Year 1, Day 31: Genesis 32

Returning Home Is Never Easy

Now we begin to deal with Jacob’s trouble. The past catches up with Jacob.  He went away from Esau and began a positive experience with Laban; yet that quickly turned ugly as Laban and Jacob began to out-maneuver each other for their own benefit.  Jacob has to escape with his tail between his legs and return home, but in doing so he cannot run from Esau anymore.  He must come face to face with his past.

We have already talked about how shrewd Jacob was.  His was a manipulator extraordinaire!  So it should not surprise us too much when Jacob divides up his wealth into two camps so that one might be saved.  It should also not surprise us that Jacob sends envoys ahead to soften his brother’s wrath.  Furthermore, it should not surprise us that he breaks them up into smaller gifts, because we all know that the softening effect of many small gifts is far more than the same amount in one big gift.  Plus, if any of the smaller parties thought that Esau was not pleased with Jacob, they would have plenty of time to return to Jacob and warn him.  Jacob is no fool in the ways of the world!

But in many respects I still find Jacob pathetic.  Jacob puts all these servants between him and his brother.  In all truth, by the time he sends everyone across the Jabbok and he is left alone what it really tells us is that Jacob has put everything between him and his brother.  Shrewd men in this world have no problems letting other people take the brunt of another’s wrath.  But people who are shrewd in God’s ways understand and value the lives of others and thus they stand up and take the brunt of the aggression themselves.  Jacob willingly lets everyone else have to deal with Esau first, showing us the side of Jacob that is pathetic all over again.  Jacob should have led the presentation of gifts himself if he really cared about the lives of his people as a genuine leader should.

Jacob is shrewd.  He is a deceiver.  But he also values his own life more than the lives of anyone underneath him.  While that may make him a survivor, it does not make him a leader.

Jacob Begins to Change Into Israel

We are almost done seeing Jacob’s bad side.  Now we get to the story that we have been anticipating since Jacob was first named “deceiver.”  Here is the story where Jacob is given a new name by God Himself.  Jacob is now to be called Israel, which literally means “one who persists” or “one who perseveres.”  Notice that Jacob’s old name is not removed completely (just like Abram/Abraham is still remembered), but Jacob is given a new name to replace the old name.

Here’s what is really going on here.  The human side of Jacob – the deceiver – will always be remembered as Jacob.  That’s who Jacob is.  Jacob is a person who thinks about himself, who cares more about himself than anyone else, and who places his own agenda before the safety of the group.  But as Jacob gets ready to face his past and he wrestles with God, a new side of Jacob must come out.  This new side is not perfect, of course.  But this new side is a person who is open to wrestling with tough issues, contemplating who he is, contemplating the consequences of his choices, and considering what God would have him do.  In essence, a new person is brought out of this struggle – one that necessarily allows Jacob to confront his past and successfully deal with it.  This new person God calls Israel.

You may be reading this and think that I have set up Jacob as a schizophrenic.  But spiritually speaking, how many of us are any different?  Take me for example.  There is the “PJ who is human and puts himself first.”  But there is also the “PJ who occasionally makes the right decision and actually demonstrates true faith in God and a willingness to put God’s ways first.”  Both of those people dwell within me.  In fact, both of those people will continue to dwell within me until the day I die!

By focusing so heavily on Jacob’s problems over the last few days, I have been trying to make Jacob seem real.  He’s not the “perfect patriarch” that we often think God used to bring about the Hebrew people.  Rather, he’s a human being just like you and me.  When I say that I find certain elements of Jacob pathetic, I’m actually saying the same thing about me.  I find my own humanity pathetic at times.  Ultimately, as flawed as Jacob is in this chapter and the prior chapters, he is a character we can identify with and take comfort knowing that if God loved him, God can love us also.

Jacob wrestles with God, and in so doing he becomes Israel.  I encourage you to do the same.  Wrestle with God.  Wrestle with what God wants you to do with your life.  Wrestle with the parts of your life that God may be calling you to change.  When you do that, you too will become a new creation through the power of God the Father, through the love of Jesus Christ and the counsel of the Holy Spirit.  The love that was shown by God in changing Jacob is the same love that God desperately desires to show you, too. 

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