The transformation of the old self

"When he saw that he could not prevail over him, he struck Jacob’s hip at its socket, so that the hip socket was wrenched as they wrestled. Then he said, 'Let me go, for it is daybreak.' But Jacob said, 'I will not let you go until you bless me.' He asked, 'What is your name?' He answered, 'Jacob.' Then he said, 'You shall no longer be named Jacob, but Israel, because you have contended with divine and human beings and have prevailed.' Jacob then asked him, 'Please tell me your name.' He answered, 'Why do you ask for my name?' With that, he blessed him. Jacob named the place Peniel, 'Because I have seen God face to face,' he said, 'yet my life has been spared.' At sunrise, as he left Penuel, Jacob limped along because of his hip." (Genesis 32:25-31)

This extraordinary episode in Genesis reveals a turning point in the life of Jacob, and a theophany rich with theological meaning. The nighttime struggle at the ford of the Jabbok presents the reader with more than a physical wrestling match—it is a mystical confrontation between man and God, between the old self and the new identity forged through divine encounter. Jacob, long known for his cunning and striving, meets his match in a mysterious figure whose true nature unfolds only gradually. In this liminal moment—between night and day, between exile and return, between fear and faith—Jacob is transformed.

The passage encapsulates the essence of biblical faith: an encounter with the living God that both wounds and blesses. Jacob’s insistence—“I will not let you go unless you bless me”—reveals a soul that, for all its flaws, yearns deeply for divine favor. The figure with whom he wrestles does not overpower Jacob by sheer force but engages him in a struggle that exposes his vulnerability. The dislocation of his hip signifies that this is no mere test of strength; it is a sacred wounding, a mark of grace. From this moment, Jacob no longer walks as he did before. The limp becomes a sign—not of defeat, but of transformation.

The name change from Jacob (“the supplanter”) to Israel (“he who contends with God”) is more than a symbolic renaming; it is a redefinition of identity. In biblical tradition, to be named is to be known in one’s essence. God gives Jacob a name that reflects his vocation and destiny. From now on, he is not defined by deceit or self-interest but by his willingness to engage with the divine. The blessing he receives is not material, but existential: he has seen God face to face and lived. The place, Peniel, becomes a testimony to the ineffable mystery of divine intimacy and mercy.

This passage speaks profoundly to all who find themselves in moments of spiritual crisis or interior struggle. Like Jacob, believers often wrestle with God—not in rebellion, but in the anguished desire for clarity, direction, or peace. Faith is not always serene; it can be an agonizing perseverance in the dark, a refusal to let go until grace breaks through. Such experiences leave their marks—emotional, spiritual, even physical—but they also bestow a deeper knowledge of God and of self. The limp that Jacob bears is emblematic of the humility that comes from having encountered the Almighty and survived.

Genesis 32:25-31 reveals that to encounter God is to be changed irrevocably. True blessing does not come without struggle; divine intimacy does not come without wounds. Yet it is precisely through this wrestling that the believer is reborn—not as a solitary striver, but as one named and claimed by God. In the light of the New Covenant, Jacob’s nocturnal battle finds its fulfillment in Christ’s own agony in Gethsemane, where divine will and human struggle meet in redemptive surrender. The path of holiness, like Jacob’s path across the Jabbok, is marked not by ease but by perseverance, and it leads not to destruction but to the face of God.