Why the Most Mature Christians Walk with a Limp (Genesis 31-33)

A Few Thoughts to Consider

Have you ever wrestled with God?

In Genesis 32, we have a unique encounter where Jacob wrestles with God. A lot is going on in this passage, and it was the focal point for my book, Walking with a Limp. As we read, it's important to keep several factors in mind.

First, Jacob is between a rock and a hard place. He's left his Uncle Laban, who threatened to kill him, only to journey toward Esau, who promised to kill him. In this encounter Jacob has with God, he realizes his return to his homeland is in God's hands. As Scottish scholar Marcus Dods points out, "He was to be taught that it was not only Esau's appeased wrath, or his own skillful smoothing down of his brother's ruffled temper, that gave him entrance; but that a nameless Being, Who came out upon him from the darkness, guarded the land, and that by His passport only could he find entrance."^[1] Jacob realizes, as Victor Hamilton notes, "The blessing of Isaac is meaningless unless accompanied by the blessing of God."^[2]

Second, God is dealing with Jacob's character. As I write in Walking with a Limp,

Digging a little deeper into Jacob's family heritage, we notice that not only were his mother, uncle, and wife masters at the art of manipulation, but his own father and grandfather played a role in this as well. Despite his legendary level of faith, Abraham was not without his flaws. Genesis 12 records his attempt to deceive the Egyptian Pharaoh into believing his wife was only his sister. Not learning his lesson, he makes the same mistake in Genesis 20 with Abimelech. Carrying on with these same bizarre antics, Isaac does virtually the same thing in Genesis 26.

Arguably, no other person in biblical history has this recorded amount of family deception. Virtually every one of Jacob's close acquaintances struggles with manipulation.

For Jacob to break free of this cycle, something drastic would have to happen. And true to his nature, God would not settle for treating a symptom of Jacob's behavior. He would go right to the root.[3]

"One of the greatest misconceptions we can have is mistaking the nature of our spiritual battles. Despite the Apostle Paul's warning to us in Ephesians 6:12 that we wrestle not against flesh and blood, we tend to under-spiritualize the nature of the battles we face. We think our greatest wrestle is with Esau when in actuality our greatest struggle is with God."[4]

Third, God hits Jacob in a way that breaks him and forces him to be dependent. Last week we talked about how Abraham's servant touched Abraham's thigh when he went in search of a wife for Isaac. This was symbolic then, and God's touch on Jacob's thigh is also symbolic in Genesis 32. As Albert Barnes so eloquently points out,

The thigh is the pillar of a man's strength, and its joint with the hip the seat of physical force for the wrestler. Let the thigh bone be thrown out of joint, and the man is utterly disabled. Jacob now finds that this mysterious wrestler has wrested from him, by one touch, all his might, and he can no longer stand alone. Without any support whatsoever from himself, he hangs upon the conqueror, and in that condition learns by experience the practice of sole reliance on one mightier than himself. This is the turning-point in this strange drama. Henceforth Jacob now feels himself strong, not in himself, but in the Lord, and in the power of his might.^[5]

Finally, Jacob consents, and God wins the battle. When he does, God changes Jacob's name to Israel, which means "may God prevail." And "The favor of God displayed in Genesis 32 paves the way for the favor of Esau in Genesis 33."[6]