Every man lives two lives an outward and an inward. The one is that denoted in the former text: Jacob went on his way.The other is denoted in the latter text: Jacob was left alone.In either state God dealt with him.
I. The angels of God met him. We do not know in what form they appeared, or by what sign Jacob recognised them.
In its simplicity the angelic office is a doctrine of revelation. There exists even now a society and a fellowship between the sinless and the fallen. As man goes on his way, the angels of God meet him.
II. Are there any special ways in which we may recognise and use this sympathy? (1) The angelic office is sometimes discharged in human form. We may entertain angels unawares. Let us count common life a ministry; let us be on the look-out for angels. (2) We must exercise a vigorous self-control lest we harm or tempt. Our Saviour, has warned us of the presence of the angels as a reason for not offending His little ones. Their angelsHe calls them, as though to express the closeness of the tie that binds together the unfallen and the struggling. We may gather from the story two practical lessons. (a) The day and the night mutually act and react. A day of meeting with angels may well be followed by a night of wrestling with God. (b) Earnestness is the condition of success. Jacob had to wrestle a whole night for his change of name, for his knowledge of God. Never will you say, from the world that shall be, that you laboured here too long or too earnestly to win it.
C. J. Vaughan, Last Words at Doncaster,p. 197.
Reference: Genesis 32:2. Clergyman's Magazine,vol. xvi., p. 90.