Verse 24
There are two decisive and determining moments in the life of Jacob. The wrestling with the angel of the Lord was the second of these, even as that marvellous vision in the field of Luz had been the first. The work which that began, this completes.
I. In that "Let me go" of the angel, and that "I will not let thee go except thou bless me" of Jacob, we have a glimpse into the very heart and deepest mystery of prayer, man conquering God, God suffering Himself to be conquered by man. The power which prevails with Him is a power which has itself gone forth from Him. Not in his natural strength shall man prevail with God, at the lightest touch of His hand all this comes to nothing, but in the power of faith; and the after-halting of Jacob, so far from representing his loss, did rather represent his gain. There was in this the outward token of an inward strength which he had won therein, of a breaking in him of the power of the flesh and of the fleshly mind; while the further fact that he halted not merely then, but from that day forth, was a testimony that this was no gain made merely for the moment, from which he should presently fall back to a lower spiritual level again, but that he was permanently lifted up into a higher region of the spiritual life.
II. The new name does not, in the case of Jacob, abolish and extinguish the old, as for Abraham it does. The names Jacob and Israel subsist side by side, and neither in the subsequent history of his life wholly abolishes the other. In Abraham's name are incorporated and sealed the promises of God. These evermore abide the same. Israel, on the other hand, is the expression not of the promises of God, but of the faith of man. But this faith of man ebbs and flows, waxes and wanes. Jacob is not wholly Israel, Israel has not entirely swallowed up Jacob, during the present time; and in sign and witness to this the new name only partially supersedes and effaces the old.
R. C. Trench, Sermons Preached in Ireland, p. 1.
I. In what position do we find Jacob's spiritual state up to the time of this second incident in his life? During the first period of his life he was simply a man of the world. After the vision at Bethel he was a religious man; the sense of religious influence was seen in his life; after the conflict at the ford Jabbok he became a spiritually minded man. He was going home with his sin yet weighty on his soul, unpardoned, unforgiven, uncleansed by the Divine power. Bethel was the house of God, to teach him that he could not set his foot upon a single acre of soil without finding that the Governor of the world was there; here we have the unfolding of the wider thought of the intercommunion and personal relationship between the soul of man and his Maker.
II. Those who trust in the God of Bethel and providence are looking to Him for what He gives; but the aspirations of the spiritual man are wholly different. At Bethel Jacob said, "If Thou wilt be with me and wilt do me good." At Jabbok his first thought was, "Tell me Thy name." He desired to know more of God, not to get more from God. To gain further spiritual experience this is the thirst of the spiritual man. To make a friend of God for the good that we can get this is the idea of the merely religious man.
Bishop Boyd Carpenter, Penny Pulpit, No. 608.
I. All the evidence here goes to prove that the wonderful wrestler, who contended with Jacob, was the one only true God.
II. Being God and being man, we are right in calling Him Christ, and in placing this incident as the second of the anticipatory advents of the Messiah which lie scattered over the Old Testament.
III. As Jacob wrestled with God in human form, so it is with God in the Lord Jesus Christ that in all our spiritual conflicts, in all our deep repentances, in all our struggling prayers, we must wrestle.
IV. There were two things which Christ gave in this encounter a wound and a blessing. The wound first and then the blessing. The wound was small and for a season; the blessing was infinite and for ever.
J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons (1874). p. 235.
We see here the supernatural appearing in the world of the natural. We see God veiling Himself in human form, as He veiled Himself in the form of Christ His Son in after years. We must look at this story of miracle in the light of the miracle of the Incarnation.
I. In this striving of the patriarch with God, and in the blessing he won at the end of the striving, we see the very height and picture of our life, if into that life has passed the life of Christ our Lord.
II. It is by wrestling that we win the Divine blessing, but whether in struggling against doubt, against temptation, or against the enemies of the Church, we must take heed that we fight wisely as well as earnestly. We may strive, and we must strive; but let us strive wisely and lawfully if we would win the blessing.
III. The homeliest, the least eventful life, may and should be a supernatural life a life in which Christ dwells, a life which the Holy Spirit sanctifies. If we can thus strive and wrestle on, the dawn comes at last, and we are blessed of God.
Bishop Magee, Penny Pulpit, No. 1078.
I. Any attempt to make Jacob a hero, or even a good man, at the time of his deception of his father, must fail. At that time he represented the very lowest quality of manhood. We can call him a man only by courtesy; while Esau, a venturous and kind-hearted child of nature, stands up as a prince, uncrowned indeed, but only because a thief had robbed him of his crown. In the fact that God chose Jacob we find the germ of the redemptive idea at work.
II. Jacob was not at once promoted to his high place. As a wanderer and a stranger, he underwent most humiliating discipline, and on this night his old and wretched past was replaced by a new name and a new hope.
III. There must be such a night in every life a night in which the sinful past shall go down for ever into the depths of unfathomable waters. The wrestling of Jacob was (1) long, (2) desperate, (3) successful.
IV. The night of wrestling was followed by a morning of happy reconciliation with his brother.
Parker The City Temple (1870), p. 373.
(With 1 Samuel 2:27 ; Acts 1:11 ; Acts 16:9 )
I. There are anonymous ministries in life which teach the great facts of spirituality and invisibleness.
II. There are anonymous ministries in life which pronounce upon human conduct the judgment of Almighty God.
III. There are anonymous ministries in life which recall men from useless contemplation and reverie.
IV. There are anonymous ministries in life which urgently call men to benevolent activity. Two important and obvious lessons arise from the subject. (1) We are to view our own position and duty in the light of humanity as distinct from mere personality. We are parts of a whole. We belong to one another. In watering others we are watered ourselves. (3) We are not to wait for calls to service that are merely personal. We do not lift the gospel into dignity. It catches no lustre from our genius. It asks to be spoken that it may vindicate its own claim.
Parker, The City Temple, vol. i., p. 1.
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