Friday, March 11, 2022

Genesis 32 Devotional Bible Study by Steve Wilson

Genesis 32

Jacob also went on his way, and the angels of God met him. When Jacob saw them, he said, “This is the camp of God!” So he named that place Mahanaim.[b]

Jacob sent messengers ahead of him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom. He instructed them: “This is what you are to say to my lord Esau: ‘Your servant Jacob says, I have been staying with Laban and have remained there till now. I have cattle and donkeys, sheep and goats, male and female servants. Now I am sending this message to my lord, that I may find favor in your eyes.’”

When the messengers returned to Jacob, they said, “We went to your brother Esau, and now he is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him.”

In great fear and distress Jacob divided the people who were with him into two groups,[c] and the flocks and herds and camels as well. He thought, “If Esau comes and attacks one group,[d] the group[e] that is left may escape.”

Then Jacob prayed, “O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, Lord, you who said to me, ‘Go back to your country and your relatives, and I will make you prosper,’ 10 I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness you have shown your servant. I had only my staff when I crossed this Jordan, but now I have become two camps. 11 Save me, I pray, from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid he will come and attack me, and also the mothers with their children. 12 But you have said, ‘I will surely make you prosper and will make your descendants like the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted.’”

13 He spent the night there, and from what he had with him he selected a gift for his brother Esau: 14 two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, 15 thirty female camels with their young, forty cows and ten bulls, and twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys. 16 He put them in the care of his servants, each herd by itself, and said to his servants, “Go ahead of me, and keep some space between the herds.”

17 He instructed the one in the lead: “When my brother Esau meets you and asks, ‘Who do you belong to, and where are you going, and who owns all these animals in front of you?’ 18 then you are to say, ‘They belong to your servant Jacob. They are a gift sent to my lord Esau, and he is coming behind us.’”

19 He also instructed the second, the third and all the others who followed the herds: “You are to say the same thing to Esau when you meet him. 20 And be sure to say, ‘Your servant Jacob is coming behind us.’” For he thought, “I will pacify him with these gifts I am sending on ahead; later, when I see him, perhaps he will receive me.” 21 So Jacob’s gifts went on ahead of him, but he himself spent the night in the camp.

Jacob Wrestles With God

22 That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two female servants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. 23 After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions. 24 So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. 25 When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. 26 Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.”

But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”

27 The man asked him, “What is your name?”

“Jacob,” he answered.

28 Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel,[f] because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.”

29 Jacob said, “Please tell me your name.”

But he replied, “Why do you ask my name?” Then he blessed him there.

30 So Jacob called the place Peniel,[g] saying, “It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.”

31 The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel,[h] and he was limping because of his hip. 32 Therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the tendon attached to the socket of the hip, because the socket of Jacob’s hip was touched near the tendon.

Footnotes

  1. Genesis 32:1 In Hebrew texts 32:1-32 is numbered 32:2-33.
  2. Genesis 32:2 Mahanaim means two camps.
  3. Genesis 32:7 Or camps
  4. Genesis 32:8 Or camp
  5. Genesis 32:8 Or camp
  6. Genesis 32:28 Israel probably means he struggles with God.
  7. Genesis 32:30 Peniel means face of God.
  8. Genesis 32:31 Hebrew Penuel, a variant of Peniel

 

The Angels Will Meet You

Genesis 32:1-2

Jacob also went on his way, and the angels of God met him. When Jacob saw them, he said, “This is the camp of God!” So he named that place Mahanaim.


Continue on your way, and the angels will meet you. It reminds me of Jesus in the desert. After Jesus resisted Satan’s temptations, we read, “Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him” (Matthew 4:11).

Jacob obeyed the Lord by setting out to return home (even though he was afraid to meet Esau again) and the angels met him. Jesus obeyed the Lord by resisting temptation, and the angels met Him.

What are you going through right now? Do you know that if you obey Him, the Lord will send His angels to come meet you?

 

Praying the Promises of God

Genesis 32:9-12

Jacob prayed, “O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, Lord, you who said to me, ‘Go back to your country and your relatives, and I will make you prosper,’ I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness you have shown your servant. I had only my staff when I crossed this Jordan, but now I have become two camps. Save me, I pray, from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid he will come and attack me, and also the mothers with their children. But you have said, ‘I will surely make you prosper and will make your descendants like the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted.’”

I love how Jacob simply prayed that God would fulfill His promises to him. Did you know we can do the same thing? We don’t have to tell God what we want. We don’t have to give Him ideas on how to solve a problem. We can simply pause, recall the promises the Lord has made to us, and let His promises be our prayer. 


When we pray for what we want, there’s no guarantee that’s what God wants in the situation, and so we are likely to be disappointed when our request isn’t granted.

When we pray His promises, we’re showing we trust Him to do what He’s told us He will do. We trust Him to keep His good word to us.

 

How to Apologize

Genesis 32:13-18

He spent the night there, and from what he had with him he selected a gift for his brother Esau: two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, thirty female camels with their young, forty cows and ten bulls, and twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys. He put them in the care of his servants, each herd by itself, and said to his servants, “Go ahead of me, and keep some space between the herds.”

He instructed the one in the lead: “When my brother Esau meets you and asks, ‘Who do you belong to, and where are you going, and who owns all these animals in front of you?’ then you are to say, ‘They belong to your servant Jacob. They are a gift sent to my lord Esau, and he is coming behind us.’”


Jacob had wronged his brother greatly. I won’t say Jacob isn’t being manipulative in sending gifts to Esau, but I think this does give us a right model for making apologies. He had taken from Esau’s inheritance, and so now, he lavishly gives back to him. Jacob had usurped his place in the family and so now, he humbles himself and calls Esau lord and himself the servant.

Jacob’s grand gesture and humble attitude reminds me of Zacchaeus. “Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, ‘Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount’ (Luke 19:8).

Zacchaeus the tax collector had met Jesus and was ready to make amends for the wrong he had done to others.

Who is the Lord prompting you to apologize to? How can you humble yourself before them? What grand gesture can you make to help repay them for the wrong you did?

 

Victory is Found in the Injury

Genesis 32:22-32

That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two female servants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions. So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.”

But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”

The man asked him, “What is your name?”

“Jacob,” he answered.

Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.”

Jacob said, “Please tell me your name.”

But he replied, “Why do you ask my name?” Then he blessed him there.

So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.”

The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel, and he was limping because of his hip. Therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the tendon attached to the socket of the hip, because the socket of Jacob’s hip was touched near the tendon.


To me, this is one of the strangest passages in Scripture. What are we to learn from it? Let’s break it down and see what we find.

A man comes out of nowhere and wrestles with Jacob (whose name means the Deceiver). Jacob understands that in this man, he’s seen God face-to-face. As Christians, we understand that God in human form is God the Son who became incarnate in the man Jesus.

God the Son descended, took on/became/united with/merged with (it’s difficult to explain) the man Jesus. Once Jesus ascended into Heaven, He joined the eternal nature of God, meaning time no longer applies to the man Jesus. He can pop down into any worldly time He wants. I think we can conclude that in the time of this account, Jesus is wrestling with Jacob the Deceiver. In fact, anytime you see a human manifestation of God in the Old Testament, it’s the actual Jesus stepping down out of eternity… Have I lost you yet?

If not, let’s keep going. Jesus wrestles with the Deceiver. He’s already defeated sin on the cross, but at every point in time, He continues to wrestle the enemy. Why? It’s not for His sake. In this passage, it’s to help Jacob fight against his own nature to learn not to be a manipulative deceiver anymore. When Jesus comes to us to wrestle the enemy, it’s to teach and empower us. Jesus is the eternal Wrestler fighting us and the Deceiver on our behalf. We are never alone against the enemy. We always have Jesus right there with us. And He's not just “in our corner” to give us back-up when we need to tag out; He’s always on the mat doing the majority of the fighting. It’s more like He asks us to be in His corner!

But if this man who comes to wrestle Jacob is Jesus – God Himself – why can’t Jesus overpower Jacob? Surely God could fold Jacob like a pretzel before Jacob even knew he was in a wrestling match!

Do you know that in this life, God will never overpower you? He will never force His will on you. He will never make you learn or change. He simply comes and struggles with you for a time and gives you the opportunity to ask for His blessing.

The beautiful aspect of this story is Jacob’s wrenched hip. He limps away with a lasting reminder of his encounter with Jesus. Did it hurt? Yes. But injuries from the Lord are worth it. Jacob wasn’t in pain his whole life – he healed from his injury – but he was given a way to never forget what had happened.

Some of you might not understand the beauty of receiving “wounds from a friend” yet, and that’s okay. For those of you who do, can I ask, How has the Lord hurt you? What did He teach you from it? What lasting change has it made in your life?

Like Jesus dying on the cross, victory is found in the injury.


 

 

 

 

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