7.10.11--Wrestling with God (Genesis 32)

Let us pray.

One of the most meaningful moments of biblical revelation of my life was during one of Mr. Hobbs’ lectures in my high school AP World History class my junior year. We were talking about ancient history, specifically in the Middle East in what was ancient Mesopotamia and Sumeria, an area known as the Fertile Crescent. Mr. Hobbs lectured that religion saturated every aspect of life back then, and how every culture had its own gods that each ruled over all of the land visible from that god’s temple. It was very Lion King-esque, except instead of a god’s dominion being everything that light touches, the god’s dominion was everything within sight of the temple. Priests and other worshipers would face toward the temples for prayer, and any supernatural revelations from the gods came from their dwelling places.

And then along cam Abraham, who messed up the status quo. You see, when God spoke to Abraham, God didn’t speak from a temple. The story goes that God spoke… and Abraham looked up. God’s temple was not a building; God’s dwelling place was the very sky, and therefore God’s dominion included everything under the sky.

Everything that the light touches and the elephant graveyard.

This God was bigger than the gods of the different villages and cultures. This God was over all.

I can still remember sitting in my desk by the door and being taken back by the grandness of God, and I remember later pulling out my Bible and hungrily devouring the story of Abraham, the man who looked up when God called his name.

In our chapter this week, we walked through the land with Abraham and Sarah. We struggled in the desert with Hagar and Ishmael. We witnessed the birth of Isaac and then later the births of Esau and Jacob. We journeyed with Jacob and were present with God blessed him and changed his name to Israel. And throughout it all, I kept thinking about the way that God chooses to interact with God’s people. God meets in person with Abraham, covenants with him, provides and tests him. God speaks to Hagar and Isaac and Rebecca. God wrestles with and blesses Jacob.

The God we worship is directly involved and directly interacts with God’s chosen, with God’s beloved.

And when it seems like we aren’t getting it, God will even wrestle with us.

The first time I read this story of Jacob wrestling with God, I pictured a Hulk Hogan-like God picking Jacob up and suplexing him onto the mat. There was an angelic referee in the corner reader for the three-count pin if and when one of them bested the other. Maybe this was Israel’s first steel cage match,  a no-holds-barred struggle between God and humanity. My imagination ran wild with this story.

Now, who knows what really happened that night. Scripture doesn’t specifically tell us that this wrestling stranger was God or an angel sent from God or just a random guy who wanted to spar with Jacob. Some people think that the man was Esau, and the brothers fought as brothers do, working out their differences the way only brothers can. But I do know that I’ve had many moments in my life when I feel like I am wrestling with God, trying unsuccessfully to come out ahead.

Have you ever felt like that? Like everything is against you, like God has left you alone or even turned on you, like it’s you verses everything and everyone else? Have you ever wrestled with God and been frustrated by the outcome? Maybe it was a time you were desperately praying for something to happen and it seemed like the very thing you needed was taken out of the equation. Maybe someone you love was sick and you couldn’t understand why God wouldn’t heal her and make her better. Maybe the weight of the world seemed to be too much, and you felt you couldn’t take another minute in such an evil place.

We’ve all been there. We’ve all had times like that. We’ve all felt that the weight of our burdens was bigger than the promise of our God. Like Jacob, we forget that God has promised to bless us and we can only see the doom lurking in front of us.

But friends, Scripture attests to the fact that God does not leave us in the midst of fear and oppression and pain. Just as God delivered Jacob from his perceived enemy, Christ promises to walk with us and deliver us from the evils of the world around us. We might wrestle with God at times, we might even lose faith in God at times, but God will never lose faith in us. God’s love for us is bigger than anything we might face, and God will never leave us.

Amen for that.

So may you dwell securely in the love of the God whose dominion is over everything. May you remain firmly founded on the God who is directly involved in your life. And may you, even as you wrestle at times with God, find solace and strength in the fact that God will never leave you or forsake you and that God’s promises will always stand true.

Amen.