Bible Study Notes - Genesis Chapters 29-33: When God Wrestled With Jacob

Why, when Jacob was alone, did ‘a Man [wrestle] with him until the breaking of the day’?

Jacob and the God-man - Woodcut for 'Die Bible in Bildern' (1860) by Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld (W.Commons)

Following on from Genesis:28, when Jacob was told to go to his mother’s father’s house to find himself a wife, Jacob ended up living with and serving his mother, Rebekah’s brother, Laban, for 20 years.

The deceiver had been deceived by his uncle, for Jacob had asked to marry Laban’s younger daughter, Rachel.

Jacob and Rachel by Ary Scheffer at the Dordrechts Museum (W.Commons)

Laban agreed only if Jacob first worked for him for seven years, but when the time came, it was the older daughter, Leah, who was married to Jacob, who didn’t realise until it was too late; the deception was possible because the marriage took place at night and custom called for the bride to be veiled.

Laban’s excuse was that it wasn’t the custom in their country, ‘“to give the younger before the firstborn”’, but he agreed to let Jacob marry Rachel in a week’s time if he agreed to work for him another seven years.

Jacob and Laban with Rachel and Leah at Cleveland Museum of Art (W.Commons)

So, Jacob ended up with two wives, even though the Mosaic law forbade polygamy, which always brought grief; also, Rachel was the one he loved, and this possibly set the stage for the intense and bitter rivalry that sprang up between the sisters.

‘When the Lord saw that Leah was unloved, He opened her womb; but Rachel was barren.’ (29:31)

And Leah bore Jacob four sons, Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah, after which she stopped having children.

And, to complicate matters even further, because of the sisters’ rivalry, Jacob ended up fathering children with his wives’ maids, Zilpah and Bilhah, whom Rachel and Leah used as surrogate mothers.

Bilhah, Rachel’s maid, bore two sons, Dan and Naphtali.

Zilpah, Leah’s maid, also bore two sons, Gad and Asher.

Then Leah was blessed with another two sons, Issachar and Zebulun, and a daughter, Dinah.

It is worth noting that Dinah wasn’t Jacob’s only daughter, but there is a specific reason she is mentioned, which will be elaborated on in next week’s post.

Finally, God blessed Rachel with a son, Joseph, and she had faith that ‘“The Lord shall add to me another son.”’ (30:24)

After about 20 years, Jacob decided it was time to return to his own country, and to take his very large family with him, but Laban tried to persuade him to stay.

However, it eventually transpired that Jacob and his family had to flee instead of leaving peaceably, as shown in verses 30:25-31:42, although the matter was settled amicably: 31:43-55.

In chapter 32, Jacob sent messengers to his brother Esau, hoping to ‘“find favour in your sight.”’ (32:5)

But when the messengers returned to tell him that Esau was coming to meet him with 400 men, Jacob panicked and prayed to God to show him and his family and servants mercy even as he confessed his own unworthiness: ‘“Deliver me, I pray, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau; for I fear him, lest he come and attack me and the mother with the children. For You said, I will surely treat you well, and make your descendants as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.”’ (32:11-12)

Jacob then worked out a plan he hoped would please his brother, whom he believed still harboured murderous hate against him: ‘“I will appease him with the present that goes before me, and afterward I will see his face; perhaps he will accept me.”’ (32:20)

Despite his earlier prayer, his reasoning for sending the present to Esau highlighted his failure to believe God had changed Esau’s heart.

If he truly trusted God, he wouldn’t have come up with such an elaborate plan that put him at the back of the procession instead of at the head of it to be the first one to greet Esau.

After Jacob had arranged matters for his family, God could finally command his full attention: ‘Then Jacob was left alone; and a Man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day.’ (32:24)

The following verses show this wasn’t a mere man, but the Lord Jesus in His pre-incarnate form, come to take Jacob’s pride and his perceived self-sufficiency: “… the wrestling Christ, the wrestling Angel of the covenant, who had come to wrestle out of him much of his own strength and wisdom.” – Charles Spurgeon.

Before delving deeper into Bible study, I admit I admired Jacob for keeping up the struggle all through the night, thinking there must be something special about him.

But as I studied these verses, I came to see there was actually nothing admirable about it, it was all about him: “It was brave of Jacob thus to wrestle, but there was too much of self about it all. It was his own sufficiency that was wrestling with the God-man, Christ Jesus.” – Charles Spurgeon.

Jacob wrestles with God (W.Commons)

‘Now when He saw that He did not prevail against him, He touched the socket of his hip; and the socket of Jacob’s hip was out of joint as He wrestled with Him. And He said, “Let Me go, for the day breaks.”’ (32:24-26)

My initial reading of this left me perplexed, I thought it meant God was losing the fight.

But no; obviously, He could have won at any time.

Like Jacob, there are times in our lives when we challenge God, not liking or trusting the direction our lives are going in and believing we know best.

God may well allow us to carry on down that path even if it’s not the right one until we come to realise, we cannot rely on our strength and we turn back to God.

He put out Jacob’s hip to show it was God he was wrestling with, for no other could do what He’d just done.

The significance of telling Jacob that day was breaking was because Jacob had business to attend to with his brother, and a family that was waiting for him.

At this moment, even though Jacob refused to relinquish his hold, God had conquered him.

‘But he said, “I will not let You go unless You bless me!”’ (32:26)

Jacob wasn’t demanding God bless him; in fact, he was quite emotional, for in Hosea, we are told ‘He took his brother by the heel in the womb, and in his strength he struggled with God. Yes, he struggled with the Angel and prevailed; he wept, and sought favour from Him.’ (12:3-4)

All through his life until this moment, Jacob believed his success was down to his own clever, crafty nature, and that he hadn’t necessarily needed to trust in God.

But now, completely alone, with nothing and no one around him, he realised the one and only thing he needed was God’s blessing, and so he, literally, held on for dear life.

“It is evident that, as soon as he felt that he must fall, he grasped the other ‘Man’ with a kind of death-grip, and would not let him go. Now, in his weakness, he will prevail. While he was so strong, he won not the blessing; but when he became utter weakness, then did he conquer.” – Charles Spurgeon.

Frederick Buechner described Jacob’s struggle with God as the “magnificent defeat of the human soul at the hands of God”.

‘So He said to him, “What is your name?” He said, “Jacob.” And He said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel; for you have struggled with God and with men, and have prevailed.”’ (32:27-28)

Jacob was given no choice but to say his name, knowing it reflected his true nature – deceitful.

He was then given the name ‘Israel’, which some say means ‘He who struggles with God’ while others say it likely means ‘God rules’.

When God told Jacob, “you have struggled with God… and have prevailed”, the way Jacob prevailed was by not giving up until God had conquered him; even though he lost, he won.

Jacob then wanted to know the Man’s name, but the Man simply said, ‘“Why is it that you ask about My name?” (32:29); He believed Jacob knew who He was and, therefore, knew His name.

Then He blessed Jacob; this, most likely, was the blessing of the defeat of Jacob’s life of deceit and self-reliance, to be replaced by his new life as Israel.

‘Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: “For I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.” Just as he crossed over… the sun rose on him, and he limped on his hip.’ (32:30-31)

It turned out that Jacob did know the One who had wrestled with him, for Peniel means ‘Face of God’, and he also knew that the only reason he survived – “my life is preserved” – is because of God’s mercy.

In case Jacob ever forgot that God had conquered him – as if anyone could ever forget wrestling with God! – he was left with a permanent limp: “The memorial of his weakness was to be with him as long as he lived…” – Charles Spurgeon.

In chapter 33, Jacob and Esau finally meet, with Jacob approaching his brother, afraid and submissive: ‘Then he… bowed himself to the ground seven times, until he came near to his brother.’ (33:3)

Esau, on the other hand, ‘ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept.’ (33:4)

After 20-odd years of separation, the tumultuous emotions of the past no longer mattered, and the brothers were reconciled.

Jacob reconciled with Esau (W.Commons)

The passage of Jacob wrestling with God reminds us of what is truly important, and that is not our achievements, nor our possessions, our social standing or, for some, fame and adulation; it is the realisation of our need for God in our lives, that it is only when we stop struggling against Him, that we receive His blessing in our lives.

Jacob wrestling with the Angel by Gustave Dore (W.Commons)