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.
Ver. 28. No more Jacob, but Israel.] That is, not only, or not so much Jacob as Israel. Both these names he had given him, of striving and struggling. All God's Israel are wrestlers by calling, Eph 6:12 and, "as good soldiers of Jesus Christ," must "suffer hardness". 2Ti 2:3 Nothing is to be "seen in the Shulamite, but as the appearance of two armies," Son 6:13 maintaining civil broils within her. a The spirit would always get the better of the flesh, were it upon equal terms: but when the flesh shall get the hill, as it were, of temptation, and shall have the wind to drive the smoke upon the eyes of the combatant, and so to blind him, - upon such a disadvantage, he is overcome. For it is "not flesh and blood only" that "we wrestle against," - whether we take the apostle's meaning, for the weakness of our nature or the corruption of it, - "but against principalities, against powers," &e.; against many, mighty, malicious adversaries; "spiritual wickednesses in high places," that are above us, and hang over our necks. Wherefore, we have more than need to "take unto us the whole armour of God," and to strengthen ourselves with every piece of it: whether those of defence, as "the girdle of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes of peace" and patience, "the shield of faith, the helmet of hope"; or those of offence, as, "the sword of the spirit," and the darts of prayer. Eph 6:14 At no place must we lie open; for our enemy is a serpent. If he can but bite the heel, he will transfuse his venom to the heart and head. God's "Spirit" in us "sets up a standard". Isa 59:19 The apostle sounds the alarm, Arm, arm. Eph 6:10-17 The Holy Scripture is our armoury, like "Solomon's tower, where hang a thousand shields, and all the weapons of strong men". Son 4:4 God himself is the ' Aγωνοθεπης, that both ordaineth and ordereth our temptations with his own hand, as he dealt with Jacob. And the Lord Christ stands over us, as he did once over Stephen, Act 7:55 with a crown upon his head and another in his hand, with this inscription, Vincenti dabo, "To him that overcometh will I give," &c. Revelation 2:7 ; Revelation 2:11 ; Revelation 2:17 ; Revelation 2:26 ; Revelation 3:5 ; Revelation 3:12 ; Rev 3:21 Fight but with his arms and with his armour, and we are sure to overcome before we fight; for he hath made all our foes our footstool, and hath "caused us to triumph". 2Co 2:14 Let therefore the assaults of our already vanquished enemies not weaken, but waken us: let their faint oppositions and spruntings before death encourage us, or rather enrage us, to do them to death: we are sure to be "more than conquerors," Rom 8:37 and to have Victoriam Halleluiatieam, as the Britons, fighting for their religion, had once against the Saxons and Picts in this kingdom. b
a Nunquam bella bonis, nunquam discrimina desunt.
b Dr. Ussher, De Britan. Eccles. Primord. u. 332.