Wrestling with Your Belief in God

One of the wonderful things about biblical stories is that they offer lessons for both the religious and the secular. One reason some stories from the Bible are so popular and famous is because they speak to secular readers. Such is the case with Jacob’s “wrestling match” with God in Genesis, although sometimes God is referred to as an angel and even as a man in some versions.

It is so famous that many artists, including Rembrandt, have depicted the scene.

“Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.”

Here’s one version of the text from Genesis 32:22-32:

“The same night he arose and took his two wives, his two female servants, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. He took them and sent them across the stream, and everything else that he had. And Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day. When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched his hip socket, and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. Then he said, ‘Let me go, for the day has broken.’ But Jacob said, ‘I will not let you go unless you bless me.’ And he said to him, ‘What is your name?’ And he said, ‘Jacob.’ Then he said, ‘Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.'”

What actually happens in this story and what is its meaning?

As with all scripture, we must examine text, context, and subtext. We’ve read the text. The context is that Jacob has tricked his dying father into blessing him instead of his brother Esau (and getting double the inheritance). Esau vowed to kill him. Jacob ran away, raised a huge family, and is returning to Canaan after 20 years to make peace.

Peace seems unlikely, since Esau is going to meet with Jacob with an army!

Related: The Cost of Bearing False Witness

Jacob was scared and didn’t know what to do. That’s because he lacked faith. So who shows up? God does, and Jacob is forced to wrestle with his faith, to wrestle with what he wants from God, and to accept what God wants from him. Neither “wins” this wrestling match. It’s more like a draw.

What have we failed to see about ourselves that we now must admit to?

So God announces an end to the match, but Jacob asks for His blessing. He has found genuine faith as a result of this very struggle, and earned God’s blessing, not a sneaky theft of a blessing as he did before. And God does indeed bless him, because Jacob engaged God, and in doing so, became enlightened with God’s grace.

The subtext is how this applies to the daily lives of both those who are religious and those who are secular. The beauty of this particular story is that it has so many interpretations.

Sometimes people of faith have mighty struggles with God, particularly when tragedy strikes. Like Job, we wonder why terrible things were visited upon us.

We struggle with God when we hear His call to act in a way that we fear will do damage to ourselves and others, not having the vision to see what His intent is for us. Sometimes it is merely an ongoing revelation that God is constantly challenging us.

Related: The Bible in the Public Sphere

For the secular, the story has resonance because it describes the struggle we often have with ourselves. The depth psychologist Carl Jung described our “shadow” as the parts of our personalities that we are ashamed of, our more unpleasant aspects, that we repress.

We repress them, and yet they are a part of us that we must acknowledge, and wrestle with. If we fail to do so, well, “that which we do not bring to consciousness appears in our lives as Fate.”

In other words, our worst elements will come back to haunt us if we don’t struggle to integrate and understand them.

For secular readers, this story is a metaphor for the struggle we engage in every day. How do we become better people? What part of ourselves is constantly undermining our growth? What have we failed to see about ourselves that we now must admit to? What is the right thing to do?

The phrase “dark night of the soul” derives from a poem by St. John of the Cross — and this is exactly what Jacob experiences with God. All night long he wrestles with his spiritual crisis, yet morning comes, and with it comes God’s blessing.