Genesis 32

 

Jacob Wrestles at Peniel

1So Jacob went on his way and the angels of God met him. 

 

Jacob traveled back to Canaan with a large caravan and no armed escort. Travel was dangerous in this day, because marauders and bandit gangs would attack the caravan, kill all of the men, rape all of the women, enslave all of the children, and steal all of the cargo. Demonic forces heard the prophecies of Jacob being the seed-son who would bring a child into the world who would crush the head of Satan. These demonic forces would like to eliminate the seed-son. However, angels arrived on the scene. they traveled with Jacob and his family back into Canaan under divine escort.

 

2When Jacob saw them, he exclaimed, “This is the camp of God!” So he named that place Mahanaim.

 

Angels are usually invisible, but they can and do appear visibly sometimes to men. Some believers may have entertained angels unaware. Angels attend all church services to see if pastors are teaching the Word of God. Angels know who is present and listening, who is present and distracted, and who is absent. 

 

Hebrew nouns can be singular, dual, or plural. Mahanaim is dual, meaning that there were two camps in one. There was a camp of men, plus God and his angels were camped there as well. Seeing angels in camp had to strengthen Jacob's faith. 

 

3Jacob sent messengers on ahead to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the region of Edom. 

 

There were prophecies about Esau becoming a hostile marauder who would plunder other tribes. Jacob sent messengers out to Esau to let him know that he was not an enemy tribe. He did not want Esau to attack and plunder his caravan.

 

4He commanded them, “This is what you must say to my lord Esau: ‘This is what your servant Jacob says: I have been staying with Laban until now. 

 

The messengers were sent to herald the return of Jacob. Notice that Jacob called Esau “lord” and he called himself a “servant”. This was the reverse of the patriarchal blessing given to Jacob and Esau.

 

5I have oxen, donkeys, sheep, and male and female servants. I have sent this message to inform my lord, so that I may find favor in your sight.’”

 

Jacob feared Esau, even though God had promised him protection.

 

 

6The messengers returned to Jacob and said, “We went to your brother Esau. He is coming to meet you and has four hundred men with him.” 

 

Esau possessed an army of 400 men. This means that in twenty years, Esau had a very strong marauder group. These 400 men were used to plunder weaker tribes and caravans.

 

7Jacob was very afraid and upset. So he divided the people who were with him into two camps, as well as the flocks, herds, and camels. 

 

400 armed men scared Joseph. Why would 400 men be needed for an escort? Jacob must have thought that Esau would attack and kill him, just as he had promised to do 20 years earlier. Esau may have thought that Jacob was coming to conquer him, since Jacob was the seed-son who was to inherit all of the land of Canaan, including the land where Esau dwelt.

 

8“If Esau attacks one camp,” he thought, “then the other camp will be able to escape.”

 

Jacob was hoping that if he was attacked, at least he could keep half of his possessions.

 

9Then Jacob prayed, “O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, O Lord, you said to me, ‘Return to your land and to your relatives and I will make you prosper.’ 

 

Jacob reminded God of his promise to protect him.

 

10I am not worthy of all the faithful love you have shown your servant. With only my walking stick I crossed the Jordan, but now I have become two camps. 

 

When Jacob left Canaan, he left with only his waking staff. When he returned, he possessed a caravan of wealth that was now separated into two different camps. This was the result of the blessings of the Abrahamic Covenant.

 

11Rescue me, I pray, from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid he will come and attack me, as well as the mothers with their children. 

 

God had already promised to protect Jacob at Bethel. There was no reason for Jacob to fear.

 

12But you said, ‘I will certainly make you prosper and will make your descendants like the sand on the seashore, too numerous to count.’”

 

God made this promise to Jacob at Bethel. If Esau destroyed his family, then Jacob would not be able to receive the benefits of this promise. The sand on the seashore is estimated at 10²⁵. The future population explosion of the Jews will explode beyond this amount during the 1000 year Millennial Kingdom. There will be no anti-Semitic nations or violent crimes to decimate the Jewish population. 

 

13Jacob stayed there that night. Then he sent as a gift to his brother Esau

 

Jacob slept where he prayed. When he woke up, he sent a large gift to his brother in order to appease his anger.

 

 14two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, 15thirty female camels with their young, forty cows and ten bulls, and twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys. 

 

The total account was 580 animals. Jacob was extremely wealthy. God blessed Jacob. Esau was going to become a very wealthy man.

 

16He entrusted them to his servants, who divided them into herds. He told his servants, “Pass over before me, and keep some distance between one herd and the next.” 

 

Jacob divided them into five different herds with space between them. This way, Esau would receive five different gifts of herds.

 

17He instructed the servant leading the first herd, “When my brother Esau meets you and asks, ‘To whom do you belong? Where are you going? Whose herds are you driving?’ 

 

Jacob gave very specific instructions to his servants on how to handle his twin brother.

 

18then you must say, ‘They belong to your servant Jacob. They have been sent as a gift to my lord Esau. In fact Jacob himself is behind us.’”

 

Again, Jacob reversed the titles of the Abrahamic Covenant. He called Esau “lord” and himself “servant”.

 

19He also gave these instructions to the second and third servants, as well as all those who were following the herds, saying, “You must say the same thing to Esau when you meet him. 

 

Jacob was willing to nullify the patriarchal blessing in order to keep peace with Esau. However, he did not have the divine authority to make this decision.

 

20You must also say, ‘In fact your servant Jacob is behind us.’” Jacob thought, “I will first appease him by sending a gift ahead of me. After that I will meet him. Perhaps he will accept me.” 

 

Jacob was in a tough situation. Esau and Uncle Laban were his enemies. He felt as though he was in no-man’s land. There was no place for him and his family to live.

 

The purpose of the gifts was not appeasement, but atonement. Jacob hoped that this plan would work and Esau would forgive him. He was not trusting God to protect him.

 

21So the gifts were sent on ahead of him while he spent that night in the camp.

 

Jacob slept another unpeaceful night in camp, wondering what the future held for him and his family.

 

 

22During the night Jacob quickly took his two wives, his two female servants, and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. 

 

Jacob and his two wives snuck out of camp during the middle of the night.

 

23He took them and sent them across the stream along with all his possessions. 

 

Jacob went and hid in another camp.

 

24So Jacob was left alone. Then a man wrestled with him until daybreak. 

 

The Hebrew word for "wrestle" is אָבַק (awbak), meaning to get dusty, float away, grapple, or wrestle. Jacob did not wrestle with an angel, as many commentaries and illustrations suggest. Neither did he wrestle with a man. He wrestled with the pre-incarnate Christ.

 

It is important to note that God can appear as a man on earth at anytime. He appeared often in the Old Testament as the pre-incarnate Christ. He appeared in the New Testament as the God-man Jesus. Jesus is not half-god and half-man, like Hercules of Greek mythology. He is all-God and all-man. He sits at the right hand of the Father in the figure of a man, but He is also completely God. Buddha, Krishnah, Zeus, and Allah cannot make this claim. If God wants to understand the weakness and sin nature of man, then he must become a man himself. He must be tempted by evil. Jesus did this. Allah did not. Therefore, Jesus understands the sin nature of man. He was the only one in history who could conquer the sin nature. 

 

25When the man saw that he could not defeat Jacob, he struck the socket of his hip so the socket of Jacob’s hip was dislocated while he wrestled with him.

 

The pre-incarnate Christ could have very easily defeated Jacob, but He chose not to do so. Instead, He crippled him. Notice that He did not touch the hip, but He struck it. It was a supernatural touch similar to that of Isaiah 6:7.

 

26Then the man said, “Let me go, for the dawn is breaking.” “I will not let you go,” Jacob replied, “unless you bless me.” 

 

Even though Jacob was crippled, he refused to let the pre-incarnate Christ go until he was blessed.

 

27The man asked him, “What is your name?” He answered, “Jacob.” 

 

The pre-incarnate Christ knew Jacob’s name. He asked him his name in order to teach Jacob a spiritual insight.

 

28“No longer will your name be Jacob,” the man told him, “but Israel, because you have fought with God and with men and have prevailed.”

 

The Hebrew for Israel is יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל (yisrael). This name is a compound of two Hebrew roots. The first Hebrew root is שְׂרָ (sar) meaning prince, or he who rules. The feminine form is Sarah, meaning princess. Abraham’s wife was Sarai, but her name was changed to Sarah, meaning princess. Since the proper name begins with a yod, then this is a Qal imperfect third masculine singular verb, meaning "he will rule."

 

The second Hebrew root is אֵ֑ל (el), meaning the strong singular God. When both of these combine roots are placed together, the proper name of יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל (yisrael) means "He will rule with God". This proper name is a prophecy of Israel ruling with God during the coming Millennial Kingdom.

 

Many anti-Semitic theologians translate this proper name as "He will wrestle with God." It is true that Jacob has been wrestling against the will of God. It is also true that the entire national history of Israel is a record of the chosen people wrestling with God. The nation of Israel has been just as rebellious and stubborn as Jacob, but God still loves her. He will keep his promises to her, even though she became a rebellious prostitute who mingled with demonic idols.

 

As for the future, the nation of Israel will continue to wrestle with God until she is crippled by the judgments of the Great Tribulation. After she is crippled by the genocide of 2/3 of her people, then the 1/3 of the nation who survives will believe on Jesus as her Messiah. God will remarry his divorced wife and bring her home into the Millennial Kingdom. She will inherit the land that God promised to her.

 

In conclusion, the proper name of Israel means "He will rule with God." God will stay true to the personal name in which He gave to Israel. 

 

29Then Jacob asked, “Please tell me your name.” “Why do you ask my name?” the man replied. Then he blessed Jacob there. 

 

Jacob knew the identity of the man. There was no reason for him to ask him for his name.

 

30So Jacob named the place Peniel, explaining, “Certainly I have seen God face to face and have survived.”

 

Peniel means ‘the face of God”. Jacob had wrestled with God himself. He had wrestled with the pre-incarnate Christ.

 

31The sun rose over him as he crossed over Penuel, but he was limping because of his hip. 

 

This limp would be a witness to the 12 tribes that they were a stubborn people. They had wrestled with God and lived. 

 

32That is why to this day the Israelites do not eat the sinew which is attached to the socket of the hip, because He struck the socket of Jacob’s hip near the attached sinew.

 

This historical event caused a Jewish tradition that was passed down from Jacob to modern Israelites. However, it is not considered part of Jewish kosher law today.

 

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In conclusion, the human viewpoint of the satanic world system teaches that Jacob wrestling with an angel was a myth.

 

The divine viewpoint of the inspired, inerrant, and infallible Word of God teaches that it was the pre-incarnate Christ who wrestled with Jacob.

 

The human viewpoint is that Israel evolved into a nation. 

 

The divine viewpoint is that God took a dysfunctional family and turned them into a nation who will reign with Christ during the Millennial Kingdom.