What's In A Name?

The same night he got up and took his two wives, his two maids, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. He took them and sent them across the stream, and likewise everything that he had. Jacob was left alone; and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he struck him on the hip socket; and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. Then he said, “Let me go, for the day is breaking.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go, unless you bless me.” So he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” Then the man said, “You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with humans, and have prevailed.” Then Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” And there he blessed him. So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is preserved.” The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip.

Introduction

Week 5 of our continuing soap opera that is the life of Jacob. This is going to be a quick synopsis of how Jacob got to where he is physically and mentally. As you may recall Jacob has just received two wives and 2 concubines. Between these 4 women 13 children are born 12 boys and 1 girl. These 12 male heirs become the 12 tribes of Israel.

Jacob has now been with Laban 14 years and he wishes to go home. Laban talks him into staying another 6 to help increase his flocks. Jacob negotiates a deal with Laban where every speckled. spotted, black, sheep and goat among the flocks will be his. Jacob involves some magic to produce spotted and specked and black in this and soon his flocks are bigger than Laban’s.

Laban’s sons accuse Jacob of cheating them and YHWH tells Jacob to go home.

Laban and his sons give chase and overtake Jacob, but once again the shrewd and manipulative Jacob negotiates a deal and makes covenant with Laban where they will never mess in each others business again.

So, Jacob having dealt with Laban must now deal with Esau who has vowed to kill him. He sends great wealth ahead hoping to appease Esau.

Genesis 32:14–21 NRSV

two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, thirty milch camels and their colts, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys. These he delivered into the hand of his servants, every drove by itself, and said to his servants, “Pass on ahead of me, and put a space between drove and drove.” He instructed the foremost, “When Esau my brother meets you, and asks you, ‘To whom do you belong? Where are you going? And whose are these ahead of you?’ then you shall say, ‘They belong to your servant Jacob; they are a present sent to my lord Esau; and moreover he is behind us.’ ” He likewise instructed the second and the third and all who followed the droves, “You shall say the same thing to Esau when you meet him, and you shall say, ‘Moreover your servant Jacob is behind us.’ ” For he thought, “I may appease him with the present that goes ahead of me, and afterwards I shall see his face; perhaps he will accept me.” So the present passed on ahead of him; and he himself spent that night in the camp.

Exegesis

So Jacob still fearful for the safety of his family sends them accross the ford there at the Jabbok River and will spend the night by himself.

What a great story ensues! Jacob is up all night wrestling with a man. Jacob will say that this man was YHWH (And so does Hosea) when he declares this place Peniel. Which means I met God face to face and lived. I like the way it is put in The Message:

Genesis 32:30 The Message

Jacob named the place Peniel (God’s Face) because, he said, “I saw God face-to-face and lived to tell the story!”

You see one cannot see God face to face and live. God tells Moses this in

Exodus 33:20–23 NRSV

But,” he said, “you cannot see my face; for no one shall see me and live.” And the Lord continued, “See, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock; and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by; then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back; but my face shall not be seen.”

So Jacob wrestles with the man all night and when the man realized he would not prevail against Jacob he strikes Jacob on the hip and causes him to limp.

As dawn comes the man tells Jacob to let him go, but Jacob does not and demands a blessing from the man. The man does bless him by changing his name to Israel. One who strives with God. The man does this because Jacob has striven with God and humans and prevailed.

Jacob wants to know the man’s name, but the man refuses it with a question.

“Why is it that you ask my name?”

Application

What a strange story, right? There are so many questions here. How can anyone prevail in a wrestling match with God? Why did Jacob want to know the man’s name? I mean this is so far out, this has to be a folk tale right? This can”t be based on a historical event right?

Well, none of these questions are really helpful. They are legitimate questions, I grant you that. However, I think we need to approach this by taking it for what it is: a story that helps explain God, humans, and our relationship.

Let’s unpack this further to see what we can learn here.

Jacob knows that it is God’s will that he bear the covenant for the future of his people. God has selected the second born over the first born to do this. But we see over and over again in Jacob’s life that his name does reflect his character. Even though he knows that he is the one, he does everything in his own power to make sure that is the case. He is the supplanter, the trickster. But it is all done for a good cause right? The preservation of the covenant in the hands of God’s chosen one. Since grabbing the heal of Esau at birth Jacob has been relying on himself and taking matters into his hands.

But wait. What a trail of destroyed relationships lie in the wake of Jacob taking matters into his own hands. His brother vows to kill him. He leaves home to escape his brother and take a suitable wife. He never sees his mother again. He gets involved in a game of one up manship with his uncle that results in dysfunction in his own family, and eventually Laban want to kill him! Now he finds himself, scared to death, about to enter the land promised to him and his descendants, and the covenant is in jeopardy because of his actions.

He finds himself wrestling with God and what happens is transformation. Jacob becomes a different person from this point on. But isn’t this like all of us? We want to be sheep of the 23rd Psalm wiht complete trust, yet we also want to control our own destinies. We buy into the lie of rugged individualism, the lie of the self made person.

I mean that was what the rebellion in the garden was all about. Adam and Eve wanted to control their own destinies. The wanted to be their own god’s knowing right from wrong. As Dr Phil would say, “How’s that working for ya?”

Jacob thought his self reliance made him a match for anything that would come his way. But now he realizes his complete inability to control what is going to happen next!

God comes to Jacob at this point of Jacob’s brokenness and engages him in a way that Jacob will understand. Jacob had spent his whole life striving for God when all he was doing was striving against God! They wrestle. And low and behold we see God’s grace.

God wins, yes because Jacob is transformed. Jacob becomes a new person. God does not let Jacob die from seeing his face because God leaves before dawn. God brings new life to Jacob.

What’s in a name? In those days your name was who you were. Jacob has gone from supplanter to one who strives with God and lives to tell about it. Jacob knows what this blessing means and he wants to know the name of the one giving the blessing. Because in that day, if he made the man give up his name, he would have authority over that person and his power. Not going to happen, God gives him a new name and now God has authority in Jacob’s life.

What grace there is here and we will see more as we reach the end of the story over the next couple of weeks.

Listen: I know many of us, me included have been wrestling with God since March. This story tells us that it is OK to wrestle with God. it can change us, transform us and create a new identity in us. And grace upon grace, we are marked as God’s forever. This all comes with the realization we can do nothing without God. Self reliance is but an illusion that the serpent talked us into in the garden. No we didn’t die, right away, but it sure messed things up!

When we finally let God give us the blessing of Jacob’s limp, we realize that real power comes in weakness. We realize that self sufficiency produces unhealthy competition, manipulation, deception and leaves all wounded in its wake. Jacob can no longer get by on his wits anymore. And we can not get by on our wits during this pandemic. I am still amazed that people found comfort in out witting others for toilet paper. Self sufficiency was at the bottom of all that hoarding. If I just have enough toilet paper, I do not have to fear the future.

I read this story about a man who had suffered a heart attack and came close to dying. In hearing the story about Jacob’s struggle from his Pastor he said this. "I know that struggle, because in my dark night I found myself wrestling and wondering, 'Is God's purpose for me good? Can I trust God? Can I count on God for whatever the future holds?' And I found myself crying out, and in the days that followed I knew that deep inside of my being in that encounter with God in the darkness and in the aloneness, something had changed in me. And I had found new strength and new hope and new comfort, but something else had changed. In my woundedness," he said, "I realized that all my life I'd been wounding other people. I'd been competitive, I'd wanted to succeed, and so in doing that, in seeking that success I'd wounded my wife, my colleagues, my children. In my own night of struggle and wounding I discovered that I did not want to wound anymore, that I wanted not to be a wounder, but a wounded healer."

All of us limp away from our encounter with God just as Jacob did. It is not a limp of defeat but a limp of victory. For it is out of our wounds that change comes, and we can have a new name given entirely from God’s grace. It is good and a right thing to wrestle with God. If it wasn’t OK God wouldn’t participate in it. Jacob became a wounded healer and his brother became a wounded healer, because the next day when they met they became brothers again.

And it is out of the great wounded healer, Jesus Christ that we have the grace to wrestle with ourselves and with God and prevail. Is not that a wonderful grace?

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