Genesis 32

Overview:

v.12

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."

When God gave his promise, he did, as it were, put himself in the power of those who know how to plead the promise. Every promise is so much strength given to the man who has faith in the promise, for he may with it overcome even the omnipotent God himself.

spurgeon

v.19-20

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. ²⁰And 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."

Again we see Jacob the planner and the schemer. As he had taken Esau's birthright and blessing, as he had taken the best of Laban's herds, so now he had taken the best of Laban's herds, so now he had a plan to pacify Esau. However, it was not Jacob's plan that succeeded but his prayer.

sailhamer

v.24

So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak.

Jacob didn’t wrestle with the Man. Instead, a Man wrestled with him. Jacob didn’t start out wanting anything from God; God wanted something from him. God wanted all of Jacob’s proud self-reliance and fleshly scheming, and God came to take it, by force if necessary.

enduringword

It does not say that he wrestled with the man, but ‘there wrestled a man with him.’ We call him ‘wrestling Jacob,’ and so he was; but we must not forget the wrestling man, — or, rather, the wrestling Christ, — the wrestling Angel of the covenant, who had come to wrestle out of him much of his own strength and wisdom.

spurgeon

Nick Kang uses Jacob's wrestle with the angel as evidence for his orphan spirit. When we are in Christ, we no longer have to beg for God's favor since His righteousness is imputed onto us.

jj

Similar to how the Word clings onto us in Titus 1:9.

v.26

Then the man said, "Let me go, for it is daybreak." But Jacob replied, "I will not let you go unless you bless me."

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.

spurgeon

v.28

Then the man said, "Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome."