Description
In the reading from Genesis this week Jacob is preparing to meet Esau. Jacob had received the blessing that was meant for Esau. Thus, he’s very worried about this meeting with Esau. The reading from Genesis 32:22-31 begins with Jacob sending his wives, maids and sons across the ford of Jabbok during the night. He is then alone in the camp and a man wrestles with him until daybreak. When Jacob asks for a blessing, the man says “You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with humans, and have prevailed.” (Genesis 32:28). From this we know that man he wrestled with was God or his angel (representative). Jacob thought he was alone with God but God was already there. Or was it that not until he was alone did Jacob know that God was there? The name Israel means ‘the people who struggle with God’ or ‘he strives with God’. This wrestling or struggling is not just about struggling against but also about clinging wholeheartedly to God. Jacob had struggled with humans his whole life, i.e. with Esau and with Laban. Jacob’s struggle had also been with God. By asking for blessing was Jacob acknowledging that the blessing needed to come from God?
Jacob wrestles with God is a dramatic reading of Genesis 32:22-31 which will highlight that Jacob seems alone but is not really as he wrestles with someone (God). After this reading there are some wondering questions to begin exploring the story. In Wrestling with God there is an opportunity to wrestle with our minds in a game of memory with images and questions that help further explore the reading from Genesis.
Another way we that wrestle with God or cling to God is through prayer. We will call and You will answer is an interactive prayer which involves wrestling with pipe cleaners as we pray with some thoughts and words from Psalm 17, and Romans 9.
As Jacob was blessed in the Genesis reading May God’s favour be upon you is an opportunity to bless each other during the final blessing or benediction.
