Jacob spent most of his life wrestling. Mostly figuratively, but at least once physically.
He wrestled with his brother, with his father, with his uncle, with himself, and finally, through the night, with God.
After that night of wrestling with God, he walked away with a limp and a new name.
Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have wrestled (struggled) with God and with humans and have prevailed.
Genesis 32:28
He would no longer be called Jacob but instead Israel. There is something about God giving new names to anchor transitional moments in the lives of those who follow him.
The name, Israel, carries the idea of one who wrestles or struggles with God.
Not long afterward, Jacob builds an altar and gives it an interesting name:
El-Elohe-Israel.
“God, the God of Israel.” (Genesis 33:20)
Or perhaps we could hear it this way:
God is the God of the one who wrestles with Him (Israel).
I find that encouraging.
Sometimes we assume that questioning God, struggling to understand Him, or wrestling through doubt somehow puts us outside His reach. We imagine faith belongs to people who have everything neatly figured out.
Jacob’s story says otherwise.
God did not wait until Jacob stopped wrestling before calling him His own. In fact, it was in the wrestling that Jacob received his new identity.
There is a difference between walking away from God and wrestling with Him. I’ve done both at times in my life.
One lets go and walks away.
The other refuses to let go until clarity comes.
Perhaps that is what faith often looks like. Not having every answer. Not pretending everything makes sense.
But rather, holding on to God through the questions, through the confusion, through the long night, trusting that dawn will come.
… he touched Jacob’s hip and wrenched it out of its socket.
Genesis 32:25
Sometimes the marks we carry are not signs that God abandoned us. They are reminders that we met Him and wrestled.