Probably the strangest encounter with God recorded in the entire Bible is found in Genesis 32:24. Here’s the setting. Jacob cheated his brother Esau out of everything that mattered. Then Jacob left town to wait for Esau to cool off. Twenty years later he comes back. On his way, he gets the news. Esau was coming to meet him all right—along with 400 men. This could only mean one thing: Jacob was in great danger. At best, everything he had worked for in the last twenty years would probably be gone in a few hours. His wives and children could be taken from him, and he would be powerless to prevent it. He would be lucky to escape with his life.
As the sun set, Jacob knew that tomorrow could easily be the last day of his life. If ever Jacob needed a word of encouragement from God, now was the time.
And here God meets with Jacob, but he doesn’t say a word. All He does is wrestle with him until daybreak. What must have been going through Jacob’s mind? Everything Jacob had was on the line—his own survival was a major question mark. And now this.
One day when my two boys were 8 and 11, they got into a fight. (One of many, of course.) There were angry words and tears and more angry words. I suppose I could have sat them down and said, “Now, boys, this is how you should be nice to each other.” But, somehow, I didn’t think that would work.
So I told them both to come here, that I was going to beat some sense into them. (I didn’t actually beat them of course, but I wrestled with them a bit.) Then the three of us sat down on the couch—one on each side of me—and we looked at a book I got from the library on military aircraft. There we sat for fifteen minutes or so looking at Tomcats and Harriers and cargo planes. At first they were both pretty sullen, but it wasn’t long before all three of us got lost in figuring out how big these planes were, how fast they flew, what they carried, and who flew them.
After fifteen (or was it twenty-five?) minutes, I looked at them and asked, “If I let you guys go, do you think you can figure out how to get along with each other?”
The younger one got up and hugged the older one. Then the older one stood up and hugged the younger one. Then they both walked back into their world.
I honestly don’t know if that’s good parenting or not. It just seemed like the right thing to do.
In Jacob’s case, he wrestled with God. Barely a word was exchanged. Yet, at the end of the night, something had changed. Jacob discovered something about God he could find out no other way. God gave Jacob a new name (Israel) to show him that you can wrestle with God and with men and prevail.
By the way, the meeting with Esau went quite differently than Jacob expected. You can read all about it in Genesis 32 and 33.
Be encouraged!
Dwight
