“God of my fathers, O Lord, who saidst to me, ‘Return to thy land’, I am not worthy of the least of all Thy mercies, and of Thy truth which Thou hast fulfilled to Thy servant. With my staff I passed over this Jordan, and now I return with two companies. Deliver me from the hand of my brother!”
During the night[1] an angel appeared to Jacob with whom he wrestled[2] till morning. And Jacob said to the angel: “I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.[3] The angel said to him: “Henceforth thy name shall not be called Jacob, but Israel (i. e. strength of God), for if thou hast been strong against God, how much more shalt thou prevail against men?”
He then divided his children, his servants, and his flocks into companies, and putting himself at the head of one of them, he advanced to meet his brother, bowing [4] seven times to the ground
- ↑ Night. Jacob had made all those with him go forward, while he himself remained alone behind , so as to begin this most eventful day by fervent prayer.
- ↑ Wrestled. Wrestling is that kind of combat in which, without the giving of any blows, one man tries to throw the other to the ground. The angel could easily have overthrown Jacob, if he wished it, for “he touched the sinew of Jacob’s thigh, and forthwith it shrivelled up, and Jacob, from that time forward, limped on one foot, because the sinew of his thigh was shrunken”. This lameness was to be to him a constant reminder of his strife, and a warning to be humble. Jacob was aware that he had to do with a supernatural being, on which account he asked for his blessing.
- ↑ Bless me. The mysterious being who appeared to Jacob while he was praying, and wrestled with him, was the “Angel of the Covenant”, i. e. the Son of God, who, assuming a human form, allowed Himself to be apparently overcome by Jacob, as an encouragement to him, and a proof that he need fear nothing from Esau. Therefore the angel said: “If thou hast been strong against God, how much more shalt thou prevail against men” (Gen. 32, 28). The following explanation may help you to a deeper understanding of this mysterious event. A very important and decisive day lay before Jacob , and he might well ask: Would he reach the Promised Land in safety; and would God’s promises, so all-important for the salvation of the world, be fulfilled? These questions did not only affect himself, but the whole of mankind, to the remotest future. At that moment Almighty God condescended to his chosen servant. The struggle to which he was subjected was a trial, similar to that mortal struggle which Abraham had to go through, when commanded to sacrifice his only son — a struggle for life and death, such as our Lord, the great Wrestler with God, had to endure in His Agony in the Garden. Jacob overcame, because his faith was invincible, and he came out of the struggle, strengthened and encouraged to live for his own And our salvation.
- ↑ Bowing. He humbled himself before his brother in order to awaken kindly feelings in Esau.
