May 14, 2006 Sermon

Israel
Genesis 32:22-32

All praises (again) for the book, Walking the Bible, by Bruce Feiler. As we have worked our way through Genesis Feiler’s work has become my guidebook. He explores the history and archeology of biblical lands. As he writes about the part of Jacob’s story we read today, he makes this comment: “The fact that I met so many scholars who not only confirmed the accuracy of the Bible but also its beauty—its sheer power to bring these professional skeptics to unexpected emotional depths—freed me.”

That is exactly how I feel. I preach with historical and geographical background because these things bring the Bible to life for me. Some people fear that an academic approach to the Bible tears it down. But for me, it builds it up. I hope it does for you, too. Read Feiler’s book. I will gladly help you find a copy.

In our passage Jacob returns home. He has spent twenty years living far away from his father and mother, Isaac and Rebekah. He had gone to their clan’s home territory to find a wife. He found two. With them and their two maids Jacob has fathered eleven sons and one daughter. (His twelfth son will come along shortly.) He has grown rich. But he and his father-in-law have tricked each other too many times. They cannot trust or live together any longer. Plus, Jacob feels the urge to come home. After all, God had promised him that place.

Jacob has braved long journeys across deserts. He has defeated his father-in-law’s schemes. He has taken his sons, his daughter, his wives and servants, plus massive flocks. But now he faces possibly the most fearsome challenge of all. His brother Esau, from whom he has stolen blessings and riches, waits for him on the border of their home country. And Esau has four hundred men waiting with him.

Jacob divides his family and flocks into small companies. He reasons that even if Esau attacks he will be able to kill only part of them. He also hopes that if each small group calls itself a present for Esau when he comes upon them, he might be appeased. Jacob need not have worried. Esau has forgiven him. The two embrace when they meet out in the desert. After a life-long feud the brothers reconcile.

The wrestling match we read about today happens just before Jacob and Esau restore their brotherhood. Everybody else crosses a river; Jacob stays behind, alone. In the night a “man”, the text calls him, suddenly starts the fight. Though the “man” manages to dislocate Jacob’s hip the match continues with no clear winner. Daylight approaches. The “man” begs Jacob to let go. But Jacob, always on the make, tells him he will not until he blesses him. The “man” tells him from now on his name will be Israel , which in Hebrew means “He strives with God” or “God strives”.

This passage raises big questions. Who is this “man”? Why does he wrestle Jacob? Why is Jacob such a coward that he has to hide behind his wives, children and sheep? But none of these questions address the main point: Israel is not just a man, he is a nation. And Israel is not just any nation, but the nation through which God wrestles with humanity.

Real history and archeology stand beneath the text of the Bible. Jacob’s wrestling match happens along the Jabbok, a river that flows into the Jordan near Amman , Jordan . Jacob had followed the valley of the Jabbok for several days on his long journey home. Esau had lived on the east bank of the Jordan since leaving home after their feud started, those many years before. He would become the father of the nation of Edom . Edom and Israel would go to war repeatedly through the centuries. Each knew they could trace their origins back to Esau and Jacob. To this day most people living along the Jabbok and the Jordan can trace their ancestry back to the Hebrew or to the Edomite side. This matters to them—and to the world. Things like the 9/11 attacks, the price you pay for gas at the pump, and the recent elections in Britain are all affected by the story of Jacob and Esau.

Jacob wrestles not only with a “man” but with God. Jacob fights not only with Esau, his brother, but with Laban, his father-in-law. Jacob has trouble even with his father Isaac. Jacob becomes Israel . Israel has its start in conflict. Israel ’s very name includes the concept of fighting. Does this not explain much of the world’s history? We cannot pretend to understand world conflicts today until we understand Israel .

The events in our passage happened in a real place. We know exactly where it is. The people in our passage were real people.

And we now live in that same story. This is no work of fiction, this is the longest-lasting documentary ever made. Though we are not blood Israelites, though we cannot trace our ancestry back to the Hebrews, through our faith in Jesus we have inherited a place in the story. Through our faith in Jesus we have become inheritors of the blessings Jacob wrestled from God. But the New Testament tells us those blessings have changed. For Jacob they were descendents and land; for us, the blessings have become the peace of Christ and eternal life.

I prefer the current deal. We live under the New Testament covenant. We live under the promise of God that, because we believe in Jesus, we have peace in this life and hope for the next. The sacrament of communion reminds us that Jesus came to fight the good fight for us, that he intentionally lost that fight, that he died to save us from eternal death. God has promised us that, in Christ, we have the blessing of forgiveness for our sins.

Why fight it? As the nations war, as Israel stays in the heart of the conflicts of humanity, why fight the love of God? Just as the world thirsts for peace between nations, so we thirst for peace with our Maker. Through faith in Jesus, we can have that peace. Come. Come to the table he has prepared for you. Come to the table which reminds us that Jesus offers us peace. Come, and be satisfied.