Written by Remember where we’ve been. We’ve watched Jacob dupe his father Isaac and brother Esau with the help of his mother Rebekah. And we then watched him flee for his life because of Esau’s fury. That’s how Jacob left Canaan, the land of promise, in a fearful fleeing. It’s all come back full circle now, for in Genesis 32 Jacob begins the trek back into Canaan, and as his exit was a fearful one back then, so too is his re-entry now; fearful exit, fearful return. Which makes sense doesn’t it? He’s not seen or spoken with Esau in 20 years. He was raging mad, bent on killing him back then. So, it’s not surprising to see that on leaving Laban’s house, Jacob immediately thinks of his brother and what it will be like to see him again.
That’s where we pick up today. Two headings to work through. First see…
Jacob’s Fearful Preparation (v1-23)
Let’s begin with v1-2 first, “Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him. And when Jacob saw them he said, “This is God’s camp!” So he called the name of that place Mahanaim.”
Right away we begin with encouragement. 20 years earlier as Jacob left Canaan God met him at Bethel and strengthened his soul with the vision of the ladder and a confirmation of the covenant promises. Now on his way back into Canaan God meets him again.[1] These two encounters have their similarities and differences.[2] Before in chapter 28 God assured Jacob that His presence would go with him, here Jacob receives the same assurance. Before Jacob heard God speak to him, here there is no divine word. Before Jacob named the place Bethel, meaning the house of God, while here Jacob names the place Mahanaim, meaning two camps. It isn’t clear what’s exactly going here, but the word Mahanaim means ‘two camps’ so I think we can assume Jacob saw two camps, or possibly two armies, of the angelic host. What a sight this must have been!? But why two? Well, perhaps it’s because there are a few ‘twos’ we’ll see in this chapter: two camps, two families, two meetings (with Esau, with God), and two brothers.[3]
Yet, with such an encouraging beginning…we see Jacob quickly grow very fearful. See v3-8, “And Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau his brother in the land of Seir, the country of Edom, instructing them, “Thus you shall say to my lord Esau: Thus says your servant Jacob, ‘I have sojourned with Laban and stayed until now. I have oxen, donkeys, flocks, male servants, and female servants. I have sent to tell my lord, in order that I may find favor in your sight.’” And the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, “We came to your brother Esau, and he is coming to meet you, and there are four hundred men with him.” Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed. He divided the people who were with him, and the flocks and herds and camels, into two camps, thinking, “If Esau comes to the one camp and attacks it, then the camp that is left will escape.”
It’s as if Jacob knows the first thing he must deal with on his re-entry to Canaan is Esau. So Jacob sends out messengers to Esau with instructions to give him a message. This message is intended to be a kind of courteous reintroduction to his brother. Notice it’s beginning? “My lord Esau…your servant Jacob…” Jacob desires to be seen as underneath Esau and not over him. He states he’s been with Laban for 20 years, though he doesn’t explicitly state the reason he’s been there. And he makes it known that he has many possessions, not to boast but to find favor with Esau. Which I think, hints that a gift might be coming soon.
These messengers go out in v3 and they return in v6 with news. News that terrifies Jacob. The messengers return and make it known that Esau is coming to meet Jacob, with 400 men. Jacob immediately believes the worst, that Esau is coming with a mighty army to destroy him, so he divides all he has into two camps, thinking if one half of his family is destroyed, hopefully the other half will make out ok. But notice. We as readers don’t have the same fear as Jacob. Why? The messengers Jacob sent out, came back alive. If Esau wanted to destroy Jacob, he would’ve killed his messengers, yet he didn’t. This shows us that even though Jacob just had another angelic visit to encourage and bolster his soul, he gives way to fear at the very mention of Esau coming to meet him.
Church, see what a guilty conscience does to you. If you know you’re in the wrong, and know you’ve done wrong, you’ll very likely imagine the worst. Like Jacob does here, your perception will drive your reality. See that? He knows he’s in the wrong when it comes to Esau, thus, he takes Esau’s message not as hopeful or neutral, but as a threat to his very life. Church, see the consequences of sin. When you’re in sin long enough, one result is that you will imagine the worst of everyone around you. That they’re all our to get you, that you can’t trust them, and that you’re better off by yourself. So what does Jacob do? Instead of loving his family by placing them behind himself or going on ahead of them to meet Esau on his own, he places his family in front of him, to protect himself, and minimize his losses. Church, sin makes us fools.
Yet, as we come back to the text, see what his great fear prompts Jacob to do in v9-12. He is paralyzed by his fear, no.[4]He prays! See it start in v9, “And Jacob said, “O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O LORD who said to me, ‘Return to your country and to your kindred, that I may do you good,’ I am not worthy of the least of all the deeds of steadfast love and all the faithfulness that you have shown to your servant, for with only my staff I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two camps. Please deliver me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear him, that he may come and attack me, the mothers with the children. But you said, ‘I will surely do you good, and make your offspring as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.’”
Clearly, Jacob’s fear of Esau arises in him a hefty sense of need and dependence, so finally (!) it is good to see Jacob seek the Lord. This is his first recorded prayer in Genesis and it is wonderful.[5] Here he pleads God’s promises back to God, he owns up to his own unworthiness, recognizes how blessed he was, he honestly admits his fear for Esau, and pleads for God to rescue him from the consequences of his own sin. Beautiful! Exemplary! And sweet to see after so many years of deception. Yet, as his fervent prayer ended, his desperate measures continued.[6]
See v13-23, “So he stayed there that night, and from what he had with him he took a present for his brother Esau, two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, thirty milking camels and their calves, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys. These he handed over to his servants, every drove by itself, and said to his servants, “Pass on ahead of me and put a space between drove and drove.” He instructed the first, “When Esau my brother meets you and asks you, ‘To whom do you belong? Where are you going? And whose are these ahead of you?’ then you shall say, ‘They belong to your servant Jacob. They are a present sent to my lord Esau. And moreover, he is behind us.’” He likewise instructed the second and the third and all who followed the droves, “You shall say the same thing to Esau when you find him, and you shall say, ‘Moreover, your servant Jacob is behind us.’” For he thought, “I may appease him with the present that goes ahead of me, and afterward I shall see his face. Perhaps he will accept me.” So the present passed on ahead of him, and he himself stayed that night in the camp. The same night he arose and took his two wives, his two female servants, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. He took them and sent them across the stream, and everything else that he had.”
Though he pled with the Lord to save him, clearly in v13 Jacob is still dreading Esau, thus, his fearful preparations continue. He takes 220 goats, 220 rams, 40 cows, 30 camels, 30 donkeys, and 10 bulls…gives all these to his servants and tells them to go on ahead of him. And in v17-19 we see all of this was divided into at least three groups (maybe more) that will function as three waves of gifts. Esau will then, experience three separate and increasing sets of gifts from Jacob. Now, this was not altogether uncommon for this culture, to send a gift(s) on ahead of you.[7] What is uncommon here is the sheer size of this ‘present.’ Massive might not be a large enough word to describe it. A king wouldn’t even have gotten a gift this large. So, why is it so big? I think Jacob does this because of his past sins. Earlier Jacob had stolen the blessing from Esau, and here I think he’s trying to give it back to Esau. He’s trying to make up for it, by going above and beyond what would normally be culturally appropriate. Which again, shows his guilty conscience at work, and that his fearful perception of big older brother drives his reality. Well, Jacob puts a message in the mouths of his servants again, telling Esau all this is his gift to him, and then we learn Jacob’s intentions in v20-21. He desires to appease, or make atonement in this gift, so that he can stand before Esau’s face as acceptable once again. Or in other words, Jacob desires to turn away the fierce anger of Esau with this gift.
Later that night, v21-23 leads us to believe Jacob is still so disrupted that he can’t sleep.[8] So he rises up, gets his wives, gets his kids, and sends them on ahead across the river Jabbok…which leaves Jacob all alone on the opposite side of the river. And we’re left wondering, what will happen? Will Esau accept the gift, or not? And what will come of all Jacob’s family and possessions? But, as much as we want an answer to that, it doesn’t come in this chapter. We have to wait for chapter 33 for that. For us, the remainder of chapter 32 describes an event Jacob will never forget.
We’ve seen Jacob’s fearful preparation, now we see…
God’s Humbling Preparation (v24-32)
“And Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day. When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched his hip socket, and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. Then he said, “Let me go, for the day has broken.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” And he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” Then he said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.” Then Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” And there he blessed him. So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered.” The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip. Therefore to this day the people of Israel do not eat the sinew of the thigh that is on the hip socket, because he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip on the sinew of the thigh.”
Now we’ve come to it. Jacob’s great wrestling match. See how it begins. v24 says it, Jacob was all alone, and behold, a man wrestled with him till dawn. What a moment that would’ve been as Jacob felt a strong set of hands grab hold of him that night. He knew his own strength, and he was no weakling, but he could tell this other man was a match for him. However long the night was these two wrestled and fought and neither gave in. Two details come in v25. First, this other man could not prevail over Jacob, and second, with a mere touch he dislodged Jacob’s hip. Power Jacob had never known before was present in this other man. Why had he not shown such power before? So easily his whole walk and strength had broken, at this man’s mere touch. Even so, Jacob held on as dawn neared.
Then the silence is broken by this other man in v26 “Let me go, for the day has broken.” To which Jacob, who seems to understand this is a divine being says, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” Jacob sensed this was a divine being, and had the ability to bless him. But, in v27, the other man says, “What is your name?” And all the sudden Jacob was undone. It might have been pitch black but for the first time he saw things as clear as day. For the first time in his life he was forced to admit who he was, who he had always been. He had wrestled with his brother, he had wrestled with his father, he had wrestled with his uncle, and now (what a thought!) he was wrestling with God. By acknowledging his name he admits his character. It was a confession of guilt. Jacob was forced to admit that he truly was a deceiver all these years, and in that moment he came to the end of himself. Yet how kind and gracious, in the very next breath God gives Jacob a new name and with it comes a new identity in v28. “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.” The wrestling match ends as mysteriously as it began.[9] Jacob asks for this man’s name, he doesn’t give it, but blesses Jacob and leaves. And Jacob knew, as v30 makes clear, he had come face to face with God and had been delivered. He limped away, and then we learn of a new dietary law the Israelites adopted from this moment on.
But how glorious to see it. This is indeed a new chapter, a new beginning for Jacob. But no doubt this was both the hardest and the best day of his life. Yes the Lord’s name was too wonderful for his ears, and yes the Lord’s face was too wonderful for his eyes, but here he received a new name and a new walk. No longer was Jacob’s walk a strong strut or swagger. Now he knew One who was stronger than himself. Proud Jacob would limp the rest of his days as humbled Israel, never to walk again in self-sufficiency, for God knocked it out of him. Yes, Jacob himself would never be the same and his descendants would never be the same either. Their very name, Israel, would’ve reminded them of their origin, of this moment, that as their father triumphed, so too could they. But the great lesson here is that the birth of this new man came through the death of the old man. Jacob didn’t triumph or come into the great blessing of God by his own power and might, no. He triumphed and came into great blessing through weakness. And from now on, all Israel must do the same.
Conclusion:
Church, the same is true of our Savior, the Lord Jesus. He did not come and conquer the world, the flesh, and the devil by a display of great power and might, no. He came and conquered the world, the flesh, and the devil by weakness. By the weakness of taking onto Himself a human nature, of willingly enduring all that it was to be human in life, and by willingly suffering the gruesome nature of the cross in death. In this way, the way of weakness, Jesus not only defeated sin but provided all that was needed for man to be saved. It looked then, and still looks today, like weakness to the world. But to us, it is the power of God for salvation to all who believe!
As this was true for Jacob, and as this was true for Jesus, it is also true of us. How so? The limp is now the posture of the Christian. Weakness is now our strength. Humility is the king of all virtues while pride is the chief vice. The character of the kingdom is decrease not increase. One author put it like this, “The church and the world needs Christians who’ve had their swagger gospeled out of them.” (Jared Wilson)
So Church: would you give up the fight? Would you give up your need to strut? Would you come to Christ afresh and enjoy how the gospel un-swaggers your soul? May you come to see and savor, that the end of ourselves is the beginning of true life in Christ.
[1] R. Kent Hughes, Genesis, Preaching the Word (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2004), 398.
[2] Gordon J. Wenham, Genesis 16-50, WBC (Waco, TX: Zondervan, 2000), 281.
[3] Bruce K. Waltke, Genesis (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Academic, 2001), 441.
[4] Wenham, Genesis 16-50, 290.
[5] Waltke, Genesis, 443.
[6] Hughes, Genesis, 399.
[7] Wenham, Genesis 16-50, 291.
[8] Wenham, 292.
[9] Hughes, Genesis, 402.
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