19. Jacob Wrestles With God and Man
The Incident Setting/Backstory
* * *
Ninety years previously God had prophesied to Rebecca her younger twin Jacob would prevail over his brother Esau the rightful heir by birth order. Eventually this led to a family split during which Esau threatened to murder Jacob. When seventy year old Jacob fled for his life he’d an encounter with God in a dream at Bethel in which God identified himself as the God of Abraham and Isaac. God said He would give Jacob’s offspring the land of Canaan.
God also prophetically spoke of Jacob’s descendant, Jesus Christ, who’d bless all nations. God promised Jacob, I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you. [1]
It’s now time for God to keep His promise to bring Jacob back to the Promised Land but this puts Jacob in big life threatening trouble with both his uncle Laban and his brother Esau.
The Incident Scripture
Genesis 32:1-32
Jacob also went on his way, and the angels of God met him. When Jacob saw them, he said, This is the camp of God. So he named that place Mahanaim. Jacob sent messengers ahead of him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom. He instructed them: “This is what you are to say to my lord Esau: ‘Your servant Jacob says, I have been staying with Laban and have remained there till now. I have cattle and donkeys, sheep and goats, male and female servants. Now I am sending this message to my lord, that I may find favour in your eyes.
When the messengers returned to Jacob, they said, We went to your brother Esau, and now he is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him.
In great fear and distress Jacob divided the people who were with him into two groups and the flocks and herds and camels as well. He thought, If Esau comes and attacks one group, the group that is left may escape.
Then Jacob prayed, “O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, Lord, you who said to me, ‘Go back to your country and your relatives, and I will make you prosper,’ I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness you have shown your servant. I had only my staff when I crossed this Jordan, but now I have become two camps. Save me, I pray, from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid he will come and attack me, and also the mothers with their children. But you have said, ‘I will surely make you prosper and will make your descendants like the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted.’”
He spent the night there, and from what he had with him he selected a gift for his brother Esau: two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, thirty female camels with their young, forty cows and ten bulls, and twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys. He put them in the care of his servants, each herd by itself, and said to his servants, “Go ahead of me, and keep some space between the herds.”
He instructed the one in the lead: “When my brother Esau meets you and asks, ‘Who do you belong to, and where are you going, and who owns all these animals in front of you?’ then you are to say, ‘They belong to your servant Jacob. They are a gift sent to my lord Esau, and he is coming behind us.’”
He also instructed the second, the third and all the others who followed the herds: “You are to say the same thing to Esau when you meet him. And be sure to say, ‘Your servant Jacob is coming behind us.’” For he thought, “I will pacify him with these gifts I am sending on ahead; later, when I see him, perhaps he will receive me.” So Jacob’s gifts went on ahead of him, but he himself spent the night in the camp.
That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two female servants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions. So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.”
But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”
The man asked him, “What is your name?”
“Jacob,” he answered.
Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.”
Jacob said, “Please tell me your name.”
But he replied, “Why do you ask my name?” Then he blessed him there.
So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.”
The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel, and he was limping because of his hip. Therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the tendon attached to the socket of the hip, because the socket of Jacob’s hip was touched near the tendon.
The Problem
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Jacob just newly delivered from the threat of Laban and his armed men now learns his brother Esau is rushing towards him with four hundred armed men. This frightening news causes Jacob to intercede with the God of his fathers.
The Dreamer’s Metron
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Jacob was Abraham’s inheritor and the father of the leaders of the twelve tribes of Israel. After this incident of Jacob wrestling with God his name was changed to Israel and this became both the name of the people and the land of God’s chosen people.
God told Jacob, I am the Lord, the God of
your father Abraham and the God of
Isaac. I will give you and your
descendants the land on which you are
lying. Your descendants will be like the
dust of the earth, and you will spread out
to the west and to the east, to the north
and to the south. All peoples on earth
will be blessed through you and your
offspring. I am with you and will watch
over you wherever you go, and I will
bring you back to this land. I will not
leave you until I have done what I have
promised you. [2]
Jacob’s metron also included his call to bring the children of Israel down to Egypt God as promised to Abraham.
The Message
* * *
The overall message of this incident is that God is keeping His promises to Jacob. When Jacob meets the company of angels he is reminded of the Bethel dream encounter and realises his camp is protected by God's camp, so he names the place Mahanaim, a Hebrew word meaning, two camps.
The main message is, God blesses you and your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.
God’s Purpose
* * *
God was protecting Jacob and his seed line. God’s purpose was also to convince Jacob He was able to keep His covenant promises. God was also testing Jacob’s faith and perseverance in the midst of this incredibly pressurised situation.
As a reward for his tenacity Jacob receives a new name. Jesus who wrestles with him says he will no longer be called Jacob, meaning supplanter, but Israel, meaning, he struggles with God. Hosea later mentions this,
In the womb he grasped his brother's heel;
as a man he struggled with God. He
struggled with the angel and overcame
him; he wept and begged for his
favour. [3]
A biblical name change is significant and signifies a new position with God and an increased level of faith. Abram was renamed Abraham meaning, father of nations. Sarai was renamed Sarah meaning princess. Simon was renamed Peter meaning rock and in Revelation one of the promises to the overcomer is a new name known only to the person who receives it.
After wrestling with God Jacob is a changed man, spiritually and physically. His famous limp is not so much a sign of God’s discipline but a mark of faith and perseverance. His new name Israel was also inherited by his descendants who became know as the people of Israel and their Promised Land became Israel.
Satan’s Purpose
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Satan’s plan was to hinder God’s purpose by stirring up old wounds and animosities between Jacob and his brother Esau. He wanted to destroy the Messiah’s bloodline. Satan’s influence is also apparent in Jacob’s fear and his gift giving and scheming.
Dreamer’s Eyes Enlightened
* * *
Jacob is humbler and more committed than he was twenty years previously at Bethel. This life threatening incident has made him an intercessor. He finally realises all his wheeling and dealing and scheming is useless. He needs God’s help.
He recognises his own unworthiness and reminds God of his obedience in returning to Canaan. Like a true intercessor he also reminds God of His promises,
But you have said, I will surely make you
prosper and will make your descendants
like the sand of the sea, which cannot be
counted. [4]
Dreamer’s Response and Application
* * *
Jacob always sought and fought to be blessed. He persisted until he received his father’s blessing unlike Esau who threw it away lightly for a bowl of stew. Revelation 3:15 says,
I know your deeds, that you are
neither cold nor hot. I wish you were
either one or the other!
Jacob was always hot. He wrestled with Jesus all night and wouldn’t let Him go until He blessed him. This tenacity in Jacob pleased God. Jeremiah said, You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. [5]
Jacob would have made a good Charismatic. Paul told the Corinthians, Covet earnestly the best gifts. [6] The word covet here has the meaning of lusting after something in a good way. Jacob always lusted after God’s blessing.
He also finally understood God is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think. Jacob celebrated by calling the place Peniel, which means Face of God. He said, It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.
Know God Better
* * *
We again see God as a Promise Keeping, Covenant Keeping God. An ever present help in times of trouble. A rewarder of those who diligently seek him.
The Incident Process
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Jacob literally wrestles with Jesus and physically has his hip displaced. This incident is also symbolic of the nation of Israel, which is always wrestling with man and God. It has personal, national and international significance.
The Usual Suspects
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God is in the form of Jesus wrestling with Jacob and blessing him. Satan is there in the background opening up old wounds and animosities and causing fear in an attempt to kill the Messiah’s bloodline.
Takeaways
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God will not test us beyond our endurance but will send us a way of escape. Yet God’s testing can be fierce causing great distress and anxiety.
God knows the future and God keeps His promises. His words to Rebecca, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were all fulfilled.
God is again seen as advancing His plans and purpose for the Messiah.
1 Genesis 25:15
2 Genesis 28:13-15
3 Hosea 12:3
4 Genesis 32:12
5 Jeremiah 29:13
6 1 Corinthians 12:31 (KJV)