Genesis Chapter 32 Deep-Dive: Jacob Wrestles with God

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GEN 32

1Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him. 2And when Jacob saw them he said, “This is God’s camp!” So he called the name of that place Mahanaim. ENCAMPMENT OF GOD’S ARMY … THIS IS A REMINDER TO JACOB THAT THE BIRTHRIGHT IS TIED TO THE LAND.

3And Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau his brother in the land of Seir, the country of Edom, 4instructing them, “Thus you shall say to my lord Esau: Thus says your servant Jacob, ‘I have sojourned with Laban and stayed until now. 5I have oxen, donkeys, flocks, male servants, and female servants. I have sent to tell my lord, in order that I may find favor in your sight.’”  JACOB’S JOURNEY HOME IS GOING TO REQUIRE HIM TO BE MATURE AND HUMBLE.  HE’S HEADING HOME AFTER 20 YEARS TO MEET HIS TWIN BROTHER WHOM HE WRONGED IN A PRETTY SPECTACULAR WAY … GUILT IS A VERY, VERY POWERFUL THING.

6And the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, “We came to your brother Esau, and he is coming to meet you, and there are four hundred men with him.” THAT’S MORE MEN THAN ABRAHAM HAD WHEN HE RESCUED LOT … GOD HAS BLESSED AND PROSPERED ESAU 7Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed. GUILT IS A BEAUTIFUL THING … GOD USES IT TO HUMBLE US AND BRING US TO REPENTANCE … GOD HUMBLES EVERYONE.  He JACOB divided the people who were with him, and the flocks and herds and camels, into two camps, 8thinking, “If Esau comes to the one camp and attacks it, then the camp that is left will escape.”

9And 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,’ 10I 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. 11Please 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. 12But you said, ‘I will surely do you good, and make your offspring as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.’”  JACOB FINALLY TURNS TO THE LORD IN HIS FEAR

13So he stayed there that night, and from what he had with him he took a present for his brother Esau, 14two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, 15thirty milking camels and their calves, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys. 16These he handed over to his servants, every drove by itself, and said to his servants, “Pass on ahead of me and put a space between drove and drove.” 17He instructed the first, “When Esau my brother meets you and asks you, ‘To whom do you belong? Where are you going? And whose are these ahead of you?’ 18then you shall say, ‘They belong to your servant Jacob. They are a present sent to my lord Esau. And moreover, he is behind us.’” 19He likewise instructed the second and the third and all who followed the droves, “You shall say the same thing to Esau when you find him, 20and you shall say, ‘Moreover, your servant Jacob is behind us.’” 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.” 21So the present passed on ahead of him, and he himself stayed that night in the camp. 

V 20 I will appease him.—The Heb. literally is, he said I will cover his face with the offering that goeth before my face, and afterwards I will see his face; peradventure he will lift up my face. The covering of the face of the offended person, so that he could no longer see the offence, became the usual legal word for making an atonement MAKING THINGS RIGHT

22The same night he JACOB arose and took his two wives, his two female servants, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. 23He took them and sent them across the stream, and everything else that he had. 24And Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day. 25When 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.  THIS IS AN ANGEL OR SUPERNATURAL BEING WRESTLING WITH JACOB.  BIBLE BONES AND LIGAMENTS … HERE’S WHAT HOSEA 12:3 SAYS ABOUT THIS SCENE In the womb he JACOB took his brother ESAU by the heel, and in his manhood he strove with God. 4He strove with the angel (GOD) and prevailed; he JACOB wept and sought his GOD’S favor.  He met God at Bethel, and there God spoke with us — US, THE NATION ISRAEL 5the Lord, the God of hosts, the Lord is his memorial name (THE ANGEL IS THE LORD): 6“So you, by the help of your God, return, hold fast to love and justice, and wait continually for your God.”

SO, THIS ANGEL WHO COULD HAVE SQUASHED JACOB LIKE A BUG PHYSICALLY WRESTLED WITH JACOB AND EVEN ALLOWED JACOB TO HOLD HIS OWN UNTIL GOD HUMBLED HIM BY DAMAGING HIS HIP SOCKET.

26Then he THE ANGEL / MESSENGER / JESUS said, “Let me go, for the day has broken.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”  APPARENTLY JACOB WAS CLINGING TO THE ANGEL 27And he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” 28Then he said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.” JACOB MEANS GRASPER OR CONNIVER, ISRAEL MEANS “STRUGGLES WITH GOD”   JACOB STRUGGLED TO RECEIVE GOD’S BLESSING.  VERY INTERESTING THAT ISLAM MEANS SUBMISSION TO GOD BUT ISRAEL STRUGGLES WITH GOD AND THAT WILL BECOME VERY APPARENT AS WE WORK THROUGH THE REST OF THE TORAH.  ALSO, PAUL SAID THAT THE CHURCH, OR GENTILE BELIEVERS, IS/ARE GRAFTED INTO ISRAEL AT LEAST IN THE SENSE THAT THE CHURCH WILL CONTINUE THAT STRUGGLE.  THE PSALMS TEACH THAT IT’S OK TO BE ANGRY WITH GOD … WHAT KID OF FATHER DEMANDS BLIND SUBMISSION FROM HIS SON?  JACOB IS CALLED A RIGHTEOUS MAN BECAUSE AT HIS CORE HE DESIRES GOD’S BLESSING

BACK TO GEN 32:29Then Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” DON’T YOU KNOW WHO I AM?  REMEMBER, THE NAME YAHWEH WAS FIRST REVEALED TO MOSES AT THE BURNING BUSH … OVER 400 YEARS IN THE FUTURE FROM THIS SCENE  And there he YAHWEH / JESUS blessed him JACOB. 30So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered.”  AGAIN, THIS IS THE PERSONAL REPRESENTATIVE OF YAHWEH IN HUMAN FORM … JESUS … GOD IN HUMAN FORM, SPEAKING IN THE FIRST PERSON AS IF HE WERE YAHWEH, BUT, NO ONE CAN SEE YAHWEH AND LIVE, BUT, JACOB SAYS HE SAW GOD FACE TO FACE AND LIVED … THE TWO POWERS IN HEAVEN CONCEPT THAT ANCIENT JEWISH SCHOLARS STUGGLED WITH AND DR MICHAEL HEISER TAUGHT … A PRECURSOR TO THE TRINITY … REMEMBER, JESUS SAID THAT MOSES WROTE ABOUT HIM. 

ELLICOTT’S COMMENTARY ON THIS SCENE FROM BIBLEHUB.COM IS INTERESTING: The angel’s asking of permission to depart was the acknowledgment of defeat. The struggle must end at daybreak, because Jacob must now go to do his duty; and the wrestling had been for the purpose of giving him JACOB courage, and enabling him to meet danger and difficulty in the power of faith.  Except thou bless me.—The vanquished must yield the spoil to the victor; and Jacob, who had gradually become aware that the being who was wrestling with him was something more than man, asks of him, as his ransom, a blessing.

BACK TO GEN 32:31The sun rose upon him JACOB as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip. 32Therefore to this day the people of Israel do not eat the sinew of the thigh that is on the hip socket, because he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip on the sinew of the thigh. SO, JACOB’S LIMP BECAME A PERSONAL PAINFUL REMINDER OF THAT ENCOUNTER WITH GOD.  LET’S PUT ON OUR NEW COVENANT / NEW TESTAMENT DECODER GLASSES AND TAKE A LOOK AT SOMETHING SIMILAR TO THIS THAT EXPLAINS IT FURTHER …

2 Cor 12:2 PAUL WRITING TO THE CORINTHIANS I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows. 3And I know that this man was caught up into paradise—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows— 4and he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter. 5On behalf of this man I will boast, but on my own behalf I will not boast, except of my weaknesses— 6though if I should wish to boast, I would not be a fool, for I would be speaking the truth; but I refrain from it, so that no one may think more of me than he sees in me or hears from me. 7So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. 8Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. 9But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

GOD IS DANGEROUS AND DOESN’T SHRINK FROM GIVING PAINFUL PHYSICAL REMINDERS THAT HELP TO KEEP US HUMBLE AND RELIANT ON HIM.  REMEMBER, BECAUSE GOD LOVES US HE SHAMES EVERYONE TO BRING THEM TO HUMILITY AND REPENTENCE.  BACK TO JACOB IN GEN 32:31The sun rose upon him JACOB as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip. 32Therefore to this day the people of Israel do not eat the sinew of the thigh that is on the hip socket, because he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip on the sinew of the thigh.

 

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