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GOD'S WRESTLING MATCHGENESIS 32:22-32 COMMENTARY
Written and edited by Glenn Pease
PREFACE
In this commentary I quote a great number or other authors, and quite often I haveno name to connect with the quotes. If anyone can identify an authors words that Ihave quoted without a name, please let me know so I can give them credit. Send it toglenn_p86@yahoo.com. If anyone wishes their quote deleted, let me know that aswell. The purpose of this commentary is to give people as wide an exposure to Biblecommentators as possible without the need to do all the research. It is to save peoplea great deal of time in having the best possible understanding of what God is sayingthrough this particular passage of Scripture.
Jacob Wrestles With GodINTRODUCTION
David McCullough, best selling author, in his book Mornings on Horseback tellsthis story about young Teddy Roosevelt, the 26th president of the United States."Mittie (his mother) had found he was so afraid of the Madison Square Church thathe refused to set foot inside if alone. He was terrified, she discovered, of somethingcalled the 'zeal.' It was crouched in the dark corners of the church ready to jump athim, he said. When she asked what a zeal might be, he said he was not sure, butthought it was probably a large animal like an alligator or a dragon. He had heardthe minister read about it from the Bible. Using a concordance, she read him thosepassages containing the word ZEAL until suddenly, very excited, he told her to stop.The line was from the Book of John, 2:17: 'And his disciples remembered that it waswritten, 'The ZEAL of thine house hath eaten me up." No wonder he was afraid, forwho would not be afraid to be in a church with a creature that could consume you?But sometimes we face a fear and we go ahead and tackle it anyway, and that iswhat we see Jacob doing in this chapter. What could be more scary than taking onGod in a wrestling match? Yet, he does not flee, or even back away. He goes at itwith a zeal that consumes him so that he will never give up until he wins.This account is such a once in a lifetime event, or even a once in history event, thatwe may think it is irrelevant to us, and not worth our time to study, but someone
 
wrote these words that show that it is, in fact, relevant to almost all who have notlived a trouble free life, and that leaves precisely nobody."If you've ever prayed long and hard over a certain request,or questioned God because of the way he answered,or doubted your faith,or struggled through a time of spiritual dryness,or puzzled over the discrepancies between what you've heard at church and howyour life really is...then you've wrestled with God,whether or not you were aware of it at the time."
22 That night Jacob got up and took his twowives, his two maidservants and his eleven sonsand crossed the ford of the Jabbok.
1. Places in the Bible were named after special events that took place by them, andthe biggest event that took place by this river was the wrestling match of God andJacob. Jacob wrestled with an angel at the Jabbok River and the word Jabbokmeans wrestle. By the Wrestle River. And so we find a story about Jacob wrestlingwith God on the edge of the Wrestle River. The Bible does not have a lot to sayabout wrestling, but all it takes is one wrestling match in which God is one of thecontenders to make it a significant subject.2. The word, Jacob, according to many scholars but not all scholars, means cheater,manipulator, little liar, clever kniver, cunning and slippery. These are people whowill cheat you if given half a chance. So what we have here is what is typical of wrestling matches. You have the good guy who is the hero and the bad guy you wantto lose the match, for he is evil and obnoxious. He is a big bag of hot air alwaysbragging of how great he is and how he is going to demolish all who get in his way.His pride is bigger than his fat head can hold and he needs to be put down a notchor two.3. He succeeds in nearly all of his endeavors. Those who try to take advantage of him or harm him either fail or else they are won over by him. Whether Jacob in noway fits the modern Christian or Jewish ideal of what makes a godly person, it isobvious that the authors of the Bible did indeed admire Jacob as heroic and godly.Nowhere in the text does God chastise and censor him. In fact, the case could bemade that next to God Himself, Jacob is the central character in the Old Testament.His name is referred to more frequently than that of any other character. In fact, asone progresses through the books of the Bible one discovers that God Himself isdefined by His relationship to Jacob.
 
23 After he had sent them across the stream, hesent over all his possessions.
1. And they were plenty, for he had done well working with his father-in-law. Hewas basically a rich man. He was no poor Prodigal who went off and wasted hissubstance in riotous living, and was now coming home because he had no place togo. He settled down and made his fortune, and now he was coming home, notwithout fear, but with pride that he had done well. He was no failure coming back tomouch off his family, but a wealthy successful man coming back with rich gifts forhis family, and especially his brother whom he robbed. He had no idea that hisbrother was also rich at this time, and so he was going to give him a large gift tomake up for what he did to him.
24 So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestledwith him till daybreak.
1. To get the setting and the mood of Jacob as he is all alone by the river bank, weneed to look back at Genesis 32:6-7, “And the messengers returned to Jacob, saying,We came to thy brother Esau, and also he cometh to meet thee, and four hundredmen with him. Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed: and he divided thepeople that was with him, and the flocks, and herds, and the camels, into twobands.”Jacob is heading home and has no idea how his brother Esau is going toreact to him. The last he knew Esau hated him and wanted to kill him. It is nowonder he had worries and took every precaution to save at least some of his familyand possessions by dividing them up. Esau was coming with 400 men and this wasthreatning. We read in Genesis 27:41, “And Esau hated Jacob because of theblessing wherewith his father blessed him: and Esau said in his heart, The days of mourning for my father are at hand; then will I slay my brother Jacob.” Jacob didnot know if he was facing a party or a funeral, and so he was in a state of anxiety.1B. An unknown author wrote, "He is certainly troubled about his future. Soon, thenext morning Jacob is to meet up with his profane brother Essau. "BIG JAKE" forsure is no match for big, red headed, hairy, hot-tempered, rough, rugged he-manEssau. "BIG JAKE VERSUS BIG RED." The mother's boy who hid out in the tentsand loved to cook would be no contest for Essau. The future struck fear into the
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