In the Arena with God

Jesu Juva

Genesis 32:22-30                                          

October 19, 2025

Proper 24C              

 Dear saints of our Savior~

        There’s no other account quite like this one in the entire Bible.  Parables we have aplenty.  Multitudes of miracles.  But then there’s this singular story of how Jacob wrestled all night with God Himself in the form of a man.  And what’s stranger still about this wrestling match is that the winner—the one who conquers—the one who comes out on top—is Jacob!  Although Jacob limps away with a hip injury; he also leaves with a blessing and a new name from the Lord.

        We hear this account and we automatically want to spiritualize it.  Surely we can’t take this at face value.  Maybe it was all a dream.  Jacob was known to have some pretty wild dreams, after all—like that one about a stairway to heaven with angels ascending and descending.  Maybe this is just a metaphor—a symbolic smack down—or a case of mistaken identity.  Nope.  This was real wrestling—a bona fide brouhaha that left Jacob limping, while also declaring:  I have seen God fact to face!  This wrestling match really happened.

        I suppose if anyone were to wrestle with the Lord, Jacob would be the most likely candidate.  After all, Jacob was already wrestling in utero with his twin brother, Esau!  He exited the birth canal grasping at the heel of his hairy brother.  The name Jacob literally means, “He grasps the heel.”  Figuratively, his name means “deceiver,” somebody who will trip you up and pull your leg. 

        And, wow, did Jacob ever live up to his name!  He schemed, plotted, and planned how to acquire Esau’s birthright and Esau’s blessing.  He used his mother, Rebecca, as a partner in crime.  He lied to his blind father, Isaac—deviously deceiving him and dishonoring him.  He schemed against his Uncle Laban; and Laban fought fire with fire.  In Genesis 32 Jacob was heading home to face his brother, Esau, twenty years after fleeing for his life.  But before his showdown with Esau would come a smack down with the Lord.

        What does this mean?  Jacob was Esau’s twin; but in some ways Jacob is our twin too.  Like Jacob, we’re all ambitious schemers at heart.  Deep down we hold to the lie that God helps those who help themselves—that we can get ahead by outwitting, outsmarting, and out-scheming everybody else—including the very people we are supposed to love and serve.  In each of us there’s a devilish drive to succeed no matter how many commandments have to be broken, or how many lies have to be told.

        It is precisely at such moments that God Himself steps in and stands in the way of our demonic drive for control.  Sometimes the God who is our friend—the God who is for us—the God who is our ally—this God steps in as our adversary.  And we suddenly find ourselves in the arena with God Himself as our opponent.

        Our loving Lord sometimes loves us by showing us just how helpless we really are.  And this is never pleasant for us, but painful—as painful as having your hip wrenched out of the socket or some other thorn in the flesh.  A debilitating illness, trouble at work, trouble at home—prayers that go unanswered and unacknowledged. 

        What do you do then?  When all your sinful schemes have been shattered—your idolatries exposed—and it appears that God is working against your as your adversary?  Repent of your sin.  Confess your unworthiness.  But don’t run away from this “adversary God”!  Don’t give up.  Don’t give in.  Do what Jacob did: You grab ahold of the Lord for dear life, and demand from Him what He has promised.  I will not let you go unless you bless me!  Twenty years earlier, as Jacob slept beneath that stairway to heaven, the Lord had promised to bless Jacob.  God had promised that all people on earth would be blessed through Jacob and his offspring (28:14).  And as sinful and unworthy as Jacob was, he was now going to hold God to that promise—literally, physically, bodily pinning Him to the mat until that blessing was given.

        That’s what you do when it seems like the Lord is your adversary.  You hold on for dear life—for eternal life—and demand from God what He has promised you in His dear Son, Jesus Christ.  This is nothing more and nothing less than what we call “faith.”  Be like that poor widow in the parable of the Unjust Judge.  Just keep pleading your case.  Pray without ceasing.  Nothing delights God more than to be held to His Word and promises.  Nothing delights God more than faith.

        Regarding this tenacious type of faith, Martin Luther writes:  Even if [God] hides Himself in a room in the house and does not want access to be given to anyone, do not draw back but follow.  If He does not want to listen, knock at the door of the room; raise a shout! For this is the highest sacrifice, not to cease praying and seeking until we conquer Him.  He has already surrendered Himself to us so that we may be certain of victory (Day by Day in Genesis, October 2).

        Who is this God who “surrenders Himself?”  Who is this God who seems to step in as an uncaring adversary?  What kind of a God can be so “conquered?”  How can mere men and women—sinful to the core—be certain of “victory” over God?  This is the great mystery of our faith.  The Opponent Jacob pinned down was considerably stronger than He was.  And the God with whom we wrestle is considerably stronger and wiser than we are.  God is stricter and more just than us.  He is also more gracious and more forgiving than us.

        When I was a very little boy, I used to wrestle with my dad.  You might have similar memories of “wrestling” with your dad.  We would “rough house” right in the middle of the living room.  Dad was in every way stronger, bigger, wiser, more powerful.  He wasn’t God; but He was God’s representative in my life.  And as you might expect, he would often let me win.  I conquered and he surrendered.  Through those wrestling matches, our love for one another was strangely strengthened.  I grew to trust him more—knowing just how much he would surrender for my sake.

        Every sinful schemer has a Savior who has surrendered everything for us—a Savior who made Himself nothing—who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary and was made man.  He was crucified, died, and was buried.  He allowed Himself to be captured and crucified for us—pinned down to a Roman tool of torture to save us.

        When morning came and his blessing was secured, Jacob exclaimed:   I have seen God face to face.  Beloved in the Lord, you too have seen the face of God . . . in Jesus Christ.  All of our faithless scheming He has carried to His cross and buried in His tomb.  Jesus is the offspring of Jacob through whom you and all the world have been blessed.  He took your sin.  He took your punishment.  He died your death.  And now, by faith, your life has been delivered from death. And this Jesus now blesses you.  You, like Jacob, have prevailed.  And like Jacob, you will see God face to face.

        In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.