Psalm 147:10,11; Genesis 32:24-31
He delighteth not in the strength of the horse: he taketh not pleasure in the legs of a man. The LORD taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in those that hope in his mercy.
And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob’s thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him. And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh.
And [Jacob] said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.
And he said unto him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob. And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed. And Jacob asked him, and said, Tell me, I pray thee, thy name. And he said, Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name? And he blessed him there. And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved. And as he passed over Penuel the sun rose upon him, and he halted upon his thigh.
CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): Such manifestations of God under the angelic or human form were not uncommon in the earlier parts of the Jewish history: and it is generally thought the Lord Jesus Christ was the person who assumed these appearances—that it was not a mere man who withstood Jacob, is clear, from his being expressly called “God.”
C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): I suppose our Lord Jesus Christ did here, as on many other occasions preparatory to His full incarnation, assume a human form, and came thus to wrestle with Jacob. We generally lay the stress upon the thought that Jacob wrestled with the Angel. No doubt he did, but the Bible does not say so—it says, “There wrestled a Man with him.”
C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): It was not Jacob wrestling with a man; but a man wrestling with Jacob. This scene is very commonly referred to as an instance of Jacob’s power in prayer. That it is not, is evident from the simple wording of the passage. My wrestling with a man, and a man wrestling with me, present two totally different ideas to the mind. In the former case I want to gain some object from him; in the latter, he wants to gain some object from me. Now, in Jacob’s case, the divine object was to bring him to see what a poor, feeble, worthless creature he was. When Jacob so pertinaciously held out against the divine dealing with him, “he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob’s thigh was out of joint as he wrestled with him.”
C. H. SPURGEON: It was brave of Jacob thus to wrestle, but there was too much of self about it all. It was his own sufficiency that was wrestling with the God-man, Christ Jesus. Now comes the crisis which will make a change in the whole of Jacob’s future life. What can Jacob do now that the main bone of his leg is put out of joint? He cannot even stand up any longer in the great wrestling match; what can he do?
A. W. PINK (1886-1952): Jacob was now brought to the end of his own resources. One swift stroke from the Divine hand and he was rendered utterly powerless.
C. H. SPURGEON: It is evident that, as soon as he felt that he must fall, he grasped the other “Man” with a kind of death-grip, and would not let him go.
C. H. MACKINTOSH: This is a turning point in the history of this very remarkable man. To be left alone with God is the only true way of arriving at a just knowledge of ourselves and our ways…We have seen Jacob planning and managing during his twenty years sojourn with Laban; but not until he “was left alone,” did he get a true idea of what a perfectly helpless thing he was in himself. Then, the seat of his strength being touched, he learned to say, “I will not let Thee go.” This was a new era in the history of the supplanting, planning, Jacob. Up to this point he had held fast by his own ways and means; but now he is brought to say, “I will not let Thee go.” Now, Jacob did not express himself thus until “the hollow of his thigh was touched.” This simple fact is quite sufficient to settle the true interpretation of the whole scene. God was wrestling with Jacob to bring him to this point.
MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): It was done that Jacob might see that was not his own strength, but only God’s grace which got him this victory, and could give him the deliverance which he hoped for.
C. H. SPURGEON: Now, in his weakness, he will prevail. While he was so strong, he won not the blessing; but when he became utter weakness, then did he conquer. “And he said unto him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob,” that is, a “supplanter,” as poor Esau well knew. “And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel,” that is, “a prince of God.” “For as a prince hast thou power with God and with men and hast prevailed.”
JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): “And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.” The simple meaning then is, that he saw God in an unusual and extraordinary manner.
C. H. MACKINTOSH: I would remark that the book of Job is, in a certain sense, a detailed commentary on this scene in Jacob’s history. Throughout the first thirty-one chapters, Job grapples with his friends, and maintains his point against all their arguments; but in Job 32, God, by the instrumentality of Elihu, begins to wrestle with him; and in Job 38, He comes down upon Him directly with all the majesty of His power, overwhelms him by the display of His greatness and glory, and elicits from him the well-known words, “I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes,” Job 42:5,6. This was really touching the hollow of Job’s thigh. And mark the expression, “mine eye seeth thee.” He does not say, “I see myself,” merely; no; but “Thee.” Nothing but a view of what God is, can really lead to repentance and self-loathing.
A. W. PINK: And this is the purpose God has before Him in His dealings with us. One of the principal designs of our gracious heavenly Father in the ordering of our path, in the appointing of our testings and trials, in the discipline of His love, is to bring us to the end of ourselves, to show us our own powerlessness, to teach us to have no confidence in the flesh, that His strength may be perfected in our conscious and realized weakness.
JOHN CALVIN: It is only when our weakness becomes apparent, that God’s strength is duly perfected. “My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness,” 2 Corinthians 12:9.
JOHN WESLEY (1703-1791): It was not in his own strength that Jacob wrestled, nor by his own strength that he prevails; but by strength derived from heaven. That of Job illustrates this, Job 23:6—Will He plead against me with his great power? No.”—Had the angel done so, Jacob had been crushed; “but he would put strength in me.” And by that strength Jacob had power over the angel, Hosea 12:3,4.
G. CAMPBELL MORGAN (1863-1945): This is certainly a story of Jacob’s victory, but it was a victory won when, conscious of a superior power, he yielded and, with strong crying and tears, out of weakness was made strong. Jacob’s limp was a lifelong disability, but it was also the patent of his nobility.
C. H. SPURGEON: Jacob was the prince with the disjointed limb, and that is exactly what a Christian is. He wins, he conquers, when his weakness becomes supreme, and he is conscious of it. “The God of Israel is he that giveth strength and power unto his people,” Psalm 68:35. He is strong, and makes strong: blessed are they who draw from His resources, they shall renew their strength. While the self-sufficient faint, the All-sufficient shall sustain the feeblest believer.
