SCRIPTURE: GENESIS 32
IMPORTANT VERSE:
“Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome.” (Genesis 32:28)
JACOB PREPARES TO MEET ESAU (vs. 1-21)
Jacob also went on his way, and the angels of God met him. When Jacob saw them, he said, “This is the camp of God!”. So he named that place Mahanaim.
Jacob sent messengers ahead of him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom. He instructed them: “This is what you are to say to my master Esau: ‘Your servant Jacob says, I have been staying with Laban and have remained there till now. I have cattle and donkeys, sheep and goats, menservants and maidservants. Now I am sending this message to my lord, that I may find favor in your eyes.”
When the messengers returned to Jacob, they said, “We went to your brother Esau, and now he is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him.” In great fear and distress, Jacob divided the people who were with him into two groups, and the flocks and herds and camels as well. He thought, “If Esau comes and attacks one group, the group that is left may escape.”
Then Jacob prayed, “O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, O Lord, who said to me, ‘God back to your country and your relatives and I will make you prosper,’ I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness you have shown your servant. I had only my staff when I crossed this Jordan, but now I have become two groups. Save me, I pray, from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid he will come and attack me, and also the mothers with their children. But you have said, “I will surely make you prosper and will make your descendants like the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted.'”
He spend the night there, and from what he had with him, he selected a gift for his brother Esau: two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, thirty female camels with their young, forty cows and ten bulls, and twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys. he put them in the care of his servants, each herd by itself, and said to his servants, “God ahead of me, and keep some space between the herds.”
He instructed the one in the lead: “When my brother Esau meets you and asks, ‘To whom do you belong, and where are you going, and who owns all these animals in front of you?” then you are to say, ‘They belong to your servant Jacob., They are a gift sent to my lord Esau, and he is coming behind us.;”
He also instructed the second, the third and all the others who followed the herds: “You are to say the same thing to Esau when you meet him. And be sure to say, ‘Your servant Jacob is coming behind us.'” For he thought, “I will pacify him with these gifts I am sending on ahead; later, when I see him, perhaps he will receive me.” So Jacob’s gifts went on ahead of him, but he himself spent the night in the camp.
JACOB WRESTLES WITH GOD (vs. 22-32)
That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two maidservants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions. So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.”
But Jacob replied,” “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” The man asked him, “What is your name?” “Jacob,” he answered. Then the man said, “You name will no longer be Jacob, but “Israel” because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome.” Jacob said, “Please tell me your name.” but he replied, “Why do you ask my name?” Then he blessed him there.
So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.” The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel, and he was limping because of his hip. Therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the tendon attached to the socket of the hip, because the socket of Jacob’s hip was touched near the tendon.
THOUGHTS: (From Life Application Study Bible)
The last time Jacob had seen Esau, his brother was ready to kill him for stealing the family blessing. Esau was so angry he had vowed to kill Jacob as soon as their father Isaac died. Fearing their reunion, Jacob sent a messenger ahead with gifts. He hoped to buy Esau’s favor.
Jacob had taken Esau’s birthright and his blessings. Now he was about to meet this brother for the first time in 20 years and he was frantic with fear. But as he collected his thoughts he decided to pray. When we face a difficult conflict, we can run about frantically or we can pause to pray. Which approach will be more effective?
Jacob continued this wrestling match all night just to be blessed. He was persistent. God encourages persistence in all areas of our lives, including the spiritual. Strong character develops as you struggle through tough conditions.
God gave many Bible people new names (Abraham, Sarah, Peter). their new names were symbols of how God had changed their lives. Here, Jacob’s character had changed from an ambitious deceiver to become Israel, the one who struggles with God and overcomes.