Jacob wrestling with the angel Painting by Rembrandt van Rijn Gemãldergallerie Staatlische Museum, Berlin
Jacob's Family of Cheats
Jacob came from a long line of cheats in his family.
- He cheated his brother Esau out of his family inheritance for a pot of stew.
- His mother Rebekah arranged for Jacob to run to his uncle Laban in Haran to escape Esau's wrath (Genesis 24:10)
- He tricked his father Isaac out of giving him Esau's blessing as the older son (Genesis Chapter 27)
- Uncle Laban deceived Jacob into thinking he could marry his younger daughter Rachel, but only after Jacob had been married to her sister Leah for seven years
Hardly a good choice, you would think, for God to choose to accomplish his plans to recover the ground stolen by Satan as a result of human sin. But that's exactly what we see God doing after he has changed Jacob from being a cheat to one who wrestled with God and repented.
Jacob's Wrestling with The Angel of the LORD
After years of being on the run from Esau and having to work for the wife he really loved, Jacob decided to try to make amends with Esau. In fear and great distress he prayed to God:
" O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, Lord, you who said to me, ‘Go 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 camps. 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.’”
Then he sent a large number of animals with his servants ahead of him as a peace offering the night before the meeting.
That night Jacob took his two wives, two servants and his eleven sons to the ford of the River Jabbok. After sending the others ahead, he found himself alone and confronted by an angel with whom he wrestled till daybreak. The result was Jacob's hip was dislocated at the socket.
The angel asked Jacob to let him go, but Jacob refused unless he blessed him.
" What is your name?" the angel said. When Jacob gave his name, the angel said.
" Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome." (Genesis 32:22-32)
When Jacob asked the angel his name, he got no reply except the angel blessed him. And as the sun rose over the place he named it Peniel, saying
" It is because I saw God face to face and yet my life was spared."
It was a divine encounter that preceded an emotional reunion the following day with his brother Esau.
A Change of Name & The Birth of a Nation
The story of Jacob is key to the war for worldwide domination because of
- The change of Jacob's name to Israel
- God's blessing of his twelve sons, who became The Twelve Tribes that became the nation of Israel
as shown in the map below.
Map courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
NOTE: Ephraim and Manasseh were Joseph's sons, but Jacob adopted them and included them in his blessing Genesis 28:1-22