GOD "CHEATS?"
And "Thank God!" He does.
There are some strange, mysterious passages in the so-called “Bible,” that collection of ancient texts that were written and compiled over millennia in various places and geographically separated in their composition by people who ranged in identity from kings to prophets to peasants and that altogether tell a wondrously single Story . . . and here is one of my favorite such passages that is found in the Book of Genesis, supposedly written by Moses, a one-time Prince of Egypt, great Law Giver of the Jews, and direct descendent of the Jewish Patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
But Jacob stayed behind by himself, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. When the man saw that he couldn’t get the best of Jacob as they wrestled, he deliberately threw Jacob’s hip out of joint.
The man said, “Let me go; it’s daybreak.”
Jacob said, “I’m not letting you go ’til you bless me.”
The man said, “What’s your name?”
He answered, “Jacob.”
The man said, “But no longer. Your name is no longer Jacob. From now on it’s Israel (God-Wrestler); you’ve wrestled with God and you’ve come through.”
Jacob asked, “And what’s your name?”
The man said, “Why do you want to know my name?” And then, right then and there, he blessed him.
Jacob named the place Peniel (God’s Face) because, he said, “I saw God face-to-face and lived to tell the story!”
The sun came up as he left Peniel, limping because of his hip.
I wonder if when Jacob wrestled with the man who wouldn't tell Jacob his name but who Jacob concluded must have been God . . . if Jacob wasn’t actually just wrestling with himself?
I personally think that Jacob did wrestle with the so-called “angel of the LORD” who then cheated and put Jacob's hip out of joint when He couldn't prevail against Jacob.
But then, I wasn't there, was I? So, what do I know?
Except that I do know this . . . that I often confuse myself with God. Hell, doesn't everyone?
I also know this too . . . that every day that Jacob walked on that bad hip of his for the rest of his days, the pain of it made him remember how one day he had held on to God so close that he felt God’s breath on his face.
Oh nice. I love this line:"I also know this too . . . that every day that Jacob walked on that bad hip of his for the rest of his days, the pain of it made him remember how one day he had held on to God so close that he felt God’s breath on his face." Perhaps both are true--He wrestled with himself, since we are the image of God and with God himself (perhaps Jesus?) Thanks for sharing.
I agree, Mark. It's a great story - wherever you come from. Looking at what Jacob had done up to that point - and what would happen to him and his sons in the future makes that incident of wrestling and disability a significant point of his life.