The Superlong Post

Forgive me the superlong post, but I want to spend some time explaining the name Jacob Jeremiah. As Brooke pointed out in her comment my real name is Jonathan. (Spot on spelling Brooke) I chose Jacob Jeremiah as a pseudonym because of the great significance those two characters have on my outlook.

Jacob, as you may know, is a character from the Old Testament. Think "Joseph the Dreamer's" dad. It was during his time that the Hebrews, then consisting only of his family, moved into Egypt. Which incidentally turned out to be a bad idea, and culminated in a nasty episode involving 10 plagues and a 40 year trip in the desert.

Anyway, Jacob started off life as the second of twins, which means that he missed out on being daddy Issac's heir by about 5 minutes. Before he's even born there's a prophecy made about the boys, that the younger would overcome the older. On top of that Jacob's mum and dad decided to play favorites. While his big bro Esau was dad's manly hunter son, Jacob was the responsible mummy's boy.

It's not that surprising that Jacob got fed up with the situation, and with a little coaxing from his mum was convinced to fool his ailing father into accidentally leaving the best bits to him. And it turns out it was a lot more then just material wealth. Issac passed on a promise to him, a promise that was made to his father, (Jacob's granddaddy) Abraham. A promise by who? By God himself. A promise of prosperity, a great future and a legacy that would stretch into eternity.

Needless to say, Esau was totally pissed off! A little bit of intrigue occurs between Esau and dad at this point which becomes incredibly important another couple of hundred years down the track. However the relevant part is that Esau decided that after Issac does croke he's going to make Jacob croke too.

It's at this point Jacob goes into exile. He runs away. Far, far away.

It's at this point you need to get into Jacob's head. He begins to have encounters with God. He's separated from everything he's ever known. He didn't take wealth with him, he was using rocks as pillows. He's considered a child of prophecy, and now he has the promise to back it up. But at the same time, he has nothing.

Finally he makes it to his uncles joint, back in the land his mum came from. It's at this point a little romance gets thrown in. Jacob meets his cousin (yes cousin, this was back in the day that that was considered far less creepy) and falls madly in love with her. So, after some hard dealing he makes a contract with uncle. He gets the girl for 7 years labour.

He does it too. It says it didn't seem very long to him, he's so in love with that girl. So at the end of the 7 years he gets the girl. But his backstabbing uncle decides it would be shameful to marry off Rachel without marrying off he big sister first. So he pulls a swiftly and Jacob ends out married to the wrong chick! On top of that his uncle demands another 7 years for Rachel.

So Jacob does it. That's how much he wants the girl. But it's something that he struggles with directly for the next 20 something years of his life, and the real consequences, the backstabbing and conflict between the sisters, leaves scares on him and his sons for many generations.

Jacob now decides to really build up his wealth. He agrees to another contract with his uncle. This time in return for livestock. God blesses Jacob, and with a bit off tricky gaming Jacob becomes increasingly stinking rich.

It's at this point we see the rubber hit the road. God asks Jacob to do the stupidest thing ever. God tells him to go home.

Over the trip, moving ever closer to his psychotically angry brother, we see Jacob really begin to crack. You see, in life, Jacob feels like he's kind of been screwed over. He follows God. But God never seems to just give him good things. Everything comes through suffering. And things have happened to him he didn't deserve, all for following this path. All the while he hears of his brother, marching towards him, with 400 men, to meet him. Jacob feels like a dead man.

It culminates one night, as he spends time alone, trying to get his head together, and a man comes out of the dark. They become locked in a physical struggle. They struggle through the night. As the sun rises the man "wrenches" Jacob's hip by touching it. (giving away that he's not just a man) Jacob refuses to let go until the mysterious man blesses him.

The mysterious man then renames Jacob as Israel, "Because you have struggled with men and with God and overcome."

Jacob was blessed because he struggled with God. Because he struggled with God. Struggled with God... and overcame.

You have to understand this isn't a struggle for superiority. God wrenched his hip with a touch. You can't become superior to God. This was a struggle for understanding and purpose. For answers of why the world was how it was. It was an internal struggle to find the purpose of the pain God had dragged him through.

The struggle with the mysterious man was the physical incarnation of a spiritual struggle. That's how intense it had got for him.

It's then that we see Jacob, now limping because of his hip, cross the river towards his brother.

I hope you understand that it doesn't matter what happened when they met. At this point Jacob is more complete then he has ever been.

It isn't a shameful thing to struggle with God. He wants us too. I don't half doubt some of the bad things that happen in life are purely there to provoke us. To wake us up. We can never be made whole, if we never wake to our emptiness.