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Jacob walked with a limp after his encounter with God (Genesis 32:31). As a result, according to Genesis, when his descendants ate the meat of an animal, they had a practice of not eating the tendon attached to the socket of a hip (Gen 32:32). Since Jacob’s people have given various explanations to this event, it would probably be a safe guess to say some have kept the tradition out of superstition, while others have done so out of reverence.
While recently reading a book by Austin Fischer I was impressed by the author’s reflection on this ancient story. While talking about the danger of trying to push our knowledge of the Bible into a tight logical system that satisfies our own understanding, Fischer urged the idea of theology with a limp.
Since then, I’ve thought a lot about that simple phrase and idea. What could be more important than approaching even the most basic themes of the Bible, and a resulting knowledge of God, with all due humility?
Seems to me that we hear echoes of such a limp in the Apostle Paul after writing about God’s past and future dealings with Israel and the nations. After penning words that have resulted in countless pages of interpretation and speculation Paul takes pause to exclaim, “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!” (Rom 11:33).
As we think back on our last post and conversation, seems to me that so many of our problems with the Bible are not with what it says, but about what we think it is saying about the questions we bring to it—without humility due a Father who bends so low to speak to his little ones.
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