I will not let thee go

"And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me." Genesis 32:26

All night a man has wrestled with a stranger at a ford. At daybreak the stranger asks to be released. And Jacob, whose hip is out of joint, refuses to let go.

Remember first who Jacob is. His name means "he who takes by the heel", and he has spent his life earning it: he bought his brother's birthright for a bowl of stew, he stole his father's blessing in disguise. Every blessing he has, he got by cunning.

That night, for the first time, he does not scheme. He asks. And he asks while clinging, injured, to someone stronger than himself.

It is the turning point of the character, and the text marks it at once: in the next verse the stranger asks his name. A strange question — except that at the decisive scene of his youth, when his blind father asked "who art thou?", he answered "I am Esau". He lied about his name to get a blessing. This time he tells the truth: Jacob. And he receives another name.

Two things are worth keeping. First: Jacob gets the blessing and stays lame. The text says he limped on his hip as he left. You do not come out of such nights unharmed, and the Bible does not hide it.

Second: it is not Jacob's strength that wins. The stranger injures him with a single touch, whenever he chooses. What prevails is that Jacob does not let go.

Today. There is something you have been asking for a long time. Do not change the prayer, and do not leave before daybreak. But ask Jacob's question of yourself: am I asking, or still manoeuvring?

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