Things Revealed

So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob's hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. Then the man said, "Let me go, for it is daybreak."

But Jacob replied, "I will not let you go unless you bless me."

The man asked him, "What is your name?"

"Jacob," he answered.

Then the man said, "Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome."

Genesis 32:24-29

How many rounds have you gone with God?

There’s a misguided biblical view that to argue with God—to wrestle with him—is to lack faith. According to this train of thought, people of faith simply accept their lot in life no matter how confusing or disappointing things get. For them, it should be enough to know that God has a plan and can always work things out for good. If he wants to.

It's true that James said “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds,” because "the testing of your faith develops perseverance” and perseverance “must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” Clearly then, we are instructed to consider trials a joy. But no one says that the testing of our faith which produces perseverance is fun. Or something wonderful to behold or experience. It isn’t. If anything, it can be a spectacle of emotions gone wild.

Sickness and death, economic hardship, broken relationships and every other manner of testing that comes our way, including stepping out in faith only to be disappointed or frustrated, all challenge our understanding of God and can undermine our confidence in his plan for our lives. It isn’t only unbelievers and agnostics who cry out “Why!?” in such moments; believers can be just as mystified and deflated when God doesn't meet our expectations or intervene when we think he's most urgently needed. Is the correct response a dejected "oh well?" or are we called to something more confrontational.

God wants us to wrestle with him. To engage him. To seek understanding. To work through why he heals one person and not another or answers some prayers and not others. He wants us to come to the place of obedience and trust, even when we think God is wrong (Watchman Nee, the prolific Christian writer, puts it this way: "We ask that God's will be done. But do we actually like it?"). Getting to that place of obedience and trust does more than make us strong, it makes us mature and complete. Struggling with God is the way to get there. Maybe the only way to get there.

Jacob was a man like any other. He had belongings. He had problems. He had family issues. He was in the middle of a move. He was a coward and a conniver. He was afraid his brother was going to kill him and he was in the midst of executing his own plan to buy him off to deal with that possibility. Jacob had everything under control and had worked through all the contingencies he could think of. Except one.

He didn’t know he was about to have an encounter—a hands-on, no-holds-barred wrestling match—with God incarnate. And Yahweh, the undefeated and undefeatable, let Jacob have at it all night long. It says that when the man saw that he could not overpower Jacob, he touched the socket of Jacob's hip “so that it was wrenched as he wrestled with the man.” Now surely the man could have overpowered Jacob before throwing a wrench in the works, but something else was going on here. A battle of wills, a contest of strength and endurance. Jacob could have gone on contending with the Lord forever if something didn’t happen. So God made something happen and the battle shifted from fists to faith, from the ring to the King.

After wrestling with God on Jacob's turf (given all that was going on in Jacob’s life at that moment, one can only imagine the thoughts that raced through his mind) and having the physical fight wrenched from him, there was only one thing left that Jacob wanted.

To be blessed.

To the natural man, it looked like Jacob was beaten and defeated. Not to God. For in the end, he said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome."

When our own strength is gone, when our plans come up short, when we have surrendered our will, when we are changed by our struggles with God and accept that his ways are perfect no matter how mysterious they are or inadequate they appear, we no longer demand an explanation. Instead, we desire his blessing. It is at that moment that he says, “now you have overcome.” And it is at that point that we become new creations. For Jacob, the change warranted a new name: Israel. It means "God prevails."

Moses wrestled with God about his call to lead the people out of Egypt. Elijah wrestled with him about Jezebel and how Israel and the prophets had abandoned their God, leaving only Elijah to defend his name. And Peter wrestled with Jesus about almost everything. Even Jesus himself wrestled at the most difficult moment in his life, crying out, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?" — which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Matthew 2:46)

It’s OK if we wrestle with God when we’re tested, as long as God prevails in the end. We are not the first ones to do it and we won't be the last. Moreover, we’re in the extraordinary company of those who wrestled before us. The victory comes not when we cry “uncle,” but when we cry "Father...not my will, but yours be done.” It is at that moment that the Lord says, “you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome.”

Becoming mature and complete is a life-long process. It is punctuated by spiritual growing pains and the voice of our Personal Trainer in Heaven cheering us on to both greater heights and to the fulfillment of our destiny in God.

Then, when the time is right, he gives us a new name which translates: "I am His."