Jacob was left alone, and wrestled with a man there until the breaking of the day. When he saw that he didn’t prevail against him, the man touched the hollow of his thigh, and the hollow of Jacob’s thigh was strained as he wrestled. The man said, “Let me go, for the day breaks.” Jacob said, “I won’t let you go unless you bless me.”
He said to him, “What is your name?” He said, “Jacob”.
He said, “Your name will no longer be called Jacob, but Israel; for you have fought with God and with men, and have prevailed.”
Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.” He said, “Why is it that you ask what my name is?” He blessed him there.
Jacob called the name of the place Peniel; for he said, “I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.”
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv24, 25, 26, 28, 29, 30 24. There wrestled a man with him Although this…
24. There wrestled a man with him Although this vision was particularly useful to Jacob himself, to teach him beforehand that many conflicts awaited him, and that he might certainly conclude that he should be the conqueror in them all; there is yet not the least doubt that the Lord exhibited, in his person, a specimen of the temptations — common to all his people — which await them, and must be constantly submitted to, in this transitory life. Wherefore it is right to keep in view this designs of the vision, which is to represent all the servants of God in this world as wrestlers; because the Lord exercises them with various kinds of conflicts. Moreover, it is not said that Satan, or any mortal man, wrestled with Jacob, but God himself: to teach us that our faith is tried by him; and whenever we are tempted, our business is truly with him, not only because we fight under his auspices, but because he, as an antagonist, descends into the arena to try our strength. This, though at first sight it seems absurd, experience and reason teaches us to be true. For as all prosperity flows from his goodness, so adversity is either the rod with which he corrects our sins, or the test of our faith and patience. And since there is no kind of temptations by which God does not try his faithful people, the similitude is very suitable, which represents him as coming, hand to hand, to combat with them. Therefore, what was once exhibited under a visible form to our father Jacob, is daily fulfilled in the individual members of the Church; namely, that, in their temptations, it is necessary for them to wrestle with God. He is said, indeed, to tempt us in a different manner from Satan; but because he alone is the Author of our crosses and afflictions, and he alone creates light and darkness, (as is declared in Isaiah,) he is said to tempt us when he makes a trial of our faith. But the question now occurs, Who is able to stand against an Antagonist, at whose breath alone all flesh perishes and vanishes away, at whose look the mountains melt, at whose word or beck the whole world is shaken to pieces, and therefore to attempt the least contest with him would be insane temerity? But it is easy to untie the knot. For we do not fight against him, except by his own power, and with his own weapons; for he, having challenged us to this contest, at the same time furnishes us with means of resistance, so that he both fights against us and for us. In short, such is his apportioning of it is conflict, that, while he assails us with one hand, he defends us with the other; yea, inasmuch as he supplies us with more strength to resist than he employs in opposing us, we may truly and properly say, that he fights against us with his left hand, and for us with his right hand. For while he lightly opposes us, he supplies invincible strength whereby we overcome. It is true he remains at perfect unity with himself: but the double method in which he deals with us cannot be otherwise expressed, than that in striking us with a human rod, he does not put forth his full strength in the temptation; but that in granting the victory to our faith, he becomes in us stronger than the power by which he opposes us. And although these forms of expression are harsh, yet their harshness will be easily mitigated in practice. For if temptations are contests, (and we know that they are not accidental, but are divinely appointed for us,) it follows hence, that God acts in the character of an antagonist, and on this the rest depends; namely, that in the temptation itself he appears to be weak against us, that he may conquer in us. Some restrict this to one kind of temptation only, where God openly and avowedly manifests himself as our adversary, as if armed for our destruction. And truly, I confess, that this differs from common conflicts, and requires, beyond all others, a rare, and even heroic strength. Yet I include willingly every kind of conflict in which God exercises the faithful: since in all they have God for an antagonist, although he may not openly proclaim himself hostile unto them. That Moses here calls him a man whom a little after he declares to have been God, is a sufficiently usual form of speech. For since God appeared under the form of a man, the name is thence assumed; just as, because of the visible symbol, the Spirit is called a dove; and, in turn, the name of the Spirit is transferred to the dove. That this disclosure was not sooner made to the holy man, I understand to be for this reason, because God had resolved to call him, as a soldier, robust and skillful in war, to more severe contests. For as raw recruits are spared, and young oxen are not immediately yoked to the plough; so the Lord more gently exercises his own people, until, having gathered strength, they become more inured to toil. Jacob, therefore, having been accustomed to bear sufferings, is now led forth to real war. Perhaps also, the Lord had reference to the conflict which was then approaching. But I think Jacob was admonished, at his very entrance on the promised land, that he was not there to expect a tranquil life for himself. For his return to his own country might seem to be a kind of release; and thus Jacob, like a soldier who had kept his term of service, would have given himself up to repose. Wherefore it was highly necessary for him to be taught what his future conditions should be. We, also, are to learn from him, that we must fight during the whole course of our life; lest any one, promising himself rest, should wilfully deceive himself. And this admonition is very needful for us; for we see how prone we are to sloth. Whence it arises, that we shall not only be thinking of a truce in perpetual war; but also of peace in the heat of the conflict, unless the Lord rouse us.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv24, 25, 26, 28, 30 That is, God in form of man.
That is, God in form of man.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv24–30 Gen 32:24 And Jacob was left alone; and there…
Gen 32:24 And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day.
Ver. 24. And Jacob was left alone.] Purposely, for secret prayer: so the Church gets her into "the clefts of the rocks"; {Son 2:14} Isaac, into the fields; Daniel, to the river’s side; Christ, into the mount; Peter, up to the roof, or house top; that they might pour out their prayers and solace themselves with God in secret. This a hypocrite may seem to do, either of custom or vain glory: as the Pharisee went up to the temple to pray solitarily, as well as the publican; the temple being then, in regard of ceremonial holiness, the place as well of private as public prayer. "But will the hypocrite delight in God? will he pray always?". {Job 27:10}
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There wrestled a man with him.] In a proper combat, by might and slight; to the raising of dust, and causing of sweat; as the word importeth. This strife was not only corporeal, but spiritual; as well by the force of his faith, as strength of body. "He prevailed," saith the prophet, {Hos 12:4} by prayers and tears. Our Saviour also prayed himself into "an agony"; {Luk 22:44} and we are bidden to "strive in prayer," even to an agony. {Rom 15:30, συναγωνισασθαι} Nehemiah prayed himself pale. {Neh 2:2} Daniel prayed himself "sick". {Dan 8:27} Hannah prayed, striving with such an unusual motion of her lips, that old Eli, looking upon her, thought her drunk. {1Sa 1:13} Elijah puts his head betwixt his knees, as straining every string of his heart in prayer: {1Ki 18:42} "he prayed, and prayed," saith St James; and, by his prayer, he had what he would of God. Whereupon also he infers (as a result) that "the effectual prayer of a righteous man avails much," if it be "fervent" {Jas 5:16-17, ενεργουμενη} or working; if it be such as sets all the faculties awork, and all the graces awork, then it speeds. Every sound is not music; so neither is every uttering petitions to God a prayer. It is not the labour of the lips, but the travail of the heart. Common beggary is the easiest and poorest trade: but this beggary, as it is the richest, so the hardest. A man can with more ease hear two hours together than pray half an hour, if he "pray in the Holy Ghost," as St Jude hath it. {Jdg 1:20} He must strive with his own indevotion, with Satan’s temptations, with the world’s distraction: he must wrestle with God, and wring the blessing out of his hands, as the woman of Canaan did: he must "stir up himself to take hold of God," {Isa 64:7} as the Shunamite did of Elisha, {2Ki 4:30} as the Church did of her spouse, {Son 3:4} and "not let him go" till he bless us. This is to wrestle; this is to threaten heaven, as Gorgonia did, thus to be modestly impudent and invincible, as her brother speaks of her; in beseeching God, to besiege him, and get the better of him. as Jacob; whose wrestling was by "weeping," and his "prevailing" by praying.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv24, 25, 26, 28, 29, 30 In some private place, it matters not on which…
In some private place, it matters not on which side Jabbok, that he might more freely and ardently pour out his soul unto God.
There wrestled a man with him, an angel, yea, the Angel of the covenant, the Son of God, as it is plain from Gen 32:28,30; Ho 12:3,4, who did here, as oft elsewhere, assume the shape and body of a man, that he might do this work; for this wrestling was real and corporeal in its nature, though it was also mystical and spiritual in its signfification, as we shall see, and it was accompanied with an inward wrestling by ardent prayers joined with tears, Hos 12:4.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On v24 We have here the remarkable story of Jacob's wrestling…
We have here the remarkable story of Jacob's wrestling with the angel and prevailing, which is referred to, Hos 12:4. Very early in the morning, a great while before day, Jacob had helped his wives and his children over the river, and he desired to be private, and was left alone, that he might again more fully spread his cares and fears before God in prayer. Note, We ought to continue instant in prayer, always to pray and not to faint: frequency and importunity in prayer prepare us for mercy. While Jacob was earnest in prayer, stirring up himself to take hold on God, an angel takes hold on him. Some think this was a created angel, the angel of his presence (Isa 63:9), one of those that always behold the face of our Father and attend on the shechinah, or the divine Majesty, which probably Jacob had also in view. Others think it was Michael our prince, the eternal Word, the angel of the covenant, who is indeed the Lord of the angels, who often appeared in a human shape before he assumed the human nature for a perpetuity; whichsoever it was, we are sure God's name was in him, Exo 23:21. Observe,
I. How Jacob and this angel engaged, Gen 32:24. It was a single combat, hand to hand; they had neither of them any seconds. Jacob was now full of care and fear about the interview he expected, next day, with his brother, and, to aggravate the trial, God himself seemed to come forth against him as an enemy, to oppose his entrance into the land of promise, and to dispute the pass with him, not suffering him to follow his wives and children whom he had sent before. Note, Strong believers must expect divers temptations, and strong ones. We are told by the prophet (Hos 12:4) how Jacob wrestled: he wept, and made supplication; prayers and tears were his weapons. It was not only a corporal, but a spiritual, wrestling, by the vigorous actings of faith and holy desire; and thus all the spiritual seed of Jacob, that pray in praying, still wrestle with God.
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II. What was the success of the engagement. 1. Jacob kept his ground; though the struggle continued long, the angel, prevailed not against him (Gen 32:25), that is, this discouragement did not shake his faith, nor silence his prayer. It was not in his own strength that he wrestled, nor by his own strength that he prevailed, but in and by strength derived from Heaven. That of Job illustrates this (Job 23:6), Will he plead against me with his great power? No (had the angel done so, Jacob had been crushed), but he will put strength in me; and by that strength Jacob had power over the angel, Hos 12:4. Note, We cannot prevail with God but in his own strength. It is his Spirit that intercedes in us, and helps our infirmities, Rom 8:26. 2. The angel put out Jacob's thigh, to show him what he could do, and that it was God he was wrestling with, for no man could disjoint his thigh with a touch. Some think that Jacob felt little or no pain from this hurt; it is probable that he did not, for he did not so much as halt till the struggle was over (Gen 32:31), and, if so, this was an evidence of a divine touch indeed, which wounded and healed at the same time. Jacob prevailed, and yet had his thigh put out. Note, Wrestling believers may obtain glorious victories, and yet come off with broken bones; for when they are weak then are they strong, weak in themselves, but strong in Christ, Co2 12:10. Our honours and comforts in this world have their alloys. 3. The angel, by an admirable condescension, mildly requests Jacob to let him go (Gen 32:26), as God said to Moses (Exo 32:10), Let me alone. Could not a mighty angel get clear of Jacob's grapples? He could; but thus he would put an honour on Jacob's faith and prayer, and further try his constancy. The king is held in the galleries (Sol 7:5); I held him (says the spouse) and would not let him go, Sol 3:4. The reason the angel gives why he would be gone is because the day breaks, and therefore he would not any longer detain Jacob, who had business to do, a journey to go, a family to look after, which, especially in this critical juncture, called for his attendance. Note, Every thing is beautiful in its season; even the business of religion, and the comforts of communion with God, must sometimes give way to the necessary affairs of this life: God will have mercy, and not sacrifice. 4. Jacob persists in his holy importunity: I will not let thee go, except thou bless me; whatever becomes of his family and journey, he resolves to make the best he can of this opportunity, and not to lose the advantage of his victory: he does not mean to wrestle all night for nothing, but humbly resolves he will have a blessing, and rather shall all his bones be put out of joint than he will go away without one. The credit of a conquest will do him no good without the comfort of a blessing. In begging this blessing he owns his inferiority, though he seemed to have the upper hand in the struggle; for the less is blessed of the better. Note, Those that would have the blessing of Christ must be in good earnest, and be importunate for it, as those that resolve to have no denial. It is the fervent prayer that is the effectual prayer. 5. The angel puts a perpetual mark of honour upon him, by changing his name (Gen 32:27, Gen 32:28): "Thou art a brave combatant" (says the angel), "a man of heroic resolution; what is thy name?" "Jacob," says he, a supplanter; so Jacob signifies: "Well," says the angel, "be thou never so called any more; henceforth thou shalt be celebrated, not for craft and artful management, but for true valour; thou shalt be called Israel, a prince with God, a name greater than those of the great men of the earth." He is a prince indeed that is a prince with God, and those are truly honourable that are mighty in prayer, Israels, Israelites indeed. Jacob is here knighted in the field, as it were, and has a title of honour given him by him that is the fountain of honour, which will remain, to his praise, to the end of time. Yet this was not all; having power with God, he shall have power with men too. Having prevailed for a blessing from heaven, he shall, no doubt, prevail for Esau's favour. Note, Whatever enemies we have, if we can but make God our friend, we are well off; those that by faith have power on earth as they have occasion for. 6. He dismisses him with a blessing, Gen 32:29. Jacob desired to know the angel's name, that he might, according to his capacity, do him honour, Jdg 13:17. But that request was denied, that he might not be too proud of his conquest, nor think he had the angel at such an advantage as to oblige him to what he pleased. No, "Wherefore dost thou ask after my name? What good will it do thee to know that?" The discovery of that was reserved for his death-bed, upon which he was taught to call him Shiloh. But, instead of telling him his name, he gave him his blessing, which was the thing he wrestled for: He blessed him there, repeated and ratified the blessing formerly given him. Note, Spiritual blessings, which secure our felicity, are better and much more desirable than fine notions which satisfy our curiosity. An interest in the angel's blessing is better than an acquaintance with his name. The tree of life is better than the tree of knowledge. Thus Jacob carried his point; a blessing he wrestled for, and a blessing he had; nor did ever any of his praying seed seek in vain. See how wonderfully God condescends to countenance and crown importunate prayer: those that resolve, though God slay them, yet to trust in him, will, at length, be more than conquerors. 7. Jacob gives a new name to the place; he calls it Peniel, the face of God (Gen 32:30), because there he had seen the appearance of God, and obtained the favour of God. Observe, The name he gives to the place preserves and perpetuates, not the honour of his valour or victory, but only the honour of God's free grace. He does not say, "In this place I wrestled with God, and prevailed;" but, "In this place I saw God face to face, and my life was preserved;" not, "It was my praise that I came off a conqueror, but it was God's mercy that I escaped with my life." Note, It becomes those whom God honours to take shame to themselves, and to admire the condescensions of his grace to them. Thus David did, after God had sent him a gracious message (Sa2 7:18), Who am I, O Lord God? 8. The memorandum Jacob carried of this in his bones: He halted on his thigh (Gen 32:31); some think he continued to do so to his dying-day; and, if he did, he had no reason to complain, for the honour and comfort he obtained by this struggle were abundantly sufficient to countervail the damage, though he went limping to his grave. He had no reason to look upon it as his reproach thus to bear in his body the marks of the Lord Jesus (Gal 6:17); yet it might serve, like Paul's thorn in the flesh, to keep him from being lifted up with the abundance of the revelations. Notice is taken of the sun's rising upon him when he passed over Penuel; for it is sunrise with that soul that has communion with God. The inspired penman mentions a traditional custom which the seed of Jacob had, in remembrance of this, never to eat of that sinew, or muscle, in any beast, by which the hip-bone is fixed in its cup: thus they preserved the memorial of this story, and gave occasion to their children to enquire concerning it; they also did honour to the memory of Jacob. And this use we may still make of it, to acknowledge the mercy of God, and our obligations to Jesus Christ, that we may now keep up our communion with God, in faith, hope, and love, without peril either of life or limb.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv24–30 And Jacob was left alone,.... On the other side…
And Jacob was left alone,.... On the other side of Jabbok, his family and cattle having passed over it; and this solitude he chose, in order to spend some time in prayer to God for the safety of him and his:
and there wrestled a man with him; not a phantasm or spectre, as Josephus (e) calls him; nor was this a mere visionary representation of a man, to the imagination of Jacob; or done in the vision of prophecy, as Maimonides (f); but it was something real, corporeal, and visible: the Targum of Jonathan says, it was an angel in the likeness of a man, and calls him Michael, which is not amiss, since he is expressly called an angel, Hos 12:4; and if Michael the uncreated angel is meant, it is most true; for not a created angel is designed, but a divine Person, as appears from Jacob's desiring to be blessed by him; and besides, being expressly called God, Gen 32:28; and was, no doubt, the Son of God in an human form; who frequently appeared in it as a token and pledge of his future incarnation: and "this wrestling" was real and corporeal on the part of both; the man took hold of Jacob, and he took hold of the man, and they strove and struggled together for victory as wrestlers do; and on Jacob's part it was also mental and spiritual, and signified his fervent and importunate striving with God in prayer; or at least it was attended with earnest and importunate supplications; see Hos 12:4; and this continued
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until the breaking of the day: how long this conflict lasted is not certain, perhaps not long; since after Jacob rose in the night he had a great deal of business to do, and did it before this affair happened; as sending his wives, children, servants, and cattle over the brook: however, this may denote, that in the present state or night of darkness, wrestling in prayer with God must be continued until the perfect state commences, when the everlasting day of glory will break.
(e) Antiqu. l. 1. c. 20. sect. 2. (f) Morch Nevochim, par. 2. c. 42. p. 310.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv24, 25, 26, 27, 29, 30 Very early in the morning, a great while before…
Very early in the morning, a great while before day. Jacob had helped his wives and children over the river, and he desired to be private, and was left alone, that he might again spread his cares and fears before God in prayer. While Jacob was earnest in prayer, stirring up himself to take hold on God, an angel takes hold on him. Some think this was a created angel, one of those that always behold the face of our Father. Rather it was the angel of the covenant, who often appeared in a human shape, before he assumed the human nature. We are told by the prophet, Hosea xii, 4, how Jacob wrestled, he wept and made supplication; prayers and tears were his weapons. It was not only a corporal, but a spiritual wrestling by vigourous faith and holy desire.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv24, 25, 26, 28, 29 Verse 24. And there wrestled a man with him]…
Verse 24. And there wrestled a man with him] This was doubtless the Lord Jesus Christ, who, among the patriarchs, assumed that human form, which in the fulness of time he really took of a woman, and in which he dwelt thirty-three years among men. He is here styled an angel, because he was μεγαλης βουλης Αγγελος, (see the Septuagint, Isa 9:7,) the Messenger of the great counsel or design to redeem fallen man from death, and bring him to eternal glory; see Ge 16:7.
But it may be asked, Had he here a real human body, or only its form? The latter, doubtless. How then could he wrestle with Jacob? It need not be supposed that this angel must have assumed a human body, or something analagous to it, in order to render himself tangible by Jacob; for as the soul operates on the body by the order of God, so could an angel operate on the body of Jacob during a whole night, and produce in his imagination, by the effect of his power, every requisite idea of corporeity, and in his nerves every sensation of substance, and yet no substantiality be in the case.
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If angels, in appearing to men, borrow human bodies, as is thought, how can it be supposed that with such gross substances they can disappear in a moment? Certainly they do not take these bodies into the invisible world with them, and the established laws of matter and motion require a gradual disappearing, however swiftly it may be effected. But this is not allowed to be the case, and yet they are reported to vanish instantaneously. Then they must render themselves invisible by a cloud, and this must be of a very dense nature in order to hide a human body. But this very expedient would make their departure still more evident, as the cloud must be more dense and apparent than the body in order to hide it. This does not remove the difficulty. But if they assume a quantity of air or vapour so condensed as to become visible, and modified into the appearance of a human body, they can in a moment dilate and rarefy it, and so disappear; for when the vehicle is rarefied beyond the power of natural vision, as their own substance is invisible they can instantly vanish.
From Ho 12:4, we may learn that the wrestling of Jacob, mentioned in this place, was not merely a corporeal exercise, but also a spiritual one; He wept and made supplication unto him. See the notes there. See Clarke on Ho 12:4.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv24, 25, 26, 27, 29 Gen 32:24. Jacob was left alone — In some…
Gen 32:24. Jacob was left alone — In some private place, that he might more freely and ardently pour out his soul in prayer, and again spread his cares and fears before God. There wrestled a man with him — The eternal Word, or Son of God, who often appeared in a human shape, before he assumed the human nature. We are told by Hos 12:4, how Jacob wrestled with him; He wept and made supplication: prayers and tears were his weapons. It was not only a corporal but a spiritual wrestling, by vigorous faith and holy desire; and this circumstance shows that the person with whom he wrestled was not a created angel, but the angel of the covenant; for surely he would not pray and make supplication to a creature. Indeed, in the passage just referred to, Hosea terms him Jehovah, God of hosts, and says, Jehovah is his memorial.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv24, 25, 28, 29, 30 A man, &c. This was an angel in human…
A man, &c. This was an angel in human shape, as we learn from Osee xii. 4. He is called God, ver. 28 and 30, because he represented the person of the Son of God. This wrestling, in which Jacob, assisted by God, was a match for an angel, was so ordered, (ver. 28.) that he might learn by this experiment of the divine assistance, that neither Esau, nor any other man, should have power to hurt him. It was also spiritual, as appeareth by his earnest prayer, urging, and at last obtaining the angel’s blessing. (Challoner) --- The father will not refuse a good gift to those who ask him with fervour and humility. Jacob had before set us an excellent pattern how to pray, placing his confidence in God, and distrusting himself, ver. 9, &c. (Haydock) --- It is not certain, whether Jacob remained alone on the northern or on the southern banks of Jaboc. (Calmet)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv24, 26, 28, 29 There wrestled a man with him--This mysterious person is…
There wrestled a man with him--This mysterious person is called an angel (Hos 12:4) and God (Gen 32:28, Gen 32:30; Hos 12:5); and the opinion that is most supported is that he was "the angel of the covenant," who, in a visible form, appeared to animate the mind and sympathize with the distress of his pious servant. It has been a subject of much discussion whether the incident described was an actual conflict or a visionary scene. Many think that as the narrative makes no mention in express terms either of sleep, or dream, or vision, it was a real transaction; while others, considering the bodily exhaustion of Jacob, his great mental anxiety, the kind of aid he supplicated, as well as the analogy of former manifestations with which he was favored--such as the ladder--have concluded that it was a vision [CALVIN, HESSENBERG, HENGSTENBERG]. The moral design of it was to revive the sinking spirit of the patriarch and to arm him with confidence in God, while anticipating the dreaded scenes of the morrow. To us it is highly instructive; showing that, to encourage us valiantly to meet the trials to which we are subjected, God allows us to ascribe to the efficacy of our faith and prayers, the victories which His grace alone enables us to make.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv24–30 24. Left alone — He doubtless sought to be…
24. Left alone — He doubtless sought to be alone with God that night, and called up the memories of all his past life. All the deception and wrong that had stained his record pressed sorely on his awakened conscience. He had all along leaned too much to his own devices, and had not fully relied on God. He probably repeated over and over again the prayer of Gen_32:9-12, until it became fixed in his soul; and then there came a tangible presence, as of a human form; there wrestled a man with him until the rising of the dawn; a fact which we can understand and explain only as a supernatural visitation of the angel of Jehovah. See note on Gen_16:7. The prophet Hosea (Hos_12:3-4) refers to this conflict, and his words may be rendered thus:
In the womb he took his brother by the heel.
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And by his vigour he was a prince with God,
And he acted the prince towards the angel, and prevailed.
He wept, and made supplication to him.
The exact nature of this struggle it is impossible for us to tell, but the whole drift of the narrative is against our explaining it as a dream, or an inner vision which had no external reality. The experience, however, may have gone on through alternate sleeping and waking, as often, when greatly agitated, the spirit of man rises above the weakness and weariness of the flesh. Doubtless Jacob’s praying wrought his soul into impassioned fervour. In such a state the coming of a man to him would have excited, comparatively, little or no additional alarm. In the first hours of struggle he as little apprehended the nature of his combatant as did Abraham and Lot when they entertained angels unawares; but towards the close of the struggle, as the morning drew on, he began to realize that he wrestled not with flesh and blood, but with Jehovah’s angel.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv24–30 24. And Jacob … alone] It is natural to…
24. And Jacob … alone] It is natural to suppose that Jacob remained behind to think and to pray at this crisis of his life. He was given over to anxious fears; the darkness and loneliness intensified them. The thought that God had left him, or was opposed to him, overwhelmed him.
there wrestled a man] The brevity of the account leaves it unexplained, who the man is, how he appeared, and how the contest began.
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The word for “wrestled,” yêâbêk, is very possibly intended to be a play on the name of the river Jabbok as if it meant “twisting.” In Gen_32:28, and in Hos_12:4, a different word, “to strive,” is used for the “wrestling” of Jacob. It is this scene of “wrestling” which has become, in the language of spiritual experience, the classical symbol for “agonizing” in prayer.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv24, 25, 26, 28, 29, 30 (24) There wrestled.—This verb, abak, occurs only here, and…
(24) There wrestled.—This verb, abak, occurs only here, and without doubt it was chosen because of its resemblance to the name Jabbok. Its probable derivation is from a word signifying dust, because wrestlers were quickly involved in a cloud of dust, or because, as was the custom in Greece, they rubbed their bodies with it.
A man.—Such he seemed to be to Jacob; but Hosea (Gen_12:4) calls him an angel; and, in Gen_32:30, Jacob recognises in him a manifestation of the Deity, as Hagar had done before, when an angel appeared to her (Gen_16:13). There is no warrant for regarding the angel as an incarnation of Deity, any more than in the case of Manoah (Jdg_13:22); but it was a manifestation of God mediately by His messenger, and was one of the many signs indicative of a more complete manifestation by the coming of the Word in the flesh. The opposite idea of many modern commentators, that the narrative is an allegory, is contradicted by the attendant circumstances, especially by the change of Jacob’s name, and his subsequent lameness, to which national testimony was borne by the customs of the Jews.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv24–30 And Jacob was left alone (probably on the north…
CHAPTER 32:24-32
And Jacob was left alone (probably on the north bank of the Jabbok; but vide on ver. 23); and there wrestled thus assaulting in his strong point one who had been a wrestler or heel-catcher from his youth (Murphy). The old word qban, niph. of qba unused, a dehorn, from qbj dust, because in wrestling the dust is raised (Aben Ezra, Gesenius), or a weakened form of qbj; to wind round, to embrace (Furst), obviously contains an allusion to the Jabbok (vide on ver. 22)a man called an angel by Hosea, (Gen_12:4) and God by Jacob (ver. 30); but vide infra with him until the breaking of the day literally, the ascending of the morning .
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Vers. 24-32.
Peniel, or the mysterious contest.
I THE DESCRIPTION OF THE STRUGGLE.
1. The scene. The north bank of Jabbok (vide Exposition).
2. The time. Night; the most suitable season for soul exercises, such as self-examination, (Psa_4:4) meditation, (Psa_63:6) devotion. (Luk_6:12)
3. The circumstances. Jacob was alone. In solitude the human soul discovers most of itself, and enjoys most frequent interviews with God (Psa_77:6; Dan_10:8; Joh_16:32)
4. The combatants.
(1) Jacob: by nature the supplanter, by grace the heir of the covenant; who in early life by craft had overreached his brother Esau in the matters of the family birthright and theocratic blessing, and who had now, by the dispatch of his munificent present to "my lord Esau," renounced both, so far at least as renunciation was possible, i.e. in respect of material and temporal advantages.
(2) A man, i.e. one who in outward appearance wore the form of a man, though in reality "the visible revealer of the invisible God" (Delitzsch); the angel of Jehovah, who had previously appeared in like guise to Abraham at Mature, (Gen_18:1) and who subsequently, in the fullness of the times, incarnated himself as the Word made flesh. (Joh_1:14)
5. The combat.
(1) Its commencement. When precisely this mysterious conflict began, and how Jacob was engaged at the moment of the unknown wrestler"s approach, are points upon which the narrative is silent, though it is probable that Jacob was employed in fervent supplication, and that, without knowing how, he suddenly became conscious of being involved in a close physical struggle with a powerful antagonist. Perhaps this was designed to suggest that God"s approaches to the praying soul are mostly sudden and inexplicable (cf. Joh_3:8)
(2) Its character. Though unquestionably depicted in the narrative as a veritable contest between two human beings, it is apparent that underlying the physical struggle, and related to it as the substance to the shadow, as the soul to the body, was another spiritual contending carried on by means of prayers and tears. (Hos_12:4)
(3) Its continuance. Beginning probably at midnight, it was protracted until dawn, a circumstance suggestive of Jacob"s earnestness and determination, and yet attesting the severe character of all true spiritual conflicts, and the extraordinary difficulty of achieving victories with God. (Mat_12:12)
(4) Its course. Four stages are discernible in this mysterious struggle.
(a) The wrestlers appear to be equally balanced in their strength and skill, so that the stranger finds himself unable to prevail against Jacob, and laying his finger on his adversary"s hip, puts it out of joint a hint to Jacob that though seemingly the victory inclined towards him, it was due not so much, or even at all, to his wisdom and prowess, but rather to the stranger"s grace and good-will.
(b) Jacob having thus been disabled, his mysterious antagonist, as if owning that the mastery remained with him, requests permission to depart, alleging as a reason that the ascending dawn proclaimed the day"s return, and called to other duties a valuable reminder that religion has other necessary works for God"s saints besides devotion and contemplation; but Jacob, who by this time recognized his antagonist as Divine, objected to his departure without confirming the blessing he had formerly received at Bethel and this, the personal reception and enjoyment of the blessing of the covenant, should be the end and aim of all the saint"s contendings with God and communings with Heaven.
(c) Inquiring Jacob"s name, the Divine adversary now discovers his true personality by authoritatively changing that name to Israel, prince of El, in token of his victory an outward symbol of the completed spiritual renovation which had taken place in Jacob since God first met with him at Bethel.
(d) Probably excited, or spiritually elevated, by what had just transpired, Jacob ventures, either with holy boldness or with unthinking curiosity, to inquire after his heavenly antagonist"s name, but is answered that in the mean time he must rest satisfied with the blessing Which was then and there pronounced. It was either a rebuke to Jacob"s presumption, or, and with greater probability, a reminder that even holy boldness has its limits, beyond which it may not intrude.
(5) Its close. Suddenly and mysteriously as the stranger came did he also disappear, leaving Jacob in possession of the blessing indeed, but also of a dislocated limb. So God frequently accompanies spiritual enrichment with material and temporal deprivation, in order both to evince his own sovereignty and to keep his saints humble (cf. 2Co_12:7)
(6) Its commemoration. By Jacob, who called the place Peniel; by Jacob"s descendants, who to this day eat not of the sciatic nerve in animals they kill for food.
II THE REALITY OF THE STRUGGLE. The question arises whether the contest just described had an objective reality (Havernick, Kurtz, Murphy, Alford, &c.), or partook of a purely subjective character, being in fact an allegorical description of a spiritual conflict in the soul of Jacob (Kalisch), or a wrestling which took place only in a dream (Hengstenberg), or in an ecstasy (Delitzsch, Keil, Lange), for the idea of its being a myth (Bohlen, De Wette, Oort, Kuenen) may be discarded. ;
1. Against the notion of a dream-vision it is sufficient to remark that if Jacob"s wrestling was a dream, so also were his victory and his blessing dreams. Besides, limbs do not usually become dislocated in dreams.
2. To read the passage as an allegory is both forced and unnatural, and "little better than trifling with the sacred narrative" (Alford).
3. There is no insuperable objection to the idea of an ecstasy, provided it is not intended to exclude the objective manifestation yet.
4. There does not seem sufficient reason for departing from the obvious and literal sense of the passage, according to which there was a beret fide corporeal contest between Jacob and the angel of Jehovah in human form; for
(1) the narrative gives no indication that it was designed in this part to be interpreted otherwise than literally and historically, as in the surrounding context;
(2) unless on the hypothesis that the supernatural is the unreal, there is no imperative necessity why exception should be taken to the objective character of this remarkable struggle;
(3) the dislocation of Jacob"s thigh points to an actual physical contest; and
(4) the other events in the narrative appear to require that the historic credibility of Jacob"s wrestling be maintained.
III THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STRUGGLE. That a momentous crisis had arisen in Jacob"s history is universally admitted. He was now returning to the land of Canaan a man of mature age, being in his ninety-seventh year, and of a singularly diversified experience, both natural and spiritual, In his early life he had twice supplanted Esau by means of craft, depriving him of his birthright and blessing, and now he was on the eve of meeting that formidable brother whom he had wronged. That the prospective interview filled him with alarm is explicitly declared; (Gen_32:7) but it likewise drove him to take refuge in prayer, in which exercise it is scarcely doubtful he was engaged when his mysterious assailant approached. What then did this extraordinary combat signify in the spiritual consciousness of Jacob? Putting together those views which do not necessarily exclude one another, and which appear to contain an element of truth, it may be said that this remarkable experience through which the patriarch passed at Jabbok was designed to have a threefold bearing.
1. On his fear of Esau. Apprehensive of his brother, he now learns that not Esau, but Jehovah, was his real adversary (Keil, Kurtz, Gerlach, Candlish), and that before he can ever hope to triumph over Esau he must first conquer God.
2. On his retention of the blessing. Having previously, as he thought, obtained the birthright and its accompanying blessing by means of carnal policy and worldly stratagem, he now discovers that it cannot be received, or, if he renounced it in the act of homage done to Esau (Lange), cannot be recovered except directly from the lips of God, and by means of earnest cries and entreaties (Keil) a truth taught him, according to Kurtz, by the dislocation of his thigh, which caused him to discontinue his corporeal wrestling, and resort to prayers and tears.
3. On his personal character. Jacob during all his past career, from his birth, when he caught his brother by the heel, to his last years in Haran, when he overreached the crafty and avaricious Laban, having been a person who sought to overcome by means of self-reliance and personal effort, it was now designed to teach him that, as the heir of the covenant, the weapons of his warfare were not to be carnal, but spiritual, and that his advancement to the place predestined for him of pre-eminence over his brethren was to be brought about by earnest reliance upon God (Murphy).
HOMILIES BY R.A. REDFORD Vers. 24-32.
Peniel. "The face of God.
The patriarchal revelation at its best. The main point, the personal wrestling of the believer with the angel of deliverance. Through that scene Jacob passed as by a baptism (ford Jabbok) into the full enjoyment of confidence in Jehovah, into the theanthropic faith. A man wrestled with him. The faith of Jacob was now to be a faith resting not upon tradition alone, nor upon promises and commandments alone, nor upon past experience alone, but upon a living, personal union with God. The wrestling was a type of that intimate fellowship which spiritually identifies the individual child of God with the Father through the man Christ Jesus.
The pilgrim on his way is hence-forth the prince, having power with God and with men. It is a great lesson on prevailing prayer.
1. The prayer of faith.
2. The prayer of importunity.
3. The prayer of intense desire.
will not let thee go, except thou bless me." Bless me for myself, bless me for my family, bless me for the world. But Jacob was a type of the true Prince of God prevailing for his people. He wrestled, he wrestled alone, he wrestled to his own suffering and humiliation, although into victory. He obtained the blessing as the Mediator. Although the patriarch was not allowed to know the name of the angel, he was himself named by the angel. Although we cannot with all our searching find out God, and even the revelation of Christ leaves much unknown, still we are "known of him." He gives us one name, and by that name we know him to be ours, which is the true saving knowledge. Peniel, the face of God, is the name not of God himself, but of the blessed revelation of God. We know where we may find him. We may each one start afresh from our Peniel, where we have been blessed of God, and have through Christ prevailed against the dark- ness of the future and the helplessness of our own impotence. Nor must we forget that this wrestling was reconciliation the reconciliation between man and God, preceding the reconciliation between man and mare The lameness of the patriarch symbolized the life of dependence upon which he henceforth entered with much more entire surrender than before. "As the sun rose upon,him, he halted upon his thigh." It was the morning of a new life the life of man s confessed nothingness and God"s manifested sufficiency. In such a light we can see light. The day may have dangers in it, but it will be a day of mighty deliverance, Divine blessedness, rejoicing in personal salvation and peaceful life. R.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv24, 26, 28, 29 Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man…
Gen_32:24
Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him
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The crisis in Jacobs life
From this description of a day and a night in the life of Jacob we learn three things.
1. This is a crisis, a turning-point in his career. His experience at the ford of Jabbok is his conversion from the craft and cunning and vulturous greed of years to the sweet subjection of his will to the Eternal, and consequent victory over himself and his brother.
2. God is in this crisis from first to last and at every moment of these twenty-four hours.
3. The crisis closes in the victory of the patient and loving Lord over the resisting selfishness of Jacob. Note these points:--
I. It must have been a welcome fore-gleam of approaching victory, and a pledge of the sustaining presence of Jehovah in the valley of the shadow of death, that as this day of crisis broke on the pilgrim the angels of God met him.
II. What is the significance of this terrific conflict? It means this assuredly. Jacob having gone to God in quaking fear, God holds him and will not let him go; goads and harrows his soul, till his heart swells and is ready to break; urges him to such a relentless and soul-consuming struggle with his self-will that he feels as though he is held in the grip of a giant and cannot escape. He resists, he struggles, he writhes, and in his furious contortions is at last lamed and helpless, and therefore compelled to trust himself and his all to God.
III. Jacob wrestled against God, but at last yielding, his soul is suffused with the blessedness of the man whose trust is in the Lord. Faber asks, with mingled beauty and force, What is it will make us real? and answers, The face of God will do it. It is so. Israel is a new creation: Jacob is dead. Dark as the night was, Jacob passed through it, saw the face of God at day-dawn, and became himself, met his brother with serenity, and spent the rest of his days in the love and service of God. (J. Clifford, D. D.)
The change in Jacob
I. In what position do we find Jacobs spiritual state up to the time of this second incident in his life? During the first period of his life he was simply a man of the world. After the vision at Bethel he was a religious man; the sense of religious influence was seen in his life; after the conflict at the ford Jabbok he became a spiritually minded man. He was going home with his sin yet weighty on his soul, unpardoned, unforgiven, uncleansed by the Divine power. Bethel was the house of God, to teach him that he could not set his foot upon a single acre of soil without finding that the Governor of the world was there; here we have the unfolding of the wider thought of the intercommunion and personal relationship between the soul of man and his Maker.
II. Those who trust in the God of Bethel and providence are looking to Him for what He gives; but the aspirations of the spiritual man are wholly different. At Bethel Jacob said, If Thou wilt be with me and wilt do me good. At Jabbok his first thought was, Tell me Thy name. He desired to know more of God, not to get more from God. To gain further spiritual experience--this is the thirst of the spiritual man. To make a friend of God for the good that we can get--this is the idea of the merely religious man. (Bishop Boyd Carpenter.)
Jacobs struggle
I. All the evidence here goes to prove that the wonderful wrestler, who contended with Jacob, was the one only true God.
II. Being God and being man, we are right in calling Him Christ, and in placing this incident as the second of the anticipatory advents of the Messiah which lie scattered over the Old Testament.
III. As Jacob wrestled with God in human form, so it is with God in the Lord Jesus Christ that in all our spiritual conflicts, in all our deep repentances, in all our struggling prayers, we must wrestle.
IV. There were two things which Christ gave in this encounter--a wound and a blessing. The wound first and then the blessing. The wound was small and for a season; the blessing was infinite and for ever. (J. Vaughan, M. A.)
Jacob striving with God
We see here the supernatural appearing in the world of the natural. We see God veiling Himself in human form, as He veiled Himself in the form of Christ His Son in after years. We must look at this story of miracle in the light of the miracle of the Incarnation.
I. In this striving of the patriarch with God, and in the blessing he won at the end of the striving, we see the very height and picture of our life, if into that life has passed the life of Christ our Lord.
II. It is by wrestling that we win the Divine blessing, but whether in struggling against doubt, against temptation, or against the enemies of the Church, we must take heed that we fight wisely as well as earnestly. We may strive, and we must strive; but let us strive wisely and lawfully if we would win the blessing.
III. The homeliest, the least eventful life, may and should be a supernatural life-a life in which Christ dwells, a life which the Holy Spirit sanctifies. If we can thus strive and wrestle on, the dawn comes at last, and we are blessed of God. (Bishop Magee.)
Jacobs crisis-night
I. Any attempt to make Jacob a hero, or even a good man, at the time of his deception of his father, must fail. At that time he represented the very lowest quality of manhood. We can call him a man only by courtesy; while Esau, a venturous and kind-hearted child of nature, stands up as a prince, uncrowned indeed, but only because a thief had robbed him of his crown. In the fact that God chose Jacob we find the germ of the redemptive idea at work.
II. Jacob was not at once promoted to his high place. As a wanderer and a stranger, he underwent most humiliating discipline, and on this night his old and wretched past was replaced by a new name and a new hope.
III. There must be such a night in every life--a night in which the sinful past shall go down for ever into the depths of unfathomable waters. The wrestling of Jacob was
(1) long,
(2) desperate,
(3) successful.
IV. The night of wrestling was followed by a morning of happy reconciliation with his brother. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Jacob wrestling with the angel
Consider this incident--
I. AS TO ITS OUTWARD FORM.
II. AS TO ITS SPIRITUAL MEANING.
1. That the great struggle of life is to know and feel after God.
2. That God reveals Himself through mystery and awe.
3. That God reveals Himself to us in blessing.
4. That Gods revelation of Himself to us is intended to change our character.
5. That God is conquered by prayer and supplication. (T. H. Leale.)
The features of the development of revealed faith in Jacobs wrestling
1. The germ of the Incarnation. Godhead and humanity wrestling with each other; the Godhead in the form of a man.
2. The germ of the atonement. Sacrifice of the human will.
3. The germ of justification by faith. I will not let Thee go, etc.
4. The germ of the new-birth. Jacob, Israel.
5. The germ of the principle of love to ones enemies. The reconciliation with God, reconciliation with the world. (J. P,Lange.)
Guilt all alone
I. His EXPERIENCE is singularly transparent, though seriously mixed.
1. We know, for one thing, he was in positive fear.
2. There was solicitude in his experience.
3. There was reminiscence in his experience.
4. There was remorse in his experience.
II. THE INGENIOUS PRECAUTIONS HE TAKES. He made the best disposal of all his affairs that he could under the circumstances. Four things there were on which he grounded some hope.
1. One was his late vision of the angels at Mahanaim.
2. His vast worldly wealth.
3. Disposition of forces.
4. Prayer.
III. HIS LONELINESS. (C. S Robison, D. D.)
Jacobs wrestle
I. THE CONFLICT.
1. Its loneliness.
2. Its earnestness.
(1)Earnestness which absorbed Jacobs sense of material danger.
(2) Earnestness which even bore down Jacobs dread of God.
II. THE VICTORY. He blest him there. What was the nature of the Divine blessing?
1. A change in the mans state.
(1) Not that mere external deliverance for which Jacob first prayed.
(2) An inward deliverance. Symbolized by the new name.
(3) Outward token of the change. Jacobs history in the after ages purer than before.
(4) Imperfection even in the new man Israel.
In more than a physical sense, Jacob halted on his thigh. Whoever spends half a lifetime in sin, must not be alarmed if traces of old habit remain.
2. A change in the mans relations.
(1) Power with God.
(2) Power with man. (S. Gregory.)
The history and mystery of Jacobs life
I. OF THE COMBAT ITSELF.
1. In the general, it is one of the most famous combats recorded in Scripture; we read, indeed, in that Divine record of sundry eminent conflicts carried on after the manner of a duel. As of that combat betwixt little David and great Goliath (1Sa_17:40, &c.); but in that the match was only made betwixt man and man, there was only one mortal against another, though the one was a great giant, and the other was but, in comparison of his antagonist, a little dwarf. Here is a rare show indeed. Go along with me, I beseech you, both to see and hear this great wonder in some sense, the greatest wonder that ever was in the world, that God Himself, as will appear after, should come down from His throne in heaven to wrestle a fall with man, a poor worm (Isa_41:14; Psa_22:6), upon his foot-stool on earth.
2. But more particularly, in the second place, what kind of combat this was, whether corporal only, or spiritual only, or both together, is our next inquiry. There be some who say that it was only spiritual by way of vision, or in way of a dream, imaginary only. So Thomas, Rupertus, and Rabbi Levi, who thinketh that Jacobs thigh might be hurt by some other means, as by the weariness of his tedious travel, or by his catching cold while he lay that cold night upon the cold ground, rather than by any real wrestling; and he further added, that Jacob dreamed of that same hurt upon his hip. How improbable this is may be easily urged. Assuredly Jacob had little either list or leisure for sleeping, much less for dreaming, while he was so struck even with a panic fear of his bloody brother. It was, therefore, a real and corporal combat, not visional or imaginary, which appears by many reasons.
(1) Because it is said, Jacob rose up that night and sent his family before him, after both which he is described to be immediately engaged, even that same night he rose up in, to wrestling work (Gen_32:22-24), which must be when he was waking.
(2) Jacobs valour and victory are both highly applauded even by God Himself; whereas, had both these been imaginary only, and transacted in a dream, such fancies are but a laughter to men.
(3) The luxation of his loin, or lameness of his leg was undoubtedly real and corporal. Who will complain of an imaginary hurt?
(4) As there is a reality in Jacobs valour, victory, and lameness, so there is no less in the change of his name from Jacob to Israel; it was not done in a dream or vision, or in imagination only. Accordingly must his wrestling be not visional but corporal. Yet there is a third sense, to wit, that Jacobs wrestling was both corporal and spiritual, for he did certainly contend with Christ by the force of his faith as well as by the strength of his body. The prophet Hosea gives a plain testimony that Jacob won the blessing here by weeping as well as by wrestling. He wept and made supplication with his soul as well as wrestled with his body (Hos_12:3-4).
II. The next part or particular of this famous history is JACOBS VALOUR, which is conspicuously demonstrable in several circumstances.
1. It is a clear discovery hereof, if his antagonist be well considered, that he was no less than the Omnipotent Jehovah.
2. Discovery of Jacobs valour is drawn from the circumstance of time when he wrestled, as the first was from the person with whom he had his conflict. The time when was the most timorous time of all times, it was in the night time, which is accounted a time of fear.
3. Wherein Jacobs courage and valour carries a high commendation, is, in respect of the length as well as lonesomeness of it, even all the night until the dawning of the day (Gen_32:24-25). Though wrestling work be most wearisome work, stretching every sinew in the flesh, and every jointbone in the body, and requiring the very utmost of a mans strength and skill.
4. The fourth circumstance, which higher illustrates Jacobs valour, is the sad posture he was now in, a lame and limping man, who had but one sound leg to stand upon while he wrestled with his adversary. As his place was a solitary and disconsolate place, so his posture was a discouraging and disadvantageous posture.
5. The fifth circumstance, which further commends Jacobs courage and valour, is the lastingness of his valour, the ever and everlasting noble temper of his mind under this wounding hurt, and under all other wonderful discouragements.
III. NOW come we, from Jacobs valour, thus demonstrated, unto that which was the royal wage thereof, to wit, HIS VICTORY. Though this was, secondarily, but the just reward of his right, noble resolution. Yea, Jacobs victory and prevailing over God here was symbolical, as it was a predicting sign--
1. That his person should prevail over Esau.
2. That his posterity should prevail over Esaus offspring, the Edomites or Idumeans.
3. That Christ, springing from Jacob, should subdue all His enemies, that every knee should bow to Christ (Php_2:10).
4. It was also a symbol or sign that every true Christian, who are Israelites indeed (Joh_1:47), and the right new and now Israel of God Gal_6:16), should likewise conquer all their temporal and spiritual adversaries, the flesh, the world, and the devil.
IV. Though God granted Jacob the victory, yet must he have something with it to humble him, to wit, HIS LUXATION OR LAMENESS, as before, that he might not be too much puffed up with the glory of his victory, nor, as it were, drunk with his success in this single combat. The conqueror here cannot come off with his conquest alone, but he must come off halting from it. He must be made sensible both of his antagonists potency, in being lamed by him, whereby he understood him greater than himself, therefore desired he his blessing, for the lesser is blessed of the greater Heb_7:7), and also of his own impotency, and to have low thoughts of himself while he came off with flying colours in the most glorious triumph. He must, even when he had overcome the great God, understand himself to be but a sorry man, otherwise he could not have been so lamed. He was, therefore, lamed that he might not ascribe the victory to his own strength, and that he might not, notwithstanding his overcoming God, be overcome by the pride of his own heart. Pride is a weed that will grow out of any ground--like mistletoe, that will grow upon any tree--but for the most part upon the best--the oak. Of all sorts of pride, that which is spiritual is most venomous, and far worse than temporal. That pride which grows out of the ground of our own graces and duties, is more poisonous than that which flows from honour, treasure, or pleasure. The holiest have their haltings, which they carry, as Jacob did his, along with them to their dying day. God hath His redder at every mans foot, and His bridle upon all mens spirits, to rein them in from self-exaltation, that they may not mount too high by having the victory. Oh, that our former haltings may be sanctified to us, so as to work savingly in us some future humblings. Thus, holy Jacob, in this holy contention with this holy angel, by those holy weapons obtains those holy things.
1. Holy honour.
2. The holy blessing. (C. Ness.)
Penuel
I. THE CONFLICT.
II. THE VICTORY.
III. THE RESULTS. (T. S. Dickson.)
Jacob at Penuel
I. How GOD PREVAILED WITH JACOB In regard to this Divine conflict, think of--
1. Its condescension.
2. Its necessity.
3. Its success.
II. How JACOB PREVAILED WITH GOD.
1. Jacob prevailed when he had been made to feel his own weakness.
2. Jacob prevailed, not by the exercise of natural strength, but by the purely spiritual force of trustful and earnest prayer.
III. THE RESULTS THAT FOLLOWED FROM THIS MEMORABLE CONFLICT.
1. Jacob received a new name.
2. Jacob received new spiritual power.
3. Jacob received a blessing which fully compensated for unexplained mystery. (G. J. Allen, B. A.)
Jacob at Penuel
I. JACOBS WRESTLING.
1. A personal contest.
2. A protracted contest.
3. A contest with an unknown person.
II. JACOBS VICTORY.
1. A partial victory.
2. A victory by which he obtained a better name.
3. A victory ever to be remembered. (Homilist.)
Human lonelihood
Man is lonely--
1. In his profoundest thoughts.
2. In his moral convictions.
3. In his greatest sorrows.
4. In his dying moments. (Homilist.)
The wrestling of Jacob
I. JACOBS WRESTLING.
1. Of course I need hardly say that the wrestling of Jacob was not physical but spiritual, and that it refers to importunity in prayer, to great earnestness and perseverance in that duty. It is presumed all Christians know this much even from their cradles, Now, the time and place where this transaction occurred are worthy of notice. The time was during the night season. The place, very likely the tent of Jacob, fixed in the open country, in the spot from which the little village of Penuel, so called from this event, derives its interest. It was when all was still and hushed, and no voice was heard, perhaps, save the lowing of the cattle and the bleating of the sheep. It was on the eve of Jacob meeting his brother when the mind of Jacob was full of anxious thought and fears.
2. Consider the Infinite Being to whom Jacob addressed his prayer, and the manner or mode of His presence. God. Spiritually present to all who seek and love Him.
3. The intense earnestness of the prayer of Jacob is called a wrestling with God; it was so importunate, so full of feeling, and so bent upon obtaining its request. And the felt nearness of the Divine presence; the assurance of the power and willingness of the Infinite to bestow what was wanted; and of the very simple, gentle, and loving attractiveness of the Presence, drew out all that intensity of feeling and word so fully expressed in the language of the Patriarch, I will not let Thee go, except Thou bless me. Such earnestness as here expressed, forms a striking contrast to the cold dead religious conventionalism of the age. There is great naturalness too in this earnestness of entreaty. It is what is felt oftentimes in some of our earthly affairs. For instance, let us suppose a person bent upon obtaining some particular object: say it has engaged his thoughts by night and by day, ever pressing itself upon his attention; an object of all others most desirable to be obtained. Well, let us further suppose that the moment has arrived when your wishes and hopes may be fulfilled; when he who can accomplish this is close beside you. Can you not imagine that as the person referred to becomes more and more friendly, and familiar, and endearing, that the earnestness of expectation will rise in proportion, and the determination to obtain what is longed for more and more fixed? Such too is the case with the heart in prayer with God.
II. THE RESULT OF THE PRAYER.
1. The change of Jacobs name to Israel, a prince and a conqueror, and also a change of character. The change of character is the most important, and his altered name is the sign by which that is forestalled. Henceforth he is no longer to be known as a subtle supplanter, but as an ennobled conqueror, who has waived all intrigue and treacherous design, and fought the battle bravely, openly, and honestly.
2. To conclude, know we anything of this inner life of the soul, of this earnest and intense struggle of a praying heart, of this deep and solemn communing with the Almighty? Do we feel that He is so near us at all times in the restless, and busy, and anxious seasons of life, that we have only just to turn our hearts towards Him to realize the power and comfort of His presence? Brethren beloved, who is in reality your God and mine? Is He the God of the wrestling Jacob, drawing us into close and earnest fellowship with Himself, and inspiring us with a feeling of trust that clings to Him, that yearns after Him, and that will not let Him go until He answers our petitions? Or is it some other idol we worship--some god of this world we obey? (W. D. Horwood.)
Jacobs example in prayer
I. IT BRINGS TO VIEW THE HUMAN SIDE OF PRAYER. Communion with God. No true or prevalent prayer where Christ is not laid hold of.
II. GENUINE PRAYER IS ACTUAL PERSONAL CONTACT OF THE SOUL WITH GOD IN CHRIST.
III. Note THE MEANS BY WHICH JACOB PREVAILED. Only when he ceased to rely on his own strength, and resorted to the weapon of prayer, did he succeed. So it is ever with the Christian.
IV. Note THE REWARD OF IMPORTUNATE PRAYER.
V. EVERY CHRISTIAN HAS POWER TO PREVAIL WITH GOD IN PRAYER.
VI. How SUGGESTIVE JACOBS MEMORIAL NAME. Penuel. I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved. (J. M. Sherwood, D. D.)
Jacobs prevailing prayer;
I. THE REPRESENTATIVE CHARACTER OF JACOB AT PRAYER.
1. He represents the true Christian in that he prayed.
2. He represents the true Christian in the characteristics of his prayer.
(1) Assurance.
(2) Promises pleaded.
(3) Sense of unworthiness.
(4) Gratitude.
(5) Supplication.
3. He represents many a Christian in his anxiety.
4. He represents the judicious Christian in using all proper means that lie in his power.
II. THE REPRESENTATIVE CHARACTER OF JACOB WRESTLING WITH THE ANGEL.
1. It represents the purpose of God in all His disciplinary measures.
2. It represents the means by which faith grows to its maturity.
(1) Divine permission to carry out our own plans, to realize how vain they are.
(2) God is often compelled to bring His child into absolute helplessness before faith will take hold of Gods strength.
Lessons:
1. God graciously deals with each of His children according to their circumstances and temperament.
2. Wrong-doing ever brings anxiety, weakness, failure.
3. To prevail with God, faith must rely only on Him. (D. C. Hughes, M. A.)
Jacob wrestling with God
I. THE NATURE OF ACCEPTABLE PRAYER.
1. There must be a deep sense of personal unworthiness (Gen_32:10).
2. We must cherish confidence in the word and the goodness of
God.
3. Perseverance should distinguish our prayers.
II. THE BLESSINGS WHICH BELIEVING PRAYER SECURES.
1. Gods special protection.
2. The sensible enjoyment of an interest in Gods love.
3. A blissful anticipation of glory.
Conclusion:
1. A word to the sinner. Prayerless sinner, what will become of you?
2. A word to the saint. Encouragement. It is said God blessed him there. He blessed him in the very place in which He had lamed him. And does not this intimate that when we are sunk the lowest in discouragement, that relief is just at hand that the darkest hour is the prelude to the brightest day, and that holy earnest petitions overcome heaven itself, and bring down to earth the odours of immortality and the supports of Omnipotence. Oh! believer, cleave to the example of Jacob--say, I will not let Thee go, except Thou bless me. (W. Hodson.)
Wrestling Jacob
I. THE BELIEVER IN HIS DIFFICULTY. Rest on the promises of a loving Jehovah, and go through all your trials honouring God, and experiencing patience and peace in your souls. But, moreover, you children of God, who have had trouble, and have it at this moment, do not be cast down.
II. THE BELIEVER IN HIS INSTRUMENTALITY.
1. You will perceive in the conduct of Jacob, in the first place, peculiar wisdom. There was no presumption in the conduct of Jacob. He made use of every variety of means to appease the anger of Esau; and after he had made these most providential arrangements, he remained with God alone. Having made these arrangements, he did not depend on them; he flew to his great resource, his only sure instrumentality, and that which, after all, must be that on which all must rest--namely, prayer to God.
2. You will perceive that this prayer, from the few words in which it is presented to our notice, is remarkable for its earnestness. Further, we mention that this prayer is remarkable for its perseverance, its persevering earnestness--I will not let Thee go, except Thou bless me.
III. THE BELIEVER IN HIS BLESSING. (H. Allen, M. A.)
Penuel
I. We have here A STRIKING ILLUSTRATION OF THE LONELINESS OF ALL REAL DISTRESS. There is a certain solitariness about every man. The proverb says that there is a skeleton in every house, and it is equally true that there is a secret closet in every heart where the soul keeps its skeleton, and to which, after sending wife and children across the brook, it retires in times of sadness and insolation. There is something in every soul that is never told to mortal, but which, as if to make up for its being withheld from others, has a strange fascination for ourselves; and in every moment of silence it is heard sounding in our secret ear. Even those nearest and dearest to us know not of these hidden things. They are kept for solitude; nay, such is some their power over us that they draw us into retirement that they may speak to us awhile. Different exceedingly in their character may those things be that are hidden thus in the secret chamber of mens hearts. They differ in different individuals, and in the same individual at different times. In the case of Jacob here, guilt and suspense were the troubles of his soul.
II. But the narrative before us teaches us that in this dreary solitude our ONLY EFFECTUAL RESOURCE IS INCARNATE GOD. For as this mysterious one came to Jacob, so Jesus came to earth, a human brother, and, at the same time, a divine helper. And herein does He not precisely meet our need? As a man He comes, and so we need not be afraid of Him. You know the beautiful story which Homer tells in connection with the parting of Hector and Andromache. The hero was going to his last battle, and his wife accompanied him as far as the gates of the city, followed by a nurse carrying in her arms their infant child. When he was about to depart, Hector held out his hands to receive the little one, but, terrified by the burnished helmet and the waving plume, the child turned away and clung crying to the nurses neck. In a moment, divining the cause of the infants alarm, the warrior took off his helmet and laid it on the ground, and then, smiling through his tears, the little fellow leaped into his fathers arms. Now, similarly, Jehovah of hosts, Jehovah with the helmet on, would frighten us weak guilty ones away; but in the person of the Lord Jesus He has laid that helmet off, and now the guiltiest and the neediest are encouraged to go to His fatherly embrace, and avail themselves of His support. But while thus His humanity emboldens us to apply to Him, His divinity furnishes us with the help we need. That which I cling to for strength must be something other than myself, and something stronger than myself, otherwise it will be time as worthless as a broken reed. When in the howling hurricane wave after wave is breaking over the ship and sweeping the deck from stem to stern, it will not do for the sailor to depend upon himself; neither will it avail for him to grasp his fellow, for they may together be washed into the deep; but he lays hold of the iron bulwark, making the strength of the iron for the moment to be as his own, and is upheld. So in the surges of agony that sooner or later sweep over every man, it will not do for him to depend upon himself, or even to hold by a fellow-mortal. He needs one who while, he is a brother, is mightier than any human brother; and here in Jesus Christ, the God-man, the great necessity of his heart is met; for is the omnipotence of divinity added to the accessibility of humanity. Nor is this all. Jesus Christ as God, is omniscient as well as omnipotent. He knows, therefore, precisely what is wrong with us.
III. But the narrative before us teaches us further, THAT OUR FIRST APPLICATION TO THIS DIVINE FRIEND MAY BE MET WITH SEEMING REPULSE, BUT THAT RELIEVING IMPORTUNITY WILL ULTIMATELY PREVAIL.
1. When our earnest applications to Him appear to be met with indifference, when our repeated importunity seems only to call forth repeated repulse, when in the yearning earnestness of our entreaty, our hearts feel as if they had lost all strength, even as Jacobs limb went from beneath him when the angel touched it, let us remember that His design is either to bring our faith to the birth, or by the discipline of resistance %o develop it into greater strength, and let us cling to Him all the more, saying, I will not let Thee go, except Thou bless me.
2. But it is not alone for the strengthening of our faith that the answer to our application may be deferred. Jesus may design thereby to open our eyes to our real need. For observe, though it was suspense concerning Esau that was at first oppressing Jacob, there is no mention of that in this wrestling. He has discovered that he needs something far more important than reconcilation to his elder brother. He wants to know Gods name, that is, his relation to Him, and he desires a blessing from Him. Thus through the apparent denial of the minor request, he is brought to feel his need of something greater than he had thought at first of asking. Now is it not thus very frequently with Gods children still?
IV. I hasten to add, in the last place, that such an experience as that which we have been tracing always LEAVES ITS MARK ON THE INDIVIDUAL WHO HAS PASSED THROUGH IT, AND RENDERS MEMORABLE THE PLACE WHERE IT WAS UNDERGONE. Jacob halted upon his thigh--that was literal fact.
But that was not the only permanent memorial of his night of wrestling which Jacob bore upon him. That was, in truth, but the corporeal indication of a spiritual result. The rocks beneath us bear the marks of the flames, to the actions of which, millenniums ago they were exposed; and in the mountain ridges of our planet we may see the record of those terrible convulsions and upheavels to which in former ages it was subjected. In like manner the spirit of a man is marked by the fires of those trials through which he has been made to pass; and we may see in the character and disposition of an individual, the indications or results of those inner struggles through which he has been brought. (W. M. Taylor, D. D.)
Jacob alone
What happens to any one left alone is better worth thinking about than is anything else about him. We all live much of our lives before the world: I mean before that part of mankind which is to each of us our world. But we all live some part of our life alone. We may be utterly alone in a crowd, or even in what is called society. Anywhere, unless you are conscious of more or less sympathy, you are alone. But there are times when we are alone in body, as well as in mind. Jacob was not alone in a crowd. He was alone out of a crowd--alone literally--alone in every sense--alone with God. That which is described occurs every day to a serious and thoughtful man when he is alone. What is it? I can describe it thus. A strife between God and man, which is real but not hostile. It teaches us, if I read aright, that there is a conflict between man and God-or that there may be--which is not one of hostility, but of friendship--a conflict in which God overthrows, but only to raise us the higher. He prevails; lie weakens us; He humbles: but we get the blessing. There is a seeming contradiction in the storys teaching; but the story is true to experience. He prevails and we prevail. It is with the thought of God as with the sight of the ocean. Look at it as you see it first roll up easily upon the shore. It refreshes and it charms. But sit down and look out alone upon the unmeasured waste of desert water beyond. Think of the terrific might that slumbers in that vast water-power. Your mind will be held spell-bound and amazed by the overwhelming grandeur of the object. It will be paralysed. And so it is with that Almighty Power of which the ocean is the fittest symbol. The first shallow thought of God sustains and comforts the soul. It affords a standing-ground and a resting place to the reason, which is embarrassed by the problem of existence. It gives the mind a centre and point of view. It gives the explanation which man requires as a rational being. There is wanting a reason for all things that exist, and God is that reason. We go through the reasoning of first cause of laws of lawgiver. To me, and perhaps to you all, this much is clear. There must be God or nothingness: but some one may say, or think when alone--Why, then God? and why not nothingness? That is the wrestle. God strikes the soul. He is asked to tell what He is--Tell me Thy name. Wherefore is it thou askest after My name? How crushing an answer from God to man! But He blessed him there. This is what I have called a strife between God and man, real but not hostile. We are taught about God in our childhood. We learn afterwards to have a reason of the hope that is in us and to be able to give it. We are satisfied that God is intelligible, and, so to speak, reason, let us say, is satisfied: Revelation confirms what reason has declared. (J. C. Coghlan, D. D.)
Jacob at Penuel
After Jacob had prayed to God, a happy thought strikes him which he at once puts in execution. Anticipating the experience of Solomon, that a brother offended is harder to be won than a strong city, he, in the style of a skilled tactician, lays siege to Esaus wrath, and directs against it train after train of gifts, which, like successive battalions pouring into a breach, might at length quite win his brother. This disposition of his peaceful battering trains having occupied him till sunset, he retires to the short rest of a general on the eve of battle. As soon as he judges that the weaker members of the camp are refreshed enough to begin their eventful march, he arises and goes from tent to tent awaking the sleepers and quickly forming them into their usual line of march, sends them over the brook in the darkness, and himself is left alone, not with the depression of a man who waits for the inevitable, but with the high spirits of intense activity, and with the return of the old complacent confidence of his own superiority to his powerful but sluggish-minded brother--a confidence regained now by the certainty he felt, at least for the time, that Esaus rage could not blaze through all the relays of gifts he had sent forward. Having in this spirit seen all his camp across the brook, he himself pauses for a moment, and looks with interest at the stream before him, and at the promised land on its southern bank. This stream, too, has an interest for him as bearing a name like his own--a name that signifies the struggler, and was given to the mountain torrent from the pain and difficulty with which it seemed to find its way through the hills. Sitting on the bank of the stream, he sees gleaming through the darkness the foam that it churned as it writhed through the obstructing rocks, or heard through the night the roar of its torrent as it leapt downwards, tortuously finding its way towards Jordan; and Jacob says, so will I, opposed though I be, win my way by the circuitous routes of craft or by the impetuous rush of courage, into the land whither that stream is going. With compressed lips, and step as firm as when, twenty years before, he left the land, he rises to cross the brook and enter the land--he rises, and is seized in a grasp that he at once owns as formidable. But surely this silent close, as of two combatants who at once recognise one anothers strength, this protracted strife does not look like the act of a depressed man, but of one whose energies have been strung to the highest pitch, and who would have borne down the champion of Esaus host had he at that hour opposed his entrance into the land which Jacob claimed as his own, and into which, as his glove, pledging himself to follow, he had thrown all that was dear to him in the world. It was no common wrestler that would have been safe to meet him in that mood. Why, then, was Jacob thus mysteriously held back while his household were quietly moving forward in the darkness? What is the meaning, purpose, and use of this opposition to his entrance? These are obvious from the state of mind Jacob was in. He was going forward to meet Esau under the impression that there was no other reason why he should not inherit the land but only his wrath, and pretty confident that by his superior talent, his mother-wit, he could make a tool of this stupid, generous brother of his. And the danger was, that if Jacobs device had succeeded, he would have been confirmed in these impressions, and have believed that he had won the land from Esau, with Gods help certainly, but still by his own indomitable pertinacity of purpose and skill in dealing with men. Jacob does not yet seem to have taken up the difference between inheriting a thing as Gods gift, and inheriting it as the meed of his own prowess. To such a man God cannot give the land; Jacob cannot receive it. He is thinking only of winning it, which is not at all what God means, and which would, in fact, have annulled all the covenant, and lowered Jacob and his people to the level simply of other nations who had to win and keep their territories at their risk, and not as the blessed of God. If Jacob is then to get the ]and, he must take it as a gift, which he is not prepared to do. And, therefore, just as he is going to step into it, there lays hold of him, not an armed emissary of his brother, but a far more formidable antagonist--if Jacob will win the land, if it is to be a mere trial of skill, a wrestling match, it must at least be with the right person. Jacob is met with his own weapons. He has not chosen war, so no armed opposition is made; but with the naked force of his own nature, he is prepared for any man who will hold the land against him; with such tenacity, toughness, quick presence of mind, elasticity, as nature has given him, he is confident he can win and hold his own. So the real proprietor of the land strips himself for the contest, and lets him feel by the first hold he takes of him, that if the question be one of mere strength he shall never enter the land. This wrestling, therefore, was by no means actually or symbolically prayer.
Jacob was not aggressive, nor did he stay behind his company to spend the night in praying for them. It was God who came and laid hold on Jacob to prevent him from entering the land in the temper he was in, and as Jacob. He was to be taught that it was not only Esaus appeased wrath, or his own skilful smoothing down of his brothers ruffled temper, that gave him entrance; but that a nameless Being, who came out upon him from the darkness, guarded the land, and that by His passport only could he find entrance. (M. Dods, D. D.)
Jacob and the angel
I. JACOB PRAYING.
1. He was alone when God came out of His eternity to wrestle with him. There are some whom the Omnipresent can never find alone; He has seldom or never the opportunity of revealing Himself to them.
2. It was night. That is the time the Infinite is best revealed to us.
3. He was sunk in a deep fear. When in health and prosperity you may frame elaborate theories to demonstrate the absurdity of prayer; but let death stare you in the face, let a heavy sorrow or bereavement overtake you, and you cannot help praying.
II. JACOB WRESTLING.
1. There was bodily wrestling on that memorable night.
2. There was mental wrestling.
3. It was a long struggle: lasting all night. Why?
(1) Jacob wanted to be set right with his brother; he is taught that he must first be set right with his God. The moral relations must be first rectified, and they cannot be rectified but on condition that the whole moral nature of the man be stirred to its depths, completly turned upside down, and the roots of sin be mortally bruised.
(2) Jacob possessed a vast, profound, capacious nature; there were in him, underlying his glaring faults, immense possibilities for good, dormant powers which required to be stimulated into activity. Now a crisis had arrived in his life. His dormant faculties were to be roused; his bias to evil was to receive a mighty check. It was a terrible conflict. He felt as if his nature was dissolving, and his whole existence becoming a shattered wreck. His sinews shrivelled under the touch of the Almighty.
III. JACOB PREVAILING. He desired a blessing. God granted his request--giving him a change of nature, an elevation of character--making him a better, truer, more sincere man. This is the chiefest blessing He can bestow. (J. C. Jones, M. A.)
Mahanaim and Penuel
1. The day and the night mutually act and react. A day of meeting with angels may well be followed by a night of wrestling with God. As you go on your way, through the toil and bustle of this life, remember the thousand eyes which watch you from heaven, and let speech and act testify that your heart is true to the sanctities and solemnities of being. So live and so move as those who know that they have come to an innumerable company of angels, and to God the Judge of all. Thus, when night comes, the veil which shuts out earth will be a glory to open heaven.
2. Lastly, earnestness is the condition of success. (Dean Vaughan.)
Certainty of retribution and possibility of reform
It strikes a great many persons with surprise that Jacob the supplanter should have been the chosen of God. The true answer to this marvel is, that God selects men for His work on earth, not on account of their personal agreeableness, but on account of their adaptation to the work that they have to perform. Now, the object in this case was to establish a nation. There was to be brought up a great seed to Abraham. They were to be established, and out of them was to issue the moral culture of the globe--as it has. Now, although Jacob was a man of many failings and of deep transgressions, yet with them he had a forecast, a shrewdness, a persevering wisdom, an organizing power, that pointed him out as the statesman. And so he was selected, not because in every respect his disposition was the best, but because he was the best instrument to execute the purpose which God had in view. The same thing is taking place continuously. God employs for His purposes instruments which are adapted to those purposes, although they may not be persons that are in harmony with Gods holiness. The crime which he committed against his brother banished him. And now he is returning to his country; and his very first act is to assume the manners of a servant, and to bow down, recognizing the chieftainship of his brother. Such transformation fear makes. And yet, in the midst of this, he is shrewd and self-possessed. Fear, and then calmness; anguish, and then again management. This fluctuation, how extremely natural it is in a moment of suspense. For of all things in this world there is nothing so painful as suspense. And here was this man kept in this fiery state, waiting to know what should be developed; wondering if he should be bereft of his household, and if his property should be swept away, wondering if his brother would be peaceable. Doubtless there were running through his mind all these possibilities. If he is, then what? And if he is not, then what? It was this fiery swinging from one side to another that was the chastisement of the Lord indeed, But now we come to the first step of that great change which passed upon Jacob at this time--for he had reached a crisis, as I shall show, in his lifes history, and in his character and disposition. See this man skulking in the shadow of his sin, and his sin breeding fear, and both of them exciting remorse in him- See how much this man had made by his wrongdoing! For he had struck at the confidence between man and man. He had undermined the very structure on which society stands. He had destroyed faith between brother and brother. It was a great crime, and greatly was he punished for it. How it takes hold of him through his wife, and through his children, and through all that he loves! And how has it been so since the beginning of the world! Hear this old patriarch saying, Deliver me, I pray thee, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau: for I fear him, lest he will come and smite me, and the mother with the children. This was a great grief. Few words were recorded; but ah! it was a great grief. After this prayer, you will see how strangely--not surprisingly, but yet strikingly--back comes his old politic spirit again. And he lodged there that same night, and took, &c. Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. What it was I do not know except that it was an angel-man--the angel of the covenant--that stood in Gods place, and was as God to him. That Jacob knew that it was a superior personage there can be no manner of doubt; but as to what this wrestling was--the whole mode of it--we know nothing. Neither here or in any subsequent Scripture, is therelight thrown upon it. He wrestled with the man until the breaking of the day. And when he--that is, the celestial personage--saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacobs thigh was out of joint as he wrestled with him. It is very plain that the patriarch understood that the crisis of his life had come. He had prayed to God, and here was the answer to his prayer; and it is very plain that he felt that on his persistent faith depended his whole safety. From this hour Jacob was another man. In the strength of this vision, and in the blessing which he received in this mysterious struggle, he advanced to meet his brother. The hand of the Lord was also on him. Strangely, I probably might say unexpectedly, to Jacob, he met him; and the old boyhood affection returned. They made friends; and they parted, one going one way after the interview, and the other going the other way. But that to which attention is more especially directed is, that from this hour Jacob is nowhere recorded as falling back upon his selfish, his politic, his managing career. From this hour out there is no trace of anything in him but largeness of mind, nobleness of purpose, and beauty of character. All the dross seems to have been purged away. He had met the crisis, and had risen, and gone through it; and he had come out a changed man. And now he was indeed a prince of God, and he was the principal founder of the nation of the Israelites. Jacob went, the civilizer, over into the promised land, and there established the economy for which he had been ordained, and lived revered, a beautiful specimen of an old man. And the last scenes of his life were transcendently beautiful. In view of this narrative, which I have conducted so far, let me say: Mens sins carry with them a punishment in this life. Different sins are differently punished. The degrees of punishment are not always according to cur estimate of the culpability. Many sins against a mans body go on in the body, reproducing their penalties from year to year, and from ten years to ten years. And the ignorant crime, or the knowing crime, committed when one is yet in his minority, may repent itself and repent its bitterness and its penalty when one is hoary with age. Mere repenting of sin does not dispossess the power of all sins. There are transgressions that throw persons out of the pale of society. There are single acts, the penalties of which never fail to reassert themselves. There are single wrongs that are never healed. This great trangression that seemed in the commission without any threat and without any danger, pursued this man through all his early life, and clear down until he was an old man, and returned from his exile. And even then he was quit of it only by one of those great critical transitions which take place, or may take place, in the life of a man, without which he would have gone on, doubtless expiating still his great wrong. And yet God bore no witness. It does not need that God should bear witness against a man that has committed a sin. A man may commit sins, and he may not himself be conscious that he is sinning; at any rate, he may not be conscious of the magnitude of his sins. A man may commit sins, and the customs of society may be so low that he shall not think that he is a great sinner. The sin does not depend upon your estimate of it, or on the estimate which your fellow-men put upon it, but upon its effect upon your constitution, and the constitution of human society. Jacob had had a good time, apparently. So far as his violation between himself and his brother and his fathers family was concerned, he had had twenty years of rest. And yet, as with all his abundance he came trooping back to the border to go over into the promised land and take possession of it, there, hovering, haunting the banks of the Jordan, was that old wrong. In that very hour when he could least afford to meet it, when he was most open to it, when all his possessions were in danger of being seized--worse than that, when all that his heart loved lay under the stroke of his adversary--that was the time that his old sin came back to meet him. And so it is yet. Mens sins find them out. And though you put as far as between Palestine and Assyria between you and them; though your sins slumber for years and years, they will have a resurrection on earth. I do not believe that any man commits in this world any sin against the fundamental laws of his body, or against the laws of human society, by which men are knit together in faith and love, and goes unpunished, even in this world. It does not touch the question of the other. This is a primary and lower and organized arrangement quite independent of Divine and arbitrary penalties in the life to come. It is not safe, therefore, for those who have choice in this matter to trifle with right or wrong. Finally, no man need ever despair of past misdoing who is in earnest. There is no man that is suffered to do wrong without check or hindrance. Ten thousand things stop men, interrupt them, throw them upon thoughtfulness. Ten thousand things oblige men to look back, to calculate; to look forward, to anticipate. And when these seasons from God come, if any man is in earnest to do better, there is no reason why he should not. The power of Gods angel, the wrestling of Gods Spirit, is not only in this far-off history of the patriarch. There is many and many a man with whom this mysterious Spirit of God wrestles; and if he be in earnest, if he will not let Gods Spirit go except He bless him; if he feels that his life is in the struggle and he will be blest of God, there is no man so bad, no man so wicked, but that he may become pure, and his flesh return to him again like the flesh of a little child--as in the case of Naaman the leper. (H. W. Beecher.)
Loneliness and communion with God
Here is--
I. SOLITARINESS OPENING AN OPPORTUNITY for a man to go face to face with God.
II. A CRISIS DISPOSING a man to go face to face with God.
III. A CONSCIOUSNESS OF SIN SENDING a man face to face with God.
IV. A SENSE OF MYSTERY PERVADING a man while he is face to face with God.
V. INTENSE REALITY CHARACTERIZING a man while he is face to face with God.
VI. RICHEST BLESSING FOLLOWING from being face to face with God.
1. Elevation of his own character.
2. Reconciliation with men. (Homilist.)
Jacob wrestling with God
I. GOD WRESTLES WITH MAN TILL HE HAS PREVAILED WITH HIM.
1. The Divine desire to bless. This is the foundation of all Gods dealings with us.
2. But before this blessing could be given, Jacobs strength must be destroyed.
3. To destroy this, God wrestles with him apparently as an enemy.
II. WE SEE THAT WHEN MAN IS THUS SUBDUED BY GOD, HE CAN PREVAIL WITH GOD. IS it not strange that the Divine Conqueror in this story should say to him who is thoroughly in His power, Let Me go, for the day breaketh? It seems strange, but it is not; there is a sense in which God is in the hands of the soul He has subdued.
1. Notice that there is no prevailing with God till the spirit of resistance is destroyed, Until we yield to Him we can receive little from Him. That may explain much unprevailing prayer; the fact is it is not prayer: true prayer says Thy will be done.
2. Then we see that we prevail with God when we only cling to Him in trustful prayer. That is the pleader that prevails. Thy covenant promises, Lord! Thy nature, which is love, and thus delights to bless! Thy mercy in Christ Jesus, which can bless the worthless; Thy fatherly relationship, which makes us trust Thy sympathy and depend on Thy resources, and which cannot cast Thy child back into the dark without a blessing!
3. Now to trustful prayer like this the delayed blessing is sure. But did God delay? We get an impression from this story (as I said) that God delays to bless and must be striven with, but did He delay, is there any sign of delay in the case of Jacob? None whatever after Jacob was subdued.
III. Then, we find that HAVING PREVAILED WITH GOD, MAN PREVAILS WITH ALL. Prevailing with God does not mean that we persuade Him to give us what we ask, but simply that we secure His blessing: He blessed Him there. That may be the gift, the deliverance, the supply we desire, but it may not; it may simply be power to endure--to endure cheerfully, enrichingly, and so as to glorify Him, but it involves that in some way we prevail over the trial. There is a great truth here. If we would prevail over our trials, we must first prevail with God; we may go to meet them bravely, but there will be no enrichment, no peace, no conquest, if that be all; we must prevail with heaven if we would conquer on earth. See how then we conquer!
1. In prevailing with God, Jacob prevailed over his own troubled heart. From that time he was a new creature with a new name, and I suppose in nothing was this change more apparent than in the tranquility which possessed him.
2. Jacob also prevailed over his dreaded foe. Esau came, the Esau that he feared, with his four hundred men. But what then? Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him. Gods blessing turns the foe into a friend. (C. New.)
Jacob wrestling
I. SOLITARY MUSINGS. Jacob was left alone. Before him was the river Jabbok. Beyond the river his wives and children. Still beyond them, on the march to Esau, were the presents he had sent. The servants full of wonder and fear for their masters sake. The wives and children anxious. Jacob once more alone, as many years before he was when passing the same spot (Gen_32:10). He would think of the past. How greatly he had been prospered. How little he had deserved. Now he feels how entirely he is in the hands of God. The disposing of his wealth is with God. It is a question whether God will own the means he has so far employed. Jacob is doubtful and perplexed. He has prayed already (Gen_32:9-12) and exhausted all his arguments. He can now only cast himself on the undeserved mercy of God. Night a good time for such reflections. David often meditated thus in the night watches. Jesus also spent His nights in meditation and prayer. In darkness and silence there is less to divert attention than in the daytime.
II. MIDNIGHT WRESTLING. Jacob thus musing, becomes aware of the presence of some mysterious person. Called a man because in human form and nature. The angel of the covenant in disguise. Jacob perceives who his companion is. Seizes this mysterious personage, and declares he will not let him go unless a blessing is granted. The angel struggles to be released, doubtless intending by thus wrestling to teach that prayer should be bold, earnest, importunate, persevering. Physical wrestling a type of wrestling in spirit. The angel prevailed not. He had put forth only sufficient strength to excite resistance and earnestness, without causing discouragement to Jacobs mind. Unable to release himself, he touches and disables Jacob. Thus weakened, Jacob still clings to the angel. Will not let him go without a blessing. Jacob conquers. His name is changed. Hitherto he had been a mere supplanter by human methods, now he shall prevail on higher principles. As a Gods fighter he shall fight Gods battles with spiritual weapons. Faith, prayer, &c.
III. MORNING SUNSHINE. The sun rose upon him as he passed over Penuel. The brightest day in his life was that in which the sun rose upon him a man blessed of God, and acknowledged to be a prevailer. With his bodily infirmity, he was a stronger man than he had ever been before. Clothed with might by His Spirit in the inner man, he was strong though weak. He felt better able to meet Esau, a lame man, than he had felt before in the pride of strength. Strength of soul the highest form of strength. Without this how weak are the strongest (illus. Samson, Goliath). Learn:
1. Select fit times and themes for profitable meditation.
2. Our affairs should be all placed in the hands of God.
3. Saying a prayer not truly praying. Wrestling importunity
4. The dark hour of earnest humble prayer is followed by sunshine in the heart. (J. C. Gray.)
Jacobs wrestling
1. Then this wrestling warned and forewarned as it were Jacob that many strugglings remained for him yet in his life to be run through and passed over, which were not to discomfort him when they happened, for as here so there he would go away with victory in the end.
2. It described out the condition not only of Jacob but of all the godly also with him, namely, that they are wrestlers by calling while they live here, and have many and divers things to struggle withal and against; some outward, some inward, some carnal, some spiritual, some of one condition, some of another, which all, yet through God they shall overcome and have a joyful victory over in conclusion, if with patience they pass on and by faith lay hold upon Him ever in whom they only can vanquish, Christ Jesus.
3. It discovered the strength whereby Jacob both had and should overcome ever in his wrestlings, even by Gods upholding with the one hand when He assaileth with the other, and not otherwise; which is another thing also of great profit to be noted of us, that not by any power of our own we are able to stand, and yet by Him and through Him conquerors and more than conquerors.
4. It is said that God saw how He could not prevail against Jacob, which noteth not so much strength in Jacob as mercy in God, ever kind and full of mercy. Lastly, that Jacob saith, He will not let Him go except He bless him. It teacheth us to be strong in the Lord whensoever we are tried, and even so hearty and comfortable that we as it were compel the Lord to bless us ere He go, that is, by His merciful sweetness to comfort our hearts and to make us more and more confirmed in all virtue and obedience towards Him, yielding us our prayer as far as it may any way stand with the same; which force and violence as it were offered on our parts to the Lord He highly esteemeth and richly rewardeth evermore. (Bp. Babington.)
Saints wrestling for the blessing
The way to get the blessing is to go to the Lord for it, resolved not to take a denial, nor to part with Him even till we get it. In prosecuting this doctrine, I shall--
1. Open up this way of getting the blessing.
2. I will show what it is that makes some souls so peremptory and resolute for the blessing, while others slight it.
3. I will show that this is the true way to obtain the blessing, and that they who take this way will come speed. I am, then--
I. To OPEN UP THIS WAY TO OBTAIN THE BLESSING, WHICH YOU MAY TAKE UP IN THESE PARTICULARS. If we would have the blessing, then--
1. We must have a lively sense of our need of it.
2. We must by faith lay hold on Christ the storehouse of blessings for it. God blesses us with all spiritual blessings in Christ.
3. We must by fervent prayer wrestle with Him for it. How did Jacob obtain it? Yea, he had power over the angel, and prevailed; he wept and made supplication unto Him.
4. We must by believing the promise, keep a sure hold of the blessed Redeemer. He had said to Jacob, I will surely do thee good, and make thy seed as the sand of the sea which cannot be numbered. And we find Jacob reminding Him of this promise (Gen_32:12). Now what way can we hold Him and not let Him go, but holding Him by His Word? They who hold Him by His Word, they have sure hold.
5. We must by hope wait for the blessing. Wait on the Lord; be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart: wait I say on the Lord.
6. We must leave no means untried to procure it.
7. No discouragements must cause us to faint.
8. If at any time we fall, we must resolutely recover and renew the struggle.
9. We must resolve never to give over till we get it, and so hold on. I will not let Thee go, except Thou bless me. This is the resolute struggle, this is the way to the blessing.
Motives to urge you to this way--
1. Consider the worth of the blessing. Whatever pains, and struggles, and on-waiting it may cost, it will far more than repay the expense of all. Gods blessing is Gods good word to the soul, but it is big with Gods grace and good deeds to the man that gets it; and that is enough to make one happy for ever.
2. Consider the need you have of it. You are by nature under the curse, and unless you get the blessing, you must for ever be under the curse.
3. If you will not be at this pains for it, you will be reckoned despisers of the blessing; and that is most dangerous, and will bring on most bitter vengeance. And you will see the day you would do anything for it when you cannot get it.
4. If you will take this way you will get the blessing.
II. To SHOW WHAT IT IS THAT MAKES SOME SOULS PEREMPTORY AND RESOLUTE FOR THE BLESSING, WHILE OTHERS SLIGHT IT.
1. Felt need engageth the soul to this course.
2. Superlative love to and esteem of Christ engageth them to this.
3. Without the blessing all is tasteless and unsatisfactory to them.
4. They see not how to set out their face in an ill world without it. They say with Moses, If Thy presence go not with us, carry us not up hence.
5. They see not how to face another world without it.
III. THAT THIS IS THE TRUE WAY TO OBTAIN THE BLESSING, AND THAT THEY WHO MAKE THIS WAY WILL COME SPEED. And He blessed him there. Such as come to Christ for the blessing, they shall get it, if they hold on resolutely and will not be said nay.
1. We have many certain instances and examples of those who have obtained the blessing this way. Jacob in the text. The spouse (Son_3:1-11). The woman of Canaan (Mat_15:22 and downwards; see also Lam_3:40-50 and downwards). Would you know how to get the blessing? There is a patent way, behold the footsteps of the flock, not the footsteps of lifeless formal professors, who cannot go off their own pace for all the blessings of the covenant; but the footsteps of wrestling saints, who were resolved to have the blessing cost what it would
2. We have Gods word or promise for it. For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall hath abundance.
3. It is the Lords ordinary way to bring great things from small beginnings by degrees.
4. Consider the bountiful nature of God, who will not always flee from them that follow Him, nor offer to go away from them that will not let Him go, except He bless them.
5. None coming to Christ for the blessing ever got a refusal, but they that court it by their own indifference.
6. Our Lord allows and encourages His people to use a holy freedom and familiarity with Him, yea a holy importunity, as He teaches us (Luk_11:8-9).
7. As importunity is usually in all cases the way to succeed, so it has special advantages in this case, which promise success.
(1) Our Lord does not free Himself of such as thus hold Him, and is not this promising?
(2) Nay, our Lord commands them to keep the hold which they have gotten. Strive, says He, to enter in at the strait gate. And is not this promising?
Use 1. This lets us see why many fall short of the blessing. They have some motions of heart towards it, and if it would fall down in their bosom with ease, they would be very glad of it. They knock at Gods door for it, and if He would open at the first or second call, they would be content, but they have no heart to hang on about it, and so they even let Him go without the blessing.
Use 2. I exhort you all to hold on. You that have received a blessing, wait on resolutely for more. And you that are going away mourning, take up with no comfort till you get it from Himself; and be resolute that you shall never let Him go till He bless you. (T. Boston, D. D.)
Gods revelation to Jacob
1. It does not appear to be a vision, but a literal transaction. A personage, in the form of a man, really wrestled with him and permitted him prevail so far as to gain his object.
2. Though the form of the struggle was corporeal, yet the essence and object of it were spiritual. An inspired commentator on this wrestling says, He wept and made supplication to the angel. That for which he strove was a blessing, and he obtained it.
3. The personage with whom he strove is here called a man, and yet in seeing Him, Jacob said, I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved. Hosea, in reference to his being a messenger of God to Jacob, calls him the angel: yet he also describes the patriarch as having power with God. Upon the whole, there can be no doubt but that it was the same Divine personage who appeared to him at Bethel and at Padan-aram, who, being in the form of God, again thought it no usurpation appear as God.
4. What is here recorded had relation to Jacobs distress, and may be considered as an answer to his evening supplications. By his power with God he had power with men: Esau and his hostile company were conquered at Penuel.
5. The change of his name from Jacob to Israel and the blessings which followed signified that he was no longer to be regarded as having obtained it by supplanting his brother, but as a prince of God, who had wrestled with Him for it and prevailed. It was thus that the Lord pardoned his sin and wiped away his reproach. It is observable, too, that this is the name by which his posterity are afterwards called. Finally, the whole transaction furnishes an instance of believing, importunate, and successful prayer. (A. Fuller.)
Gods interpositions
Sometimes God interposes between us and a greatly-desired possession which we have been counting upon as our right and as the fair and natural consequence of our past efforts and ways. The expectation of this possession has indeed determined our movements and shaped our life for some time past, and it would not only be assigned to us by men as fairly ours, but God also has Himself seemed to encourage us to win it. Yet when it is now within sight, and when we are rising to pass the little stream which seems alone to separate us from it, we are arrested by a strong, an irresistible hand. The reason is that God wishes us to be in such a state of mind that we shall receive it as His gift, so that it becomes ours by an indefeasible title. Similarly, when advancing to a spiritual possession, such checks are not without their use. Many men look with longing to, what is eternal and spiritual, and they resolve to win this inheritance. And this resolve they often make as if its accomplishment depended solely on their own endurance. They leave almost wholly out of account that the possibility of their entering the state they long for is not decided by their readiness to pass through any ordeal, spiritual or physical, which may be required of them, but by Gods willingness to give it. They act as if by taking advantage of Gods promises, and by passing through certain states of mind and prescribed duties, they could, irrespective of Gods present attitude towards them and constant love, win eternal happiness. In the life of such persons there must therefore come a time when their own spiritual energy seems all to collapse in that painful, utter way in which, when the body is exhausted, the muscles are suddenly found to be cramped and heavy and no longer responsive to the will. They are made to feel that a spiritual dislocation has taken place, and that their eagerness to enter life everlasting no longer stirs the active energies of the soul. In that hour the man learns the most valuable truth he can learn, that it is God who is wishing to save him, not he who must wrest a blessing from an unwilling God. Instead of any longer looking on himself as against the world, he takes his place as one who has the whole energy of Gods will at his back, to give him rightful entrance into all blessedness. (M. Dods, D. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v24 Gen_32:24. Wrestled.] The Heb. word only occurs in this…
CRITICAL NOTES.—
Gen_32:24. Wrestled.] The Heb. word only occurs in this place. It seems to be derived from a word signifying “dust,” and the allusion is probably to the dust excited by the combatants in wrestling. A man. In Hos_12:4-5, the man who wrestled with Jacob is called the angel, and the Lord of Hosts. In Gen_32:30, Jacob calls him God.
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Gen_32:25. The hollow of his thigh.] “Lit., the socket of the hip. It is not said that he struck it a blow (Knobel) (for it is God who is spoken of); needs but to touch its object, and the full result is secured.” (Lange). And the hollow of Jacob’s thigh was out of joint. “This is explained more fully in Gen_32:32. The sinews of his thigh (nervus ischradicus) were paralyzed through the extreme tension and distortion. But this bodily paralysis does not paralyze the persevering Jacob.” (Lange).
Gen_32:28. Israel.] Signifies, “princely prevailer with God.” One part of the word signifies the same as the name Sarah, “princess.” Such names in Scripture designate the character, rather than the common appellation of those to whom they are applied. (Isa_9:6; Isa_7:14). See also what our Lord says to His disciples, (St. Joh_15:15). As a prince hast thou power with God. The same word occurs in Hos_12:4; “He had power with God”; where the Heb. has, “he was a prince with God.”
Gen_32:30. Peniel.] Heb. “face of God,” called also Penuel, in Gen_32:31. But the two words have precisely the same import.
Gen_32:32. Therefore the children of Israel eat not of the sinew which shrank.] This custom is not mentioned elsewhere in the O.T., but the Jews rigidly observe it unto this day. Delitzsch says, “This exemption exists still, but since the ancients did not distinguish clearly between muscle, vein, and nerve, the sinew is now generally understood, i.e., the interior cord and nerve of the so-called hind-quarter, including the exterior also, and the ramifications of both.”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Gen_32:24-32
JACOB WRESTLING WITH THE ANGEL
Consider this incident:—
I. As to its outward form. Jacob had sent his company on before, and is now left all alone. He entrusts his all to God on whom he had cast himself in prayer. A strange and mysterious being, having at first the form of a man, wrestles with him “until the breaking of the day.” (Gen_32:24). When this “man” saw that he prevailed not, he touched the hollow of Jacob’s thigh and put it out of joint. He confesses himself vanquished, and says, “let me go, for the day breaketh,” (Gen_32:26) when Jacob replies “I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.” Jacob’s unknown combatant asks his name, when he changes that name in commemoration of Jacob’s power with God, and prevailing with men. Jacob then turns towards his unknown antagonist and asks what is his name. He blesses Jacob, but refuses to tell his name. (Gen_32:29.) This mysterious being is, at first called a “man,” then an “angel,” and then “God.” When the conquest is over Jacob declares, “I have seen God face to face.” (Gen_32:30). We cannot take this incident as a dream, but must regard it as history. For it is stated as a fact that the sinew of Jacob’s thigh shrank (Gen_32:32). The features of this incident are true to all what we know of Jacob’s character. He had been a taker of the heel from his very birth. He had contended successfully with adversaries. True to his character, he struggles with this mysterious combatant while any strength remains. And even when his strength is suddenly withered, he hangs upon his conquerer. He learns to depend upon one mightier than himself.
II. As to its spiritual meaning. This transaction is clearly intended to have a spiritual meaning. If the outward form of it seems strange to us, we must consider that God can adapt the mode in which He shall convey His revelation to the condition of the person receiving it. When God has things of a spiritual nature to reveal, it is not strange that He should begin with the senses. God takes man on the ground on which He finds him, and through the senses leads him to the higher things of reason, of conscience, of faith, and of communion with Himself. These are some of the spiritual truths and lessons to be learned from this incident:—
1. That the great struggle of life is to know and feel after God. We know that we are in the hands of some mysterious and mighty Power. We want to know the secret of that Power, and who is that mysterious Being behind it all. Truly to know God’s name is to know the meaning of it, and not merely the ability to recite words. With the Hebrews of the old time, names stood for realities. To know God’s name was to know His nature. This is our great struggle—our deepest desire. Jacob now stood in dread of his brother Esau, but says not a word regarding his danger. He requests only to be blest by God, and to know His nature. We, too, feel that this universe reposes upon a solemn mystery, and we ask, what is that Name above every name; who is that Being in whom all things have their beginning, and seek their end? Are all our aspirations after God and immortality, only the echo of our own minds and wishes; or, are they some living being outside of us?
2. That God reveals Himself through mystery and awe. The Divine antagonist seemed anxious to depart before the dawn, but Jacob held him, as if in fear, lest the daylight should rob him of the blessing. The darkness of the night was the favourable time. The light of day might dissolve the charm. God is felt more in awe and wonder than in clear conceptions. We feel God most when some dark mystery presses upon us. Darkness shows us more of God than the light. The infinite grandeur of heaven strikes us more by night than by day.
3. That God reveals Himself to us in blessing. God refused to tell Jacob His Name, but “He blessed him there.” This is the chief thing we want. Through blessing imparted to us we shall learn all of that great Name that we can possibly know. If we depend only on words, we may come to mistake them for knowledge. Jacob had to learn and to feel after God by the experience of His goodness, and not merely to satisfy himself with a name. Words would only have limited and circumscribed the Infinite.
4. That God’s revelation of Himself to us is intended to change our character. The name of Jacob was changed to that of Israel. He is no more supplanter (Jacob), but prevailer with God (Israel). He had now put off the old man, and put on the new man; and this change in his character is signified by a new name. He now walks in “newness of life.” Twenty years before this, God had appeared to him and Heaven was opened to him in forgiveness and blessing. But all through and since this the essential principles of his character were not altered. There was still something subtle in him, deep cunning and craft,—a lack of reality. Jacob was tender and devout after his manner; but he was still the subtle supplanter, and only half honest. But now that he is overcome by the awful God, his subtlety departs from him. He becomes real and true. When God lays hold upon us, it is for the purpose of removing us from the old life to the new.
4. That God is conquered by prayer and supplication. “When He saw that He prevailed not against him.” (Gen_32:25.) Here is the strange spectacle of Omnipotence unable to vanquish “the worm, Jacob.” But the strength by which Jacob wrestled was not the strength of bone and muscle, and the angel’s inability was nothing but the inability to withstand the power of faith in His own promises. The strength by which he prevailed was God’s own strength. Every true Israelite pleads the promises of God with an importunity that will take no denial, and God is pleased to suffer Himself to be thus overcome. God’s contest with us is friendly.
THE FEATURES OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF REVEALED FAITH IN JACOB’S WRESTLING
1. The germ of the incarnation. Godhead and humanity wrestling with each other; the Godhead in the form of a man.
2. The germ of the atonement. Sacrifice of the human will.
3. The germ of justification by faith. “I will not let thee go,” etc.
4. The germ of the new-birth. Jacob, Israel.
5. The germ of the principle of love to one’s enemies. The reconciliation with God, reconciliation with the world.—(Lange).
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Gen_32:24. This strife was not only corporeal but spiritual; as well by the force of his faith as strength of body. “He prevailed” by prayers and tears. (Hos_12:4.) Our Saviour also prayed Himself into “an agony,” (Luk_22:44.) and we are bidden to “strive in prayer,” even to an agony. (Rom_15:30.) Every sound is not music; so neither is every uttering petitions to God a prayer. It is not the labour of the lips, but the travail of the heart. A man must wrestle with God, and wring the blessing out of His hands, as the woman of Canaan did. He must “stir up himself to take hold of God.” (Isa_64:7.)—(Trapp.)
Gen_32:25. But what a wonder is this? Jacob received not so much hurt from all his enemies as from his best friend. Not one of his hairs perished by Laban or Esau, yet he lost a joint by the angel, and was sent halting to his grave. He that knows our strength, yet will wrestle with us for our exercise, and loves our violence and importunity.—(Bp. Hall.)
This was the turning point in Jacob’s life. Henceforth he will put less dependence on the flesh, and fleshly means, and more upon God his deliverer. He prevailed, indeed, but bore about in his body the marks of the struggle, and succeeded only by prayer and faith. The thigh is the pillar of a man’s strength, and the hip-joint is the seat of physical force for him who would stand his ground as a wrestler.—(Jacobus.)
In all the gains of godliness there is yet something inflicted to keep us humble.
Gen_32:26. Jacob conquers at the moment his physical strength is crippled. (2Co_12:10.) The All-powerful cannot go without Jacob’s leave. And Jacob will not let Him go except He bless him. What loving condescension of the covenant God, binding Himself to the sinner! “I will not leave thee nor forsake thee.” (Heb_13:5.) “Concerning the work of my hands command ye me.” What power of faith to hold on, and not to let go the Covenant Angel without a blessing!—(Jacobus.)
This teaches us as our Saviour did, by the parable of the importunate widow (Luk_18:1), to persevere in prayer, and to devour all discouragements. Jacob holds with his hands, when his joints were out of joint. The woman of Canaan will not be put off, either with silence or sad answers.—(Trapp.)
The highest heroism of faith shines forth in these words. Doubtless the power of Jacob’s antagonist was sufficient to have freed himself from this death-like embrace. But His omnipotence was limited in its operation by his promise to his servant “to do him good.” Nor did He really desire that Jacob should free him from the obligation to do him good. He rather aimed to have the pleasure of seeing how firm, by His grace, are the hearts of His children, even when many waters of affliction go over them, and how the seed of God remains in them. God Himself is the author of this constancy, and hence it is that it is so pleasing in His sight; for He takes pleasure in all His works.—(Bush.)
Gen_32:27. The mention of his name not only reminded him of his predicted ascendancy over Esau, but also of all the rich blessings and prerogatives of the covenant established with his fathers. And what could more tend to cheer and encourage him on this occasion than such refreshing recollections? Yet the ensuing words disclose a still deeper drift in the question.
Gen_32:28. The new name is indicative of the new nature which has now come to its perfection of development in Jacob. Unlike Abraham, who received his new name once for all, and was never afterwards called by the former one, Jacob will hence be called now by the one, and now by the other, as the occasion may serve. For he was called from the womb. (Gen_25:23), and both names have a spiritual significance for two different aspects of the child of God, according to the apostles’ paradox, “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God that worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.” (Php_2:12-13.)—(Murphy).
Proper names in scripture are frequently used to designate the character rather than the common appellation of those to whom they are applied. Thus it was predicted of Christ that “His name should be called Wonderful, Immanuel,” etc. (Isa_9:6; Isa_7:14), the meaning of which is, that His nature should be wonderful, should be Immanuel, etc. So our Lord says to His disciples, “I have called you friends” (Joh_15:15), i.e., I declare you to be friends. Jacob should now be declared to be possessed of a new character by the significant designation assigned him. In allusion to his “power with God,” the Most High says by His prophet, “I said not to the seed of Jacob, seek ye me in vain.” (Isa_45:19.) The seed of Jacob is specified rather than the seed of Abraham, from this eminent instance of Jacob’s praying and prevailing in a season of extremity, and thus carrying an implication that his “seed” would inherit their father’s spirit in this respect.—(Bush.)
No longer Jacob the supplanter, but Israel the Prince of God—the champion of the Lord, who had fought with God and conquered; and who, henceforth, will fight for God and be His true loyal soldier; a larger and more unselfish man—honest and true at last. No man becomes honest till he has got face to face with God. There is a certain insincerity about us all—a something dramatic. One of those dreadful moments which throw us upon ourselves, and strip off the hollowness of our outside show, must come before the insincere is true.—(Robertson.)
All God’s Israel are wrestlers by calling. (Eph_6:12.) As “good soldiers of Jesus Christ,” they must “suffer hardness.” (2Ti_2:3.) The Lord Christ stands over us as He did over Stephen (Act_7:53), with a crown upon His head and another in His hand, with this inscription, “To him that overcometh.” (Revelation 2, 3)—(Trapp.)
Gen_32:29. Names have a power, a strange power of hiding God. Speech has been bitterly defined as the art of hiding thought. That sarcastic definition has in it a truth. The Eternal word is the revealer of God’s thought; and every true word of man is originally the expression of a thought; but by degrees the word hides the thought. Words often hide from us our ignorance of even earthly truth. The child asks for information, and we satiate his curiosity with words. Who does not know how we satisfy ourselves with the name of some strange bird or plant, or the name of some new law in nature? We get the name, and fancy we understand something more than we did before; but, in truth, we are more hopelessly ignorant. We fancy we possess it, because we have got the name by which it is known; and the word covers over the abyss of our ignorance. If Jacob had got a word, that word might have satisfied him. He would have said, now I understand God, and know all about Him. God’s plan was not to give names and words, but truths of feeling. That night, in that strange scene, He impressed on Jacob’s soul a religious awe, which was hereafter to develop,—not a set of formal expressions, which would have satisfied with husks the cravings of the intellect, and shut up the soul:—Jacob felt the Infinite, who is more truly felt when least named. Words would have reduced that to the Finite; for, oh! to know all about God is one thing—to know the living God is another.—(Robertson).
Gen_32:30. Bethel, Mahanaim, Peniel, divine stations in the journey of the pilgrim of faith.—(Lange).
To see God face to face and live is the marvel of human experience.—(Jacobus).
The Christian also has his memorable places: Bethlehem, Capernaum, Jerusalem, Calvary, and the Mount of Olives, are among them. Every Christian has his particular Peniel, in which God revealed himself to him in an especial manner—his closet, the sanctuary, a book, a sermon, a company, a solitary hour, which continue consecrated in his grateful memory.—(Bush).
His words are equivalent to the declaration, “I am preserved, and shall be preserved.” Here, then, is the echo of faith, “Although new tribulations may befall me, according to the will of God, yet I shall be preserved, and He will at length deliver me from all evil. Of this I am assured, for I know in whom I have believed.” His subsequent history shows that his confidence was well founded.—(Bush.)
Gen_32:31. Nature without was in harmony with the new feelings awakened within his soul. The Sun of Righteousness, the day-spring from on high, had risen upon him. He went lame, but he was blessed. While he rejoices in the exceeding mercy of God, he is, at the same time, reminded of his own nothingness and humbled.
The wrenching of the tendons and muscles was mercifully healed, yet so as to leave a permanent monument in Jacob’s halting gait, that God had overcome his self-will.—(Murphy).
Gen_32:32. This story contains three points which are specially interesting to every Jew in a national point of view. It explained to him why he was called an Israelite. It traces the origin of his own name to a distant ancestor, who had been a wrestler with God, from whence he had obtained the name Israel. It casts much deep and curious interest round an otherwise insignificant village, Peniel, where this transaction had taken place, and which derived its name from it—Peniel, the face of God. And, besides, it explained the origin of a singular custom, which might seem a superstitious one, of not suffering a particular muscle to be eaten, and regarding it with a kind of religious awe, as the part in which Jacob is said by tradition to have been injured, by the earnest tension of his frame during the struggle.—(Robertson.)
The preceding narrative teaches us,
1. That great trials often befall the people of God when in the way of commanded duty.
2. The surest way of prevailing with man is to prevail with God.
3. Prevailing at last will recompense all our striving.—(Bush.)
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On vv24, 28 and there wrestled
and there wrestled
Jacob’s crisis. Cf. Jos 5:13-15; Job 42:5; Job 42:6; Isa 6:1-8; Jer 1:4-9; Eze 1:28; Eze 2:1-7; Dan 10:1-12; Act 9:1-6; Rev 1:13-18.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v24 The Struggle at Peniel
The Struggle at Peniel
v. 24. And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day, until the morning dawned and its brightness arose in the eastern sky. Jacob, having crossed first with his family, returned and sent over his herds in charge of the servants, while he himself remained on the north side of the brook. Suddenly there came upon him a nameless man, and the two engaged in a fierce wrestling-match.
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v. 25. And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, when the unknown man found that he could not overcome the determined resistance of Jacob, he touched the hollow of his thigh, the socket of the hip-joint. And the hollow of Jacob’s thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him. His hip was sprained or paralyzed in consequence of the twisting in the struggle and the touch of the unknown man.
v. 26. And he said, Let Me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let Thee go, except Thou bless me. In spite of the sprained hip Jacob persevered in his struggle with the man, of whose identity he became surer every moment. It was the Lord Himself, in human form, who here assumed the role of an antagonist to Jacob, and for that reason Jacob insisted upon having His blessing before permitting Him to depart.
v. 27. And he said unto him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob.
v. 28. And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel; for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed. From the position of a mere Jacob, holder of the heel, in which capacity he had overcome his brother Esau, he was here advanced to that of Israel, God-wrestler, the captain, or prince, of God, because he had prevailed as a prince in his struggle with the Lord. Cf Hos 12:4-5.
v. 29. And Jacob asked Him and said, Tell me, I pray Thee, Thy name. And he said, Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name? Cf Jdg 13:18. It is not for sinful man to know every name of the great Lord of heaven; besides, the Lord had already indicated His name. And he blessed him there. The Lord formally repeated the patriarchal blessing, Gen 28:13-15, with its Messianic promise.
v. 30. And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel (face of God); for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved. So it was not only a bodily struggle, but a spiritual wrestling as well which Jacob was obliged to endure. But he stood the test, he persevered until he had received the Lord’s blessing, until he saw the face of God turned to him in mercy, until his soul was healed of all its fear and terror.
v. 31. And as he passed over Penuel, the sun rose upon him, and he halted upon his thigh. Just as he passed over and away from the place of the night’s wrestling, the sun rose upon him, and with its rising the courage which now possessed his heart sent him forth cheerfully to meet his brother Esau. He had probably taken little notice of his injury in the course of the struggle, but now the sprain caused him to wince and to walk lame.
v. 32. Therefore the children of Israel eat not of the sinew which shrank, which is upon the hollow of the thigh, unto this day; because he touched the hollow of Jacob’s thigh in the sinew that shrank. Thus even in later years the Israelites commemorated the wonderful struggle of their ancestor in setting aside this part of the hip of animals as consecrated to the Lord. Special revelations of God’s goodness and mercy deserve to be commemorated through the ages by those who have received the benefits following from such visitations.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv24, 27, 29 until daybreak
until daybreak
"until dawn"
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Jacob's hip was dislocated as he wrestled with him
This can be stated in active form. AT: "The man injured Jacob's hip as he wrestled with him" (See: Active or Passive)
hip
the place where the upper leg bone connects to the hip
for the dawn is breaking
"the sun will rise soon"
bless
Here "bless" means to pronounce a formal blessing on someone and to cause good things to happen to that person.
I will not let you go unless you bless me
This can be stated in positive form. AT: "Absolutely not! You must bless me first, then I will let you go" (See: Double Negatives)
translationWords
bless
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv24–30 32:24 a man came: The narrative unfolds as the…
32:24 a man came: The narrative unfolds as the event did for Jacob. No details are given about the assailant, who later refused to identify himself (32:29). • until the dawn: The darkness fit Jacob’s situation and increased the fear and uncertainty that seized him. In the darkness he had no idea who it was—it might have been one of Esau’s men, or Laban’s.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.