8/03/2008                                                              Genesis 32:22-31

“From Jacobs to Israels”

Rev. Jonathan Rumburg

            Our text for today is a climatic point in the long story of Jacob, and therefore will require a bit of background information to get from our text God’s message for today.

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            Jacob, son of Isaac, had been away from home for a very long time.  And our text for today brings us to the day just before his homecoming.

            As we meet Jacob, we encounter him preparing to meet his brother, Esau.  It’s been twenty long years since he last saw his brother, and the memory of how he left home haunts Jacob and causes him great distress about this upcoming family reunion. 

            You see, how Jacob left home some twenty years prior was not in the bitter sweet manner like a child leaving for college.  Rather, his departure was because of deceit, trickery, craftiness, and manipulation that he used to rob Esau of his first born birth right and blessing.  Jacob wasn’t sure what kind of homecoming it would be, but because of his actions, he feared the worst.

            Then news came that Esau was coming, and Jacob’s fears were seemingly confirmed.  The messenger said to Jacob, in Genesis 32:6, “Your brother Esau is coming, and four hundred men are with him.”

            Now, I don’t know about your family reunions— but I’m pretty sure you don’t need a small army if the reunion is meant to be a joyous celebration.  And Jacob knew this.  And he was frightened. 

            It was out of this great fear and distress that he began to devise a plan to meet this challenge.  He began to try and figure out just how he could handle what he was afraid and what was ahead of him.  He was trying to figure out how he might control this out of control situation.

            To do this Jacob divides his family and his flocks into two groups.  He does this thinking that if Esau comes and attacks, destroys, and steals one, maybe the other will be safe. 

            After Jacob does all this to meet these challenges, to try and control this out of control situation, he does something else that all of us often do when we’re in times of fearfulness, anxiety, and distress.  Jacob cries out to God and prays. 

            What’s interesting about this prayer of Jacob’s is that it’s a kind of bargaining prayer.

            “O Lord who said to me, ‘I will do you good,’ deliver me, please, from the hand of my brother, for I am afraid he may come and kill us all.  You have said, ‘I will surely do you good, and make your offspring as the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted because of their number.’”

            Jacob is reminding God, as if God needed reminding, that God promised to use him for a good plan, therefore, God had better make sure that he is taken care of, because if God doesn’t, then how can God’s good plan be fulfilled?

            So at this point, just before our text for today, Jacob had done everything he could think of.  He sought safety for his family and he prayed to God.  He tried to control all that he could control.  ---à

It’s after all this that we are told that Jacob, having sent his family on the other side of the Jabbok river, finds himself alone.  That is until a man comes upon him, and wrestles with Jacob until daybreak.

            It was a wrestling match that Jacob had centuries ago, and a wrestling match that many of us have, at some point in our lives, as well.

Move 1:

            The legend of Jacob is a great read.  Yet it is not a glossy picture.  We encounter an unlikely hero, wearing all his faults on his sleeve for the world to see.  

            Jacob is a microcosm of humanity.  He exemplifies what many of us are capable of.  He did many of the things we do.  In a manner of speaking, we are all Jacob’s.  We are faithful and dedicated most of the time, but on occasion, we are crafty and deceitful.

            We can read in Genesis twenty nine about how the dedicated and deeply in love Jacob, who wanted nothing more than to be with Rachel that he worked and toiled fourteen years to earn her bride price from her father Laban. 

            But this is the same man who in Genesis twenty five gets from his father Isaac the blessing of the first born son that was rightly due to his brother Esau.  Yes, it can be argued that Esau sold his first born blessing to Jacob for a bowl of red stew and a piece of bread, but Isaac never would have let such a bill of sale stand, and because Jacob knew this he tricked his father into giving the blessing, just before Isaac died, by disguising himself as Esau.  He pretended to be someone he was not.

            Jacob was a driven and hard working individual, but he was also a cunning cheat.  And since he lived in such a manner, we can identify with him, because, like us, Jacob was flawed.  He was, like us, imperfect.

            But as imperfect as he was, Jacob, like us, knew what he wanted and needed in life.  He knew the deepest longing of his being.

            So what is it that Jacob wanted more than anything else in life?  What is it that we, in the deepest longings of our being, want more than anything else in life?

            Sometimes we don’t know how to put our longings into words.  But the word for Jacob was the word “blessing”.  He wanted to know the smile of God.  He wanted to know the favor of God.  He wanted to know that what he was doing in life was pleasing to the one who made him, that his life had purpose and significance that honored God who called him and made promises to him.  What Jacob wants more than anything is what we want— the blessing of God. 

            But the way in which Jacob sought to get the blessing of God, all through his life, only led to a broken woundedness. 

            He was competitive.  He sought to win at all costs.  He tried to get God’s blessing by cheating and craftiness and it all turned to dust, with him fleeing for his life, and now, twenty years later, with the fearful prospect of war with his brother Esau.

            And then, in the midst of all his fear, anxiety, and an out of control situation, Jacob finds himself in, of all things, a wrestling match.  Could things get anymore out of control for Jacob?

            You wouldn’t think so, but before the night is through, Jacob realizes that he is wrestling God.  And it’s after this wrestling match that Jacob is left with a wound that will be with him for the rest of his life.

            But what should not be lost in this chaotic, out of control situation is that Jacob, though wounded, gets exactly what he wants and needs.  He gets his blessing, and is changed for the better.

Move 2:

            It’s not insignificant that this wrestling match happened at night.

            How many times, after the sun has set, has the night seemed endless as we waited for tomorrow to come.  How many times are we stuck wrestling through the night when the uncertainty of an illness.  How many times are we stuck wrestling through the night with worry about our children, our marriages, the future of our jobs.

            The sun has set, and it’s night for Jacob, who is alone.  And this may be the first time he’s ever been alone and quiet in his busy life of trying to get that which he wanted.  And it’s there in the silence, in that aloneness, in that dim night time that Jacob comes face to face with his fears and face to face with God.  And you can be certain, that as Jacob wrestled, the night seemed endless.

            But as the night finally starts to end, Jacob sees that his is not defeated, which inspires him to say, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”

            That’s when the moment of truth happens.  The one who Jacob is wrestling says, “What is your name?”

            It’s a simple question.  That is unless you’re Jacob who had lied about his name in order to get ahead. 

            Jacob had pretended to be what he was not, but this time when asked what his name was, he answers, “Jacob”, thus admitting that he was the deceiver.

            When he faces the truth about himself, and when he faces God, Jacob comes face to face with his deepest fear—the truth about himself, that he is imperfect, flawed, and a sinner. 

            It’s in this admission, this recognition, that God says, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel.”   “Israel” in Hebrew means, “The one who has striven with God.”  And it’s in this renaming that Jacob is blessed. 

            By God’s blessing, Jacob is shown that despite his weakness, his failures, even his sorry track record, God works with imperfect people.  God blesses them.  God works with the Jacobs of the world, and God makes them Israels. 

Move 3:

            There was one other thing that changed.  The blessing of God was Jacob’s, but Jacob had been wounded in the wrestling.  Jacob now has to move into the next stage of his life as one who has wrestled with God, bearing the mark of that struggle. It would serve as a reminder of his struggle, but even more, it would serve as a reminder of what he once was and now is.  He’s no longer a Jacob.  He is an Israel.

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            Author, philosopher, and minister Henri Nouwen wrote in his book, The Wounded Healer, “In our own woundedness, we can become a source of life for others.”

            Nouwin means that we are called to identify the suffering and woundedness that is in our own hearts and then use that recognition as the starting point for our service to God and to those who we encounter.  We are called to leave ourselves open as fellow human beings with the same wounds and suffering as those who we encounter. 

            In our own woundedness, we become a source of life for others.

            Nouwin speaks of a time when a friend of his was wounded.  His friend had a heart attack and came very close to dying.  During his recovery the two talked about Jacob’s struggle. 

            Nouwin’s friend said, “I know Jacob’s struggle, because in my dim night I found myself wrestling and wondering, ‘Is God’s purpose for me good?  Can I trust God?  Can I count on God for whatever the future holds?’ 

            Yet, I knew deep inside my being, that my wrestling match with God had changed in me.  I realized that all my life I had been wounding other people.  I had been competitive.  I had wanted to succeed.  And in doing so I had wounded my wife, my children, and my colleagues.  In my own night of struggle and woundedness I discovered that I did not want to wound anymore.  I wanted not to be a wound-er, but a wounded healer.”

Conclusion

            That is Jacob’s message to us.  That is God’s encouragement to us.  We are to be wounded healers.  We are to face our fears, wrestle with God, seek out God’s blessing, and be changed from Jacobs to Israels.

            We are to do this because we are those who know what it is to struggle.  Whether it’s physical illness, or relationships that are broken, or tough circumstances in a hurting and suffering world, we know woundedness and we know the healing of being blessed by God. 

            Yes, life’s uncertainties cause us to be fearful.  But it’s there in those dim and endless nights of uncertainty when we realize that God, who knows our name, cares about us and loves us.  And as we wrestle with our doubts and our fears, we discover that God is good, God is for us, God gives us a promise of a good future, a promise of hope.  God gives us a blessing, and turns us from Jacobs, who are imperfect and flawed, into Israels, who are blessed and who can become a source of life for others. 

            Amen.