“Wrestling with God”
Genesis 32:22-32
When I was in 7th grade, I remember our gym teacher getting creative and wanting us to try some sports that were a little out of the box. I think first we tried playing indoor hockey, then volleyball, then flag football. All three of those sports were fun, but I had already fallen in love with the sport of baseball. For me, the sun rose and set on a big baseball, and there was nothing that would sway my opinion. There was, however, one more sport our gym teacher wanted us all to try- wrestling. Did any of you wrestle in high school or college?
I had never tried wrestling before, although I do remember watching fake wrestling on TV, back in the early 1970s. Guys like Rocky Johnson and Pat O’ Connor were fun to watch. But I knew that was fake wrestling. Now I found myself listening to our gym teacher talk about real wrestling. We all got headgear to protect our heads and chins, were given very basic rules on how to start a match and score points, and then we were split into three groups, paired up, and started wrestling.
Honestly, I did not like it from the start. The guy I was paired up with was larger than me and had a body odor problem. It felt weird touching someone I did not know. Once we started, he pinned me pretty quickly and just lay on me, smelling. As soon as the ref got us back up, I tried as fast as I could to lose that match. I was DONE with wrestling (or so I thought) and couldn’t wait to get back to the baseball field.
This morning’s passage from Genesis is also about a wrestling match. However, this one doesn’t happen in a gym class, and this struggle isn’t just physical; it is spiritual.
Imagine a night so heavy with fear and uncertainty that you cannot sleep. You pace. You pray. You argue with yourself. And then—suddenly—you find yourself in a wrestling match you never expected: not with your enemies, not with your past, not even with a human being, but with God. That was Jacob’s night at the ford of the Jabbok River. And it changed his life forever.
This morning’s passage is difficult to understand unless you fully know what happened beforehand. So, let’s properly set the scene for the pending wrestling match.
Jacob was the son of Isaac and Rebekah, and the grandson of Abraham, whom God chose to be the father of many nations. Jacob had a twin brother named Esau, who was the firstborn, but Jacob was right on his heels (literally) as he grabbed Esau by the heel during their birth. This moment of birth was a perfect illustration of their future relationship.
The name “Jacob” יַעֲקֹב (Yaakov) means two things. First, literally it means “Heel grabber.” Additionally, it means “supplanter,” as in one who supplants another’s place and takes what does not belong to him. Jacob lived up to his name.
When Jacob and Esau were young, Jacob tricked his brother out of his first-born birthright with a meal. Later, he enlisted his mother, Rebekah, to trick Isaac and steal Esau’s blessing. I guess Jacob was Mom’s favorite! This resulted in Esau wanting to kill his younger twin, so Jacob fled.
Jacob fled to Haran, the land of his uncle, Laban. There he met two of his cousins, Leah and Rachel. He fell in love with both and eventually married them both. Yes, there are some strange relations in the Bible, and this sounds a bit like a storyline from Game of Thrones… Jacob worked for twenty years at his uncle’s place, and in time had a large family with two wives, 13 children, and lots of livestock. There was a misunderstanding between Jacob and his father-in-law, causing a lot of friction between the two. At that point, God told Jacob to go back to his home, telling him directly, “Return to your country and kindred, and I will be with you.” Jacob did so, taking his large family and livestock with him.
As he traveled from one difficult relationship with a father-in-law, he headed towards another difficult relationship with his twin brother. Scouts reported that Esau was aware of his brother’s return and was on his way to meet him with 400 men. Gulp! Jacob decided quickly to give his brother all kinds of gifts, lining up his servants and livestock in a procession to Esau, hoping that might stop a pending conflict.
Then Jacob, who up to this point in life really hasn’t been much of a believer, was desperate and prayed to God, admitting his many deceptions and asking God for deliverance from his brother, whom he feared. “You told me to come back here and that you would be with me and bless me. Help!”
That brings us to this morning’s passage. Jacob sends his family across the Jabbok River, hoping for their safety. Jacob is left alone, or so he thinks. Verse 24 tells us that “a man wrestled with Jacob until dawn.” Jacob struggles with the man, and the man touches his hip and brings it out of joint. Perhaps at this moment, Jacob realizes he is in a wrestling match with God. After asking God’s name and getting no answer, in desperation over his plight with Esau, he holds on for dear life and tells God, “I will not let you go unless you bless me!” God blesses Jacob, then departs. Jacob memorializes his struggle with God, naming the place Peniel, from the Hebrew words, "pānîm" (פָּנִים), meaning "face," and "El" (אֵל), meaning "God," together meaning “Face of God.” We also find that the Israelites did not eat the sinew around the hip of animals, due to Jacob’s hip being put out of joint during his match.
What then, is the significance of this wrestling match with the God of creation? How does it apply to us today?
The Wrestling Match – What It Represents
A Physical Struggle with Spiritual Meaning. Wrestling symbolizes Jacob’s lifelong struggle with God’s will. The “wrestling” is not merely physical—it mirrors Jacob’s lifelong inner battles with God, with his brother and with himself. It symbolizes the human struggle to hold on to faith in the face of fear, struggle, and uncertainty.
God Meets Us in Our Struggle with a purpose in mind. Sometimes God allows us to wrestle so we can confront our questions about our lives, our anger at how things have turned out, our deepest fears and sins.
After my 7th-grade wrestling experience, I thought I was finished with wrestling for good. I was wrong. My first of many wrestling matches with God came in 1990, while Paula and I were in seminary. We both felt called to serve God and agreed it was time for me to begin seminary, where I would earn a graduate degree after four years of graduate study. We were both young, still in our 20s, idealistic and eager to serve God as I dedicated myself to a life in ministry.
Just before attending classes in the fall at SFTS, our first child was born, Sarah Rose. Most of you know the story- that she was born with several problems, spent much time in the hospital at Children’s Hospital in Oakland before finally coming home to seminary housing. We had 24-hour nursing care in our apartment. I attended school full time while Paula worked to help cover the cost of school.
Life was stressful to say the least. After our daughter had a severe seizure and ended up back in the hospital, I went up to the top of the hill at the seminary and had my wrestling match with God. I yelled, argued, questioned, and wrestled with the Almighty. My hip was not out of joint, but my heart was broken. How could God let this all happen, especially just after we had both decided to serve God in ministry as a family?
I was so wrong back in 7th grade, when I never thought I would wrestle again. I have wrestled with God many times over the decades, often finding something out of joint. Each match has changed me. Our limp, our brokenness can become our testimony. That has been true for me. Experiencing profound loss, questioning God, and wondering why God allows suffering are all part of my faith now from that first of many wrestling matches with God. This leads to the second thing we learn from this morning’s passage.
God Allows Struggle to Transform Us. Jacob’s hip is touched. He is permanently changed from the encounter. The blow to Jacob’s hip dislocates it, marking a turning point. In the ancient Near East, such a wound could symbolize the end of self-reliance and the beginning of dependence on God. Jacob’s limp for life becomes a sign that God’s strength replaces his human strength.
That struggle can lead us to humility. Jacob was made lame by his wrestling match with God. For the proud, quick-witted scheming Jacob, this physical limitation was a sign of his new humility.
Humility, as defined by Merriam-Webster, means “freedom from pride or arrogance.” In our world, humility seems counter-culture and counter-success. But in God’s world, we become better people when we set aside our pride and rely on the Creator of all things. Jacob wasn’t the only biblical person whom God humbled. We see the same kind of stories in Simon Peter and in the conversion of Saul to Paul. We can see it in my wrestling match with God at seminary. My pride and arrogance, my certainty in faith, and my belief that I had all the answers about life and Jesus were set aside, replaced by a broken heart, and in time, newfound humility.
Last week, I received the latest email installment from Nadia Bolz Weber, who recently went through a very serious fight with breast cancer. After undergoing chemotherapy, radiation, and then having a double mastectomy, she too went through a wrestling match with God. Despite all she went through, surprisingly, she said she would not change what happened to her. Nadia writes, “If a year ago God said “Ok kiddo, would you like to choose cancer, the amputation of your breasts, hormonal wreckage, 2 months of maybe having a 2nd cancer (I do not have it but man, was that a tense 2 months), removing tissue from my uterus, and the death of your father” I would NEVER, never had chosen this. Because I am not a complete idiot. And yet, I must truly, if haltingly, admit: given a magic wand, one that could erase this last year of cancer and surgery and deep grief, I would not wave it. Because there is a wounded sorority of women to which I belong. Were I to meet any of them at a party where I was just about to leave because I am garbage at small talk, I would stay and have seconds of brisket.
The fellowship that awaits us across the worst Red Rover ever is ours for life. And right now I am feeling oddly grateful for it, because I feel less special and more deeply human than I ever have.”
Those wrestling matches with God are transformative and humbling.
Transformation also came to Jacob in another way, as God changed his name. God renamed Jacob “Israel” from the Hebrew roots yishra שׂ־ר־ה (“to strive/wrestle”) and El אֵל (“God”), meaning in full “he struggles with God”, signifying a new identity tied to divine encounter rather than human craft. It marks a shift from a life of deception (Heel catcher) to one of faith (He who struggles with God), in faith and relationship with God. Part of faith is the struggle! And when we struggle and wrestle with God, we are changed. We too become something new.
In summary, Jacob’s wrestling is symbolic of our lifelong wrestling with God, the cost of spiritual transformation, the renaming of identity through divine encounter, and the assurance of God’s presence and blessing amid adversity. It is both a personal turning point and a model for the life lived in faith. Jacob’s lives his life in faith, struggling with God but led by God. God used Jacob in a mighty way. His twelve sons became the foundations for the twelve tribes of Israel.
So perhaps it is time to ask, what is something you have been wrestling with God about? Your struggle is not wasted. God is shaping you, perhaps renaming you, and in time, giving you a new and more humble understanding of life and a new way of seeing.
May God be with us as we live and struggle in faith, doing justice, loving mercy, and limping humbly. Alleluia. Amen.
