gulls and the thunderous pounding of the waves. But it would be a mistake to think that prayer time spent with God is intended always to be like an awe-inspiring, breath-taking mountaintop view of the magnificent, snow-covered Swiss Alps, an exhilarating John Denver outdoor sensation of "Rocky Mountain High."1 Any misery-afflicted drug addict or alcoholic can tell you there is no foolproof or guaranteed way to get high or stay high. Sometimes our prayer life is an honest and painful wrestling match that knocks us down from life's lofty heights, slams us down to the ground, and brings us face to face with the God who loves us enough to pick a fight with us. Even for Jesus, prayer at times became a painful wrestling match, such as the showdown between Jesus and the temptations of Satan out in the hot, dry wilderness or the agonizing struggle Jesus went through in the Garden of Gethsemane. When prayer for us becomes a really intense struggle, the payoff for hanging in there is a precious heritage of spiritual growing pains and spiritual endurance, a spiritual heritage that is truly worth passing along to all those who might want to look up to us as a worthy example and role model to follow whenever the narrow, winding road of faith is mighty tough to travel. What better heritage can you or I pass on to our children, our family, and others who look up to us than to be remembered in years to come as someone who hangs in there and hangs in there and hangs in there, someone who does not back off from wrestling with "the truth of myself, the truth of my life, the truth of my God"?
____________
1. John Denver and Michael Taylor, "Rocky Mountain High," Cherry Lane Music Publishing Company, Inc., 1972.
The story of Jacob's wrestling match is a story of how Jacob became a better man through his strenuous all-night struggle which taught Jacob a painful lesson of what God expected of him. Jacob is on his way home after many years working for his uncle Laban, and Jacob has gotten word that his brother Esau is coming to meet him with a host of 400 men. This really terrifies Jacob, because it sounds as if Esau is out to get revenge for all the dirty deals that Jacob got away with in depriving Esau of both his birthright and also the deathbed blessing of Isaac, their father. After sending his wives, children, servants, and a whopping present of goats, sheep, camels, cattle, and donkeys on ahead of him to Esau, Jacob is all alone beside the Jabbok River. There we are told that a man wrestles with Jacob until daybreak, and Jacob ends up with a lame hip and new name, Israel. His descendants will be identified hereafter as the people of Israel.
Most of us at a certain age have enough problems with stiff limbs and creaky joints that we would not want to take part in an actual wrestling match, either the big grunt and groan circus we see on television or the authorized gymnasium sport in which two highly skilled athletes become human pretzels in every shape conceivable. But most of us know what it is to have a sleepless night in which we constantly toss and turn and struggle to come to terms with ourselves and with God. We know the kind of wrestling match that is truly a painful experience, for example, when someone is up all night struggling with matters such as what to do with a marriage that has gone from bad to worse, what to say to someone whose feelings have been hurt by cruel and unkind words, how to handle the frightening news of a cancer diagnosis, how to find the courage to speak up and take a stand, regardless of what your friends and neighbors will think. And like Jacob, we too can experience a terrible struggle when God insists upon picking a fight with us and insists that we take part in a wrestling match, because God wants to bring out the best in us, even when we are content in life to take the easy way out and avoid the challenges God would set before us. Whoever put together the story of Jacob's wrestling match in the Old Testament wanted to make it clear that it was to Jacob's credit that he did not back away from wrestling with the mysterious man who actually happened to be God present and active in the form of a human being. Jacob was determined to hang in there and gain some kind of benefit or blessing from his struggle. He says to his adversary, "I will not let you go, unless you bless me" (Genesis 33:26b).
Like Jacob, we are called by God to hang in there when God picks a fight with us and asks us to wrestle with the truth of ourselves and the truth of God. Whenever God wants to wrestle with us, God's challenge is very much the same regardless of whether we are wrestling with the terrible truth of a bad marriage, the terrible truth of unkind and cruel words that have hurt someone, the terrible truth of a cancer diagnosis, the terrible truth of an unpopular, costly stand to take for the sake of justice and fair play, or the terrible truth of how we would do almost anything to avoid God's challenge to bring out the best of us. Regardless of what it is we are up against, we are called by God and we are challenged by God to hang in there and hang in there and hang in there, wrestling with all our heart and mind and strength, until finally God blesses us with whatever it takes for us to walk forward as the kind of person God wants us to be in the direction God wants us to go.
Jacob's new name, Israel, is given to him to indicate that he has been in a wrestling match in which he has prevailed and has come out of this experience a better man. The name Israel has a double meaning. The name can mean "God strives" and it also can mean "the one who strives with God." Jacob strives with God and Jacob prevails -- not in the sense of defeating God, but in the sense that Jacob's life is preserved and not destroyed as a result of this wrestling match that left Jacob with considerable pain. As Jacob describes his painful, soul-searching experience, "... I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is preserved" (Genesis 32:30). This is not the proud boast of Jacob, the cocky, clever wheeler-dealer. This is the humble confession of a man who through severe growing pains has begun to change from Jacob the rascal to Jacob the righteous one. In many ways Jacob is still the same old Jacob who still has a lot to learn the hard way. But the wrestling match helps to make him a much better man in that it strengthens his confidence and his determination to deal steadfastly with life's most stubborn problems. It increases his desire to maintain a closer relationship with God, regardless of how difficult or complex Jacob's life may be. Jacob's wrestling match with God left him feeling deeply grateful that he had actually survived after confronting God in the dark hours of the night face to face. In the book of Exodus God says to Moses, "You cannot see my face; for no one shall see me and live" (Exodus 33:20). It was absolutely essential that the face-to-face wrestling match between God and Jacob took place at night, that God stopped the wrestling match before daybreak so that Jacob could not see God's face fully and clearly in the light of day. Jacob realized that he was lucky to be alive and did not end up a dead man from his face-to-face encounter with God, thanks to the nighttime hours' protective cover of darkness. And Jacob, therefore, named the place of the wrestling match, Peniel, which means in Hebrew "the face of God."
Now this painful experience is by no means the last of all the many experiences of spiritual growth that Jacob still must go through in order to become a much better man than the clever rascal he has always been. But when Jacob finally meets Esau, it becomes obvious that Jacob has begun to be a better man as a result of his painful wrestling match. Esau welcomes Jacob with forgiveness and with open arms and does not want Jacob to give him the huge present of so many valuable animals -- goats, sheep, camels, cattle, and donkeys. But Jacob begs him to "... accept my present from my hand; for truly to see your face is like seeing the face of God -- since you have received me with such favor. Please accept my gift, because God has dealt graciously with me ..." (Genesis 33:10-11). Yes, Jacob can be reconciled to his brother, Esau, and make peace with him, because God has dealt graciously with Jacob, allowing Jacob to see God's face and survive. God allowed Jacob to see his brother's face radiantly reflecting the God-like spirit of peace and forgiveness instead of the bitter spirit of anger and retaliation.
Have you ever wished you could change your name? There are people who for one reason or another obviously did not want to be called by the original name their parents gave them. John Edgar Hoover became better known as J. Edgar Hoover, founder of the FBI, and Norma Jean Baker became famous as Marilyn Monroe. Today there are a lot of hyphenated last names that are created, for example, when Mr. Johnson and Miss Bancroft want to get married and be known thereafter as Mr. and Mrs. Bancroft-Johnson in order to do justice to what they feel is their true identity as a married couple. It is never a small matter when someone changes his or her name for one reason or another. And it was no small matter for Jacob to be given the new name, Israel. The name Jacob was derived from the event of the birth of the twins, Jacob and Esau. Esau was born first, but Jacob was born with his hand grasping the heel of Esau, an early sign that he would take advantage of his older brother and try to take Esau's place as the head of the family. The name Jacob comes from Hebrew that can mean "to seize by the heel" or "he overreaches." Jacob certainly lived up to his name in his clever efforts to seize the heel of every opportunity and overreach well beyond the limits of what he was properly entitled to as the youngest of the twins.
We know how a name or a nickname definitely can make a difference in how someone develops a sense of self-identity. If someone is known as Stonewall Jackson or Calamity Jane, we would expect this person to be a tough customer to deal with. As the first black woman in the nineteenth century traveling far and wide to speak out publicly against the evils of slavery, Isabella Baumfree took on the name Sojourner Truth. Since a sojourner is someone who stays in a place only temporarily before moving on, this courageous woman, Sojourner Truth, lived up to her name as a person continually on the move to declare the truth about the cause to abolish slavery. It was no small matter for Jacob to receive a new name, Israel. Instead of picturing himself as Jacob, one who cleverly seizes the heel of every opportunity, Jacob now had to begin living up to the picture of himself as Israel, one who had wrestled with God and who had prevailed and survived as a better man for the experience. The name Israel, with its double meaning "God strives" or "one who strives with God," had double implications for the people of Israel. On one hand, the name Israel was a reminder that God would continue to strive with his chosen people and hang in there and wrestle with them in order to bring out the best in them. On the other hand, the name Israel served to indicate that God's chosen people would continue to strive with God and to hang in there and to wrestle with the stubborn issues and demands of what God expected with them. The relationship between God and Israel would continue to be a strenuous wrestling match with many growing pains and nothing easy or simple.
Looking at the history of Jacob and his descendants, each of us needs to ask ourselves, "Will I be remembered in years to come by my family and others who look up to me as someone who hangs in there, someone who does not back off from wrestling with the truth of myself, the truth of my life, the truth of my God?" Yes, there are times when our prayer life may be as peaceful as the lift we get when we lie flat on our backs on a beautiful day at the beach with our eyes closed, listening to the cries of the sea gulls and the thunderous pounding of the waves. But it would be a mistake to think that prayer time spent with God is intended always to be like an awe-inspiring, breath-taking mountaintop view of the magnificent, snow-covered Swiss Alps, an exhilarating John Denver outdoor sensation of "Rocky Mountain High."1 Any misery-afflicted drug addict or alcoholic can tell you there is no foolproof or guaranteed way to get high or stay high. Sometimes our prayer life is an honest and painful wrestling match that knocks us down from life's lofty heights, slams us down to the ground, and brings us face to face with the God who loves us enough to pick a fight with us. Even for Jesus, prayer at times became a painful wrestling match, such as the showdown between Jesus and the temptations of Satan out in the hot, dry wilderness or the agonizing struggle Jesus went through in the Garden of Gethsemane. When prayer for us becomes a really intense struggle, the payoff for hanging in there is a precious heritage of spiritual growing pains and spiritual endurance, a spiritual heritage that is truly worth passing along to all those who might want to look up to us as a worthy example and role model to follow whenever the narrow, winding road of faith is mighty tough to travel. What better heritage can you or I pass on to our children, our family, and others who look up to us than to be remembered in years to come as someone who hangs in there and hangs in there and hangs in there, someone who does not back off from wrestling with "the truth of myself, the truth of my life, the truth of my God"?
____________
1. John Denver and Michael Taylor, "Rocky Mountain High," Cherry Lane Music Publishing Company, Inc., 1972.
