Israel vexes me greatly. I lived their for a year, spending time with Palestinians and Israelis and whilst there I wrestled with the complexity of the politics, the theology, the land and of the people. I'm currently thinking about the relationship between Jacob and Israel and whether the theological formation of Israel, in a wrestling match, can help in our political engagement today.
I've been trying to get my head around why God blesses a rogue (Jacob)...Jacob tricks a blessing out of his father and then in the wrestling match he gets blessed again. The wrestling match is i believe Jacob - the tricksters - finest hour, where he wrestles with a being, perhaps it’s God, perhaps it’s an angel, perhaps it’s a Canaanite demon perhaps its symbolic of his conscience as he prepares to meet his brother.
However what we can be sure of is that the night meeting happens in anticipation of what the day meeting with his brother, Esau, will be like. The two encounters, the night-time encounter and the day-time encounter, go together they have been placed next to one another for a reason. They contrast with one another. One is unprepared and is hard work – the other has a well-prepared plan and seems to be rather easy.
The first encounter is the wrestling and I think that it is most plausible that the hidden one is Yahweh, God. On his way to appease his brother, Jacob must first deal with his God. If this other one is God, then what kind of God is it who will be pressed into a draw by Jacob? And what kind of man is that who can force a draw out of God? This is no ordinary man, this is no ordinary God and hence this is not an ordinary story…and therefore it shouldn’t be read as an ordinary story. It’s a story that has a wider meaning, it tells us something new is going to happen and that the newness emerges in the three exchanges of dialogue that take place straight after the wrestling match.
Genesis 32 v. 26: in this one Jacob is the stronger character – he refuses to let go unless he is blessed
v. 27-28: In the second one the stranger is the stronger character – he gives Jacob a new name and by implication a new being. Israel is born and Jacob is no longer – Jacob a name meaning ‘heel/trickster/over-reacher/supplantar’ is gone and replaced with Israel, sometimes taken to mean God preserves or God protects but whatever it means we know that a new being has been called forth. In this wrestling match and exchange of dialogue, Israel has faced God, been touched by God and gained a blessing from God. The encounter leaves all options opens, neither God nor Israel come out on top, but in the giving of the blessing something of the power of God has been entrusted to Israel.
v. 29 is the final exchange – and in it, in an act of braveness, Jacob speaks first. He assumes priority, he reverses the roles and asks the name of God. He wants to know the name of God, he wants to know the mystery of heaven. He seeks to cross a boundary, but the stranger doesn’t answer but instead returns to the first exchange and gives a blessing.
When daylight comes the stranger is gone, but so is Jacob…only Israel remains - A new identity and new blessing. Jacob is changed into Israel a new blessing and a new crippling. The power of the blessing, but the crippling injury - The two cannot be separated, weakness and power, power in weakness. Perhaps a hint or anticipation of the cross…His first encounter is over and he lives, so with new power and with new weakness he goes forward to the second encounter.
I'm going to explore what this says to us political with regard to the current situation in Israel/Palestine in my next post...but that won't be for a few days...
