Genesis 32:1-33:20--A Change in Identity

Genesis 32-33
World English Bible

32 Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him. 2 When he saw them, Jacob said, “This is God’s army.” He called the name of that place Mahanaim.

3 Jacob sent messengers in front of him to Esau, his brother, to the land of Seir, the field of Edom. 4 He commanded them, saying, “This is what you shall tell my lord, Esau: ‘This is what your servant, Jacob, says. I have lived as a foreigner with Laban, and stayed until now. 5 I have cattle, donkeys, flocks, male servants, and female servants. I have sent to tell my lord, that I may find favor in your sight.’” 6 The messengers returned to Jacob, saying, “We came to your brother Esau. He is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him.” 7 Then Jacob was greatly afraid and was distressed. He divided the people who were with him, along with the flocks, the herds, and the camels, into two companies. 8 He said, “If Esau comes to the one company, and strikes it, then the company which is left will escape.” 9 Jacob said, “God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, Yahweh, who said to me, ‘Return to your country, and to your relatives, and I will do you good,’ 10 I am not worthy of the least of all the loving kindnesses, and of all the truth, which you have shown to your servant; for with just my staff I crossed over this Jordan; and now I have become two companies. 11 Please deliver me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau; for I fear him, lest he come and strike me and the mothers with the children. 12 You said, ‘I will surely do you good, and make your offspring as the sand of the sea, which can’t be counted because there are so many.’”

13 He stayed there that night, and took from that which he had with him a present for Esau, his brother: 14 two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, 15 thirty milk camels and their colts, forty cows, ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten foals. 16 He delivered them into the hands of his servants, every herd by itself, and said to his servants, “Pass over before me, and put a space between herd and herd.” 17 He commanded the foremost, saying, “When Esau, my brother, meets you, and asks you, saying, ‘Whose are you? Where are you going? Whose are these before you?’ 18 Then you shall say, ‘They are your servant, Jacob’s. It is a present sent to my lord, Esau. Behold, he also is behind us.’” 19 He commanded also the second, and the third, and all that followed the herds, saying, “This is how you shall speak to Esau, when you find him. 20 You shall say, ‘Not only that, but behold, your servant, Jacob, is behind us.’” For, he said, “I will appease him with the present that goes before me, and afterward I will see his face. Perhaps he will accept me.”

21 So the present passed over before him, and he himself stayed that night in the camp.

22 He rose up that night, and took his two wives, and his two servants, and his eleven sons, and crossed over the ford of the Jabbok. 23 He took them, and sent them over the stream, and sent over that which he had. 24 Jacob was left alone, and wrestled with a man there until the breaking of the day. 25 When he saw that he didn’t prevail against him, the man touched the hollow of his thigh, and the hollow of Jacob’s thigh was strained as he wrestled. 26 The man said, “Let me go, for the day breaks.”

Jacob said, “I won’t let you go unless you bless me.”

27 He said to him, “What is your name?”

He said, “Jacob”.

28 He said, “Your name will no longer be called Jacob, but Israel; for you have fought with God and with men, and have prevailed.”

29 Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.”

He said, “Why is it that you ask what my name is?” So he blessed him there.

30 Jacob called the name of the place Peniel; for he said, “I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.” 31 The sun rose on him as he passed over Peniel, and he limped because of his thigh. 32 Therefore the children of Israel don’t eat the sinew of the hip, which is on the hollow of the thigh, to this day, because he touched the hollow of Jacob’s thigh in the sinew of the hip.

33 Jacob lifted up his eyes, and looked, and, behold, Esau was coming, and with him four hundred men. He divided the children between Leah, Rachel, and the two servants. 2 He put the servants and their children in front, Leah and her children after, and Rachel and Joseph at the rear. 3 He himself passed over in front of them, and bowed himself to the ground seven times, until he came near to his brother.

4 Esau ran to meet him, embraced him, fell on his neck, kissed him, and they wept. 5 He lifted up his eyes, and saw the women and the children; and said, “Who are these with you?”

He said, “The children whom God has graciously given your servant.” 6 Then the servants came near with their children, and they bowed themselves. 7 Leah also and her children came near, and bowed themselves. After them, Joseph came near with Rachel, and they bowed themselves.

8 Esau said, “What do you mean by all this company which I met?”

Jacob said, “To find favor in the sight of my lord.”

9 Esau said, “I have enough, my brother; let that which you have be yours.”

10 Jacob said, “Please, no, if I have now found favor in your sight, then receive my present at my hand, because I have seen your face, as one sees the face of God, and you were pleased with me. 11 Please take the gift that I brought to you, because God has dealt graciously with me, and because I have enough.” He urged him, and he took it.

12 Esau said, “Let’s take our journey, and let’s go, and I will go before you.”

13 Jacob said to him, “My lord knows that the children are tender, and that the flocks and herds with me have their young, and if they overdrive them one day, all the flocks will die. 14 Please let my lord pass over before his servant, and I will lead on gently, according to the pace of the livestock that are before me and according to the pace of the children, until I come to my lord to Seir.”

15 Esau said, “Let me now leave with you some of the people who are with me.”

He said, “Why? Let me find favor in the sight of my lord.”

16 So Esau returned that day on his way to Seir. 17 Jacob traveled to Succoth, built himself a house, and made shelters for his livestock. Therefore the name of the place is called Succoth.

18 Jacob came in peace to the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, when he came from Paddan Aram; and encamped before the city. 19 He bought the parcel of ground where he had spread his tent, at the hand of the children of Hamor, Shechem’s father, for one hundred pieces of money. 20 He erected an altar there, and called it El Elohe Israel.

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Jacob feared meeting his brother Esau, but the LORD allowed Jacob to see his angelic army was on his side so that Jacob set out to cross the river into the Promised Land (almost certainly, the nation of Israel is in a similar position hearing this book for the first time).  They too will have the army of the LORD on their side and going before them as they go into the Promised Land to take possession of it.  Jacob's first instinct was to send messengers (envoys) in front of him to find Esau and give a message of peace to him to tell him that he is returning home and has not come to make war.  He is going to send a gift in front of them and he is going to divide up his family, servants, flocks and herds into two groups and send them over separately.  If they get stopped, they are supposed to surrender and offer themselves as an additional peace offering to Esau, but Jacob's hope is that if one group is attached, the other might survive, so he puts Rachel and her son Joseph in the rear to try to protect them, but he puts Leah and her children out front. 

 Once Jacob has a plan, he rests for a while and then gets up in the middle of the night to execute his plan to have his people and possessions cross over the Jordan River under the cover of darkness.  He couldn't make it look any more like a sneak attack if he was trying to, but he is being controlled by fear in this moment.

Once he is all alone, a heavenly warrior shows up and wrestles with him all night long.  There is much debate on if this is one of the angelic warriors that Jacob saw earlier or if it is the captain of the LORD of Hosts Himself (the preincarnate Christ).  I lean towards the later explanation because of Jacob's naming of the place saying, "I have seen God face-to-face and lived."  It would not be shocking to him to have seen an angel face-to-face and live, but we believe no sinful man can look at the face of God and survive--yet, Jesus will say "He who has seen me has seen the Father" and "I and the Father are One" in response to one of His disciples asking Jesus to show them the Father.

The heavenly wrestler touches Jacob hip to make it come out of joint so that Jacob will release Him at daybreak, and He blesses Jacob there and changes him name to Israel because he has wrestled with both God and men, and prevailed.  From now on, pay attention to when this man is called Israel and when he is called Jacob, because the author is pointing towards whether in that moment he is living according to his new identity and new nature that he is to have (the representative of God and His people on earth) or his old identity and old nature (the trickster and fraudster who schemes and thinks of himself first and uses other people and lies and deceives to get what he wants when he wants it, regardless of the cost to others and his relationships with them).  Many times we will see the Prophets call the nation by the name Jacob instead of Israel to make this point.  I can't say this is always true, but it is something to keep an eye out for.

When Jacob gets up from this encounter, he sees his brother Esau coming towards him.  His leg has just been put out of joint and he's been wrestling all night and has had no sleep, so he's in no condition to fight.  He offers terms of peace, first by offering himself, then by offering Leah and her children and finally by offering Rachel and her children.  Jacob says that everything he has is Esau's if Esau desires payment for the wrong that has been done to him because Jacob trusts the LORD to bring about everything He has promised.

Esau did not come to make war.  The 400 men with him were there to protect them and give them provisions for their journey.  Esau offers to lead Jacob on his journey, but Jacob (there's that old name again) deceives his brother once again and says that the women and children and flocks need to rest, so Esau and his people should go on ahead of them to prepare the way and make provision for them, and they will be behind him soon.  However, Jacob had no intent of joining Esau (some of that was the Spirit of the LORD speaking to Jacob to have nothing to do with Esau, and some of it was Jacob still struggling with forgiving himself and imagining that his brother could never really forgive him).  Jacob instead went on to Succoth and then eventually to Shechem (all these will be important places along the journey of the Exodus and Conquest of the Promised Land, and this story gives a special connection to the people of God of the history of these places--history they desire to preserve and protect, and names of places that tell a story that they wish to keep so they continue to tell that story).