Tag Archives: Wrestling with God

Wrestling with God

Living in the Spirit

July 27, 2020

Scripture Reading: Genesis 32:22-31
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.

Wrestling with God* is the title of the video that tells the story of Alexander Campbell, who was one of the founders of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and other congregationally governed churches in the USA. History records his efforts well as in the early 19th century, he brought a new way of being Christians into a land full of promise. His quest for unity is still alive today.

I think we all wrestle with God as we discern what is righteous and what is just. Jacob was a bit of a conman. His mother helped him trick his brother out of his inheritance. He ran away to escape the wrath of his brother and, most likely, his father. He, in turn, was tricked by his father-in-law to marry the oldest daughter Leah. Jacob got the father-in-law back. And then, he decided to take his family and return home, leaving him to make peace with God before he could make peace with his father and his brother.

Jesus, too, had to deal with the temptations of the world when he went into the desert before he started his ministry. Sometimes it helps to see the ways of the world from a neutral perspective. That is why it is so essential that we maintain constant communion with God in prayer, meditation, and study to prepare us for the times we are caught in circumstances where are responses must be automatic as we have no time to ponder what to do.

Prayer: Lord, help us keep in good spiritual shape as we face the challenges of the world. Amen.

*Wrestling with God is available on Amazon Prime if you would like to watch it.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.

Wrestling with God

Lent
February 27, 2018

Scripture Reading: 20:1-17

Honour your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.
 You shall not murder.
 You shall not commit adultery.
 You shall not steal.
 You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
 You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor. –Exodus 1:12-17

Rules/laws exist to bring order out of chaos. God set the standard for order when God created an orderly world. Rules/law change over time as societies progress. A good example of this is the Biblical admonition not to work on the Sabbath with some exceptions cited from the beginning. One original rule forbade starting a fire for light because building fires required a fair amount of manual labor. When light became available through the flip of a switch, Rabbis discerned that this did not constitute labor and thus was permissible.

Rules/laws are never as clear as stated. Since God carved the Ten Commandments in stone, people debate the parameters of their meaning.  How does one honor parents who abuse and neglect them? What constitutes murder? Courts exist to try and address such issues. Theologians struggle with the deeper meanings as they relate to God’s meaning.

Living an ordered life and not in constant chaos requires a close, intimate relationship with God. I Iove the Bible’s inclusion of the story of Jacob wrestling with God. Jacob could dish out as much as he got and had a lot of chaos to clear but he seemed to carry God with him struggled to get right with God. We could say the same about David. Clearing chaos on a regular basis makes life a lot less complicated, and hopefully, limits major wrestling matches with God.

I come to the garden alone
While the dew is still on the roses
And the voice I hear, falling on my ear
The Son of God discloses
And He walks with me
And He talks with me
And He tells me I am His own
And the joy we share as we tarry there
None other has ever known*

Prayer:  Lord, hold me close and help me to reciprocate in kind even in my stubborn resistence. Amen.

*First verse and chorus of In the Garden by C. Austin Miles see at https://www.google.com/search?q=in+the+garden+lyrics&oq=in&aqs=chrome.0.69i59j69i61l2j69i60j69i57j69i59.1874j0j1&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.

Coming Home to God

Living in the Spirit
July 28, 2014

 Scripture Reading: Genesis 32:22-31 

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. —Genesis 32:24-31

The last time we encountered Jacob having anything to do with God was at Bethel when he was running in fear from his brother Esau and dreamed of a stairway to heaven. One would think that would have left enough of an impression that Jacob would have developed a deeper relationship with God, but that does not seem to be the case. He has been away from home long enough to work seven years for his wife, married two women, and had eleven children by four women. Now he has decided it is time to go home and on that trip who shows up again but God. This time Jacob did not experience a comforting dream, he wrestled with God and apparently in that struggle he wrestled with himself. While he came out limping, he came out alive. I wonder if he had decided he should not have come out alive. Perhaps he stacked up all the evidence and saw himself condemned. Perhaps according to human standards, he was right. God had a different plan for him. He was declared no less than the father of the great nation promised to his grandfather Abraham. He became Israel.

We can’t really call Jacob the prodigal son; he was not returning home because he had wasted all his material resources. On the contrary he came with and abundance of wealth according to the world. His poverty rested in his estrangement with both his family and with God. Reconnecting with God was the first step in potentially reconnecting with his family. At some point Jacob had gotten his priorities straight. Perhaps it was in that wrestling match.

Prayer: Lord, it is hard to keep our priorities straight to know what is really important and what is not. Please order our lives so that we live them fully for you and thus everything else will fall into place. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of American. Used by permission. All rights reserved.