Genesis 32:1. And Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him.
When he left the promised land, he had a vision of angels, ascending and descending upon the ladder, as if to bid him farewell. Now that he is going back, the angels are there again to speed him on his way home to the land of the covenant, the land which the Lord had promised to give to Abraham and his seed.
Genesis 32:2. And when Jacob saw them, he said, This is God's host: and he called the name of that place Mahanaim.
The marginal reading is «Two hosts, or, camps.» The angels of the Lord were encamping round about the man who feared him, though shore had been much in his character and conduct which the Lord could not approve.
Genesis 32:3. And Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau his brother into the land of Seir, the country of Edom.
After a visit from angels, afflictions and trials often come. John Bunyan wrote, as I have often reminded You, «The Christian man is seldom long at ease, When one trouble's gone, another doth him seize;» and though the rhyme is rather rough, the statement is perfectly true. Full often, we are hardly out of one trial before we are into another.
Genesis 32:4-5. 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: And I have oxen, and asses, flocks, and menservants, and women servants: and I have sent to tell my lord, that I may find grace in thy sight.
It is very proper, when we have offended other people, and especially if we feel that we have done them wrong, as Jacob had done to Esau, that we should use the humblest terms concerning ourselves, and the best terms we can about those whom we have offended. Yet I must say that I do not like these terms that Jacob uses; they do not seem to me to be the right sort of language for a man of faith: «My lord Esau, Thy servant Jacob saith thus.» What business had God's favored one to speak «thus» to such a profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright? Surely, there was more of the Jacob policy than there was of the Israel faith in this form of speech.
Genesis 32:6-7. And the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, We came to thy brother Esau, and alas he cometh to meet thee, and four hundred men with him. Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed:
«Four hundred men with him»! «That must mean mischief to me, and my company. Surely, he is coming thus to avenge himself for the wrong I did him, long ago. My brother's heart is still hot with anger against me.» So, «Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed.»
Genesis 32:7-8. And he divided the people that was with him, and the flocks, and herds, and the camels, into two bands; and said, If Esau come to the one company, and smite it, then the other company which is left shall escape.
This man Jacob was always planning, and scheming; he was the great progenitor of the Jews, who are still preeminent in bargaining. See how he plots and arranges everything to the best advantage. I blame him not for this, yet, methinks, he is to be blamed that he did not pray first. Surely, it would have been the proper order of things if the prayer had preceded the planning; but Jacob planned first, and prayed afterwards. Well, even that was better than planning, and not praying at all; so there is something commendable in his action, though not without considerable qualification.
Genesis 32:9. And Jacob said, O God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, the LORD
Jacob uses that August name «Jehovah» «the Lord»
Genesis 32:9-10. Which saidst unto me, Return unto thy country, and to thy kindred and I will deal well with thee; 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.
Not even one servant had he with him when he fled away across the river, he was alone and unattended, and now he was coming back at the head of a great family, with troops of servants, and an abundance of cattle, and sheep, and all things that men think worth having. How greatly God had increased him, and blessed him! He remembers that lonely departure from the home country, and he cannot help contrasting it with his present prosperity.
Genesis 32:11-13. 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. 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. And he lodged there that same night; and took of that which came to his hand a present for Esau his brother;
There he is, planning again! And this time, perhaps, since he has prayed over the matter, he is planning more wisely than he did before, intending now to try to appease his brother's anger by a munificent «present for Esau his brother.»
Genesis 32:14-16. Two hundred she goats, and twenty he goats, two hundred ewes, and twenty rams, Thirty milch camels with their colts, forty kine, and ten bulls, twenty she asses, and ten foals. 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 apace betwixt drove and drove.
In order that there might be time for his brother to look at the present in detail, and see it piece by piece, and so be the more struck with the size of it. This was true Oriental policy, and crafty Jacob always had more than enough of something and planning even when it was not done with wisdom; but, in this case, I think it was a wise arrangement, for which he is to be commended.
Genesis 32:17-19. 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? 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. 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.
What care he takes about the whole affair! We cannot blame him, under the circumstances, yet how much grander is the quiet, noble demeanour of Abraham, who trusts in God, and leaves matters more in his hands! Yet, alas! even he tried plotting and scheming more than once, but failed every time he did so.
Genesis 32:20-24. 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. So went the present over before him: and himself lodged that night in the company. And he rose up that night, and took his two womenservants, and his two women servants, and his eleven sons, and passed over the ford Jabbok. And he took them, and sent them over the brook, and sent over that he had. And Jacob was left alone;
This was a very anxious time for him, the heaviest trial of his life seemed impending. He was dreading it more than he need have done, for God never meant the trouble he feared to come upon him at all. He was trembling under a dark cloud that was to pass over his head without bursting. No tempest of wrath was to break out of it upon him. However, we must admire Jacob in this one respect, that, with all his thought, and care, and planning, and plotting, he did not neglect prayer. He felt that nothing he could do would be effectual without God's blessing. He had not reached the highest point of faith, though he had gone in the right direction a great deal further than many Christians. He now resolved to have a night of prayer, that he might win deliverance: «Jacob was left alone;»
Genesis 32:24. And there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day.
I suppose our Lord Jesus Christ did here, as on many other occasions preparatory to his full incarnation, assume a human form, and came thus to wrestle with the patriarch.
Genesis 32:25. And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh;
Where the column of the leg supports the body, and if that be disjointed, a man has lost all his strength. It was brave of Jacob thus to wrestle, but there was too much of self about it all. It was his own sufficiency that was wrestling with the God-man, Christ Jesus. Now comes the crisis which will make a change in the whole of Jacob's future life: «He touched the hollow of his thigh.»
Genesis 32:25. And the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him.
What can Jacob do now that the main bone of his leg is put out of joint?
He cannot even stand up any longer in the great wrestling match; what can he do?
Genesis 32:26. And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.
It is evident that, as soon as he felt that he must fall, he grasped the other «Man» with a kind of death-grip, and would not let him go. Now, in his weakness, he will prevail. While he was so strong, he won not the blessing; but when he became utter weakness, then did he conquer.
Genesis 32:27. And he said unto him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob.
That is, a supplanter, as poor Esau well knew.
Genesis 32:28. And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel:
That is, a prince of God.
Genesis 32:28. For as a prince hast thou power with God and with men and hast prevailed.
Jacob was the prince with the disjointed limb, and that is exactly what a Christian is. He wins, he conquers, when his weakness becomes supreme, and he is conscious of it.
Genesis 32:29. 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.
There are limits to all human intercourse with God. We must not go where vain curiosity would lead us, else will he have to say to us, as he did to Jacob, «Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name?»
Genesis 32:30. And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.
How he must have trembled to think that he had the daring perhaps his fears made him call it the presumption actually to wrestle with God himself, for he was conscious now that it was no mere angel, but «the Angel of the covenant,» the Lord himself, with whom he had wrestled.
Genesis 32:31. And as he passed over Penuel the sun rose upon him, and he halted upon his thigh.
The memorial of his weakness was to be with him as long as he lived. People would ask, «How came the halting gait of that princely man? «And the answer would be, «It was by his weakness that he won his princedom, he became Israel, a prince of God, when his thigh was put out of joint.» How pleased would you and I be to go halting all our days with such weakness as Jacob had, if we might also have the blessing that he thus won!
Genesis 32:32. 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.