Wrestling Alone at Night
Genesis 32:22-30
The poet, James Thurber, once said, “All men must learn before they die, what they are running from and to and why.”
We catch up with our hero, Jacob, today on the muddy banks of the Jabbok River. Twenty years have passed since he left Bethel where God promised to go with him and guide him through all his days. In this productive period of Jacob’s life, he accumulates a couple of wives, eleven children, a host of servants, and a wealth of cattle, sheep, and camels. He has left his father-in-law, Laban. He is preparing to meet his estranged brother, Esau. As night comes, Jacob separates himself from people and possessions and enters a life and death struggle for purpose and meaning.
Anybody here who has walked through a dark night of the soul, ever been afraid to turn their face toward home, or found themselves in a wrestling match with God, can identify with this ancient struggle of a middle-aged man by the name of Jacob.
Come, let us take a closer look at this struggle in the night. Verse 24, And Jacob was left alone. Such times of solitude call us to introspection, evaluation, and alteration. We are busy people. We fill our lives with things to do, places to go, projects to finish, and appointments to keep. But every once in a while, we will be wise to shut the door and separate ourselves from all our stuff, and try to restore our souls.
Henri Nouwen, in one of his last writings, says, “I found myself in a hospital following a car accident. At first I thought it was nothing. Then I was told I was bleeding internally and might not live. Surprisingly, I found the threat of death to be peaceful beyond my understanding. It was when I woke up and discovered myself still alive in this world, that I became restless. In my days of recovery, I discovered I had some unfinished business of the soul. There were certain people I still hadn’t forgiven. There were deep confessions I had hesitated to make. I realized I had been living in denial of my own mortality.”
Suddenly in the night, someone seizes Jacob from behind and slams him to the ground in a bitter struggle for life. Harold Kushner says this stranger in the night is none other than the conscience of Jacob calling him to accountability. A life of deceit, denial, and duplicity is finally doing him in. Here, alone on the muddy banks of the Jabbok River, he must face himself. People all wrapped up in themselves make very small packages. That night on the Jabbok River, Jacob was all wrapped up in himself.
A careful reading of the text, however, leads us to believe someone besides himself had Jacob in a headlock that night. Jacob is wrestling with none other than God. It is a tug of war, a hand-to-hand combat with the Almighty. It is fingers on the flesh, touched to the bone. Jacob wants a blessing. God wants a new person. Back and forth they struggle and struggle through the night.
Hebrews 10:31 says, It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a living God and it is. You see, God-lite religion will not do in a down and dirty world. The God of Jacob is our refuge. Let us never forget that Jacob’s God will get us in the gut, punch our pride, grab our greed, level our lust, demand our honesty and command our all.
A cartoon I saw once on a church bulletin board advertised “Church Lite,” home of the 7.5% tithe, the 10 minute sermon, and the multiple-choice commandments. Everything you have ever wanted in a church and less. Religion like that may make you feel good, but it is not likely to do you any good. It may provide you with entertainment, but it is not apt to make any alterations in your life. If your life needs a complete overhaul, come to a God who wants your all. The struggle may leave you with a limp, but it will give your soul a lift.
At daybreak, this Divine/human struggle is still intense. The stranger in the night says, “Let me go.” Jacob replies, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”
the stranger says to Jacob, “What is your name?” In the Old Testament, a name always symbolizes a character. It is one with nature. Proverbs 22:1 says, A good name should be chosen over great riches, and loving favor rather than silver and gold.
Names are important to us as well. We name our children, our cats, our dogs, our boats, our camps. Everything has a name. They become personal when we put a name to them.
The stranger says in the night, “What is your name?” Jacob says, “ “My name is Jacob!” Driven, deceitful, successful, powerful, lonely, afraid. Jacob was not very proud of his name.
I wonder today if there are some names in your life that you need to abandon? Are there names that have gotten attached to you, but do not belong to you? I do not know what it is, but you know. You know the name.
When I announced that I wanted to be a minister in the church. My father said, “He might as well be a preacher. He is too lazy to be anything else.” It took me to abandon the name, “Lazy.” and one day I had to turn it loose. Do you understand what I am saying? There are names that have been attached to us over the years. God Almighty is asking you to confess it today in such a way you would be freed from it. “Jacob, what is your name?”
I have news for you; I have a new name for you. This stranger in the night says, Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and men and have overcome. The name Israel meant the straight one, God rules, father of nations, patriarch of people, transmitter of truth, the blessed of God.
I have got a new name for you. You see, Israel was not a new label on an old jar, but a new substance in the life and soul of a single struggling man. That day, a trickster became a treasure. A heel became a healer. A supplanter was transformed into a saint.
The purpose of the dark night of the soul is purification, which will lead us to a new identification. Jacob did not need to get back to his old self that morning. He needed to put on a whole new self. We do not need restoration; we need transformation. Your name is no longer Jacob. Your name is Israel. Just as Jacob was transformed and made new, you and I are transformed when we come face to face with God
Paul in II Corinthians 5:17 says, If anyone be in Christ, they are a new creation. The old is gone, the new has come. You are transformed, you belong to the family of God, you are a follower of Christ.
I know, it seems like too much doesn’t it? Don’t you think Jacob had to feel that way that day? Jacob must have felt weird at first to have taken on this new identity. As he rose that morning to become Israel, the father of all nations, so we must rise to live a life worthy as the followers of Christ, as the children of God.