Genesis 32:24

THE DIVINE ANTAGONIST

‘And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day.’

Genesis 32:24

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.

—Archbishop Trench.

Illustration

(1) ‘In times of trial we betake ourselves to God, and are justified in claiming His protection, so long as we can show that we are on His plan and doing His bidding. And it is in the agony of our dread that God achieves in us a revolution that dates a new era. Alone beneath the silent march of the everlasting stars, face to face with our hour of destiny, God draws near to search us and to show some wicked or selfish way which had alienated us from His gracious help. This must be exposed and dealt with and put away ere He can open to us all His hidden stores of help and deliverance. So the angel wrestles with us. At first we resist in the pride of our strength, but after awhile we are touched in the very sinew of that strength. It shrinks, and we are obliged to go from wrestling to resting, from struggling to trusting, from striving to clinging. Then we cry in an agony of desire, Thou shalt not go till Thou hast blessed as only Thou canst. It is so we conquer, and we who had before been Jacobs, schemers, cheats, become Israels, princes having power with God and man.’

(2) ‘ “ I will not let thee go, except Thou bless me.” If we should wrestle in that spirit with every incident and every accident, every person and every object, every angel and every devil, we meet in life, we should learn a wonderful secret. It would be that in each there is a sublime lesson and an eternal benediction. Try it. You are now facing some great disaster. Grapple with it, analyse it, ransack its secret, hunt for its concealed meaning. Say to it, “If it takes me ten years or for ever, I will not let you go until I see the part you were sent to play in my life.” You will find it. It will disclose itself at last. As surely as there is fire in every flint, there is blessing in every experience. There are some in which there are curses, and terrible ones at that. But even those, if a man grapples them as Jacob did, may be made to yield some blessing. Have you sinned? Choke it, throttle it, but see how evil it is, and learn to live righteously through your knowledge.’