Limpers in the Bible: Jacob

I am so drawn to the metaphor of “walking with a limp” because I see the ways in which God chooses the unlikely candidates to reflect His glory, carry His promise, and carry out His mission to the world. God chooses the people that appear to have screwed up too much. God works with what the world calls “damaged goods”. It’s unbelievable when you consider just how much God has entrusted to undeserving and unqualified people. The Bible is littered with examples.

If I am going to give a profile of various “limpers” in the Bible, it probably makes sense to start with the man for whom the limping was more than just a metaphor, but a physical reality as well. Genesis 32 contains one of the most oddball stories in the Bible, a story that is lacking the most critical piece of information to complete the story. In

Genesis 32:22-32, Jacob was traveling at night, and had sent his family across a stream to be alone. And then, all we read is that some man showed up and wrestled with him for hours until daybreak. No word on what started the fight! All that is recorded, is that Jacob was alone for a little bit, then he wrestled with a guy for a few hours. The author thought didn't think the cause of the fight was at least noteworthy? Well, okay. The man injured Jacob’s hip, but Jacob refused to give up and let the man go until… get this… the man blesses Jacob.

It is strange that Jacob is as interested in getting a blessing from his attacker as he is in doling out a whoopin’. But eventually they have a much-too-late productive chat; Jacob realizes that he’s encountered the living God in some way, and he walks away with his blessing and a limp.

I am not going to try to completely figure out this one. But let’s look back at Jacob’s backstory. Jacob’s whole life up until then was characterized by deceit. He tricked his father Isaac into giving him the blessing that was owed to Esau. Jacob later traveled to Laban in take one of his daughters as a wife. Laban deceived Jacob after seven years(!) of service into marrying the wrong daughter (Leah), then secured Jacob’s service for another seven year to marry the daughter he really wanted (Rachel).

Predictably, Jacob deals with a ton of family drama. Jacob eventually packs up the family and flees from Laban, and when Laban caught up to the pack and confronted them, Rachel lied about stealing some of Laban’s stuff. After barely getting out of that conflict, Jacob heads home and prepares and gift to send to Esau because, well, Jacob assumes Esau is mad. Maybe he could buy Esau’s forgiveness. On the way there, God and Jacob wrestle.

It seems as though, from the text, that the God-in-disguise man started the wrestling match, not Jacob. And this lifestyle of deceit and manipulation was to be replaced by a life of surrender to God. Jacob’s name would become Israel, and his twelve sons would each become the forefathers of the twelve tribes of Israel, God’s covenant people.

Is it not amazing that a trickster like Jacob, who did not really do anything of redemptive value prior to God giving him these promises and blessings, would become the patriarch of the nation of God’s covenant people, and his sons each fathering its tribes? Was there nobody else with a better resume, or at least a rap sheet that was a little bit… cleaner?

That is simply not the point with God. God seeks people who will surrender, and people who will embrace their weaknesses. Jacob was regarded as a man who was with God, and his family saw a man who limped. The limp proves to the world that the image of God’s people isn’t without flaws, and isn’t without a sordid history.

Jacob is literally a limper, and he proves that God is still pursuing the screw-ups, and using them for His glory.