FACE TO FACE

Today’s readings offer insight into those times when relationships are struggling, when people feel most vulnerable. Jacob prepares to face Esau. Paul wrestles with who belongs to the Body of Christ. Jesus challenges the disciples to trust and share. Then, as now, God’s abundant blessing and provision empowers transformation.

Scripture Readings

(Click on the links to read on BibleGateway.com)

What gifts do we receive in abundance? How do we respond to God's generosity? How do we recognize God at work?

Genesis 32:22-31 (Jacob wrestles with God)
Psalm 17:1-7,15 (Hear a just cause, O God)
Romans 9:1-5 (Paul’s concern for the Israelites)
Matthew 14:13-21 (Jesus feeds a crowd)

Focus Scripture: Genesis 32:22-31

After last week’s account of Jacob’s marriages to Leah and Rachel, the saga in Genesis continues to tell of Jacob’s growing family and wealth. In Genesis 30-31, we also read of Jacob’s continuing tendency toward trickery and the growing tension this causes in Jacob’s immediate family and between Jacob and his father-in-law Laban. In Genesis 31:43-54, Laban and Jacob finally make a covenant of peace and invoke God’s presence in their relationship: “The Lord watch between you and me, when we are absent one from the other” (Gen. 31:49, the Mizpah).

As we enter the focus reading, we encounter Jacob as he prepares to leave Haran, in accordance with the word God has spoken to him (Genesis 31:3,13). As Genesis 32 begins, Jacob is preparing to meet Esau. Recalling the enmity at their parting (Genesis 27), Jacob is afraid. After fervent prayer, Jacob sends messengers to Esau with gifts and words of peace. The night before he is to re-enter his homeland for the reunion with Esau, Jacob sends his family across the river and settles in, alone, in the camping place beside the river Jabbok.

The text tells how “a man wrestled with him until daybreak” (Genesis 32:24). Jacob and “the man” wrestle and Jacob’s thigh muscle is injured in the course of the contest. The struggle continues until daybreak, when Jacob demands a blessing from “the man.” Scholars have wrestled with the nature of “the man” in this account. Elsewhere, the writers of Genesis describe God in human terms (see Genesis 18:1-2), and this depiction of God as “the man” seems in line with that.

This divine being declares that Jacob’s new name shall be Israel, signifying that “you have striven with God and with humans, and have prevailed” (Genesis 32:28). Israel is Jacob’s new name and also the name of the nation that is formed from Abraham’s,– and Jacob’s,– descendants. The traditional meaning of the name Israel is “God strives.” It also has been understood as “may God rule” or “one who wrestles with God.”

Earlier in Genesis 32, the word face appears seven times, making a strong link with Jacob’s experience: “I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is preserved” (v. 30). This was extraordinary because ancient Hebrews thought that to see God’s face would bring death (see Exodus 33:20). When Jacob later meets Esau, he says “to see your face is like seeing the face of God” (Genesis 33:10).

Just as Jacob perseveres in his struggle with God, the psalmist in Psalm 17:1-7,15 cries out for vindication and is persistent in seeking the blessing of God’s steadfast love.

Paul is willing to sacrifice his very being to extend the blessings of Christ to others. In Romans 9:1-5, Paul recounts his rich religious heritage as one of the children of Israel, and the “great sorrow and unceasing anguish” (v. 2) he feels when considering some of the brothers and sisters in faith.

As Jesus is wrestling with the news of the death of John the Baptizer, he goes off to a “deserted place by himself.” The disciples, and then the crowds, follow. As told in Matthew 14:13-21, Jesus challenges the disciples to feed the crowd, and blesses the meagre rations they have into abundance.

Each day, God’s blessings grant us new beginnings. Such compassion empowers us to face up to the challenges we encounter. In what ways has your life,– as an individual and as a church,– been transformed by God’s blessing? To what new beginning might such blessing be leading you?

Reflection

O God, when we face challenges of our own doing, recall us to your family and remind us that your blessings of love and forgiveness are sufficient. Make us bold to trust in your leading and eager to extend your compassion to all creation. Amen.

 

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