Dear Friends in Christ,

The Old Testament lesson for this Sunday is from one of the Jacob stories in Genesis 32. Jacob has “divorced” his uncle, a fellow trickster, and is in motion with his wives, property, and animals.

He knows he is about to encounter his twin brother whom he cheated out of his birthright with the mother’s complicity. At the time, Esau was enraged to the point of planning to murder his twin. Mother Rachel arranged for Jacob to escape to her brother’s clan far away and out of reach. After many years, the reunion of brothers is going to happen.

Jacob doesn’t know if the meeting with Esau will be peaceful or warlike. He instructs his progeny to split into two sections so that some might survive if the other is destroyed. Sending all of them across the Jabbok, he stays alone for the night. What motivates this decision? What does he want for himself in an all-night isolation way down in a ravine? What does this have to do with fear of his brother’s vengeance? What must he confront in his aloneness? Does any of this remind you of Jesus when he was alone for 40 days and nights?

Out of nowhere a “man wrestled with him until daybreak.” This “man” cannot tolerate sunlight so he is no normal man. (What other source is being drawn in to tell the tale from the archaic depths of humanity?)

For whatever reasons , it seems that this “wrestling” had to occur and it went on all night. Jacob was winning until his opponent dislocated his hip since the sun was coming up. The “man” would not reveal his name so that Jacob could not control him since to know the name of someone permitted control according to ancient Hebraic belief. Jacob left the encounter limping and he never got a hip replacement. He was wounded and handicapped for the rest of his life.

This story was one of the most vital sections of the Bible that supported me after the death of my first wife. I felt that I was in the fight of my life. Would I survive? Could I live? Would a new life be? This period did feel like being down in the ravine of Jabbok.

When Jacob returned to his family and proceeded to the reunion, Esau ran towards him, “…embraced him, and fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept” (Genesis 33:4).

Reunion. Renouncing vengeance. Forgiveness. Restoration.

Your fellow traveler,

—Richard