Jacob at Jabbok

Part 2 of 2

Before Jacob stood that old enemy...in the shape of Esau. Even at this point, already back in the land, an obstacle stood in the way between Jacob and the full realisation of the blessedness towards which the Lord was leading...Esau, his own twin, his own flesh and blood! One great crisis was past, a threat to wipe out the seed of Jacob, Laban and his host had retreated under the hand of God. [Compare the threat of annihilation of Jews from Europe under Hitler prior to Israel’s entry of the land.] And as Jacob went on his way, we are told in Gen.32:1, "the angels of God met him."

Everything now seemed to be working for Jacob. Nothing surely could stand in the way of that divine purpose? Could anyone resist that heavenly army that defended his way? Yet in the eyes of him who waited in the land, Esau, Jacob was still the usurper, still pushing him out, still using his cunning and intelligence and devious ways to achieve his own ends, still arrogantly resting in his own ability, in human integrity and strength, to achieve the purpose of God.

Jacob had revealed his fears. He had prayed earnestly to the Lord. "O God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, the LORD which saidst unto me, Return unto thy country, and to thy kindred, and I will deal well with thee: I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth, which thou hast shewed unto thy servant; for with my staff I passed over this Jordan; and now I am become two bands. Deliver me, I pray thee, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau: for I fear him, lest he will come and smite me, and the mother with the children. And thou saidst, I will surely do thee good, and make thy seed as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude." (Gen 32:9‑12)

The company was now found to be composed of two bands—one in heaven, the host of accompanying angels, and one earthly, Jacob and his camp (Gen.32:2 margin. Compare Matt.24:31, which may apply to both gatherings now taking place, the earthly as well as the heavenly seeds), but as Jacob now desperately applied his mind to what strategy he should use to overcome this ultimate adversary that threatened to forever stand between him and the security and peace and prosperity in the land of promise that the Lord had said would be his, perhaps he found his mind also divided between two possible tactics—one aggressive, and one placative. ["Hawk" and "dove".] He could not go on forever fighting his brother, his own flesh and blood. How was he going to work out a solution to this ultimate challenge? This was the very point of time marked out in the purpose of God. So near, yet apparently so far away, lay the prospect of lasting bliss for which he had longed in so many years of bondage. Was this to be it? Was it to be a future of continual strife, tit‑for‑tat skirmishes, bloodshed, and bitterness of soul, resentment, mistrust? Was he forever to live by his wits to ever remain one step ahead of his enemy, or retaliating, an eye for an eye?

Israel faces a crisis even deeper than that realised in the Knesset. The flow of Jews from eastern Europe flood over into the boundaries of the little land. It was as if a great clock chimed, and the gates were opened, the last restrictions lifted. This is a time, surely, of great blessedness, for which so many so long have prayed. Yet bringing in its wake a crisis for Israel beyond any of the past. The Great Powers, so called, lean hard on Israel to work out a solution towards Middle East peace. The Palestinians, many of them ancestral blood brothers of the Jew, live in increasing fear of the consequences of this insurgence into the land of so many thousand fellow Jews. Tension is at its height! Recent attacks by extreme groups of Muslim faith shatter prospects for peace. Jacob planned a gift. He was ready to share much of his own possessions with his brother Esau, but the Lord has a more enduring solution in mind. The struggle that now engulfs Israel will go on, and it will not end until the Lord’s purpose is achieved. Before he comes through this struggle Jacob will be a changed man. Israel will be at last made worthy of that God‑given name as Israel means "God prevails." [See RV margin "God striveth."]

Jacob begins the struggle of mind inflicted upon him believing he is wrestling with a human foe who attacks him. He schemes with man’s thoughts in the endeavour to outdo his human opponent. But sooner or later in the struggle he recognises in himself the chief opponent, for he comes to realise that he is fighting with God. This moment of awing truth brings about a great loss of confidence in his own ability and strength, for, at the Lord’s touch, that in which he trusted becomes as weak as a little child. All that he can do now is to use his arms to hang on to his opponent, only by this time he is no longer resisting the Lord but using all the power he can muster to cling to the Lord. He is now wrestling in prayer and will not let go until he has the blessing of God for which he longs.

So, the Lord speaks to him and asks a remarkable question. "What is your name?" Oh, what point is in this enquiry! How well the Lord knew Jacob’s name, knew his character...usurper, schemer, but Jacob must confess it and acknowledge what he is. "My name is Jacob, supplanter, deceiver, liar, hypocrite, thief. My life has been one long career of crafty cunning and greed and reliance on self." Then God 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." (Gen 32:28) As previously mentioned Israel means "God prevails." A profound Hebrew scholar tells us that in names compounded with ‘el’ it is the ‘el,’ or God, that is the doer of the rest of the name if it should be a verb. (e.g., Daniel = God judges, Gabriel = God is my strength, etc.) Israel, therefore, means God rules, or prevails, or commands. It is the Lord’s turn now to make a play on words, and with what wisdom. When it is acknowledged that God prevails, God rules, then does man prevail and rule with God. This is the victory of full surrender to the Lord. When He is our overcomer then do we overcome in Him. The kingdom is for the violent to take by force. Their victory is total defeat of self. The battle is first with all that opposes His dominion in the heart, and the conquest is for clinging even until the dawn of new day, and not letting go until the blessing is received.

In Gen 32:29 "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?" Here is the desire to know the Lord more fully, even as He knows us, but that fuller knowing comes with experience in walking with God. When Moses asked that similar question, he too received a puzzling reply "I AM." All that He is only time and closeness can reveal. And we read, "He blessed him there." (v.29) Where, we may ask, was "there"? It was "there" in the state of heart and mind the Lord had achieved in an unworthy man. It was "there" in Jacob’s tears, for it says in Hosea 12:4, "Yea, he had power over the angel, and prevailed: he wept, and made supplication unto him."

On one other occasion it is recorded that Jacob wept before this. That was when he first set his eyes upon that sweet vision of his soul that was called "Rachel" (Hebrew for a female lamb). In Jacob’s eyes she would represent that time of coming blessing promised. She was a vision of a future of happiness, a vision he would slave to attain...the blessing of the Lord. As we read in Gen.29:11 "Jacob kissed Rachel, and lifted up his voice, and wept." Now at last, the Lord had blessed him there, and, as Hosea said, Jacob wept. The Lord blessed him there, in that dark prolonged conflict. He blessed him there, in the attitude of deep contrition and acknowledgment of all he was, He blessed him there, in that desire to know his God.

Even as the Lord blessed him, the sun rose upon him, and his eyes adjusted to its warming rays and glory and he realised that he had looked upon the face of God and yet survived that "burning bliss." Now he could see God’s face wherever he looked. He even saw the face of God in his brother Esau when he met him. Jacob said to Esau, "Nay, I pray thee, if now I have found grace in thy sight, then receive my present at my hand: for therefore I have seen thy face, as though I had seen the face of God, and thou wast pleased with me." (Gen 33:10) For the battle was done, and as the words of Prov.16:7 "'When a man’s ways please the LORD, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him."

Jacob still had further stages of processing ahead

>At Shechem he pays the price of disobedience. Then the Lord reminds him of his vow at Bethel. He has to get rid of his strange gods and idols, build an altar to the Lord at Bethel, weep over the "Saviour of the world" as his own son, the greater Joseph. So, our hearts go out to the chosen race today in the land of promise, so near, yet so far from realisation of the blessedness of the Lord’s purpose for them. This is an essential part of the process leading to that full realisation. Morning indeed cometh for Israel, but also night. [The statement of Isa 21:12, "The watchman said, ‘The morning cometh, and also the night:’" is directed to Edom (Idumea), the old Adam within which must be overcome before the blessings may flow. Cp Isaiah 34 preceding 35.] The struggle against the enemy without will surely turn to dark wrestling with the enemy within, but the Lord yet will touch Jacob’s prided human glory so that it fails him, and Jacob will come to recognise the true nature of the struggle, and learn to cling to his God.

Today Jacob sits at Jabbok’s ford contemplating those torrents that threaten to engulf and sweep him away. "But now thus saith the LORD that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine. When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. For I am the LORD thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour: I gave Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for thee. Since thou wast precious in my sight, thou hast been honourable, and I have loved thee: therefore will I give men for thee, and people for thy life. Fear not: for I am with thee: I will bring thy seed from the east, and gather thee from the west; I will say to the north, Give up; and to the south, Keep not back: bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth; even every one that is called by my name: for I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him. Bring forth the blind people that have eyes, and the deaf that have ears. Let all the nations be gathered together, and let the people be assembled: who among them can declare this, and shew us former things? let them bring forth their witnesses, that they may be justified: or let them hear, and say, It is truth. Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no saviour." (Isa 43:1‑11)Also in Isa.43:21, "This people have I formed for myself; they shall shew forth my praise." But the Lord goes on to reflect on Jacob’s resistance to His hand in the past. That is why He adds, v.28, "Therefore I have profaned the princes of the sanctuary, and have given Jacob to the curse, and Israel to reproaches." (The ban from the land of promise.) Isa 44:1‑5 "Yet now hear, O Jacob my servant; and Israel, whom I have chosen: thus saith the LORD that made thee, and formed thee from the womb, which will help thee; Fear not, O Jacob, my servant; and thou, Jesurun, whom I have chosen. For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour my spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring: and they shall spring up as among the grass, as willows by the water courses. One shall say, I am the LORD’s; and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob; and another shall subscribe with his hand unto the LORD and surname himself by the name of Israel." And that self‑righteous spirit, like filthy rags in the eyes of the Lord, will be processed into something pure and white, a worthy medium for the hand of the Lord to write upon, and on it will be seen the watermark of the likeness of Jacob’s God and King.

DJH 2008