Jacob – Wrestling With God
based on and adapted from selected verses from Genesis 32 & 33

Reading time about 8:30.

Reader one: Last week we heard the story of Jacob’s weddings. Two of them, a week apart. His Uncle Laban tricks Jacob into marrying Leah, the eldest daughter, who has some kind of problem with her eyes. Then, when the week-long wedding celebrations are over, Jacob marries Rachael, the woman he loved. And the bride-price Jacob paid was 14 years of labor for Uncle Laban.

Reader two: But it was Leah who had the babies. Rachael, the one Jacob loved, couldn’t seem to conceive. She tried for years – every herbal medicine in they knew of. Finally it worked. She gave birth to Joseph – yes, the Joseph of the many-colored dream coat who was sold into slavery in Egypt. That story is for another time.

Reader one: Jacob has been in exile, living with his Uncle Laban, for 20 years. He finally decided it was time to go back home. But there was a problem. The problem was Jacob’s brother Esau, the one he had cheated out of his birthright – the one who swore he would kill Jacob.

Reader two: These great biblical sagas often take place at two levels. They are the legendary stories of individuals, yes, but these individuals represent nations. Esau is seen as the ancestor of the Edomites, and Jacob as the ancestor of the Israelites. So Jacob’s return would be the occasion for war – not just a fist fight between two brothers.

Reader one: And how does that get resolved? The story is a morality tale. This is what you do when you have a long-standing, simmering, disagreement between two people. Two nations. This is how you solve the problem.

Reader two: So we pick up the story. Jacob is on his way home. He has sent word ahead to Esau and then gets word that Esau is coming to meet him. With 400 men. An army, in other words. And Jacob is afraid. Afraid for his family. Afraid for his life.

(SLIGHT PAUSE)

Reader one: Jacob sent messengers before him to his brother Esau in the country of Edom, instructing them.

Reader two: "Thus you shall say to my lord Esau: Thus says your servant Jacob, '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.'"

Reader one: The messengers returned to Jacob.

Reader two: "We came to your brother Esau, and he is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him."

Reader one: Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed; and he divided the people that were with him, and the flocks and herds and camels, into two companies, thinking, "If Esau comes to the one company and destroys it, then the company that is left will escape."

Reader two: And Jacob prayed.

Reader one: "O God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, deliver me, please, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I am afraid of him. He may come and kill us all, the mothers with the children. Yet, God, you have said, 'I will surely do you good, and make your offspring as the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted because of their number.'"

Reader two: So Jacob spent that night there, and from what he had with him he took a present for his brother Esau, 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 donkeys and ten male donkeys. These Jacob delivered into the hand of his servants, with these instructions:

Reader one: "Pass on ahead of me, and put a space between one flock and the next. When Esau my brother meets you, and asks you, 'To whom do you belong? Where are you going? Then you shall say, 'These animals belong to your servant Jacob; they are a present sent to my lord Esau from his brother Jacob who is following behind us. And each following servant shall do likewise.’ I may appease him with the present that goes ahead of me, and afterwards I shall see his face. Perhaps he will accept me."

Reader two: That same night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two maids, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the river Jabbok. He sent them across the stream, and likewise everything that he had.

Reader one: Jacob was left alone.
And a man wrestled with him until daybreak. When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he struck him on the hip socket; and Jacob's hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with the man. Then the man spoke to Jacob.

Reader two: "Let me go, for the day is breaking."

Reader one: "I will not let you go, unless you bless me."

Reader two: "What is your name?"

Reader one: "Jacob."

Reader two: "You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel – Israel, for that means, ‘the one who strives with God,’ for you have striven with God and with humans, and have prevailed."

Reader one: "Please tell me your name.

Reader two: "Why is it that you ask my name?"

Reader one: And the strange being did not answer, but blessed Jacob. So Jacob called the place Peniel, which means, ‘The face of God.’

Reader two: "For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is preserved."

Reader one: The sun rose upon Jacob as he crossed the Jabbok, limping because of his hip.

Reader two: Now Jacob looked up and saw Esau coming, and four hundred men with him. So he divided the children among Leah and Rachel and the two maids. He put the maids with their children in front, then Leah with her children, and Rachel and Joseph last of all. Jacob himself went on ahead of them, bowing himself to the ground seven times, until he came near his brother.

Reader one: But Esau ran to meet Jacob, and embraced him, and fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept. Then Esau looked up and saw the women and children.

Reader two: "Who are these with you?"

Reader one: "These are the children whom God has graciously given me, your servant."

Reader two: Then the maids drew near, they and their children, and bowed down; Leah likewise and her children drew near and bowed down; and finally Joseph and Rachel drew near, and they bowed down.

Reader one: Then Esau spoke once more to Jacob.

Reader two: "What do you mean by all the gifts of sheep and goats and camels that you sent ahead to me?"

Reader one: "To find favor with you, my lord."

Reader two: No, my brother Jacob. I have enough. Keep what you have for yourself."

Reader one: "No, please. If I find favor with you, then accept my gift from my hand; for truly to see your face is like seeing the face of God – since you have received me with such favor. Please accept my gift that is brought to you, because God has dealt graciously with me, and because I have everything I want."

Reader two: So Jacob urged him, and Esau took it.

Reader one: Then Esau spoke once more.

Reader two: "Let us journey on our way, and I will go alongside you."

Reader one: Ah, my brother Esau. You know that the children are frail and that the flocks and herds, which are nursing, are a care to me; and if they are overdriven for one day, all the flocks will die. Why don’t you go on ahead of me and I will lead on slowly, according to the pace of the cattle that are before me and according to the pace of the children, until I come to join you at your home.”

Reader two: So Esau returned that day on his way to his home, but Jacob journeyed to the land of Canaan, and he camped before the city of Shechem, and he bought for one hundred pieces of money the plot of land on which he had pitched his tent. There he erected an altar to the God of Israel.

(SLIGHT PAUSE)

Reader one: And so are born the people known as Israel – Israel that wrestles with God.

Reader two: Israel that wrestles with God – and from that time on, walks with a limp.

Reader one: As we now, you and I, the spiritual descendants of Jacob and Rachel and Leah, continue to wrestle with God.

Reader two: As we now, you and I, walk through our lives with a limp.

Reader one: And we leave for another time the continuing saga of Jacob and the children he had through Leah and Rachael. Most particularly the story of Rachel’s baby, Joseph, and his remarkably dysfunctional family.

NOTE: The above is written in the style of “Reader’s Theatre,” a very simple but effective way of presenting the biblical story that can be done in any church, large or small. For more information about how to do Reader’s Theatre, click on this link.

Note: You have permission to use this in any worship service. No credit line is required, though it would be nice if you put in something like, “A Readers’ Theatre presentation of the Story-Lectionary.com project.”

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