Genesis 32.24b-Jacob Wrestles with the Preincarnate Christ
Tuesday August 29, 2006
Genesis: Genesis 32:24b-Jacob Wrestles with the Preincarnate Christ
Lesson # 195
Please turn in your Bibles to Genesis 32:1.
This evening we will continue with our studies of Genesis 32 by noting Genesis 32:24b.
Thus far, by way of review of this chapter, we have noted the following:
In Genesis 32:1-2, we saw Jacob encountering the angels of God as he was returning to the land of Canaan and naming the place, “Mahanaim,” which means, “two camps.”
Jacob’s encounter with the elect angels of God was designed to reassure him once again of the divine presence and protection and to motivate him to walk by faith and not by sight.
2 Corinthians 5:7, “for we walk by faith, not by sight.”
Hebrews 11:1, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”
Then, we noted Genesis 32:3-6, where Jacob by faith initiates contact with Esau his brother by sending a delegation to him in order to communicate to Esau his desire to reconcile with him but Jacob receives information from the messengers that Esau is coming with four hundred men to meet him.
As we noted the delegation did not make contact with Esau and therefore, did not convey Jacob’s message to Esau but rather they simply turned around after seeing Esau coming with four hundred men and assumed that Esau had hostile intentions.
In Genesis 32:7-8, we saw Jacob’s response to this information, which was to divide his family into two companies in order to save lives in case Esau’s intentions were hostile.
Then, we noted Genesis 32:9-12 where Jacob prays for protection from Esau and claims the covenant promises of God (32:9-12) in order to meet his fear of Esau.
In Genesis 32:13-21 we saw that by faith Jacob sent gifts to Esau as restitution for stealing the blessing of the birthright twenty years before.
This gift was intended to signify to Esau that Jacob’s intentions towards Esau were not hostile but rather conciliatory.
In Genesis 32:22-23 we saw where by faith Jacob sends his family across Jabbok and into the land of Canaan.
On Sunday morning we noted the first part of Genesis 32:24a where we saw Jacob alone in prayer prior to his encounter with Esau and entrance into the land of Canaan, which was in obedience to the Lord’s command.
This evening we will note Genesis 32:24b where Jacob wrestles the God-Man, the preincarnate Christ.
Genesis 32:1, “Now as Jacob went on his way, the angels of God met him.”
Genesis 32:2, “Jacob said when he saw them, ‘This is God's camp.’ So he named that place Mahanaim.”
Genesis 32:3, “Then Jacob sent messengers before him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom.”
Genesis 32:4-5, “He also commanded them saying, ‘Thus you shall say to my lord Esau: ‘Thus says your servant Jacob, ‘I have sojourned with Laban, and stayed until now; I have oxen and donkeys and flocks and male and female servants; and I have sent to tell my lord, that I may find favor in your sight.’”
Genesis 32:6, “The messengers returned to Jacob, saying, ‘We came to your brother Esau, and furthermore he is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him.’”
Genesis 32:7-8, “Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed; and he divided the people who were with him, and the flocks and the herds and the camels, into two companies; for he said, ‘If Esau comes to the one company and attacks it, then the company which is left will escape.’”
Genesis 32:9-10, “Jacob said, ‘O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O LORD, who said to me, ‘Return to your country and to your relatives, and I will prosper you, I am unworthy of all the lovingkindness and of all the faithfulness which You have shown to Your servant; for with my staff only I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two companies.’”
Genesis 32:11, “Deliver me, I pray, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau; for I fear him, that he will come and attack me and the mothers with the children.”
Genesis 32:12, “For You said, ‘I will surely prosper you and make your descendants as the sand of the sea, which is too great to be numbered.’”
Genesis 32:13-15, “So he spent the night there. Then he selected from what he had with him a present for his brother Esau: two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, thirty milking camels and their colts, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys.”
Genesis 32:16, “He delivered them into the hand of his servants, every drove by itself, and said to his servants, ‘Pass on before me, and put a space between droves.’”
Genesis 32:17, “He commanded the one in front, saying, ‘When my brother Esau meets you and asks you, saying, ‘To whom do you belong, and where are you going, and to whom do these animals in front of you belong?’”
Genesis 32:18, “then you shall say, ‘These belong to your servant Jacob; it is a present sent to my lord Esau. And behold, he also is behind us.’”
Genesis 32:19-20, “Then he commanded also the second and the third, and all those who followed the droves, saying, ‘After this manner you shall speak to Esau when you find him and you shall say, ‘Behold, your servant Jacob also is behind us.’ For he said, ‘I will appease him with the present that goes before me. Then afterward I will see his face; perhaps he will accept me.’”
Genesis 32:21, “So the present passed on before him, while he himself spent that night in the camp.”
Genesis 32:22, “Now he arose that same night and took his two wives and his two maids and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok.”
The name “Jabbok” is the proper noun yabboq (qB{y^) (yab-boke), which means, “Wrestler” and is thus called so as to commemorate the wrestling match between Jacob and the Lord in this particular geographical location.
Genesis 32:23, “He took them and sent them across the stream. And he sent across whatever he had.”
Genesis 32:24, “Then Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak.”
Genesis 32:25, “When he (the Lord) saw that he (the Lord) had not prevailed against him (Jacob), he (the Lord) touched the socket of his (Jacob’s) thigh; so the socket of Jacob's thigh was dislocated while he wrestled with him.”
Genesis 32:26, “Then he (the Lord) said, ‘Let me go, for the dawn is breaking.’ But he (Jacob) said, ‘I will not let you go unless you bless me.’”
Genesis 32:27, “So he (the Lord) said to him (Jacob), ‘What is your name?’ And he said, ‘Jacob.’”
Genesis 32:28, “He said, ‘Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel; for you have striven with God and with men and have prevailed.’”
Genesis 32:29, “Then Jacob asked him and said, ‘Please tell me your name.’ But he said, ‘Why is it that you ask my name?’ And he blessed him there.”
Genesis 32:30, “So Jacob named the place Peniel, for he said, ‘I have seen God face to face, yet my life has been preserved.’”
Genesis 32:31, “Now the sun rose upon him just as he crossed over Penuel, and he was limping on his thigh.”
Genesis 32:32, “Therefore, to this day the sons of Israel do not eat the sinew of the hip which is on the socket of the thigh, because he touched the socket of Jacob's thigh in the sinew of the hip.”
So after Jacob had done everything he could in the way of offering restitution to Esau for his deceitfulness towards Esau twenty years before, and after sending his wives and children across, we see Jacob alone.
Jacob wanted to be alone with God in prayer before his meeting with Esau the next morning.
The reason why Jacob wanted to be alone with God in prayer was that undoubtedly he was “wrestling” with his fears concerning encountering Esau the next day.
Jacob was wrestling with his fears in prayer even though by faith he prayed for deliverance from Esau and even initiated contact with Esau and sent his beloved family across the Jabbok directly in the path of Esau.
While in prayer, Jacob was fighting the good fight of faith.
1 Timothy 6:12, “Fight the good fight of faith.”
Jacob must have crossed the Jabbok again because Genesis 32:24 tells us that he was alone.
He was alone as far as other human beings are concerned but he is in reality alone with God.
Genesis 32:24, “Then Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak.”
“And” is the conjunction we (w+) (waw), which is employed with the imperfect tense of the verb `avaq (qb^a*) (aw-vak), “wrestled” in order to signify the next “sequential” event that took place after Jacob was left alone in prayer with God and should therefore be translated “then.”
“Man” is the noun `ish (vya!) (eesh), which refers to the Son of God prior to becoming a human being permanently in Bethlehem two thousand years ago and is therefore a “theophany” or “Christophany.”
The words “theophany” or “Christophany” are technical theological terms used to refer to a visible or auditory manifestation of the Son of God before His incarnation in Bethlehem (Gen. 32:29-30; Ex. 3:2; 19:18-20; Josh. 5:13-15; Dan. 3:26).
Therefore, in the Old Testament a “theophany” or “Christophany” were appearances of the “preincarnate” Christ.
The word “incarnate” is from the Latin, in and caro, whose stem carn means, “flesh.”
Therefore, the term “preincarnate” means before the Son of God became a human being permanently in Bethlehem.
There are three stages in the career of the Lord Jesus Christ: (1) “Preincarnate”: Eternity past as the 2nd Person of the Trinity, the Son of God. (2) “Incarnate”: Virgin birth through the 1st Advent to the resurrection. (3) “Glorified Incarnate”: Resurrection and on into eternity future.
The context indicates quite clearly Jacob wrestled with the Lord since Genesis 32:28 says that the man wrestling with Jacob says to Jacob that he has “striven with God.”
Furthermore, in Genesis 32:29, Jacob named the place where the wrestling match took place “Peniel,” which means, “I have seen God face to face, yet my life has been preserved.”
These “preincarnate” appearances of the Son of God are often designated in the Old Testament by the expression, “the angel of the Lord” or simply “angel.”
“Angel” is the noun mal’akh (Ea*l+m^) (mal-awk), which means, “messenger” is used in the Old Testament with reference to “elect” angels (Gen. 19:1; Ps. 91:11) and men (Deut. 2:26; Josh. 6:17) and of the “preincarnate” Christ (Gen. 22:11; Zech. 3:1).
One must refer to the context in order to determine if the word “angel” or “angel of the Lord” is a reference to a human or angelic messenger or a divine messenger, i.e. the Son of God.
Hosea 12:3-5 refers to Jacob’s wrestling match with the Lord and uses the term “angel” and identifies that angel as God.
Hosea 12:3, “In the womb he (Jacob) took his brother (Esau) by the heel, and in his maturity he contended with God.”
Hosea 12:4-5, “Yes, he wrestled with the angel and prevailed; He wept and sought His favor. He found Him at Bethel and there He spoke with us, even the LORD, the God of hosts, the LORD is His name.”
Hosea 12:4 says that Jacob “wrestled with the angel” whereas Hosea 12:3 says that Jacob “contended with God,” and Hosea 12:5 calls the angel “the Lord is His name,” thus identifying the angel as God.
Therefore, the context of Hosea 12:3-5 and Genesis 32:24-32 indicates quite clearly that the “man” that Jacob wrestled with was a preincarnate appearance of the Son of God.
Now, Moses under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit does not immediately identify to the reader that it was the Lord that Jacob was wrestling with in order to heighten the story’s tension and to draw the reader in.
Jacob is alone, unprotected, and in the dark and now he is attacked by some man, which would cause the reader to take notice.
Therefore, we see Jacob left alone in prayer with God and then an unidentified man initiates a wrestling match with him at night.
“Wrestled” is the niphal form of the verb `avaq (qb^a*) (aw-vak) and is a play on the name “Jabbok,” which means, “Wrestler” and Jacob’s name, which means, “heel catcher.”
So to paraphrase this word play, we could say that the Lord “Yabboked” Jacob or “He Jacobed” him.
This wrestling match with the Lord was an “historical event” and was “not” a dream or an allegory since you don’t wake up from a dream with a dislocated hip as Jacob did.
Also, this wrestling match was “spiritual” as well since Hosea 12:4 states that Jacob “wept and sought His (the Lord’s) favor” in prayer.