Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.

Genesis 28:15

Jacob the Wrestler is the story of another man who confirms to us that the lives of our biblical heroes were nothing short of blotchy, muddled messes. How shockingly human they were. How uncomfortably like us they are. If you’re anything like me, you find it oddly comforting when you consider that these were the kind of suspiciously odd specimens God used to reveal his plans and keep his promises to. 

Who is this God who not only calls crazy people to carry out his will but stays with them when it looks like they’re doing everything in their will to try and thwart it? Who is this God? This is the God of Christmas past, present, and future. The God who is with you, keeps you, and brings you back, full stop. The God who will not leave you with any of his promises to you unkept, even when it seems like they’re hanging precariously in suspense and unfulfilled. 

Jacob was a man chocked full of life’s rational and irrational fears. Fear of the future, fear for the safety of his family, fear of an unresolved relationship with his more rugged and aggressive twin brother Esau, who gave Jacob a few good reasons to tremble a bit. Ok, maybe these were some rational fears after all. The reason for Jacob’s fears, and our own, is because the future cannot be grasped, controlled, maintained, or called to do what we command of it. So we worry about what we cannot see. We try to control that which is impossible to have any firmness of grip on. We are like Jacob, wrestling with God over things we try to maneuver or manipulate but in actuality cannot, because of our flesh and blood inability to perform supernatural feats of magic. Because of our human frailty.

So we, like Jacob, need someone to be with us, to keep us, to bring us back, and to never leave us with unkept promises. We need a God who will never forsake us, 

So we can confidently say: “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?” (Heb. 13:6)

I wonder what might be traveling through your mind today as the year comes to a close, and your fear of another fearful new year looms on the horizon.

“Behold, I am with you.” 

Maybe those words feel like distant echoes in the chambers of your mind. You’re like the Old Testament wrestler Jacob, wanting to hear God bless you while you make another futile attempt to gain control of a life you will never master on your own. In a moment, the world comes to a halt, you have been left with a limp, and in that hour, you catch a glimpse of your Creator. The One who calms your fears, upholds your arms, and stays by your side unfailingly as the year passes into memory. 

“For I will not leave you…”

Reflect

What have been some of your greatest moments of wrestling this year? What events can you trace where God was with you?