Scripture Daily

Context No. 3399 of 4322 · Genesis

Context · Reflection

Genesis 32:21-26: in context

21So the present passed over before him, and he himself stayed that night in the camp. 22He rose up that night, and took his two wives, and his two servants, and his eleven sons, and crossed over the ford of the Jabbok. 23He took them, and sent them over the stream, and sent over that which he had. 24Jacob was left alone, and wrestled with a man there until the breaking of the day. 25When he saw that he didn’t prevail against him, the man touched the hollow of his thigh, and the hollow of Jacob’s thigh was strained as he wrestled. 26The man said, “Let me go, for the day breaks.” Jacob said, “I won’t let you go unless you bless me.”

On the night before facing his estranged brother Esau, Jacob sends everyone and everything across the river, and is left alone. And there a mysterious man wrestles with him until daybreak. When the man cannot prevail, he touches Jacob's hip and puts it out of joint, and still Jacob clings, saying, I will not let you go unless you bless me.

It is a strange and profound scene. Jacob, the schemer who had grasped after blessing his whole life by cunning, now clings to God himself for a blessing he can no longer take by trickery. And the wound comes together with the blessing; he will limp ever after. There is a picture here of persevering prayer that will not let go of God, even when the encounter leaves us marked. To meet God truly may both wound and bless; the humbling of Jacob and the blessing of Jacob come in the same night, from the same hand. He would not release his hold until the blessing came, and it did, along with the limp.

Do I cling to God in persevering prayer, refusing to let go until he blesses, even willing to be marked and humbled in the encounter?

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