And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.
Jacob called the place Peniel because there he had met God face to face and yet his life was spared. The One who wrestled with him through the night was Christ Himself, the Angel of the covenant and Majesty of heaven. Having sorrowfully confessed the fraud by which he took the birthright and blessing, Jacob clung in helpless, weeping faith and would not let go without assurance of pardon, and he received blessing, rest and peace. That clinging, importunate pleading, laying hold of the promises with self-surrender and unyielding persistence through pain, weariness and delay, is prevailing prayer by which the helpless win through self-surrender what they vainly seek in their own strength. His triumph brought a new name from Jacob the supplanter to Israel a prince with God, marking victory over his own evil nature as well as deliverance from Esau, and foreshadows how God's people in the final time of trouble will plead day and night, confess every sin blotted out, and prevail.
Peniel's Night Encounter
Jacob called the place Peniel because there he had seen God face to face and yet his life was preserved. The One who wrestled with him through the night and blessed him there was Christ Himself. He was the covenant Angel, the Majesty of heaven, recognized at last as God met face to face.
The saying belongs to Jacob's return to Canaan after twenty years of exile for securing by deception his father's blessing intended for Esau and fleeing for his life from his brother's deadly threats. At God's command he set out to return with wives and children and flocks and herds, and on reaching the borders was filled with terror because Esau approached with a band of warriors bent on revenge while his own company was unarmed and defenseless. Two hosts of angels accompanied him as guardians, and he named that place Mahanaim, meaning two hosts or camps. Even as he remembered his sin he remembered God's favor, promises of help, and guidance.
Left alone after sending his family across the Jabbok, he spent the night in prayer in a lonely mountainous region, bowed in deep distress at midnight because his own sin had brought peril of danger and death upon the innocent dear to him. In darkness and solitude a strong hand was laid upon him, and he wrestled in silence with all his strength and with all the energy of despair for his life, as with an enemy seeking his life. Guilt pressed on his soul and his sins rose to shut him out from God, and at first he did not recognize God but supposed his visitor to be a lawless enemy. Failing so to recognize God shuts out the quickening influence of the Spirit and leaves people destitute, resisting His cleansing of confessed sin.
Near daybreak the stranger put forth superhuman power and by a touch to the thigh crippled him instantly with keen pain and paralyzed his strength. By that divine touch Jacob knew he had been contending face to face with the heavenly Messenger, Christ the Saviour Himself, the Angel of the covenant. Wounded, broken, helpless and weeping, he fell upon the breast and neck of his antagonist and clung to him. Only when thus crippled and helpless did he know the victory of conquering faith, for trials may seem like the work of an enemy but can reveal God's presence to the helpless longing soul.
His survival was merciful preservation that left him alive to testify with wonder that he had met God face to face. That same testimony still belongs to close communion with God: after conflict, disappointment, self-discipline and earnest prayer, living faith grasps God's promises and the believer may come away with a shining face. Those who pray fervently like Jacob prevail with God, receive His blessing, and are regarded as princes having power to prevail with God and with men.
Repentance Pardon and Preservation
Before his life was preserved at Peniel, Jacob sorrowfully reviewed his wrongs, confessed the fraud by which he obtained the birthright and the blessing, and pleaded for deliverance and mercy with humiliation, surrender, and trust in the covenant-keeping God and His promises given at Bethel and in exile. His persistence in pleading for a blessing came from repentance, humility, and trust in God's mercy as he sought assurance that his sin was pardoned. Jacob's struggle was an encounter with the Angel of the covenant, and his victory through humiliation, repentance, and surrender while clinging to God's promises assured him that he would prevail with men. His perseverance came not from pride or a claim to worthiness, but from repentance, surrender, awareness of weakness, and trust in God's pledged promises.
Though disabled and suffering keen pain from the touch that crippled his thigh, Jacob held on by persevering faith and would not let go without a blessing and assurance that his sin was pardoned. When he recognized his heavenly opponent as Christ, the Angel of the covenant, he clung to Him in repentance, broken and weeping, and pleaded for a blessing. He received the blessing, pardon, rest, and peace, with joy following the conflict, and his encounter brought assurance that God had pardoned his sins. His earnest, wholehearted pleading is the example of seeking God with all one's strength, humility, and faith.
God heard Jacob and mercifully spared his life because he had already repented of obtaining the birthright and blessing by fraud; without that repentance God would not have heard his prayer and preserved him. The same condition holds for God's people in the time of trouble: only those who have no concealed wrongs, whose sins have gone beforehand to judgment and been blotted out so they cannot bring them to remembrance, can keep faith and confidence to plead for deliverance instead of being overwhelmed with fear, anguish, and despair. God does not excuse or tolerate sin, and those who conceal sin and leave it unconfessed and unforgiven will be overcome. A person cleansed from sin can endure God's presence, but those who willfully cherish evil cannot, because God's glory destroys sin and therefore destroys those who cling to it.
During the struggle Satan accused Jacob before angels, claimed the right to destroy him for his sin, moved Esau to march against him, and forced a sense of guilt upon him to discourage him and break his hold until Jacob was driven almost to despair. Jacob knew he must perish without help from Heaven, sincerely repented of his great sin, confessed weakness and unworthiness, appealed to the mercy of a covenant-keeping God, and would not be turned from his purpose. He fastened his trembling grasp on the promises, clung and refused to let go without assurance of pardon and a blessing, urging his petition with earnest agonizing cries until he prevailed through humiliation, repentance, self-surrender, confidence, firmness, and perseverance, not boastful presumption.
Prevailing Importunate Prayer
Wrestling with God means laying hold of His promises, denying self, and clinging with unyielding faith while pleading that there will be no letting go without a blessing. It refuses to rest without a special manifestation of divine power, with the whole soul stirred to earnest communion for grace and strength to overcome the fiery temptations of the foe. The soul is drawn out after God in intensity of desire until every power is on the stretch, agonizing long and earnestly for His blessing even when waves of despair sweep over the suppliant. All who are as earnest and persevering succeed as Jacob succeeded, while those unwilling to strive in this way, but who pray in a cold, listless, lazy manner, do not obtain the blessing.
Such prayer is earnest, humble, and persevering, with cries, tears, and determination that continue through weariness, delay, hunger, pain, darkness, and severe trial. It holds firmly to God and persists for His blessing despite fear, hardship, weakness, and delayed answers. Through humiliation, repentance, and surrender it clings to the promises and pleads for assurance that sin is pardoned, and victory with God gives assurance of prevailing with men. The faith needed to endure coming distress must be exercised daily beforehand, for neglecting that effort leaves a person unprepared.
Jacob's persistence was itself inspired by Christ who wrestled with him and put faith in his heart, and Christ rewarded the confidence He had inspired. What Jacob had vainly wrestled for in his own strength was won through self-surrender and steadfast faith when wounded and helpless. Only after he was crippled and helpless did he know the victory of conquering faith, so that his weakness became the occasion of victory through surrender to God.
Those who pray fervently and in faith as Jacob did prevail as he did and are counted in heaven as princes having power to prevail with God and with men. Refusing to enter any path where God's blessing cannot be asked, the young who pray thus will not be seduced into sin. Those who bear the last solemn warning to the world and pray thus will find many places where they have seen God face to face and their lives are preserved.
God answers the prayer of faith with power, revealing Himself as He revealed Himself to Jacob, fulfilling His promises, and giving efficiency and strength so that His workers need not fail nor be discouraged. He gives the Holy Spirit appointed to meet need in proportion to supplication, imparting power, turning human thoughts and hearts, and turning the seeker from deficiency to trust in Him who is righteousness, grace, and truth. In days of peril the same wrestling asks for facilities to lift the standard of truth in all parts of the world, finding God when He is sought with all the heart, and believers need not fear that Satan is stronger than God.
Persevering wrestling brings a double revelation in which God first shows the seeker his own self, mistakes, and defects, and then reveals Himself, so that in Jesus is seen a strength and support, a brightness and power never before sensed and realized. If faith perseveringly grasps the promises in this way, it prevails and secures the soul's salvation. This requires taking time to examine the heart, test motives, divest of self, bring Jesus into the life, grasp the promises, wrench away from the mooring and fortress of self-righteousness, break down its walls, and free the soul, in contrast to formal spiritless prayer, living on past experience, making excuses, and remaining satisfied with self. Without such experience in seeking God one stays like a child ignorant of first principles, anchored where neither God nor man can help, and if after struggle the soul is not freed and victory not gained, one is left enshrouded in dense darkness, feeling no burden and daring to sleep without a thorough work of the Spirit upon the heart. Clinging with drawn-out heartfelt prayer that will not let go without blessing brings light amid darkness, conversion and confession of sin with tears, a changed heart and mind with new thoughts and feelings, hatred and revenge taken away, peace and happiness and love to God, a new life, and a heart reconciled to loss and settled to stand alone and help others.
Foreshadowing Final Trouble
Jacob's night of anguish in wrestling in prayer for deliverance from Esau is the appointed representation of the experience of God's people in the time of trouble just before Christ's second coming, after Christ has ended His work as mediator and every case has been decided. That struggle grew out of deception by which Jacob secured his father's blessing intended for Esau and fled for his life from deadly threats, remained many years an exile, then at God's command set out to return with wives and children and flocks and herds, and on reaching the borders was filled with terror at Esau's approach with a band of warriors bent on revenge while his own company was unarmed and defenseless. To anxiety and fear was added self-reproach because his own sin had brought the danger, leaving his only hope in the mercy of God and his only defense in prayer, yet he left nothing undone to atone for the wrong and avert the danger, and his prevailing came through humiliation, repentance, and surrender while clinging to God's promises and pleading for assurance that his sin was pardoned. His victory with God assured him that he would prevail with men, and like him the righteous in the final crisis will be tested but sustained by God and His angels as they confess unworthiness and cling to the promises.
As Jacob wrestled through the night, so the righteous will plead day and night for deliverance when the wicked surround them under a death decree and to human sight they appear about to seal their testimony with blood as martyrs before them. Through day and night their cry does not cease for God to glorify His name, make a way of escape, and bring salvation by His arm, enduring a fearful time when escape appears impossible and they must wait until God's appointed moment. Their deliverance is held back for a time, for they must drink of the cup and be baptized with the baptism before the will of God is fulfilled. Like Jacob they wrestle with God in earnest prayer with refusal to let go even in distress, showing how faith, perseverance, and confidence in God's power to deliver will be manifested in their time of anguish.
In that crisis Satan will stir up the wicked to destroy God's people and urge his accusations against them, numbering the world as his subjects while the little company who keep the commandments resist his supremacy. He will present before God in exaggerated light the sins he tempted them to commit, claim them as his prey and demand they be given into his hands to destroy, and declare that God cannot in justice forgive them yet destroy him and his angels. Evil angels will crowd around pressing darkness to shut out Jesus and draw the eyes to darkness unto distrust and murmuring, while the wicked exult and jeer, Where now is your faith, as the waiting ones remember Jesus on Calvary mocked with, He saved others Himself He cannot save. The only safety is keeping the eyes directed upward while angels in charge waft their wings to scatter the thick darkness, hastening to aid everyone who struggles with all energy to resist and calls upon God with perseverance, while those indifferent and careless who do not resist and make no effort are left shut in as with a thick cloud.
The righteous will know their unworthiness yet have no concealed wrongs to bring to remembrance, because their sins have gone beforehand to judgment and been blotted out, so they can earnestly plead with God for deliverance. They wrestle with a deep sense of unworthiness and entire submission to the will of God, saying Thy will be done, yet every one without exception pleads urgently for deliverance. Like Jacob they earnestly wrestle and struggle for deliverance while submitting themselves to God's will, and continue interceding even when they fear He has left them to their enemies. Guarded by holy angels and sustained by God, they see those angels guarding them and infer their sins are pardoned though not knowing their cases are decided in the sanctuary above, and those who continue earnest cries receive a ray of light from Jesus that encourages the heart and lights the countenance, and their life is preserved.
Their distress and painful delay do not mean God has abandoned them, for God keeps His eye upon them, listens to their cries, and sends His angels to comfort and protect them in peril. He loves them in their severest trial as strongly and tenderly as in prosperity, placing them in furnace fire to consume their earthliness so the image of Christ may be perfectly reflected and bringing them forth as gold tried in the fire. The painful delay is the best answer to petitions, leading them to exercise faith, hope, and patience, until for the elect's sake the time is shortened and deliverance comes more quickly than expected for His name's glory. God will manifest His power and deliver those who patiently wait for Him.
The faith needed to endure that anguish must be exercised daily beforehand during probation by learning now to trust God and exercise a faith that will not faint, for neglecting that effort leaves a person unprepared. As Jacob left nothing undone to atone for wrong and avert danger, so the followers of Christ as they approach the time of trouble must make every exertion to place themselves in a proper light, disarm prejudice, and avert the danger threatening liberty of conscience. Only those who have no concealed wrongs, whose sins have gone beforehand to judgment and been blotted out so they cannot bring them to remembrance, can keep faith and confidence to plead with God for deliverance instead of being overwhelmed with fear, anguish and despair, since without prior repentance God would not hear. Those who are as earnest and persevering as Jacob will succeed as he succeeded, while those unwilling to so strive will not obtain the blessing.
Jacob's prevailing gave assurance he would prevail with men and removed fear of Esau's anger because the Lord was his defense, and heavenly messengers were sent to move upon Esau's heart so that his purpose of hatred and revenge was changed to fraternal affection. His triumph brought a change of name from a reminder of sin to a commemoration of victory, and stands as evidence and encouragement for others to imitate his example of holding fast to God when facing accusation and danger through humiliation, repentance, self-surrender, confidence, firmness and perseverance. Likewise God will give His commandment-keeping people in future perplexity and trouble and deception power to take hold of Christ's strength and make peace with Him, so they can stand when challenged in the coming conflict, bound together of one heart with Christ and with one another and hid with Christ in God. Thus enabled, they claim His promise of deliverance and an everlasting covenant of peace with His sanctuary and tabernacle in the midst of them forever, and God makes even an Esau recognize that Jacob is with the angel of God and turns him from intent to kill.
Transformation and New Name
Jacob's triumph in the night wrestling brought a change of name from Jacob, a reminder of sin as supplanter, to Israel, a prince having power with God and with men, commemorating victory and prevailing. Left alone to plead the covenant and the promises given at Bethel and in exile, he wrestled in darkness as with an enemy seeking his life until a divine touch crippled his strength and revealed the antagonist as Christ Himself, the Angel of the covenant, the Majesty of heaven seen face to face. Wounded, helpless, weeping and disabled with keen pain, he fell upon the Saviour's breast and neck, clung with trembling grasp, and refused to let go without a blessing and assurance of pardon. That persistence was inspired by Christ who wrestled with him and put faith in his heart, and what Jacob had vainly sought in his own strength was won through humiliation, repentance, self-surrender, steadfast faith, firmness and perseverance, not boastful presumption, until earnest agonizing cries prevailed despite Satan's accusation, claim to destroy him for sin, stirring of Esau against him, and pressure of guilt almost to despair. His prevailing assured him the Lord was his defense and he would prevail with men, removing fear of Esau's anger, and stands as evidence and encouragement for others to imitate his example when facing accusation and danger.
Through faith and prayer in that wrestling Jacob was raised from feebleness, defects and sin to be a prince with God. Self-confidence was uprooted, and reliance on God replaced craft and deception. Communion with God gives moral power to become men and women of high and holy purpose who will not for any consideration be swayed from truth, right and justice, bringing peace and rest in the Saviour that shines in daily life, in the countenance and in persuasive power of voice, ennobling character and life, marking workers as having been with Jesus, and imparting a power nothing else can give that must not be surrendered. Such converse requires a new and living experience every day, learning to trust Jesus, believe in Him and confide everything to Him, laying open the most secret thing of the soul to the omnipotent God who knows it all though it is not laid open to finite man, with more faith, greater trust and more firm reliance.
The Jabbok encounter was a turning point after which Jacob came away changed, and the trials that followed refined his character until the faith of Abraham and Isaac was evident in him. His deliverance was not only from Esau but from the evil in his own nature, as he sought help from God, repented, prevailed through weeping and supplication, received blessing, and stood as a prince with God rather than a supplanter with transformed character.
Like Jacob struggling beside the stream through the night and prevailing, Luther wrestled with God in anguish, helplessness and faith in prayer, and received strength and assurance from God rather than human power so he would not stand alone or appear alone before opposing powers and the council. As Jacob took hold of the Angel's strength and prevailed in pleading, so Moses took hold of that strength and prevailed in pleading for the people. Like Jacob, Elijah held firmly to God in presenting his petition, showing persevering faith as an example of prevailing prayer.
Pattern for Christian Living
Jacob's wrestling is the pattern for obtaining saving grace and victory over besetments, passions, self, the world, and the fiery temptations of the foe. Believers must go alone into the closet and plead earnestly and sincerely with God for a clean heart and a renewed spirit, agonizing with effort as in the garden, refusing to leave until made strong in God, until unutterable longings for salvation are awakened and sweet evidence of pardoned sin is obtained. As long as they watch and pray continually in this Jacob-like way with the whole heart panting for God, He will strengthen them speedily, keep evil besetments under, let His grace appear in life, and give peace that passes understanding. Resisting the enemy requires this earnest wrestling, for dull, sleepy, indifferent service leaves no one safe, but by using grace bestowed through the merits of Christ those who wrestle gain victory over the powers of darkness and a vigorous Christianity.
That secret work is between God and the soul alone, with the mind off every living mortal, because life and death are at stake and thorough work for eternity is required. It means coming with much prayer and a broken and contrite spirit, laying the foundation right and building on Christ instead of trusting self and self-effort, humbling oneself under the mighty hand of God now rather than waiting to be humbled, with the promise of being lifted up in due time. It means taking time to examine self, test the heart, and wrestle in secret persevering prayer to obtain divine aid, divesting of self and bringing Jesus into the life, opposed to formal spiritless prayer, living on past experience, making excuses, and remaining satisfied with self. It means surrendering all of self to God and exercising conquering faith that lays hold of God until the rich blessings of heaven come, a faith proved by works, with self dead and Jesus as the tower of strength, so that barrenness and unfruitfulness are removed, freedom, consecration and a living connection with God are gained, cold iron self is melted, God is present in the assemblies, and a testimony for Christ reaches others.
God's workers must wrestle with the Lord in prayer and then go forth into the work with the inspiration He alone can give. They become conscientious and godly men through whom God can work, maintaining a good fight against evil in life-work, seeking the favor of God and not the applause of people, holding God fast as their efficiency and strength, praying and then acting their prayers, not failing nor being discouraged, and afterward going forward with the wisdom He grants. When prayer and faith like Jacob's abound, with tears and belief in the promises, Christianity is carried into the family with a bright steady light burning, impressions of truth and the value of God's service reach to eternity, ministers and those weak in faith are upheld, prayers follow laborers as sharp sickles in the harvest field, and there are pentecostal seasons even now with an outpouring of God's Spirit.
Jacob-like wrestling includes intercession with the covenant-keeping God for watchmen, for pardon, for souls to be won, and for the conversion of others. It is the work of a living church, done individually and as a whole by men and women of intercession who tread sin underfoot, place habits, conversation and daily life on the Lord's side, show love for Jesus and the souls He bought with His blood, act a part with heavenly angels, hold up hands ready to fall, work resolutely for salvation under a deep sense of responsibility to do every duty faithfully, and gain a high and holy experience beautified by the attributes of Christ. The same wrestling prays earnestly for the sick, holding God's promises for healing without letting go and believing He will work, setting a fixed time each day for united prayer and asking others to pray even when the same wasting disease has brought death to others in the family, and it prays for another person with agonized persistence joined with hope that God will keep and help him.
Before holy convocations believers should copy importunate prayer with deep heart-searching at home, making eating and dressing secondary. Families are to pray three times a day at home to find Jesus there and take Him to the meeting, for without that individual preparation no one can expect God's presence and power, while with it the hours at the meeting become precious. In days of peril believers should wrestle humbly and perseveringly to ask for facilities to lift the standard of truth in all parts of the world and for the spirit of labor, believing they will find God when seeking with all the heart, obtain fulfillment of His promises, receive answers, and receive the Holy Spirit appointed to meet needs in proportion to supplication. A person in perplexity should go to God at Peniel with a humble believing heart like a child, take God at His Word with clinging faith, trust with all the heart, rest the case with the great Intercessor before the mercy seat rather than putting confidence in princes or letting others turn faith from duty, trusting that heaven and earth will pass before His promise fails and confidence in Him will never be betrayed.
Even the struggle to give up tobacco may follow this pattern by humbly persisting in prayer in faith without doubt, with fellow believers praying, until victory comes, for Jesus is touched by human weakness. Humble dependence in wrestling leads to seeing His salvation, and wrestling means believing, hoping, praying, watching with all diligence, and working earnestly and intelligently to hold the place God has given, which is pray and work and work and pray, watching before and behind and on every side to permit nothing injurious to enter. At first Jacob did not recognize God but thought his visitor an enemy, showing that failing to recognize God when He comes shuts out the quickening influence of the Spirit and leaves people destitute, resisting His cleansing of confessed sin, while recognizing Him lets the Spirit flow to wash out and cleanse moral impurity. Trials may seem like the work of an enemy but can reveal God's presence, so the helpless longing soul that throws itself down in anguish with broken cries only God can fully interpret, fastens upon Christ the mighty Deliverer, and pleads for the success of truth rather than personal safety, prevails, is strengthened with assurance of not standing alone before opposing powers, receives peace and joy in upholding God's word even at cost of blood, and goes out to share the power received from God.
Jacob called the place Peniel because there he had met God face to face and yet his life was spared. The One who wrestled with him through the night was Christ Himself, the Angel of the covenant and Majesty of heaven. Having sorrowfully confessed the fraud by which he took the birthright and blessing, Jacob clung in helpless, weeping faith and would not let go without assurance of pardon, and he received blessing, rest and peace. That clinging, importunate pleading, laying hold of the promises with self-surrender and unyielding persistence through pain, weariness and delay, is prevailing prayer by which the helpless win through self-surrender what they vainly seek in their own strength. His triumph brought a new name from Jacob the supplanter to Israel a prince with God, marking victory over his own evil nature as well as deliverance from Esau, and foreshadows how God's people in the final time of trouble will plead day and night, confess every sin blotted out, and prevail.
Peniel's Night Encounter
Jacob called the place Peniel because there he had seen God face to face and yet his life was preserved. The One who wrestled with him through the night and blessed him there was Christ Himself. He was the covenant Angel, the Majesty of heaven, recognized at last as God met face to face.
The saying belongs to Jacob's return to Canaan after twenty years of exile for securing by deception his father's blessing intended for Esau and fleeing for his life from his brother's deadly threats. At God's command he set out to return with wives and children and flocks and herds, and on reaching the borders was filled with terror because Esau approached with a band of warriors bent on revenge while his own company was unarmed and defenseless. Two hosts of angels accompanied him as guardians, and he named that place Mahanaim, meaning two hosts or camps. Even as he remembered his sin he remembered God's favor, promises of help, and guidance.
Left alone after sending his family across the Jabbok, he spent the night in prayer in a lonely mountainous region, bowed in deep distress at midnight because his own sin had brought peril of danger and death upon the innocent dear to him. In darkness and solitude a strong hand was laid upon him, and he wrestled in silence with all his strength and with all the energy of despair for his life, as with an enemy seeking his life. Guilt pressed on his soul and his sins rose to shut him out from God, and at first he did not recognize God but supposed his visitor to be a lawless enemy. Failing so to recognize God shuts out the quickening influence of the Spirit and leaves people destitute, resisting His cleansing of confessed sin.
Near daybreak the stranger put forth superhuman power and by a touch to the thigh crippled him instantly with keen pain and paralyzed his strength. By that divine touch Jacob knew he had been contending face to face with the heavenly Messenger, Christ the Saviour Himself, the Angel of the covenant. Wounded, broken, helpless and weeping, he fell upon the breast and neck of his antagonist and clung to him. Only when thus crippled and helpless did he know the victory of conquering faith, for trials may seem like the work of an enemy but can reveal God's presence to the helpless longing soul.
His survival was merciful preservation that left him alive to testify with wonder that he had met God face to face. That same testimony still belongs to close communion with God: after conflict, disappointment, self-discipline and earnest prayer, living faith grasps God's promises and the believer may come away with a shining face. Those who pray fervently like Jacob prevail with God, receive His blessing, and are regarded as princes having power to prevail with God and with men.
Repentance Pardon and Preservation
Before his life was preserved at Peniel, Jacob sorrowfully reviewed his wrongs, confessed the fraud by which he obtained the birthright and the blessing, and pleaded for deliverance and mercy with humiliation, surrender, and trust in the covenant-keeping God and His promises given at Bethel and in exile. His persistence in pleading for a blessing came from repentance, humility, and trust in God's mercy as he sought assurance that his sin was pardoned. Jacob's struggle was an encounter with the Angel of the covenant, and his victory through humiliation, repentance, and surrender while clinging to God's promises assured him that he would prevail with men. His perseverance came not from pride or a claim to worthiness, but from repentance, surrender, awareness of weakness, and trust in God's pledged promises.
Though disabled and suffering keen pain from the touch that crippled his thigh, Jacob held on by persevering faith and would not let go without a blessing and assurance that his sin was pardoned. When he recognized his heavenly opponent as Christ, the Angel of the covenant, he clung to Him in repentance, broken and weeping, and pleaded for a blessing. He received the blessing, pardon, rest, and peace, with joy following the conflict, and his encounter brought assurance that God had pardoned his sins. His earnest, wholehearted pleading is the example of seeking God with all one's strength, humility, and faith.
God heard Jacob and mercifully spared his life because he had already repented of obtaining the birthright and blessing by fraud; without that repentance God would not have heard his prayer and preserved him. The same condition holds for God's people in the time of trouble: only those who have no concealed wrongs, whose sins have gone beforehand to judgment and been blotted out so they cannot bring them to remembrance, can keep faith and confidence to plead for deliverance instead of being overwhelmed with fear, anguish, and despair. God does not excuse or tolerate sin, and those who conceal sin and leave it unconfessed and unforgiven will be overcome. A person cleansed from sin can endure God's presence, but those who willfully cherish evil cannot, because God's glory destroys sin and therefore destroys those who cling to it.
During the struggle Satan accused Jacob before angels, claimed the right to destroy him for his sin, moved Esau to march against him, and forced a sense of guilt upon him to discourage him and break his hold until Jacob was driven almost to despair. Jacob knew he must perish without help from Heaven, sincerely repented of his great sin, confessed weakness and unworthiness, appealed to the mercy of a covenant-keeping God, and would not be turned from his purpose. He fastened his trembling grasp on the promises, clung and refused to let go without assurance of pardon and a blessing, urging his petition with earnest agonizing cries until he prevailed through humiliation, repentance, self-surrender, confidence, firmness, and perseverance, not boastful presumption.
Prevailing Importunate Prayer
Wrestling with God means laying hold of His promises, denying self, and clinging with unyielding faith while pleading that there will be no letting go without a blessing. It refuses to rest without a special manifestation of divine power, with the whole soul stirred to earnest communion for grace and strength to overcome the fiery temptations of the foe. The soul is drawn out after God in intensity of desire until every power is on the stretch, agonizing long and earnestly for His blessing even when waves of despair sweep over the suppliant. All who are as earnest and persevering succeed as Jacob succeeded, while those unwilling to strive in this way, but who pray in a cold, listless, lazy manner, do not obtain the blessing.
Such prayer is earnest, humble, and persevering, with cries, tears, and determination that continue through weariness, delay, hunger, pain, darkness, and severe trial. It holds firmly to God and persists for His blessing despite fear, hardship, weakness, and delayed answers. Through humiliation, repentance, and surrender it clings to the promises and pleads for assurance that sin is pardoned, and victory with God gives assurance of prevailing with men. The faith needed to endure coming distress must be exercised daily beforehand, for neglecting that effort leaves a person unprepared.
Jacob's persistence was itself inspired by Christ who wrestled with him and put faith in his heart, and Christ rewarded the confidence He had inspired. What Jacob had vainly wrestled for in his own strength was won through self-surrender and steadfast faith when wounded and helpless. Only after he was crippled and helpless did he know the victory of conquering faith, so that his weakness became the occasion of victory through surrender to God.
Those who pray fervently and in faith as Jacob did prevail as he did and are counted in heaven as princes having power to prevail with God and with men. Refusing to enter any path where God's blessing cannot be asked, the young who pray thus will not be seduced into sin. Those who bear the last solemn warning to the world and pray thus will find many places where they have seen God face to face and their lives are preserved.
God answers the prayer of faith with power, revealing Himself as He revealed Himself to Jacob, fulfilling His promises, and giving efficiency and strength so that His workers need not fail nor be discouraged. He gives the Holy Spirit appointed to meet need in proportion to supplication, imparting power, turning human thoughts and hearts, and turning the seeker from deficiency to trust in Him who is righteousness, grace, and truth. In days of peril the same wrestling asks for facilities to lift the standard of truth in all parts of the world, finding God when He is sought with all the heart, and believers need not fear that Satan is stronger than God.
Persevering wrestling brings a double revelation in which God first shows the seeker his own self, mistakes, and defects, and then reveals Himself, so that in Jesus is seen a strength and support, a brightness and power never before sensed and realized. If faith perseveringly grasps the promises in this way, it prevails and secures the soul's salvation. This requires taking time to examine the heart, test motives, divest of self, bring Jesus into the life, grasp the promises, wrench away from the mooring and fortress of self-righteousness, break down its walls, and free the soul, in contrast to formal spiritless prayer, living on past experience, making excuses, and remaining satisfied with self. Without such experience in seeking God one stays like a child ignorant of first principles, anchored where neither God nor man can help, and if after struggle the soul is not freed and victory not gained, one is left enshrouded in dense darkness, feeling no burden and daring to sleep without a thorough work of the Spirit upon the heart. Clinging with drawn-out heartfelt prayer that will not let go without blessing brings light amid darkness, conversion and confession of sin with tears, a changed heart and mind with new thoughts and feelings, hatred and revenge taken away, peace and happiness and love to God, a new life, and a heart reconciled to loss and settled to stand alone and help others.
Foreshadowing Final Trouble
Jacob's night of anguish in wrestling in prayer for deliverance from Esau is the appointed representation of the experience of God's people in the time of trouble just before Christ's second coming, after Christ has ended His work as mediator and every case has been decided. That struggle grew out of deception by which Jacob secured his father's blessing intended for Esau and fled for his life from deadly threats, remained many years an exile, then at God's command set out to return with wives and children and flocks and herds, and on reaching the borders was filled with terror at Esau's approach with a band of warriors bent on revenge while his own company was unarmed and defenseless. To anxiety and fear was added self-reproach because his own sin had brought the danger, leaving his only hope in the mercy of God and his only defense in prayer, yet he left nothing undone to atone for the wrong and avert the danger, and his prevailing came through humiliation, repentance, and surrender while clinging to God's promises and pleading for assurance that his sin was pardoned. His victory with God assured him that he would prevail with men, and like him the righteous in the final crisis will be tested but sustained by God and His angels as they confess unworthiness and cling to the promises.
As Jacob wrestled through the night, so the righteous will plead day and night for deliverance when the wicked surround them under a death decree and to human sight they appear about to seal their testimony with blood as martyrs before them. Through day and night their cry does not cease for God to glorify His name, make a way of escape, and bring salvation by His arm, enduring a fearful time when escape appears impossible and they must wait until God's appointed moment. Their deliverance is held back for a time, for they must drink of the cup and be baptized with the baptism before the will of God is fulfilled. Like Jacob they wrestle with God in earnest prayer with refusal to let go even in distress, showing how faith, perseverance, and confidence in God's power to deliver will be manifested in their time of anguish.
In that crisis Satan will stir up the wicked to destroy God's people and urge his accusations against them, numbering the world as his subjects while the little company who keep the commandments resist his supremacy. He will present before God in exaggerated light the sins he tempted them to commit, claim them as his prey and demand they be given into his hands to destroy, and declare that God cannot in justice forgive them yet destroy him and his angels. Evil angels will crowd around pressing darkness to shut out Jesus and draw the eyes to darkness unto distrust and murmuring, while the wicked exult and jeer, Where now is your faith, as the waiting ones remember Jesus on Calvary mocked with, He saved others Himself He cannot save. The only safety is keeping the eyes directed upward while angels in charge waft their wings to scatter the thick darkness, hastening to aid everyone who struggles with all energy to resist and calls upon God with perseverance, while those indifferent and careless who do not resist and make no effort are left shut in as with a thick cloud.
The righteous will know their unworthiness yet have no concealed wrongs to bring to remembrance, because their sins have gone beforehand to judgment and been blotted out, so they can earnestly plead with God for deliverance. They wrestle with a deep sense of unworthiness and entire submission to the will of God, saying Thy will be done, yet every one without exception pleads urgently for deliverance. Like Jacob they earnestly wrestle and struggle for deliverance while submitting themselves to God's will, and continue interceding even when they fear He has left them to their enemies. Guarded by holy angels and sustained by God, they see those angels guarding them and infer their sins are pardoned though not knowing their cases are decided in the sanctuary above, and those who continue earnest cries receive a ray of light from Jesus that encourages the heart and lights the countenance, and their life is preserved.
Their distress and painful delay do not mean God has abandoned them, for God keeps His eye upon them, listens to their cries, and sends His angels to comfort and protect them in peril. He loves them in their severest trial as strongly and tenderly as in prosperity, placing them in furnace fire to consume their earthliness so the image of Christ may be perfectly reflected and bringing them forth as gold tried in the fire. The painful delay is the best answer to petitions, leading them to exercise faith, hope, and patience, until for the elect's sake the time is shortened and deliverance comes more quickly than expected for His name's glory. God will manifest His power and deliver those who patiently wait for Him.
The faith needed to endure that anguish must be exercised daily beforehand during probation by learning now to trust God and exercise a faith that will not faint, for neglecting that effort leaves a person unprepared. As Jacob left nothing undone to atone for wrong and avert danger, so the followers of Christ as they approach the time of trouble must make every exertion to place themselves in a proper light, disarm prejudice, and avert the danger threatening liberty of conscience. Only those who have no concealed wrongs, whose sins have gone beforehand to judgment and been blotted out so they cannot bring them to remembrance, can keep faith and confidence to plead with God for deliverance instead of being overwhelmed with fear, anguish and despair, since without prior repentance God would not hear. Those who are as earnest and persevering as Jacob will succeed as he succeeded, while those unwilling to so strive will not obtain the blessing.
Jacob's prevailing gave assurance he would prevail with men and removed fear of Esau's anger because the Lord was his defense, and heavenly messengers were sent to move upon Esau's heart so that his purpose of hatred and revenge was changed to fraternal affection. His triumph brought a change of name from a reminder of sin to a commemoration of victory, and stands as evidence and encouragement for others to imitate his example of holding fast to God when facing accusation and danger through humiliation, repentance, self-surrender, confidence, firmness and perseverance. Likewise God will give His commandment-keeping people in future perplexity and trouble and deception power to take hold of Christ's strength and make peace with Him, so they can stand when challenged in the coming conflict, bound together of one heart with Christ and with one another and hid with Christ in God. Thus enabled, they claim His promise of deliverance and an everlasting covenant of peace with His sanctuary and tabernacle in the midst of them forever, and God makes even an Esau recognize that Jacob is with the angel of God and turns him from intent to kill.
Transformation and New Name
Jacob's triumph in the night wrestling brought a change of name from Jacob, a reminder of sin as supplanter, to Israel, a prince having power with God and with men, commemorating victory and prevailing. Left alone to plead the covenant and the promises given at Bethel and in exile, he wrestled in darkness as with an enemy seeking his life until a divine touch crippled his strength and revealed the antagonist as Christ Himself, the Angel of the covenant, the Majesty of heaven seen face to face. Wounded, helpless, weeping and disabled with keen pain, he fell upon the Saviour's breast and neck, clung with trembling grasp, and refused to let go without a blessing and assurance of pardon. That persistence was inspired by Christ who wrestled with him and put faith in his heart, and what Jacob had vainly sought in his own strength was won through humiliation, repentance, self-surrender, steadfast faith, firmness and perseverance, not boastful presumption, until earnest agonizing cries prevailed despite Satan's accusation, claim to destroy him for sin, stirring of Esau against him, and pressure of guilt almost to despair. His prevailing assured him the Lord was his defense and he would prevail with men, removing fear of Esau's anger, and stands as evidence and encouragement for others to imitate his example when facing accusation and danger.
Through faith and prayer in that wrestling Jacob was raised from feebleness, defects and sin to be a prince with God. Self-confidence was uprooted, and reliance on God replaced craft and deception. Communion with God gives moral power to become men and women of high and holy purpose who will not for any consideration be swayed from truth, right and justice, bringing peace and rest in the Saviour that shines in daily life, in the countenance and in persuasive power of voice, ennobling character and life, marking workers as having been with Jesus, and imparting a power nothing else can give that must not be surrendered. Such converse requires a new and living experience every day, learning to trust Jesus, believe in Him and confide everything to Him, laying open the most secret thing of the soul to the omnipotent God who knows it all though it is not laid open to finite man, with more faith, greater trust and more firm reliance.
The Jabbok encounter was a turning point after which Jacob came away changed, and the trials that followed refined his character until the faith of Abraham and Isaac was evident in him. His deliverance was not only from Esau but from the evil in his own nature, as he sought help from God, repented, prevailed through weeping and supplication, received blessing, and stood as a prince with God rather than a supplanter with transformed character.
Like Jacob struggling beside the stream through the night and prevailing, Luther wrestled with God in anguish, helplessness and faith in prayer, and received strength and assurance from God rather than human power so he would not stand alone or appear alone before opposing powers and the council. As Jacob took hold of the Angel's strength and prevailed in pleading, so Moses took hold of that strength and prevailed in pleading for the people. Like Jacob, Elijah held firmly to God in presenting his petition, showing persevering faith as an example of prevailing prayer.
Pattern for Christian Living
Jacob's wrestling is the pattern for obtaining saving grace and victory over besetments, passions, self, the world, and the fiery temptations of the foe. Believers must go alone into the closet and plead earnestly and sincerely with God for a clean heart and a renewed spirit, agonizing with effort as in the garden, refusing to leave until made strong in God, until unutterable longings for salvation are awakened and sweet evidence of pardoned sin is obtained. As long as they watch and pray continually in this Jacob-like way with the whole heart panting for God, He will strengthen them speedily, keep evil besetments under, let His grace appear in life, and give peace that passes understanding. Resisting the enemy requires this earnest wrestling, for dull, sleepy, indifferent service leaves no one safe, but by using grace bestowed through the merits of Christ those who wrestle gain victory over the powers of darkness and a vigorous Christianity.
That secret work is between God and the soul alone, with the mind off every living mortal, because life and death are at stake and thorough work for eternity is required. It means coming with much prayer and a broken and contrite spirit, laying the foundation right and building on Christ instead of trusting self and self-effort, humbling oneself under the mighty hand of God now rather than waiting to be humbled, with the promise of being lifted up in due time. It means taking time to examine self, test the heart, and wrestle in secret persevering prayer to obtain divine aid, divesting of self and bringing Jesus into the life, opposed to formal spiritless prayer, living on past experience, making excuses, and remaining satisfied with self. It means surrendering all of self to God and exercising conquering faith that lays hold of God until the rich blessings of heaven come, a faith proved by works, with self dead and Jesus as the tower of strength, so that barrenness and unfruitfulness are removed, freedom, consecration and a living connection with God are gained, cold iron self is melted, God is present in the assemblies, and a testimony for Christ reaches others.
God's workers must wrestle with the Lord in prayer and then go forth into the work with the inspiration He alone can give. They become conscientious and godly men through whom God can work, maintaining a good fight against evil in life-work, seeking the favor of God and not the applause of people, holding God fast as their efficiency and strength, praying and then acting their prayers, not failing nor being discouraged, and afterward going forward with the wisdom He grants. When prayer and faith like Jacob's abound, with tears and belief in the promises, Christianity is carried into the family with a bright steady light burning, impressions of truth and the value of God's service reach to eternity, ministers and those weak in faith are upheld, prayers follow laborers as sharp sickles in the harvest field, and there are pentecostal seasons even now with an outpouring of God's Spirit.
Jacob-like wrestling includes intercession with the covenant-keeping God for watchmen, for pardon, for souls to be won, and for the conversion of others. It is the work of a living church, done individually and as a whole by men and women of intercession who tread sin underfoot, place habits, conversation and daily life on the Lord's side, show love for Jesus and the souls He bought with His blood, act a part with heavenly angels, hold up hands ready to fall, work resolutely for salvation under a deep sense of responsibility to do every duty faithfully, and gain a high and holy experience beautified by the attributes of Christ. The same wrestling prays earnestly for the sick, holding God's promises for healing without letting go and believing He will work, setting a fixed time each day for united prayer and asking others to pray even when the same wasting disease has brought death to others in the family, and it prays for another person with agonized persistence joined with hope that God will keep and help him.
Before holy convocations believers should copy importunate prayer with deep heart-searching at home, making eating and dressing secondary. Families are to pray three times a day at home to find Jesus there and take Him to the meeting, for without that individual preparation no one can expect God's presence and power, while with it the hours at the meeting become precious. In days of peril believers should wrestle humbly and perseveringly to ask for facilities to lift the standard of truth in all parts of the world and for the spirit of labor, believing they will find God when seeking with all the heart, obtain fulfillment of His promises, receive answers, and receive the Holy Spirit appointed to meet needs in proportion to supplication. A person in perplexity should go to God at Peniel with a humble believing heart like a child, take God at His Word with clinging faith, trust with all the heart, rest the case with the great Intercessor before the mercy seat rather than putting confidence in princes or letting others turn faith from duty, trusting that heaven and earth will pass before His promise fails and confidence in Him will never be betrayed.
Even the struggle to give up tobacco may follow this pattern by humbly persisting in prayer in faith without doubt, with fellow believers praying, until victory comes, for Jesus is touched by human weakness. Humble dependence in wrestling leads to seeing His salvation, and wrestling means believing, hoping, praying, watching with all diligence, and working earnestly and intelligently to hold the place God has given, which is pray and work and work and pray, watching before and behind and on every side to permit nothing injurious to enter. At first Jacob did not recognize God but thought his visitor an enemy, showing that failing to recognize God when He comes shuts out the quickening influence of the Spirit and leaves people destitute, resisting His cleansing of confessed sin, while recognizing Him lets the Spirit flow to wash out and cleanse moral impurity. Trials may seem like the work of an enemy but can reveal God's presence, so the helpless longing soul that throws itself down in anguish with broken cries only God can fully interpret, fastens upon Christ the mighty Deliverer, and pleads for the success of truth rather than personal safety, prevails, is strengthened with assurance of not standing alone before opposing powers, receives peace and joy in upholding God's word even at cost of blood, and goes out to share the power received from God.