“Seeing God Face to Face” Orange Congregational Church UCC, August 2, 2026, (Genesis 32:22-31 and Matthew 14:13-21) Tenth Sunday after Pentecost
Today’s story from the Book of Genesis is unique. It may or may not be a story you remember well from Sunday School! Yet this story is one of my favorite stories from the Old Testament. This might be the case because it was a text my Old Testament Professor taught us in such a compelling way back in seminary.[1]
To understand the context a bit Jacob had cheated his older brother Esau out of his rightful inheritance and then fled to avoid Esau’s (understandable) wrath. Jacob sought asylum in Haran and built a life for himself. Though eventually it’s time to come home. Jacob sends messengers to his brother Esau hoping that his brother’s anger had subsided. Jacob instructed his messengers to speak on his behalf, “I have lived with Laban as an alien and stayed until now, and I have oxen, donkeys, flocks, male and female slaves, and I have sent to tell my lord in order that I may find favor in your sight.”[2] The messengers returned and let Jacob know that Esau is coming to meet him, with four hundred men.
So Jacob is afraid. It would seem that time did not heal this wound. It would seem that his brother is going to seek revenge for what Jacob did to him all those years ago. Family grudges and sibling rivalry, seeking forgiveness when we have wronged someone. These themes that come up are timeless and that is part of what makes this story powerful. Jacob sends his brother Esau presents to hopefully appease him—two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, thirty milch camels and their colts, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty female donkey and ten male donkeys.[3] Jacob keeps traveling to meet his fate, to face the consequences of his actions and the brother he wronged all those years ago. Jacob sends his family across the Jabbok River and all the possessions he had left to his name. This was an eastern tributary of the Jordan River—the frontier of the Promised Land. And that night as Jacob stays next to the river by himself a man suddenly appears and wrestles with Jacob until daybreak.
Who is this random man who appears on the scene and attacks Jacob as he is alone by the river? Some would say that this is an angel. Some would say that this is God. This confrontation with perhaps God in humanish form will shape the final encounter that Jacob has with his brother Esau. Jacob is alone, and he cannot call for help. The mysterious figure realizes that he cannot prevail and strikes Jacob on the hip, dislocating his hip that will never fully heal from this encounter. Jacob will forever be marked by this struggle as he limps away toward the Promised Land. Jacob clings to his adversary and demands a blessing: “I will not let you go, unless you bless me.”[4] After this encounter Jacob is given a new name—Israel, “for you have striven with God and with humans and you have prevailed.”[5] After this encounter Jacob renames this sacred place Peniel—for Jacob had seen God face to face, yet his life was preserved.
Where do we even begin with a story like this? How is God still speaking? We can understand this story literally or metaphorically or somewhere in between. Though this is not presented as some nightmare encounter where Jacob may be struggling with a guilty conscience. God is sharply challenging Jacob here, acting in his ultimate best interest. Though there is this sense of challenge—let’s see what this guy’s made of when the going gets rough. It’s a story of shaping and sharpening, of God watching for openings and opportunities to enhance the divine purpose of Jacob’s life. Who is to say that God does not look for openings and opportunities for our lives too?
From a theological perspective it is not a comforting thought that God tests us. It could remind us of Abraham or Job or even moments of Jesus’ life. In some ways the story of the feeding of the five thousand we also heard this morning could have felt like a test to Jesus. In that story Jesus and his followers were also in a deserted place. The hour was late. Jesus had been at work all day curing those who were sick. The disciples want to send the crowds away. But Jesus challenges them, “They need not go away; you give them something to eat.”[6] All the disciples had was five loaves of bread and two fish. Though somehow the meager offering is multiplied enough to feed everyone.
These stories can challenge us. Life is hard enough without the divine seemingly throwing obstacles in our paths on purpose. Life is hard enough without the divine seemingly showing up to wrestle near a river and dislocate our hips. It almost feels like a famous Far Side cartoon that featured a man walking along a street completely oblivious to a piano precariously hanging above him being lowered to the ground by ropes. A figure is looking at this scene on the computer, and the figure is depicted as God. God’s finger is lingering over a button on the keyboard with one single word on that key—SMITE![7] Do we really think that God is somewhere with God’s finger lingering over that smite button when God sees us living our lives?
Because even here in this mysterious story from Genesis God is working with Jacob for the ultimate well-being of both brothers. Because here’s the amazing ending—Jacob (AKA Israel) leaves the riverbank in the light of day and limps along to see his brother Esau in the distance coming toward him with those four hundred men. “But Esau ran to meet him and embraced him and fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept.”[8]
Jesus would have known this story well as part of his Jewish tradition. Doesn’t this remind us of the end of the Parable of the Prodigal Son when the father runs out to embrace that wayward son who finally came home? Jacob had prayed to be delivered from Esau. Though their paths had to come together again for both brothers to ultimately be healed, for both brothers to embrace forgiveness and second chances. A helpful analysis of this story of Jacob wrestling with God from The New Interpreter’s Bible is that “When it comes to struggles in daily life, we can count on God’s mixing it up with us, challenging us, convicting us, evaluating us, judging us. We may have to place our life at risk, knowing that the one who loses life will find it. God honors the relationship both by engaging in the struggle in the first place and by persisting in that struggle through thick and thin . . . God may break into your life and force a new direction for thought and action.”[9]
Sometimes we face something unexpected or just really hard in our lives. Sometimes it is not right, and it is not fair. Maybe the lasting power of this story is that we can hold on for a blessing. Because life can be a balance of holding on and letting go. Though if we hold on and keep the faith with God by our side, knowing that God is at work for our ultimate good, there is no telling what blessings may come our way in the end. This doesn’t mean that we won’t come out of these hard encounters unchanged. Maybe we emerge with a scar or a limp. Though God is right there with us in the struggles of our daily lives. That is the good news. God is right there with us breaking into our lives. And sometimes maybe we can glimpse God face to face. Thanks be to God. Amen.
[1] Much of the analysis of Genesis 32:22-32 comes from the commentary and reflections on the text as found in The New Interpreter’s Bible, Volume 1, pgs. 564-570.
[2] Genesis 32:4-5, NRSVUE.
[3] Genesis 32:13-15.
[4] Genesis 32:26.
[5] Genesis 32:28.
[6] Matthew 14:16.
[7] Gary Larson, “God at His Computer” The Far Side.
[8] Genesis 33:4.
[9] Genesis 32:22-32 Commentary and Reflections in The New Interpreter’s Bible, Volume 1, pg. 570.
Lauren Ostrout ~ on being made well 