Daily Devotions
Genesis 30:8a – Then Rachel said, “With mighty wrestlings I have wrestled with my sister and have prevailed.”
This devotion pairs with this weekend’s Lutheran Hour sermon, which can be found at www.lhm.org.
In the English Standard Version of the Bible, we hear Rachael say, “With mighty wrestlings,” I’ve wrestled with my sister.” However, in an English translation of the Orthodox Jewish Bible, same chapter and verse, Rachel says, “With wrestlings of God I have wrestled with my sister.” Likewise, in Young’s Literal Translation of the Bible, Genesis 30:8 reads: “With wrestlings of God I have wrestled with my sister.” So, what’s going on here? The word in question in the Hebrew text—the language the Old Testament was originally written in—can be translated either way. The Hebrew word for “God” can also mean “great” or “mighty,” depending on the context. But in this context, it’s hard to tell, thus the differences in the translation. It may even be that Rachel is saying two things at once. In the first place, she is having a mighty fight with her sister. At the same time, she knows her struggle is with God.
Rachel is struggling with her sister, Leah. These two sisters found themselves in a strange sorority neither of them would have expected or dreamed of or asked for. They were both married to the same man. This is a bad idea. But it was their father’s doing, who had a lot of bad ideas, turns out. So, Rachel and Leah are stuck with this arrangement, with their shared husband, Jacob, who turned out to be the patriarch of the 12 tribes of Israel and the ancestor of the Messiah. But then, as if the situation weren’t bad enough, Rachel and Leah turn against each other, struggling for the affection and attention of their husband, struggling as to who can be the better mom, struggling, each with her own insecurities. And who among us would be in a position to blame them?
But at least they have God between them. They both recognize their wrestling is ultimately with God. They don’t blame God, or if they did, we don’t hear about it. Our modern-day question—”If God is all-powerful and loving, why do bad things happen?”—that question doesn’t seem to be a live issue for them. They live in the struggle of all three truths: God’s goodness and omnipotence and the existence of evil. Their question is—”Given that we’re in this awful situation, what is our good, loving, all-powerful Judge-and-Savior God going to do about it? How is He going to work through it?” So, they keep praying to God and praising God and waiting for God. They keep struggling. And they trust that God will show up in their struggle. But I’m pretty sure they didn’t expect Him to show up and wrestle their husband (no one saw that one coming).
Generations later, God’s Messiah would show up in this struggling family of Jacob, Rachel, and Leah—the people of Israel. God’s Son became Israel’s son, so that He could bring us peace. Jesus brought our struggle to God. He wrestled with God in prayer the night He was betrayed. And when they put Him in that awful situation, hanging on a cross, pinned down by the sins of the world, He struggled to breathe under the weight of God’s wrath and silence. Then He waited, flat on His back, pinned down in a tomb. But He got up again to show us what faith in God looks like. And to give us that faith.
Besides being a family that fought a lot, Jacob’s was a family of faith. In them we see what faith looks like. It’s not a glowing halo around your head. It’s not a champion’s belt you wear around your waist. It is flat-on-your-back, sometimes miserable, hopeful, struggle to depend on God. And faith is a gift God gives through His Word made flesh, born from the struggle of these two sisters, so that we might have peace.
WE PRAY: Dear Jesus, thank You for going to the mat for me. Amen.
This Daily Devotion was written by Rev. Dr. Michael Zeigler, Speaker for The Lutheran Hour.
Reflection Questions:
1. Read Genesis 29:15-30:24. Read Leah and Rachel’s words out loud. How do you imagine each woman’s tone of voice? Is she bitter, hopeful, resigned, numb, confident?
2. Have you ever had a struggle with a person that also felt like a struggle with God?
3. In the past, what has helped you hang on to faith in God through these struggles?