Genesis 32:1-2
Laban went one way, Jacob the other. They had made a covenant; some refer to it as a covenant of peace, but that's probably a stretch. It was more like a covenant not to kill each other as long as the separation was maintained. Jacob found himself at another turning point in life. He had Leah and Rachel and his children with him and they were going back to his homeland. This was the beginning of a new life for them. For Jacob it is going back to face those he had hurt and deceived. Facing Esau wouldn't be easy. He had to wonder if time had cooled his murderous rage, or had it sharpened it?
As Jacob restarted his journey, the angels of God met up with him. Yet, we wonder if they weren't there all along. Jacob had dreamed of God's messenger coming and going on the ladder, or stairway to heaven. These were messengers of God so Jacob called the camp the camp of God. Mahanaim means 'two camps'. It's not entirely clear what two camps he's referring to, probably his camp and the camp of heavenly angels camped all around him. It seems only a few get to experience something like this. Jacob saw the angels as he left the Promised Land (Gen 28:12) and he saw them again here. These are the only two places this specific phrase 'angels of God' is used.
Maybe more of us experience angels than we realize. Maybe we just don't realize or consider what's happening all around us. See Heb 13:2; 2 Kings 6:15-17.
Note: In Billy Graham's book; Angels, God's Secret Agents we see the story of John Paton, a missionary to the New Hebrides Islands. He told how hostile natives surrounded his mission's headquarters one night. They were going to burn the Patons out and kill them. John and his wife prayed all night and in the morning they found that their attackers had left. About a year later, the chief of the tribe became a Christian, and Paton asked the man about that night. The chief asked Paton, "Who were all those men you had with you there?" John told him it was only he and his wife alone. The chief insisted there had been hundreds of big men with shining garments and swords circling the mission headquarters. The natives were afraid to attack.
Genesis 32:3-5
In spite of seeing the angels camped around, the nearness of Esau weighed on him. The uncertainty had to have worked on his mind. We often take the unknown fear and make it ten times worse in our mind. We fill ourselves with fear, rage and retribution because we convince our self the worst is about to happen.
Jacob sent messengers to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, this is the country of Edom, south of the Dead Sea. The messengers let Esau know that Jacob was well and that he was well off. Letting Esau know of the livestock is like flashing a roll of 100-dollar bills around. He wanted Esau to know he was well off and had something significant to offer. To let him know he was not alone, that there were servants with him, was to inform him a confrontation wouldn't be one on one. Then he called him 'my lord'; humbling himself, submitting to him, to find favor and forgiveness with him.
- Forgiveness starts with you.
- Twenty years of dragging that baggage around will damage your walk with God, your testimony and your grace.
Genesis 32:6-8
The messengers come back and told Jacob that Esau was coming to meet him with 400 men, a group the normal size of a militia. Jacob was caught off guard. He didn't expect this. Was Esau coming to kill him? Would he still be bitter from twenty years ago? Jacob responded in fear and distress. Emotions kicked in, his mind worked overtime. He divided his tribe and livestock in half with hopes one part would live to run should the other get attacked. This is a man who possessed the promises of God. Those promises seemed far away and forgotten. The angels were a distant memory. Fight or flight has kicked in.
- Fear is a liar.
- Your sinful nature will convince you there could be nothing worse than having your pride wounded, by being one-upped by someone you are at odds with.
Genesis 32:9-12
As Jacob waited for Esau, he was probably wondering what else he could do to defend himself. Was there something he should do? Did it suddenly occur to him that maybe talking about this to God might be a worthwhile endeavor?
Jacob turned to the Lord in prayer because of his fear. He reminded God of the promises He made and looked to Him to be faithful to those promises and deliver him from that which he feared. He humbled himself, acknowledging he wasn't worthy of the mercies and truth the Lord had shown him. Jacob acknowledged that he crossed over the Jordon with nothing but his staff and now he returned with two companies of family, servants and livestock. He knew it was all from the Lord. Now he asked that God deliver him from Esau. He was afraid. As he reminded God of His promise, he also reminded himself. He realized God the fear he felt was in opposition to the faithfulness of God. They couldn't both play out.
Genesis 32:13-21
This gives us some idea of just how rich Jacob really was. This was just what he was willing to give away as tribute to Esau. Jacob took the 550 animals and gave them to his servants. He asked them to go ahead of him and present the gifts of the animals to his brother one drove at a time. Each one would give their drove and announce that they were a gift from Jacob and that he was following. The space was to make sure it came to him as gift after gift, as to overwhelm him rather than one big gift. This was Jacob's plan to appease his brother and maybe be accepted by him. This appears to be Jacob's plan and not God's plan. Jacob was driven by fear and the dread of confronting his brother. By deceit, he had assigned his brother life-altering circumstances.
36 Esau said, "Isn't he rightly named Jacob? This is the second time he has taken advantage of me: He took my birthright, and now he's taken my blessing!" (Gen 27:36)
Genesis 32:22-26
As usual, Jacob did the planning and plotting to present gifts to his brother. Most of his life had been this way; maneuver and manipulate, connive and conspire to get the outcome he desired. In doing so he had separated himself from his father and mother. He would never see her again. His brother wanted to kill him. War had nearly broken out with his uncle. This was the pattern of Jacob's life. Yet, from birth, he was determined by God to be the one who would carry the promise forward; the one from who He would build a nation. It seems Jacob had been fighting against God for some time. But I wonder if Jacob wasn't just tired from it all. He is around 97 years old and maybe he was worn out from all the plotting.
Jacob sent his wives, servants, sons and all he had across the Jabbok, toward the Jordan and the Promised Land, he was by himself on the east side of the Jabbok where Esau would approach from. This was a dangerous place to be if he feared attack from Esau. This was the 'dark night of the soul' for Jacob. All his life, all his best brought him to this point of fearing for his life from his brother. He was surrounded by damaged relationships. He had many blessings, rich beyond belief, but it did nothing for him, it couldn't make him happy.
The 'Man' who wrestled with Jacob could have won at any moment in time. This divine being was 'man' only in form. He came to know this was God that he wrestled with, a pre-incarnate appearance of Jesus Christ. What kind of wrestling was this? The Hebrew word translated to wrestle only appears twice in the passage. There's an interesting wordplay in the original language:
- Jacob is ya'aqo?
- Jabbok is yabboq
- He wrestled is ye'a?eq
The man,'ya'aqo?' at 'yabboq' 'ye'a?eq' with God.
Why in the world would a man do this? Did Jacob really think he could maintain control of a divine being? Was this real physical wrestling, or more of a spiritual struggle with physical manifestation (wrenching of his hip). If it was physical, Christ humbled himself, kept his power in check, dealing gently with Jacob to allow him to work this out. Jacob had been wrestling with God his entire life. He wrestled to possess the promises but to hold onto his own pride, self-will and identity. He didn't want to give it up to the Lord. None of us do. Christ would wrestle with Jacob, but would not overpower him, not force Himself on Jacob. He experienced the true power of the one he wrestled with when He touched his hip. Did Jacob really believe he was getting the best of the Lord? The Lord ended the wrestling with a touch. Jacob knew he was wrestling more than a man. He requested a blessing from the same One who spoke the promises into his life. Jacob stating his name was a sort of confession to his nature. He truly was the heal catcher. He wasn't in control of God; it was the other way around. His rebellion and struggling with God and man had brought him to this brokenness. Clinging to God was all he had left. He was desperate for the Lord. The Lord took away that old name and gave him a new name and a new nature. The Lord blessed him. Jacob's name was changed from 'deceiver' to Israel, meaning 'he struggles with God'.
J. I. Packer explains: "The nature of Jacob's 'prevailing' with God was simply that he held on to God while God weakened him, and wrought in him the spirit of submission and self-distrust; that he had desired God's blessing so much that he clung to God through all this painful humbling, till he came low enough for God to raise him up by speaking peace to him and assuring him that he need not fear.[1]
Jacob prevailed in that he had persevered to come to the point where he yielded to God. To prevail with God is to survive your own stubbornness until you yield to him. It had been a long journey to arrive where he was right now. But each step of the way was a path leading to the next step.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away.
(2 Corinthians 5:17)
When we first come to knowledge of the Lord, we all seem to experiment with trying to follow God and hold onto all our old baggage. We can't truly follow Him while we follow our own selfish desires driven by the flesh. We have to let go.
3 In the womb he grasped his brother's heel;
as a man he struggled with God.
4 He struggled with the angel and overcame him;
he wept and begged for his favor.
He found him at Bethel
and talked with him there—
5 the Lord God Almighty,
the Lord is his name! (Hosea 12:3-5)
- We're all wrestling with God and man.
- You can't win, till you are weak and He is strong.
- Till you yield to Him.
Genesis 32:29
What was his name? Yahweh? Jehovah? Yeshuah? I AM? Did Jacob not know what to call his God? The cultural thought was that a person needed that name to be able to use it again. To possess the name of the god was to give one power, in some cases they thought it brought them magical powers. Jacob was asking for the wrong reason. Jacob asked questions like this but Israel would not. The Lord didn't give Jacob an answer.
Genesis 32:30-32
Peniel means 'face of God'. Jacob had an encounter with the living God and survived it. It appears that he had died to 'self' and received a new identity from God.
We know we are purchased with the blood of Jesus. When we deny ourselves and receive a new identity in Christ we begin a new walk. That walk doesn't always go well. We struggle with our flesh and sinful nature. But we have the Lord to fight our battles and stand by us if we choose to hold onto that faith. Jacob will walk with the Lord but he will also struggle and strive to stay on the right path. He had a limp to remind him of that day.
At the time Moses wrote this, the Israelites didn't eat this muscle and part of the hip of any animal. This served as a reminder that the Lord touched this and it had become sacred to them.
©2019 Doug Ford
[1] Hughes, R. K. (2004). Genesis: beginning and blessing (pp. 403–408). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books.
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