The Magnificent Defeat

Posted on 9:29 AM by Mathew Palathunakal


Jacob has been running!


For nearly 20 years! From his brother from whom he deceitfully purchased the fortunes of the first-born. From his father whom he shamelessly deceived. And running away from unknown fears and judgement. At last from Laban his father-in-law.

But he had to face what he run from. Now he is face to face with his brother Esau. Earlier he faced his father-in-law. But somehow brushed aside his allegations and saved himself. But this time he is not going to escape easily. God planned that encounter with Esau. No, He planned that encounter with HIMSELF!

In his book The Magnificent Defeat, Frederich Buechner paints a vivid picture of that encounter.

Out of the deep of the night a stranger leaps. He hurls himself at Jacob, and they fall to the ground, their bodies lashing through the darkness. It is terrible enough not to see the attacker's face, and his strength is more terrible still, the strength of more than a man. All the night through they struggle in silence until just before morning when it looks as though a miracle might happen. Jacob is winning. The stranger cries out to be set free before the sun rises. Then, suddenly, all is reversed.

He merely touches the hollow of Jacob's thigh, and in a moment Jacob is lying there crippled and helpless. The sense we have, which Jacob must have had, that the whole battle was from the beginning fated to end this way, that the stranger had simply held back until now, letting Jacon exert all his strength and almost win so that when he was defeated, he would know that he was truly defeated; so that he would know that not all the shrewdness, will, brute force that he could muster were enough to get this. Jacob will not release his grip, only now it is a grip not of violence but of need, like the grip of a drowning man.

The darkness has faded just enough so that for the first time he can dimly see his opponent's face. And what he sees is something more terrible than the face of death- the face of love. It is vast and strong, half ruined with suffering and fierce with joy, the face a man flees down all the darkness of his days until at last he cries out, "I will not let you go, unless you bless me!" Not a blessing that he can have now by the strength of his cunning or the force of his will, but a blessing that he can have only as a gift. (Frederich Buechner, The Magnificent Defeat, San Farncisco: Harper Collins Publishers, 1966, pp.17-18).

Jacob was stopped by the encounter. He learned to walk! First he was limping because of his hip. Then slowly he regained his balance but not without failures at Shechem and other places. But He reconciled with his brother, father and above all with HIS GOD!

How about us? We need an encounter right now? Yes He is waiting at the bank of your Jabbock to face you. Are you ready?


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