Genesis 32:22-30
That night
Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two maidservants and his eleven sons
and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. After he had sent them across the stream,
he sent over all his possessions. So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled
with him till daybreak. 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. Then the man said, "Let me go, for it is daybreak." But
Jacob replied, "I will not let you go unless you bless me." The man
asked him, "What is your name?" "Jacob," he answered. Then
the man said, "Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you
have struggled with God and with men and have overcome." Jacob said,
"Please tell me your name." But he replied, "Why do you ask my
name?" Then he blessed him there. So Jacob called the place Peniel,
saying, "It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was
spared."
Years ago I read a book about
family therapy that told the story of a 9 year old boy who had gotten in
trouble at school for starting fires. His strange behavior worried his parents
so they anxiously took him to a counselor. During the first couple of family
sessions the boy was very disruptive, repeatedly getting out of his chair,
poking his siblings and generally making the session miserable. In about the
third session the counselor had finally had enough and spoke sharply to the boy
asking him to behave. At that point the boy reached out and slapped the
counselor’s
glasses right off his face. The counselor, a grown man in his 50’s, leaped out of his chair and
wrestled the boy to the floor. Because he had such a strength and weight
advantage he easily pinned the boy to the floor. Knowing that he had probably
just earned a lawsuit as well as destroyed any chance of helping this family,
he glanced up at the father expecting him to be irate but saw, instead, that
the boy’s father was
crying. Then he looked back at the boy who was now laughing with glee. He
wondered what in world was happening!
Over the next few sessions he
figured out that this 9 year old boy was craving his father’s attention and strength. The
fire-starting was a cry for his father’s intervention and discipline. But because the father
was passive, the boy had come to believe he was physically stronger than his
father because he had never felt his father’s strength. The counselor gave the father the
assignment to get on the floor and wrestle with his son for something like 10
minutes every day, with the stipulation that he should never let his son win
the match.
The boy’s troubling behavior disappeared almost overnight. It
turns out he just needed to know and feel his father’s strength.
The story of Jacob is the story of
a man who wrestles mightily with God and, in so doing, discovers God’s overwhelming strength.
So Jacob was
left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. 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. Then the man said, "Let me go,
for it is daybreak." But Jacob replied, "I will not let you go unless
you bless me." The man asked him, "What is your name?"
"Jacob," he answered. Then the man said, "Your name will no
longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men
and have overcome."
There is just so much to see and
learn in this strange story! One of the things I have come to believe is that
this story is a picture of our experience of prayer. I have sometimes described
prayer as “wrestling with God in the dark until you feel him
wrestle back.”
God wants us to wrestle with us.
He wants us to wrestle with him. He wants us to feel his strength. But know two
things: first, if you wrestle with God, he will always win; second, after he
wins, he will always bless you.
Always.
Are you willing to wrestle with
God?
Lord,
I want to know you; and to know
your strength. Teach me how to wrestle with you in prayer. Teach me to wrestle
with you in prayer until I feel you wrestle back. Teach me to surrender that I
might know your blessing. Amen.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment