So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.” But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” (Genesis 32:24-26, NIV)

I have a 12-year-old son named Jacob who recently earned his black belt in Mixed Martial Arts. This means I’ve had to learn to defend myself. Living with someone who is trained in hand-to-hand combat and who is also experiencing pre-pubescent testosterone spikes requires constant vigilance. I could be attacked at any moment. 

A few weeks ago, I was ambushed in our living room. And immediately, my goal was to neutralize the threat. I wasn’t trying to win – I just wanted to be able to walk away. When we wrestled when he was younger, I went easy on him. I wanted to make sure I didn’t hurt him. But now, I have to make sure he doesn’t hurt me. 

Thankfully, having a 160-pound advantage over your opponent is helpful. So, I was able to escape the headlock he attempted to put me in, and I managed to get him pinned in a full nelson position (for those who didn’t grow up with the WWE, just suffice it to say that I had him exactly where I wanted him). 

In Jacob’s martial arts training, whenever they are sparring with each other, they are trained to “tap out” whenever they need to concede to their opponent. They give two light taps with their hand, and it signals to their opponent that they are admitting defeat. 

So, that is what I told Jacob to do: “tap out.” This was all part of my survival strategy. I knew I had to get him to admit defeat so he wouldn’t spring another attack on me as soon as I let my guard down. 

But he refused to do it. He wouldn’t tap out. 

He kept struggling. Kept wriggling. Kept looking for a counter-move. 

But I wasn’t about to let him go free with that much fight left in him. So, I just held him like that. 

We were at a stalemate. He stubbornly refused to admit defeat. And I stubbornly refused to yield my advantage until he surrendered. 

And it was in that moment that I had an epiphany about the omnipotence of God. 

God is all-powerful. There is nothing God wants to do that God is prevented from doing because of a lack of power. Whatever power is capable of accomplishing, God is also capable of accomplishing. 

So, it is strange to come across a story like the one in Genesis 32, where God seems less than all-powerful. 

We are told by the text itself that this mysterious man – whom Jacob will later seem to identify as God (Gen. 32:30) – “saw that he could not overpower” Jacob.  

Wait! Hold on a minute. How is it possible that the all-powerful God of the universe was unable to put a mere mortal in a full nelson? 

I wonder if God realized he could not overpower Jacob… without destroying him. Obviously, God could have easily won that wrestling match. God clearly has the upper hand. I mean, Jacob’s hip is out of socket by the end of the fight! But if God had not held back, I highly doubt that Jacob would have been around to talk about it afterwards. 

And yet, Jacob, stubborn man that he is, refuses to admit defeat. He won’t tap out. 

So they are locked in a stalemate: God refusing to destroy Jacob, and Jacob refusing to let go of God. 

And in this story, it seems to me that we have a daringly honest picture of the relationship between God and human beings. 

God sometimes comes to us as one who seems like an adversary. One we must wrestle with.  

And it’s not a fair fight. This is the Lord God, Almighty, whom we face. The source of all things. The ground of our being. The One who holds the keys to both death and Hades. God is not just some divine character within our reality. God is our reality itself. He is inescapable. Where can we flee from His presence (Psalm 139:7)? He is the one with whom our souls must contend. To exist at all is to exist within and from and for Him. 

And because of this, He is also the One we must address with our complaints. In the midst of suffering, and loss, and injustice, and all the whims of fate, who else can we appeal to? It is not a fair fight, but He is the One we must wrestle with. He is the only One from whom we could possibly secure a blessing. 

We live in a time and a culture that seems especially tempted to see the unfairness and brutality of human existence as good reason to let go of God. And if we are honest, there are probably times when it feels like holding on is pointless, when we wonder if our struggle to keep our faith is even worth it. It can feel like we have to keep our spiritual lives in a stranglehold, just to have enough faith to be able to go to church or say a prayer.  

And to that experience, this story offers us a gift:

May we be as stubborn as Jacob: refusing to let go, until we get a blessing.