Face to Face: Israel's Occupation and the Vacant Throne
“And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day….And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed….And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel (face of God): for I have seen God face to face” (Gen.32).
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Twenty years earlier, at the age of 77 when Jacob fled from Esau, he saw God standing at the top of a ladder (Gen. 28). Now, at the age of 97, having just eliminated a threat from the rear (Laban), and with an enraged Esau advancing with an army of 400, Jacob’s mind was in such turmoil that he strangely recrossed Jabbok hoping to find solitude in the safety of the rear. But now God attacked him. The last thing Jacob needed at this point is another adversary. Just when things couldn't possibly get worse, he must have thought--now this. Of course, as when God appeared to Abraham incognito, so now Jacob was not told that he was to test his strength (he was 97) against God Himself--we are also not told to "be careful to engage strangers, for in so doing some boxed with God unawares." But God deemed it necessary to come down and create an overwhelming distraction: “Be anxious for nothing for the Lord is at hand.” “I have set the LORD always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved,” says David.
Even in the womb, Jacob sought to outmaneuver those around him, impatient for the blessing. He had two extreme obsessions: the Birthright (twice he resorted to trickery and earned the enmity of Esau) and Rachel (blighted by Laban's nightmarish trick--Eve later accuses Rachel of stealing her husband--Well!!, Gen. 30:15). “Is he not rightly called Trickster,” cried Esau. He seems to have been jostling to be firstborn in the womb, exploited Esau's hunger, his father's blindness and appetite, and Laban's cupidity (he tried to cook the books in Laban's shiftless absence--he had sons, yet we see only women working). God will Himself redeem this incorrigible trait to His own purposes when Jacob, after refusing to release his grip ("yet because of her importunity") without exploiting an otherwise futile night of labor to his advantage, demands a blessing, only to discover that "I exploited God and lived." Through the ages, believers have read this with a "wink, wink" understanding: the father crying "Mom" as his toddler pins him to the ground. Michael the Archangel, back from his latest bout with the prince of Persia, seeing the empty throne may have asked, "What's up." "Guess!" he would have heard. Israel's occupation had nothing to do with Arabs--or Edomites as they were then called, and with Jacob weakened, Esau ceases to be a problem. The passage has a thousand currents and counter currents, and yet it almost rivals the 23 Psalm in the hearts of believers. They are able to grasp it that well. Jacob had been running too fast, and when he went back to face his real trouble (God), God removed the high gear by semi-crippling him. His descendants turned his defect into an object of veneration to remind themselves that Israel was touched by God. Some sheep are far to vigorous for the well-being of the rest of the flock, and if left to their own devices will ruin the whole flock.
He would lose Rachel (she clung to false gods) not many months hence, and now God finally caught up with him when Jacob had to turn back because he saw only death before him. After God smote him hip and thigh, Jacob discovered that he could gain a king’s ransom (“a prince with the power of God'') simply by clinging to God while demanding a blessing. The “Trickster” was renamed Israel, “the Israel of God.” Yet, despite all that, “Jacob have I loved,” God said. But---- “Jacob loved Rachel.” God loved Jacob and Jacob loved Rachel. Therein lie both the root and the redemption of Jacob’s Trouble. Jacob doted on Joseph because they shared 6 years together with Rachel (they married when he was 84). Benjamin none. There seems to have been little left for the rest of the family, and they took revenge on Joseph. Benjamin was now his last link to the happiest time of his life, of which poor Benjamin knew nothing, and the rest of the family remembered only with enduring resentment. The unstaggering faith of Abraham, Isaac on the alter/Cross, the unblemished life of Joseph all seem out of reach for most believers. Jacob is all "hands that hang down, and the feeble knees," never far, it seems, from "resisting against blood" itself, but that with a mixture of spirituality and self-interest. "He took his brother by the heel (kov, or kob--Jacob means one who grabs heels) in the womb, and by his strength he had power with God" (Hos. 12:3).
“Jacob have I loved,” God said. The Bride of Christ, as the Israel of God, is named after him. The history of the Church may seem like the sum total of Jacob’s trouble, but the gates of Hell will never prevail, because the Israel of God has “power with God.” “I have waited for thy salvation, O Lord,” Jacob said on his deathbed, after a life of dangers, toils and snares. “He that endureth unto the end shall be saved.” God seems to have used Jacob’s grasping (from grasping Esau’s heel to clinging to God) trait as an agent to which He attached his purposes for the Church, much as a perfumer will use an otherwise unpleasant musk to give endurance to fragile scents. He endured to the end, and God will use his sons as the twelve gates of salvation leading into the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21): “for salvation is of the Jews.” All his troubles were family troubles. Yet, in the end, they were all there with not an Ishmael or Esau among them. Abraham and Isaac lived long after they are dropped abruptly by Moses. Jacob's unforgettable vision of Israel's future on his deathbed would become the charter of Israel as a nation. My life has been hard (“few and evil”), he told Pharaoh, but as an early church bishop reminded the Romans: “we are taking heavy blows now, but beeg aware that this anvil has worn out many hammers.”
“The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.” Jacob already struggled in the womb, and he didn’t take time out even to be born, retaining his hold on Esau. His unorthodox birth was a token of things to come. The end justified the means. He got the blessing from Isaac by deception, and he was not above using uncharitable methods to acquire the wealth of Laban. His manner of dealing finally caught up with him on his way back to Canaan, with Laban in hot pursuit (It took a direct warning from God to cool his wrath) and grim Esau advancing darkly with an army of 400. It was the “face of Esau” that terrified him, because he expected a bloodbath (Gen. 32:11). In the end, his only fight was an all night bout with God Himself after crossing back over the brook Jabbok. He recrossed it in the morning and renamed it Peniel (face of God), for he said “I have seen God face to face and my life is preserved.” That’s putting it mildly: he gave God as good as he got and better, and may have said something like, “now stay down you pest, I’ve got a terrible day ahead of me for which I need to prepare.” His family, knowing his anxiety over Esau the previous evening, would have marveled that he had rejoined them looking the worse for wear--with Esau fast approaching: “halting on his thigh.” What happened to you, they would have asked. “I fought with God all night.” “And that’s why he maimed you--you’re lucky to be alive.” “No, it’s because I was too strong for Him.” “And then when He smote you hip and thigh you let Him go?” “No, he kept pleading for me to release my grip. But I had to get something out of an all night struggle, so I demanded a blessing and when I received it I let Him go and from now on everyone is to call me Prince of God (Israel).” Imagine the eyerolls. Obviously, the Esau problem had resolved itself overnight, for Jacob’s Trouble was Jacob’s personal problem with God. His life of trying to get ahead was no more than running from God. He came to the end of his rope when he heard of Esau advancing with his 400. The road ahead was too fearful to contemplate so he turned back and wrestled with God. God, as we learn from the Parable of the Unjust Judge wants to be bothered. To e pestered, in fact. "He giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not." Ahaz the king feigned humilty when he said "No, no, I will not tempt God by asking." The Deity has enough to do with ordering the Universe to be bothered by trifles. As if the Universe were more than a trifle to God. "Draw nigh unto God and He will draw nigh unto thee." For aa Christian all problems are personal problems, for "the Lord is always at hand. Be anxious for nothing" (Phil. 4) Esau did not find Jacob halting on his thigh to his advantage.