PREDICAMENT
PREDICAMENT GENESIS 32: 22–31 8–2–20
I. LITERAL OPPONENT
A. Sometimes it is a mistake to take things too literally. It was mom’s day out and dad was in charge of baby care. When mom came home, the baby was in great need of a diaper change. “Why didn’t you change the baby’s diaper?” she asked. “The box said 12 to 18 pounds and there wasn’t nearly that much.”
B. If you are looking at this passage in Genesis literally, you have a problem right away. How do you identify the opponent with which Jacob wrestled? At first, we are told that Jacob wrestled with an unidentified man. People speculated. Was it Esau or a Canaanite holy man or an IRS agent? We are not told. Later it seems that Jacob saw this wrestler as something more than a man. The Bible often uses elusive language. It does not seem interested in being concise. I had a Bible scholar tell me once, “The problem with people in churches is that they tend to take the Bible literally, but they don’t seem to take is seriously.” In other words, it is possible to get caught up in the literal meaning of imprecise language and miss the real truth of the passage.
C. I have three cousins who wrestled in High School. That includes my favorite cousin. He knows who he is. I remember some of the scoring in scholastic wrestling. You received two points for a take down and so much for a reversal or an escape. I vaguely remembered the term predicament. I did not remember what that meant. It turns out that is when a wrestler is on his back and nearly pinned but manages to wrestle on. I think that was where Jacob was on the banks of Jabok River. He was in a terrible predicament. He could not prevail. But he would not give up. And the truth of the passage is that his real predicament had very little to do with the physical match.
II. WHO ARE YOU?
A. Have you ever heard of Edmund Ross? He was a Republican Senator from Kansas. He became famous or infamous in 1868. Andrew Johnson had been impeached by the Radical Republicans and was on trial in the Senate. His opposition was sure they had the 2/3 votes needed to convict. But they fell one vote short when Edmund Ross, Republican from Kanas voted not guilty. It was political suicide. He was never elected to any office again. He did it because he believed it was in the best interest of the nation. Many people had to rethink their allegiance to a political party and think about what was good for the country as a whole. Sometimes, in the midst of a predicament, you have to figure out who you are.
B. That was perhaps the main thing that Jacob was wrestling with. His name had fit his character up to now. His name meant heel or cheat or liar. And that was the way he had lived his life to that point. But now his opponent asks him the million-dollar question. WHO ARE YOU? In one way, Jacob was wrestling with a mirror. And he did not like what he saw. Have you ever been there? A middle- aged woman was looking into a mirror and she said to her husband, “Look at me. I am gray and wrinkled and overweight and sagging. Please say something positive about me.” And her husband said, “Well there is nothing wrong with your eyesight.”
C. Jacob did not like what he saw in the mirror. And it had nothing to do with his physical appearance. This is the beginning of a major change in his life. People do change coming out of an honest self- examination predicament. I felt that I was not doing enough to help around the house. Once my wife was away. I thought it would be nice if I did the dishes and made the bed and dusted and ran the sweeper. When she came home, she said, “Who are you and what have you done with my husband?”
D. At the end of Jacob’s match, it seems to become clear that the opponent was God in the flesh. We can’t be surprised by that. God in the flesh is why we are here today, Jesus of Nazareth. But when you wrestle with the God of holiness, you see how flawed you are by comparison. Do you remember the call of Isaiah? He felt doomed because he was such a sinner in the presence of the God of Holiness. Then something amazing happened. Jacob asked God for a blessing. He realizes that he can’t go on tricking his way through and doing it all on his own wits. He needed the blessing of God. What a revelation.
III. TRANSFORMED (SORT OF)
A. Jacob is becoming a new person. But the transformation is not total and sudden. That is usually the case. First, let’s notice that when this grappling takes place, Jacob is alone. Every one of us has to do our own wrestling with who we are and whose we are. And when Jacob asks God for a blessing and God asks him his name, God gives him a new identity and a NEW name. Israel. It means, one who has struggled with God. One version translated it as “one who scraps with God.” I like that.
B. And God still engages with us in our flawed lives. But beware, this match is difficult and demanding. Jacob leaves with a new name and a LIMP. He will meet his brother Esau with a limp. He will enter the promised land, with a limp. He will for the rest of his life carry a mark of that transformative wrestling match. Transformation as individuals or as a people often comes out of conflict and struggle. And it’s often painful. Consider our nation’s struggle with racism. Every step forward is costly. But if God is in the fray, then we will take on our new identity.
C. One of my favorite shut-ins was a man named Ray. He lived alone and struggled to get around. He was a wonderful storyteller. He told me that as a young man he had been a jerk. He was rude and selfish and short-tempered. But then came the war. Ray was wounded and lost a leg. He said that he came home a changed man. “I was a far better person than the one who went to war.” I knew him as a kind man who never felt sorry for himself and was generous with gifts to mission causes. When I would go to leave, he would hobble over to the door to see me out. His story was so compelling that there were times when I almost called him Israel.
IV. RELATIONSHIP LESSONS
A. When you don’t get too hung up on the literal details this becomes a rich text. It’ full of lessons about our relationship with God. There are at least three.
B. The first is that it is futile to think that we can make it on our own. We are utterly dependent on God’s blessing for becoming who we really are. Israel came to be not because they were smarter or stronger or holier or more faithful. They became God’s chosen people by the blessing of God. In the New Testament we call it grace. God is always ready to help us change and to enable us to grow into our new identity.
C. The second lesson is never let go. Jacob is tenacious. He will not let go as day begins to break. God is not in danger of daylight. God is concerned about Jacob’s well-being. Jacob refused to admit that he was overmatched. I had a friend named Chris. He was a macho athletic type. The question was raised, “Would you get in the ring with Mike Tyson for one million dollars?” Only Chris said yes. I said, “That would be great Chris. Your widow will really enjoy that money.” Sometimes you have to hang on and keep wrestling, even with a broken hip. Sometimes we need that tenacity to keep wrestling even when we are over matched. Like Rocky in the movie. He did not care if he won or lost. He just wanted to go the distance. In some ways, Jacob never stopped wrestling with God. It took his whole life to really become Israel.
D. And finally, recognize that we worship a God who is not afraid to get down in the dirt with us. When we were in New Jersey, a woman in the church invited my wife to join the Garden Club. My wife loves gardening. But she came home disappointed. These women did not garden. They instructed their staff on what to plant. Turns out this was a prestige club. My wife said, “That’s not for me. I am a dirt under my fingernails kind of gardener. God does not stay aloof, high above the battles of our lives. God gets down in the dirt with us to redeem us and to remake us and to sustain us just as God did when God created us from the dust. We worship a God with dirt under His fingernails.
F. . Don’t be afraid to wrestle with God or yourself or both. Don’t be afraid if you find yourself in a predicament. That is usually a time of growth. And don’t be afraid to be changed. And don’t be surprised if you limp.
