MY SHORT REPORT GENESIS 25-42
The link that brought you to this page and the page title are a bit of a misnomer, because this short report is not long enough to cover so many chapters of the Bible. What the link and the title do, however, is track where we are in our plan to read through the entire Bible in 1 year. May each report pique your interest and help you to draw near to God. The Bible, James 4:8, tells us if we do so God will draw near to us. Works cited are at the end of the report.
BIBLE READING—2ND WEEK—GENESIS 25-42: In the final chapters of last week Sarah dies (Gen 23) and Isaac married Rebekah (Gen 24). In the first chapter for this week Abraham dies (Gen 25) so the latter half of Genesis focuses on God’s work in the lives of Abraham’s son, Isaac, his grandsons, Esau and Jacob, and his 12 great-grandsons from Jacob. God renames Jacob Israel (Gen 32:28; 35:10) and his sons became the progenitors of the 12 tribes of Israel (Gen 48). Thus God is setting the stage to raise up a nation— “a people holy to the LORD” (Deut 7:6).
This section of Genesis is rich with colorful stories about God’s people, but none capture the imagination like the story of Jacob wrestling with God. In our own way we all wrestle with God as we try to understand and obey His perfect will for our lives, which, because of our sinful nature, tends to go in other directions, like when Jacob deceived his father. Another way we struggle with God is in prayer, especially when our needs are great. But here in Genesis 32:22-32 Jacob has an actual visit and a physical wrestling match with God! The Bible makes that clear when it says, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed” (v. 28), and again in Jacob’s statement, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered” (v. 30). The Genesis – People’s Bible Commentary agrees when it points out, “Jacob’s opponent, referred to as ‘the man,’ later identified himself as God” (Jeske, 270).
While the ESV, NIV, and the commentaries in the People’s Commentary series don’t capitalize personal pronouns that reference God, the NKJV and Amplified Bible (AMP) do. Thus, verse 25 in the AMP reads, “When the Man saw that He had not prevailed against Jacob, He touched his hip joint; and Jacob’s hip was dislocated as he wrestled with Him.”
In The Great Works of God Parts Three and Four Valerius Herberger emphatically agrees that God in human form is physically present as he writes: “This man of heaven with whom Jacob wrestled is our Redeemer Jesus Christ, ‘the LORD, strong and mighty in battle,’ as Psalm 24[:8] calls Him. Moses calls Him ‘a man,’ or ish, ‘a human being,’ which Eve also called the Lord Jesus above in Genesis 4:1. The wrestler called Himself ‘God,’ just as Eve called Lord Jesus ‘LORD.’ And the prophet Hosea said of Jacob, ‘In all his power he strove with God; he strove with the angel and prevailed’ (Hos. 12:3). Behold, Hosea referred to the wrestler both as God and as angel” (232). Of course, Jesus is known as God and the Angel of the Lord, so this is a good observation.
It’s worth noting that our all-powerful and all-mighty God (El Shaddai) in reality could have crushed Jacob with a simple word, or thought. And the same goes for Satan—the old snake in Eden. Neither event, however, fits into God’s plan of salvation. So why would God have such a match with a man? It seems to come down to need. God as Yahweh Yireh always provides for all of our needs, and right now Jacob needed more faith and perhaps a victory to help him with his faith—he feared for his life—fear was a big part of his personal reason for leaving home, because he learned Esau hated him and planned to murder him (Gen 27:41).
He remembered the words God gave him shortly after leaving Beersheba on his way to Haran. That’s when Jacob dreamed a dream of angles descending and ascending a ladder to heaven, at the top stood “the Lord, the God of Abraham” (Gen 28:13), who assured Jacob, “I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you” (v. 15). Jacob called the place, “The house of God” (Bethel).
Now, he was returning home and Esau was on his way to meet him along the journey (Gen 32:6). Jacob was convinced that his brother was up to no good but could stay away no longer.
Jeske presents a great perspective of the match between God and Jacob telling his readers, “He was delighted to hear Jacob answer, ‘I will not let you go unless you bless me.’ God didn’t want Jacob (and he doesn’t want us) to be timid with him. He delights to let us win victories over him on the basis of humble, believing prayer. Jacob clung in faith to God and to God’s promise, and he received the blessing he desired” (271). At that point God would give Jacob the name Israel.
Soon afterward Jacob and Esau were reunited and there would be kisses and tears of joy (Gen 33:4). Subsequently Jacob settled in Shechem and built an altar to God, calling it El-Elohe-Israel (God is the God of Israel) (Gen 33:18-20).
This section of Genesis is rich with colorful stories about God’s people, but none capture the imagination like the story of Jacob wrestling with God. In our own way we all wrestle with God as we try to understand and obey His perfect will for our lives, which, because of our sinful nature, tends to go in other directions, like when Jacob deceived his father. Another way we struggle with God is in prayer, especially when our needs are great. But here in Genesis 32:22-32 Jacob has an actual visit and a physical wrestling match with God! The Bible makes that clear when it says, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed” (v. 28), and again in Jacob’s statement, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered” (v. 30). The Genesis – People’s Bible Commentary agrees when it points out, “Jacob’s opponent, referred to as ‘the man,’ later identified himself as God” (Jeske, 270).
While the ESV, NIV, and the commentaries in the People’s Commentary series don’t capitalize personal pronouns that reference God, the NKJV and Amplified Bible (AMP) do. Thus, verse 25 in the AMP reads, “When the Man saw that He had not prevailed against Jacob, He touched his hip joint; and Jacob’s hip was dislocated as he wrestled with Him.”
In The Great Works of God Parts Three and Four Valerius Herberger emphatically agrees that God in human form is physically present as he writes: “This man of heaven with whom Jacob wrestled is our Redeemer Jesus Christ, ‘the LORD, strong and mighty in battle,’ as Psalm 24[:8] calls Him. Moses calls Him ‘a man,’ or ish, ‘a human being,’ which Eve also called the Lord Jesus above in Genesis 4:1. The wrestler called Himself ‘God,’ just as Eve called Lord Jesus ‘LORD.’ And the prophet Hosea said of Jacob, ‘In all his power he strove with God; he strove with the angel and prevailed’ (Hos. 12:3). Behold, Hosea referred to the wrestler both as God and as angel” (232). Of course, Jesus is known as God and the Angel of the Lord, so this is a good observation.
It’s worth noting that our all-powerful and all-mighty God (El Shaddai) in reality could have crushed Jacob with a simple word, or thought. And the same goes for Satan—the old snake in Eden. Neither event, however, fits into God’s plan of salvation. So why would God have such a match with a man? It seems to come down to need. God as Yahweh Yireh always provides for all of our needs, and right now Jacob needed more faith and perhaps a victory to help him with his faith—he feared for his life—fear was a big part of his personal reason for leaving home, because he learned Esau hated him and planned to murder him (Gen 27:41).
He remembered the words God gave him shortly after leaving Beersheba on his way to Haran. That’s when Jacob dreamed a dream of angles descending and ascending a ladder to heaven, at the top stood “the Lord, the God of Abraham” (Gen 28:13), who assured Jacob, “I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you” (v. 15). Jacob called the place, “The house of God” (Bethel).
Now, he was returning home and Esau was on his way to meet him along the journey (Gen 32:6). Jacob was convinced that his brother was up to no good but could stay away no longer.
Jeske presents a great perspective of the match between God and Jacob telling his readers, “He was delighted to hear Jacob answer, ‘I will not let you go unless you bless me.’ God didn’t want Jacob (and he doesn’t want us) to be timid with him. He delights to let us win victories over him on the basis of humble, believing prayer. Jacob clung in faith to God and to God’s promise, and he received the blessing he desired” (271). At that point God would give Jacob the name Israel.
Soon afterward Jacob and Esau were reunited and there would be kisses and tears of joy (Gen 33:4). Subsequently Jacob settled in Shechem and built an altar to God, calling it El-Elohe-Israel (God is the God of Israel) (Gen 33:18-20).