A WORD FOR TODAY, October 15, 2025
Peggy Hoppes
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Blessings. Peg
A WORD FOR TODAY, October 15, 2025
Lectionary Scriptures for October 19, 2025, Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost: Genesis 32:22-30; Psalm 121; 2 Timothy 3:14-4:5; Luke 18:1-8
“Yahweh will keep your going out and your coming in, from this time forward, and forever more.” Psalm 121:8, WEB
Jacob is an interesting, though not very likeable, biblical character. From the beginning of his life, he wrestled with his brother and with the promises of God. He struggled with his brother Esau over the blessing of Isaac and his inheritance. He struggled with Laban over the woman he loved. He struggled with his wives, their maids, and the children they gave him. Jacob wrestled with his fears, his doubts, and his place in the story of God’s people. The promises for Jacob were clear from the beginning, but he did not trust God. The voices that guided him did not trust that God is faithful. He lied and cheated and inflicted revenge on those who lied to and cheated him. He manipulated things to his benefit and ran away when the going got tough. He had favorites and served himself.
Jacob is not totally to blame. Though he took the birthright from Esau, Esau gave it away for a bowl of soup. Rebecca helped him take control of the blessing from his father because she thought it was necessary to ensure God’s promises would be fulfilled. Esau threatened to kill him. Isaac sent him to Laban’s house in Paddan Aram to find a wife. He went willingly to protect himself from Esau. Jacob worked seven long years for the right to marry Rachel, but Laban tricked him into taking Leah. Laban tried to take advantage of Jacob, cheating him out his rightful pay. Jacob took matters into his own hands, but it seems as though his actions are justified to bring about God’s purpose for his life. However, every time we take matters into our own hands, we show our lack of trust in God. We think that God needs our help to be faithful.
Jacob built a dynasty for himself. He had wives, servants, children and great wealth. One day, he heard the voice of God who told him to go home. He was afraid, but he obeyed. He sent a message to Esau announcing his return and Esau answered by coming to meet him with an army of hundreds. He was still afraid; he continued to doubt God’s promises. Jacob divided his people and possessions into two groups, hoping that if Esau destroys one group the other group would survive.
Then he prayed. He prayed a prayer in which he acknowledged his unworthiness, confessed his doubt, and reminded God of His promises. On the night before he faced his brother, he had to wrestle with his own doubts. To be reconciled to his brother, Jacob first needed to overcome all that had kept him from living as God had intended. He was a sinful man who had to face his greatest sin: his lack of trust in God. Everything he did against men, he did against God, because it was his way of ensuring that God’s promises would be fulfilled. Before he faced his past and began his future, he had to face his God.
This is an odd story because in many ways it does not fit in with our understanding of God. We have to ask too many questions. Who was this “man” that wrestled with Jacob? If it is God, why couldn’t he prevail against a mere man? Why did He have to hurt Jacob to win? Why didn’t He know Jacob’s name? Why did He have to leave by dawn? God could have stopped the wrestling match with Jacob any time he wanted, but there was a purpose to this story as it was recorded.
Do we need the answers to all these questions? We don’t always need the answers to our questions. God is mysterious. He is mysterious because He is God. We are merely human, sinners unable to know and fully understand His purpose and His plan for our lives. We like to hold on to our own sovereignty and justify our lack of trust by claiming that we are aiding God’s plan. Our questions are just another way we try to be in control. But God gives us the freedom to trust or not trust His faithfulness.
Jacob was about to meet with Esau, his brother with whom he had been fighting for his entire life. God’s promises were wrapped up in that relationship and instead of trusting God to be faithful, It was necessary for Jacob to wrestle with God because he had always tried to be in control. During this battle, Jacob was reminded that God is in control of his life and his destiny. He had to give himself to God, to be humbled in His presence, and to recognize his own mortality before he met with his brother. He had to trust God.
We are just like Jacob, not very good at waiting for God to make things right, even when He has promised to do so. We see opportunities to get things done, so we do them, forgetting that God has a plan. Then we find that we are caught up in a situation that is not what God intends, and we struggle. The best example of this is Abraham and Sarah who did not wait for God to fulfill His promise of children, and we are still struggling with the animosity between Isaac and Ishmael today in the Middle East and around the world.
Jacob was born under a promise, but human impatience and uncertainty got in the way of God’s fulfillment of that promise. Jacob was the son of Isaac and Rebecca, a twin whose brother was named Esau. They wrestled with each other even in the womb. Esau was born first; Jacob followed closely, grasping the heel of his brother’s foot. The boys were completely different. Jacob was a handsome and quiet young man, the opposite of his rugged brother who hunted the wild game their father loved. Esau was favored by Isaac, Jacob by Rebecca. God had promised Rebecca that Jacob would inherit the promises, and they took matters into their own hands to ensure that the promise would be fulfilled.
Today’s Old Testament scripture puts us at a moment when the relationship between Jacob and Esau comes to a head. Jacob prepared for the journey, setting aside gifts for Esau to placate his anger but also hiding much of his wealth, yet another sign of Jacob’s doubt that God was in control. We don’t hear the rest of the story, that Esau received Jacob with grace, but Jacob still did not trust his brother. Even after wrestling with God and being renamed Israel, Jacob continued to do his own thing.
Our scriptures this week are about the relationship we have with God. In each of the lessons we see some aspect of our communication with the God of our salvation. We wrestle with God. We seek God’s blessing as we go out into the world to face the dangers that threaten our physical, emotional and spiritual lives. We stand firm in the scriptures, reading God’s Word regularly to keep it fresh on our minds and in our hearts. We come before God over and over again seeking His mercy and grace. All these ways of communicating are journeys in of themselves as we learn to dwell in the presence of God. He is the destination of our life of faith, but He is also there with us. We don’t always communicate with God in ways that honor and respect Him, but He listens to us anyway and fulfills all His promises despite our fears, doubts, and our uncertainty about our place in God’s story.
The widow in today’s Gospel lesson seems so much like a pesky five-year-old. Those of us with children remember that age, especially trips to the grocery store. Have you ever noticed that the grocers put the milk at the very back of the store? This is done with purpose: to manipulate you into buying more than you intend. We usually plan major shopping trips to fill our refrigerators or pantries, but there are times when we need to take a quick trip into the store for an item or two. Milk is often one of those items. I always complained that the milk should be closer to the entrance so that those of us who are just running in for a gallon of milk do not have to walk through the entire store to get it, but that’s the point of the placement. The grocer wants you to see the thousands of other items that they have for sale so that you will not get out of the store without spending more money than you intend.
The next time you run into the store for a gallon of milk, take notice to how many end cap specials you pass. Notice the refrigerator unit with easy bake cookie dough and the rack with donuts close by. These displays are purposely placed in the hopes that you will be thinking about that milk you plan to purchase and how good it would taste with some hot cookies or fresh donuts. On the way back to the checkout stand you’ll pass other items that you just can’t pass up. You will see items that appear to be on sale or brand-new offerings from your favorite companies. These displays are meant to manipulate you into buying more than you want or need. Even worse, they are meant to entice your children.
Just as the grocery store puts cookies in the path of the milk, they strategically place other things that interest children so that they will pester their mom until she gives up and gives in. The cash registers aisles are filled with candy and toys, leaving Mom to endure being trapped in the aisle while the child cries out for everything.
Children can be very persistent. They ask, plead, haggle, deal, cry, and beg in a matter of minutes. It takes the most unfaltering mother to keep saying “No” over and over again. Sometimes our response is just like that of the judge. We decide to give in because we know that the child will simply wear us out if we don’t. Sometimes we do so out of frustration or embarrassment. Sometimes we do so because we want to bribe the child. Sometimes we give in because we realize that they deserve a special treat. There have been times when I have weighed and measured the choices. Would it be better at this moment to teach the lesson that we cannot have everything we want or is it an opportunity to grace?
The judge had no fear of God or concern for men. He had ruled against the woman time and time again. Her opponent was probably a more powerful person, probably a man. The woman could do nothing for his career or for his personal fortune. It would not pay him to rule in her favor. Perhaps he had received, or expected, a nice bribe from the widow’s adversary. We do not know the story behind the appeals. She was a widow, perhaps a woman who had lost everything when her husband died. She was probably left with no means of support and as a widow, a woman, she had no authority. She may have had no one to stand up for her. She was alone and she really had no choice. She had to fight.
Her fight was to appeal to the judge’s sense of justice. Though he was a man who had no fear of God and no regard for humans, he did have a sense of his position. Her constant appeals were not only annoying, but they would have called the attention of the community to her plight. We read verse five in the sense of a mother giving in to her pesty five-year old, “yet because this widow bothers me, I will defend her, or else she will wear me out by her continual coming.”
The English translation of this passage does fully convey the intent of these words. The Greek used here means “to strike in the eye” or “to give a black eye to someone.” In other words, this judge who was a man of power and authority recognized that the weak widow could do damage to his reputation and his future. He saw that even though the widow had no wealth to pay him or power to secure him a better position, she could destroy his reputation in the community and make his job more difficult. He gave in to her cries and ruled in her favor. Sometimes human justice comes through the unrighteous motives of men.
In this passage, however, Jesus teaches us that God is different. Jesus does not use the unjust judge as a representation for God; He shows an exaggeration of a typical human response to a situation and compares that to the reality of God’s ways. God does not have to be threatened with a loss of his power and authority to respond to human need. God is just and when he hears the cries of His people, He responds with mercy and grace. Despite Jacob’s foolishness, God always fulfilled His promises.
The story of the pesky widow is often interpreted as a teaching about the persistence in prayer. Some people pray for the same things over and over again, thinking that God will eventually give in and provide the answer they want. This story, however, is about more than prayer: it is about justice. Is getting a candy bar at the checkout a matter of justice? Is a judge who rules in favor of a widow in need a matter of justice? We may want to be that pesky five-year-old, repeatedly praying for what we want, but God does not always give in to our wishes because He knows what will be best for us. However, we are encouraged to be persistent in matters of justice, to cry out to God to make things right in the world and with the world. God hears and He will always rule in favor of justice. We are encouraged to live in faith, knowing that God knows what is happening and that He is working for justice. When Christ comes, will He find His people busy crying out for candy bars, or will He find people faithfully seeking to do what is right and good in the world?
People have been making pilgrimages since the beginning of time. We are drawn to the sacred. The journeys are not easy. The temporal dangers are obvious: weather, criminals, and health issues cause difficulty along the path. Some pilgrims choose to make the journey even more difficult by adding spiritual practices. Some people fast; others take the journey on their knees. For them, a pilgrimage serves as a way of humbling themselves and becoming worthy of standing in the presence of the divine. For some, the pilgrimage is a duty, a part of their religion.
The Jews made pilgrimages to the Temple in Jerusalem. They went to the temple to make sacrifices, to worship and honor God at the special feasts and festivals during the year. It was a difficult journey. The roads were harsh and dangerous. No one knew if they would make it home alive, particularly through the hills that surrounded the city. Robbers and murderers hid in the rocky crevices of those hills waiting for travelers. The conditions of the hills and deserts were unwelcoming. They took these journeys with the assurance of God’s presence. They were not making a pilgrimage to a sacred place to meet God; they knew that they only way they could arrive at that sacred place was if God walked with them.
Psalms 120-134 are grouped together and are called the Songs of Ascents. They were not written together. Some are attributed to David (122, 124, 131, 133), Solomon (127), several are from after the exile, and others may be attributed to descendants of David. The editor of the Psalter, perhaps Ezra, grouped these together and added the title “A Song of Ascents”. They are all relatively short. The longest is only 18 verses and the rest are under ten verses, with two only three verses each. This makes it possible to sing them all together, making them as if they are one psalm. They were probably already in use by pilgrims traveling toward Jerusalem for a festival when the Psalms were compiled, but they were definitely used in liturgical form afterwards. They are songs of ascent because Jerusalem was on a mountain, and pilgrims ascended upward to get to the Temple and closer to God.
Psalm 121 was apparently used at the end of worship during the feasts and festivals that brought pilgrims into the Temple. The community of faith sought the blessing of God as they were traveling. “Where does my help come from? My help comes from Yahweh, who made heaven and earth.” The song finishes with a benediction, a invocation of God’s blessings over the community of faith as they went their separate ways. “Yahweh will keep your going out and your coming in, from this time forward, and forever more.” God does not sleep. He takes care of His people. We found this passage written in stone on a doorway in Germany as a reminder to all those who enter and leave the home that God is with them.
Our journey is meant to take us to a place where we trust that God knows what is happening and that He is working to make everything right. What will Jesus find in our lives when He comes again? Are we working to grow His kingdom, to help those lost see that salvation is found in Him? Too many Christians do not think they are qualified to share their faith with others. They believe, but they wrestle with God, worried that they can’t be what God has gifted them to be or do what God has called them to do. They’d rather let the professionals do the work of the Kingdom, but the Gospel was not meant to be proclaimed only by trained ministers. It is a simple message: God loves you so much that Jesus died to ensure you forgiveness and peace. Oh, there are hard questions that are difficult to answer, but God has given us all we need to know in the scriptures. He has given us a library of books to help us deal with the harder questions that will come from those who wish to know more.
Timothy was struggling; he faced all sorts of obstacles. The elders questioned his age. The Jews questioned his faith. The world questioned his life. Paul knew Timothy needed encouragement as he looked up into the hills. Who would be his help? Paul’s letter was written to encourage the young pastor to be bold with his faith and the preaching of God’s Word. He had all he needed to do God’s work. Paul told him to look at the scriptures. He urged Timothy to preach boldly despite the struggles he would face. He reminded Timothy that he could trust that God was with him as he did the work he was called to do. We are encouraged to have the same kind of trust as we go on our own journeys of faith. Despite the struggles of this life, the people and issues we will wrestle, let us always remember the source of our strength and the foundation of our faith is God.
Throughout his life journey, Jacob struggled with his family, his future, and his fears. He struggled with God. In the end he discovered that he was not in control and that whenever he tried, he made life more difficult for himself. Paul wrote to Timothy about continuing in faith in Jesus Christ, by standing firm on the instruction he had received and believed. The widow in Jesus’ parable reminds us to be persistent in prayer but also to move forward in faith, doing what is right according to God’s Word.
We don’t always recognize the journey as we travel. Our daily work and our everyday activities are part of a greater journey. We aren’t necessarily headed to a special place; we aren’t always seeking a sacred space. However, through it all we can go with peace knowing that God is with us wherever we go. He does not sleep. He helps us through our struggles and keeps us in our coming and going. We don’t need to choose to take this journey in a manner that proves our worthiness to be in His presence. We don’t need to be like Jacob, sending gifts to placate the anger we perceive, to earn His grace. God loves His people and has chosen to be a part of our lives. This is why we sing songs of praise, because He deserves our worship.
The ideal is to trust in God’s will and His timing. Jesus told parables to teach about the Kingdom of God, but we need to be careful how we interpret them. God is not the unjust judge, threated with a loss of power and authority to ensure justice. God is just and when he hears the cries of His people, He responds with mercy and grace, and He does so according to His good and perfect will. That’s why we can, and should, trust Him.
Our destination is always God. All that we do in faith is leading us to Him. We try to control the journey, so we work hard to make things happen, like Jacob, and we lose touch with the God who has set us on our path. Jesus asks, “When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?” Will He find us acting on our faith as we journey toward God with God at our side, trusting in His mercy and grace every step of the way?
It is my prayer that as God calls us to live faithfully in the world that we will respond with courage and peace, that we’ll face our own Esau and judges with trust that God is with us. We know that God is faithful and that He will be with us on our journey of faith, giving us opportunities to share His Word with those who are lost and hungering for His presence in their lives. I also pray that we will heed the words of Paul to Timothy: that we will discharge our duties in a way that will glorify God and draw many into a relationship with Jesus. Evangelism is not about manipulating people to become part of our community of faith, like a grocery store trying to get us to buy what they want us to buy. We are called by God to take the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the world with the strength, encouragement, and grace that God has promised to those who obey and trust in Him.
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