Jacob wrestled.
Humanity wrestles.
I wrestle.
The account of the patriarch Jacob wrestling with an angel is perhaps one of the most engaging stories of the Bible. I try not to always make the Scriptures about me; I try not to personalize everything I read in the Bible, but I cannot help but read this story in Genesis 32 and imagine myself as Jacob.
God gave Jacob a promise.
God gave humanity a promise.
God gave me a promise.
Jacob does not understand why life is turning out as such IF, in fact, God has given him the assurance of His goodness. He is perplexed...but he keeps moving. He does not let confusion and apparent contradictions paralyze him. Yet, as he moves forward by faith, a mysterious figure picks a fight with him.
Here is where it gets personal…
I often feel like life is picking a fight with me. Not necessarily in a malicious, dark sense because strangely, when I am still, I can sense something otherworldly in the fight.
Don’t get me wrong.
My life is good and I certainly don’t have a fraction of the challenges and hardships that others around the world face, but I still feel like the puzzling mysteries of life are systematically seeking me out for yet another match. Like Jacob, I am sometimes perplexed at the reality that my path does not appear to be leading to the promise God made.
But I keep moving.
And I wrestle.
Life is filled with complicated realities, and we must embrace the mystery and complexity of those realities.
And we must wrestle.
We cannot oversimplify.
We cannot escape.
We cannot ignore the obvious truths.
Divorce is complicated.
Aging is complicated.
Infidelity is complicated.
Joblessness is complicated.
Abortion is complicated.
Poverty is complicated.
Democracy is complicated.
Sexuality is complicated.
Depression is complicated.
Racism is complicated.
Doctrine is complicated.
Parenthood is complicated.
Addiction is complicated.
And as the list goes on, we must decide not to run, but to wrestle instead.
So, in the narrative, Jacob wrestles and prevails.
He recognizes the POSSIBILITY that something good could be in the fight. He refuses to let the struggle go until he receives SOMETHING…ANYTHING! He is not going to wrestle in vain.
Well, he didn’t beat the angel…
It was a stalemate…
But he prevailed because he persevered.
The voice of God ended the match.
The voice of God ends my matches.
He didn’t get his questions answered.
I didn't get my questions answered.
He didn’t receive the tangible evidence that God would fulfill a promise.
I too walk by faith and not by sight.
Generations later, a follower of Jesus called John had a vision that was recorded in the book of Revelation. After several prophetic experiences, he declares on behalf of Jesus, “To the one who conquers…I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it.”
Jacob received a new name.
Humanity will receive a new name.
I will receive a new name.
As I write and teach…
As I love and cry…
As I debate and grow…
As I walk and see…
As I sort and embrace…
As I travel and settle…
I wrestle.
And I will keep wrestling because this new name excites me to no end!
Inspiration: Genesis 32, Revelation 2
This is great, Elijah!!!!
ReplyDeleteThe new name is very exciting to me too.
"The voice of God ends my matches."
Best. line. ever.
Glad you are writing!
Looking forward to reading more!!!
you said "i will receive a new name" but then later you say "this new name excites me to no end!" do you have the new name or is it the promise of the new name that excites you?
ReplyDeletei know how you feel about wrestling with God. i believe He's made His calling for me clear & has backed it with a supernatural ability and passion so i feel there's confirmation-- but then it's the timing issue. and the ADD issue. and the money issue. and so i wrestle, and in the meantime, i wrestle to have peace & contentment being the stay-at-home-mom that i am...
Great writing...Makes you want to wrestle more, for what you are in title to.
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