Hosea 12:4-5

Hosea 12:4-5 . He had power over the angel Called God, Hosea 12:3, and Jehovah, God of hosts, Hosea 12:5, namely, God by nature and essence, and an angel by office and voluntary undertaking. He wept and made supplication unto him He prayed with tears from a sense of his own unworthiness, and with earnestness for the mercy he desired. Jacob’s wrestling with the angel was, as has been just intimated, not only a corporal conflict, but likewise a spiritual one; from bodily wrestling he betook himself to spiritual weapons; he poured forth tears with earnest supplications and prayers, and strove, not so much for victory, as for a blessing: the only way for a feeble, impotent creature, to prevail over his Creator. The observations of Luther, upon this extraordinary conflict between Jacob and the person called the angel, are so excellent, that the intelligent reader will be glad to be presented here with a translation of them. “Different views are wont to be entertained concerning the nature of this wrestling. But the history shows that Jacob had come into imminent danger of his life, and was assaulted by an unknown antagonist with his whole power. He therefore himself also exerted his bodily strength to the utmost against this antagonist, that he might defend his life. Nevertheless, he did not contend only with the strength of his body; his faith also wrestled: and first, in such an immediate danger, he comforted himself that he had been ordered by God to return into the land of Canaan [to which country, in obedience to God, he was now journeying.] Then with his whole heart he laid hold on the promise made him by the Lord in Beth-el, where he was fully assured of the divine protection. When therefore he was in distress, and assaulted by an unknown enemy with all his might, although he used his own strength, yet he contended more strenuously by faith, beholding the promise, and concluding with certainty that God, according to his word, would be present with him in so great a danger, and would save him. And with this faith, [so to speak,] he prevailed over God; for although Christ tried Jacob in this conflict, nevertheless he could do nothing against, or contrary to, his word, on which Jacob relied.” Jacob’s supplication and tears, here mentioned, probably refer to those earnest prayers which he poured out to God, as is recorded Genesis 32:9-11. The conflict here spoken of, in which Jacob had power with God, ended in an assurance that his prayers were answered. He found him in Beth-el This refers to God’s appearing to Jacob after the former vision, as is related Genesis 35:9; Genesis 35:14, when God renewed his promise of giving the land of Canaan to his posterity. The prophet takes particular notice of the place where God appeared to him: as if he had said, He appeared in that very place where you worship a golden calf as your god! And there he spake with us Who were then in Jacob’s loins. The Alexandrian copy, however, of the LXX. reads, There he spake with him; as if the expression alluded to the above-mentioned passage, where God is said to have talked with Jacob. But the present Hebrew reading contains a very important meaning, signifying, that God did not only speak to him there, but likewise did, by so doing, instruct his posterity to the latest generation. Certainly the things spoken concerned Jacob’s posterity, as much, or more, than himself. Even the Lord God of hosts He that appeared and spake, who promised the blessing, and commanded the reformation at Beth-el, was Jehovah, the eternal and unchangeable God; who can perform his promise, and execute his threat; who is a most terrible enemy, and a most desirable friend. The Lord is his memorial That is, the name Jehovah is God’s memorial; his appropriate, perpetual, incommunicable name, expressing his essence; the name by which he will be known and remembered to all generations; the name which especially distinguishes him from all false gods, and sets forth his glory more than any other name whatsoever: see note on Exodus 3:14.