Jacob sends everyone across the Jabbok. He’s alone in the dark. And a man wrestles with him until daybreak. When the man cannot prevail, he touches Jacob’s hip socket, and it’s wrenched. “Let me go, for the day has broken.” But Jacob won’t release him: “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” The man asks his name—Jacob, the supplanter, the cheater. And gives him a new one: Israel, “he strives with God.” Jacob has wrestled with God and prevailed. He limps away at sunrise, marked forever. You cannot encounter God and remain unchanged.

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