Genesis 32

          As he continues his journey home, Jacob has another vision of the angels of God. (Genesis 28:12) Verse 2 says that when he sees them, Jacob names the place of his vision Mahanaim, which means “double camp”, meaning that his camp with all his household is now joined by a camp of the band of angels from heaven. No other description or explanation of this vision is given, but that phrase, “the angels of God” is found only twice in the OT, first in Genesis 28 and now here. God is showing Jacob that He is with him every step of this journey, and this second vision is perhaps a prelude to Jacob’s wrestling with the angel of the Lord later in this chapter.
 
         Verses 3-8: Jacob sends messengers ahead to meet Esau in the land of Seir, which is in Edom. The servants are to tell Esau where Jacob’s been for the last twenty years and to talk of the size and wealth of his household. Then they are to ask for grace on Jacob’s behalf. (v.5) When the servants return to Jacob, they inform him that Esau is already on his way to meet Jacob and that he has a company of four hundred men with him. This greatly alarms Jacob, and he divides his own camp into two companies. He believes Esau is coming for vengeance and that while he’s attacking one band, the other will have time to escape.
 
        Verses 9-12: Jacob’s prayer is a sincere, heartfelt and broken plea to God to spare not only his life but the lives of his wives and children also. Jacob recognizes that he is not worthy of the least of God’s mercies (v.10), nor of all the truth that God has shown him, and he reminds the Lord that he has obeyed His command to return home to the land of his fathers where God has promised to bless him and multiply his seed upon the earth. (v. 9 & 12) Jacob recognizes that he is powerless to face Esau on his own, nor can he escape by lying or trickery. That’s what got him into this mess in the first place. Now he must depend upon God alone for deliverance.
 
      Verses 13-23: Jacob remains at Mahanaim that night and divides up his livestock, creating a gift for his brother. He then divides that group into several smaller groups and gives each servant command of a group. He tells the servants to put space between themselves with each of their group of cattle, goats, sheep and camels, and then, as each servant meets Esau, they are to inform him that the livestock is a gift from Jacob who is not far behind them. Again, Jacob is hoping and praying that the abundance of his gift will appease his brother’s anger and avoid a bloody conflict.
       Jacob then takes Leah, Rachel, Zilpah, Bilhah, and his eleven sons and sends them across the river Jabbok, which is one of the tributaries of the river Jordan. Jacob remains alone on the other side where God meets him face to face.
 
       Verses 24-32: Jacob spends all night wrestling with God. Even though verse 24 says, “…there wrestled a man with him…” we know from verse 30, as well as verses 1 and 2, that this was another instance of a theophany. From that context, as well as the description of the fight in verse 25 and the dialogue in verse 26, we see clearly that God allowed Himself to be temporarily overcome. He asks Jacob to let Him go, and Jacob says, “I will not let thee go, except Thou bless me.” God then asks Jacob, “What is thy name?” and Jacob tells him. God responds, “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.” (v.28)
        Jacob is no longer the “heel catcher”, “supplanter” or “deceiver”. His new name means “God prevails”. According to Moody Bible Commentary, “The word prevailed does not mean that Jacob won the wrestling match by overpowering the man. Instead, it means that Jacob, having in the end been forcibly subdued by God, prevailed in receiving the blessing. That is, he was not just a benefactor of the material promises of the Abrahamic covenant, but also of its more selective spiritual promise of the blessing of saving faith.” God had chosen Jacob before Jacob was even born. This is proved by His prophecy to Rebekah. (Genesis 25:23) But, in order for Jacob to be the man – and patriarch – that God needed him to be, Jacob had to learn to submit to the Lord and to trust in God and not his own strength. This is why the man touched the hollow of Jacob’s thigh early in the fight, crippling him. Jacob had to recognize his own weaknesses and failings. Without God, he was nothing.
        Only through complete and total submission did Jacob earn the victory of God’s blessing. That is what is significant about the changing of his name. This wrestling match with the angel of the Lord is a picture of Jacob’s entire life. That first night of his journey to Haran, when he had had the dream of the angels of God ascending and descending on the ladder, Jacob had finally recognized God’s calling and had begun a personal relationship with his creator and Lord. But now, two decades later, Jacob has reached a new milestone in his spiritual growth. All of his fears and anxieties about his confrontation with Esau have brought him to this struggle with God, and he demands a blessing from the Lord. In essence, Jacob is reiterating his prayer request from earlier that same night. (v.9-12) He recognizes God as Lord and sovereign over all, and that God has a plan for his life, but Jacob needs to submit wholly to God to receive the blessings that God had first promised to Jacob’s grandfather, Abraham.
          Without surrender, there can be no victory.
         Jacob’s story closely parallels Abraham’s, in that saving faith means complete surrender to God and His divine will. This is the essence of salvation. It’s as true now as it was then. This is what Jacob means when he says in verse 30, “I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.” All of us who are saved, redeemed by the blood of Christ, have had this same encounter with God at the moment of our salvation. It’s not literally face to face as it was with Jacob, but the spiritual struggle is still the same. Only when we finally submit, acknowledge our sinful, lost state and recognize our need for a savior, does God bless us with His gift of salvation and a new name in glory.
          Jacob names the place of his struggle with God Peniel (or also Penuel). As he leaves the site, he is limping because of the injury to his thigh. This chapter closes with the statement that the children of Israel do not eat the sinew, which is in the hollow of the animal’s thigh, to this day because that is where God struck Jacob.