A, Post-Pentecost 10 Proper 13 - Genesis 32:22-31 "Struggle"
Today’s sermon is for everyone who’s ever had conflict with
anyone else. Who feel they have been
unfairly treated. Who’ve got the rough
end of the deal. Who believe they’re not
the “be all and end all” of humanity, but believe they deserve better treatment
than what they’ve received. You might be
this person who sighs in exasperation, “if it’s not one thing it’s another!”
One thing after another keeps occurring. You might feel your limping along through life,
thinking things could be better! If you
are I invite you to hear and ponder the story of Jacob as your story.
Over the last three Sundays, we’ve heard about Jacob in the
readings.
First, we heard about his birth, holding onto his brother’s
heel. A sneaky individual who steals Esau’s
birthright for a bowl of lentil stew. (See Genesis 25: 19-34)
Second, he has a dream, and in it sees a ladder coming down
from heaven. Angels were ascending and
descending the ladder and from the top God spoke to Jacob and promised to give him
land and offspring. (See Genesis 28:10-19a)
Third, in last week’s reading, Jacob arrives and works for
his uncle, Laban, his mother Rebekah’s brother.
The deceiver is deceived by his kin.
Jacob thinks he is working for seven years to receive Rachel as his wife
but is given Leah. After a week he is
given Rachel for another seven years’ work.
The reading today has Jacob journeying back to Canaan. He is fleeing Laban but returning to Esau,
whom he fled after stealing his birthright and blessing.
Here is a man surrounded by trouble. In front of him is uncertainty. God has called him to return to his people. The only problem is his brother might try to
kill him for stealing his birthright.
Behind him is his father-in-law, Laban. Disgruntled by Laban’s changing terms of
employment, Jacob schemes Laban out of his best livestock. In this deceit, amongst others, the
relationship falls ill between Jacob and Laban.
Jacob and his cohort attempt to flee but Laban catches him. A covenant of peace is made between Laban and
Jacob, and they depart.
Jacob was being blessed as God had sworn to him at Bethel. He came with nothing except for God’s promise
and now he was leaving Laban having been given, wives, offspring, and livestock.
But to where would he go and settle?
As he journeyed towards home, he heard Esau was approaching
with four hundred men. Jacob knows what
he has done to Esau, he expects the worst, to be attacked, have his family and
livestock killed. He divides his people
and livestock.
Acknowledging his fear, and the trouble he was in, Jacob
prays, “O God of my father Abraham and
God of my father Isaac, O LORD who said to me, ‘Return to your country and to
your kindred, that I may do you good,’ I
am not worthy of the least of all the deeds of steadfast love and all the
faithfulness that you have shown to your servant, for with only my staff I
crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two camps. Please deliver me from the hand of my
brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear him, that he may come and attack me,
the mothers with the children. But you
said, ‘I will surely do you good, and make your offspring as the sand of the
sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.’ ” (Genesis 32:9–12 ESV)
Jacob then decides to present five gifts to Esau in the
hope of appeasing his brother. These
were separate gifts of two hundred and twenty goats, two hundred and twenty
sheep, thirty camels and their calves, fifty head of cattle, and thirty donkeys.
Two things are made explicit to us with this large five-fold
gift. The first is Jacob was now a
wealthy man having been blessed by God.
The second thing is he feared his brother having wronged him. Jacob’s spirit was terribly unsettled by the
predicament in which he had gotten himself.
After sending these gifts, he sends his wives, his two concubines
who served them, and their children, over the river.
This is no act of chivalry.
Deceitful Jacob places a buffer between himself and his enemy. He prepares to sacrifice his least favoured possessions
and people first. One by one, lot by lot,
leaving himself last behind those he has sent out to be his expendable pawns.
It’s here, by himself, this extraordinary event occurs. Jacob struggles with a man whom he realises
is God. The irony here in Jacob’s act to
protect himself, by cowardly sending all out in front of him he leaves himself exposed. The one who grabbed his brother’s heel in birth,
and in life, who struggled with his kin, now struggles with God.
The river he sent his family over is called the Jabbok, it
means to pour out or empty. At this river
he empties himself of his family. But in
his struggle with God, it is Jacob who is emptied, only to have God’s blessing
poured out upon him.
In this event, the people of God born to Jacob, get their
name as Israelites, after God blesses him and renames him Israel. The name is a combination of two Hebrew names,
Sarah and El or Elohim. This is a
combination of his grandmother’s and the Almighty’s names. In Hebrew, Sarah or Sar is a person who
exercises dominion or prevails with power.
So, Jacob gets the name of Israel because he prevails with the
Almighty. This is not lost on him as he
calls the place Peniel, which translates as “the face of God”, for he says, “I have seen God face to face, and yet my
life has been delivered.” (Genesis 32:30b ESV)
It has all finally caught up with the heel grabber. Despite grabbing God in this wrestle, God has
grabbed him! In fact, all with whom
Jacob has wrestled has been a struggle with God. His struggle with his uncle Laban, his father-in-law,
has been a struggle with God. But at the
place of struggle God had blessed him.
Now having struggled with God, whom he first thought was a
man, Jacob receives a blessing, it’s here the name Israel takes on a different
tone. Not only does Jacob struggle
against God, from now on Jacob will also struggle, together with God, as a
blessing. He is fulfilling God’s initial
promise to his grandfather Abraham.
There are indicators after this that demonstrate this
combination of struggle and blessing.
Practically, Jacob cannot now flee from the incoming threat
of his brother Esau. You can’t run with
a dodgy hip. At best one can hobble along. Having sent his livestock and family before
him as a buffer, now he leads with a limp and meets Esau.
We hear in Genesis thirty-three, “And Jacob lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, Esau was coming,
and four hundred men with him. So he divided the children among Leah and Rachel
and the two female servants. And he put
the servants with their children in front, then Leah with her children, and
Rachel and Joseph last of all. He
himself went on before them, bowing himself to the ground seven times, until he
came near to his brother. But Esau ran to
meet him and embraced him and fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept.” (Genesis 33:1–4 ESV)
Now, he put himself before his least favoured all the way
back to Rachel and Joseph, his favourites. Yes, he still has an order that discriminates!
But now, he makes himself the least,
having struggle with God and also blessed by God. Now, Israel
struggles together with God, so through Israel, God can struggle with humanity
to bless them too.
The second indicator or marker is how Jacob now regards
Esau, his brother, whom he formerly saw as his enemy. Jacob now struggles with Esau in a new way,
to be a blessing to him with the five sizable gifts of livestock.
Jacob says to Esau, who seeks to refuse his gifts, “ ‘No, please, if I have found favour in your
sight, then accept my present from my hand. For I have seen your face, which is like
seeing the face of God, and you have accepted me. Please accept my blessing that is brought to
you, because God has dealt graciously with me, and because I have enough.’ Thus
he urged him, and he took it.’ ” (Genesis 33:10–11 ESV)
God touched his hip, not to keep a hold of the heel grabber,
but to lift him up by the heel to bless all people. He whom he saw as an enemy, in him he now saw
the face of God. What had changed? Jacob no longer saw himself as God, but as one
with whom God had mercy, and from whom
he had received blessing.
Like Jacob we have conflicts with other people. Do you see the face of God in those you regard
as enemies, or even those whom you treat with suspicion? Jacob lived as though he had a constant chip
on his shoulder. He was a heel of a man
who struggled with all through his self-righteousness, yet those with whom he
struggled God gave blessing.
Jesus Christ is the Godsend of Jacob to all people. Jesus is the blessing of Israel for
humanity. He took up the struggle of
Jacob and saw the face of God in his enemies.
He saw the face of God in you when he took your struggles with God and
with others on himself to the cross.
Let the Holy Spirit wrestle your human spirit so you can
see God in the face of those with whom you struggle. Let the Holy Spirit lead you to forgive, as
God has forgiven you. Struggle, together
with God, to bless as you have been blessed!
Amen.
