July 14, 2013 Genesis 32:3-32 WRESTLING WITH GOD

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1 July 14, 2013 Genesis 32:3-32 We just read a tiny portion of the story of Jacob. I have learned that Old Testament characters can be a bit vague to a few of you, so here is a reminder: Jacob is the third of the great fathers, or patriarchs, of Israel. Most of us know the familiar phrase: The God of our fathers the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It is the twelve sons of Jacob who are the origin of the twelve tribes of Israel. Our reading this morning says, You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel. (verse 28) So the twelve tribes of Israel means the twelve tribes that have descended from the twelve sons of Jacob, who has been renamed Israel. In short, we often think of Israel as a nation or a land, but Israel is a man and a people the descendants of Jacob (and thus of Abraham and Isaac). And the familiar phrase the children of Israel is not about a nationality; it means the children of Jacob the children of The Promise. As always, God is personal and relational. For me at least, that puts whole new dimensions on a phrase like and ransom captive Israel. (Where have I heard that recently?) Something about what the longed-for Messiah was going to do. It is the middle of July, but we just sang a great Advent hymn: O come, O come, Emmanuel, and ransom captive Israel, that mourns in lonely exile here, until the Son of God appear. Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel. (Pilgrim Hymnal, 110) It is interesting that every Advent, Christians sing this great prayer/hymn for Jesus to come and save all the Jews Jacob s exiled children. I am very glad we sing it, but would it matter if we knew what we were singing about? Would it ruin it for us if we knew what we were pleading for, and how very deep it goes into prophecy and into what our traditions have always believed to be an essential part of the will and purpose of God? Every Christian I have ever known personally knows what it is like to be lost. Do we not deeply hope and pray that we and everyone we know will be found? Okay, so Israel is a person, Israelites are descendants of this person, and, spiritually speaking, the nation of Israel is the gathering of all these descendants and as Paul keeps reminding us, descendants of Abraham can be either by physical connection or by faith. Jesus, we believe, came to save, redeem, and reconcile Israel to God and put it back on course as God s Chosen People destined to be a Light to the Nations. But it did not work. Or at least it has not worked so far. So we all had to go to BRUCE VAN BLAIR 2013 All rights reserved. PAGE 1 OF 10

2 Plan B, and there are endless variations of Plan B. For instance, the early church and the early pilgrims who founded the thirteen colonies of New England believed themselves to be The New Israel. Crass, nervy, and tainted with delusions of grandeur as that may be, it was the vision and the hope that gave life meaning for the Christians before us. It is even found once again in the name of our tiny little upstart church. Nothing is easy or automatic here. The resistance to God is very great in some quarters, and there do not seem to be any other quarters on this earth. Meanwhile, Jesus also came to invite all of us into an alternate Promise: a Kingdom not of this earth the church, the ecclesia. We do not have to coerce everybody into it or kill anybody over it; we just switch allegiance ourselves and start living for the New Kingdom. The world does not like it or believe it, but neither can the world stop it not if we believe it and refuse to be bribed or threatened or frightened back out of it. So now even us Gentiles us non-jews can belong to God and be part of God s Kingdom. No one who comes into the ecclesia is a second-class citizen. This open-ended acceptance was and is the very reason for a lot of the world s resistance to God s Plan. But in reality, the acceptance of the ecclesia is an acceptance of those who have accepted and have been accepted by Jesus. Many still miss or ignore this part of the reality. There is no love without a source. Those who think they are themselves great enough to create or produce love are greatly enraged at this. Thus they prove what they so eagerly deny: that love must have a source beyond human theory or willpower. But we don t have to stay and argue; we can get back to Jacob. Jacob, you remember, was born second to his twin brother Esau. He came out of the womb with his hand hanging on to his brother s heel. The name Jacob means heel grabber or supplanter. Esau was a man s man, and Jacob was a mama s boy. His mother, Rebekah, constantly schemed and connived to get Jacob into the position of leader of the clan, even though that spot rightly belonged to the eldest son in this case, Esau. In the process, Rebekah brought Jacob up to be a liar, a cheat, a man without honor or morals, a man with no regard for his brother or anything else except his own self-interest. Or maybe he was just trying to please his mommy. No doubt Rebekah had rationalized her aims and methods in her own eyes, but she was a rotten wife and a terrible mother unless, of course, we think it is a fine thing for a wife to deceive her husband and side with one son against the other, tearing the family asunder in the BRUCE VAN BLAIR 2013 All rights reserved. PAGE 2 OF 10

3 process. There was little chance for Jacob to ever amount to anything unless these apron strings could be cut. But it was no good blaming Jacob, or even Rebekah. It was Isaac who allowed the pattern to develop and continue. Rebekah was too beautiful for him, as her name implies. (Rebekah = rope; noose; a maiden who ensnares by her beauty.) Isaac did seem pretty colorless between the other two great Patriarchs. He seemed content to let Rebekah carry the weight of responsibility for the destiny of the clan. Can we imagine such a thing? Have we ever known any woman who complained of having to take up the slack for a weak husband? So Esau sold his birthright, and that was bad enough. Then a scheme was hatched which brought Isaac s blessing onto Jacob instead of Esau. I presume you know the story. If not, you can review it in Genesis 27. The result is that Jacob became the inheritor and head of the clan instead of Esau. As such, Jacob also became the carrier of God s Covenant with Abraham. Realizing that, we start to wonder if maybe Rebekah was following guidance we do not see, guidance far greater than her own personal ambitions or desires. In any case, Esau was enraged that Jacob stole his father s blessing. We do not understand the power, the importance, the living essence of the father s blessing. Once given, it cannot be repealed. It now rested on Jacob like some aura we do not fathom. Esau would never get it back. For Esau this was the last straw. Though we may not understand, we can tell what was at stake because Jacob ran for his life and not just around the corner. He ran about five hundred miles to the north, clear into the hinterland of what we call Turkey. Jacob ran to Haran, where some of Abraham s relatives had settled on the way out of Ur a few generations earlier. There, Jacob went to work for Laban, his uncle his mother s brother. Laban was the son of Nahor, Abraham s brother. It s nice to have relatives to run to when things get tight, but bloodlines do not make people perfect. In far-off Haran, Jacob would get years of experience dealing with a scheming, lying, deceitful uncle. Laban would take advantage of him over and over. Jacob would learn what it felt like to be on the other end of the stick. Two things happened to Jacob as a result. First, he became immensely shrewd. He worked for Laban but every deal they made was laced with deceit. Jacob learned that every time Laban walked by, Jacob had better start looking for what was missing. And second, somehow in the turmoil and the tension, Jacob repented of his former life and BRUCE VAN BLAIR 2013 All rights reserved. PAGE 3 OF 10

4 character. Harsh experience can take us in numerous directions, but from the time Jacob ran for his life, we see that he was becoming more and more religious. More and more, Jacob felt the destiny that went with his stolen blessing. He could not carry it and stay the man he was. Jacob did not like the person he had been, any more than he liked the man his uncle was now. Jacob had spent twenty years playing gotcha games with Laban. He was totally sick of it. Even though he won most of the time, he was still sick of it. On the other hand, Esau hated him, and there was no way to go back home without facing Esau. Until one day God started troubling his dreams, telling Jacob to return to the land of his birth. Dreaming can be deadly. Jacob lived a long and dramatic life, but we are looking at the greatest turning point in his career. Jacob had grown shrewd, as we said. He had also become a hard worker, well-organized, responsible, and exceedingly effective. After twenty years of living in Haran, he had become enormously wealthy. He had made his Uncle Laban wealthy also. For that very reason, Laban was determined that Jacob must never leave. But God s call had been clear enough and strong enough that Jacob was ready to risk anything to obey it. Shaking loose from Laban is another story all of its own. Sometimes shaking loose from certain relatives is essential to our spiritual journey, so I wish I had time to tell it. But I don t. Anyway, Jacob takes his wives, his eleven sons, his vast flocks and herds, and his whole contingent of male and female servants and he sets off on the five-hundred-mile trek back home. They cannot move quickly with flocks and herds. They must find water along the way. They must be prepared for weather, for brigands, for every surprise and danger that such a journey can present. Clearly they have much that is worth stealing. On the other hand, they are a significant force in their own right. There is probably no clan or band between Haran and Bethel that would dare attack them in the open. Eventually they come to the ford of the Jabbok. That s about twenty miles north of the Dead Sea and about ten miles east of the Jordan River. It will be the great turning point in Jacob s life. In the next day or so they will enter the heartland of Canaan. They are back home, but they are also back to where Esau lives. As usual, turning points don t just happen. A lot leads up to them and a lot comes after them. Jacob never gets perfect, but he has become a man of deep and sincere prayer. It is his prayers that are sending him BRUCE VAN BLAIR 2013 All rights reserved. PAGE 4 OF 10

5 back home back into terrible danger. His prayers are also demanding that he not go back the same man he was when he ran away. That is, Jacob had been in the wrong; he was the deceiver. The prayers insist that he make amends to his brother. God cannot go on with the Promise and purpose unless Jacob has become a man of honor and obedience. Jacob is the head of the clan and the heir of the Promise of Abraham. He has the birthright and the blessing of his father. The destiny of his people is in his hands. But there is this unfinished business with his brother. And playing at reconciliation with Esau is a very dangerous business. It always feels that way, doesn t it? A person from whom we are estranged seems powerful, and we often forget that they may also have some good intentions or some good motives. We can only imagine that they will be mean, cruel, vindictive, and mocking and that they will destroy us if possible. In any case, Jacob faces this confrontation with Esau with great trepidation. He cannot duck the confrontation and still obey the prayers that have sent him home. Of course, he could stay in Haran, run from his destiny, and never have to face Esau. But if he did that, the meaning and purpose of his life would be over he would be just putting in time. God would have to find someone else to take up the Covenant. It is a Garden of Gethsemane moment. Jacob has thought about it a lot. Prayers have not made him any less shrewd or effective. He sends out messengers and learns that Esau is already on the way to meet him... with four hundred men. That is a huge army, by the standards of the time. We often struggle with the numbers of the Old Testament; they often seem more symbolic than mathematical. In any case, Jacob has already decided that he must try for Esau s forgiveness that he must try to make amends. He will not pretend that he has been right or fair. Nobody can undo what has been done. But Jacob can see to it that his brother is wealthy and prosperous. So Jacob deploys his people, sending little pockets of his servants ahead, each with gifts in the form of flocks and herds. Esau will come upon five such groups before reaching Jacob. Each is instructed to say when asked, These belong to your servant Jacob, and he sends them as a present to my Lord Esau, and he is behind us. When the entire company is deployed, Jacob lastly puts his wives and children across the gorge, between himself and Esau, and he spends the night alone. What is at stake now? You know how it is: Sometimes the night before a momentous meeting is a bigger meeting than the real BRUCE VAN BLAIR 2013 All rights reserved. PAGE 5 OF 10

6 meeting. We keep going over everything in our head, and the thoughts and fears keep spinning. And sometimes we end up in a greater confrontation with ourselves on the inside than the confrontation we will have with others on the outside. The truth is, if you are sure which world is more real the one on the inside or the one on the outside then you have not yet had such an experience. In any case, Jacob has two meetings: one this night with an unnamed assailant, and one in the morning with his brother Esau. Clearly the meeting that night changes his life and identity forever. The meeting with his brother in the morning is an extension of it, but it is only the mop-up operation, an anticlimax. What is the issue? Fear is nearly always the issue. Jacob probably wants to flee, turn from his destiny, never give Esau the chance to kill him. Of course! Running away from God s instructions is our most frequent human theme. Fear is usually the culprit, in one guise or another. And you can get all you need from the story seeing it this way. It is the usual explanation, and the most logical reading. But you are my fellow pilgrims, so I will tell you what I really think: Fear is still the issue but I suspect that Jacob has an even bigger problem. I believe that, at this point, Jacob is far wealthier and more powerful than Esau. He does not have to come back into Canaan with hat in hand. I believe that if Jacob wished to, instead of presenting himself and his company in amelioration and humility, he could deploy his forces in strength and come marching back in a force that Esau could not defeat. The men with Esau are probably not clan or family like the company traveling with Jacob; they would not fight to the death like Jacob s people would. And Jacob is following God s guidance, so whose side would God be on? Jacob does not have to play it weak. Returning in strength would, in fact, seem a lot safer. In any case, if Jacob has no choice, the story makes no sense. Even so, Jacob cannot have it both ways. Neither can we. He must deploy his forces as a man of peace, or he must deploy them as a man of war. He has chosen the way of peace. He has scattered and divided his forces on purpose; he has spread them out in groups sent ahead of him, carrying gifts to Esau gifts to the man who wants to kill him. But Jacob has decided to trust God s promise to protect him, and he has become convinced that he must undo some of the wrong he has done his brother. So, trusting God to protect him, Jacob has decided to try for reconciliation with Esau. But what if he is wrong? Having scattered his men before him in peaceful groups, having come with gifts and in peace what if Esau comes raging through, killing everything and BRUCE VAN BLAIR 2013 All rights reserved. PAGE 6 OF 10

7 everyone that Jacob loves? How will Jacob live with that?! If indeed he himself survives. Fear is the issue either way. Wanting to run from God s instructions is the issue either way. But it is even harder if we have more options. It is hardest of all if we do not have to come weak and vulnerable. What if God is asking for a higher WAY something that does not match our own best logic and survival instincts. And so, Jacob wrestles all night with the angel of God: thrashing and turning; trying grip after grip; sometimes throwing the other, sometimes being thrown... hour after hour. Dare I trust you? I can still run the Jabbok and marshal my forces before Esau arrives in the morning. Let me do this my own way! Your way is too risky. It is not just my life. There are many other lives at stake here, some of them very precious to me. Two of them I love more than my own life and a third, for Rachel is pregnant. Of course, God loves them too. All of them. One of them is God s best hope for saving the Covenant People through the next generation (Joseph). But are we going to start anew come into the Promised Land by killing our brother? Must we always reduce everything to Cain and Abel? So Jacob wrestles, and God s angel wrestles too. This is no mock battle. This is for real. Who wins such wrestling matches? Many of us, we suspect, simply run from them. Many people are never willing to wrestle with God. But even for the most faithful, it is always a partial victory and a partial defeat. Jacob will not break off, and his assailant is amazed at his stubborn persistence. Jacob wins a blessing: he is given a new name and a new identity. But he fails to learn his assailant s name. (That will be reserved for Moses.) And Jacob will limp for the rest of his life. I have friends who think there are easy answers. I even have friends who think they know the answers. But I think we all need to know Jacob s story, and know that we need to wrestle more with God. By the way, Jacob is not a happy name: trickster, heel-grabber, overreacher, supplanter. Israel means God rules, God protects, God preserves. Indeed Jacob has a new name and a new destiny, and he himself has been changed to go with it. Do any of us ever come into our higher identity without a price? Do we wrestle with God and refuse to quit or walk away, no matter how tired or hurt we are? Lots of people BRUCE VAN BLAIR 2013 All rights reserved. PAGE 7 OF 10

8 talk about turning it over or thy will be done in a manner that dishonors our tradition. They are not talking about wrestling with God in a way that reshapes their entire lives. They are only weary and want to quit, escape the turmoil, get out of the fray. If our peace does not come from the wrestling match, it is a cop-out. It does not mean we are faithful; it only means we do not want to be bothered with God s call on our lives. James and John asked Jesus if they could sit at His right and left hands in the Kingdom. Jesus asked them in reply: Can you drink the cup which I drink? (Mark 10:38) Isn t there some way we can be faithful followers without drinking the cup? It was an incredible limp that Jesus got from the night He wrestled with God in the Garden of Gethsemane. But in Jesus case, Esau killed Him. Our Lord came in peace and love, and we killed Him. We cannot stand that He has the birthright and the Father s blessing. We think it is ours by rights that we are somehow entitled to be the children of God, to be children of light. Some people can never admit or remember that they are Esau. And so they can never remember the real story either. They talk about Christianity a lot but keep forgetting, and so over and over they leave out the Cross. By the way, like Jacob, Jesus came in peace but He did not have to. That was His choice! (Matthew 26:53; John 18:36) He had legions to call on if He had decided to. Meanwhile, Esau is having quite a morning of his own. Maybe he had already forgiven Jacob. Twenty years is a long time to hold a grudge. On the other hand, some of us have managed it. And why bring all those men just to say Howdy? Esau encounters huge groups of people moving along with flocks and herds the main body of Jacob s holdings. But the groups are separated by some distance and are obviously peaceful, and they inform him that Jacob is coming along behind. It cannot escape Esau that this could have been a formidable force, had Jacob chosen to make it one. Such things did not go unnoticed in 1900 B.C. Esau keeps coming upon groups of herdsmen with special animals: one with goats, one with sheep, one with camels, and so on. When asked, they show great deference, and they inform him that these animals are a gift for my lord Esau. Pretty soon Esau finds himself humming a little tune: It s beginning to look a lot like Christmas... And indeed, that morning has made him a very wealthy man five hundred and fifty animals is a huge fortune. BRUCE VAN BLAIR 2013 All rights reserved. PAGE 8 OF 10

9 Finally, in the distance, he sees Jacob, with his wives and children. Then Jacob comes toward him, limping. Jacob has no weapons and none of his entourage is around him. Jacob bows in supplication, expressing sorrow and shame for the way he has wronged his brother. But there is no trace of fear left in him. He is Israel! He has the blessing. God s protection is stronger than any bodyguard. I greatly doubt that he personally cares any longer if he does die that day. He has a destiny to fulfill, and that is what his life is about from now on. Esau, of course, is dumbfounded by his brother s attitude and generosity. None of the sarcasm or superior airs he had learned to hate remained around his brother. Esau ran to meet him and embraced him; he threw his arms round him and kissed him, and they wept. (Genesis 33:4) It is one of the great moments in the Bible. A different ending for the Cain and Abel story. Thus are the brothers reconciled. They do not join their clans together; they both need too much grazing land. But they are never in conflict with each other again. And we will see them together later, when they come to honor and bury their father. The Bible is, among other things, the record of men and women who have been given new identity and new purpose as a direct result of their confrontations with the Living God. All of the heroes of Scripture and of church history from that day to this bear witness to this same principle: Prayer is costly! You cannot go into the presence of God and come out without a scratch. Those who do are only play-acting; they are pretending that they are meeting and listening to God. Paul was blinded for three days. Zechariah was struck dumb for nine months. Hannah had to give up her son the day he was weaned. Isaiah s lips were cleansed and consecrated with a burning coal. Jeremiah lost his fiancée and his kinsmen and became an alien in his own land for his entire life. We get sentimental over the still, small voice, but what it told Elijah was to knock off the self-pity, stop bellyaching, and get himself back to the land where Ahab was trying to kill him. Which of the disciples followed Jesus without turning away from all the other ways they might have spent their lives? What was the cost of Stephen s prayer life? God always gives far better than he takes away. That comes clear in time. But what chance have we to participate in the deeds God is doing or in the Kingdom God is bringing if we do not take it to heart that the price of the pearl is all that we have that New Life comes at the cost of the old? BRUCE VAN BLAIR 2013 All rights reserved. PAGE 9 OF 10

10 Sometimes we still pray by doing all the talking. We do it on purpose so we will not have to listen, and so God will not have a chance to upset our own plans and purposes. If that s the deal if that s what we really want God will simply leave us alone. But maybe someone here really longs for God and does not want prayer to be vague or empty. There is a WAY of prayer that puts your whole life and being on the line with God. But we are willful, rebellious, and, because of our fear, pretty determined to stay in control. Somewhere in every authentic relationship with God, there is a wrestling match. And endless little ones after the big one. Perhaps Jesus WAY seems too high and too costly for openers. But we can begin by praying like Jacob did: Put it all out there. Put it on the line. Then don t pretend that anything and everything is easy or okay with us. Be willing to go into the wrestling match, and do not let go until you have your blessing: your new name and your true purpose. Of course, you will also be limping for the rest of your life. BRUCE VAN BLAIR 2013 All rights reserved. PAGE 10 OF 10