Today, we jump ahead a few chapters to Genesis 32:23-33 and come to an experience even more strange, if that is possible, than the vision of the staircase going up to heaven. Jacob is preparing to meet with his estranged brother Esau and he is not sure what to expect. After all, Jacob had cheated his brother out of his birth-right. Even so, by now each brother is rich and powerful in their own right.
As our reading opens, we are told that Jacob takes his two wives (Rachel and Leah), his two slave-girls, and his 11 children (the youngest, the twelfth child, Benjamin, has been conceived but not yet born), together with all his possessions, across the River Jabbok (possibly a play on the word “Jacob—see discussion below) to a safer place while he stays behind alone. This river is an eastern tributary of the Jordan originating near present-day Amman. It is known today as the Wadi Zerqa and flows westwards into the Jordan about 30 km north of the Dead Sea.
Jacob is now alone. The story tells us that that night he wrestles all night with an unknown “man”. Wrestled, in Hebrew, (ye’abeq) is another play on ‘Jacob’ (ya‘aqob) and ‘Jabbok’ (yabboq). Later in the story we learn that this man is the Lord himself. What is unclear is if this was a real experience or it was just another dream.
Jacob has wrestled all his life to prevail, first against Esau, then against Laban, his uncle, who is the father of his wife, Rachel. Now, as he is about to re-enter Canaan, he is shown that it is with God that he must now contend, to “wrestle”. It is God who holds his destiny in his hands.
When the ‘man’ realizes that Jacob is getting the upper hand, he strikes Jacob on the hip and dislocates it. There also is a hint that Jacob’s sexual organs are injured. Further evidence of this is that after this encounter, Jacob is unable to father any more children. Is God a poor looser? God came to Jacob in a form that Jacob could successfully wrestle; yet God also showed Jacob that he could disable him at will.
With the coming of morning, the stranger says, “Let me go, for day is breaking.” But Jacob will not let the man go without receiving his blessing. He seems to suspect the divine origin of his opponent. There is also an indication that Jacob is still feeling guilty over their father’s blessing, which he got by deceit. Now he wants a direct blessing from God himself.
“What is your name?” asks the stranger. “Jacob” is the reply. “Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel. Because you have been strong against God, you shall also prevail against humans.” The probable meaning of the word ‘Israel’ is understood as “He has been strong against God”. At that very moment Jacob reaches full maturity as father and patriarch, and his descendants acquire their national name. Later, Israel’s encounters with God will always entail intense struggle, both divine and human. God will later confirm Jacob’s new name in Genesis 35:10.
The name Israel is mentioned in a Hosea 12:5 where the mysterious wrestler is explicitly called an angel. But here Jacob identifies the stranger as God: “I have seen God face to face and have survived.” In the Hebrew Testament, to look upon the face of God usually leads to instant death. Except by special privilege.
Jacob calls the place where he had his experience with the stranger, Peniel, which means ‘face of God’. A town located on the north bank of the River Jabbock, in Gilead, is called Penuel—derived from the same root.
Israel then leaves, limping because of his damaged hip. Limping is a frequent motif in myth and legend (remember Oedipus, too, limps), suggesting a maturing in his relationship with God, who is the real Lord of his life. He is more spiritually complete. He is now Israel and not just Jacob.
An interesting sidenote: The reading today tells us that to this day Jews will not eat the sciatic nerve of slaughtered animals because it is located in the socket of the hip. Although mentioned nowhere else in the Hebrew Testament, this dietary prohibition is found in the later writings of Judaism. Jacob retained in his body, and Israel retained in her dietary practice, a perpetual reminder of this fateful encounter with God.
We come today to the end of the section of Matthew’s Gospel recounting ten of Jesus’ miracles (Matthew Chapters 8 and 9). The last miracle described (Matthew 9:32-27) is that of a man whose deafness arises from his being possessed by a demon. It follows immediately the cure of two blind men, a story that we did not read, and that is told again by Matthew in Chapter 20. Today’s story seems to correspond to the healing of the blind man, Bartimaeus, in Mark Chapter 10, although there are significant differences.
The man is brought to Jesus by the people. Jesus drives out the demon, and the man immediately is able to speak. There is a two-fold reaction. The people are astounded: “Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel!” The miracle is seen by the people as confirmation of Jesus’ divine origins. On the other hand, the Pharisees condemn the miracle, saying, “It is through the prince of the devils that he is able to casts out devils.” Elsewhere, Jesus will show how logically absurd is that accusation.
Stories of the blind, deaf, and mute in the Gospel always have a deeper meaning. Far more serious than physical blindness, deafness, and an inability to speak, are being spiritually blind, deaf, and mute. The Pharisees in this story are examples of the latter. They are blind because they cannot see, or do not want to see, God at work in Jesus; they are deaf because they do not understand, or do not want to understand, what he says; and they are mute because they cannot speak the words of life that Jesus gives them.
The very same can happen to each of us. Let us pray today to be able to see clearly, to understand what God says to us and to be able to share it with others.
May God Bless You and Grant You His Peace!