CAN A MAN WHIP GOD?

James R. Davis 

 In Genesis chapter thirty-two Moses writes, "That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two maidservants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions. So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob's hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. Then the man said, 'Let me go, for it is daybreak.' But Jacob replied, 'I will not let you go unless you bless me.' The man asked him, 'What is your name?' 'Jacob,' he answered. Then the man said, 'Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome.' Jacob said, 'Please tell me your name.' But he replied, 'Why do you ask my name?' Then he blessed him there. So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, 'It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.' The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel, and he was limping because of his hip. Therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the tendon attached to the socket of the hip, because the socket of Jacob's hip was touched near the tendon."
 

What is God like? Would it not be wonderful to see God face to face? Philip came to Jesus and said, "Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us." (John 14:8) Our curiosity and confusion about God is puzzling? Is God black, white, red, brown or olive in color? Is God a great Force in the universe that is without form and void of time and space? If one were to see God would one feel the warmth of hospitality or the cold fierce hands of anger and rejection? Is our view of God similar to certain tribesmen in the Congo who regard one particular idol as their spiritual father? Greatly revered, the image is kept hidden in a deep pit. Missionaries found that these primitive people were afraid to draw it to the surface, for they cried, "If we look on the face of our father, we will die."

Is God shrouded forever in an unfathomable enigma?

Jacob wrestled with God and prevailed. Jacob said, ". . . I saw God face to face, and my life was spared. . ." (Genesis 32.) One can only wonder how God looked when Jacob wrestled him? Maybe the amazing thing is not how God looked, but the fact that God wrestled with a man? Have you ever seen children wrestle? I recall my childhood days, there were five children in the family, four boys and one girl. There were times when all four boys would get into a wrestling match, occasionally our sister would get involved too! Those matches were comical and yet sometimes very serious. We challenged our physical and mental maturity. Those wrestling matches usually lasted until each of us was totally exhausted, or sometimes the three younger ones gained the upper hand on the older one to put him in his place. Of course there were other times when our older brother would put every one of us in our place! I remember that one wrestling match ended abruptly, all four of us ended up on top of a new coffee table. That table ended up splintered to pieces all over the living room floor! That wrestling match challenged each of us mentally. A frenzied effort was made to figure out how to put that coffee table back together before our parents got home! We managed to prop it up. You couldn't tell that anything was wrong with it by looking at it. We only hoped and prayed that it would be a long time before our mom dusted it. Of course, it wasn't! It fell apart! You can guess the rest.

I think sons inherit their desire to wrestle from their fathers. When my son was a teenager, we wrestled, I remember breaking the seat in a couch much the same way that my brothers and I broke the coffee table. My wife did discover it sometime laaaaater!

The unique thing I remember about wrestling with my son is, one day he put a hold on me that I could not break. It is a sad and joyous day when your son reaches the physical and mental maturity to put you in an unbreakable hold. I can only wonder if God felt the same way when Jacob put a hold on Him and refused to let him go until he received a blessing. It was sort of like saying "Uncle!"

God told Jacob, "you have struggled with God and men and have prevailed." I think that it was a little harder for me to say "Unnnncle"! I recall my son running to his mom and telling her that he finally whipped his dad.

God looked so human to Jacob. He didn't realize that it was God until the wrestling match was over. Imagine wrestling with God in the still of the night. I wonder if they rolled over a tent or what the grass looked like the next morning after those two had struggled in the camp all night. I wonder if they broke anything? Did Jacob feel as macho as my son; he had wrestled with God and prevailed! It probably didn't matter that he walked with a limp for the rest of his life. He would never forget that he won that wrestling match.

Well my son is married and has three children. My grandson wrestles with his dad. I recently visited my son and the grandchildren. One day all the grandchildren piled on me and wouldn’t let me off the couch. What a joy to wrestle with your children. Occasionally I slip up behind my son and throw my arms around him in a bear hug type of hold. I whisper in his ear, "I think I can take you." He says, "Yeaaaah suuure!"

God's sons are his express image. I guess that is why so many fathers enjoy wrestling with their children?

Wrestling with God, . . . maybe that is an unfathomable enigma?