1 And Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him.
2 And when Jacob saw them, he said, This is God's host: and he called the name of that place Mahanaim.
3 And Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau his brother unto the land of Seir, the country of Edom.
4 And he commanded them, saying, Thus shall ye speak unto my lord Esau; Thy servant Jacob saith thus, I have sojourned with Laban, and stayed there until now:
5 And I have oxen, and asses, flocks, and menservants, and womenservants: and I have sent to tell my lord, that I may find grace in thy sight.
6 And the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, We came to thy brother Esau, and also he cometh to meet thee, and four hundred men with him.
7 Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed: and he divided the people that was with him, and the flocks, and herds, and the camels, into two bands;
8 And said, If Esau come to the one company, and smite it, then the other company which is left shall escape.
9 And Jacob said, O God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, the Lord which saidst unto me, Return unto thy country, and to thy kindred, and I will deal well with thee:
10 I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth, which thou hast shewed unto thy servant; for with my staff I passed over this Jordan; and now I am become two bands.
11 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.
12 And thou saidst, I will surely do thee good, and make thy seed as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.
13 And he lodged there that same night; and took of that which came to his hand a present for Esau his brother;
14 Two hundred she goats, and twenty he goats, two hundred ewes, and twenty rams,
15 Thirty milch camels with their colts, forty kine, and ten bulls, twenty she asses, and ten foals.
16 And he delivered them into the hand of his servants, every drove by themselves; and said unto his servants, Pass over before me, and put a space betwixt drove and drove.
17 And he commanded the foremost, saying, When Esau my brother meeteth thee, and asketh thee, saying, Whose art thou? and whither goest thou? and whose are these before thee?
18 Then thou shalt say, They be thy servant Jacob's; it is a present sent unto my lord Esau: and, behold, also he is behind us.
19 And so commanded he the second, and the third, and all that followed the droves, saying, On this manner shall ye speak unto Esau, when ye find him.
20 And say ye moreover, Behold, thy servant Jacob is behind us. For he said, I will appease him with the present that goeth before me, and afterward I will see his face; peradventure he will accept of me.
21 So went the present over before him: and himself lodged that night in the company.
22 And he rose up that night, and took his two wives, and his two womenservants, and his eleven sons, and passed over the ford Jabbok.
23 And he took them, and sent them over the brook, and sent over that he had.
24 And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day.
25 And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him.
26 And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.
27 And he said unto him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob.
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.
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? And he blessed him there.
30 And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.
31 And as he passed over Penuel the sun rose upon him, and he halted upon his thigh.
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.
1. Jacob meets a host of angels as he continues his journey back to Canaan.
2. Jacob makes preparations to meet his brother Esau.
3. Jacob wrestles with the Lord, seeking to obtain a blessing.
Verses 1–3. The prospects facing Jacob and his family at this stage were not pleasant. Having survived a potentially lethal confrontation with Laban, the party now was heading for an even more unpleasant engagement—a face-to-face meeting with Esau. Life is made up of an assortment of unpleasantries. We should fully expect to encounter difficulties, conflicts, and even catastrophic loss on this journey through life. It is better to settle this in our minds right now, than to be surprised by hardship when it comes. Certainly, Job knew what he was talking about when he said that “man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward” (Job 5:7).
Such was the case for Jacob as he prepared to meet Esau. Twenty years earlier, when he left his family in the land of Canaan, his twin brother was in a vengeful rage. As Jacob now stood at the edge of these dark waters, contemplating the challenge of wading into the trial, surely he must have felt deep consternation.
But remember that God had promised that He would be with Jacob wherever he went. As Jacob prepared to walk through this difficult trial, God sent a host of angels to meet him on his way. Occasionally, God opens the eyes of His people to see His mighty power. The children of Israel caught a glimpse of it at the Red Sea. Elisha and his servant witnessed the armies of Angels surrounding the city. May God help us to visualize His complete sovereignty over everything, including the puny problems that are of immediate concern to us! It is this sort of a vision that brings things back into perspective. When a man sees tens of thousands of 100-foot tall angels surrounding the area, he would be hardly concerned about the band of 400 Edomites approaching the scene. Jacob called this place “Two Armies.” By this designation, he testified to God’s superior force over all who would be aggressors against God’s people. For the remainder of human history, God’s armies would always be near at hand and available to the people of God.
Verses 4–23. We may take a number of lessons from this passage relating to the important Christian duty of peacemaking. While God’s armies are always ready to deliver His people, Jacob still understood his duty to address the present conflict. Usually, conflicts between humble believers ought to be resolved quickly, according to Jesus’ instructions in Matthew 18. But this was not that kind of a conflict. What heightened the complexity of this particular situation was the fundamental disagreement between the two men. The first party was the son of the covenant and a servant of the living God. The second party was a man of the world. They shared different commitments in relation to God and to His covenant.
Long-standing rifts in families are nothing new, especially between Christians and their unsaved parents or siblings. Examples like this can be very instructive for those who find themselves in the midst of family feuds. Note, first of all, that Jacob took the matter to God in prayer. A prayer of faith is one of the first indications that a man is walking in relationship with the living and true God. With all his shortcomings and failings, Jacob was demonstrating himself to be that man of faith. In his prayer, he acknowledged God’s goodness to him and his unworthiness as a recipient of His good gifts. Then, on the basis of the covenant promise made to him under heaven’s ladder some twenty years earlier, he pleaded for God’s protection on his family.
Having trusted everything to the sovereign hand of God in prayer, Jacob then prepared a substantial gift of 550 animals for Esau. “A gift in secret turneth away wrath,” says the book of Proverbs. But what can we say about a gift amounting to upwards of $100,000 in value? When was the last time you have seen brothers exchange gifts of such value? The momentousness of the occasion cannot be underestimated here. Judging from the size of these men’s households and holdings, any kind of animosity could have very well resulted in warfare between the two developing nations. That is what happened some four hundred years later between the Edomites and Israelites. But for now, Jacob wanted to establish a long-standing peace agreement between the two parties. Warfare is expensive and incredibly destructive. Peace is of immeasurable value, worth at least $100,000 to the families of Esau and Jacob.
After preparing the gift, Jacob sent messengers ahead to signal his interest in reconciliation with his brother Esau. The messages contained conciliatory signals. Most importantly, we should not ignore Jacob’s humility. This is a characteristic that is essential in any peacemaking. In his message, Jacob referred to Esau as “my lord,” and called himself “your servant.”
Verses 24–29. On the evening before the critical meeting, Jacob sent his family ahead in two bands over the Jabbok river. There he wrestled with an angel for the remainder of the evening. Hosea 12:3–4 refers to this highly significant event in the life of Jacob:
“He took his brother by the heel in the womb, and by his strength he had power with God: Yea, he had power over the angel, and prevailed: he wept, and made supplication unto him: he found him in Bethel, and there he spake with us.”
From his birth, Jacob had proven himself as a mighty wrestler. First, he grabbed the heal of Esau. He wrestled hard for the birthright and the blessing. Then for twenty-one years, he contended with his father-in-law for material wealth. Now here he was grappling with an angel for hours and hours on the north side of the river. In this strange interchange, God was testing Jacob’s fortitude and commitment to the covenant. It was a test of faith. He had already challenged Jacob to return to the promised land and assume the covenant; but now it seemed as if He was “preventing” him from entering the land.
For hour upon hour, Jacob engaged in a strenuous, hand-to-hand wrestling match. His persistence is remarkable, as witnessed in his final desperate cry, “I will not let you go, unless you bless me!” Having already seen an army of angels surrounding the camp, Jacob probably sensed that this was no ordinary man opposing him. He must have realized that his dealings had to do with the living God. What right does a man have to wrestle with God, except on the basis of the covenant that God has already established with him? If God had not already promised the land to Jacob, he would have no right to “sue” Him for the blessing of protection and provision.
As the dawn broke and the wrestling ended, God changed Jacob’s name to “Israel.” This name is significant in its literal translation: “He will rule with God.” Originally, man was created for dominion, to rule as God’s vice-regent over His creation. But the fall of man severely crippled man’s ability to think, to live, and to rule according to God’s design. In this new covenant, man’s ability to take dominion and to rule with God was restored. It is restored for us in Christ.
That Jacob was a man of high achievement, clarity of purpose, and indefatigable persistence, there should be no doubt. His passion, his energy, and his intense persistence was persuasive with God. But how does a man influence God when God Himself is the chief influencer of all things? Surely it is God who influences us both to will and to do of His good pleasure (Phil. 2:12–13). Yet the fervent prayers of a righteous man avail much (James 5:16). God influences us and we influence Him. But we influence Him, because He first influences us. We have to believe that fervency still matters. The more fervent and persistent the prayer, the more influence the prayers will bear upon the Almighty. But we have no influence apart from the covenant relationship He has already sovereignly ordained with us. If we were not His children, we would have no right to approach Him as a Father. A man cannot approach God apart from faith in the covenant promises that God has already made with him in Christ.
Verses 30–32. What a remarkable account of some of the most memorable events ever occurring in human history! In the end, Jacob recognized the source of all blessings. He finally understood that he was not wrestling with Esau or with Laban. He was in a wrestling match with God. Amazed that he survived a face-to-face confrontation with God Himself, he called the place “Peniel,” meaning, “Face of God.” Jacob walked away with a perpetual reminder of the wrestling match: a limp he would carry for the rest of his life. It was a monument to his weakness and his strength; both a sign of victory and a symbol of his dependence on God.
1. Jacob’s persistence with God is a great lesson for us. Could it be that we might also bear influence upon God in our prayers? From time to time we may need to wrestle with God in prayer for hours, maybe even from evening to early morning. It is not in our own strength and pride that we may approach God. But there is a holy combination of humility, fear, bold confidence, and faith that enables us to engage effectual prayer. It is a gracious contract that God has made with us in Christ. It is only on this basis that we have the right to boldly approach the throne of grace.
2. God wrestled with Jacob in order to test and strengthen his faith. What father doesn’t test his own son’s physical strength from time to time by wrestling with him? He might push his son to his limits, but a wise father would never exceed those limits. In a similar sense, our all-wise heavenly Father may test the strength of His own children. He may delay an answer to prayer or extend a trial over many weeks and months. In so doing, He develops spiritual muscles and turns little boys into men. Are we willing to wrestle with God all the way until daybreak?
3. It is a good thing to desire the blessing of God. Far more important than a bowl of porridge or even a father’s blessing is a blessing from God Himself. All other blessings pale in comparison. Jacob wrestled for God’s blessing because he valued it. Do we value the blessing of God in this way? Or do we always seek blessings from earthly sources where all is fleeting and of no real eternal consequence?
4. Jacob serves well as a picture of the church in the wilderness, or even as the church in the present day. May God help us to see the church as it really is in history, that we may have no false confidence. The church limps along. The battle may leave a wound, but the wound is a reminder of our victory. Would you rather have a crushed head or a bruised heel? The serpent’s head is crushed in the battle, but the church is not without its constant weaknesses, tragedies, and trials. As the Christian church moves from generation to generation, it will always suffer persecution, church splits, heresies, schisms, the curses of false brothers, and other afflictions. But as we limp along, we remember that we are victors! Our Lord wrestled violently on the Cross in order that we would be blessed forevermore!
1. What are the themes of Chapters 1 through 32?
2. What did Jacob meet on his way to Canaan that reminds us of his trip away from his home in Canaan twenty years earlier?
3. How did Jacob try to make peace with Esau?
4. What does the Bible tell us to do if we are anxious or fearful?
5. What is the literal translation of the name “Israel?”
6. Why would it be appropriate for believers to wrestle with God? Why does God wrestle with us?
1. How have we addressed major conflicts in our own lives? Are there family feuds that need to be resolved?
2. Do we ever wrestle with God in prayer? Are we as persistent as Jacob was to hold God to the promise of His blessing? What kind of passion and persistence do we exhibit in prayer?