But the wrestling can take different forms, from struggling to understand WWII, the Holocaust, a personal tragedy to arguing over the meaning of a sacred text.
Jacob was the third patriarch, grandson of Abraham the journeyer and son of Isaac the would-be sacrifice. He began his career as a wily trickster, obtaining his brother's birthright, after deceiving his blind father Isaac. His name itself meant heel or crooked. But touched – and partially crippled – by an angel, he emerges as the key figure in the understanding of what it means to wrestle with God. Like his grandfather before him, Jacob received a new name from God, symbolic of a transformation. "No more shall you be called Jacob, but Israel, “declared the angel, "for you have wrestled with God and with men, and have prevailed."
This idea of confrontation and engagement with God, as opposed to pure submission, is what I’d like to discuss now.
“At Passover, the holiday most observed by Jewish families, questioning is actually mandated. On Passover one is commanded to question. ‘Four questions’ traditionally recited by children are written into the Passover Haggadah. But, according to the Talmud, even more important are the spontaneous questions that emerge from real curiosity, rather than mere rote., e.g. ‘Why in the world are we doing this?’"
- What does it have to do with God?
- Is it a historical identity, an identity of peoplehood, or a religion?
- Is there room for the transcendent in this identity?
- And if there is, what implications does that have for our lives?
(Genesis 32:24-32) Jacob wrestles with the Angel and prevails.24 And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day.25 And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him.26 And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.27 And he said unto him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob.28 And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.29 And Jacob asked him, and said, Tell me, I pray thee, thy name. And he said, Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name? And he blessed him there.30 And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.31 And as he passed over Penuel the sun rose upon him, and he halted upon his thigh.32 Therefore the children of Israel eat not of the sinew which shrank, which is upon the hollow of the thigh, unto this day: because he touched the hollow of Jacob's thigh in the sinew that shrank."
The Angel had the power to dislocate Jacob’s thigh, he had the power to overcome him at any time. So why didn’t he? I would suggest that it was because the struggle was necessary for the growth of Jacob.We see this in the prayer of the great figures in scripture: Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and the apostles. Abraham barters with God for the lives of those in Sodom; Moses at first hesitates to answer his call, saying instead that his brother is a better fit for the job; the apostles make excuses for themselves before eventually laying their lives on the line; and Jesus gives himself over in the Garden of Gethsemane only after first making a humble plea to the Father to “let this cup pass.” “As Rabbi Heschel puts it, from Abraham through Jesus we see how the great figures of our faith are not in the habit of easily saying: ‘Thy will be done!’ but often, for a while at least, counter God's invitation with: ‘Thy will be changed!’"
Struggling with God’s will and the obstacles we are called to overcome, the dangers we are often called to face is a very human thing to do. The act of wrestling with God isn’t always a bad thing, there are times when God is trying to teach us something complex and the lesson is in the struggle itself, in the very dangers and obstacles we face, in the process of wrestling with God’s will we grow spiritually. We honor neither ourselves nor God or the scriptures by making things to simple. God understands us and we would do well to understand these lessons better.
A Canaanite woman pleaded with Jesus to heal her daughter in Matthew 15:22-28;“22 And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil.
23 But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth after us.
24 But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
25 Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me.
26 But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it to dogs.
27 And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters' table.
28 Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour.”
Jesus doesn’t ignore her at first; the text simply says he does not respond. That’s common for many prayers but the woman persists. She is rebuffed but does not give up, eventually her faith is proven and her daughter receives a blessing of healing. Her pleas do not fall on deaf ears, she is being led to a point of understanding as much as Jesus is using this as a teachable moment to the disciples.
Then we have the story of Balaam:
“7 And the elders of Moab and the elders of Midian departed with the rewards of divination in their hand; and they came unto Balaam, and spake unto him the words of Balak.
8 And he said unto them, Lodge here this night, and I will bring you word again, as the Lordshall speak unto me: and the princes of Moab abode with Balaam.
9 And God came unto Balaam, and said, What men are these with thee?
10 And Balaam said unto God, Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, hath sent unto me, saying,
11 Behold, there is a people come out of Egypt, which covereth the face of the earth: come now, curse me them; peradventure I shall be able to overcome them, and drive them out.
12 And God said unto Balaam, Thou shalt not go with them; thou shalt not curse the people: for they are blessed.
13 And Balaam rose up in the morning, and said unto the princes of Balak, Get you into your land: for the Lord refuseth to give me leave to go with you.
14 And the princes of Moab rose up, and they went unto Balak, and said, Balaam refuseth to come with us.
15 And Balak sent yet again princes, more, and more honourable than they.
16 And they came to Balaam, and said to him, Thus saith Balak the son of Zippor, Let nothing, I pray thee, hinder thee from coming unto me:
17 For I will promote thee unto very great honour, and I will do whatsoever thou sayest unto me: come therefore, I pray thee, curse me this people.
18 And Balaam answered and said unto the servants of Balak, If Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond the word of the Lordmy God, to do less or more.
19 Now therefore, I pray you, tarry ye also here this night, that I may know what the Lordwill say unto me more.
20 And God came unto Balaam at night, and said unto him, If the men come to call thee, rise up, and go with them; but yet the word which I shall say unto thee, that shalt thou do.” (Numbers 22:7-20)
Balaam is going on his mission with or without the approval of God, so God says if you’re going only do what I tell you to, only say what I tell you to say. God knows Balaam will do this much and rather than abandon Balaam God succeeds in using Balaam’s words and deeds to do his will.
Then we have Abraham wrestling with God for the lives of those in Sodom. Abraham and God barter for the lives to be lost:“20 And the Lord said, Because the acryof Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their bsinis very grievous;21 I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto me; and if not, I will aknow.22 aAndthe men turned their faces from thence, and went toward Sodom: but Abraham bstoodyet before the Lord.23 ¶And Abraham drew near, and said, Wilt thou also adestroythe brighteous with the cwicked?24 Peradventure there be fifty righteous within the city: wilt thou also destroy and not asparethe place for the fifty righteous that aretherein?25 That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked: and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from thee: Shall not the aJudgeof all the earth do right?26 And the Lord said, If I find in Sodom fifty arighteouswithin the city, then I will spare all the place for their sakes.27 And Abraham answered and said, Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, which am but adustand ashes:28 Peradventure there shall lack five of the fifty righteous: wilt thou destroy all the city for lack of five? And he said, If I find there forty and five, I will not destroy it.29 And he spake unto him yet again, and said, Peradventure there shall be forty found there. And he said, I will not do it for forty’s sake.30 And he said unto him, Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak: Peradventure there shall thirty be found there. And he said, I will not do it, if I find thirty there.31 And he said, Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord: Peradventure there shall be twenty found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for twenty’s sake.32 And he said, Oh let not the Lord be aangry, and I will speak yet but this once: Peradventure ten shall be found there. And he said, I will bnotdestroy it for ten’s sake.33 And the Lord awenthis way, as soon as he had left communing with Abraham: and Abraham returned unto his place.” (Genesis 18:20-33)And it seems to be this reason alone the Lord saved Lot. Otherwise he would have been lost like all the inhabitants of Sodom. We all have many examples of things that we wrestled with God about.
Abraham pleaded with God to save Sodom and Gomorrah. He pleaded for the lives that would be lost. At first God says he will spare the cities if there are 50 righteous people then Abraham haggled God down to 10. Abraham showed the same chutzpah that the Canaanite woman showed Jesus and the apostles. She persisted and Jesus healed her daughter. One woman grabbed the tzitzit, the hem of his garments, and the holiest part of his garments and was healed by the holiness of Jesus even without his verbal consent. That’s very daring, very much the chutzpah required to wrestle with God.
Everyone wrestles with God in one way or another. Take Balaam for example, he chose to petition the Lord to grant his consent to go on his mission. God was against it and told him he could not go. Balaam continued his petitions and the Lord relented but stipulated that Balaam was to only do and say what the Lord told him.
Its not that God ever changes his mind and it’s not that he holds submission to his will as essential because he wants an interactive relationship with us. That means wrestling with him, engaging him in debate and in petitioning him with our prayers.
It follows the same logic as when I have prayed to God and asked him why bad things happen to good people, why does he allow such suffering pain and warfare, so much injustice in the world when he could easily do something about it. And after those prayers I would have the sudden idea pop into my mind that God asks the same question of me. That God did do something about those issues, he made me and he made you, he made all of us and we are to be stewards of nature as much as we are to be stewards of our own health, welfare and prosperity. And eachothers as well.
God would not call us to follow in the footsteps of Christ were it not possible. He would not call is to that level of righteousness if we were not capable of succeding in living up to it.
We can do it if we choose it.
Even Atheists wrestle with God, they wrestle with his existence. When they see religious imagery God and his message infiltrate their mind and they fight back with whatever questions or certainty they have that he does not exist. For them they have to remove all religious imagery from secular life lest they have to answer questions like why are we here or what happens when we die rather then ask questions to find nothing but fault in the existence of God or the many questions about God and the nature and purpose of life.
If Atheists were really satisfied with their answers, the bleakness of a universe without God would not be so terrifying or depressing. I used to be one so I know from experience and I still know many Atheists and they simply refuse to address the age old timeless questions of what happens when we die by ignoring the near death experiences of millions and simply pretending its a simple hallucination when the facts simply do not bear that out.
I do feel for people without a personal relationship with God. To live in a universe without any real justice or unconditional love and forgiveness is a lonely and soul crushing place to live. Most Atheists keep their composure until a brush with death raises these fundamental questions and then they may find themselves in a bit of a crisis. Because the fear of death is so strong its an atheists main argument for why religion exist but they’re then denying their own fear of death by simply not thinking about it.
Just because you’re not paranoid don’t mean they’re not after you. And just because you don’t believe in God doesn’t mean he does not exist. Believing he does isn’t proof in and of itself either but it at least means you are open to seeing the evidence of his handiwork in all aspects of creation.
These are some reasons people wrestle with the existence of God. But how do people wrestle with God in their personal relationship with him?
Abraham pleaded with God to save the city of Sodom, the Canaanite woman petitioned Jesus to heal her daughter, and Jacob literally wrestled with God all night.
I wrestled with my desire to be a dad without seeing any possibility of having any children. And then rather than meeting a woman in church i met one who had 4 kids. I got what I needed which was a family even if I never got what I wanted. My wife had a hysterectomy so though it’s possible to have a surrogate mother give us a child that is ours, its very unlikely due to a lack of money to pay the medical expenses.
I wrestled with God over getting to be a dad and now I get to be a stepdad. The Lord answered my prayers; he just had something different or better in mind since what I have now is much better for me than what I wanted. Maybe I didn’t get what I wanted but I definitely got what I truly needed.
God does want us to submit to his will, but he also rewards those who have a more engaged and interactive relationship with him. He heard Abraham's prayers for Sodom. Jesus healed the Canaanite woman’s daughter because she showed her faith and she showed boldness in addressing and pleading with Jesus. Jacob was rewarded with a new name, a new station in life. His name was changed to Israel which means to wrestle with God.
I’m sure you have wrestled with God in your own way as well and come to hard won realizations.
