42 PENIEL

We have before us the remarkable story of Jacob’s wrestling with the angel and prevailing, which is also referred to later in the history of Israel by the prophet Hosea. Very early in the morning, a great while before day, Jacob had helped his wives and his children over the river, and he now wanted to be private, and was left alone, that he might again more fully spread his cares and fears out before God in prayer. We ought to continue instant in prayer, always to pray and not to faint: frequency and urgency in prayer prepare us for mercy. While Jacob was earnest in prayer arousing himself to take hold of the willingness of God to prevail in his circumstances, an angel takes hold of him.

Some think this was a created angel, perhaps the same angel referred to in Isaiah 63:9 who helped Israel in her time of need as Isaiah tells of the kindnesses of the Lord. “In all their distress he too was distressed, and the angel of his presence saved them. In his love and mercy he redeemed them; he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.” This might be one of those angels that always sees the face of our Father God and attends on the divine Majesty. Even in the darkness, alone at night Jacob may have been able to see beyond the physical things around him to the invisible spiritual realities with which he was just then so much involved. Others think it was Michael the archangel who fought for Gabriel against the Prince of Persia to win Gabriel’s passage to Daniel as Daniel prayed. It is also possible that it was our Prince, the eternal Word, the angel of the covenant, who is indeed the Lord of the angels, who often appeared in a human form before He assumed human nature for eternity. (If Jesus truly became human, He became human for eternity since true humans are eternal beings. We will see Jesus in heaven in a form like our own.) It may have been the same angel Moses spoke of in Exodus as all of Israel prepared to enter that same Canaan land many years later. “See, I am sending an angel ahead of you to guard you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared. Pay attention to him and listen to what he says. Do not rebel against him; he will not forgive your rebellion, since my Name is in him. If you listen carefully to what he says and do all that I say, I will be an enemy to your enemies and will oppose those who oppose you” (Exodus 23:20-22) Jacob (soon to be named Israel) needed that angel then and all the Israelites needed it in their day. You and I too need that angel.

Notice with me that Jacob and this angel engaged in a single combat, hand to hand; neither of them had any back-up or supporters. (24) Jacob was now full of concern and fear about the meeting he expected, next day, with his brother, and, to intensify or increase that trial, God Himself seemed to come against him as an enemy, to oppose his entrance into the land of promise, not allowing him to follow his wives and children whom he had sent ahead of him. Strong believers must expect various and strong temptations. We are told by the prophet Hosea how Jacob wrestled, he wept, and begged. Prayers and tears were his weapons. It was evidently a physical contest, but not only so. It was also a spiritual, wrestling, by the vigorous actings of faith and deep, strong, holy desire. Likewise you and I and all the spiritual offspring of Jacob that pray, in praying, still wrestle with God.

What was the success of the engagement? Jacob stood his ground; though the struggle continued a long time, evidently almost all night long. “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” (25). This is to say that this discouragement did not shake Jacob’s faith, nor silence his prayer. It was evidently not in his own strength that he wrestled, nor by his own strength that he prevailed, but in and by strength God gave him from Heaven. When we are moved by God to pray, a seeming paradox occurs. We struggle in the power of the Holy Spirit with spiritual forces. We cannot prevail with God but in His own strength. It is His Spirit that intercedes in us, and helps us in our weaknesses. “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans” (Romans 8:26). This seems contradictory, but when we pray earnestly we are not trying to overcome God’s reluctance, but rather to lay hold of His willingness.

The angel put Jacob’s hip out of joint. Perhaps this was to show Jacob what He could do, and that it was God he was wrestling with, for no man could disjoint his thigh with a touch. Some think Jacob felt little or no pain from this hurt; it is possible that he did not because he did not stop until the struggle was over as recorded in verse 31, “The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel, and he was limping because of his hip.” If so, this was evidence of a genuine divine touch, which wounded and healed simultaneously. Jacob prevailed, and yet had his hip put out of joint. Wrestling believers may obtain glorious victories, and yet come off with broken bones. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 12:10 to this effect. “That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” We can be weak in ourselves and we often feel it when we try so hard to concentrate on our praying in the face of distractions and interruptions. Our blessings from God and struggles with responsibilities often get mixed together.

The angel, strangely enough, requests Jacob to let him go. "Then the man said, ‘Let me go, for it is daybreak.’ But Jacob replied, ‘I will not let you go unless you bless me’” (26). Could not a mighty angel free himself from Jacob’s grasp? He undoubtedly could; but in this way he would put an honor on Jacob’s faith and prayer, and further try his constancy. Using similar expressions in an entirely different metaphor we see a comparable conversation by the beautiful shepherdess lover in to the king in the Song of Solomon by combining 7:5 with 3:4. “. . . the king is held captive . . . . scarcely had I passed them when I found the one my heart loves. I held him and would not let him go till I had brought him to my mother’s house, to the room of the one who conceived me.” Sometime we clutch Him as we wrestle with Him to our mutual satisfaction and at other times we embrace Him with an intense love for Him and do not want to let Him go. But whether we clutch as we wrestle in prayer or embrace as we express our love, it is all good. How does it end? The reason the angel gives for wanting to leave is that a new day has dawned. He does not want to detain Jacob who had business to do, a journey to make, a family to look after, with many needs for Jacob’s attention especially at this critical juncture. But it was a new day. A new Jacob. He walked with a lip but he was a conqueror. You and I too can have a new day dawn in our walk with and work for the Lord!

Everything is beautiful in its season; even the business of religion, and the comforts of communion with God, must sometimes give way to the necessary affairs of this life. Our times of prayer come to an end and we set about our work and watch God do His wonders. Jacob still insisted that he have his answer. “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” I love and repeat those words. Whatever comes of his family and journey, he resolves to make the best he can of this opportunity, and not to lose the advantage of his victory. He does not mean to wrestle all night for nothing, but humbly resolves he will have a blessing, and rather have all his bones put out of joint than to go away without one. The credit of a conquest will do him no good without the comfort of a blessing. In begging this blessing he admits his inferiority, though he seemed to have the upper hand in the struggle, it only seemed this way since spirit being are far stronger. But the lesser is blessed by the greater and Jacob wanted his blessing. Anyone who wants the blessing of Jesus must be in good earnest, and be urgent for it, as those that resolve to have no denial. It is the fervent prayer that is the effectual prayer.

The angel puts a permanent mark of honor on him, by changing his name. This is as though to say “You are a brave combatant” (says the angel), “a man of heroic resolution; what is your name?” “Jacob,” says he, a supplanter; that is what Jacob means. “Well,” says the angel, “You will never be called that any more; from now on you will be celebrated, not for craft and conniving, but for true valor; you will be called Israel, a prince with God, a name greater than those of the great men of the earth.” He is a prince for sure who is a prince with God, and those are truly honorable that are mighty in prayer, Israels and Israelites indeed. Jacob is here knighted in the field, as it were, and has a title of honor given him by Him that is the fountain of honor, which will remain, to His praise, to the end of time.

Yet this was not all; having power with God, he will have power with men too. Having prevailed for a blessing from heaven, he will, no doubt, prevail for Esau’s favor too. Whatever enemies we have, if we can but make God our friend, we are well off; we who by faith have power in heaven by that same faith also have as much on earth as we need.  The angel dismisses Jacob with a blessing, “Jacob said, ‘Please tell me your name.’ But he replied, ‘Why do you ask my name?’ Then he blessed him there” (29). Instead of telling Jacob his name, the angel gave him His blessing, which was the thing for which he had wrestled. Spiritual blessings, which secure our happiness, are better and much more to be desired than fine notions which satisfy our curiosity. Receiving the angel’s blessing is better than knowing the angel’s name. The tree of life is better than the tree of knowledge.

So in this manner Jacob carried his point; a blessing he wrestled for, and a blessing he had; nor did ever any of his praying descendants seek in vain. See how wonderfully God comes down to honor and crown urgent prayer: those that resolve, though God slay them, yet to trust in him, will, at length, be more than conquerors.

Jacob gives a new name to the place; he calls it Peniel, the face of God because there he had seen the appearance of God, and obtained the favor of God. The name he gives to the place preserves and perpetuates, not so much the honor of Jacob’s valor or victory, but much more the honor of God’s free grace. He does not say, “In this place I wrestled with God, and prevailed;” but, “In this place I saw God face to face, and my life was preserved;” not, “It was to my praise that I came away as a conqueror, but it was God’s mercy that I escaped with my life.” It is good for those whom God honors to take lowly expressions to themselves, and to admire the greatness of His grace to them. This is what David did, after God had sent him a gracious message, Who am I, O Lord God?

For the rest of his life, from this new day forward Jacob and those who knew him could hear of and remember this story and try to harmonize these two conflicting yet elated ideas: It was a new Day and Jacob limped from then on. “The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel, and he was limping because of his hip” (31). The honor and comfort he obtained by this struggle were abundantly sufficient to more than compensate for the damage, though he went limping to his grave. It might serve, like Paul’s thorn in the flesh, to keep him from being lifted up with the abundance of the revelations. And the sunrise? It is sunrise with that soul that has communion with God. We today also want, as Jacob experienced, to see God face to face and live. We want our own Peniel because we want the results of Peniel. And this use we may still make of that name, Peniel, to acknowledge the mercy of God, and our obligations to Jesus Christ, that we may now keep up our communion with God, in faith, hope, and love, without danger to either life or limb.

The story of Jacob at Peniel is one of the most defining events in the life of Jacob. It is where his determined belief in his heritage, the value of God’s promise and plan for the Israeli people and his belief in the power of prayer are most clearly revealed. Hosea refers to this experience many years laters, saying, “In the womb he grasped his brother’s heel; as a man he struggled with God. He struggled with the angel and overcame him; he wept and begged for his favor. He found him at Bethel and talked with him there—“ (Hosea 12:3& 4) Jacob was desperate and God heard his prayer. You will have times when you are desperate too and I hope you will remember that you are serving and trusting the same God that Jacob served and trusted. Pray. Wrestle. Weep. In the brokenness of your spirit see the face of God through your tears and prevail as Jacob did. That is the lesson we can learn from Jacob. 

I have written a song for each of our eight grandchildren. We sing them together from time to time. When our fourth grandchild, Jacob, was born, I was in Madagascar and scheduled to move to the northern tip of that island nation. I wrote my song for Jacob, on that trip. Having been troubled as to how to write a song for the cheater and deceiver, Jacob, in the Bible, I eventually identified two major advantages or strengths Jacob in the Bible demonstrated. I determined to address those in my song for our present-day Jacob. I have sung it for others and for him many times. Jacob in the Bible valued his spiritual heritage and he knew the power of prayer. Here is the song I wrote for our grandson:

Once a wise boy named Jacob sought the blessing that his brother had scorned, 

Through prayer obtained the promise and Jacob got a blessing from God. 

Jacob knew the power, the power for every hour, Jacob knew the power of the promises of God.

Today a wise boy named Jacob seeks the blessings many others have scorned, 

Through prayer obtains the promise and Jacob gets a blessing from God. 

Jacob knows the power, the power for every hour, Jacob knows the power of the promises of God.

I want that for you, man and woman of God. Let’s pray that you will be a mighty man or woman of prayer and do great exploits for God in your generation. Claim God’s promises to you in prayer.