The Night Jacob Wrestled God

Twenty years after he ran away from home, Jacob was going back, with Leah and Rachel, eleven sons and a daughter, and more sheep and goats than anyone could count.

There was one problem: Esau. The last time Jacob saw his twin, Esau was crying over a stolen blessing, and soon after he was planning to kill Jacob for it.

Jacob's messengers came running back. "We found your brother!" they panted. "He is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him!"

Jacob went cold all over. He split everyone into two camps, so if Esau attacked one, the other could escape.

Then he prayed. "God of my grandfather Abraham and my father Isaac, I don't deserve any of your kindness. Please save me from my brother. I am afraid he will kill us all, the mothers and the children too. But you told me to go home, and you promised to be good to me."

Next came a plan, because Jacob always had a plan. He sent Esau a present: herds of goats, sheep, camels, cows, and donkeys, one herd at a time. (That is more than five hundred animals, which is a very long way of saying sorry.) Each servant said, "This is a present for my lord Esau from your servant Jacob. And Jacob is right behind us!"

That night Jacob sent his family and everything he owned across a stream called the Jabbok. Then he was alone in the dark.

Out of the dark, a man took hold of him.

They wrestled in the dust, shoving and straining, all night long.

When the man saw that he was not winning, he touched Jacob's hip. Just a touch, and the hip came right out of its socket.

"Let me go," the man said. "The day is breaking."

Jacob hung on. "I will not let you go unless you bless me!"

"What is your name?"

"Jacob." It meant heel-grabber, and he had spent his whole life living up to it.

"Your name will not be Jacob anymore," said the man. "It will be Israel, because you have wrestled with God and with people, and you have won."

"Please," said Jacob, "tell me your name."

"Why do you ask my name?" said the man. And he blessed Jacob there. (God was keeping his name for later.)

Jacob called that place Peniel, which means "the face of God." "I have seen God face to face," he said, "and I am still alive!"

The sun rose as Jacob limped away.

Jacob had a new name now. But a new name could not make him new inside. He still had favorites among his sons, and his sons grew up to trick and grab, just as he had. For hundreds of years his family, the people of Israel, kept wrestling with God, holding on and running off.

On another dark night, a man crossed another stream, the brook Kidron, and went into a garden. A little way from his friends, who soon fell asleep, he knelt on the ground and struggled in prayer until his sweat fell like drops of blood. "Father," he prayed, "not what I want, but what you want." By the next afternoon he was nailed to a cross, and he died. He let himself be hurt far worse than Jacob ever was, so that grabbers and tricksters could be forgiven, blessed, and given new names.

Jacob had asked for God's name and heard no answer. This man's name was Jesus, which means "the LORD saves."