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Genesis 33:22-32

Devotions for Thursday 11th February

22 That night, Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two maidservants, and his eleven sons, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok; 23 He took them and made them cross the stream, and sent over everything he had.

24 Jacob was left there alone; and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. 25 When he saw that he did not overcome him, he hit him on the side of his hip, and his hip was dislocated as he wrestled with him. 26 Then he said, ‘Let me go, it is day break.’ But he said, ‘I will not let you go unless you bless me.’ 27 So he asked him, ‘What is your name?’ And he replied, ‘Jacob.’ 28 He said, ‘You will not be called Jacob any longer, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with others, and have overcome.’ 29 Then Jacob asked, ‘Please tell me your name.’ But he said, ‘Why do you ask my name?’ And with that, he blessed him, right there.

30 So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, ‘This is because I have seen God face to face, and yet I have survived!’ 31 The sun rose on him as he passed Peniel, limping because of his hip. 32 Therefore to this day, the Israelites do not eat the thigh muscle of the hip joint, because Jacob was struck on the hip near the thigh muscle.

© All text and pictures on this page copyright Paul H Ashby 2010 - all rights reserved

Give us the wisdom to open up our hearts to Your Word, O Lord, so that we may hear and understand all truth and righteousness.

Give us the courage to open up our emotions to Your love, O Lord, so that we may receive and feel Your passion for us, and for those who are lost.

Give us the strength to stand firm in the faith You have inspired in us, O Lord, so that we may not turn away from the great treasure that has been set before us in Christ, our Saviour: AMEN

When your heart is troubled deep inside,

   Will you let the Saviour calm your soul

     And work to ease your troubled breast?

When your head is confused over what to do,

   Will you let the Holy Spirit comfort you

     And still your mind to clear your thoughts?

When your feelings churn around within you,

   Will you let the Friend of Sinners come

     And ease the pain of all your lurking fears?

When your own opinions dominate your words,

   Will you give the Lord of All due honour

     And let Him be the judge of everything?

When your love for others balks at those you hate,

   Will you let the Gracious Father take you back

     And remind you of your sins that He’s forgiven?

When you really need your loving Saviour,

   Will you give Him all the time He needs

     To help you change and become like Him?

Prayer ideas

‘Google’ a charity you support in order to find out more about it, and pray for its work throughout the day

On-going prayers

• Pray for persecuted Christians   Pray today about the increasingly pernicious persecution of Christians by secular, ‘ex’ Christians nations
• Give thanks to God for the joy of sight, and how it enriches life
• Pray for the UK after months of damaging financial revelations

Review

Jacob began his spiritual journey when he was thrown out of his home, and was sent away from the Promised Land in search of a wife (28:10-22).  After many years of servitude and struggle with his father-in-law, Laban, he returned to Canaan a different man.  After hearing about the approach of his brother Esau, with whom he had quarrelled bitterly (27:41f.), he organised his household to go ahead of him over the Jabbok stream, a minor river on the eastern side of the Jordan marking part of the perceived boundary between Canaan and the north.  He made the symbolic crossing alone, but found his way barred by a man, with whom he fought (32:24).

After an immense struggle Jacob was injured, but would not give up.  He demanded that his opponent ‘bless’ him, which probably meant that he should do him the favour of yielding.  As the two men spoke, Jacob’s opponent demanded to know his name, and when Jacob replied, we discover for the first time that his opponent was more than a man; this was God who had power to rename Jacob, ‘Israel’ (probably meaning ‘God rules’).  The fight came to an end as God blessed Jacob and yielded to his desire to cross the Jabbok to rejoin his family, but Jacob limped away in awe of his meeting with the living God, and with the physical scars to prove it (32:30,31)!

There is extraordinary dramatic tension in this compelling story.  At Peniel, Jacob faced the God of his fathers alone in a physical and spiritual struggle; this was the climax of his journey of faith begun so many years ago.  We cannot easily analyse what happened, because it was a certainly a mystery to Jacob (32:30).  As with many Biblical stories such as Creation, the Exodus, or the Resurrection, the physical facts are hard to tie down, yet the consequences are immense.  We should surely expect this; for Scripture does not merely record facts for a religious system; it advocates the truth about God and His relationship with real people, and we can never reduce this to the level of who did what in a fight.  These things defy our attempts to rationalise them because God is infinitely bigger than we are; we are but observers of what God does in His world and privileged to be His partners according to His will and blessing.  Perhaps this is what Jacob learned that night at Peniel.

Some writers describe this passage as little more than an ill-defined wrestling match between two men, one of whom happens to be God.  How tragic!  This is a deeply spiritual event in which Jacob, a man who knew already what God’s purposes for him were, became the true spiritual forefather of God’s people Israel; and it happened not because of his strength to withstand, impressive though that was, but by the blessing of God.  I will explain the text as much as I can, but the truth is this, through the struggle, Jacob completed his struggle to know God and have a truly personal relationship with Him.  Consequently, God was able to use him as the father of the nation of Israel.  This may not satisfy our modern desire to know ‘the facts’, but it helps us find the truth; and the two are not the same. 

The mysterious nature of this passage is clear.  As we read through verses 25 to 29, we can be unsure who is saying what, and the text of the Hebrew at this point is not as clear as we would like.  It is only later, when Jacob limps away and acknowledges that he has met with God that we can go back and try to work out what was happening.  Indeed, the ‘man’ who fought with Jacob is not identified as God until afterwards, just as Abraham only realised he had been speaking with God’s angels after they had left (see Genesis 18).  By the end of the encounter, Jacob certainly knew he had met with God, naming the place ‘Peniel’ meaning ‘the face of God’. 

Going Deeper

The Bible study goes deeper to look at these issues:

• Jacob, alone, and facing the future
• Jacob’s struggle
• The names of Peniel and Israel

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