Reading the Bible in 2014: Day 14 - Never Letting Go

The story of Jacob wrestling with the mysterious stranger in Genesis 32:22-32 has always fascinated me.  I’ve never been any good at wrestling.  I recently saw an old friend from Dallas who had wrestled in high school.  I remember how easily he could pin me to the ground.  Now he has a son of his own.  I wonder if his son will ever pin his papa.  How good was Jacob?  Was he a good wrestler, or did he just know enough to never let go?

Jacob’s new name honors the striving he has endured and the way he has prevailed.  He has become wealthy with a large family, many children, and livestock.  He has striven with men and has prevailed.  He has striven with God and has lasted.  He has not given up. 

Jacob's life has been filled with suffering: “It was like this with me: by day the heat consumed me, and the cold by night, and my sleep fled from my eyes.  These twenty years I have been in your house; I served you fourteen years for your two daughters, and six for your flock, and you have changed my wages ten times.  If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the fear of Isaac, had not been on my side, surely now you would have sent me away empty-handed.  God saw my affliction…” (Genesis 31:40-42)  Jacob isn’t perfect.  He is even wrong about the household gods that his wife Rachel slipped from her father.  But he has held onto God through the difficulties of life with Laban.  He has prevailed.  And when he wrestles with the mysterious man, he endures.  He never lets go.

Never letting go of the God who never let them go – this is Jacob’s legacy.  It is the way of his future generations.  This is what links Abraham, Moses, Ruth, Job, David and all the rest together.  They don’t let go of God no matter what.  This is the way of following God today.  We aren’t perfect.  We suffer for our sins.  We also suffer through no fault of our own.  God is with us through the suffering.  He will never abandon us.  The story of Jacob reminds us that life is often something to be endured.  Do you trust that God is with you, even if for decades you’ve had to endure life rather than enjoy it?  How is your striving going?

Jacob gave God all the fight he had.  Was the mysterious wrestler of the night actually God?  He is a messenger of God to be sure.  Still, let’s face it – God took it easy on Jacob to let him get out of that fight with just a sore hip.  Jacob prevailed.  But there was a man who strove with God, who wrestled with him, who suffered throughout his life, who didn’t prevail.  He did not walk away with a limp.  He was flattened upon a cross.  Jacob received the name of “Israel.”  A passing centurion called Jesus “the Son of God.” (Mark 15:39)  Jacob wrestled with God at night.  Jesus wrestled with God while praying in a garden at night.  He came to God with all of our sin though he had none of his own.  In this ultimate battle on the cross, Almighty God defeated sin and death through the sacrifice of Jesus.  He established a new life for us in his resurrection. 

In the course of this battle, Jesus held onto God through the worst night ever.  He never let go, even though it appeared God had entirely abandoned him.  Even in the times when we lose hold, when we aren’t as strong as Jacob, and struggle to hold onto God through the long night of job loss, of death before its rightful time, of loneliness or depression, Jesus is holding onto us.  Jesus never let go of God, and he will never let go of us.