We have seen that Abram responded to God's call and Isaac dug out God's blessings for himself. When we come to Jacob, we find a self-made man who knows that God is there but feels no need to depend on Him.
This chapter takes place after Jacob has had many successes in life through his own schemes. In the opening verses he is met by the angels of God, who he recognizes as "God's host" or "God's camp." Yet he names the place Mahanaim, which means "two camps." It's as if he sees God's host as one group and his own caravan as another group on equal footing. Jacob is a man with a high opinion of himself.
The text says (verse 1) that he went on his way. This is different from the faithful servant who said, "I was in the way, and the Lord led me" (Genesis 24:27).
Now he is about to meet his brother Esau, and this stirred up fear in Jacob. Years before he had deceived his brother and taken the birthright blessing (Genesis 25). Esau was responsible for not appreciating his birthright, but Jacob was responsible for his deception. His conscience has not forgotten the wrong that he did.
There's nothing like trouble to focus the mind. Now Jacob prays, and this seems to be the first time he has prayed since he left home in chapter 28. In a prophetic sense, Jacob represents the future nation of Israel as they will be confronted by their past sins. In a personal sense, Jacob shows us that God often uses difficulties to turn our attentions to Him. It's when the airplane hits some turbulent air that the passengers start to read the safety information card!
When Jacob prayed, it is at least good that he was not a hypocrite. He called on the God of his fathers but did not pretend he really knew God himself. He did remember God's promises, and this at least is positive.
That prayer would have been a nice occasion for God to say "Fear not" to Jacob. Both Abram and Isaac heard a "Fear not" from the Lord (Genesis 15:1, 26:24). But in his prayer, Jacob only wants to tell God what to do, and therefore there is no response until he is left entirely alone and God begins to wrestle with him.
It's insightful to realize that Jacob did not quite remember God's promise correctly. Jacob remembered the promise this way: "I will do you good." But the Lord had really said, "I will be with you" (Genesis 31:3). Jacob expected God's goodness in his life, but it's really a relationship with us that is most important to God.
Abram and Isaac had faced external enemies. The enemy that Jacob faced was Jacob. His problem was himself!
Jacob had no peace with God, only fear. It's possible that even the messengers he sent to Esau tasted the same fear, for they came back with the report of Esau's caravan without ever saying that they even spoke to Esau.
Jacob was born wrestling! Even as a baby, he had grabbed his twin brother's heel at the moment of birth. If Jacob is a wrestler, then God will appear to him as a wrestler. God is gracious to us this way! Abrahm was a pilgrim in the land, so God appeared to him as a traveler as well (Genesis 18); Joshua was a military man, so God appeared to him as the captain of the army of the Lord (Joshua 5). The Lord knows what kind of lesson and message will speak to us the most forcefully.
What is perhaps the most amazing is Jacob's willingness to keep wrestling all night. The Lord saw that Jacob was not willing to yield. This represents Jacob's dissatisfaction with God. Finally, the Lord touched Jacob's hip socket, and instantly his hip went out of joint. Now Jacob must cling to this divine Wrestler instead. God's merciful discipline has taught Jacob the lesson of dependence.
Jacob was too stubborn to stop wrestling, but God was so interested in Jacob that He would not stop wrestling either.
Jacob was always observant of people's faces. He wanted people to be pleased with him and knew it when they weren't (compare Laban's face in Genesis 31:2, Esau's face in 32:20). If we want to be accepted by everyone, we will be erratic and unstable. What Jacob really needed was to see the face of God, and after this wrestling experience he realizes that's exactly what has happened. Trials allow us a place to grow in our relationship with the Lord.
There had been a sunset at Bethel, the "house of God," in Genesis 28:11. Now there is sunrise at Peniel (Penuel), the "face of God." It's as if Jacob has lived all these years in a dark, night time of life.
At the end of the wrestling, Jacob had asked God for a blessing. God asked him, "What is your name?"-- not because God didn't know his name, but because the last time Jacob heard that question, he pretended to be someone else. God deals with the past sins before giving a blessing in the present.
However, desiring God's blessing implies a humble attitude from Jacob. "The less is blessed by the better" (Hebrews 7:7). The lesson of humility is so important that Jacob's descendants memorialized this event. They refused to eat meat that came from an animal's hip socket. This is an illustration of practicing self-denial. There was no commandment to avoid that cut of meat, but the people chose to live without eating it as a way to keep this lesson in their minds.
This tradition implies that Jacob told his familiy about what had happened. As we follow his life in subsequent chapters, we see that there were still twists and turns in his faithfulness and integrity. Philippians 3:3 says that we must have no confidence in the flesh. Our natural self-will, represented often by that word "flesh," is a constant enemy. Even the apostle Paul had to receive "a thorn in the flesh" so that he would not become boastful (2 Corinthians 12:7). Jacob was still Jacob! Yet he became a worshipper at the very end of his life (Hebrews 11:21).
God's blessing for Jacob includes a new name, which implies that he has a new character. Yet he limped on his thigh the rest of his life, and this illustrates that the strength of his new character was related to remembering the lesson of the weakness of his old self.
Jacob endured a long period of darkness in his life. How long will we allow darkness to continue in our lives? God is intent on bringing us back to Himself, and as we repent and cling to Him we meet the God who loves to bless us.
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This third Bible study was followed by a time for additional Bible teaching. Notes from this message follow.
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Abraham and Christ
As we consider these turning points today, we can find another of Abraham's turning points in Genesis 22. It is also connected with a turning point in Simon Peter's life. Simon's new name comes when he confesses that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. God's Church will be built upon what he has confessed, for Peter wrote that we come to Jesus as coming to a living stone, and we are built upon Him (1 Peter 2:4-8).
There is a link here with Abraham's sacrifice in Genesis 22. He obeyed God when he was sent to an unnamed mountain in the land of Moriah, and his willingness even to sacrifice his son Isaac shows his faith in resurrection (he knew Isaac would return from the place of sacrifice).
The link continues into the days of David, who built the temple in the same area of Moriah. Imagine: The temple was built where the father offered the son in the place where there was a belief in the God of resurrection.
This is precisely how the Church was indeed formed. On the day of Pentecost, the Spirit of God came upon those who believed in the Son and His resurrection, and they were formed into a dwelling place for God here on earth.
As a side note, today in Jerusalem the "Dome of the Rock" stands on that site. It is an Islamic holy site, and the rock is said to be significant to the Islamic prophet Mohammed. The Jews say that this exact rock is the temple's foundation stone. Some even call it "the pierced stone." Arabic words on that stone declare that Allah has no son, which reveals the enmity against even a picture of Christ, who is God's foundation stone in the Church. But God will have the victory in the end when Christ comes to rule!
Coming back to Abraham, we see that he displayed faith when he did what God said. Faith always involves obedience: God said something, and now I will act on it. We might yet have much of Jacob's ways in us, but we can press on as we seek to live by faith. God will continue to work in our lives for our blessing and His glory.