Growing up in Florida in the early 1960s, one of the staples of Saturday television programming was “Championship Wrestling from Florida” with Gordon Solie as host and play-by-play announcer. The show was filled with heroes and villains and served as a televised morality play for me and my friends in our formative pre-teen years. There was mystery, intrigue, and suspense as we sat enthralled wondering if good would triumph over evil. Gordon Solie’s voice was the siren’s call luring me into a world not my own.
These days the “siren’s call” is no longer attuned to professional wrestling, but focused on the call of God’s Word. Today’s first reading, Genesis 32:24–33, is the biblical “Championship Wrestling.” It is a passage which recounts the mysterious encounter between Jacob, son of Issac, and an unnamed being who wrestles with him through the night. This passage is rich in its theological, literary, and symbolic complexity.
Jacob, alone at night after sending his family across the Jabbok River, is suddenly confronted by “a man” who wrestles with him until dawn. As the struggle ends, the man wounds Jacob’s hip and gives him a new name—Israel—”because you have contended with divine and human beings and have prevailed.” (v. 28). Jacob names the place Peniel, “face of God,” because he says, “I have seen God face to face, yet my life has been spared.”
Many scholars view this passage as a theophany, a direct and mysterious encounter with God. Though the opponent is first described as a “man,” Jacob later identifies him as God (v. 30), and Hosea 12:4–5 refers to him as both an angel and God. Claus Westermann argues that the passage is about Jacob’s transformation through divine encounter. The new name “Israel” signifies not just a personal victory but a vocation: Jacob now carries a new role in salvation history. Von Rad emphasizes the mystery and ambiguity of the identity of Jacob’s opponent. The encounter represents a turning point in Jacob’s life—he enters the struggle as a deceiver (the one who stole his brother Esau’s inheritance) and emerges as “Israel,” one who contends with God.
Robert Alter notes the play on words and the deliberate ambiguity. Israel is formed from the Hebrew verb “to strive” and the divine reference “El”, suggesting not only struggle but also intimacy—Jacob wrestles and survives. In time the name Israel came to be associated with spiritual struggle and divine calling. The rabbinic interpreters saw in this name a theological badge of honor: to wrestle with God and live means to be in deep covenantal relationship.
Some modern scholars interpret the episode as an inner struggle—a symbolic rendering of Jacob’s crisis of identity before again encountering Esau years after his betrayal of his brother. Robert Alter highlights the narrative ambiguity and literary craft of the passage. The wrestling match is a dramatization of Jacob’s internal turmoil: fear of Esau, guilt over past deceit, and a quest for blessing. Others suggest that rabbinic interpreters saw the passage as affirming human capacity to strive with the divine. He also explores how Jacob’s limp is a physical mark of the encounter, echoing the biblical theme of transformation through suffering.
The passage is often read as an etiological myth—an origin story explaining Israel’s name and identity. Nahum Sarna interprets the renaming of Jacob as the founding moment for the identity of Israel—both the man and the nation. The struggle anticipates Israel’s long history of wrestling with God in faith, covenant, and obedience. Others additionally note the divine vulnerability in the story: God allows Jacob to contend and even prevail. This mutual engagement sets the tone for Israel’s covenantal relationship with God.
Genesis 32:23–33 is a narrative rich with layers of meaning—personal, national, theological, and existential. Jacob’s struggle is both literal and symbolic: a confrontation with God, self, past, and future. It is perhaps a pivotal moment in the biblical story, encapsulating the paradox of divine encounter — wounding and blessing, mystery and revelation.
As believers, wrestling with God, is part of the spiritual life.
Image credit: Detail: “Jacob worstelt met de engel” | Bartholomeus Breenbergh, 1639 | Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam | PD-US