“Grabbing Hold Of God”
Text: Genesis 32:22-30
10/16/2022
In the name of Jesus, dear friends in Christ. Have you ever sat there and listened to a Bible reading that just makes you scratch your head? Well, let me assure you that it’s both healthy and safe for you to ask serious questions about such a text. Yes, there are some things that will remain a mystery for us this side of heaven. But there are many other questions where the answers are just waiting for us to dig in and discover. As we do, God is revealing to us spiritual truths about Himself or His plan of salvation. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that God did this intentionally to draw us deeper into His Word.
Such is the case with today’s Old Testament reading. If that didn’t stir up some questions in your mind then I’d suggest you need to pinch yourself and wake up. Here we’ve got Jacob, the father of the 12 tribes of Israel, in a wrestling match with a phantom-like man who shows up in the night. The mystery man, it turns out, is God in human form! Which only adds to our confusion because according to the text, the Lord isn’t able to break Jacob’s hold on Him even though He popped Jacob’s hip out of joint. Is that weird or what? The almighty God of heaven can’t shake loose from a mere man who latched onto Him? And then there’s the whole renaming thing when Jacob asks for a blessing. So, what’s up with all of that?
Actually, those inquisitive questions will help us to mine-out the gems of God’s truth that we’ll find in this strange encounter. And the key to understanding all of them can be found in Jacob’s name. If we go back and uncover the story of how Jacob got his name and what it means then all the rest of this will start to make sense. So let’s do that.
As you may recall, God made a covenant with the patriarch, Abraham, to bless him with the land of Israel and someday, a Savior through his offspring. That promise was passed on to his son Isaac. Isaac married Rebekah who became pregnant with twin boys. One day the babies were creating quite a ruckus because they were wrestling in the womb. Rebekah was so miserable that she asked the Lord what was happening. God told her that these boys would become two nations and the older would end up serving the younger. In other words, God’s inherited promise of blessing would be given to the younger rather than the older brother.
Okay, now pay close attention to this part. When the boys were born, Esau came out first, but Jacob wasn’t far behind. In fact, Jacob was holding onto his brother’s heel. And that is literally what his name means: “heel grabber.” This definition may sound a bit silly, but that name in Hebrew came to mean something more serious. You see, in Hebrew, to grab the heel meant to trip someone up in order to take advantage of them. In short, Jacob’s name meant a conniving, cheating thief. And Jacob certainly lived up to this connotation of his name. He eventually wrestled Esau’s birthright away from him. The birthright entitled the older brother to a larger share of their father’s estate. Well, Esau came home from hunting one day, totally famished. So what did Jacob do? He took advantage of his brother’s weakened condition. He offered Esau a deal: A hot meal in trade for the birthright. Esau foolishly agreed to it.
The birthright had to do with more than material possessions. So now Jacob took aim at the blessing from his father which had to do with the inherited promise God had first made to Abraham. Maybe you recall how the story went. Isaac was old, blind, and nearing death. So he sent Esau out to hunt for some meat. Isaac promised to give Esau the coveted blessing when he returned and they ate the meal together. However, Jacob found out about it from his Mom and together they devised a scheme to steal the blessing. Jacob killed a goat and cooked up a meal just like Esau would have. Then he took the goat skins and covered his arms and neck with them so that when his blind father touched him, Isaac would be fooled into thinking that Jacob was his hairy brother Esau. Listen closely to this next part because it will help you understand our text for today. When Jacob came in with the meal, his father asked, “Who are you?” Jacob lied, saying, “I am Esau.” Isaac was skeptical but believed the lie and blessed him. Keep in mind, God had foretold that the younger brother would receive this inherited blessing. It was already promised to Jacob, and yet in true form, he connived to steal it through lies and trickery.
Okay, to make a long story longer, Esau was furious when he found out. He wanted to kill his weaselly brother. To prevent that, Mom sent Jacob off, hundreds of miles away, to her brother Laban. Well, this conniving and cheating trait must have run in the family because Laban proved to be a real heel grabber himself. Jacob agreed to work for 7 years in exchange for Laban’s younger daughter Rachel as his bride. Laban agreed but tricked him and gave him Leah instead. So Jacob worked another 7 years to get Rachel, the one he wanted. As they say, “There is no honor among thieves.” The cheater got cheated. What’s interesting is that through it all, God richly blessed Jacob, which goes to show you how faithful God is to His promises.
Anyway, the day finally came when the Lord told Jacob to leave Laban and return home. Jacob had 2 wives, 2 concubines, 11 kids, lots of servants, and huge herds of animals. Laban didn’t want them to leave. So what did ole Jacob do? Yep! While Laban was away, the deceptive heel grabber snuck away. Laban chased after them, but God stopped him. And so, Laban let them go with his blessing. But Jacob’s worries weren’t over yet. He was about to face his brother. The last time he saw him, Esau wanted to kill him. Finally, it seems that Jacob is doing the right thing because he prayed to God, asking to be protected. In the prayer he recalled God’s promises. Unfortunately, though, rather than trust in God’s promises Jacob sent a bunch of animals as a “peace offering” to bribe his brother. Much to his chagrin, the servants reported that Esau didn’t accept it and was on his way to meet his brother with 400 armed men! Jacob was scared. All his cheating and conniving was coming back to bite him.
That leads us to our text for today. Jacob sent his family and belongings across the river and then spent the night by himself. That’s when this mystery man appeared and started wrestling with Jacob. What a fitting scenario. Up to this point, Jacob had spent his life wrestling to get God’s blessings. He did it by lying, cheating, and deceiving. What’s so crazy about it is that God had every intention of giving those blessings to Jacob without any of his sneaky efforts to steal them. And that, my friends, is the reason why the Lord couldn’t beat Jacob in the wrestling match. God had bound Himself by His own promises which He never breaks. God wanted to bless Jacob, but first he had to stop trying to do it his conniving way. To teach him this lesson, God popped Jacob’s hip out of joint. He would later walk away with a limp as a reminder of how his cheating ways had crippled his walk with the Lord.
A Pastor friend of mine has suggested that it’s appropriate to think of Jacob lying flat out on the ground with his arms locked around the Lord’s ankle. And the Lord can’t break free because He doesn’t want to be free from Jacob. He wants Jacob to cling to Him. Not by his physical strength but with the hands of faith. So, Jacob clings to the Lord asking for a blessing. Isn’t it interesting that at this point God asks him his name? Remember the last time he was asked that question? He lied to his Dad about who he was in order to steal the blessing. Now, he comes clean. He says, “I am Jacob.” In other words, “I am the heel-grabber. I’m the lying, cheating, conniver.” It was a confession. And the Lord responds with words of absolution by renaming Jacob. He will now be known as Israel, which means, “He strives {or wrestles} with God.” And we can add that he wrestled with God and won. How did Jacob “win” against God? By being a heel-grabber. With the hand of faith, he grabbed onto the heel of the Lord, the very heel of the Savior which God had promised would crush the head of Satan, destroying his power. Jacob was grabbing hold of the promises of God by faith which is a grip that God refuses to break free from.
I hope you can see now that you and I are Jacob. In Holy Baptism we were born spiritually, grabbing onto the heel of our Savior by faith. That is, His heel that crushes sin and Satan’s power over us. That’s great news and an immeasurable blessing. The problem is that we so often find ourselves relying on our conniving, cheating, sinful nature that wrestles to get God’s blessings by stealing them through wrangling and shrewdness. As if we can trick God into blessing us by pretending to be someone we’re not, by pretending to be holy and righteous people, deserving of His goodness. The crazy thing is that, like Jacob, we wrestle to get the very blessings that God has already promised to give us! He promised to shower upon you His love, forgiveness, and eternal life purely by grace. So there’s no need for us to try and wrestle it away from Him. Like Jacob, God refuses to break free from us when we grab a hold of those promises by faith. That’s why it’s good for us to confess that we too have been “Jacobs.” We’ve been heel grabbers. We’ve been conniving, cheating, liars. But God forgives us for Christ’s sake and renames us: “Israel.” For we have wrestled with God and won. We “win” because we firmly grab a hold of our Savior with the hands of faith which trust in Him for salvation. May the Holy Spirit regularly strengthen our grip of faith through His Word and Sacrament. And may He sustain us until the end. Amen.
Soli Deo Gloria!