Or, Jacob Wrestles with God
Scripture: Genesis 32:1-32
Date: November 27, 2016
Speaker: Sean Higgins
Moses used only four chapters to cover two decades. Jacob left home in chapter 28 to escape from Esau. He met and married into Laban’s family in chapter 29, started having children at the end of chapter 29 and into the first part of chapter 30, grew his own flock in the last part of chapter 30, and absconded with all he’d acquired in chapter 31. The LORD protected Jacob, even prospered him under the shadow of Laban’s exploitation. But now that Jacob is nearing the promised land he has to face his biggest fear.
His biggest fear was not Esau. Esau is his big brother and a big cause of fear, just not the biggest. Jacob and Esau won’t actually meet until the next chapter, but Esau is definitely in Jacob’s head in this chapter. Jacob sends messengers to begin the pacification process in verses 3-5. He will send waves of presents to Esau in verses 13-21. Yet, as I said, the two brothers won’t actually face off until chapter 33.
Though the previous four chapters reported twenty plus years, this chapter covers only a couple days, with most of the attention on just one night. It’s that night when, left alone, Jacob faces his biggest fear, better, his Fear, and wrestles with the God-man. Things happened that night that changed Jacob’s life, including a change of name and a change of pace. He wouldn’t walk the same way again.
As we’ve seen in Genesis already, some of the stories intrigue us as much as they inform us. We read the verses and have as many, or even more, questions than explanations.
After Laban’s departure, Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him. Why did they meet him? They don’t say anything that we’re told about. They’re just there. When Jacob saw them he said, “This is God’s camp.” So he called the name of that place Mahanaim.
Mahanaim means “two camps.” What are the two? His own and God’s? Jacob will split his group into two camps in verse 7, but that appears to happen after this meeting. Maybe that’s what gave him the idea. Jacob last encountered angels aware when he left the land of Canaan (Genesis 28:10-22), so now he is greeted by similar supernatural beings as he returns.
I assume that Jacob was glad to be so close to being home, and I also assume that his meeting with the angels was encouraging. But it didn’t make him cocky about potential conflict with his brother. Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau his brother in the land of Seir, the country of Edom . Messengers is the same Hebrew word translated as “angels” in the verse one. Seir sounds like “hairy,” and Edom means “red,” both of which were descriptions of Esau from before, both of which were associated with either the birthright transfer or blessing deception.
The message about flocks and servants was probably not a boast. It may have even been an relief to Esau, as long as he was in the right mood. The description of assets, at this point, may have assured Esau that Jacob wasn’t coming to mooch. Jacob already took the birthright and blessing, he wasn’t coming now to take more. Jacob’s hope in this communication was to make contact with Esau and try to find favor in your sight .
The messengers returned with information but no reassurance. ”We came to your brother Esau, and he is coming to meet you, and there are four hundred men with him.” But, “What did he say? Why in the world is he bringing so many men? Did he seem angry?” None of that is revealed.
On one hand, if Esau really wanted to make Jacob dead, why wouldn’t he kill the messengers and then surprise Jacob in attack? But it’s hard to envision a 400 man company as a welcoming committee. Laban had a posse that chased Jacob down, but this was a posse. So Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed. He “was beside himself with fear” (Hamilton). Distressed means wrapped up, squeezed, worried. Yeah.
Jacob also takes his first defensive measure. He divided the people who were with him, and the flocks and herds and camels, into two camps, thinking, ‘If Esau comes to the one camp and attacked it then the camp that is left will escape.” Don’t keep all your eggs in one basket, but did he really think that if one half of his camp was overrun by Esau that the other half could outrun him? For how long? And where would they go?
Jacob has taken some practical and strategic steps to defend himself, but now he turns to his ultimate hope. Verses 9-12 are his first recorded prayer and the longest prayer in Genesis (Waltke).
And Jacob said, “O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O LORD who said to me, ‘Return to your country and to your kindred, that I may do you good,’ I am not worthy of the least of all the deeds of steadfast love and all the faithfulness that you have shown to your servant, for with only my staff I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two camps. Please deliver me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear him, that he may come and attack me, the mothers with the children. But you said, ‘I will surely do you good, and make your offspring as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.’” (Genesis 32:9–12)
Jacob starts with an address, who he’s praying to. ”God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac , in other words, unrivaled Elohim, Yahweh of covenant and heritage. He is also the God who was responsible for Jacob being there; ”LORD who said to me, ‘Return to your country and to your kindred, that I may do you good.” That last part wasn’t part of the previous revelation, at least that we’ve read about, but it is Jacob’s obedience that got Jacob in this scrape.
Then Jacob confesses his meekness and thankfulness. ”I am not worthy of the least of all the deeds of steadfast love and all the faithfulness that you have shown to your servant, for with only my staff I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two camps.” Jacob understood that he didn’t deserve the good and that God had given him an abundance of it.
Then he makes his request. ”Please deliver me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear him, that he may come and attack me, the mothers with the children.” Jacob anticipates Esau has so many men not just to make sure the Jacob gets dead, but to massacre his entire group. Jacob casts his fear , his anxieties on God. Jacob asks God to save him (see also verse 30).
He does so because of God’s word to him. ”You said, ‘I will surely do you good, and make your offspring as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.” He prays based on promise. God’s promises are the reason to talk to Him about our needs. On what other foundation could we approach Him and ask for help?
Jacob’s next decision is not a proof that he didn’t trust the LORD to help him. It’s just the opposite. Jacob trusts the LORD so much that he’s willing to give up his possessions, even give up his status over Esau, because he believed that the LORD would work it out.
True, having flocks is no use if you’re dead, but he had worked a long time just to give so much away. There are some 550 animals numbered here, a significant present. “Gift” or present is a key word in this paragraph.
Then Jacob divided into at least four waves. He instructed each wave to greet Esau and offer him the present from Jacob to his lord . The reason is in verse 20. For he thought, “I may appease him with the present that goes ahead of me, and afterward I shall see his face. Perhaps he will accept me.” He is trying to butter up his brother. Appease is “cover his face,” as in, pacify him. Accept is “lift up my face.” Solomon did say that a man’s gift makes room for him. (Proverbs 18:16).
This is an elaborate blunt effort, drip pacification, but Esau had been premeditating-murder-mad, and, even if Esau changes his mind, will all the four hundred men also back down, or will they expect a fight (and spoils)? They will need something to.
Jacob and his family were the last group. He had them cross the ford of the Jabbok at night, though we don’t know why. The Jabbok is north of the Jordan River about 20 miles north of the Dead Sea (Waltke). Did this group go north for protection, but requiring them to cross three times altogether, or south, closer to Esau? If so, why now? We don’t know.
For some reason Jacob leaves the camp and was left alone . He can’t sleep. What happens next is amazing and still leaves us wanting to see the video in heaven someday.
And a man wrestled with him until the breaking of day. Wait, what? Who is this? Where did he come from? And why are they wrestling? Didn’t they have some kind of conversation? Jacob is alone, then attacked by surprise? And how many hours? This is quite an exhausting match.
When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched his hip socket, and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. Jacob moved a stone off of a well that required three or four regular men to roll it away, so he was a formidable opponent. But if you can “touch” a man’s hip out of place, you either know some incredible Krav Maga or you could also “win” if you wanted.
He (the other man) said, “Let me go, for the day has broken.” Why? Will he melt in the sun? Or was it so that Jacob wouldn’t be able to see and recognize him?
Somehow Jacob expected something from this man as his superior. ”I will not let you go unless you bless me.” That doesn’t seem like a normal request to a wrestling opponent, let alone apparent enemies locked in combat. Jacob was coming to the realization about who he was wresting with.
[The man] said to him, “What is your name?” Not that he didn’t know it, but to get Jacob to acknowledge it. Jacob said, “I am Jacob.” He owns up to his name, perhaps for the first time in his life. He is the grasper, the deceiver. He confesses it.
Then [the man] said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.” This name sticks. We don’t talk about the nation of Jacob or the Jacobites. Israel means either “fights/strives with God” or “God fights/strives,” and the man gives the name to mark Jacob as one who deals with and is delivered by God.
When Jacob asks the man’s name, he does not get an answer. Jacob knew who it was, as he confesses in the next verses. But Jacob had been blessed. He has a new name and a fresh blessing for fruitfulness.
So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered.” Face has been a key word throughout the last part of the chapter (verses, 20, 21, and 30), and Peniel means “Face of El.” Jacob may not actually have seen Yahweh’s face, but he was in an immediate, personal encounter. Even Moses only got to see God’s “back side.” Men cannot see God and live without great mercy on God’s part. Jacob won’t forget this night of wrestling with God. He wrestled his Fear (Genesis 31:53).
A new day dawns as does a new chapter in Israel’s life. The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip. Moses doesn’t say if and how painful it was, but Jacob was now going to be strong in the LORD not strong in himself. God brought him to this point of weakness, and kept him there. Esau was not actually mad, but Jacob didn’t know it. Jacob is brought to rely on God and God’s blessing.
The final verse in chapter 32 isn’t corroborated in any other part of the Old Testament, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t true. It was traditional liturgy but not law, in order to remember their forefather. They didn’t eat the sciatic nerve, nervum femoris (VLG), the “principal nerve in the neighbourhood of the hip” (Keil and Delitzsch).
Why did God wrestle Jacob?
God will have His people pray. He will have them struggle, agonize, wrestle in dependence on Him.
[T]he Lord willed that the mind of his servant should be oppressed by this anxiety for a time, although without any real cause, in order the more to excite the fervour of his prayer….For although he anticipates our wishes, and opposes our evils, he yet conceals his remedies until he has exercised our faith.
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 willfully 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. (Calvin)
God gives, He blesses, but He will be asked. He is glorified when we are weak and He is strong. He loves to be the deliverer. Israel must deal with God before he can deal with his brother. We, also, must deal with God before we’ll be ready to deal with our conflicts.