JABBOK: A POSTMODERN BIBLE STUDY by Tim Roffe. Splat! ....
Bang Kappow I ...
Splash.
Yes, again and again there was plenty of splat. What a clash on a pitch black night. Who was winning for goodness sake ? In a moment he thought, "I'm gaining the upper hand", but his lower hand was doing all the work. The other hand was up a bit. Someone stronger seemed to hold it there. Suspense was killing, then .... Splash !
This went on all night. Next morning Jacob put a stone down very deliberately, with both hands. According to written reports Jacob wrestled with God, or an angel or a stranger. Anyway, it just goes to show you can never be sure who is on your side. I don't even know if I am on my side.
Well of course I'm not while I'm writing. And Freud says I'm not when I'm thinking, or not thinking. Well others say he said that. Not about me in particular of course. But I think that he must have written it somewhere, not about me in particular. God, what a battle to do things with words !
The action was over. The stone was in place, Jacob's full stop. There remained a wrestling with words. He had to name the place. Jacob sensed victory and limped away.
Moses wrestled with God on more than one occasion. God was going to kill him one night. Fortunately his wife put a stop to that. Then Moses had words with God about compassion and tactics, which changed God's mind about killing his followers. Moses obviously learnt a thing or two from his wife. But God had the last word, or was it an angel ? Anyway it was not a stranger, further reports about Jacob saw to that. At the top of a mountain the finger of God wrote on stone. Moses got angry and smashed the stone in half. He wasn't half the leader he thought he was. The people he had left at the foot of the mountain disobeyed him. Moses went up again. God, or an angel, wrote the same words on a different stone. There's the rub.
Moses convinced everyone this was so.
A man named Jesus wrestled with a problem. It is written. Religious leaders, followers of the God of Jacob and Moses, brought a woman to him. They claimed she had broken the law of Moses, words fingered by God on stone which Moses had brought down second time round. Jesus got down, poked his finger in the sand ; clever move, full of deconstruction, slippage. Maybe not clever. Perhaps a felt move, full of feeling. He suggested that anyone less guilty than the woman could get a stone.
Since Moses, people had taken to throwing stones. Funny, this time the religious people walked away. They were just kidding. A man and a woman remained, with words like "Splash I".
TIM ROFFE is a United Reformed Church minister in Cleveland.