“A New Identity”
SCRIPTURE
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, yet my life is preserved.” The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip. Therefore, to this day the Israelites do not eat the thigh muscle that is on the hip socket, because he struck Jacob on the hip socket at the thigh muscle.” —Genesis 32:22-32
DEVOTIONAL
This may be one of the greatest passages in the Bible. Jacob has come to the point where he must face his past, or maybe himself. His brother Esau, whom he had robbed not once but twice, was heading toward him, coming with 400 men and Jacob was (as the text describes) “greatly afraid and distressed.” He should have been. He was alone that night when he met his match. Some say that “the man” was God, an angel, some say it was Esau or even Jacob wrestling himself. Whomever it was, the struggle was long, dark, painful, and silent. That is, until fear struck up a conversation. “Let me go, for the day is breaking,” the man said. But Jacob didn’t let go until something came of it. “I will not let you go,” he said, “unless you bless me.” So the stranger asked his name.
In the Bible, names are important. They describe not only the person’s identity but also their character, their story, it is who they are. Jacob means “the supplanter” – he who takes the place of someone else. But in that struggle, Jacob wasn’t in the place of anyone else. Through the anguish and exhaustion faced with integrity and hope, Jacob became something new. “You shall no longer be called Jacob,” the stranger tells him, “but Israel,” which means one who has “striven with God and humans and prevailed” (32:28). When the sun rose, there was no longer a struggle, no longer Jacob walking from his past, but now Israel, limping toward his future.
If there is one thing that this text tells us, it’s that while God doesn’t protect us from the struggle, God shows up – maybe as the one with whom we wrestle, maybe in the dark fear, maybe in the scars that never heal. Wherever God is, if we refuse to settle for a truce, facing each struggle with integrity and hope, we become something new, letting go of the past to walk, limp and all, toward a more faithful future of reconciliation, freedom, and abundant life.
- With what do you struggle? A relationship, a career, regret, fear? Where is God in that struggle?
- What have you become through that challenge?
- How does your struggle shape your relationships with others now? Do you share that part of yourself? How? Do you hide it?
PRAYER
Prayer
Holy One, ordain every struggle and challenge we face to be the very place we meet you. In that struggle, do not let us go. In that struggle, shape us into something new. In that struggle, bless us to follow you, limp by limp, toward the light, toward one another, toward the one we are becoming. Amen.
The daily devotionals for the season of Lent are written by Rev. Dr. Kirk Hall, Associate Pastor of Formation at First Presbyterian Church from 2010-2013. He is currently a founding partner at The Metis Project, LLC. and lives with his wife and two girls in Salisbury, Connecticut.