To fight God is to keep him away from us, at least at arm’s length, but even that would, ultimately be too close for the comfort of the rebel. The fact is, if we fight God, he doesn’t return our violence. Instead, he withdraws from us, as he did with Adam (Genesis 3:22-23; cp. Romans 1:28). So, if it is wrong for man to fight God, why would God bless Jacob for wrestling with him (cp. Genesis 32:29)? The answer to that question is complicated, just as it would be so for any relationship with God. The one is acceptable, while the other is not, but why is that? In its simplest terms, wrestling is a contact sport, while fighting doesn’t have to be. Fighting is not necessarily a ‘contact’ sport; it can be done at a distance. In fact, a fight can be expressed in the idea that two individuals despise one another so much that they simply don’t wish to be in the other’s presence. The fight is expressed in the distances one puts between oneself and the person one hates.
The very same night that Jacob heard that Esau was coming to him with 400 men (Genesis 32:6), he separated his family and his goods into two companies (Genesis 32:7). Moreover, he sent away over 450 animals, separating them into five groups and telling his servants who led the animals to give them as a present to his brother, Esau, hoping in this way to appease his anger against him (Genesis 32:13-20). On this same evening, Jacob prayed, and afterward sent his family and his herds of animals, which he had separated into two groups across the nearby waterway, the Jabbok (Genesis 32:22-23).
Jacob was left alone to wait for his brother Esau, on this side of the Jabbok. However, there was also a camp of the angels, the host of Almighty God (Genesis 32:24; cp. 32:1-2) surrounding Jacob, and a man from that camp approached Jacob, and they wrestled together until dawn.
Let’s consider what has occurred for a moment. The text doesn’t clearly tell us why they wrestled or how the event began. All we are told is that the two men wrestled one with the other (Genesis 32:24). Later, the prophet Hosea, would recall this event, saying of Jacob “he had power over the angel, and prevailed: he wept, made supplication unto him: he found him in Bethel, and there he spoke with us; even the LORD God of hosts; the LORD is his memorial” (Hosea 12:4-5). In other words, the man, with whom Jacob wrestled was an Angel, but not a created angelic being. Instead, this Angel is the same, which the text often refers to as the Angel of the Lord, or the Angel of God. This **Angel** is none other than the LORD God of hosts, vis-à-vis the LORD! In fact, later in the text, Jacob would say that he had seen God face to face and lived (Genesis 32:30).
Consider the fact that Hosea tells us that Jacob “wept and made supplication” to this Angel, and that he was met in Bethel, which is the very place that Jacob originally saw angels ascending and descending the ladder connecting heaven and earth. There, in that place is also where he had a vison of God who told him he would be with him and bless him (Genesis 28:12-15, 19). Moreover, this very evening Jacob prayed (Genesis 32:9-12; remember, Hosea claims Jacob prayed to the Angel). In his prayer, Jacob mentioned that it was God, who told him to return to Canaan, which placed him in this very dangerous predicament with his brother. Moreover, Jacob admitted that the Lord had, indeed, blessed him with two large bands of people and animals. Yet, when he came to Haran, all he had was his staff (Genesis 32:10). Nevertheless, what would come of these blessings, if he would be slain by his brother (Genesis 32:11). Moreover, how could this occur, if God told him his descendants would be without number (Genesis 32:12)?
Jacob was already wrestling in his prayers, so the fact that the Angel came to him and engaged him until dawn is nothing but the physical expression of what was already occurring in Jacob’s heart. Jacob had always been a manipulator, getting what he wanted through his own wits, but this simply cannot be done with the Lord. God will not be manipulated by man. Yet, he will condescend to favor the weak, when they pray for help, and this is what Jacob had to be taught before he could continue on his journey into the Land of Promise.
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