"Jacob was left alone".
Resting at the river - having sent his family ahead.
Preparing to cross this threshold, return to the land he'd fled.
Would Esau still be pissed?
"Jacob was left alone".
Knowing that the next day he'd face his brother again,
face his own deceits and betrayals.
Crossing this river meant bringing his new family into the land of his birth
and being responsible for them amidst potential hostility.
"Jacob was left alone; and a man wrestled with him until daybreak".
Wrestled with him. And Jacob wrestled back.
Bodies of flesh and bone thrown -
down the bank and over stone;
drenched with sweat - their own
and each other's;
the river's waters washing them clean
only to begin again.
Breath coming shallower and shallower;
gashes from hard falls growing deeper.
They wrestled.
"When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he struck him in the hip socket; and Jacob's hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him".
But still Jacob hung on. He was hurt. Yet he held tightly to his attacker.
"Let me go, for the day is breaking" came the demand from the one who refused surrender.
"I will not" was Jacob's reply, "unless you bless me".
So he knew. Jacob understood that this was no ordinary encounter
of a traveler alone. He knew: "I will not let you go, unless you bless me".
It's ironic, as blessings go.
He who supplants, he who takes by the heel,
becomes he who wrestles with God.
Why?
Because "you have striven with God and with humans, and have prevailed".
And this is a blessing?
