Fathers stoop to wrestle with their sons, but woe to the son who mistakes his father’s condescension for true weakness. Though He stoops he still sets the rules. Here God comes in the form of a man, reserves His power, and wrestles with the wrestler.
With a touch, not a powerful blow, Jacob’s hip explodes. Jacob will not prevail because of superior strength; he will prevail only in prayer. But before he is blessed he must be further broken, blessedly broken. God’s severe mercy must cut to heal.
Jacob must relinquish his name, his identity. A lady will hesitate to give her name to a creeper because information is power. To relinquish his name is to tap out, to say uncle. But more than this it is to admit who he is. Is he not rightly named Jacob (Genesis 27:36)? Previously he stole the blessing by concealing his identity; God demands we confess if we are to receive His blessing. There can be no masquerade, no disguise. The truth of who we are must be owned up to.
Upon Jacob’s confession of his old self God redefines who he is, He changes his identity. Jacob then asks the Stranger’s name, but notice the change of tone. God demanded the name, Jacob asks politely and is refused, but He is blessed.
It is of the utmost importance to realize that in this wrestling match God bestows nothing that He has not already promised. God has not been pinned to the mat, Jacob has, and yet in a sense he walks away winning, he is blessedly broken. As Derek Kidner said, “It was defeat and victory in one.” Or as Bruce Waltke comments,
The limp is the posture of the saint, walking not in physical strength but in spiritual strength. God’s severe mercy allows Jacob a victory, but it is a crippling victory.
The self-sufficient wrestler has become the dependant-cripple, and this is a glorious thing, a good thing. May we all be so stricken, so defeated, so devastated, so blessed.
No Other Boast 