[0:15]At summer camp, a piece of flagging tape tied tightly around your wrist can mean only one thing. You're about to fight for your life. Every summer my husband and I volunteer at a week of camp. And every year, without fail, we play a game called Skulls. Now, the gameplay itself is simple, get the flagging tape off your opponent. How? By any means necessary. Skulls is a full contact game where the only rules are no biting, kicking, punching, choke holds or taking out from behind. The camp nurse hates it. The campers love it. Because within the safety of camp, they are granted permission and encouraged to do what with few exceptions, they can't do anywhere else. Wrestle. In today's scripture reading, Jacob plays skulls with a mysterious opponent. Wrestling through the night, it's easily the longest round of skulls ever recorded. But in this case, the stakes are much higher than a piece of flagging tape. Jacob is literally fighting for his life. And his opponent, well, in some sense, he too is fighting for Jacob's life. The question is why? How did we get here? Now, before we jump into our passage, it's important to note that this episode takes place within a larger narrative. The words, the same night, indicate to us that it's a story within a story. And while we don't have time to read this story in its entirety, here are the spark notes. After living with his uncle for 20 years, Jacob is headed back to his homeland. To the land that God promised to give to him and to his descendants. But the journey home has been anything but thrilling. Jacob's departure from his uncle's house was awkward. There were a lot of weird family dynamics at play. Moreover, Jacob is returning to a potentially volatile environment. The reason that Jacob left home in the first place wasn't for a fun visit with Uncle Laban and the cousins. It wasn't some coming of age, self-discovery type of trip. Jacob left home, or more accurately, fled home, because his brother Esau was planning to kill him. Why? Because Jacob had selfishly taken both Esau's birthright and blessing, and Esau was angry. He'd been tricked, duped by his slightly younger twin brother not once but twice. And so, as you can imagine, the journey home has Jacob feeling rightfully nervous. He has no idea what to expect from his estranged brother. Will he be welcomed or wiped out? As Jacob grew near, he decided to test the waters, so he sent a messenger ahead to see Esau. When the messenger returned, he informed Jacob that Esau was on his way along with 400 men. Wipe out seemed certain. And so Jacob does the only two things that he can think of. He prays for deliverance and he prepares an extravagant gift. Then, after he has done all within his power, he settles in for what will turn into a very long night. I want to imagine I want you to imagine that you're camping. It's dark, you've just put out the fire and you're about to climb into your tent to get what you will hope will be a semi decent sleep. Suddenly, you hear a rustle in the bushes. It's probably just a road, not nothing to be afraid of. But then, cue the ominous music, you're thrown to the ground by a person you can't see. What do you do? Well, odds are you would try to fight back, and fight is exactly what Jacob did. In fact, he was fighting for his life because for all he knew, this stranger was fighting to take his. For all he knew, Esau and his men had arrived early. For all he knew, this stranger was one of them. And so, unsure of who he was up against, or their motives, Jacob wrestled through the night. Wrestling through the night might sound crazy. I mean, who has that kind of physical stamina? But if you know anything about Jacob, this response isn't totally surprising. You might call Jacob a professional wrestler. You see, he's been wrestling his whole life. In Genesis 25, we're told that Jacob and Esau struggled in the womb to the point that their mom said, If it is to be this way, why do I live? This poor woman, before her sons were born, they were already fighting. And then, when she did give birth to them, we learn that Jacob came up ripping Esau's heel. Though born second, it seems that Jacob was trying to wrestle his way to the front. It is therefore not shocking that Jacob gave this unidentified man a good fight. He'd been training his whole life.
[5:53]And here's where things get really interesting. After several hours of fighting, neither Jacob nor the mysterious man were able to triumph over the other. And so the man, seeing that he couldn't overcome Jacob, struck him and dislocated his hip. Now, I Googled the hip joint, and apparently it's really hard to dislocate your hip. It takes a spectacular amount of force. Dislocated hips are often the result of a bad fall or a car accident. Which begs the question, how is it possible that this man was unable to overpower Jacob, and yet he was strong enough to dislocate his hip? Did he have some type of martial arts training? Was he just lucky? It's at this moment that the story begins to turn. The sun is rising, the mystery man says, Let me go for the day is breaking, and Jacob says, no way. I will not let you go unless you bless me. Jacob has stopped wrestling and instead of he's holding on for dear life. It seems that he's beginning to realize that he's not fighting any ordinary man, but that he is in fact wrestling with God. Which then leads him to say, Bless me. Bless me, you who are strong and powerful. I'm about to walk into a potentially dangerous situation, so give me your strength that I might overcome. And in response to Jacob's request, the man says, What is your name? It echoes Isaac's question before he unknowingly blessed Jacob instead of Esau. But this time, Jacob answers the question honestly. He says, My name is Jacob. Jacob, he who supplants, usurps, overthrows, I am he.
[7:59]And this time, Jacob receives a blessing that's actually for him. The blessing is this, You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with humans and have prevailed. Jacob, the deceiver, will be known from now on as Israel. Jacob, the master of deception will be no more. But as for the significance of his new name, Jacob will have to decide how to live into it for himself. You see, I think that sometimes we have a tendency to romanticize stories like Jacob's. We romanticize wrestling with God. And in one sense, I do think that wrestling with God can be both a necessary and a positive thing. Two years ago, both my dad and my husband were diagnosed with cancer within eight months of each other. I wrestled with God. I felt broken, I didn't understand, I had questions. And I've learned that in difficult seasons and situations, wrestling is our opportunity to press in and is often a faith deepening experience. But like many things, wrestling also has a shadow side, which we see in the life of Jacob. Jacob's circumstances were certainly difficult, but here we see him wrestling once again from a place of self-interest. Jacob wants to be first, he wants to be in control, he wants all things for himself. And I think that's why God initiates this fight with Jacob. As Jacob re-enters the promised land, he has a choice. He can continue to rely on himself or he can learn to rely on God. And while God gives him the choice, he won't make it for him. God doesn't force hard change. I think it's for this reason that we're told that he did not prevail against Jacob. It's not because he wasn't strong enough, but because he gave Jacob agency. God wants us to choose surrender to him. If we fast forward to the first century AD, we find another wrestling match that takes place in the cover of night. This time, it's in a garden called Gethsemane. On the night of his betrayal, Jesus went to a quiet place to pray. And three times over he prayed the same thing. My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me, yet not what I want but what you want. Jesus wrestled with God in prayer. In a moment that was deeply distressing, Jesus ran not from the Father, but to him. And though he asked for relief, he didn't resist. Rather, he leaned in. Jesus wrestling was grounded in surrender. He is the perfect example of what it looks like to hold these two things in tension. Church, God is not scared of wrestling. He initiates and invites for the sake of our formation and transformation. Maybe today you're navigating a difficult situation or a hard season of life. Maybe like Jacob, you're navigating difficult family dynamics. Or maybe like Jesus, you're staring down a road of suffering. If that's you, perhaps God's invitation to you today is to wrestle with him. To ask your questions, to express your doubts, your fears and your disappointments. It's not easy. These things require a certain level of vulnerability and can leave us feeling exhausted. But would you have the courage to try? Because God is waiting with open arms to receive you. On the flip side, maybe today you're exhausted. You've been wrestling with God for a long time. Maybe like Jacob, you've been trying to hold on to certain things. To comfort, security, success, fame, money, and you're scared of what will happen if you let go. If that's you, perhaps God's invitation to you today is to stop wrestling. To surrender, to give God your heart, choosing to rely no longer on yourself, but on him. This too isn't easy. Our cultural narrative and our experience have taught us self-reliance, embedding it deep within. Thus, it can seem counterintuitive to rely on someone other than ourselves. But would you also have the courage to try? Because you're already being held by God. The truth is that we can't wrestle at arm's length, which means that to wrestle with God is to be embraced by him. The question is, will we resist or will we lean in?
