Genesis 32:22-31
3/08/08
Vern Ratzlaff
Changing Names
All my life I seem to have been fighting someone or
another – struggling; trying to get the better of a deal. The midwife who
delivered me and my brother said I came out my mother's womb second, holding on
to my brother's heel. So they called me Heel Grabber. Grab at anything to get
ahead.
He was rightly called Heel Grabber. (Gen 25:26); he was born clutching the heel
of his minutes older brother, anxious to get ahead, from the very beginning, and
later named in a bitter pun by his brother, Cheater. Always trying to get ahead.
Deceived his father and cheated his older brother out of the family blessing.
Forced to flee from his brother's anger, Heel Grabber has some frantic years of
conniving, working for his equally grasping uncle. And then Heel Grabber decides
to return and attempt reconciliation with his brother, taking with him wives,
children, servants and animals, all in abundance. Reaching the Jabbok River, a
small tributary of the Jordan, he sends his family and herds across, but for
some reason decides to stay for the night on the north side of the stream.
Here today’s story starts abruptly. Jacob is left alone, and a man wrestles,
struggles, with him until daybreak. Wrestling, struggling. At one level the most
intimate of sports, but this is no love match. Grunting, heaving, groaning,
slipping, grasping and gasping, falling, sweating – hour after hour, neither
gaining (figuratively) the upper hand. Did they exchange insults, or what and
who initiated this strange contest? who is this man now locked in combat with
Heel Grabber? is this serious – did it start playfully and now they're at each
other's throat? is it a test of strength or will it be to the death? All night
this incredible struggle. And then, with some kind of strange tactic, the man
puts Heel Grabber’s hip out of joint. But even this isn't enough. Heel Grabber
still hangs on. "Let go." "No, you let go." "No, you let go." And Jacob says, "I
will not let go until you bless me." Bless you? what kind of blessing can this
strange wrestling partner give? Heel Grabber, the last time you got a blessing
it turned the whole world upside down for you. The man ignores the request for a
blessing; asks, “What's your name?” “Heel Grabber.” And the man says, “You shall
no longer be called, ‘Heel Grabber’, but "G-d Clutcher", the one who struggles
with G-d. Heel Grabber says, “And what is your name?” But the man refuses to
give his name, blesses Heel Grabber (now G-d Clutcher) and we see or hear no
more of this nocturnal wrestling partner.
There are delicious puns here. V24 the man “struggled”, the play on the name of
the river or even on Jacob. So we could read here, “he Yabokked him”, “he
Jacobed him”. But who is this man who “Jacobed” him? A Canaanite river god?
Michael, one of Yahweh's angels? the angel of death? (One of the rabbis said it
was an angel who had to leave at daybreak to keep his appointment to singing the
heavenly choir.) was it perhaps G-d? If so, this is not a gracious G-d of
daylight, but of night; if this is G-d, there is no room for flowery phrases in
prayer, no nice doctrines debated in philosophy class.
There is the wondrous verbal exchange (how do they have breath after a night of
struggling?) Let me go. Not unless you bless me. What's your name? Jacob. Now
it's Israel. What's your name? Why do you want to know? And this strange being
blesses him, blesses Heel Grabber, blesses Trickster. Heel Grabber has lived his
whole life trying to get blessings, good things, whether he has claim on them or
not. He has done anything to get a blessing: deceived his father, swindled his
brother. He wants a blessing: wants security now, protection from a brother's
anger and 400 foot soldiers, wants land. And instead he gets a new identity. a
new name. He is linked now by name and by nature to the promise keeping G-d; the
blessing is not for security and land; its for more life.
Before the blessing can be given, Heel Grabber has to give his name, revealing
his whole nature. Before Heel Grabber can receive a blessing, he has to receive
a new name. Before Heel Grabber can receive the blessing, he has to give up
trying to control, trying to manipulate, the stranger.
Jacob, Heel Grabber, from the womb was always on the make, dared anything,
always on the edge, always wanting more (whether land or women or cattle). But
now we see a different Heel Grabber. Interesting: the others in our biblical
story show little character development: Adam, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac,
Rebekah – they are Constant figures. But Heel Grabber, changes– oh, not
immediately, not in any drastic sense; in ch 33 he'll continue to hoodwink his
brother. But a change is taking place. Before, his piety, his relationship to
G-d, is verbal, external, bargaining. Now he has been left vulnerable; he can't
win everything, he can't win always; he has struggled with G-d, but this does
not leave him elated – his religious experience has left him lame, and a sobered
Heel Grabber limps across the Jabbok, where he has Jabboked.
What does the story mean? For the first readers.
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They were formed not by success, or shrewdness, cleverness, or by taking land, but by an assault of G-d. Not the usual approach of nice Amazing Grace song, but the struggle to find identity
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This story belongs to that part of the common scripture known as the J tradition, written to remind the people of the covenant G-d had made with them, written as the nation is breaking up after Solomon's death. It is trying to get the people to stay in community, a community won by the struggle of faith – don't splinter, the writer is saying.
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This story reminds the readers that their ancestor had been given a new name; as he had struggled with G-d, they can, too, to keep their identity alive. Interesting that three of the monotheistic religions have names that point to their identity:
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Islam, submission to G-d;
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Christianity, following a G-d made known by Jesus, Christ;
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Judaism/Israel, struggle with G-d.
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The people of Israel struggled with forces, forces not readily identifiable; but in these struggles
they found G-d, and developed a radical monotheism. G-d – and our identity – is to be found in the struggles of life.
What does this story mean? For us.
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Struggling with G-d helps focus a new identity for us, for who we are.
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Seeing G-d does not leave us unchanged; it may leave us with a limp – and a blessing. We will not leave the struggle with G-d unchanged.
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We share the blessing and bear the wound. We are not a beautiful community: we are odds and misfits, perpetual outsiders to our society. Our wound – the cross – puts us at cross purposes with our culture.
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In our struggles to find identity, we are tempted to think that things always work out well and that we will be able to make necessary alliances and find security in the forces around us. But we need to remember that the church's mission is larger than being prosperous or well thought of. Heel Grabber's story reminds us that struggle with G-d may be far more of a nighttime activity (uncertainty, terror) than daytime planning (when things are obvious and clear and tidy).
Heel Grabber, Cheater – that's me. But after that night of
struggle, I'm still not completely sure who it was that I struggle with – I've
come to see myself – and G-d – in new ways; come to see other people in new
ways.