Links for today’s readings:
Read: Genesis 32 Listen: (4:40), Read: Mark 10 Listen: (6:42)
Links for this weekend’s readings:
Read: Genesis 33 Listen: (2:59), Read: Mark 11 Listen: (3:59)
Read: Genesis 34 Listen: (4:18), Read: Mark 12 Listen: (6:10)
Scripture Focus: Genesis 32.9-12, 24-28
9 Then Jacob prayed, “O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, Lord, you who said to me, ‘Go back to your country and your relatives, and I will make you prosper,’ 10 I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness you have shown your servant. I had only my staff when I crossed this Jordan, but now I have become two camps. 11 Save me, I pray, from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid he will come and attack me, and also the mothers with their children. 12 But you have said, ‘I will surely make you prosper and will make your descendants like the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted.’ ”
24 So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. 25 When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. 26 Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.”
But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”
27 The man asked him, “What is your name?”
“Jacob,” he answered.
28 Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.”
“Jacob wrestled the angel and the angel was overcome.” — U2, “Bullet the Blue Sky”
Reflection: Wrestling Prayers
By John Tillman
Canaan was unsafe. So Jacob fled to Paddan Aram. Paddan Aram became unsafe. So Jacob fled to Canaan.
An old preacher joke I remember about Jacob at this point in his life is that he was “stuck between Iraq and a hard place.” However, on a more serious note, many today would identify with Jacob’s situation. He was a man with no country and no safe place to go.
From one perspective, Jacob’s mess was of his own making. He stole an inheritance and lost his home. He produced great wealth but at great cost and harm to others. His schemes enriched his family, yet made enemies that threatened their safety.
From another perspective, Jacob’s gains were part of God’s promises and Jacob’s deceptions part of God’s justice on Esau and Laban.
Esau was an impetuous, foolish man, ruled by his desires and showing no restraint in appetites for food, sex, and violence. Esau’s lusts led him off the path of God’s blessings and away from “the dew of Heaven.” (Genesis 27.38-40) Over centuries, his descendants followed in his footsteps.
Laban, the trickster and manipulator used everyone for financial gain. Everything and everyone was a source of profit or a cause of loss, including his daughters. Laban was victimized by his own venality. Being tricked by Jacob was a taste of Laban’s own medicine.
God helped Jacob outmaneuver Esau to take on Abraham’s blessing and helped him liberate ill-gotten gains from Laban’s wealth. However, God’s use of a deceptive person is not approval of their actions and God has a habit of paying back people who used wicked methods, regardless of whether those methods achieved God’s purposes. Jacob later experienced this. (Genesis 37.32-34)
Jacob alienated everyone, cheated everyone, wrestled with everyone—eventually he wrestled with God. The “man” Jacob wrestled was more than a man—it was God. (Genesis 32.30) The wrestling was more than physical conflict—it was prayer.
The prayer Jacob prayed (v 9-12) and the overnight wrestling match (v 24-31) were two parts of the same desperate, wrestling prayer: “Bless me as you promised! Be true to your promise despite my sin! Have mercy on my messes!”
None of us are innocent and many of our messes are of our own making. Yet, we can still grasp hold of God’s mercy and rely on his promises and character.
Don’t let go. Wrestle in prayer. And when the time comes, wrestle in action.
Divine Hours Prayer: The Call to Prayer
Come, let us sing to the Lord;…for the Lord is a great God and a great King above all gods. — Psalm 95.1, 3
– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime by Phyllis Tickle.
Read more: From Esau to Jacob
God loved us when we were like Esau—sinners, rebels, and persecutors..we can become children of Jacob and brothers and sisters of Christ
Read more: Running to Forgive
May we also be willing to rush that forgiveness to those around us. Let us be faithful. Let us be just. Let us run to forgive.