Jabbok, Jebek, Jacob

          This is one of those stories…

          Just 9 verses.

-Jacob crossing a river,
-wrestling,
-leaving different than he came…

          that’s it… and that’s everything.

         

          There at the Jabbok river Jacob leaves his family, crossing back over.

           Crossing back, because he is frightened of his brother, Esau—his brother who is coming forth to meet him with an army of 400 men.

          He expects him to be angry…
 rightly, justly, angry
—angry at all Jacob has done.

          This furry red sharp shooting bowman of a brother, defeated by Jacob’s cunning, but now coming… coming for Jacob, on the other side of the river Jabbok.

          Jacob split his herd and wealth up into two pieces as a peace offering, sends them forward to his brother
…that brother he tricked.

          Not just wealth, wives… children, all on the other side, between Jacob and Esau.

          For Esau’s wrath to reach Jacob, Esau would have to go through herds and harems, women and children, and that river, the Jabbok River.

          Perhaps Jacob feels secure there, on the other side? There, alone.

          Alone until he is not… Rivers are strange things, the evening, in the dark, is a strange time. Water crossings and the night are, as Celtic Christianity will later call them, thin places.

          The night is where things appear different than they did in the daylight, both more obscure and strangely clearer, the dark is for dreams and nightmares and inspiration.

          Rivers are where you find strange creatures, trolls under the bridge, dryads looking at their image like a mirror, folk living at the edge of society…

          The river at night is where past and present, human and God, things seen and things unseen, have a way of crossing over to one another. A river is a thin, razor thin, barrier between those things!

         

          I wonder if Jacob heard the man coming, or was he ambushed? Did the reeds rustle at he came? Did he make a ripple as he crossed over, and met, and wrestled with Jacob?

          Did you know in Hebrew to wrestle is to Jibek?

          Jacob Jibeks at the Jabbok river with… someone.

          He wrestles with his brother Esau, just as he did in Rebecca’s womb
—in some way that sibling rivalry that started in their mother’s womb is being played out still as he wrestles, Jibeks…
is he wrestling with all he’d done to his brother Esau?

          He wrestles with his own nature, what it means to be Jacob…
Jacob who tricks and wrestles and always has to come out on top at the expense of someone else… everyone else…
the long term consequences of that kind of life is being alone there on the shore, being willing to sacrifice family and everything else, to just save his own skin
… to get win, even if the prize is nothing…

          But is it not said, “he is one who strives with Divine Beings and with Human Beings!”
He’s not just striving with his brother his past and his lonely present, he is also wrestling with God
—the God who formed him in the womb, whether he struggled with his brother or not… the God who followed him through his wrestling and trials and was his God not because Jacob was a trickster, but just because Jacob was…

          He clung to God there—clung to the infinite in this finite person—clung to God in the form of a man, there by the Jabbok river.

          Then Jacob is asked by this mysterious man, “what is your name?”
And Jacob answers.
Jacob says, “Jacob!”

Jacob—born with one hand clamped to his brother Esau’s heel, attempting to pull him back into the womb so he could be the first-born instead.

Jacob—whose name means Supplanter or Trickster.

Jacob—who continued to degrade his brother once out of the womb.

Jacob—Grappling his brother’s birthright from him in a moment of hunger—selling him out for some stew.

Jacob—Grabbing Esau’s blessing from him by tricking his blind father Isaac.

Jacob—wrestling wives, riches, and more from his father-in-law’s by hook and by crook.

Jacob—because his anti-social actions has estranged him from his family, he is returning to his brother Esau, but fears for his life.

          Jacob… is more than an answer.

It is a confession.
Jacob is confessing.
Jacob is admitting,
“Yes, I am a Trickster.
Yes I am a Supplanter.
Yes I stole what was my brother’s and left him alone.
No I have not been my brother’s keeper.”

          And, in making that confession, in being confronted by the cowardly nature of his name, Jacob is given a new name.
Israel.

          God strives… God preserves…

          God gives him a new name. In confessing who he is, facing that reality warts and all, Jacob receives a new start, named and claimed by God.

          To be clear, this name change isn’t re-branding, Coke becoming “new-coke.” Philip Morris becoming Altria, Monsanto becoming Bayer.

          That’s not what’s happening to Jacob.

          We find him limping into the morning light—changed—renamed—limping toward his brother!

          We find him squinting a little as the light glimmers off the Jabbok. As he crosses over to the other side—crosses over to a new relationship with his brother.

          Yes, Jacob Jibekks at the Jabbok. Jacob clings to God in the form of a man.

He wrestles with his past,

his relationship with those he’s hurt,

his name and his very nature.

He steps through that thin place and comes out changed.

          Night turns to day.

          He receives a new name
—Jacob becomes Israel. The Grasper becomes the one grasped by God.

          He is changed, made to limp, to humbly go forth always aware of God’s action that night.

          He meets his brother, and they are reconciled to one another

—embracing one another,

 becoming family again and journeying alongside one another

—no longer wrestling to see who is on top.

          Yes, Jacob stepped through a thin place and was changed, that night…
that night when Jacob Jibeked at the Jabbok.