“Now when He saw that He did not prevail against him, He touched the socket of his hip; and the socket of Jacob’s hip was out of joint as He wrestled with him.” (Gen. 32:25, NKJV)
In the previous teaching we wrote extensively about the important link that has to be made between Elijah and Jacob, of which the prophet speaks in 1 Kings 18:31-32a: “And Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord had come, saying, ‘Israel shall be your name.’ Then with the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord”. In teasing it apart we were led to Jacob’s struggle at the Jabbok, where, according to Gen. 32:28, he wrestled “with God and with man”.
This epoch-making event stands out as one of the most prominent events in the entire Biblical history. In his book The Weakness of God: A Theology of the Event, John D Caputo writes: “It is one of the most extensively interpreted texts—and yet we are no closer to a clear meaning than when it was first written thousands of years ago.”
In his insightful article ‘A Little East of Jordan: Human-Divine Encounters’ (collected in Emily Dickinson Journal, Vol. 8, No. 1, 1999, p. 46), Richard S Ellis writes the following about this encounter: “the Torah regard the encounter at Peniel as marking a new chapter in God’s biography. In wrestling with Jacob, the omni-potent Deity of Genesis, the creator of heaven and earth, makes an extra-ordinarily intimate gesture. In portraying this unpredictable, radically new relationship and the changes that it generates in Jacob, the Torah explodes with paradox, wordplay, and shifts of perspective.”
A new chapter in God’s biography!
This story recounts the change of name and identity Jacob underwent, but also offers to every individual in the Bride the typological model that makes it possible to receive a mantle of spiritual authority. In his book Preaching Christ from Genesis, Sidney Greidanus argues that “The prophet Hosea made reference in this reading to the remarkable incident in the life of Jacob, when he wrestled all night with an angel until God finally blessed him. The prophet gives a spiritual meaning to this event which had taken place a thousand years before his time. He exhorts the nation of Israel to follow the example of Jacob, their ancestral father, and have their own wrestling match with God; for they were in a greater danger than Jacob when he faced his brother Esau whom he shamefully mistreated. We learn from Hosea that this wrestling match with God was an experience to be imitated by future generations.”
During this wrestling match Jacob learns something no man before him had ever learnt, and this is something about God’s character, and thus something about his Name which will change the state of future generations! Even though Jacob asks God-in-the-guise-of-an-Angel what his name is (Gen. 32:29), He does not answer the question, but rather blesses him with the identity of that Name. For this reason it is a major moment in the history of God, a moment that will dramatically influence the rest of the events – nothing will ever be the same after this!
[Strictly speaking the phrase “the history of God” is a contradiction in terms – God is, after all, eternal (Gen. 21:33), and has, strictly speaking, no history, but here we are obviously considering the issue from man’s linear understanding of the unfolding of time.]
Which of the manifold names of God did Jacob come to know here? Which Name of his Saviour did Jacob have to struggle with so that he could, through this, become partial to “the divine nature” (2 Pet. 1:4)?. What exactly is this “name which is above every name” (Phil. 2:9)? What is this “more excellent name” He inherited (Heb. 1:4), which is such a secret that it is not even mentioned here?
There is never-ending contention about the Names of God and Jesus, and most of the arguments are based on linguistic evidence, as well as on possible links to idols that some of the most used Names may have. The Jews, as well as certain Christians within the Hebrew Roots Movement, for instance make a big deal of the tetragrammaton, the Hebraic abbreviation for the Name of YHWH (= Jehovah, spelled without the vowels), a word which, according to them, is not to be pronounced, and is thus written in this way.
Some context with regards to God’s Names is perhaps necessary here. Around 215 years after Jacob’s experience with the Angel Moses asks God a question about His Name: “Then Moses said to God, ‘Indeed, when I come to the children of Israel and say to them, The God of your fathers has sent me to you, and they say to me, What is His name? what shall I say to them?’ And God said to Moses, ‘I AM WHO I AM.’ And He said, ‘Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, I AM has sent me to you.’ Moreover God said to Moses, ‘Thus you shall say to the children of Israel: The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is My name forever, and this is My memorial to all generations.’” (Ex. 3:13-15). But take note: “I AM” is not a Name, but a present continuous tense, it is a state of BEING. Therefore, a short while after God had given Moses this revelation, He qualifies it further in Ex. 6:3 through something that initially seems like a counter to Ex. 6:13-15, but clearly is not: “I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by My name Lord I was not known to them.” Therefore we can see that God appeared to Jacob as the ALMIGHTY, although He did not make his Name, LORD, actually YHWH, “the existing One” (BDB), known to Jacob.. But we know that He wrestled His nature (= his Name: I AM WHAT I AM) into Jacob!
For this reason we gain a fuller understanding of God Almighty’s Name (= nature), when God increases Himself in Jesus:
- “I am gentle and lowly in heart…” (Matt. 11:29)
- “I am among you as the One who serves.” (Luke 22:27)
- “I am the bread of life …” (John 6:35)
- “I am the bread which came down from heaven.” (John 6:41)
- “I am the light of the world …” (John 8:12)
- “I am from above …” (John 8:23)
- “I am not of this world.” (John 8:23)
- “I am the door of the sheep.” (John 10:7)
- “I am the good shepherd.” (John 10:11)
- “I am the resurrection and the life …” (John 11:25)
- “I am the way, (I am) the truth, and (I am) the life …” (John 14:6)
- “I am the true vine …” (John 15:1)
- “I am glorified in them.” (John 17:10)
- “I am the Alpha and the Omega, (I am) the Beginning and the End, (I am) the First and the Last.” (Rev. 22:13)
- “ I am the Root and (I am) the Stock of David, (I am) the Bright and Morning ” (CAB)
It is therefore insightful that Saul of Tarshish, the one to whom the mystery of God’s increase in Jesus and the increase in the Christ, “Christ within us” (Col.1:27), was entrusted, asked the following when he met God, “And he said, ‘Who are You, Lord?’ Then the Lord said, ‘I am Jesus’ …” (Acts 9:5)!
But like Peter clearly understood “the mystery of Christ” (Col. 4:3) – “Simon Peter answered and said, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God’” (Matt. 16:16), Paul especially had to have an understanding of the mystery of Christ (Eph. 3:4), as he was the one called “to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery kept secret since the world began” (Rom. 16:25). He had to become acquainted with “the knowledge of the mystery of God” (Col. 2:2). [Please note this: why distinguish between God and Father here, if they are One Person, but liken God/Father to Christ? This has enormous implications!]
Earlier Jesus avoided this pressing question at all costs, not providing a direct answer to his special identity (or Name), not indicating whether He is indeed the Christ (Matt. 26:63: Luke 9:20; 22:66-67; John 4:29; 11:27), most likely because He was already sure that He would have to die before He could be increased to become the Christ (John 12:24; 1 Cor. 15:36-38; Heb. 2:9-10; Isa. 53:10).
But 1 John 5:1 makes this incredibly important statement: the revelation that Jesus is the Christ, is the prerequisite for entering the kingdom of God (1 John 5:1): “Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God.” It thus makes sense that Paul’s entire ministry was configured around “teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ” (Acts 5:42). In fact, as Peter makes clear in Acts 2:36: “Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.” If the demons knew the Name “Christ”, as Luke 4:41 points out: “And demons also came out of many, crying out and saying, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of God!’ And He, rebuking them, did not allow them to speak, for they knew that He was the Christ”, of course the Body, “who names the name of Christ” (2 Tim. 2:19), would too!
Back to the actual topic of today’s teaching – Jacob was actually wrestling to understand the mystery of God’s name, the nature of his character. It is so true what Paul Ellingworth writes in his article entitled ‘The Lord—The Final Judge of Functional Equivalence’ (in The Bible Translator 41.3, p. 347): “The mystery of God’s nature is not to be identified even with the Tetragrammaton itself, much less with the ancient Jewish reluctance to pronounce it, which in any case is totally irrelevant to a non-Hebrew-speaking non-Jew, whose linguistic and/or religious tradition knows no such reticence.”
The mystery of God’s nature is what Jacob was looking for, and which he gained in a dust-filled battle with the Almighty – a God who cannot be beaten but who allows himself to lose so that “the lowliest, weakest person will be … glorious … will be godlike” (Zech. 12:8, MSG). Within this “weakness of God” (1 Cor. 1:25, KJV) is nestled the greatest paradox of this strange God.
- Selah: Understand the importance of 2 Tim. 2:19.
- Read: 30-32; John 12-14.
- Memorise: John 14:20.
- For a more in-depth understanding: Read any of the books or articles mentioned in the text.
