CHAPTER 32

(1739 B.C.)

ESAU

¹And Jacob went on his way, and the Angels of God met him (obeying the Lord, the Patriarch has the assurance of the protection of Angels).

²And when Jacob saw them (the Lord pulls back the cover of the spirit world, and allows Jacob to see the Angelic Host which will accompany him), he said, This is Gods Host: and he called the name of that place Mahanaim (at Beth-el, some twenty years before, his possessions consisted of a staff; but now he has become a host; Mahanaim means two camps his feeble camp and the encircling camp of Gods mighty Angels).

³And Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau his brother unto the land of Seir, the country of Edom (some believe that Esau was the founder of the ancient city of Petra, and may have been there when Jacob sent for him).

⁴And he commanded them, saying, Thus shall you speak unto my lord Esau; Your servant Jacob says thus, I have sojourned with Laban, and stayed there until now:

⁵And I have oxen, and asses, flocks, and menservants, and womenservants: and I have sent to tell my lord, that I may find grace in your sight.

⁶And the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, We came to your brother Esau, and also he comes to meet you, and four hundred men with him. (One doesnt bring that many men, as it regards a mere greeting. It is almost positive that Esau had other things in mind, and they were not exactly meant to be pleasant.)

⁷Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed (did he not remember the host of Angels around him? But before we criticize Jacob, we must, as well, look at ourselves): and he divided the people who were with him, and the flocks, and herds, and the camels, into two bands;

⁸And said, If Esau come to the one company, and smite it, then the other company which is left shall escape.

⁹And Jacob said, O God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, the LORD which said unto me, Return unto your country, and to your kindred, and I will deal well with you: (Like many today, Jacob first makes his plans and then prays! He should have reversed the action. But the sense of having acted wrongly those years ago regarding his brother, Esau, fills the heart with a thousand fears, and robs the Christian of confidence toward God and dignity before man.)

¹⁰I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies (Jacobs prayer is the first recorded in the Bible), and of all the truth, which you have showed unto your servant; for with my staff I passed over this Jordan; and now I am become two bands. (His prayer was correct, but his faith, as of yet, wasnt!)

¹¹Deliver me, I pray you, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau: for I fear him, lest he will come and smite me, and the mother with the children. (Jacob asked the Lord to deliver him, but then turns around and tries to appease Esau with a present. Was he placing more confidence in a few lambs than he did Jehovah, to Whom he had just been committing himself? But, as stated, before we criticize him, we had best look into the glass of our own hearts.)

¹²And You said, I will surely do you good, and make your seed as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.

¹³And he lodged there that same night; and took of that which came to his hand a present for Esau his brother (concerning this, Mackintosh says: Now, praying and planning will never go together. If I plan, I am leaning more or less on my plan; but when I pray, I should lean exclusively upon God. Hence, the two things are perfectly incompatible, they virtually cancel out each other. When my eyes fill with my own management of things, I am not prepared to see God acting for me; and, in that case, prayer is not the utterance of my need, but the mere superstitious performance of something which I think ought to be done, or it may be asking God to sanctify my plans. This will never do. The life of Faith is not asking God to sanctify and bless my means, but it is asking Him to do it all Himself);

¹⁴Two hundred she goats, and twenty he goats, two hundred ewes, and twenty rams,

¹⁵Thirty milk camels with their colts, forty cattle, and ten bulls, twenty she asses, and ten foals.

¹⁶And he delivered them into the hand of his servants, every drove by themselves; and said unto his servants, Pass over before me, and put a space between drove and drove.

¹⁷And he commanded the foremost (the men in the lead), saying, When Esau my brother meets you, and asks you, saying, For Whom do you work? and where are you going? and whose are these before you?

¹⁸Then you shall say, They be your servant Jacobs; it is a present sent unto my lord Esau: and, behold, also he (Jacob) is behind us.

¹⁹And so commanded he the second, and the third, and all that followed the droves, saying, On this manner shall you speak unto Esau, when you find him.

²⁰And say ye moreover, Behold, your servant Jacob is behind us. For he said, I will appease him with the present that goes before me, and afterward I will see his face; peradventure he will accept of me. (In 2003 currency, these gifts would have amounted to well over $100,000. Jacobs idea was that the gifts to Esau would be given drove by drove. If he accepted them, this would mean that he came to Jacob in peace. No sooner had the Patriarch quit praying, that he started planning, which means that he wasnt really trusting the Lord as he should have been.)

²¹So went the present over before him: and himself lodged that night in the company (with his family).

²²And he rose up that night, and took his two wives, and his two womenservants, and his eleven sons, and passed over the ford Jabbok.

²³And he took them (his family), and sent them over the brook, and sent over that he had. (The brook Jabbok crosses the Jordan about 30 miles north of the Dead Sea.)

ISRAEL

²⁴And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a Man with him until the breaking of the day. (In this Chapter, and in Hosea [Chpt. 12], this Man is called God, the Angel, Elohim Sabaoth, and Jehovah. In this scenario, we find that it was not with Esau, his brother, with whom he had to contend, but with Jehovah Himself. This is always the case with every Believer.)

²⁵And when He saw (the Lord saw) that He prevailed not against him (against Jacob), He touched the hollow of his thigh (Jacobs thigh); and the hollow of Jacobs thigh was out of joint, as He wrestled with him. (The great principle that God cannot give victory to the flesh appears in this night scene. It is the broken heart that begins to experience what Divine Power means. Better for the sun to rise upon a limping Israel than to set upon a lying Jacob. Jacob, for his misconduct, was exiled from the Promised Land, having nothing but his staff. He returns a wealthy prince, but lamed. So, Israel, cast out of Jehovahs Land because of her sin, will return with abundance, but broken and contrite in spirit.)

²⁶And He said (the Lord said), Let Me go, for the day breaks. And he said (Jacob said), I will not let You go, except You bless me. (Williams says, When sore broken by that mighty Hand, he ceased to wrestle and clung with weeping and supplication to the very God Who wounded him, then it was that he got the victory and the glorious name of Israel.)

²⁷And He (the Lord) said unto him, What is your name? And he said, Jacob. (Of course, the Lord already knew Jacobs name. So, why did He insist on Jacob pronouncing his name? He wanted Jacob to admit who and what he actually was, which the name Jacob adequately portrayed. True Faith requires that we admit what we are, before we can receive what He is!)

²⁸And He (the Lord) said, Your name shall be called no more Jacob (meaning deceiver or supplanter), but Israel (a Prince of God): for as a Prince have you power with God and with men, and have prevailed (as we shall see, Jacobs change was instant, but yet gradual).

²⁹And Jacob asked Him, and said, Tell me, I pray You, Your Name. And He said, Wherefore is it that you do ask after My name? (The Lords answer is revealing. He responds with another question: the idea is, Jacob, by now, ought to know Who the One is with Whom he has been struggling. And the next statements prove that he did.) and He (the Lord) blessed him (Jacob) there (He gave him power with God and with men).

³⁰And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel (means the Face of God): for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved (Jacob will never be the same again).

³¹And as he passed over Penuel the sun rose upon him, and he halted upon his thigh. (The sun is now rising, but upon a crippled Jacob. If the Lord is to reveal Himself to an individual, the flesh must be crippled. That is an absolute necessity!)

³²Therefore the children of Israel eat not of the sinew which shrank, which is upon the hollow of the thigh, unto this day: because He (the Lord) touched the hollow of Jacobs thigh in the sinew that shrank. (This particular sinew is the proper name for the large tendon which takes its origin from the spinal cord and extends down the thigh unto the ankle. It was called by the Greeks the tendo Achillis, because it reaches the heel. So, the heel-catcher became a Prince with God.)