MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Genesis 32:1-2
JACOB’S VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE WORLD
I. Jacob’s visible world. He had just escaped the persecutions of his father-in-law, and was now expecting to meet with a fiercer enemy in his brother. All was dread and anxiety. He is scarcely delivered from one host of enemies when another is coming forth to meet him. Such was the gloomy and hopeless condition of the outward world as it appeared to Jacob’s natural eye.
II. Jacob’s invisible world. What a different scene is presented to him when his spiritual eye is opened, and God permits him to see those invisible forces which were engaged on his side. We are told that “the angels of God met him.” He was weak to all human appearance; but he was really strong, for God’s host had come to deliver him from any host of men that might oppose. So far as we know, the angels of God have only appeared to man in times of great danger. Thus, when the host of the Syrians encompassed Dothan in order to take Elisha, the servant of the prophet was alarmed, and cried out, “Alas! Master, how shall we do?” And the prophet’s assuring answer was, “Fear not; for they that be with us are more than they that be with them.” (2 Kings 6:17). There was no visible help, no earthly powers to protect the prophet, but in answer to his prayer, “the young man’s eyes were opened, and he saw the mountain full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.” God’s hosts stood revealed to allay the fear of man’s hosts. So it was in Jacob’s case. The host of God is described as parting into two bands, as if to protect him behind and before; or to assure him that as he had been delivered from one enemy, so he would be delivered from another enemy, which was coming forth to meet him. Thus Jacob was taught—
1. To whom he owed his late mercies.
2. The true source of his protection.
3. His faith is confirmed. It is justified for the past, and placed upon a firmer basis for the future.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Genesis 32:1. As the angels appeared to him in a dream on his way to Laban, so now they appear to him more visibly on his return home. This sight is assuring, like that vision of the ladder, which he had seen twenty years before, traversed by the angel guards. Here they are encamped around him. (Psalms 34:8). The promise made to him that he should be returned to his own land in peace was to be made good. (Genesis 28:15).—(Jacobus.)
Jacob here obtains a clear assurance of God’s protection and guidance. We see, therefore, in him the union of two classes of feelings—fear for the future, and trust in God; and such must be ever our Christian life: not an entire life of rest, for we have sinned; nor an entire life of unrest, for God has forgiven us; but in all life a mixture of the two. Christ alone had perfect peace, for He had perfect purity.—(Robertson.)
Genesis 32:2. Why the angels are called hosts.
1. From their multitude.
2. From their order.
3. From their power for the protection of the saints, and the resistance and punishment of the wicked.
4. From their rendering a cheerful obedience as become a warlike host.—(Lange.)
All God’s children may call death, as Jacob did this place, Mahanaim; because there the angels meet them.—(Trapp).