When I was a kid, my younger brother loved to tease me. Even though he is three years younger than I am, and even though I was taller than he was at the time, he would tease me, and I would never fight back. On road trips, he would stick out his finger like he was going to poke me, but he wouldn’t quite touch me. He held his finger an inch away from me until I couldn’t stand it anymore. “Mom! Zach won’t leave me alone!” I would holler. Basically, it was a pretty stereotypical older sister/younger brother dynamic. He never hurt me physically, and he always quit when I lost my cool, but it bothered me that he always got a rise out of me and I never did anything about it.

Once, when I had had enough, I stormed into the kitchen and told my dad I was tired of the teasing. He said, “The next time he does something to you, do it back to him.” I started to cry and said, “I can’t, Dad. I’m a Christian.” 

Eventually, I got tired of trying things the kind and compassionate way, and I decided to give my dad’s advice a try. My brother was poking at me, so I decided to slug him back. I reached back with my fist, and he put his hand on my forehead and held me at arm’s length. Like a cartoon character, I flailed my arms and never once made contact. I imagine it was hilarious to watch.

That’s the first image I get in my mind whenever I think about Jacob wrestling with the man at Peniel. You would think that Jacob–a mere human–would struggle as he wrestled against this man who was from the Lord. You would think the man, or the angel, would hold him at bay without much effort, but he does not. Jacob gives the man a run for his money. The Scripture says they wrestled “until daybreak,” and the man “did not prevail” against Jacob. The word translated “prevail” could also be translated as “endure” or “have power over.” Jacob with a fearsome opponent, and the mysterious man he wrestled against seems to have met his match in him.

And then, in an instant, the situation changes. The man who seemed unable to defeat Jacob as they wrestled throughout the night touches Jacob’s hip and puts it out of joint. The NRSVUE translates the verb here with the word “struck” – “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.” I like this translation because this verb is the same word used to describe God’s action of sending plagues upon Pharaoh and Egypt. Yet, even with a hip injury and the realization that the man he was wrestling was not an ordinary person, Jacob refuses to let go. Instead, he demands a blessing. He receives one. And he renames the place Peniel, which means “the face of God,” because he saw God and lived.

This story contains so much that we could explore–like the word play of the Hebrew words for “wrestle” and “dust” that sound a lot alike, and the renaming of Jacob to Israel–but for this morning, I want to focus on the wrestling that leads to a blessing. When I was growing up, I was taught that you shouldn’t question God, you shouldn’t have doubts, you should just accept what you’re told with naive faith. In fact, I was told that questioning God was dangerous, and texts like this one were used to show just how dangerous it was. Jacob wrestled with God, and as a result, he walked with a limp for the rest of his life. But, as I re-read this passage as an adult who has navigated ups and downs in life, I see it differently. During a tremendously difficult and uncertain time in Jacob’s life, he wrestled with God, he refused to let go until he received a blessing, and God blessed him–with a blessing that recognized and honored the struggle.

Let’s back up and take a look at what was going on in Jacob’s life up to this point. Prior to this passage, Jacob had been working for his father-in-law Laban. If you remember the story, Jacob had fallen in love with Laban’s daughter Rachel, but Laban tricked Jacob into first marrying his daughter Leah and later allowed Jacob to marry Rachel. Laban also tricked Jacob by changing his wages and the terms of his employment. As Jacob worked for his father-in-law, he repaid Laban’s trickery with trickery of his own. He asked Laban to give him the speckled or mottled sheep and goats as part of his wages, but then rigged up an intricate breeding system to make sure that most of the sheep and goats were speckled. When Laban realized he had been tricked out of a large portion of his livestock. The conflict between Jacob and Laban came to a head. Jacob packed up his family and livestock, and they fled in secret out of fear for their safety.

Laban catches up with them, and he is angry because his household gods were taken. Rachel had taken them, she hid them from her father, and Jacob and Laban patch things up enough that they part with a covenant and a blessing–one that we use at the close of every youth group meeting: “May the Lord watch between me and thee while we are absent one from the other.” 

Shortly after this family conflict, fear, and blessing, Jacob decides to send a message ahead of him to try and patch things up with his brother Esau. Esau had threatened to kill Jacob after Jacob stole his birthright from him, and so Jacob had a real reason to be afraid of his brother. It is in between the conflict with his father-in-law and the potential conflict with his brother that Jacob encounters the man at Peniel and wrestles with him throughout the night.

Have you ever been in the middle of a stressful situation, and all through the night you tossed and turned as every cell in your body tried to process what was happening? I imagine Jacob felt much the same way after sending peace offerings to his brother, not knowing how they would be received. He sent his family and flocks to the other side of the Jabbok river, and while he was alone, he struggled. He wrestled with the mysterious man, and he refused to let go, even when it cost him an injury to his hip. 

I wonder if Jacob was wondering who he was. He was no longer the hired man and son-in-law of Laban. He no longer wanted to be the person at odds with his brother. The trickery and deception of his life had fractured relationships, spilled over into his family life with his wives who were in constant competition with one another, and even though he had amassed a good deal of material wealth, it had cost him safety, peace, and connection. As he wrestled near the Jabbok river, I wonder if he was wrestling in his own mind, too. “Who am I? What will the future look like? Will I even have a future, or will the past messes I’ve created mean nothing but suffering for my future?”

Jacob’s hip is injured, but he holds on tightly to his mysterious opponent. He demands a blessing, and the man instead gives him a new name. Jacob’s name means “heel” or “supplanter,” because when his twin brother Esau was born, he was born with his younger twin Jacob grabbing onto his heel. In this moment at Peniel, the man renames him Israel. I love the way Associate Professor of Hebrew Bible Wil Gafney tells it: “Jacob demands a blessing. Jacob has decided that he will not let go of the wrestler whose power he knows is more than his own and, the wrestler who wounds with a touch has neither destroyed nor rejected him. He may just get his blessings if he holds on long enough. The wrestler asks Jacob’s name and Jacob answers with no ancestors, clan or people. He wrestles alone, stands alone and names only one name, ‘Yaaqov — Jacob — a Heel.’ Then the wrestler grants him with a new name: ‘God-wrestler — Israel.’”

In a terrifying in-between time for Jacob, a time when he did not know if his past would mean he had no future, God blessed Jacob for wrestling with him. God gave him a new name and a new purpose. God’s blessing opened to Jacob a future that he never thought possible. 

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the concept of “blessing.” We like to look at the good things in our lives and say, “We are so blessed.” And we are. Being grateful for the good things we have is a beautiful and spiritual practice. But, what about our messes? Are we blessed in the middle of those, too? 

I recently came across the music of Canadian singer-songwriter Desiree Dawson. She has several songs that I really enjoy, but the first song I ever heard of hers is called, “I Am Blessed.” In the song, Desiree Dawson sings about the blessings she has, even when life isn’t exactly what we thought it would be. She sings:

“I am blessed, yes I am blessed,
Even when I’m here feeling like a mess.
This life has shown me all kinds of stress
And also opened up my heart like the greatest treasure chest.

My heart’s been bruised and my dreams fell far 
And I’ve stayed awake wishing on the stars
But this life’s strange, it can be real rough, 
So now I look around to see how far I’ve come.

I am blessed, yes I am blessed,
Even when I’m here feeling like a mess.
This life has show me all kinds of stress
And also opened up my heart like the greatest treasure chest.

Step by step, day by day
I’m learning how to find my way
Even in the middle of the fight
So much love’s reminding me that 

I am blessed, yes I am blessed…”

In the middle of an uncertain and scary time, Jacob refused to let go. He wrestled and struggled, and he asked for a blessing. I find this story tremendously encouraging that no matter what we face in our lives, God is strong enough to withstand our challenges, our questions, and our doubts. Who knows? We may even find ourselves blessed in unexpected and life-changing ways on the other side.

In a few moments, we will gather to celebrate the Lord’s Supper together. Whether you have come to this place eager, ready, and with your heart overflowing, or you’ve come feeling like you’ve wrestled with God all night, may you rest assured that through God’s Word and around the Lord’s Table, we will be fed, and we will be blessed. Amen.