The Patriarchs - Jacob

Jacob.

Genesis 32.24-31

'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 humans and have overcome.”

Jacob said, “Please tell me your name.”

But he replied, “Why do you ask my name?” Then he blessed him there.

So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.”

The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel, and he was limping because of his hip.'

(Peniel means 'face of God')

Another story full of meaning. Today, the thing that jumps out at me about it is the idea of wrestling with God, and what this might mean for us.

It's certainly easy to wrestle with - or even try to run away from - what God is calling us to do, and who God is calling us to be.

And it's perhaps even easier to wrestle with faith, and with prayer... there are inevitably days when it feels harder than other times - a chore rather than a pleasure, barren rather than fruitful.

One thing Jacob teaches us, other than to stick with that wrestling - is that in all things, God is with us, and will bless us.



For reflection and prayer today - A Canticle, from Isaiah 2.3-5

1    Come, let us go up to the mountain of God,  ♦

to the house of the God of Jacob;

2    That God may teach us his ways,  ♦

and that we may walk in his paths.

3    For the law shall go out from Zion,  ♦

and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

4    God shall judge between the nations,  ♦

and shall mediate for many peoples.

5    They shall beat their swords into ploughshares,  ♦

and their spears into pruning hooks.

6    Nation shall not lift up sword against nation,  ♦

neither shall they learn war any more.

7    O people of Jacob, come:  ♦

let us walk in the light of the Lord.

♫  Today's music suggestion... Bri - Jacob's Song