Dear Friends,
We hope this week's devotional will encourage you in your spiritual walk.
We give thanks to Michael Lund for writing this devotional. You are welcome to share this and include it in your church newsletters if you wish; we just ask that you please give credit to NTC and the author. Thank you!
GENESIS 32:22-31 (NRSVUE)
22 The same night he got up and took his two wives, his two maids, and his eleven children and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. 23 He took them and sent them across the stream, and likewise everything that he had. 24 Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. 25 When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he struck him on the hip socket, and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. 26 Then he said, “Let me go, for the day is breaking.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go, unless you bless me.” 27 So he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” 28 Then the man said, “You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with humans and have prevailed.” 29 Then Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” And there he blessed him. 30 So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, yet my life is preserved.” 31 The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip.
DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT
Jacob at Jabbok, the deceiver being deceived. This story is full of word play and irony. The man asking Jacob’s name, and Jacob in turn telling him; Jacob asking the man’s name, but the man not telling him.
In verse 24, we read of an unknown man wrestling Jacob, who had separated himself away from his family, probably expecting a vengeful Esau. As day approaches, Jacob realises it’s not Esau. Was the unknown man God, or was it an angel? Jacob seems to think it’s God, saying “For I have seen God face to face, yet my life is preserved” (v.30). But the other man in this passage doesn’t agree or disagree, and doesn’t reveal his own name, dissimilar to God revealing his name at other points with Abraham (Genesis 17:1) or Moses (Exodus 3:14-15, 6:3). Interestingly in Hosea 12:3-4, the prophet writes of both an angel and God: “In the womb he [Jacob] tried to supplant his brother, and in his manhood he strove with God. 4 He strove with the angel and prevailed; he wept and sought his favor; he met him at Bethel, and there he spoke with him.”
Strangely, this passage reminded me of a verse from a 1980s classic, which I took the liberty in rewriting.
Men at Work: Down Under
Buyin' bread from a man in Brussels
He was six-foot-four and full of muscle
I said, "Do you speak-a my language?"
He just smiled and gave me a Vegemite sandwich
And he said …
Jacob from the Land of Plenty (Promised Land)
Wrestlin’ with a man in Penuel
He was six foot four and full of muscle
I said, “Please, tell me what is your name?”
He just smiled and instead blessings he gave.
And he said …
God takes the initiative in this story, but he also “seems to let Jacob have a say in how this struggle should end. Jacob opts for a blessing as the condition for releasing God from his hold… He is a man who will do anything for a blessing; he will take advantage of any opportunity to gain a blessing” (Varughese and Bohn, NBBC: Genesis 12-50, 249).
PRAYER
Lord Almighty, thank you for dwelling with your people, for drawing near to us, and allowing us to draw near to you. Help us continue to draw closer to you, to seek you, to know you more, to be blessed by our relationship with you. Amen.