Incredible encounters (2)

The Bible mentions several other times that Jacob met with God or with angels during the many years that he was in exile from his homeland... but the next encounter that’s described in detail is the one that we read of in Genesis chapter 32. It’s been twenty years since Jacob experienced God at Bethel and made a vow to follow Him in the future. A lot has happened over those two decades, some of it very good and some of it very bad. Now Jacob is heading home to the country and the family that he has not seen for such a long time.

He’s feeling very nervous about seeing his brother again. Having a twin is just about the closest relationship you can have on earth, but instead of looking forward to a joyful reunion with a soulmate, Jacob is feeling fearful that his brother might still be angry with him, still harbouring thoughts of revenge for what was done to him. He must have felt even more afraid when his servants gave him the news that Esau was on his way to meet him - accompanied by an army of four hundred men.

Jacob’s response (vs 9 - 15) shows how much he has changed in the past twenty years. He doesn’t only send gifts ahead to Esau as a peace offering; he also cries out to God in prayer - speaking personally to Him this time, declaring God’s love and faithfulness, proclaiming His promises and asking for His help. Can it be true? On the eve of being reunited with his brother, is Jacob finally a transformed man?

Perhaps he still felt nervous in spite of his prayers; perhaps he was tossing and turning, unable to sleep as he thought about the next day and wondered how things would turn out; perhaps he was rehearsing what he would say to his brother... or simply continuing to lift the situation up to God in prayer. Finally, Jacob gets up in the middle of the night, and he is alone in the camp when something strange and incredible happens: a “man” comes and wrestles with Jacob for a long time. 

We only discover later that this “man” was some kind of representation of God’s divine presence.... but Jacob must have already sensed it as he wrestled there in the darkness of the night, because he said, “I won’t let you go until you bless me.” In response, the man gives Jacob a new name: he will no longer be called Jacob - which means the “deceiver.” Instead, he is to be called Israel - which means “he struggles with God” or “God wrestles.”

Jacob is awestruck: he realises once again that he has been in the presence of God, and has lived to tell the tale. And so, as he did after his first encounter, Jacob also gives that place a new name. He calls it Peniel, which means “face of God.” 

Two incredible encounters with God; both happened in times of great transition and uncertainty, but the names that Jacob gives to these two locations show that he has covered a lot of ground between the two incidents. In Genesis 28, he names the first place Bethel (house of God), saying, “Surely the Lord was in the place and I wasn’t even aware of it.” But now, in Genesis 32, he names the location Peniel (face of God) saying, “I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been spared.” What a difference! From barely knowing how to recognise God’s presence at Bethel, Jacob has matured into someone who is willing to wrestle with God in prayer at Peniel, someone who is not ready to give up on the blessing that God had promised him.

The situation with his brother is still uncertain and unresolved, but Jacob comes away from that encounter at Peniel with two things:

• he has received the blessing that he so much longed for
• but he will for evermore walk with a limp, a visible sign of his own vulnerability.

Such is the nature of personal encounters with God. They change us and they humble us. Our early encounters with God are evidence of His great mercy and grace towards us; He is tolerant of our brashness, our weakness, and even our uncertainty about whether whether it was really Him or not. Our God-encounters in later life are just as dependent on His grace, but they are often born also of our own awareness of weakness. Perhaps, like Jacob, we have fought with man and with God, and we have had humbling revelation of our own pride or selfishness or failings. Or perhaps we’re still full of self-decption about our own righteousness, and it’s that face to face encounter with God that humbles us and enables us to see ourselves as we really are.

From that point forward, we will “walk with a limp,” spiritually speaking. We’ll no longer be so prone to rely on our own strength; we’ll no longer be so convinced that we’re a “good person.” We’ll have grasped at last that God isn’t threatened by our questions and struggles, but at the same time we’ll have been humbled in His presence and made aware of our total dependence on Him: understanding for the first time, perhaps, that we are nothing without Him.

It took Jacob a long time; he was probably a man in his sixties by then. But it’s better to encounter God late in life, than to live our whole lives without ever learning to live them in God’s strength. When was your last life-changing encounter with God?