Jacob’s opponent asked, “What is your name?” (32:27). We cannot help thinking back to the time when Jacob’s almost blind father Isaac had asked him the same question, and Jacob had lied. “I am Esau,” he had said. He had lied to gain his father’s blessing. But now, in this close encounter with God, lying was no longer possible. He would get no blessing from God that way. He had to admit who he was—the scheming, manipulating, supplanting, heel-grasping Jacob.
