Ever thought of Jesus as a wimp? Well, today in Genesis 32 we see Jesus as a wrestler. We’ve seen wrestling on television – Jesus can do something like that too.
The question we’ve explored in all this is, how does God rescue a Jacob? What does He do with someone who is so good at cheating others?
Actually Jacob’s not as smart as he thinks. Time and again his tricks and schemes backfire, in both his family life and working life. (Is that part of the cure?) First he successfully deceives his dad – and so loses the home he loved (25:27). Then, in a faraway country, clever though he thinks he is, he gets seriously mistreated by his employer; he wakes up the morning after his wedding to find he’s got the wrong wife (because, as her dad explains, we take the firstborn’s priority seriously round here – something that may have stirred up guilty memories in Jacob); then he finds one of his wives swapping sex with him for something else she wants, and has to accept being treated like a male prostitute. Eventually, after more clever scheming, he has to leave his home in Haran, just as he did his childhood home, in fear for his life – then finds himself in even greater danger at the other end of the journey.
Part of the cure may be (or was this just inevitable?) the way he eventually ends up facing someone (Laban) who’s as slick a master of the dodgy deal as he is. But the key part of the cure, the saving rescue, comes in Genesis 32.
Jacob’s already scared: he knows that Esau, the brother he cheated, is on his way to meet him, and bringing four hundred men. That doesn’t sound good at all. So Jacob plans, and he prays. And then a man appears and attacks him, forces him to wrestle, won’t let him get away. And this is apparently Jesus, God with his glory sheathed in human form (`I saw God face to face`, says Jacob afterwards; and (Ex 33:20) no one can see the Father and live). So, Jesus the aggressive wrestler – some of us might be significantly blessed by adding that insight to our worship repertoire….
And the night goes on, and no doubt Jacob feels he has other things to think about, but the Man comes back and back, and as Jacob gets thrown and winded and squirms and manipulates and contrives, something slowly dawns on him – this is what he’s been doing all his life. What Jesus is doing is giving Jacob a vivid experience of how he’s been living all these years (see Hosea 12:3). And suddenly the divine Wrestler brings things to a head, touches his thigh, and Jacob is crippled; no resources left, no more struggling and squirming, he can’t do it his way any more; he can only hang on to the God who has done this – who is closer to Jacob, in fact, than He has ever been before. (Practical lesson for us: Is this why some things happen the way they do? Because God can only bring us to be everything He created us to be through experiences of brokenness touching where we feel strongest (and so trusted Him least)? Previous generations of believers talked about this a lot more than we do, that we’re `strongest in the broken places`. It happens; and grasping this story helps us recognize what’s going on when it does.)
One more thing happens. Jacob has realized now who the Wrestler is. And so he wants a blessing. Don’t we all. Oh, says the Wrestler, but first – what is your name (32:27)? And presumably the years rolled back, and Jacob’s mind was forced back to when he wanted a blessing before: when he tricked his aged father into blessing him by claiming his name was Esau; so very clever, and so many years of sadness had followed. And he bites his lip and says, `Jacob`. (Which means `deceiver`, contriver, schemer, 27:36.) I’m Jacob, I know it, yes, I’m the contriver, the schemer, the can-do man, and it all feels so empty, I lay it before you, I’m sorry…
He’s humble now; and helpless now; and in a place now where at last he can be blessed and his real destiny can start. Jacob’s Rescue turns the crucial corner: `Your name will no longer be Deceiver`, says the Wrestler; from now on, you’ll be blessed, and you’ll be called – Israel…. His prayer’s answered, the blessing’s released…
Oh yes, Jacob will limp from now on. But it’s to the person God in His love has weakened, so that they’ve learned the vital lesson of not trusting their own resources but God’s, that He can show the way forward, their real destiny. That’s 2 Corinthians 12:7-10; maybe the best commentary on Genesis 32, and a life-explanation many of us will come back to over and over again, in all sorts of situations. And so Jesus the Wrestler will help us grow through the tough times into all He’s created us to be……
(PS Given how much it helps us understand Genesis (and some other OT books) if we grasp that the `Angel of the Lord` is often God in visible form (so presumably Jesus) – I thought it might be worth listing some verses that confirm this: Gen 16:9-13; 31:11-13; 48:15-16. (And Hosea 12:3-4 about this story.))
