Feb 4

I think that the scene of the man’s fight with Jacob is a literal representation of God’s fight with humans. Throughout genesis, we can see that humans are growing further and from God and they are getting better at developing an evil wit. This is shown through Jacob’s complexion as a character compared to the other “chosen ones”: he schemes and he develops plans to take control and gain blessings. We can see a struggle that the humans have to take with God through Jacob’s fight with him. I don’t think anyone really won but at the end God did bless him yet he gave him the name Israel which is a representation of the struggle with God. I think that this is a representation of the process of the destruction and ressurection of the communion between God and humans. God “realises” that the act of struggle with God himself is a continuous process that is inescapable for humans. There simply is no way for a human to be a complete moral saint and the struggle to become one shows the faith in God which is the most important thing in the communion. As we have discussed in class, every action that God takes is one of mercy and that is aimed at the good for human kind. It is very interesting that God revealed himself face-to-face to Jacob in which we can derive a certain special trait that Jacob possesses to be able to see God and recognise him. This idea might be connected to Jesus in the sense of “blessed are those who have belived but not seen”