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S3 E14: Biblical Series – Wrestling with God

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Jordan Peterson   Jul 13th, 2020

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That is what human beings do, in some sense: they wrestle with the divine—even with the concept of the divine, for that matter. But the question is, do they prevail? It’s an odd thing that Jacob actually seems to win this battle. At least, he wins it enough so that whoever he’s wrestling—this divine figure that he’s wrestling—is willing to bestow a divine blessing on him. I think the transformation of the name from ‘Jacob’ to ‘Israel’ is really telling, as well as the fact that ‘Israel’ means ‘he who wrestles or struggles with God,' perhaps successfully.... We’re contentious creatures, and that actually seems to be something that meets with God’s favour, in this situation—especially given that that’s actually what he names the whole kingdom of the chosen people. The idea is that the kingdom is composed of those who contend with God.