Biblical Stories of Awakening: Israel

In the last episode I looked at the figure of Jacob in the Book of Genesis. I said that I would be taking two episodes to explore Jacob’s spiritual awakening because there are two stories of awakening associated with him. 

Jacob’s first experience was a vision/dream known as Jacob’s ladder, which we looked at last time. That happened when he was running from his brother Esau, who wanted to kill him for tricking him out of his birthright and blessing. Today I am looking at when Jacob is returning to Canaan and he wrestles with an angel. At that time his name was changed to Israel.

Transcript

In the last episode I looked at the figure of Jacob in the Book of Genesis. I also said that I would be taking two episodes to explore Jacob’s spiritual awakening because there are two stories of awakening associated with him. 

This reminds us again that spiritual awakening is more than a one-time event. It is a process that may be punctuated by more than one experience. In my life it involved three spiritual events over a period of forty years - each on twenty years apart. In Jacob’s case it was also three, but normally only two events are talked about. 

Jacob’s first experience was a vision/dream known as Jacob’s ladder, which we looked at last time. That happened when he was running from his brother Esau, who wanted to kill him for tricking him out of his birthright and blessing. 

The second one comes right before the scene of Jacob wrestling with an angel. This one is usually overlooked. Jacob left to return to Canaan and it says, “So Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him. When Jacob saw them, he said, “This is God’s camp.” That is all it says about this event. And then it is followed by the powerful scene of wrestling with God. But this was an experience of God’s presence. 

God was camping out. It means that Jacob experienced God as present. The wording used reminds me of the prologue of John where it says, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” Literally in Greek it says dwelt in us. Also literally it says “tabernacled” with us or in us.” Meaning “pitched his tent.” In other words God camped out, which is exactly what Jacob said was his experience of God. 

So we have Jacob having this same experience of the presence of God – the omnipresence of God – which was described 1700 years later in the Gospel of John. And it set the stage for the third experience, which was to happen soon after. 

Now we come to the story of Jacob wrestling with an angel. Jacob was on his way back to the Land of Canaan to meet his twin brother Esau, whom he thought still wanted to kill him. Jacob had spent twenty years at his uncle Laban’s place. He had married Laban’s two daughters, Leah and Rachel, serving Laban seven years for each of them.  That was not Jacob’s plan. The trickster had been tricked by his father-in-law into marrying the older sister first. 

Now Jacob has eleven children with his two wives and his wives’ slaves. He had served Laban an additional six years and in that time accumulated a huge flock of animals, which is how wealth was measured in those days. Now he was heading home to the Land of Canaan.

As he approached home he sent bribes on ahead hoping to appease his brother Esau, so he would not kill him. As he got close he sent his wives and children on ahead. So he was all alone in the wilderness at the ford of the Jabbok river. 

Then during the night he wrestled with an angel. Actually Genesis does not say that he was wrestling with an angel. That idea did not arise until centuries later in the Book of the prophet Hosea. Thereby it became the dominant understanding of the story. The Genesis story says simply that he wrestled with a man all night long until daybreak.

It is a marvelous story that has been interpreted in many ways. Those who focus on the ancient Near Eastern context of the story see Jacob wrestling with the deity of the river Jabbok where this fight took place or wrestling with the deity of the land into which he was entering. 

Some commentators interpret this psychologically. In his imagination Jacob was wrestling with his twin brother, preparing him for physically meeting him the next day. This scene echoes the wrestling match that he had with his twin in the womb at the time of his birth. That parallel is intentional because this is a rebirth for Jacob, right down to Jacob being given a new name at his rebirth to describe his new sense of identity. Some see this as Jacob wrestling with himself or perhaps with his shadow or shadow self. There are lots of interpretations of this scene.

Often Jacob’s wrestling partner is thought to be God. In that Hosea passage it not only says that Jacob wrestled with an angel, it also says that he wrestled with God. The Genesis passage implies that. After the wrestling match, Jacob exclaims, “I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.” He named the spot Peniel, which means “face of God” in Hebrew. The man changed Jacob’s name, saying, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.” The name Israel means one who wrestled with God.

So this is normally interpreted as Jacob wrestling with God. I interpret this Wrestler as much more than the theistic God. This is more than a nationalistic and ethnic deity known as the God of Abraham. This dark figure that Jacob wrestled with is the Unknown. That is the reason this happened in the dark. I would say that this is the God beyond God. This is the Divine Unknown that has no name. When Jacob asks the name of his opponent, the wrestler would not tell him, but instead responds, “Why do you ask my name?” Then the mystery figure asks Jacob’s name. 

It is significant that this wrestling match has to do with identity. The identity of Jacob and the identity of God. In nondual circles we talk about self-inquiry. We ask the question “Who am I?” I talk about God inquiry. Who is God? These questions point to the same answer. If we know who we are, then we know who God is.  

I see Jacob wrestling with God and with himself. You could say this wrestling match between the small self and the Big Self. Between Self with a capital S and self with a lower case s. At birth he was fighting to get out of his mother’s womb. Here he is fighting to get out of the dualistic realm into the light of the Nondual Kingdom of God. 

Jacob held on to his opponent just like he held onto his brother and would not let go until he received a divine blessing. He was willing to hold on for as long as it took, even if it meant his death. That is the same tenacity that I talked about extensively just a couple of episodes ago when talking about spiritual disciplines. Determination is what matters. It is what mattered in Jacob’s life. 

It did not matter that Jacob did not fully understand what or who he was fighting and what he was fighting for. It does not matter for us that we understand Spiritual Reality or name it. Philosophy and theology add nothing. We cannot understand our true identity. We cannot understand Truth. We cannot know this Unknowable Reality with our monkey brains. The Unknown can only be realized only by unknowing. 

For that we must be willing to give up all. That is symbolized by Jacob sending all his family and possessions on ahead. He was willing to die fighting at the river Jabbok, if that is what it took. Jacob spiritually died in that Dark Night of the Soul and was reborn as Israel. Just like Jesus died spiritually at the Jordan River and was reborn as the Christ. And later physically died on the Cross and was resurrected as the Risen One.

Jacob’ spiritual death is signified by Jacob not physically dying but being physically wounded. The story says that the Unknown wrestler dislocated Jacob’s hip. Still Jacob held on and would not quit. And the result was blessing as well as woundedness. It says that from that day onward Israel walked with a limp.

One could say we die at spiritual awakening. You can also say we are wounded. The ego is mortally wounded in spiritual awakening. The egoic self is wounded that the True Self may be dominant in life. From that time forward the ego is gradually laid aside like an old set of clothes. Awakening has happened, and it is just a matter of learning to live this awakened Reality.