A verse by verse commentary on Genesis chapter 32 dealing with Jacob preparing to meet Esaw, and Jacob wrestling with God

1. GE ESIS 32 COMME TARY
EDITED BY GLE PEASE
Jacob Prepares to Meet Esau
1 [a]Jacob also went on his way, and the angels of
God met him.
BAR ES,"After twenty years spent in Aram, Jacob now returns to Kenann. As his
departure was marked by a great moment in his spiritual life, so he is now approaching
to a crisis in his life of no less significance
Gen_32:1-3
Jacob has a vision of the heavenly host. This passage, recording Laban’s farewell and
departure, closes the connection of Jacob with Haran and all its toils of servitude, and is
hence, annexed to the previous chapter in the English version. In the distribution of the
original text, it is regarded as the counterpart of the two following verses, in which
Jacob’s onward progress is mentioned, and so placed with them at the beginning of a
new chapter. “The angels of God met him.” Twenty years ago Jacob saw the mystical
ladder connecting heaven and earth, and the angels of God thereupon ascending and
descending from the one to the other. Now, in circumstances of danger, he sees the
angels of God on earth, encamped beside or around his own camp Psa_34:8. He
recognizes them as God’s camp, and names the place Mahanaim, from the double
encampment. This vision is not dwelt upon, as it is the mere sequel of the former scene
at Bethel. Mahanaim has been identified with Mahneh, about eight miles from the cairn
of Laban and Jacob.
CLARKE, "The angels of God met him - Our word angel comes from the Greek
αγγελος aggelos, which literally signifies a messenger; or, as translated in some of our old
Bibles, a tidings-bringer. The Hebrew word ‫מלאך‬ malach, from ‫לאך‬ laach, to send,
minister to, employ, is nearly of the same import; and hence we may see the propriety of
St. Augustine’s remark: Nomen non naturae sed officii, “It is a name, not of nature, but
of office;” and hence it is applied indifferently to a human agent or messenger, 2Sa_2:5;
to a prophet, Hag_1:13; to a priest, Mal_2:7; to celestial spirits, Psa_103:19, Psa_
103:20, Psa_103:22; Psa_104:4. “We often,” says Mr. Parkhurst, “read of the ‫יהוה‬ ‫מלאך‬
malach Yehovah, or ‫אלהים‬ ‫מלאכי‬ malakey Elohim, the angel of Jehovah, or the angels of
God, that is, his agent, personator, mean of visibility or action, what was employed by
God to render himself visible and approachable by flesh and blood.” This angel was
evidently a human form, surrounded or accompanied by light or glory, with or in which

2. Jehovah was present; see Gen_19:1, Gen_19:12, Gen_19:16; Jdg_13:6, Jdg_13:21; Exo_
3:2, Exo_3:6. “By this vision,” says Mr. Ainsworth, “God confirmed Jacob’s faith in him
who commanded his angels to keep his people in all their ways, Psa_91:11. Angels are
here called God’s host, camp, or army, as in wars; for angels are God’s soldiers, Luk_
2:13; horses and chariots of fire, 2Ki_2:11; fighting for God’s people against their
enemies, Dan_10:20; of them there are thousand thousands, and ten thousand times ten
thousand, Dan_7:10; and they are all sent forth to minister for them that shall be heirs
of salvation, Heb_1:14; and they pitch a camp about them that fear God, Psa_34:7.” One
of the oldest of the Greek poets had a tolerably correct notion of the angelic ministry: -
Αυταρ επειπεν τουτο γενος κατα γαια καλυψεν
Τοι µεν ∆αιµονες εισι, ∆ιος µεγαλου δια βουλας,
Εσθλοι, επιχθονιοι, φυλακες θνητων ανθρωπων· κ. τ. λ.
Hesiod. Op. & Dies, l. i., ver. 120.
When in the grave this race of men was laid, Soon was a world of holy demons made,
Aerial spirits, by great Jove design’d To be on earth the guardians of mankind. Invisible
to mortal eyes they go, And mark our actions good or bad below; The immortal spies
with watchful care preside, And thrice ten thousand round their charges glide: They can
reward with glory or with gold, A power they by Divine permission hold - Cooke.
GILL, "And Jacob went on his way,.... From Gilead towards the land of Canaan:
and the angels of God met him; to comfort and help him, to protect and defend him,
to keep him in all his ways, that nothing hurt him, Psa_91:11; these are ministering
spirits sent forth by God to minister to his people, the heirs of salvation; and such an one
Jacob was.
HE RY, "Jacob, having got clear of Laban, pursues his journey homewards towards
Canaan: when God has helped us through difficulties we should go on our way heaven-
ward with so much the more cheerfulness and resolution. Now, 1. Here is Jacob's convoy
in his journey (Gen_32:1): The angels of God met him, in a visible appearance, whether
in a vision by da or in a dream by night, as when he saw them upon the ladder (Gen_
28:12), is uncertain. Note, Those that keep in a good way have always a good guard;
angels themselves are ministering spirits for their safety, Heb_1:14. Where Jacob
pitched his tents, they pitched theirs about him, Psa_34:7. They met him, to bid him
welcome to Canaan again; a more honourable reception this was than ever any prince
had, that was met by the magistrates of a city in their formalities. They met him to
congratulate him on his arrival, as well as on his escape from Laban; for they have
pleasure in the prosperity of God's servants. They had invisibly attended him all along,
but now they appeared to him, because he had greater dangers before him than those he
had hitherto encountered. Note, When God designs his people for extraordinary trials,
he prepares them by extraordinary comforts. We should think it had been more
seasonable for these angels to have appeared to him amidst the perplexity and agitation
occasioned first by Laban, and afterwards by Esau, than in this calm and quiet interval,
when he saw not himself in any imminent peril; but God will have us, when we are in
peace, to provide for trouble, and, when trouble comes, to live upon former observations
and experiences; for we walk by faith, not by sight. God's people, at death, are returning
to Canaan, to their Father's house; and then the angels of God will meet them, to

3. congratulate them on the happy finishing of their servitude, and to carry them to their
rest.
JAMIESO , "Gen_32:1, Gen_32:2. Vision of angels.
angels of God met him — It is not said whether this angelic manifestation was
made in a vision by day, or a dream by night. There is an evident allusion, however, to
the appearance upon the ladder (compare Gen_28:12), and this occurring to Jacob on
his return to Canaan, was an encouraging pledge of the continued presence and
protection of God (Psa_34:7; Heb_1:14).
HAWKER, "This Chapter relates some very extraordinary events, which occurred in
the Patriarch Jacob’s journey towards Canaan, after his separation from Laban. He is
first met by an host of angels. He then sends messengers to his brother Esau, who dwelt
in Seir, to enquire after his welfare, and to inform him of his own. The messengers
return with an account that Esau is coming against him, and with him an army of 400
men: Jacob is greatly distressed with the intelligence, and hath recourse to God by
prayer: he sends over the brook Jabbok all his family and household, and is left alone: an
angel wrestles with him, until the breaking of the day: Jacob prevails, and obtains a
blessing in consequence, the Lord puts a perpetual testimony of honour upon the
Patriarch, in changing his name from Jacob to Israel.
Gen_32:1
Perhaps this meeting was like that mentioned, Gen_28:12.
CALVI , "1.And Jacob went on his way. After Jacob has escaped from the hands
of his father-in-law, that is, from present death, he meets with his brother, whose
cruelty was as much, or still more, to be dreaded; for by the threats of this brother
he had been driven from his country; and now no better prospect lies before him.
He therefore proceeds with trepidation, as one who goes to the slaughter. Seeing,
however, it was scarcely possible but that he should sink oppressed by grief, the
Lord affords him timely succor; and prepares him for this conflict, as well as for
others, in such a manner that he should stand forth a brave and invincible
champion in them all. Therefore, that he may know himself to be defended by the
guardianship of God, angels go forth to meet him, arranged in ranks on both sides.
Hebrew interpreters think that the camp of the enemy had been placed on one side;
and that the angels, or rather God, stood on the other. But it is much more
probable, that angels were distributed in two camps on different sides of Jacob, that
he might perceive himself to be everywhere surrounded and fortified by celestial
troops; as in Psalms 34:7, it is declared that angels, to preserve the worshippers of
God, pitch their tents around them. Yet I am not dissatisfied with the opinion of
those who take the dual number simply for the plural; understanding that Jacob
was entirely surrounded with an army of angels. ow the use of this vision was
twofold; for, first, since the holy man was very anxious about the future, the Lord
designed early to remove this cause of terror from him; or, at least, to afford him
some alleviation, lest he should sink under temptation. Secondly, God designed,
when Jacob should have been delivered from his brother, so to fix the memory of
the past benefit in his mind, that it should never be lost. We know how prone men

4. are to forget the benefits of God. Even while God is stretching out his hand to help
them, scarcely one out of a hundred raises his eyes towards heaven. Therefore it was
necessary that the visible protection of God should be placed before the eyes of the
holy man; so that, as in a splendid theater, he might perceive that he had been lately
delivered, not by chance, out of the hand of Laban; but that he had the angels of
God fighting for him; and might certainly hope, that their help would be ready for
him against the attempts of his brother; and finally, that, when the danger was
surmounted, he might remember the protection he had received from them. This
doctrine is of use to us all, that we may learn to mark the invisible presence of God
in his manifested favors. Chiefly, however, it was necessary that the holy man
should be furnished with new weapons to endure the approaching contest. He did
not know whether his brother Esau had been changed for the better or the worse.
But he would rather incline to the suspicion that the sanguinary man would devise
nothing but what was hostile. Therefore the angels appear for the purpose of
confirming his faith in future, not less than for that of calling past favors to his
remembrance. The number of these angels also encourages him not a little: for
although a single angel would suffice as a guardian for us, yet the Lord acts more
liberally towards us. Therefore they who think that each of us is defended by one
angel only, wickedly depreciate the kindness of God. And there is no doubt that the
devil, by this crafty device, has endeavored, in some measure, to diminish our faith.
The gratitude of the holy man is noted by Moses, in the fact that he assigns to the
place a name, (Galeed,) as a token of perpetual remembrance.
MORGAN, "Verses 1-32
This is unquestionably one of the great chapters of the Bible, and it is significant how constant and
powerful is its appeal to all who live on the principle of faith. It gives the account of the third direct
communication of God to Jacob.
As he returned to his own land, the same conflicting principles which have been evident
throughout are still manifest. His going at all was in direct obedience to the distinct command of
God. There was really no other reason to return. He might still have stayed with Laban and
outwitted him for his own enrichment. Nevertheless, the manner of his going was characterized by
independence and confidence in his own ability. This is seen in the account of the elaborate and
carefully calculated preparation he made for meeting Esau. He was ready to placate Esau with
presents, and prepared a list of them. However, they were to be used only if Esau was hostile.
This coming back into the land was an event of great importance which Jacob seems to have
recognized. When all his own arrangements were made he voluntarily stayed behind and went
down to the Jabbok, quite evidently for some dealing with God. Then and there, in the quiet and
stillness of the night, God met with him in the form of a man. Wrestling with him, God
demonstrated his weakness to Jacob, finally appealing to his spiritual consciousness by crippling
him in his body. This is certainly a story of Jacob's victory, but it was a victory won when,
conscious of a superior power, he yielded and, with strong crying and tears, out of weakness was
made strong. Jacob's limp was a lifelong disability, but it was also the patent of his nobility.
COFFMAN, "Here we have the preliminaries for the meeting of the long-estranged brothers Jacob
and Esau, a moving, dramatic account of their moving toward a reunion after many years of
separation, both having become wealthy in the meanwhile. The actual, face-to-face meeting of the
brothers does not take place until the next chapter, but all of the background for it is here. Jacob's
fear, with which he had lived for so many years, his prayer to God for divine help in the
approaching crisis, his precautions to protect his family against the potential hostility of Esau, with
special concern for Rachel and her children, the rich gifts sent to Esau, his wrestling all night with
an angel of God at Peniel, and, most significant of all, the heavenly award to Jacob of a new
name - these are the events of this chapter which have challenged the thoughts of men for ages.

5. "And Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him. And Jacob said when he saw them,
This is God's host: and he called the name of that place Mahanaim."
Twenty years before this event when he was about to journey into the land of his twenty-year
bondage, God had appeared to Jacob and strengthened him in the vision of the ladder reaching to
heaven, and now, that he was about to enter into a new phase of his life, again God appeared to
him, first in this vision of the angels, later in the wrestling event. Apparently, only Jacob saw the
heavenly host, just like the occasion when Elisha and his servant were surrounded and threatened
by innumerable enemies. Only the prophet saw the angelic host, until Elisha prayed for God to
"open his eyes" (2 Kings 6:17).
"He called the name of that place Mahanaim ..." "This word is a dual form meaning, "two hosts" or
"bands." The visible band was Jacob and his servants; the invisible band (momentarily visible to
Jacob) was that of the angels."[1] "Mahanaim was later a distinguished city, situated just north of
the Jabbok, and the name and remains are still preserved in a place called Mahneh."[2] The two
great enemies confronted by Jacob were Laban in the land of his long servitude, and Esau in the
land to which he returned. The visions at the beginning of each confrontation assured Jacob of
God's blessing and protection.
BENSON, "Genesis 32:1. The angels of God met him — In some visible and glorious forms, as
they frequently appeared to the patriarchs. Probably only Jacob saw them. They met him to bid
him welcome to Canaan again; a more honourable reception than ever any prince had that was
met by the magistrates of a city. They met him to congratulate his arrival, and his escape from
Laban. They had invisibly attended him all along, but now they appeared, because he had greater
dangers before him. When God designs his people for extraordinary trials, he prepares them by
extraordinary comforts.
ELLICOTT, "(1) Jacob went on his way.—The meeting of Jacob and Laban had been on the
dividing line between the Aramean and the Canaanite lands, and consequently at a spot where
Laban would have found no allies in the natives, but rather the contrary. Delivered thus from
danger from behind, Jacob now takes his journey through the country that was to be the heritage
of his seed, and doubtless he was harassed by many anxious thoughts; for Esau might prove a
fiercer foe than Laban. It was fit therefore that he should receive encouragement, and so after
some days, probably after about a week’s journey southward, he has a vision of “angels of God.”
Angels of God.—Numberless conjectures have been hazarded as to who were these
“messengers of Elohim,” and how they were seen by Jacob. Some, taking the word in its lower
sense, think they were prophets; others, that it was a caravan, which gave Jacob timely
information about Esau’s presence in Seir; others, that it was a body of men sent by Rebekah to
aid Jacob in repelling Esau. More probably, as Jacob on his road to Padan-aram had been
assured of God’s watchful care of him by the vision of the angels ascending and descending the
stairs, so now also in a dream he sees the angels encamped on each side of him, to assure him
of protection against his brother.
COKE, "Genesis 32:1. The angels of God, &c.— When Jacob embarked in this enterprize, and
left Canaan, God was pleased to encourage him by a vision of angels, and by the assurance of
his protection: and now that he was returning, happily escaped from Laban, but with good reason
afraid of Esau, another vision of the celestial messengers is presented to him. From the vision of
the angelical powers, he called the place, by a military name, referring to the idea of hosts or
armies, Mahanaim, or camps, which is not a dual, but a plural word; and therefore all that has
been said of two camps, is built upon a mistake, Psalms 34:7. Mahanaim was situated between
Mount Gilead and the brook Jabbok: it was afterwards one of the residences of the Levites, and
one of the strong places of David.
REFLECTIONS.—God hath preserved the patriarch hitherto, and still continues to guard him safe
home. He had the promise of protection, and he trusted in it: now he has the sight of his angelic
convoy, and may be comforted. Who can hurt them to whom angels minister? And need there
was of every support; for his part dangers were only the prelude of greater impending. God thus

6. prepares his people by strong consolations for difficult services. Note; When the believer draws
near his last conflict in death, then shall these attendant spirits surround the dying bed, to
welcome the departing soul, and lodge it safe in the bosom of Jesus.*
[* The lines of our ancient poet on the ministration of angels to the heirs of glory, are so suitable to
the present subject, and so extremely beautiful, that I cannot forbear inserting them.
And is there care in heaven? And is there love In heavenly spirits to these creatures base, That
may compassion of their evils move? There is: else much more wretched were the case Of men
than beasts. But O! th' exceeding grace Of highest God that loves his creatures so, And all his
works with mercy doth embrace, That blessed Angels he sends to and fro To serve to wicked
man, to serve his wicked foe!
How do they their silver bowers leave To come to succour us that succour want? How oft do they
with golden pinions cleave The flitting skies, like flying Pursuivant, Against foul fiends to aid us
militant? They for us fight, they watch and duly ward, And their bright Squadrons round about us
plant; And all for love, and nothing for reward: O why should heavenly God to men have such
regard!]
NISBET, "‘The angels of God.’
Genesis 32:1
To the Christian, to the member of the Church of England, with his Prayer Book in his hand, there
is a prayer in which we speak to God and recall the existence of a world unseen around us, and
beyond us a great realm, the realm of holy souls, the angels and the archangels of God. Some of
us, with our Churchman’s Almanack in our hand, look up the passages of Scripture, or at least
one of the passages set down for this day, and as we read the passage about Jacob and the
angels, our thoughts go out from the littleness of man’s little world to the greatness of God’s great
world, and go from the little number of men and women of God to be seen on this globe to that
immense army of holy souls made perfect in God, His angels, archangels, cherubim and
seraphim, and to the hosts of heaven; and we feel that our thoughts are lifted up rather than kept
down, our imagination is made stronger, we live for a few seconds in a bigger world than that in
which we are living from day to day while it pleases God that we should remain here on earth.
I. All the Company of Heaven.—It is not the custom in this day to think as much about this unseen
holy existence as men did in days that are gone. It is impossible for us to read the Holy Scriptures
without constantly observing that those who lived in the days of the writers of these sacred books
very fully believed in the existence near about them of endless holy beings belonging to God’s
unseen kingdom, holy souls serving God either in worship or in ministration to the sons of men. In
the Book of Genesis we read of Jacob and the angels. Passing on to a later stage, we read of the
ministration by angels in the times of the great prophets Elijah and Elisha, and, not to multiply
instances, we can readily recall the words of the Hebrew Psalmist when he speaks of the angel of
God tarrying round about those of the sons of men who fear God. Passing to the New Testament,
we can think of the appearance of angels to minister to One no less great than the Son of Man at
the end of His temptation, to minister to Him in the Garden of Gethsemane when His mind was
overwrought with the greatness of the thoughts which pressed upon Him then; and we read of
angels, too, appearing on the Resurrection day with their message of explanation of the things
which the faithful disciples saw. But in our own day we do not perhaps realise quite so fully that
there is ever about us, above us, this great realm of unseen things under the government of God,
pure and holy souls, servants of the same God Whom we serve, and it may be that perhaps in
thinking too seldom of them we miss an uplifting thought that we might otherwise have to help us
in our religious life. May we not endeavour to see whether we cannot put some more thought
about the great realm unseen into our minds? We are engaged in our acts of worship. There is
that important service, the Lord’s own service, Holy Communion. It begins, as you know, with the
words, ‘Our Father, Which art in heaven,’ in the great realm unseen, not distant from us in the
ages of the future, but the realm unseen near about us, the realm of holy thought, the realm in
which the souls of just men made perfect are dwelling, the realm in which angels and archangels
dwell. ‘Our Father, in that heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come here on earth, as
Thy kingdom is recognised there in heaven.’ And we pass on in that service to a point where we

7. lift up our hearts to the Lord, and we say in our worship: ‘It is very meet, right, and our bounden
duty, that we should at all times, and in all places, give thanks unto Thee, O Lord, Holy Father,
Almighty, everlasting God. Therefore’ we go on to say, ‘with angels and archangels, and with all
the company of heaven, we laud and magnify Thy glorious name; evermore praising Thee, and
saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Hosts.’
II.—Joy amongst the angels.—Not only may we in our times of worship have our thoughts uplifted
and imaginations warmed, our conception extended, by thinking of all the inhabitants of this great
unseen world over which our God rules, but we can go out from our worship into the world of our
daily duties in which we meet as men and women. We know well, as Christian men and women
held down by their human infirmities, by the sins which they are continually committing, we can go
out with the thought that not only may we in church worship, be linked with the holy angels of God,
but we can go out with the thought that these angels are with us during the life we live day by day,
taking cognisance of all the efforts we make to win other souls to God, and we go out with the
assurance that there is joy in the presence of these angels of God when through the effort of
ourselves or through the effort of any other believer in the Lord one sinner only repenteth. There
are doubtless in this congregation many men and women who are trying somehow or other to
bring influence for good to bear upon the souls about them, who have not yet felt the influence
from heaven of God’s grace. To all those who are striving thus I would say dwell upon this
thought, and we will in our times of worship let our hearts go out, away from our fellow-
worshippers about us, into the presence of the great God, unseen, surrounded by untold hosts of
heavenly beings, by the souls of those who have lived here and been perfected by the grace of
Jesus Christ; feel ourselves in their presence before our God; and then, having worshipped with
them at the throne of their God and ours, let us go with that inspiration into our daily life in the
world, strengthened by the thought of the hosts with us compared with the few that can be against
us, encouraged by the thought that not only our God, but they, too, are looking on and approving,
and when, through God’s mercy, we are able to bring one soul into the fold of Jesus Christ we
shall be bringing joy and opportunity of great thanksgiving among the angels of God in heaven.
Let us be encouraged at this time by the thought of the greatness of the realm to which we
belong. God, in calling us into His service and making us His sons, has not made us members of
a small concern, not united us into a tiny family, but has given us a great birth-right, made us
members of an immense kingdom. We profess in our creed our belief in Him as ‘Almighty, Maker
of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible,’ and as members of that great
kingdom, as members of that immense family over which God rules and shows His love, let us go
forward inspirited and ennobled, determined that, so far as our influence reaches, other souls
shall get to know the greatness of this inheritance which has become ours. So may we be
strengthened to be more happy and joyful in our own lives, more useful to those who are about us
in the world, and thereby bring more honour, praise, and glory to our God.
Illustration
(1) ‘Who these angelic visitants were we cannot tell, but Jacob accepted their message as clear
and definite for himself. They met him at Mahanaim. This may have been in a vision, as at Bethel,
or the messengers may have appeared to him as they appeared to Abraham while he stood under
the oak at Mamre.’
(2) ‘Something like that will happen to every man who goes on his own way,—not on the path
marked out for Napoleon or Washington, but for him, plain John Smith. Not on the way chosen by
himself against the will of God, but chosen by God’s will for him,—the straight, narrow, individual
path to the goal of his own personal life. Yes, on that path God’s good angels will meet him! There
he will encounter the angels of his household,—his wife and little children. There he will find his
true friends. There he will meet his joys and his sorrows, his failures and his triumphs, his losses
and his gains. There he will catch more than passing glimpses of the Divine presence that hovers
about him always. Nothing is so sweet, nothing so satisfying, as to be in the “way” your feet were
made to travel. Do not leave it for an instant.’
CONSTABLE, "Jacob's attempt to appease Esau 32:1-21

8. Chapters 32 and 33 can be viewed as one episode in the life of Jacob. They describe his return to
the Promised Land including his meeting with Esau. There are thematic parallels between these
chapters and chapter 31.
In spite of the vision of God's assisting messengers, Jacob divided his people into two groups as
a precaution when he heard Esau was coming to meet him with 400 men. Furthermore he sought
to pacify Esau's anger with an expensive gift in addition to praying for God's deliverance.
Jacob had been able to handle his problems himself by hook or by crook until now. At this point in
his experience God brought him to the end of his natural resources.
"As Jacob is at the precipice of receiving the promise of Canaan, he is not yet morally ready to
carry out the blessing. Jacob must possess his own faith, obtaining the blessing through personal
encounter, not by heredity alone." [Note: Mathews, Genesis 11:27-50:26, p. 537.]
"The events of this chapter are couched between two accounts of Jacob's encounter with angels
(Genesis 32:1; Genesis 32:25). The effect of these two brief pictures of Jacob's meeting with
angels on his return to the land is to align the present narrative with the similar picture of the
Promised Land in the early chapters of Genesis. The land was guarded on its borders by angels.
The same picture was suggested early in the Book of Genesis when Adam and Eve were cast out
of the Garden of Eden and 'cherubim' were positioned on the east of the garden to guard the way
to the tree of life. It can hardly be accidental that as Jacob returned from the east, he was met by
angels at the border of the Promised Land. This brief notice may also be intended to alert the
reader to the meaning of Jacob's later wrestling with the 'man' ... at Peniel (Genesis 32:25-30).
The fact that Jacob had met with angels here suggests that the man at the end of the chapter is
also an angel." [Note: Sailhamer, "Genesis," p. 208.]
HOLE, "Verses 1-29
Thus far, many blemishes have marred the history of Jacob. His desire at the outset for the
birthright and the blessing of God, which accompanied it, was right: the way he schemed to obtain
it altogether wrong. God had been but little in his thoughts, and when, fleeing from Esau's
vengeance, in a night vision he discovered the house of God, he felt it to be a dreadful place. One
of our hymn writers describing his soul's journey, began with, "All of self and none of Thee." If it
was not exactly thus with Jacob, it had certainly been, "Nearly all of self and very little of Thee."
Now however the time had come when God would deal more directly with him, and the first move
was that he should encounter an angelic band. Jacob was migrating with wives, children, servants
and many animals, thus forming a large band. He now became conscious that there was a
second band, standing on his behalf. Even this did not free him from the fear of Esau, and his
approach to him, as given in verses Genesis 32:3-5, though very diplomatic, bears traces of the
working of a bad conscience.
Verse Genesis 32:7 again bears witness to this. The tidings that Esau, at the head of four hundred
men, was coming to meet him, awoke his keenest fears. In spite of having seen the angelic band,
he assumed at once, as the fruit of the working of his conscience, that Esau was on his way to
take vengeance and, true to his nature, he at once worked out an elaborate scheme to placate his
brother and secure himself. All his possessions, starting with flocks and servants and working
down to wives and children, were to meet the brother he feared before he himself had to face him.
But this did not altogether exclude God from his thoughts. In verses Genesis 32:9-12, we have his
prayer recorded. God had intervened with him previously and Jacob had registered a vow, but this
is the first actual prayer of his that is put on record. It does not breathe the spirit of communion
and intercession, such as marked Abraham in Genesis 18:1-33, it was simply a plea for
preservation, while acknowledging God's mercies to him in the past. Yet we notice how rightly he
took a low place, though not as low as Abraham, who said, "I... am but dust and ashes" (Genesis
18:27). Jacob says, "I am not worthy of the least of all Thy mercies," which was indeed true,
though it did not go the whole length. It is a fact in all dispensations that one's sense of
unworthiness and nothingness deepens as nearness to God increases. As an illustration of this
see Psalms 73:17, Psalms 73:22.

9. Jacob's plan was to appease Esau with a present, as verse Genesis 32:20 records. All — even
wives and sons — were sent over the brook at the ford Jabbok, and he was left alone, well to the
rear. Not a very dignified or courageous proceeding! Yet God was in all this, for being left alone,
the moment had come for him to be brought face to face with God Himself, that he might have an
experience, the effect of which he would never lose. Up to this point his life had been mainly one
of scheming against and wrestling with men. Now God by His Messenger was going to wrestle
with him.
"There wrestled a man with him;" such is the record, and doubtless at the start of this incident the
unknown Stranger was to Jacob but a mere man. Who was Jacob to give way to another man?
Hence it put him on his mettle to resist. The Stranger strove to break him down and until breaking
of the day he resisted. Then the supernatural nature of the Stranger was manifested by the
powerful touch which crippled him at his strongest point.
Then at once Jacob's attitude changed. Instead of wrestling, which now had become impossible
to him he took to clinging to his Conqueror. He ceased his striving and took to trusting, realizing
that the One who had overcome him had done so for his blessing, and that he was in the
presence of God. The Name of the Stranger was not revealed, but the blessing that Jacob had
desired from his youth was bestowed upon him then and there.
"He blessed him there," in the place of solitude with God, and when his natural power was
crippled and laid low. The vital blessing of God did not descend upon his head when he struck
that crafty bargain with Esau, nor even when his blind father, deceived by his impersonation of
Esau, pronounced the patriarchal blessing on his head. No, it was when God dealt with him
personally in solitude, and broke his stubborn will. In all this we may see a picture of how God
deals with our souls today, though the grace into which we are called is so much richer than
anything that Jacob knew.
By naming the place Peniel — "The face of God" — Jacob disclosed his deep sense of having
been brought face to face with God and that the outcome was preservation and not destruction.
Here was good reason for him to revise his earlier thought that the house of God and the gate of
heaven was a "dreadful" place.
In this incident we see foreshadowed several striking things. First, that in order to deal fully and
finally with man, God Himself would stoop into manhood, since it was as "a man" that Jacob saw
God "face to face." Second, that God's thought towards us, even the most wayward of us, is
blessing. Third, that human struggling and wrestling achieves nothing, and that surrender or
submission, and honesty in confession, is the way of blessing. Fourth, that it was when clinging to
the One who had vanquished him, and confessing to his name of Jacob - meaning Supplanter —
that his name was changed to Israel — meaning Prince of God — and he was told that he had
power not only with men but with God, and he had prevailed. By changing his name God claimed
Jacob as belonging now to Him.
Thus a great moment in his history had been reached, and as he realized that he had seen God
face to face, with salvation as the result, the sun rose upon him. An experience of this kind in the
history of any soul does indeed mark the dawning of a new day. In Jacob's case the experience
was memorialized for his children by a simple prohibition in their eating, as the last verse of the
chapter records.
But as yet Jacob was hardly equal to his new name, so we do not find it used by the inspired
historian until much later in his story. All his old characteristics come into display in Genesis 33:1-
20, carried to a high degree of obsequiousness. The bowing down of himself and wives and
children could hardly have been more complete and his proffered gifts were large, having made
up his mind to "appease him with the present."
The attitude of Esau was however not what he had anticipated. His anger had cooled off during
the intervening years, and he had become the leader of hundreds of men and thus a man of

10. influence and of large possessions. Though ultimately accepting Jacob's present, he at first
declined it saying, "I have enough," or more literally, "I have much." In verse Genesis 32:11, we
find Jacob saying, "I have enough," but he used a different word, meaning, "all." That word he
could use because he was able to say, "God hath dealt graciously with me." The man of the world
may be able to say, "I have much," it is only the saint, consciously blessed of God, who can say, "I
have all." This is what the Apostle Paul said in Philippians 4:18.
Jacob called his gift "my blessing," but in spite of this he was by no means anxious to have Esau's
company on his further journey. His plea, recorded in verse Genesis 32:13, was doubtless a
genuine one. It lends itself to an application amongst the people of God today. There are always
to be found those who are young and tender, who must not be overdriven. Those who have
reached the stature and activity of full-grown men must remember this, and not force the pace of
their weaker brethren to their undoing. Many a young and tender believer has been damaged by
this kind of thing.
Having declined the proffered help and Esau having departed, Jacob again reveals the
crookedness that seems to have been his natural bent. Having said to Esau, "I come unto my lord
unto Seir," he promptly journeyed to Succoth which lay in an entirely different direction. Moreover,
having arrived there, the record is that he built an house and made booths for his cattle, which
indicates that he had a mind to settle down in the land rather than maintain the character of a
stranger, following in the footsteps of his grandfather Abraham.
The next step recorded is his removal to Shalem, across the Jordan and in the centre of the land.
Here, though he had a tent and an altar, we can again discern that his separation from the people
of the land was becoming impaired. He pitched his tent close to the city, and then bought the land
where he had encamped. Further the very name he gave to his altar tells a similar story. The
name El-elohe-Israel means, "God the God of Israel." He did indeed use his new God-given name
and not his old name of Jacob yet even so he connected God with himself instead of connecting
himself with God. In effect he was saying "God belongs to me," instead of, "I belong to God."
There may not seem to be much difference between these two sentiments but there is a gulf
between the practices they induce, as we may soon see in our own histories. We may recognize
that as, "born of God," and, "in Christ Jesus," we have a new name, yet if we bring God down to
connect Him with our new name, we may easily assume that we may connect Him with our things
— things by no means worthy of His call or of His glory. On the other hand, to recognize that He
has called us to link us with Himself, at once searches our hearts, and lifts us above many a thing
that would entangle us.
The whole of Genesis 34:1-31 is occupied with the unhappy results that sprang from the lowering
of Jacob's separation from the world, which we have just noted. Its effects for evil were not
manifested in Jacob himself but in his family. The tide of evil runs in two broad channels: violence
and corruption. They are first mentioned in Genesis 6:12, Genesis 6:13 : they are personified in
"the evil man" and "the strange woman" of Proverbs 2:12, Proverbs 2:16. The world is just the
same today; and how often we have to hang our heads in shame and confess that a bit of world-
bordering on our part, as Christian parents, has led to sorrow and even disaster in our families.
In our chapter the corruption comes first. His daughter, Dinah, wanted to enjoy the companionship
and pleasures of the other young women of the land, and in result got entangled and defiled, and
this aroused great wrath amongst Jacob's sons, which was not appeased by the action of
Shechem and Ham or in the way of repairing the damage done. The anger came to a head in the
atrocious violence of Simeon and Levi, which was never forgotten by Jacob, nor indeed by God.
When at the end of his life Jacob spoke prophetically of his sons, foretelling the future of the tribes
and uttering certain blessings, he denounced these two sons, cursing their anger, as recorded in
Genesis 49:5-7.
Thus the shameful story of Genesis 34:1-31 not only caused Jacob "to stink among the
inhabitants of the land," — a dreadful position for him, seeing he was the only man in the land
possessing the true knowledge of God — but it brought a judgment upon the two who were the

11. promoters of the violence. It is of interest to note that in later days the tribe of Levi so acted as to
gain a special blessing, and in consequence we are permitted to see how God can turn that which
was originally a curse into a blessing. The word had been, "I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter
them in Israel" (Genesis 49:7). They were divided; but it was by Levi being called to special
service and scattered throughout all the tribes.
The first verse of Genesis 35:1-29 shows us how God intervened when things had reached this
sorry pass. He called Jacob back to the place where first God had made Himself known to him.
There he was to dwell and there his altar was to be. At Bethel, as we saw in Genesis 28:1-22,
God declared what He would be for and to Jacob, without raising any question as to Jacob's
response or behaviour. Now God is always true to Himself and to His word. Before the giving of
the law through Moses, God was dealing with these patriarchs on the basis of His promises in
grace, and those promises abide.
God deals with us according to grace in the Gospel today. Hence we read of, "this grace in which
we stand" (Romans 5:2), which is equivalent to saying that our dwelling before God is in His grace
or favour. As we dwell in the sense of His favour so shall we be led to approach Him in the spirit of
worship, and to have done with all that is displeasing to Him.
So it was with Jacob as we see here. Immediately God called him back to Bethel he realized that
there were evil things to be found in his household, even strange gods. In Genesis 31:1-55 we
saw how Rachel had carried off from Laban the "gods," or "seraphim," that he valued, and there is
no record of Jacob taking exception to them at that time. But with God before him, he at once
became alive to the evil of them. They were to be put away, and there was to be personal
cleanliness, extending even to the garments they wore, for the presence of God demands a
purging which covers even to that which surrounds us: an important lesson that we all need to
take to heart.
So far all was well with Jacob but a defect soon appears. The unclean things were not destroyed
but only hidden away. They had considerable monetary value and it looks as if he hoped to
resume possession, or at least realize their value, in a future day. The tendency of our foolish
hearts is just the same. Let us see that we do not act in similar fashion with defiling things of the
flesh and of the world that would naturally attract us.
As Jacob went to Bethel God restrained the peoples of the land from taking vengeance on him
and his household because of the violent action of his two sons; and so he safely got there, and
built his altar. The name he gave it stands in contrast with that which he gave to his former altar,
as recorded in the last verse of Genesis 33:1-20. There he connected God simply with himself.
Here he recognized Him as the God of His own dwelling-place. The altar, El-beth-el, demanded
from Jacob a higher standard of conduct than did the altar, El-elohe-Israel.
Arrived at Bethel, things began to move rapidly forward. The first recorded event is the death of
Deborah, who had been nurse to Jacob's mother. A break with the past is thus signified. Then, the
promises of God were confirmed in a fresh appearance of the Almighty. Jacob's new name was
confirmed, and the land was made sure to him. This moved him freshly to set up a pillar of
witness and anoint it, as a response to the revelation. But, as is so often the case in God's ways
this fresh grace from God is followed by fresh losses on the human side.
Leaving Bethel, Rachel was over taken in childbirth and died. Thus he lost his favourite wife,
though in her death he gained a son. As we before noted this was the only occasion when Jacob
himself had to do with the naming of his sons, and the child became known by that name, rather
than by the name his dying mother gave him.
This blow was succeeded by the disgraceful sin of Reuben, so that at this point sorrow succeeded
sorrow. Yet we cannot but think that there is a typical significance in the way these things are
brought together: Rachel typifying the nation out of whom the Messiah was to spring. He was to
be the "Son of Sorrow" in His rejection, which would mean the setting aside of the nation from
whom He sprang. Ultimately the "Son of Sorrow" would be manifested as the "Son of the Right

12. Hand," not only of Jacob but of Jehovah Himself. But until that time, and while as a nation Israel
lies spiritually dead, the Gentiles come into prominence, just as the sons of Leah and the
concubines are prominent in verses Genesis 32:23-26.
The closing verses put on record one more loss, in the death of his aged father, Isaac. Though he
went blind many years before and anticipated his death (Genesis 27:2), it did not actually take
place till he had lived 180 years. The division of Genesis entitled, "The generations of Isaac,"
began at Genesis 25:19, and it extends to the end of Genesis 35:1-29. Under it has come all
these many details as to the earlier history of Jacob.
PULPIT, "And Jacob (after Laban's departure) went on his way (from Galeed and Mizpah, in a
southerly direction towards the Jabbok), and the angels of God—literally, the messengers of
Elohim, not chance travelers who informed him of Esau's being in the vicinity (Abarbanel), but
angels (cf. Psalms 104:4)—met him. Not necessarily came in an opposite direction, fuerunt ei
obviam (Vulgate), but simply fell in with him, lighted on him as in Genesis 28:11, συνήντησαν
αὐτῶ (LXX.), forgathered with him (Scottish); but whether this was in a waking vision (Kurtz, Keil,
Inglis) or a midnight dream (Hengstenberg) is uncertain, though-the two former visions enjoyed by
Jacob were at night (cf. Genesis 28:12; Genesis 31:10). Cajetan, approved by Pererius,
translating ‫ּבֹו‬ "in him," makes it appear that the vision was purely subjective, non fuisse visionem
corporalem, sed internam: the clause interpolated by the LXX; καὶ ἀναβλέψας εἰδε παρεµβολὴν
θεοῦ παρµεβεβληκυῖαν, seems rather to point to an objective manifestation. The appearance of
this invisible host may have been designed to celebrate Jacob's triumph over Laban, as after
Christ's victory over Satan in the wilderness angels came and ministered unto him (Rupertus,
Wordsworth), or to remind him that he owed his deliverance to Divine interposition (Calvin, Bush,
Lange), but was more probably intended to assure him of protection in his approaching interview
with Esau (Josephus, Chrysostom, Rosenmüller, Keil, Murphy, 'Speaker's Commentary'), and
perhaps also to give him welcome in returning home again to Canaan (Kurtz), if not in addition to
suggest that his descendants would require to fight for their inheritance (Kalisch).
TRAPP, "Genesis 32:1 And Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him.
Ver. 1. Angels of God met him.] Sensibly and visibly, as servants meet their masters, as the guard
their prince. Oh, the dignity and safety of the saints! who are in five respects, say some, above the
angels. (1.) Our nature is more highly advanced in Christ. (2.) The righteousness whereby we
come to glory is more excellent than theirs; which, though perfect in its kind, is but the
righteousness of mere creatures, such as God may find fault with, [Job 4:18] such as may need
mercy; therefore the cherubims are said to stand upon the mercy seat, and to be made of the
matter thereof. (3.) The sonship of the saints is founded in a higher right than theirs - viz., in the
Sonship of the second Person in Trinity. (4.) They are members of Christ, and so in nearer union
than any creature. (5.) They are the spouse, the bride; angels only servants of the Bridegroom,
and "ministering spirits, sent out (as here) to minister for them that shall be heirs of salvation".
[Hebrews 1:14] They meet us still, as they did Jacob: they minister many blessings to us, yet will
not be seen to receive any thanks of us: they stand at our right hands, [Luke 1:11] as ready to
relieve us as the devils to mischief us. [Zechariah 3:1] If Satan, for terror, show himself like the
great "leviathan"; or, for fraud, like a "crooked" and "piercing serpent"; or, for violence and fury,
like "the dragon in the seas"; yet the Lord will smite him by his angels, as with his "great, and sore,
and strong sword". [Isaiah 27:1] Angels are in heaven as in their watch tower {whence they are
called watchers, Daniel 4:13}, to keep the world, the saints especially, their chief charge, in whose
behalf, they "stand ever before the face of God," [Matthew 18:10] waiting and wishing to be sent
upon any design or expedition, for the service and safety of the saints. They are like masters or
tutors, to whom the great King of heaven commits his children: these they bear in their bosoms,
as the nurse doth her babe, or as the servants of the house do their young master, glad to do
them any good office; ready to secure them from that roaring lion, that rangeth up and down,
seeking to devour them. The philosopher told his friends, when they came into his little and low
cottage, Eντευθεν ουκ απεισι θεοι, The gods are here with me. The true Christian may say, though
he dwell never so meanly, God and his holy angels are ever with him, &c.
SBC, "I. Notice first the angels themselves. (1) Their number is very great. (2) They are

13. swift as the flames of fire. (3) They are also strong: "Bless the Lord, ye His angels that
excel in strength." (4) They seem to be all young. (5) They are evidently endowed with
corresponding moral excellences.
II. The ministry of angels has these characteristics. (1) It is a ministry of guardianship.
(2) It is a ministry of cheerfulness. (3) It is a ministry of animation. (4) It is a ministry of
consolation. (5) It is a ministry of fellowship and convoy through death to life and from
earth to heaven.
III. The whole subject shows in a very striking manner (1) the exceeding greatness of the
glory of Christ; (2) the value and greatness of salvation.
A. Raleigh, Quiet Resting-places, p. 182.
Jacob called the name of that place Mahanaim (i.e., two camps). One camp was the little
one containing his women and children and his frightened and defenceless self, and the
other was the great one up there, or rather in shadowy but most real spiritual presence
round about him as a bodyguard, making an impregnable wall between him and every
foe. We may take some plain lessons from the story.
I. The angels of God meet us on the dusty road of common life. "Jacob went on his way
and the angels of God met him."
II. God’s angels meet us punctually at the hour of need.
III. The angels of God come in the shape which we need. Jacob’s want was protection;
therefore the angels appear in warlike guise, and present before the defenceless man
another camp. God’s gifts to us change their character; as the Rabbis fabled that the
manna tasted to each man what each most desired. In that great fulness each of us may
have the thing we need.
A. Maclaren, Christ in the Heart, p. 195.
References: Gen_32:1.—S. Baring-Gould, Preacher’s Pocket, p. 1. Gen_32:1, Gen_
32:2.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxvi., No. 1544. Gen_32:1-32.—Clergyman’s
Magazine, vol. v., p. 101.
Genesis 32:1
Gen_32:1, Gen_32:24
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

14. 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 angels He 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: Gen_32:2.—Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. xvi., p. 90.
Genesis 32:1-32
Genesis 32
I. God selects men for His work on earth, not because of their personal agreeableness,
but because of their adaptation to the work they have to perform.
II. There is something affecting in the way in which guilty persons invoke the God of
their fathers. Conscious that they deserve nothing at the hands of God, they seek to bring
down on themselves the blessing of the God of their father and mother.
III. When a man is overtaken in his transgression, and all his wickedness seems to come
down upon him, how true it is that then there rises up before him the concurrent
suffering of all his household! It takes hold on him through his wife and his children and
all that he loves.
IV. Men’s sins carry with them a punishment in this life. Different sins are differently
punished.
V. Nothing but a change of heart will put a man right with himself, right with society,
and right with God.
VI. No man who is in earnest need ever despair because of past misdoing.
H. W. Beecher, Sermons, 2nd series, p. 106.
BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR, "And Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met
him. And when Jacob saw them, he said, This is God’s host: and he called the name of
that place Mahanaim.
The ministry of angels
I. THE ANGELS THEMSELVES.

15. 1. Their number is very great.
2. They are swift as the flames of fire.
3. They are strong.
4. They seem to be all young.
5. They are evidently endowed with corresponding moral excellences.
II. THE MINISTRY OF ANGELS HAS THESE CHARACTERISTICS. It is a ministry of—
1. Guardianship.
2. Cheerfulness.
3. Animation.
4. Consolation.
5. Fellowship and convoy through death to life, and from earth to heaven.
III. THE WHOLE SUBJECT SHOWS IN A VERY STRIKING MANNER—
1. The exceeding greatness of the glory of Christ.
2. The value and greatness of salvation. (A. Raleigh, D. D.)
Angelic ministrations
Every man has two lives—an outward and an inward. The one is that denoted here:
“Jacob went on his way,” &c. The other is denoted in Gen_32:24: “Jacob was left alone,”
&c. 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 recognized 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 RECOGNIZE 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 angels He 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.
(1) 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.
(2) 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.
(Dean Vaughan.)

16. Meeting with angels
I. The angels of God meet us on THE DUSTY ROAD OF COMMON LIFE.
II. God’s angels meet us PUNCTUALLY at the hour of need.
III. The angels of God come IN THE SHAPE WHICH WE NEED. Jacob’s want was
protection; therefore the angels appear in warlike guise, and present before the
defenceless man another camp. God’s gifts to us change their character; as the Rabbis
fabled that manna tasted to each man what each most desired. In that great fulness each
of us may have the thing we need. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
Jacob’s visible and invisible world
I. JACOB’S VISIBLE WORLD. He had just escaped the persecutions of his father-in-law,
and was now expecting to meet with a fiercer enemy in his brother. All was dread and
anxiety.
II. JACOB’S INVISIBLE WORLD. What a different scene is presented to him when his
spiritual eye is opened, and God permits him to see those invisible forces which were
engaged on his side. We are told that “the angels of God met him.” He was weak to all
human appearance; but he was really strong, for God’s host had come to deliver him
from any host of men that might oppose. The host of God is described as parting into
two bands, as if to protect him behind and before; or to assure him that as he had been
delivered from one enemy, so he would be delivered from another enemy, which was
coming forth to meet him. Thus Jacob was taught—
1. To whom he owed his late mercies.
2. The true source of his protection.
3. His faith is confirmed. It is justified for the past, and placed upon a firmer basis
for the future. (T. H. Leale.)
Hosts of angels
1. God has a multitude of servants, and all these are on the side of believers. “His
camp is very great,” and all the hosts in that camp are our allies. Some of these are
visible agents, and many more are invisible, but none the less real and powerful.
2. We know that a guard of angels always surrounds every believer. “Omnipotence
has servants everywhere.” These servants of the strong God are all filled with power;
there is not one that fainteth among them all, they run like mighty men, they prevail
as men of war. We know that they “excel in strength,” as they “do His
commandments, hearkening unto the voice of His word.” Rejoice, O children of God!
There are vast armies upon your side, and each one of the warriors is clothed with
the strength of God.
3. All these agents work in order, for it is God’s host, and the host is made up of
beings which march or fly, according to the order of command. “Neither shall one
thrust another; they shall walk every one in his path.” All the forces of nature are
loyal to their Lord. They are perfectly happy, because consecrated; full of delight,

17. because completely absorbed in doing the will of the Most High. Oh that we could do
His will on earth as that will is done in heaven by all the heavenly ones!
4. Observe that in this great host they were all punctual to the Divine command.
Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him. The patriarch is no sooner
astir than the hosts of God are on the wing. They did not linger till Jacob had crossed
the frontier, nor did they keep him waiting when he came to the appointed
rendezvous; but they were there to the moment. When God means to deliver you,
beloved, in the hour of danger, you will find the appointed force ready for your
succour. God’s messengers are neither behind nor before their time; they will meet
us to the inch and to the second in the time of need; therefore let us proceed without
fear, like Jacob, going on our way even though an Esau with a band of desperadoes
should block up the road.
5. Those forces of God, too, were all engaged personally to attend upon Jacob. I like
to set forth this thought: “Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him”; he
did not chance to fall in with them. They did not happen to be on the march, and so
crossed the patriarch’s track; no, no; he went on his way, and the angels of God met
him with design and purpose. They came on purpose to meet him: they had no other
appointment. Squadrons of angels marched to meet that one lone man He was a
saint, but by no means a perfect one; we cannot help seeing many flaws in him, even
upon a superficial glance at his life, and yet the angels of God met him. All came to
wait upon Jacob, on that one man: “The angel of the Lord encampeth round about
them that fear Him”; but in this case it was to one man with his family of children
that a host was sent. The man himself, the lone man who abode in covenant with
God when all the rest of the world was given up to idols, was favoured by this mark
of Divine favour. One delights to think that the angels should be willing, and even
eager, troops of them, to meet one man. Are ye not well cared for, oh ye sons of the
Most High!
6. Those forces, though in themselves invisible to the natural senses, are manifest to
faith at certain times. There are times when the child of God is able to cry, like Jacob,
“The angels of God have met me.” When do such seasons occur? Our Mahanaims
occur at much the same time as that in which Jacob beheld this great sight. Jacob
was entering upon a more separated life. He was leaving Laban and the school of all
those tricks of bargaining and bartering which belong to the ungodly world. By a
desperate stroke he cut himself clear of entanglements; but he must have felt lonely,
and as one cast adrift. He missed all the associations of the old house of
Mesopotamia, which, despite its annoyances, was his home. The angels come to
congratulate him. Their presence said, “You are come to this land to be a stranger
and sojourner with God, as all your fathers were. We have, some of us, talked with
Abraham, again and again, and we are now coming to smile on you. You recollect
how we bade you good-bye that night, when you had a stone for your pillow at
Bethel; now you have come back to the reserved inheritance, over which we are set as
guardians, and we have come to salute you. Take up the nonconforming life without
fear, for we are with you. Welcome I welcome I we are glad to receive you under our
special care.” Again, the reason why the angels met Jacob at that time was,
doubtless, because he was surrounded with great cares. He had a large family of little
children; and great flocks and herds and many servants were with him. Again, the
Lord’s host appeared when Jacob felt a great dread. His brother Esau was coming to
meet him armed to the teeth, and, as he feared, thirsty for his blood. In times when
our danger is greatest, if we are real believers, we shall be specially under the Divine
protection, and we shall know that it is so. This shall be our comfort in the hour of

18. distress. And, once again, when you and I, like Jacob, shall be near Jordan, when we
shall just be passing into the better land, then is the time when we may expect to
come to Mahanaim. The angels of God and the God of angels, both come to meet the
spirits of the blessed in the solemn article of death.
7. Thus I have mentioned the time when these invisible forces become visible to
faith; and there is no doubt whatever that they are sent for a purpose. Why were they
sent to Jacob at this time? Perhaps the purpose was first to revive an ancient
memory which had well-nigh slipped from him. I am afraid he had almost forgotten
Bethel. Surely it must have brought his vow at Bethel to mind, the vow which he
made unto the Lord when he saw the ladder, and the angels of God ascending and
descending upon it. Here they were; they had left heaven and come down that they
might hold communion with him. Mahanaim was granted to Jacob, not only to
refresh his memory, but to lift him out of the ordinary low level of his life. Jacob, you
know, the father of all the Jews, was great at huckstering: it was the very nature of
him to drive bargains. Jacob had all his wits about him, and rather more than he
should have had, well answering to his name of “supplanter.” He would let no one
deceive him, and he was ready at all times to take advantage of those with whom he
had any dealings. Here the Lord seems to say to him, “O Jacob, My servant, rise out
of this miserable way of dealing with Me, and be of a princely mind.” Oh for grace to
live according to our true position and character, not as poor dependents upon our
own wits or upon the help of man, but as grandly independent of things seen,
because our entire reliance is fixed upon the unseen and eternal. Believe as much in
the invisible as in the visible, and act upon your faith. This seems to me to be God’s
object in giving to any of His servants a clearer view of the powers which are engaged
on their behalf. If such a special vision be granted to us, let us keep it in memory.
Jacob called the name of that place Mahanaim. I wish we had some way in this
western world, in these modern times, of naming places, and children, too, more
sensibly. We must needs either borrow some antiquated title, as if we were too short
of sense to make one for ourselves, or else our names are sheer nonsense, and mean
nothing. Why not choose names which should commemorate our mercies? (C.
H.Spurgeon.)
God’s host
I. THE PATH OF COMMON DUTIES IN DAILY LIFE IS THE BEST AND SUREST WAY
TO HEAVENLY VISIONS. Jacob’s track lay downward to the deep valley, and through
its shadows to the fords of Jordan. So, if our life is led downward, through toil and care
and sorrow, heaven may open as freely above it as on the hill-tops. All know how the
proof of a soldier is given on the march as much as in battle; and it is so in common life.
But in spiritual application there is a difference: the rewards of men are won only on the
field; but our Divine Commander observes and honours equally those equally faithful in
the daily march, in farm, or shop, or household, or in the shut-in camp of sickness those
“faithful in that which is least.”
II. GOD’S CARE OVER THOSE THAT FEAR HIM.
III. GOD’S WAY OF APPEARING FOR MAN’S HELP. (W. H. Randall.)
Lessons

19. 1. Laban’s departure and Jacob’s progress are adjoining. Oppressors retreat and
saints advance.
2. God’s servants are careful to move in their own way enjoined by God.
3. In their way commanded, God appoints His angels to meet them Psa_91:2; Psa_
91:4). God with His angels appears to comfort His, after conflicts with their
adversaries (verse 1).
5. God sometimes affords His visible helps unto visible troubles for His saints’
support.
6. God’s angels are God’s mighty host indeed, and that in the judgment of the saints.
7. Not single angels but troops God appoints for the guard of single saints.
8. God’s saints desire to call mercies by their right names. God’s angels are called
God’s hosts.
9. It is proper to God’s saved ones, to leave memorials of God’s strength in saving
them (verse 2). (G. Hughes, B. D.)
Mahanaim
I cannot tell, for Scripture says not, in what form they appeared, or by what sign Jacob
recognized them. It is perhaps in the most general view of the passage that its truest
comfort lies. It matters not to us what the Patriarchs thought or knew of the ministry of
angels, so long as we ourselves recognize the true place of that ministry in the economy
of God. In its simplicity, the angelic office is a doctrine of revelation. There are beings
beside and (for the present) above man; beings, like him, intelligent, rational, spiritual;
beings capable, like him, of knowing, loving, and communing with God; beings, unlike
him, pure from the stain of sin—tried once, as all moral natures must be tried, by the
alternative of loyalty or self-pleasing—yet faithful among the faithless through that great
ordeal, and now for ever secured by the seal of that holiness which they have chosen.
Man is not yet, save in one single aspect, the head and the chief of all God’s creation. In
the person of the God-Man he has the pledge indeed that one day he shall be so. But as
yet, when the eye of faith looks upward through the infinite space, it discerns essences in
all things equal to the human, and in their sinlessness superior; it sees those who in
heaven’s primeval warfare sided with God and conquered—left not their original estate,
nor despised their first habitation. The existence of a nature purer than man’s, more
refined in its enjoyments and more elevated in its converse, presents no practical
difficulty to the thoughtful. We find nothing but refreshment and nothing but
encouragement in the belief that above as well as beneath us are beings performing
perfectly the law of their creation; spirits that see God’s face, as well as animals
instinctively true to God’s order. Man only mars the sweet accord: higher existences have
not fallen, lower existences could not fall. If for man God has provided a redemption,
then may there be in the end a restoration of that original perfection in which God saw
everything that He had made, and, behold, it was very good. That contrast which shames
shall also comfort. But how much more when we read in the sure word of revelation that
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. In all his ways they have charge of
him, that he dash not his foot against a stone. That which God has done for man, angels
desire to look into. Angels are ministering spirits, sent forth to minister to the heirs of
salvation. Angels spend not their immortal age in abject prostration, or in delicious

20. dreamy contemplation: rather do they excel in strength, doing God’s commandments,
hearkening (for obedience sake) to the voice of God’s Word. When God spake to man
from a material mountain, His holy ones were around Him: “The chariots of God are
twenty thousand, even thousands of angels; and the Lord is among them, as in the holy
place of Sinai.” Theirs were those wondrous utterances, which Israel took for the voice of
the trumpet, sounding long, and waxing louder and louder; theirs those fearful
manifestations of blinding smoke and consuming fire, amidst which the Lord descended,
while all the people that was in the camp trembled; theirs, it may be, the hewing and the
graving of those tables of stone, on which were written, as by God’s finger, the words of
His first testimony. The law was ordained by angels; the law was given by the disposition
of angels; the word spoken by angels was steadfast. And if even that temporary, that
parenthetical dispensation was thus introduced by the ministry of angels; if man’s
recovery was dear to them, even in its earlier and more imperfect stages, while he was
but learning his lesson of weakness, and heaving his first sighs after forgiveness and
sanctification—well can we understand how they might herald a Saviour’s birth, and
soothe a Saviour’s sorrows; strengthen Him in His agony, and minister in His tomb;
proclaim His resurrection, predict His advent, and greet at the everlasting doors the
return of the King of glory. Not even there, nor then, did their ministry terminate. He
Himself has told us how in heaven, in the presence of the angels of God, there is joy still
over each sinner that repenteth; how His little ones below, His weak and tempted
disciples, have their angels ever in heaven, beholding the face of His Father; how angels
carry dying saints into Abraham’s bosom; and how, in the last great crisis of the world’s
harvest, it is they who shall execute the reapers’ office, gather together His elect from the
four winds, and gather also out of His kingdom all things that offend. Wheresoever there
is a work to be done as between God and man, there is the great ladder still reared, and
the angels of God are ascending and descending by it. Ministering spirits are they still;
and man’s best wish for himself is that he may at last be enabled to do as well as to suffer
God’s will, even as they, the inmates of heaven, have from the beginning borne and done
it. Thy will be done, he prays, as in heaven, so on earth. Jacob went on his way, and the
angels of God met him. We know not how extensive, and we know not how minute, may
be that ministration even in the things that are seen. We know not what angelic workings
may be concealed behind the phenomena of nature, or latent in the accidents and the
escapes of human life. We know not how, in seasons of mortal weakness or of fiendish
temptation, we may be indebted to their instrumentality for the reviving courage or the
resisting strength. We dare not say but that even the indwelling Spirit may avail Himself
of their ministry to assist or to protect, to invigorate or to reanimate. This we know—for
the Word of God has told us—that one portion of that holy communion and fellowship to
which the citizen of the heavenly Jerusalem has come, not only in hope, but in present
union and incorporation, is an innumerable company of angels. I read not these words
as glimpses only of a glorious future, but as expressive of a present trust and a practical
help and aid. The sympathy of angels is one of the Christian’s privileges. Are there any
special ways in which we may recognize and use this sympathy? As we go on our way,
can we in any special manner hope to meet the angels?
1. An apostle speaks of entertaining angels unawares. He says that the duty of
hospitality may be exercised in this remembrance—thereby some have entertained
angels. It is so still. The angelic office is discharged sometimes in human form. Let us
count common life a ministry: let us, in common life, be on the look-out for angels!
2. And more especially, in the exercise of a vigilant self-control, lest we harm or
tempt. Our Saviour Himself has warned us of the presence of the angels as a reason
for not offending—that is, for not thwarting and not tempting—His little ones.

21. Beware, careless parent! beware, sinful brother! beware, false friend! That child, that
boy, that youth, has his angel, and the home of that angel is the heaven of God l
(Dean Vaughan.)
God’s host always near
We who live in this matter-of-fact and mechanical age are apt to think that it was a wrapt
and wondrous life which the patriarch led in that old time, when he could meet God’s
host among the hills, and could see convoys of bright angels like the burning clouds of
sunset hovering round him in the solitudes of the mountains. But God’s host is always
nearer than we are apt to suppose in the dark hours of trial and conflict. The angels have
not yet forsaken the earth, nor have they ceased to protect the homes and journeys of
good men. Heaven and earth are nearer each other now than they were when Jacob saw
God’s host in the broad day and Abraham entertained the Divine messengers under the
shadow of the oak at noon. The spiritual world is all around us, and its living inhabitants
are our fellow-servants and companions in all our work for God and for our own
salvation. The inhabitants of heaven find more friends and acquaintances on earth now
than they did in former times. It is not from any want of interest in the affairs of men
that they do not now meet us in the daily walks of life or speak to us in the dreams of the
night. If we do not see angels come and take us by the hand and lead us out of danger, as
they led Lot out of Sodom, it is not because they have ceased to come, or because they
fail to guard us when we need protection. We must not think that God was more
interested in the world in ancient times, when He spoke by miracles and prophets and
apostles, than He is now when He speaks by His written word and by His holy
providence. The heart of the Infinite Father never yearned toward His earthly children
with a deeper or more tender compassion than now. There never was a time when God
was doing more to govern, to instruct, and to save the world than He is doing now. To
those who look for Him the tokens of His presence are manifest everywhere; the voice of
His providence is in every wind; every path of life is covered with the overshadowings of
His glory. To the devout mind this world, which has been consecrated by the sacrificial
blood of the cross, is only the outer court of the everlasting temple in which God sits
enthroned, with the worshipping hosts of the blessed around Him. We need only a pure
heart to see God as much in the world now as He was when He talked with men face to
face. He speaks in all the discoveries of science, in all the inventions of heart, in all the
progress of the centuries, in everything which enriches life and enlarges the resources of
men. All the great conflicts and agitations of society prove that God is on the field. We
need only add the faith of the patriarchs to the science of the philosophers, and we shall
find Bethels in the city and in the solitude, Mahanaims in every day’s march in the
journey of life (D. March, D. D.)
Angelic ministration
I did not see, early in the morning, the flight of all those birds that filled all the bushes
and all the orchard trees, but they were there, though I did not see their coming, and
heard their songs afterwards. It does not matter whether you have ministered to you yet
those perceptions by which you perceive angelic existence. The fact that we want to bear
in mind is, that we are environed by them, that we move in their midst. How, where,
what the philosophy is, whether it be spiritual philosophy, no man can tell, and they
least that think they know most about it. The fact which we prize and lay hold of is this,

22. that angelic ministration is a part, not of the heavenly state, but of the universal
condition of men, and that as soon as we become Christ’s we come not to the home of
the living God, but to the “innumerable company of angels.” (H. W.Beecher.)
Angels on the path of life
Though no vision is vouchsafed to our mortal eyes, yet angels of God are with us oftener
than we know, and to the pure heart every home is a Bethel, and every path of life a
Penuel and a Mahanaim. In the outer world and the inner world, we see and meet
continually these messengers of God. Wrestle with them in faith and prayer they are
angels with hands full of immortal gifts; to those who neglect or use them ill they are
angels with drawn sword and scathing flame.
I. The earliest angel is the angel of youth. Do not think that you can retain him long. Use,
as wise stewards, this blessed portion of your lives. Remember that as your faces are
setting into the look which they shall wear in later years, so is it with your lives.
II. Next is the angel of innocent pleasure. Trifle not with this angel. Remember that in
heathen mythology the Lord of Pleasure is also the God of Death. Guilty pleasure there
is; guilty happiness there is not on earth.
III. There are the angels of time and opportunity. They are with us now, and we may
unclench from their conquered hands garlands of immortal flowers. Hallow each new
day in your morning prayer, for prayer, too, is an angel—an angel who can turn
“pollution into purity, sinners into penitents, and penitents into saints.”
IV. There is one angel with whom we must wrestle whether we will or no, and whose
power of curse or blessing we cannot alter—the angel of death. (Archdeacon Farrar.)
EBC, "JACOB AT PENIEL
"Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up." Jas_4:10
JACOB had a double reason for wishing to leave Padan-aram. He believed in the
promise of God to give him Canaan: and he saw that Laban was a man with whom he
could never be on a thoroughly good understanding. He saw plainly that Laban was
resolved to make what he could out of his skill at as cheap a rate as possible-the
characteristic of a selfish, greedy, ungrateful, and therefore, in the end, ill-served master.
Laban and Esau were the two men who had hitherto chiefly influenced Jacob’s life. But
they were very different in character. Esau could never see that there was any important
difference between himself and Jacob-except that his brother was trickier. Esau was the
type of those who honestly think that there is not much in religion, and that saints are
but white-washed sinners. Laban, on the contrary, is almost superstitiously impressed
by the distinction between God’s people and others. But the chief practical, issue of this
impression is, not that he seeks God’s friendship for himself, but that he tries to make a
profitable use of God’s friends. He seeks to get God’s blessing, as it were, at secondhand.
If men could be related to God indirectly, as if in law and not by blood, that would suit
Laban. If God would admit men to his inheritance on any other terms than being sons in
the direct line, if there were some relationship once removed, a kind of sons-in-law, so
that mere connection with the godly, though not with God, would win His blessing, this
would suit Laban.
Laban is the man who appreciates the social value of virtue, truthfulness, fidelity,

23. temperance, godliness, but wishes to enjoy their fruits without the pain of cultivating the
qualities themselves. He is scrupulous as to the character of those he takes into his
employment, and seeks to connect himself in business with good men. In his domestic
life he acts on the idea which his experience has suggested to him, that persons really
godly will make his home more peaceful, better regulated, safer than otherwise it might
be. If he holds a position of authority, he knows how to make use, for the preservation of
order and for the promotion of his own ends, of the voluntary efforts of Christian
societies, of the trustworthiness of Christian officials, and of the support of the Christian
community. But with all this recognition of the reality and influence of godliness, he
never for one moment entertains the idea of himself becoming a godly man. In all ages
there are Labans, who clearly recognise the utility and worth of a connection with God,
who have been much mixed up with persons in whom that worth was very conspicuous,
and who yet, at the last, "depart and return unto their place," like Jacob’s father-in-law,
without having themselves entered into any affectionate relations with God.
From Laban, then, Jacob was resolved to escape. And though to escape with large droves
of slow-moving sheep and cattle, as well as with many women and children, seemed
hopeless, the cleverness of Jacob did not fail him here. He did not get beyond reach of
pursuit; he could never have expected to do so. But he stole away to such a distance from
Haran as made it much easier for him to come to terms with Laban, and much more
difficult for Laban to try any further device for detaining him.
But, delivered as he was from Laban, he had an even more formidable person to deal
with, As soon as Laban’s company disappear on the northern horizon, Jacob sends
messengers south to sound Esau. His message is so contrived as to beget the idea in
Esau’s mind that his younger brother is a person of some importance, and yet is
prepared to show greater deference to himself than formerly. But the answer brought
back by the messengers is the curt and haughty despatch of the man of war to the man of
peace. No notice is taken of Jacob’s vaunted wealth. No proposal of terms as if Esau had
an equal to deal with, is carried back. There is only the startling announcement: "Esau
cometh to meet thee, and four hundred men with him." Jacob at once recognises the
significance of this armed advance on Esau’s part. Esau has not forgotten the wrong he
suffered at Jacob’s hands, and he means to show him that he is entirely in his power.
Therefore was Jacob "greatly afraid and distressed." The joy with which, a few days ago,
he had greeted the host of God, was quite overcast by the tidings brought him regarding
the host of Esau. Things heavenly do always look so like a mere show; visits of angels
seem so delusive and fleeting; the exhibition of the powers of heaven seems so often but
as a tournament painted on the sky, and so unavailable for the stern encounters that
await us on earth, that one seems, even after the most impressive of such displays, to be
left to fight on alone. No wonder Jacob is disturbed. His wives and dependants gather
round him in dismay; the children, catching the infectious panic, cower with cries and
weeping about their mothers; the whole camp is rudely shaken out of its brief truce by
the news of this rough Esau, whose impetuosity and warlike ways they had all heard of
and were now to experience. The accounts of the messengers would no doubt grow in
alarming descriptive detail as they saw how much importance was attached to their
words. Their accounts would also be exaggerated by their own unwarlike nature, and by
the indistinctness with which they had made out the temper of Esau’s followers, and the
novelty of the equipments of war they had seen in his camp. Could we have been
surprised had Jacob turned and fled when thus he was made to picture the troops of
Esau sweeping from his grasp all he had so laboriously earned, and snatching the
promised inheritance from him when in the very act of entering on possession? But
though in fancy he already hears their rude shouts of triumph as they fall upon his

24. defenceless band, and already sees the merciless horde dividing the spoil with shouts of
derision and coarse triumph, and though all around him are clamouring to be led into a
safe retreat, Jacob sees stretched before him the land that is his, and resolves that, by
God’s help, he shall win it. What he does is not the act of a man rendered incompetent
through fear, but of one who has recovered from the first shock of alarm and has all his
wits about him. He disposes his household and followers in two companies, so that each
might advance with the hope that it might be the one which should not meet Esau; and
having done all that his circumstances permit, he commends himself to God in prayer.
After Jacob had prayed to God, a happy thought strikes him, which he at once puts in
execution. Anticipating the experience of Solomon, that "a brother offended is harder to
be won than a strong city," he, in the style of a skilled tactician, lays siege to Esau’s
wrath, and directs against it train after train of gifts, which, like successive battalions
pouring into a breach, might at length quite win his brother. This disposition of his
peaceful battering trains having occupied him till sunset, he retires to the short rest of a
general on the eve of battle. As soon as he judges that the weaker members of the camp
are refreshed enough to begin their eventful march, he rises and goes from tent to tent
awaking the sleepers, and quickly forming them into their usual line of march, sends
them over the brook in the darkness, and himself is left alone, not with the depression of
a man who waits for the inevitable, but with the high spirits of intense activity, and with
the return of the old complacent confidence of his own superiority to his powerful but
sluggish-minded brother-a confidence regained now by the certainty he felt, at least for
the time, that Esau’s rage could not blaze through all the relays of gifts he had sent
forward. Having in this spirit seen all his camp across the brook, he himself pauses for a
moment; end looks with interest at the stream before him, and at the promised land on
its southern bank. This stream, too, has an interest for him as bearing a name like his
own-a name that signifies the "struggler," and was given to the mountain torrent from
the pain and difficulty with which it seemed to find its way through the hills. Sitting on
the bank of the stream, he sees gleaming through the darkness the foam that it churned
as it writhed through the obstructing rocks, or heard through the night the roar of its
torrent as it leapt downwards, tortuously finding its way towards Jordan; and Jacob
says, So will I, opposed though I be, win my way, by the circuitous routes of craft or by
the impetuous rush of courage, into the land whither that stream is going. With
compressed lips, and step as firm as when, twenty years before, he left the land, he rises
to cross the brook and enter the land-he rises, and is seized in a grasp that he at once
owns as formidable. But surely this silent close, as of two combatants who at once
recognise one another’s strength, this protracted strife, does not look like the act of a
depressed man, but of one whose energies have been strung to the highest pitch, and
who would have borne down the champion of Esau’s host had he at that hour opposed
his entrance into the land which Jacob claimed as his own, and into which, as his glove,
pledging himself to follow, he had thrown all that was dear to him in the world. It was no
common wrestler that would have been safe to meet him in that mood.
Why, then, was Jacob thus mysteriously held back while his household were quietly
moving forward in the darkness? What is the meaning, purpose, and use of this
opposition to his entrance? These are obvious from the state of mind Jacob was in. He
was going forward to meet Esau under the impression that there was no other reason
why he should not inherit the land but only his wrath, and pretty confident that by his
superior talent, his mother-wit, he could make a tool of this stupid, generous brother of
his. And the danger was, that if Jacob’s device had succeeded, he would have been
confirmed in these impressions, and have believed that he had won the land from Esau,
with God’s help certainly, but still by his own indomitable pertinacity of purpose and

25. skill in dealing with men. Now, this was not the state of the case at all. Jacob had, by his
own deceit. become an exile from the land, had been, in fact, banished for fraud; and
though God had confirmed to him the covenant, and promised to him the land, yet
Jacob had apparently never come to any such thorough sense of his sin and entire
incompetency to win the birthright for himself, as would have made it possible for him
to receive simply as God’s gift this land which as God’s gift was alone valuable. Jacob
does not yet seem to have taken up the difference between inheriting a thing as God’s
gift, and inheriting it as the meed of his own prowess to such a man God cannot give the
land; Jacob cannot receive it. He is thinking only of winning it, which is not at all what
God means, and which would, in fact, have annulled all the covenant, and lowered Jacob
and his people to the level simply of other nations who had to win and keep their
territories at their risk, and not as the blessed of God. If Jacob then is to get the land, he
must take it as a gift, which he is not prepared to do. During the last twenty years he has
got many a lesson which might have taught him to distrust his own management, and he
had, to a certain extent, acknowledged God; but his Jacob-nature, his subtle, scheming
nature, was not so easily made to stand erect, and still he is for wriggling himself into the
promised land. He is coming back to the land under the impression that God needs to be
managed; that even though we have His promises it requires dexterity to get them
fulfilled; that a man will get into the inheritance all the readier for knowing what to veil
from God and what to exhibit; when. to cleave to His word with great profession of most
humble and absolute reliance on Him, and when to take matters into one’s own hand.
Jacob, in short, was about to enter the land as Jacob, the supplanter, and that would
never do; he was going to win the land from Esau by guile, or as he might; and not to
receive it from God. And therefore, just as he is going to step into it, there lays hold of
him, not an armed emissary of his brother, but a far more formidable antagonist-if
Jacob will win the land, if it is to be a mere trial of skill, a wrestling match, it must at
least be with the right person. Jacob is met with his own weapons. He has not chosen
war, so no armed opposition is made; but with the naked force of his own nature, he is
prepared for any man who will hold the land against him; with such tenacity, toughness,
quick presence of mind, elasticity, as nature has given him, he is confident he can win
and hold his own. So the real proprietor of the land strips himself for the contest, and
lets him feel, by the first hold he takes of him, that if the question be one of mere
strength he shall never enter the land.
This wrestling therefore was by no means actually or symbolically prayer. Jacob was not
aggressive, nor did he stay behind his company to spend the night in praying for them. It
was God who came and laid hold on Jacob to prevent him from entering the land in the
temper he was in, and as Jacob. He was to be taught that it was not only Esau’s appeased
wrath, or his own skilful smoothing down of his brother’s ruffled temper, that gave him
entrance; but that a nameless Being, Who came out upon him from the darkness,
guarded the land, and that by His passport only could he find entrance. And henceforth,
as to every reader of this history so much more to Jacob’s self, the meeting with Esau
and the overcoming of his opposition were quite secondary to and eclipsed by his
meeting and prevailing with this unknown combatant.
This struggle had, therefore, immense significance for the history of Jacob. It is, in fact,
a concrete representation of the attitude he had maintained towards God throughout his
previous history; and it constitutes the turning point at which he assumes a new and
satisfactory attitude. Year after year Jacob had still retained confidence in himself; he
had never been thoroughly humbled, but had always felt himself able to regain the land
he had lost by his sin. And in this struggle he shows this same determination and self-
confidence. He wrestles on indomitably. As Kurtz, whom I follow in his interpretation of

26. this incident, says, "All along Jacob’s life had been the struggle of a clever and strong, a
pertinacious and enduring, a self-confident and self-sufficient person, who was sure of
the result only when he helped himself-a contest with God, who wished to break his
strength and wisdom, in order to bestow upon him real strength in divine weakness, and
real Wisdom in divine folly." All this self-confidence culminates now, and in one final
and sensible struggle, his Jacob-nature, his natural propensity to wrest what he desires
and win what he aims at, from the most unwilling opponent, does its very utmost and
does it in vain. His steady straining, his dexterous feints, his quick gusts of vehement
assault, make no impression on this combatant and move him not one foot off his
ground. Time after time his crafty nature puts out all its various resources, now letting
his grasp relax and feigning defeat, and then with gathered strength hurling himself on
the stranger, but all in vain. What Jacob had often surmised during the last twenty years,
what had flashed through him like a sudden gleam of light when he found himself-
married to Leah, that he was in the hands of one against whom it is quite useless to
struggle, he now again begins to suspect. And as the first faint dawn appears, and he
begins dimly to make out the face, the quiet breathing of which he had felt on his own
during the contest, the man with whom he wrestles touches the strongest sinew in
Jacob’s body, and the muscle on which the wrestler most depends shrivels at the touch
and reveals to the falling Jacob how utterly futile had been all his skill and obstinacy,
and how quickly the stranger might have thrown and mastered him.
All in a moment, as he falls, Jacob sees how it is with him, and Who it is that has met
him thus. As the hard, stiff, corded muscle shrivelled, so shrivelled his obdurate,
persistent self-confidence. And as he is thrown, yet cleaves with the natural tenacity of a
wrestler to his conqueror; so, utterly humbled before this Mighty One whom now he
recognises and owns, he yet cleaves to Him and entreats His Blessing. It is at this touch,
which discovers the Almighty power of Him with whom he has been contending, that the
whole nature of Jacob goes down before God. He sees how foolish and vain has been his
obstinate persistence in striving to trick God out of His blessing, or wrest it from Him,
and now he owns his utter incapacity to advance one step in this way, he admits to
himself that he is stopped, weakened in the way, thrown on his back, and can effect
nothing, simply nothing, by what he thought would effect all; and, therefore, he passes
from wrestling to praying, and with tears, as Hosea says, sobs out from the broken heart
of the strong man, "I will not let thee go except thou bless me." In making this transition
from the boldness and persistence of self-confidence to the boldness of faith and
humility, Jacob becomes Israel-the supplanter, being baffled by his conqueror, rises a
Prince. Disarmed of all other weapons, he at last finds and uses the weapons wherewith
God is conquered, and with the simplicity and guilelessness now of an Israelite indeed,
face to face with God, hanging helpless with his arms around Him, he supplicates the
blessing he could not win.
Thus, as Abraham had to become God’s heir in the simplicity of humble dependence on
God; as Isaac had to lay himself on God’s altar with absolute resignation, and so become
the heir of God, so Jacob enters on the inheritance through the most thorough
humbling. Abraham had to give up all possessions and live on God’s promise; Isaac had
to give up life itself; Jacob had to yield his very self, and abandon all dependence on his
own ability. The new name he receives signalizes and interprets this crisis in his life. He
enters his land not as Jacob, but as Israel. The man who crossed the Jabbok was not the
same as he who had cheated Esau and outwitted Laban and determinedly striven this
morning with the angel He was Israel, God’s prince, entering on the land freely bestowed
on him by an authority, none could resist; a man who had learned that in order to
receive from God, one must ask.