One story in Scripture that I am surprised more people are not shocked by is how Jacob—and later the whole of the nation of Jacob—takes on the title “Israel.” In Genesis, we are told of a curious episode where Jacob wrestles with a mysterious figure for a whole night. In the morning, the other person demands that Jacob let him go, but Jacob refuses, saying, “I will not let you go unless you bless me” (Gen. 32:26).
The other then asks Jacob his name, and afterward says, “Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel; for you have striven with God and with men and have prevailed” (Gen. 32:28). Jacob in turn asks for the other man’s name but is refused. Reflecting on what had just happened, he then names the place Peniel, “for he said, ‘I have seen God face to face, yet my life has been preserved” (Gen. 32:30). In other words, Jacob realizes that he had been wrestling against God the whole time.
As strange as this whole episode is, let us pause on the name “Israel,” or “he who strives with God.” It is used of Jacob and the people of Israel as a honorific, but it really doesn’t sound like it. “He who strives with God” sounds a lot more like a title befitting a rebel than a role model. If that is so, why does God Himself name Jacob this as a sign of honor?
I argue that this is because God doesn’t like pushovers. He wants us to obey Him, of course, but not to shut our minds off. Thomas doubts the Resurrection, says that he will not believe unless he puts his finger on Jesus’ wounds (Jn. 20:25), and Jesus appears to allow Thomas to do so (27). Of course, “Blessed are they who did not see and yet believed” (29), but Thomas is not abandoned for his questioning.
The same principle holds for the fascinating discussion that God has with Jacob’s grandfather, Abraham. We can see God baiting Abraham into the debate concerning Sodom, when He says, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, since Abraham will surely become a great and mighty nation, and in him all the nations of the earth will be blessed?” (Gen. 18:17). This dialogue is brought up unprompted by God. In what follows, God tells Abraham that He has decided that Sodom should be destroyed. Abraham argues that this is unjust, as that would mean that the just and the unjust would be punished in like manner (Gen. 18:23-5). God agrees that Abraham makes a good point, and what follows is a negotiation of how many just people in Sodom would justify sparing the whole city. Abraham starts with fifty and negotiates down to ten. Alas, only five just people were found and they were escorted out of the city.
How are we to understand this episode? Did Abraham stop God from being unjust, or had God not already thought of how not to punish the just and the unjust alike? Presumably, He had. God broached the topic to Abraham because He does not just want us to obey, but to understand His mind as best we can. He prompts Abraham’s debate with Him. He wants us to ask questions.
This is best highlighted in the Book of Job. After being stricken with a number of calamities, Job is destitute, and his wife tells him that enough is enough: “Curse God and die!” (Jb. 2:9). Job does not, but in later conversation with his friends, he does assert that God has done him an injustice. If there were a fair court where he could pursue this charge, he would bring God to trial (Jb. 9). His friends, in turn, argue that his calamities are due to his previous sins—which Job argues do not exist.
When God eventually appears, He says that Job is right and his friends are wrong and that Job has, overall, spoken the truth (Jb.42:7). Job is incorrect in asserting that God has been unjust to Him—but in asserting that he is sinless and does not understand why punishment has come upon him, he has done the right thing. Job’s questioning is justified and God appears to answer him. At the same time, Job realizes that he spoke without thinking when he accused God of injustice, and he asks for forgiveness. God does not hold his sin to be as significant as that of his friends, who have a facile understanding of God.
It seems, therefore, that God is very comfortable with us questioning. We may even wrestle with Him and—though He might dislocate our hip (Gen. 32:25)—this still does not place us in rebellion against Him. Fundamentally, to be in rebellion is to turn away from God. Throughout the prophets, God rails endlessly against those who turn away, or, worse, those who have turned away from Him but still keep up pretenses.
He has nothing to say, however, about those who are truthful in their questioning. More than anything, God reveals Himself to humans because He loves us and wants us to love Him. Counterintuitive though it may be, fighting with God evidences that we still love Him and as such God does not dissuade us from it, because, as He has told us, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and it will be opened to you” (Mk. 7:7).
Featured image: Jacob Wrestling with the Angel by Rembrandt (1659)
Gjergji Evangjeli served as the Editor-In-Chief of The Torch. He had previously served as the Executive Editor and the World News section editor. He is currently pursuing a ThM at the BC School of Theology and Ministry. Gjergji is interested in the patristic period, specifically in the apologists of the second century. He is an ardent defender of the Oxford comma.
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