2006-08-29

God-Wrestling: Struggling with God through Scriptural Ambiguity


[After wrestling with Ya-qov from dusk till dawn, the God-man] said, "Your name shall no longer be called Ya-qov [the Swindler], but Yisra-El [the God-Wrestler], for you have wrestled with God and humanity, and have endured." Then Ya-qov asked him, "Now, tell me your name!" But he said, "What is this that you ask my Name?" And right there [the God-man] blessed him. So Ya-qov named that place "Face-of-God", saying, "I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered." (Genesis 32:28-30, Authors translation)


All who call the God of Ya-qov their God are called to walk in the footsteps of his faith, and wrestle with God in the same way Ya-qov did. After Ya-qov wrestled with God (dare I say fought with God?), he was injured. He limped. But he was blessed by God in a way that he would not have been if he had not fought with him. When I read this passage I think of Lieutenant Dan screaming at God in the hurricane in the movie "Forrest Gump". At the end of the movie, Lieutenant Dan came back from his life-long fight with God physically limping, but blessed and made whole in ways that far exceeded his physical circumstances.
This is a bunch of incoherent babble to make us think hard about our incredible love affair with the God of the universe, our astounding infidelities against God, and God's incredible grace to heal and restore us through Christ. Everything on this site is copyright © 1996-2023 by Nathan L. Bostian so if you use it, please cite me. You can contact me at natebostian [at] gmail [dot] com