September 27, 2015: Jacob Wrestles God

Genesis 32:22-30

²² Jacob got up during the night, took his two wives, his two women servants, and his eleven sons, and crossed the Jabbok River’s shallow water. ²³ He took them and everything that belonged to him, and he helped them cross the river. ²⁴ But Jacob stayed apart by himself, and a man wrestled with him until dawn broke. ²⁵ When the man saw that he couldn’t defeat Jacob, he grabbed Jacob’s thigh and tore a muscle in Jacob’s thigh as he wrestled with him. ²⁶ The man said, “Let me go because the dawn is breaking.”

But Jacob said, “I won’t let you go until you bless me.

”

²⁷ He said to Jacob, “What’s your name?” and he said, “Jacob.” ²⁸ Then he said, “Your name won’t be Jacob any longer, but Israel,^[a] because you struggled with God and with men and won.”

²⁹ Jacob also asked and said, “Tell me your name.”

But he said, “Why do you ask for my name?” and he blessed Jacob there. ³⁰ Jacob named the place Peniel,^[b] “because I’ve seen God face-to-face, and my life has been saved.”

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Introduction

Let’s get this out there right away: Jacob was a cheater, liar and thief.  He schemed his brother Esau out of an all-important blessing from their father Isaac (Gen. 27) and schemed his uncle Laban out of many flocks and other riches (Gen. 29-31).  I wouldn’t buy a car from Jacob (used or otherwise)! His name literally means “the supplanter” or “the heal grabber,” and he certainly lives up (or down) to this moniker.

                

Quite often we like to think of the major characters of the Bible as paragons of virtue, great heroes whose lives can show us the way to live. There are some heroes in the Bible, but more often than not, we find imperfect, broken people who are in need of a saving relationship with God. Jacob certainly is one of these individuals and his life will how messy, gritty and important a person’s relationship with God can really be. But first, let’s set the tone.

The Technical Stuff:

Abraham and his wife Sarah had a son named Isaac and after they had died Isaac and his wife Rebekah had two sons: Esau and Jacob.  Esau was a man of action, who enjoyed hunting. Jacob preferred to remain back at the tents of his people.  The brothers’ contentious relationship has already been alluded to above and suffice it to say that Esau has plenty of reasons to hurt his brother.

By the time we reach chapter 31 Jacob is on the run from Laban’s family, and is told by God to return to his native land and family.  On the way he learns that Esau, the brother he had wronged so many years ago, is now on his way to meet Jacob with four hundred men. This news fills Jacob with terror.  After receiving this news, Jacob prays to the Lord saying, “Save me from my brother Esau! I’m afraid he will come and kill me, the mothers, and their children. You were the one who told me ‘I will make your descendants like the sand of the sea, so many you won’t be able to count them.’” (Gen. 32:11-12)

Jacob, savvy as ever, leaves generous gifts for his brother and then divides his family and flocks so that if Esau were to attack one group, others might escape and survive. You could call this a Biblical version of not “putting all of your eggs into one basket.” While they go on different paths ahead of him, he lays down by the Jabbok River. Here he encounters a shadowy and mysterious figure who wrestles with him.  This wrestling match has been interpreted over and over again throughout the centuries.  It’s essentially a draw: neither person can win.

Who is this mysterious figure? We receive our clue from verse 28, where the mysterious figure says, “Your name won’t be Jacob any longer, but Israel, because you struggled with God and with men and won.” Jacob (now Israel) names the place “Peniel” because he has “…seen God face-to-face, and my life has been saved.”

Walter Brueggemann writes, “…if this other one is God, what does it mean to say that Jacob has come to a draw with him?  What kind of God is it who will be pressed to a draw by this man?  And what kind of man is our father Jacob that he can force a draw, even against heaven?  This is no ordinary man. And certainly no ordinary God! Clearly, this is no ordinary story.” (Genesis, 267) Jacob’s new name, “Israel,” should sound familiar. His descendants will be called the “children of Israel” or the “people of Israel” up to the present day. It is translated in a variety of ways, but can mean “may God contend” or “may God rule.” In our story today, it’s meant to mean “he strives with God.” 

From the Jabbok River, Jacob will go on to meet his brother Esau, who forgives him. God’s promise of protection has been fulfilled.

What Does This Say to Us?

The meaning of the word “Israel” given here in chapter 32 (“he strives with God”) is apt. The people of Israel complain, disobey and ignore God quite often. They also love, worship, praise and follow God too. They struggle to understand how God works in the world: why bad things are allowed to happen, why they don’t receive protection from their enemies, etc. Over and over again, a reader of the Old Testament gets the sense that God and the people are in a relationship that can feel more like a wrestling match than anything else.

Our life of faith can feel the same way.  Life is complicated and our relationship with God can be somewhat contentious at times. It is comforting, however, to recognize that the God we worship is willing and able to come down into the messy, dirty reality of our lives and be in a relationship with us. We see that here in Genesis 32 and we see it even more clearly in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In Jesus, God was fully present in this experience we call “human life.” In Jesus, God also experienced “human death” as well. Through Jesus, God has saved us from sin, death, and ourselves.

Walter Brueggeman asked, “What kind of God is it who will be pressed to a draw by this man?” The kind of God who wants a relationship with us.

The Lutheran Campus Ministry congregation at The Ohio State University’s campus is named Jacob’s Porch.  This congregation is a ministry for college students and others in an exciting and scary time in their lives, when things are transitioning and they are discovering who they are. I think it best to end this devotion with the opening message found on their website (www.jacobsporch.com):

         

“Jacob was a liar and a thief. He lied about who he was. At the crossroads in his life, God wrestled with Jacob all night to a standstill.  He blessed Jacob, calling him “God-wrestler,” that is “Israel.” Jacob left the encounter blessed but he also left limping. (Gen. 32: 22-31)

This is the encounter of faith. It is holy and good, a time to be blessed. It is also a fight, a striving, a tussle.  To follow God is a fight for our hearts & minds with the one who makes all things new.”  (www.jacobsporch.com)

God can take your questions and your doubts. God can take your imperfections and issues. God can take all of these things: God just wants you to stay in the ring, wrestling it out.

September 20, 2015: Isaac Born to Sarah

September 20, 2015: Isaac Born to Sarah

Genesis 18:1-15; 21:1-7

18 The Lord appeared to Abraham at the oaks of Mamre while he sat at the entrance of his tent in the day’s heat. ² He looked up and suddenly saw three men standing near him. As soon as he saw them, he ran from his tent entrance to greet them and bowed deeply. ³ He said, “Sirs, if you would be so kind, don’t just pass by your servant. ⁴ Let a little water be brought so you may wash your feet and refresh yourselves under the tree. ⁵ Let me offer you a little bread so you will feel stronger, and after that you may leave your servant and go on your way—since you have visited your servant.”

They responded, “Fine. Do just as you have said.”

⁶ So Abraham hurried to Sarah at his tent and said, “Hurry! Knead three seahs^[a] of the finest flour and make some baked goods!” ⁷ Abraham ran to the cattle, took a healthy young calf, and gave it to a young servant, who prepared it quickly. ⁸ Then Abraham took butter, milk, and the calf that had been prepared, put the food in front of them, and stood under the tree near them as they ate.

⁹ They said to him, “Where’s your wife Sarah?”

And he said, “Right here in the tent.”

¹⁰ Then one of the men said, “I will definitely return to you about this time next year. Then your wife Sarah will have a son!”

Sarah was listening at the tent door behind him. ¹¹ Now Abraham and Sarah were both very old. Sarah was no longer menstruating. ¹² So Sarah laughed to herself, thinking, I’m no longer able to have children and my husband’s old.

¹³ The Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Me give birth? At my age?’ ¹⁴ Is anything too difficult for the Lord? When I return to you about this time next year, Sarah will have a son.”

¹⁵ Sarah lied and said, “I didn’t laugh,” because she was frightened.

But he said, “No, you laughed.”

21 The Lord was attentive to Sarah just as he had said, and the Lord carried out just what he had promised her. ² She became pregnant and gave birth to a son for Abraham when he was old, at the very time God had told him. ³ Abraham named his son—the one Sarah bore him—Isaac.^{[a] 4} Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old just as God had commanded him. ⁵ Abraham was 100 years old when his son Isaac was born. ⁶ Sarah said, “God has given me laughter. Everyone who hears about it will laugh with me.”^{[b] 7} She said, “Who could have told Abraham that Sarah would nurse sons? But now I’ve given birth to a son when he was old!”

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Introduction

I have been a huge fan of history my entire life: upon entering the First Grade I asked my teacher if would be studying the American Revolution in class, in Second Grade my teachers had to look up the word “portcullis” because I wanted to write a story about castles. (you can look it up yourself if you’d like to know what a “portcullis” does).  I studied history in college and graduate school and continue to read as much of the subject as possible. One of the most important and enduring things I’ve learned about studying the past is that there is a great gulf between them and us.  Sure, people in the past had hopes and dreams like we do, they had fears and worries like people today, but one thing makes it extremely hard for us in the present to understand the people who have gone before us: we know their future.

It has often been said that “hindsight” gives us 20/20 vision. A decision might make sense when we make it, but as things play out, that sensible decision can look like the height of folly in hindsight. Napoleon invading Russia in 1812? What an idiot! Would the American Revolution succeed? Of course, and I can give you all sort of reasons why.  Of course electric lighting and telephones and cars and all of that technology would catch on, it was inevitable right?  Of course, we have the advantage of hindsight and we know the future of the people who are making the best decisions they can. This is the gulf that separates us from the people of the past.

This kind of hindsight can get in the way of our understanding of Biblical figures as well.  We might start to ask why Abraham and Sarah had trouble trusting in God’s promise of a child. On other occasions we might get down the people of Israel in the wilderness or Jesus’ disciples for their lack of faith.  Okay, so that people of Israel could be a whiny bunch and Jesus’ disciples did have trouble with their faith, BUT if we put ourselves in their position their actions make much more sense. While I’m not saying Abraham and Sarah get a “pass” for laughing at God’s promise, or that God is wrong for the way God does things, I think we should remember that we know their future as we finish this story. They do not.

The Technical Stuff:

The first eleven chapters of Genesis are universal in their scope and scale. The narrative talks about the human race as a whole over and over again: the great flood that God sent to wipe out human wickedness took away ALMOST ALL OF HUMANITY. God’s interference with the Tower of Babel project changed the languages of ALL PEOPLE. At the end of Genesis 11 we see a long genealogy leading from Noah’s family until it reaches someone named “Abram.” In Genesis 12, the story becomes very particular indeed: God has decided to redeem and bless the world through this man and his wife (named “Sarai”) the Lord promises to “make of you a great nation,” to bless him, to make his name respected, to give him a land of his own, and to make him a blessing to others.

Later, in Genesis 15, the Lord once again promises to be Abram’s protector, that Abram will have his own, biological child as his heir, that his descendants will be as numerous as the stars in the sky, and that he will have his own land. God seals this promise with a “covenant” ceremony.  Once again in Genesis 17 God says that Abram will be the father of many nations. Abram also receives a new name: “Abraham” and the Lord promises to be Abraham’s God as well as the God of his descendants.

What Does This Say to Us?

These are many wonderful promises and it might be easy for us to now say, “Well, how could Abraham and Sarah doubt them?” This, of course, becomes a classic example of knowing their future. After all Abraham and Sarah have always had difficulty in having children together and now he is 99 years old. Besides, God’s promises seem rather delayed. Perhaps it was easy for Abraham to wonder if his conversations with God did not occur, or if some malevolent spirit or deity was toying with him. Still, he was able to recognize that these three visitors were special and that God was there under the oaks of Mamre. (It’s rather impossible for Christians to read this and NOT think of the Trinity…Father, Son, and Holy Spirit…but that’s the subject for another devotion…) Whether Abraham is a ‘trinitarian’ or not, he recognizes that this is very important: he hurries to make sure his guests have the best he can offer: great bread made of the finest flour, a healthy young calf, plus butter and milk.  Over this food, he’s about to receive yet another promise.

So much of the Bible is filled with God’s promises for us, and we’ll see the idea of “promise” as a reoccurring theme in our devotions this year. God makes promises to Abraham and many other people in Scripture and God makes promises to us as well today (the biggest and best promises we receive comes from our baptism when we are named “children of God” through Jesus Christ). But these promises are also often delayed and feel unfulfilled.  Abraham and Sarah had to wait and so do we.  When Sarah overhears that “this time next year you will have a son!” she laughs.  She’s never been able to have children, even as a young woman, and now she’s very old.  There have been many promises made before, but it seems more ludicrous than ever!

But God is indeed faithful and Sarah does have a son, who is named Isaac.

In many ways, we are like Abraham and Sarah: we too are waiting for the fulfillment of God’s promises in our own lives. We have been loved and claimed by God, we have been saved by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and we have been made children of God through our baptisms. This is wonderful and life changing. At the same time, we can look around at our world and realize that there are so many more promises waiting to be fulfilled: peace and plenty for all.  When we pray “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done,” we’re praying for God’s promised fulfillment. In the meantime, we live as people of the promise, and our expectation that a member of Abraham’s family, Jesus Christ the Son of God, will come again and set things right.