From the Hebrew אָבַק (abaq), related to abaq (dust): to grapple, to wrestle — literally, to get dusty with someone. Semantic force: The word occurs only in this passage, and its root is the dust raised by two men struggling on the ground. It is deliberately physical, and deliberately undignified. Theological depth: Scripture reports God permitting a man to wrestle Him to a standstill, and then ending the match by touching a joint. The limp that follows is not a punishment; it is the evidence and the memorial.

Supporting Scriptures

Thy Name Shall Be Called IsraelOld Testament

“And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.”

(KJV)

The blessing given is a new name, and the name means he who strives with God — the struggle written into his identity.

He Wept and Made SupplicationOld Testament

“Yea, he had power over the angel, and prevailed: he wept, and made supplication unto him: he found him in Bethel, and there he spake with us;”

(KJV)

A prophet centuries later describes the wrestling as weeping and pleading, which is how it looked from the inside.

Because of His ImportunityNew Testament

“I say unto you, Though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth.”

(KJV)

Jacob will not let go until he is blessed, and is not rebuked for it. Christ tells a story in which the man gets what he asks by refusing to stop asking.

The Exposition

Jacob has spent his life taking things: a birthright by bargain, a blessing by disguise, a fortune from an uncle who deserved it. Now Esau is coming with four hundred men, and Jacob has sent everything he owns across the river ahead of him — his flocks, his servants, his wives, his children — and is left alone on the wrong side of the water. It is the first time in the story he has nothing in his hands. And there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. The verb occurs nowhere else in Scripture. Its root is dust, and it means to get dusty with someone — an entirely physical, entirely undignified word. This is not a vision or a wrestling in prayer as we usually mean it. Two figures on the ground by a river, all night. The end of the match is the strangest part. When the man saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh. One touch, and the hip is out of joint. Which reveals what the whole night had been: not a contest between equals but a bout in which one party had been holding back, and could end it whenever He chose. And Jacob, dislocated, says: I will not let thee go, except thou bless me. He is not asking for another advantage. He is asking, for the first time, rather than taking. Then the question, which is not for information: What is thy name? The last time he was asked that, in the dark, by a man who could not see, he had lied and said Esau. This time he says Jacob — supplanter, deceiver — and having finally told the truth about himself, he is given a new name. He walks away with a blessing and a limp, and the sun rises on him.

The Altar

Tell God your name, in the honest sense — the thing you have been rather than the thing you present. Then ask for the blessing.

Daily Reading & Meditation

Passage:

Focus: Notice that Jacob is alone by his own arrangement, and that the crossing he most feared happens after the wound, not before.

Ask yourself: What have you been trying to obtain by managing people rather than by asking God? Ask what it would take for you to stop, and what you are afraid would happen if you did.

My Father in heaven, I thank You that You let a man grapple with You all night and gave him a blessing rather than a verdict. Thank You that You ask my name and wait for the true answer. Where I have been arranging things instead of asking You for them, let Your Holy Spirit bring me to the end of my own strength. I ask it in the name of the Lord Jesus, who prevailed for me. Amen.

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