And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.
Ver. 30. I have seen God face to face.] Christ would not tell Jacob his name, to lift up his mind above what he saw of him, and to insinuate that his name was "Wonderful," his essence incomprehensible. Jdg 13:17-18 And whereas Jacob said here, he had "seen God face to face": he means only, praesens praesentem, as Moses spake with God "mouth to mouth". Num 12:8 He saw not God's majesty and essence; for he is a God "that hides himself," Isa 8:17 and "dwells in the light unapproachable". 1Ti 6:16 But he saw him more apparently and manifestly than ever he had done before. We can see but his "back parts" Exo 33:23 and live; we need see no more, that we may live. God that fills all, saith Nazianzen, though he lighten the mind, yet flies before the beams thereof; still leaving it, as it is able, in sight to follow him; draws it by degrees to higher things; but ever interposeth between it and his incomparable essence, as many vails as were over the tabernacle. Some created shape, some glimpse of glory, Jacob saw; whereby God was pleased, for the present, to testify his more immediate presence; but not himself.