Written by Therese Martin, volunteer with Iron Rose Sister Ministries in Washington
We use lots of different imagery to describe our relationship with God. Parent/ child, groom/bride, shepherd/sheep, potter/clay; these are all useful and true, but how often do we think about the one Jacob encountered one night…grappling partners?
In Genesis, chapter 32, we read about Jacob wrestling with “a man” who is usually assumed to be the Lord in some form. The passage certainly implies it. “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel; for you have struggled with God, and with men, and have prevailed” (Gen. 32:28). The grappling match went on all night, leaving Jacob with a painful hip where his opponent touched him. It’s significant enough that, in the Jewish dietary laws, the sciatic nerve of meat animals and its surrounding tissues are not eaten, in remembrance of this famous grappling event. Aside from the prohibition against consuming blood, it’s the only dietary rule that predates the laws given to Moses.
I can relate to this in so many ways. First, I have chronic hip pain, from sciatica and femoral acetabular impingement. It gets bad enough that I sometimes can’t walk, and I often use a cane. Pain is a daily reminder of so many things! Time is passing, and I’m older every day. Bodies are frail, no matter how much we try to strengthen them. And I sometimes need a reminder that life isn’t easy, that for most of the world it’s a daily struggle against many kinds of adversity, from health problems and economic concerns to natural disasters, wars, and injustice.
I haven’t given up. I still practice karate, which brings me to the second point; the match itself. It’s late at night, and Jacob is camping in the wilderness. A man shows up, and what do they do? Do they sit by the fire and chat? No, they wrestle. There’s no mention of why. Did this stranger just walk up and say, “Hey there, let’s wrestle”? Apparently so, because they keep it up all night.
I can see that happening, at least with my family. All four of my sons have trained in martial arts; three black belts, one brown. My oldest has a second-degree black belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. He teaches law enforcement officers and military personnel how to subdue without damaging the subject. His teaching style is extremely gentle and encouraging, but relentless. They learn. And sometimes it’s painful.
This led me to the third point. Are we accepting our Lord’s invitation to grapple with Him? Sounds crazy, but sometimes that’s how He rolls. Literally. In Jiu Jitsu, they use the term “rolling” to describe the training they do on the mat. “I rolled for a couple of hours on Saturday” means the person grappled on the mat for two hours with instructors or fellow students. It’s challenging, to say the least. And I wonder if some of the challenges we face in life are God’s invitations to step on the mat and spar with Him. He teaches us through these challenges, and we learn things we could never learn otherwise.
And what about the times we challenge Him to a match? When we say, like Jacob, “I will not let you go until you bless me!” (Gen. 32:26) We know that we ought to do something, but we don’t want to. We struggle with it, even though it may be clear that it’s what God wants. We sail away from Nineveh, or put out a fleece to see if anything unusual happens to it. We wrestle with God, and it’s always a learning experience.
Maybe pain is a reminder that we learn from the process of grappling with the challenges of life, not from avoiding them. When I take that first step in the morning and pain shoots up my leg, should I just get back in bed? Or should I take it as an invitation to step on the mat, and to accept my sparring partner’s offer? “Let’s roll!”
Yes, Lord. May I always be willing to grapple with the gift of Your sparring lessons!
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