7-31-2011:
Story has it that the mother of Ray Charles, fearful of her son’s dependence on her sought to change the path of his life. Blind since birth she had tended to his every need, until the realization that she would not always be there for him. The next day she made him get ready on his own. While he screamed and wailed behind his bedroom door she listened in agony on the other side. The change she had chosen for her son was incredibly difficult, but she explained she was doing this for his future. He went on to fame and fortune, remaining fiercely independent, both as a recording artist, and as a businessman, being one of the few artists of his era to control the master recordings to his music.
Genesis 32:22-31 is the ‘bookend’ to chapter 28:10-19a. In chapter twenty-eight Jacob is on the run from his brother Esau. Having cheated him out of his birthright for a bowl of soup a few chapters earlier, Jacob now has stolen the family blessing belonging to Esau. Having sent his family across the Jabbok river he settles in for a nights rest but as in chapter twenty-eight he gets none. Where in the earlier story he visioned his ancestors, here he spiritually wrestles with God. So bold is Jacob that with the Holy he will not quit until he receives a blessing. Therein his name is changed to Israel, because he has ‘struggled with humans and with God and prevailed’. Jacob (Israel) then changes the name of the place to signify the Holy encounter.
In athletics someone with talent is referred to as a ‘game changer’. In the realm of faith God is ‘The Game Changer’. God saw something in Jacob, which Jacob himself could not perceive, leadership and hope. This errant vagrant grandson of Abraham was changed both in name and spirit by the blessing of God. A gifted theologian Max Lucado puts it slightly differently. “ While it is true that God loves us as we are, God does not expect us to stay where we are.” This is the spirit of Holy change to which we are all invited.
