A Wrestling Match

The Lookout Mountain Gang
My brother Mark and me
1957

"Your name is no longer Jacob. From now on it's Israel (God-Wrestler);  you have wrestled with God and prevailed." (Genesis 32:28)


After wrestling with book titles all weekend, the new book name is no longer Once Upon a Neighborhood, A Fort Payne, Alabama Story. From now on the Christian children's book will be called: The Adventures of the Lookout Mountain Gang: The Secret Chest.

In one adventure within God's epic narrative: the Bible, years after stealing Esau's birthright, Jacob sends his twin brother a gift and a message: "Humble greetings from your servant Jacob. Until now I have been living with Uncle Laban, and now I own cattle, donkeys, flocks of sheep and goats, and many servants, both men and women. I have sent these messengers to inform my lord of my coming, hoping that you will be friendly to me."

Then Jacob prays, "O God of my grandfather Abraham and my father Isaac—O LORD, you told me, 'Return to our own land and to your relatives.' And You have shown to me. O LORD, please rescue me from the hand of my brother, Esau."

During the night, when Jacob was all alone in the camp, a man came and wrestled with him until the dawn began to break. After wrenching Jacob's hip our of socket with a mere touch, the man said, "Let me go, for the dawn is breaking!"

But Jacob said, "I will not let you go unless you bless me."

"What is your name?" the man asked.

"Jacob."

"From now on you will be called Israel, because you have fought with God and with men and have won." 

Then the man blessed him, and Jacob named the place Peniel (which means "face of God"). "For I have seen God face to face, yet my life has been spared, (literally meaning my soul has been saved)," Jacob said.

~

Biblical Scholars believe this "man" was God Himself in human form (a Christophany or preincarnate appearance of Jesus, the Son of God), and the wrestling match was the climatic resolution to Jacob's life-long struggle against God and man. That dawn, Jacob changed direction from fighting against God to walking with Him. What a beautiful picture of salvation through trust in Jesus Christ.

Beloved, are you wrestling against God or walking with Him?