Genesis 32 commentary

GEESIS 32 COMMETARYEDITED BY GLE PEASE

Jacob Prepares to Meet Esau

1 [a]Jacob also went on his way, and the angels of

God met him.

BARES,"After twenty years spent in Aram, Jacob now returns to Kenann. As his departure was marked by a great moment in his spiritual life, so he is now approaching to a crisis in his life of no less significance

Gen_32:1-3

Jacob has a vision of the heavenly host. This passage, recording Labans farewell and departure, closes the connection of Jacob with Haran and all its toils of servitude, and is hence, annexed to the previous chapter in the English version. In the distribution of the original text, it is regarded as the counterpart of the two following verses, in which Jacobs onward progress is mentioned, and so placed with them at the beginning of a new chapter. The angels of God met him. Twenty years ago Jacob saw the mystical ladder connecting heaven and earth, and the angels of God thereupon ascending and descending from the one to the other. Now, in circumstances of danger, he sees the angels of God on earth, encamped beside or around his own camp Psa_34:8. He recognizes them as Gods camp, and names the place Mahanaim, from the double encampment. This vision is not dwelt upon, as it is the mere sequel of the former scene at Bethel. Mahanaim has been identified with Mahneh, about eight miles from the cairn of Laban and Jacob.

CLARKE, "The angels of God met him - Our word angel comes from the Greek

aggelos, which literally signifies a messenger; or, as translated in some of our old

Bibles, a tidings-bringer. The Hebrew word malach, from laach, to send, minister to, employ, is nearly of the same import; and hence we may see the propriety of St. Augustines remark: Nomen non naturae sed officii, It is a name, not of nature, but of office; and hence it is applied indifferently to a human agent or messenger, 2Sa_2:5; to a prophet, Hag_1:13; to a priest, Mal_2:7; to celestial spirits, Psa_103:19, Psa_

103:20, Psa_103:22; Psa_104:4. We often, says Mr. Parkhurst, read of the

malachYehovah, or malakeyElohim, the angel of Jehovah, or the angels of God, that is, his agent, personator, mean of visibility or action, what was employed by God to render himself visible and approachable by flesh and blood. This angel was evidently a human form, surrounded or accompanied by light or glory, with or in which

Jehovah was present; see Gen_19:1, Gen_19:12, Gen_19:16; Jdg_13:6, Jdg_13:21; Exo_3:2, Exo_3:6. By this vision, says Mr. Ainsworth, God confirmed Jacobs faith in him who commanded his angels to keep his people in all their ways, Psa_91:11. Angels are here called Gods host, camp, or army, as in wars; for angels are Gods soldiers, Luk_2:13; horses and chariots of fire, 2Ki_2:11; fighting for Gods people against their enemies, Dan_10:20; of them there are thousand thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand, Dan_7:10; and they are all sent forth to minister for them that shall be heirs of salvation, Heb_1:14; and they pitch a camp about them that fear God, Psa_34:7. One of the oldest of the Greek poets had a tolerably correct notion of the angelic ministry: -

,,

,,...Hesiod. Op. & Dies, l. i., ver. 120.

When in the grave this race of men was laid, Soon was a world of holy demons made, Aerial spirits, by great Jove designd To be on earth the guardians of mankind. Invisible to mortal eyes they go, And mark our actions good or bad below; The immortal spies with watchful care preside, And thrice ten thousand round their charges glide: They can reward with glory or with gold, A power they by Divine permission hold - Cooke.

GILL, "And Jacob went on his way,.... From Gilead towards the land of Canaan:

and the angels of God met him; to comfort and help him, to protect and defend him, to keep him in all his ways, that nothing hurt him, Psa_91:11; these are ministering spirits sent forth by God to minister to his people, the heirs of salvation; and such an one Jacob was.

HERY, "Jacob, having got clear of Laban, pursues his journey homewards towards Canaan: when God has helped us through difficulties we should go on our way heaven-ward with so much the more cheerfulness and resolution. Now, 1. Here is Jacob's convoy in his journey (Gen_32:1): The angels of God met him, in a visible appearance, whether in a vision by da or in a dream by night, as when he saw them upon the ladder (Gen_28:12), is uncertain. Note, Those that keep in a good way have always a good guard; angels themselves are ministering spirits for their safety, Heb_1:14. Where Jacob pitched his tents, they pitched theirs about him, Psa_34:7. They met him, to bid him welcome to Canaan again; a more honourable reception this was than ever any prince had, that was met by the magistrates of a city in their formalities. They met him to congratulate him on his arrival, as well as on his escape from Laban; for they have pleasure in the prosperity of God's servants. They had invisibly attended him all along, but now they appeared to him, because he had greater dangers before him than those he had hitherto encountered. Note, When God designs his people for extraordinary trials, he prepares them by extraordinary comforts. We should think it had been more seasonable for these angels to have appeared to him amidst the perplexity and agitation occasioned first by Laban, and afterwards by Esau, than in this calm and quiet interval, when he saw not himself in any imminent peril; but God will have us, when we are in peace, to provide for trouble, and, when trouble comes, to live upon former observations and experiences; for we walk by faith, not by sight. God's people, at death, are returning to Canaan, to their Father's house; and then the angels of God will meet them, to

congratulate them on the happy finishing of their servitude, and to carry them to their rest.

JAMIESO, "Gen_32:1, Gen_32:2. Vision of angels.

angels of God met him It is not said whether this angelic manifestation was made in a vision by day, or a dream by night. There is an evident allusion, however, to the appearance upon the ladder (compare Gen_28:12), and this occurring to Jacob on his return to Canaan, was an encouraging pledge of the continued presence and protection of God (Psa_34:7; Heb_1:14).

HAWKER, "This Chapter relates some very extraordinary events, which occurred in the Patriarch Jacobs journey towards Canaan, after his separation from Laban. He is first met by an host of angels. He then sends messengers to his brother Esau, who dwelt in Seir, to enquire after his welfare, and to inform him of his own. The messengers return with an account that Esau is coming against him, and with him an army of 400 men: Jacob is greatly distressed with the intelligence, and hath recourse to God by prayer: he sends over the brook Jabbok all his family and household, and is left alone: an angel wrestles with him, until the breaking of the day: Jacob prevails, and obtains a blessing in consequence, the Lord puts a perpetual testimony of honour upon the Patriarch, in changing his name from Jacob to Israel.

Gen_32:1

Perhaps this meeting was like that mentioned, Gen_28:12.

CALVI, "1.And Jacob went on his way. After Jacob has escaped from the hands

of his father-in-law, that is, from present death, he meets with his brother, whose

cruelty was as much, or still more, to be dreaded; for by the threats of this brother

he had been driven from his country; and now no better prospect lies before him.

He therefore proceeds with trepidation, as one who goes to the slaughter. Seeing,

however, it was scarcely possible but that he should sink oppressed by grief, the

Lord affords him timely succor; and prepares him for this conflict, as well as for

others, in such a manner that he should stand forth a brave and invincible

champion in them all. Therefore, that he may know himself to be defended by the

guardianship of God, angels go forth to meet him, arranged in ranks on both sides.

Hebrew interpreters think that the camp of the enemy had been placed on one side;

and that the angels, or rather God, stood on the other. But it is much more

probable, that angels were distributed in two camps on different sides of Jacob, that

he might perceive himself to be everywhere surrounded and fortified by celestial

troops; as in Psalms 34:7, it is declared that angels, to preserve the worshippers of

God, pitch their tents around them. Yet I am not dissatisfied with the opinion of

those who take the dual number simply for the plural; understanding that Jacob

was entirely surrounded with an army of angels. ow the use of this vision was

twofold; for, first, since the holy man was very anxious about the future, the Lord

designed early to remove this cause of terror from him; or, at least, to afford him

some alleviation, lest he should sink under temptation. Secondly, God designed,

when Jacob should have been delivered from his brother, so to fix the memory of

the past benefit in his mind, that it should never be lost. We know how prone men

are to forget the benefits of God. Even while God is stretching out his hand to help

them, scarcely one out of a hundred raises his eyes towards heaven. Therefore it was

necessary that the visible protection of God should be placed before the eyes of the

holy man; so that, as in a splendid theater, he might perceive that he had been lately

delivered, not by chance, out of the hand of Laban; but that he had the angels of

God fighting for him; and might certainly hope, that their help would be ready for

him against the attempts of his brother; and finally, that, when the danger was

surmounted, he might remember the protection he had received from them. This

doctrine is of use to us all, that we may learn to mark the invisible presence of God

in his manifested favors. Chiefly, however, it was necessary that the holy man

should be furnished with new weapons to endure the approaching contest. He did

not know whether his brother Esau had been changed for the better or the worse.

But he would rather incline to the suspicion that the sanguinary man would devise

nothing but what was hostile. Therefore the angels appear for the purpose of

confirming his faith in future, not less than for that of calling past favors to his

remembrance. The number of these angels also encourages him not a little: for

although a single angel would suffice as a guardian for us, yet the Lord acts more

liberally towards us. Therefore they who think that each of us is defended by one

angel only, wickedly depreciate the kindness of God. And there is no doubt that the

devil, by this crafty device, has endeavored, in some measure, to diminish our faith.

The gratitude of the holy man is noted by Moses, in the fact that he assigns to the

place a name, (Galeed,) as a token of perpetual remembrance.

MORGAN, "Verses 1-32This is unquestionably one of the great chapters of the Bible, and it is significant how constant and powerful is its appeal to all who live on the principle of faith. It gives the account of the third direct communication of God to Jacob.As he returned to his own land, the same conflicting principles which have been evident throughout are still manifest. His going at all was in direct obedience to the distinct command of God. There was really no other reason to return. He might still have stayed with Laban and outwitted him for his own enrichment. Nevertheless, the manner of his going was characterized by independence and confidence in his own ability. This is seen in the account of the elaborate and carefully calculated preparation he made for meeting Esau. He was ready to placate Esau with presents, and prepared a list of them. However, they were to be used only if Esau was hostile.This coming back into the land was an event of great importance which Jacob seems to have recognized. When all his own arrangements were made he voluntarily stayed behind and went down to the Jabbok, quite evidently for some dealing with God. Then and there, in the quiet and stillness of the night, God met with him in the form of a man. Wrestling with him, God demonstrated his weakness to Jacob, finally appealing to his spiritual consciousness by crippling him in his body. This is certainly a story of Jacob's victory, but it was a victory won when, conscious of a superior power, he yielded and, with strong crying and tears, out of weakness was made strong. Jacob's limp was a lifelong disability, but it was also the patent of his nobility.

COFFMAN, "Here we have the preliminaries for the meeting of the long-estranged brothers Jacob and Esau, a moving, dramatic account of their moving toward a reunion after many years of separation, both having become wealthy in the meanwhile. The actual, face-to-face meeting of the brothers does not take place until the next chapter, but all of the background for it is here. Jacob's fear, with which he had lived for so many years, his prayer to God for divine help in the approaching crisis, his precautions to protect his family against the potential hostility of Esau, with special concern for Rachel and her children, the rich gifts sent to Esau, his wrestling all night with an angel of God at Peniel, and, most significant of all, the heavenly award to Jacob of a new name - these are the events of this chapter which have challenged the thoughts of men for ages.

"And Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him. And Jacob said when he saw them, This is God's host: and he called the name of that place Mahanaim."

Twenty years before this event when he was about to journey into the land of his twenty-year bondage, God had appeared to Jacob and strengthened him in the vision of the ladder reaching to heaven, and now, that he was about to enter into a new phase of his life, again God appeared to him, first in this vision of the angels, later in the wrestling event. Apparently, only Jacob saw the heavenly host, just like the occasion when Elisha and his servant were surrounded and threatened by innumerable enemies. Only the prophet saw the angelic host, until Elisha prayed for God to "open his eyes" (2 Kings 6:17).

"He called the name of that place Mahanaim ..." "This word is a dual form meaning, "two hosts" or "bands." The visible band was Jacob and his servants; the invisible band (momentarily visible to Jacob) was that of the angels."[1] "Mahanaim was later a distinguished city, situated just north of the Jabbok, and the name and remains are still preserved in a place called Mahneh."[2] The two great enemies confronted by Jacob were Laban in the land of his long servitude, and Esau in the land to which he returned. The visions at the beginning of each confrontation assured Jacob of God's blessing and protection.

BENSON, "Genesis 32:1. The angels of God met him In some visible and glorious forms, as they frequently appeared to the patriarchs. Probably only Jacob saw them. They met him to bid him welcome to Canaan again; a more honourable reception than ever any prince had that was met by the magistrates of a city. They met him to congratulate his arrival, and his escape from Laban. They had invisibly attended him all along, but now they appeared, because he had greater dangers before him. When God designs his people for extraordinary trials, he prepares them by extraordinary comforts.\

ELLICOTT, "(1) Jacob went on his way.The meeting of Jacob and Laban had been on the dividing line between the Aramean and the Canaanite lands, and consequently at a spot where Laban would have found no allies in the natives, but rather the contrary. Delivered thus from danger from behind, Jacob now takes his journey through the country that was to be the heritage of his seed, and doubtless he was harassed by many anxious thoughts; for Esau might prove a fiercer foe than Laban. It was fit therefore that he should receive encouragement, and so after some days, probably after about a weeks journey southward, he has a vision of angels of God.

Angels of God.Numberless conjectures have been hazarded as to who were these messengers of Elohim, and how they were seen by Jacob. Some, taking the word in its lower sense, think they were prophets; others, that it was a caravan, which gave Jacob timely information about Esaus presence in Seir; others, that it was a body of men sent by Rebekah to aid Jacob in repelling Esau. More probably, as Jacob on his road to Padan-aram had been assured of Gods watchful care of him by the vision of the angels ascending and descending the stairs, so now also in a dream he sees the angels encamped on each side of him, to assure him of protection against his brother.

COKE, "Genesis 32:1. The angels of God, &c. When Jacob embarked in this enterprize, and left Canaan, God was pleased to encourage him by a vision of angels, and by the assurance of his protection: and now that he was returning, happily escaped from Laban, but with good reason afraid of Esau, another vision of the celestial messengers is presented to him. From the vision of the angelical powers, he called the place, by a military name, referring to the idea of hosts or armies, Mahanaim, or camps, which is not a dual, but a plural word; and therefore all that has been said of two camps, is built upon a mistake, Psalms 34:7. Mahanaim was situated between Mount Gilead and the brook Jabbok: it was afterwards one of the residences of the Levites, and one of the strong places of David.

REFLECTIONS.God hath preserved the patriarch hitherto, and still continues to guard him safe home. He had the promise of protection, and he trusted in it: now he has the sight of his angelic convoy, and may be comforted. Who can hurt them to whom angels minister? And need there was of every support; for his part dangers were only the prelude of greater impending. God thus

prepares his people by strong consolations for difficult services. Note; When the believer draws near his last conflict in death, then shall these attendant spirits surround the dying bed, to welcome the departing soul, and lodge it safe in the bosom of Jesus.*

[* The lines of our ancient poet on the ministration of angels to the heirs of glory, are so suitable to the present subject, and so extremely beautiful, that I cannot forbear inserting them.

And is there care in heaven? And is there love In heavenly spirits to these creatures base, That may compassion of their evils move? There is: else much more wretched were the case Of men than beasts. But O! th' exceeding grace Of highest God that loves his creatures so, And all his works with mercy doth embrace, That blessed Angels he sends to and fro To serve to wicked man, to serve his wicked foe!

How do they their silver bowers leave To come to succour us that succour want? How oft do they with golden pinions cleave The flitting skies, like flying Pursuivant, Against foul fiends to aid us militant? They for us fight, they watch and duly ward, And their bright Squadrons round about us plant; And all for love, and nothing for reward: O why should heavenly God to men have such regard!]

NISBET, "The angels of God.Genesis 32:1To the Christian, to the member of the Church of England, with his Prayer Book in his hand, there is a prayer in which we speak to God and recall the existence of a world unseen around us, and beyond us a great realm, the realm of holy souls, the angels and the archangels of God. Some of us, with our Churchmans Almanack in our hand, look up the passages of Scripture, or at least one of the passages set down for this day, and as we read the passage about Jacob and the angels, our thoughts go out from the littleness of mans little world to the greatness of Gods great world, and go from the little number of men and women of God to be seen on this globe to that immense army of holy souls made perfect in God, His angels, archangels, cherubim and seraphim, and to the hosts of heaven; and we feel that our thoughts are lifted up rather than kept down, our imagination is made stronger, we live for a few seconds in a bigger world than that in which we are living from day to day while it pleases God that we should remain here on earth.

I. All the Company of Heaven.It is not the custom in this day to think as much about this unseen holy existence as men did in days that are gone. It is impossible for us to read the Holy Scriptures without constantly observing that those who lived in the days of the writers of these sacred books very fully believed in the existence near about them of endless holy beings belonging to Gods unseen kingdom, holy souls serving God either in worship or in ministration to the sons of men. In the Book of Genesis we read of Jacob and the angels. Passing on to a later stage, we read of the ministration by angels in the times of the great prophets Elijah and Elisha, and, not to multiply instances, we can readily recall the words of the Hebrew Psalmist when he speaks of the angel of God tarrying round about those of the sons of men who fear God. Passing to the New Testament, we can think of the appearance of angels to minister to One no less great than the Son of Man at the end of His temptation, to minister to Him in the Garden of Gethsemane when His mind was overwrought with the greatness of the thoughts which pressed upon Him then; and we read of angels, too, appearing on the Resurrection day with their message of explanation of the things which the faithful disciples saw. But in our own day we do not perhaps realise quite so fully that there is ever about us, above us, this great realm of unseen things under the government of God, pure and holy souls, servants of the same God Whom we serve, and it may be that perhaps in thinking too seldom of them we miss an uplifting thought that we might otherwise have to help us in our religious life. May we not endeavour to see whether we cannot put some more thought about the great realm unseen into our minds? We are engaged in our acts of worship. There is that important service, the Lords own service, Holy Communion. It begins, as you know, with the words, Our Father, Which art in heaven, in the great realm unseen, not distant from us in the ages of the future, but the realm unseen near about us, the realm of holy thought, the realm in which the souls of just men made perfect are dwelling, the realm in which angels and archangels dwell. Our Father, in that heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come here on earth, as Thy kingdom is recognised there in heaven. And we pass on in that service to a point where we

lift up our hearts to the Lord, and we say in our worship: It is very meet, right, and our bounden duty, that we should at all times, and in all places, give thanks unto Thee, O Lord, Holy Father, Almighty, everlasting God. Therefore we go on to say, with angels and archangels, and with all the company of heaven, we laud and magnify Thy glorious name; evermore praising Thee, and saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Hosts.

II.Joy amongst the angels.Not only may we in our times of worship have our thoughts uplifted and imaginations warmed, our conception extended, by thinking of all the inhabitants of this great unseen world over which our God rules, but we can go out from our worship into the world of our daily duties in which we meet as men and women. We know well, as Christian men and women held down by their human infirmities, by the sins which they are continually committing, we can go out with the thought that not only may we in church worship, be linked with the holy angels of God, but we can go out with the thought that these angels are with us during the life we live day by day, taking cognisance of all the efforts we make to win other souls to God, and we go out with the assurance that there is joy in the presence of these angels of God when through the effort of ourselves or through the effort of any other believer in the Lord one sinner only repenteth. There are doubtless in this congregation many men and women who are trying somehow or other to bring influence for good to bear upon the souls about them, who have not yet felt the influence from heaven of Gods grace. To all those who are striving thus I would say dwell upon this thought, and we will in our times of worship let our hearts go out, away from our fellow-worshippers about us, into the presence of the great God, unseen, surrounded by untold hosts of heavenly beings, by the souls of those who have lived here and been perfected by the grace of Jesus Christ; feel ourselves in their presence before our God; and then, having worshipped with them at the throne of their God and ours, let us go with that inspiration into our daily life in the world, strengthened by the thought of the hosts with us compared with the few that can be against us, encouraged by the thought that not only our God, but they, too, are looking on and approving, and when, through Gods mercy, we are able to bring one soul into the fold of Jesus Christ we shall be bringing joy and opportunity of great thanksgiving among the angels of God in heaven. Let us be encouraged at this time by the thought of the greatness of the realm to which we belong. God, in calling us into His service and making us His sons, has not made us members of a small concern, not united us into a tiny family, but has given us a great birth-right, made us members of an immense kingdom. We profess in our creed our belief in Him as Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible, and as members of that great kingdom, as members of that immense family over which God rules and shows His love, let us go forward inspirited and ennobled, determined that, so far as our influence reaches, other souls shall get to know the greatness of this inheritance which has become ours. So may we be strengthened to be more happy and joyful in our own lives, more useful to those who are about us in the world, and thereby bring more honour, praise, and glory to our God.

Illustration

(1) Who these angelic visitants were we cannot tell, but Jacob accepted their message as clear and definite for himself. They met him at Mahanaim. This may have been in a vision, as at Bethel, or the messengers may have appeared to him as they appeared to Abraham while he stood under the oak at Mamre.

(2) Something like that will happen to every man who goes on his own way,not on the path marked out for Napoleon or Washington, but for him, plain John Smith. Not on the way chosen by himself against the will of God, but chosen by Gods will for him,the straight, narrow, individual path to the goal of his own personal life. Yes, on that path Gods good angels will meet him! There he will encounter the angels of his household,his wife and little children. There he will find his true friends. There he will meet his joys and his sorrows, his failures and his triumphs, his losses and his gains. There he will catch more than passing glimpses of the Divine presence that hovers about him always. Nothing is so sweet, nothing so satisfying, as to be in the way your feet were made to travel. Do not leave it for an instant.

CONSTABLE, "Jacob's attempt to appease Esau 32:1-21

Chapters 32 and 33 can be viewed as one episode in the life of Jacob. They describe his return to the Promised Land including his meeting with Esau. There are thematic parallels between these chapters and chapter 31.

In spite of the vision of God's assisting messengers, Jacob divided his people into two groups as a precaution when he heard Esau was coming to meet him with 400 men. Furthermore he sought to pacify Esau's anger with an expensive gift in addition to praying for God's deliverance.

Jacob had been able to handle his problems himself by hook or by crook until now. At this point in his experience God brought him to the end of his natural resources.

"As Jacob is at the precipice of receiving the promise of Canaan, he is not yet morally ready to carry out the blessing. Jacob must possess his own faith, obtaining the blessing through personal encounter, not by heredity alone." [Note: Mathews, Genesis 11:27-50:26, p. 537.]"The events of this chapter are couched between two accounts of Jacob's encounter with angels (Genesis 32:1; Genesis 32:25). The effect of these two brief pictures of Jacob's meeting with angels on his return to the land is to align the present narrative with the similar picture of the Promised Land in the early chapters of Genesis. The land was guarded on its borders by angels. The same picture was suggested early in the Book of Genesis when Adam and Eve were cast out of the Garden of Eden and 'cherubim' were positioned on the east of the garden to guard the way to the tree of life. It can hardly be accidental that as Jacob returned from the east, he was met by angels at the border of the Promised Land. This brief notice may also be intended to alert the reader to the meaning of Jacob's later wrestling with the 'man' ... at Peniel (Genesis 32:25-30). The fact that Jacob had met with angels here suggests that the man at the end of the chapter is also an angel." [Note: Sailhamer, "Genesis," p. 208.]

HOLE, "Verses 1-29Thus far, many blemishes have marred the history of Jacob. His desire at the outset for the birthright and the blessing of God, which accompanied it, was right: the way he schemed to obtain it altogether wrong. God had been but little in his thoughts, and when, fleeing from Esau's vengeance, in a night vision he discovered the house of God, he felt it to be a dreadful place. One of our hymn writers describing his soul's journey, began with, "All of self and none of Thee." If it was not exactly thus with Jacob, it had certainly been, "Nearly all of self and very little of Thee."

Now however the time had come when God would deal more directly with him, and the first move was that he should encounter an angelic band. Jacob was migrating with wives, children, servants and many animals, thus forming a large band. He now became conscious that there was a second band, standing on his behalf. Even this did not free him from the fear of Esau, and his approach to him, as given in verses Genesis 32:3-5, though very diplomatic, bears traces of the working of a bad conscience.

Verse Genesis 32:7 again bears witness to this. The tidings that Esau, at the head of four hundred men, was coming to meet him, awoke his keenest fears. In spite of having seen the angelic band, he assumed at once, as the fruit of the working of his conscience, that Esau was on his way to take vengeance and, true to his nature, he at once worked out an elaborate scheme to placate his brother and secure himself. All his possessions, starting with flocks and servants and working down to wives and children, were to meet the brother he feared before he himself had to face him.

But this did not altogether exclude God from his thoughts. In verses Genesis 32:9-12, we have his prayer recorded. God had intervened with him previously and Jacob had registered a vow, but this is the first actual prayer of his that is put on record. It does not breathe the spirit of communion and intercession, such as marked Abraham in Genesis 18:1-33, it was simply a plea for preservation, while acknowledging God's mercies to him in the past. Yet we notice how rightly he took a low place, though not as low as Abraham, who said, "I... am but dust and ashes" (Genesis 18:27). Jacob says, "I am not worthy of the least of all Thy mercies," which was indeed true, though it did not go the whole length. It is a fact in all dispensations that one's sense of unworthiness and nothingness deepens as nearness to God increases. As an illustration of this see Psalms 73:17, Psalms 73:22.

Jacob's plan was to appease Esau with a present, as verse Genesis 32:20 records. All even wives and sons were sent over the brook at the ford Jabbok, and he was left alone, well to the rear. Not a very dignified or courageous proceeding! Yet God was in all this, for being left alone, the moment had come for him to be brought face to face with God Himself, that he might have an experience, the effect of which he would never lose. Up to this point his life had been mainly one of scheming against and wrestling with men. Now God by His Messenger was going to wrestle with him.

"There wrestled a man with him;" such is the record, and doubtless at the start of this incident the unknown Stranger was to Jacob but a mere man. Who was Jacob to give way to another man? Hence it put him on his mettle to resist. The Stranger strove to break him down and until breaking of the day he resisted. Then the supernatural nature of the Stranger was manifested by the powerful touch which crippled him at his strongest point.

Then at once Jacob's attitude changed. Instead of wrestling, which now had become impossible to him he took to clinging to his Conqueror. He ceased his striving and took to trusting, realizing that the One who had overcome him had done so for his blessing, and that he was in the presence of God. The Name of the Stranger was not revealed, but the blessing that Jacob had desired from his youth was bestowed upon him then and there.

"He blessed him there," in the place of solitude with God, and when his natural power was crippled and laid low. The vital blessing of God did not descend upon his head when he struck that crafty bargain with Esau, nor even when his blind father, deceived by his impersonation of Esau, pronounced the patriarchal blessing on his head. No, it was when God dealt with him personally in solitude, and broke his stubborn will. In all this we may see a picture of how God deals with our souls today, though the grace into which we are called is so much richer than anything that Jacob knew.

By naming the place Peniel "The face of God" Jacob disclosed his deep sense of having been brought face to face with God and that the outcome was preservation and not destruction. Here was good reason for him to revise his earlier thought that the house of God and the gate of heaven was a "dreadful" place.

In this incident we see foreshadowed several striking things. First, that in order to deal fully and finally with man, God Himself would stoop into manhood, since it was as "a man" that Jacob saw God "face to face." Second, that God's thought towards us, even the most wayward of us, is blessing. Third, that human struggling and wrestling achieves nothing, and that surrender or submission, and honesty in confession, is the way of blessing. Fourth, that it was when clinging to the One who had vanquished him, and confessing to his name of Jacob - meaning Supplanter that his name was changed to Israel meaning Prince of God and he was told that he had power not only with men but with God, and he had prevailed. By changing his name God claimed Jacob as belonging now to Him.

Thus a great moment in his history had been reached, and as he realized that he had seen God face to face, with salvation as the result, the sun rose upon him. An experience of this kind in the history of any soul does indeed mark the dawning of a new day. In Jacob's case the experience was memorialized for his children by a simple prohibition in their eating, as the last verse of the chapter records.

But as yet Jacob was hardly equal to his new name, so we do not find it used by the inspired historian until much later in his story. All his old characteristics come into display in Genesis 33:1-20, carried to a high degree of obsequiousness. The bowing down of himself and wives and children could hardly have been more complete and his proffered gifts were large, having made up his mind to "appease him with the present."

The attitude of Esau was however not what he had anticipated. His anger had cooled off during the intervening years, and he had become the leader of hundreds of men and thus a man of

influence and of large possessions. Though ultimately accepting Jacob's present, he at first declined it saying, "I have enough," or more literally, "I have much." In verse Genesis 32:11, we find Jacob saying, "I have enough," but he used a different word, meaning, "all." That word he could use because he was able to say, "God hath dealt graciously with me." The man of the world may be able to say, "I have much," it is only the saint, consciously blessed of God, who can say, "I have all." This is what the Apostle Paul said in Philippians 4:18.

Jacob called his gift "my blessing," but in spite of this he was by no means anxious to have Esau's company on his further journey. His plea, recorded in verse Genesis 32:13, was doubtless a genuine one. It lends itself to an application amongst the people of God today. There are always to be found those who are young and tender, who must not be overdriven. Those who have reached the stature and activity of full-grown men must remember this, and not force the pace of their weaker brethren to their undoing. Many a young and tender believer has been damaged by this kind of thing.

Having declined the proffered help and Esau having departed, Jacob again reveals the crookedness that seems to have been his natural bent. Having said to Esau, "I come unto my lord unto Seir," he promptly journeyed to Succoth which lay in an entirely different direction. Moreover, having arrived there, the record is that he built an house and made booths for his cattle, which indicates that he had a mind to settle down in the land rather than maintain the character of a stranger, following in the footsteps of his grandfather Abraham.

The next step recorded is his removal to Shalem, across the Jordan and in the centre of the land. Here, though he had a tent and an altar, we can again discern that his separation from the people of the land was becoming impaired. He pitched his tent close to the city, and then bought the land where he had encamped. Further the very name he gave to his altar tells a similar story. The name El-elohe-Israel means, "God the God of Israel." He did indeed use his new God-given name and not his old name of Jacob yet even so he connected God with himself instead of connecting himself with God. In effect he was saying "God belongs to me," instead of, "I belong to God."

There may not seem to be much difference between these two sentiments but there is a gulf between the practices they induce, as we may soon see in our own histories. We may recognize that as, "born of God," and, "in Christ Jesus," we have a new name, yet if we bring God down to connect Him with our new name, we may easily assume that we may connect Him with our things things by no means worthy of His call or of His glory. On the other hand, to recognize that He has called us to link us with Himself, at once searches our hearts, and lifts us above many a thing that would entangle us.

The whole of Genesis 34:1-31 is occupied with the unhappy results that sprang from the lowering of Jacob's separation from the world, which we have just noted. Its effects for evil were not manifested in Jacob himself but in his family. The tide of evil runs in two broad channels: violence and corruption. They are first mentioned in Genesis 6:12, Genesis 6:13 : they are personified in "the evil man" and "the strange woman" of Proverbs 2:12, Proverbs 2:16. The world is just the same today; and how often we have to hang our heads in shame and confess that a bit of world-bordering on our part, as Christian parents, has led to sorrow and even disaster in our families.

In our chapter the corruption comes first. His daughter, Dinah, wanted to enjoy the companionship and pleasures of the other young women of the land, and in result got entangled and defiled, and this aroused great wrath amongst Jacob's sons, which was not appeased by the action of Shechem and Ham or in the way of repairing the damage done. The anger came to a head in the atrocious violence of Simeon and Levi, which was never forgotten by Jacob, nor indeed by God. When at the end of his life Jacob spoke prophetically of his sons, foretelling the future of the tribes and uttering certain blessings, he denounced these two sons, cursing their anger, as recorded in Genesis 49:5-7.

Thus the shameful story of Genesis 34:1-31 not only caused Jacob "to stink among the inhabitants of the land," a dreadful position for him, seeing he was the only man in the land possessing the true knowledge of God but it brought a judgment upon the two who were the

promoters of the violence. It is of interest to note that in later days the tribe of Levi so acted as to gain a special blessing, and in consequence we are permitted to see how God can turn that which was originally a curse into a blessing. The word had been, "I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel" (Genesis 49:7). They were divided; but it was by Levi being called to special service and scattered throughout all the tribes.

The first verse of Genesis 35:1-29 shows us how God intervened when things had reached this sorry pass. He called Jacob back to the place where first God had made Himself known to him. There he was to dwell and there his altar was to be. At Bethel, as we saw in Genesis 28:1-22, God declared what He would be for and to Jacob, without raising any question as to Jacob's response or behaviour. Now God is always true to Himself and to His word. Before the giving of the law through Moses, God was dealing with these patriarchs on the basis of His promises in grace, and those promises abide.

God deals with us according to grace in the Gospel today. Hence we read of, "this grace in which we stand" (Romans 5:2), which is equivalent to saying that our dwelling before God is in His grace or favour. As we dwell in the sense of His favour so shall we be led to approach Him in the spirit of worship, and to have done with all that is displeasing to Him.

So it was with Jacob as we see here. Immediately God called him back to Bethel he realized that there were evil things to be found in his household, even strange gods. In Genesis 31:1-55 we saw how Rachel had carried off from Laban the "gods," or "seraphim," that he valued, and there is no record of Jacob taking exception to them at that time. But with God before him, he at once became alive to the evil of them. They were to be put away, and there was to be personal cleanliness, extending even to the garments they wore, for the presence of God demands a purging which covers even to that which surrounds us: an important lesson that we all need to take to heart.

So far all was well with Jacob but a defect soon appears. The unclean things were not destroyed but only hidden away. They had considerable monetary value and it looks as if he hoped to resume possession, or at least realize their value, in a future day. The tendency of our foolish hearts is just the same. Let us see that we do not act in similar fashion with defiling things of the flesh and of the world that would naturally attract us.

As Jacob went to Bethel God restrained the peoples of the land from taking vengeance on him and his household because of the violent action of his two sons; and so he safely got there, and built his altar. The name he gave it stands in contrast with that which he gave to his former altar, as recorded in the last verse of Genesis 33:1-20. There he connected God simply with himself. Here he recognized Him as the God of His own dwelling-place. The altar, El-beth-el, demanded from Jacob a higher standard of conduct than did the altar, El-elohe-Israel.

Arrived at Bethel, things began to move rapidly forward. The first recorded event is the death of Deborah, who had been nurse to Jacob's mother. A break with the past is thus signified. Then, the promises of God were confirmed in a fresh appearance of the Almighty. Jacob's new name was confirmed, and the land was made sure to him. This moved him freshly to set up a pillar of witness and anoint it, as a response to the revelation. But, as is so often the case in God's ways this fresh grace from God is followed by fresh losses on the human side.

Leaving Bethel, Rachel was over taken in childbirth and died. Thus he lost his favourite wife, though in her death he gained a son. As we before noted this was the only occasion when Jacob himself had to do with the naming of his sons, and the child became known by that name, rather than by the name his dying mother gave him.

This blow was succeeded by the disgraceful sin of Reuben, so that at this point sorrow succeeded sorrow. Yet we cannot but think that there is a typical significance in the way these things are brought together: Rachel typifying the nation out of whom the Messiah was to spring. He was to be the "Son of Sorrow" in His rejection, which would mean the setting aside of the nation from whom He sprang. Ultimately the "Son of Sorrow" would be manifested as the "Son of the Right

Hand," not only of Jacob but of Jehovah Himself. But until that time, and while as a nation Israel lies spiritually dead, the Gentiles come into prominence, just as the sons of Leah and the concubines are prominent in verses Genesis 32:23-26.

The closing verses put on record one more loss, in the death of his aged father, Isaac. Though he went blind many years before and anticipated his death (Genesis 27:2), it did not actually take place till he had lived 180 years. The division of Genesis entitled, "The generations of Isaac," began at Genesis 25:19, and it extends to the end of Genesis 35:1-29. Under it has come all these many details as to the earlier history of Jacob.

PULPIT, "And Jacob (after Laban's departure) went on his way (from Galeed and Mizpah, in a southerly direction towards the Jabbok), and the angels of Godliterally, the messengers of Elohim, not chance travelers who informed him of Esau's being in the vicinity (Abarbanel), but angels (cf. Psalms 104:4)met him. Not necessarily came in an opposite direction, fuerunt ei obviam (Vulgate), but simply fell in with him, lighted on him as in Genesis 28:11, (LXX.), forgathered with him (Scottish); but whether this was in a waking vision (Kurtz, Keil, Inglis) or a midnight dream (Hengstenberg) is uncertain, though-the two former visions enjoyed by Jacob were at night (cf. Genesis 28:12; Genesis 31:10). Cajetan, approved by Pererius, translating \] "in him," makes it appear that the vision was purely subjective, non fuisse visionem corporalem, sed internam: the clause interpolated by the LXX; , seems rather to point to an objective manifestation. The appearance of this invisible host may have been designed to celebrate Jacob's triumph over Laban, as after Christ's victory over Satan in the wilderness angels came and ministered unto him (Rupertus, Wordsworth), or to remind him that he owed his deliverance to Divine interposition (Calvin, Bush, Lange), but was more probably intended to assure him of protection in his approaching interview with Esau (Josephus, Chrysostom, Rosenmller, Keil, Murphy, 'Speaker's Commentary'), and perhaps also to give him welcome in returning home again to Canaan (Kurtz), if not in addition to suggest that his descendants would require to fight for their inheritance (Kalisch).

TRAPP, "Genesis 32:1 And Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him.

Ver. 1. Angels of God met him.] Sensibly and visibly, as servants meet their masters, as the guard their prince. Oh, the dignity and safety of the saints! who are in five respects, say some, above the angels. (1.) Our nature is more highly advanced in Christ. (2.) The righteousness whereby we come to glory is more excellent than theirs; which, though perfect in its kind, is but the righteousness of mere creatures, such as God may find fault with, [Job 4:18] such as may need mercy; therefore the cherubims are said to stand upon the mercy seat, and to be made of the matter thereof. (3.) The sonship of the saints is founded in a higher right than theirs - viz., in the Sonship of the second Person in Trinity. (4.) They are members of Christ, and so in nearer union than any creature. (5.) They are the spouse, the bride; angels only servants of the Bridegroom, and "ministering spirits, sent out (as here) to minister for them that shall be heirs of salvation". [Hebrews 1:14] They meet us still, as they did Jacob: they minister many blessings to us, yet will not be seen to receive any thanks of us: they stand at our right hands, [Luke 1:11] as ready to relieve us as the devils to mischief us. [Zechariah 3:1] If Satan, for terror, show himself like the great "leviathan"; or, for fraud, like a "crooked" and "piercing serpent"; or, for violence and fury, like "the dragon in the seas"; yet the Lord will smite him by his angels, as with his "great, and sore, and strong sword". [Isaiah 27:1] Angels are in heaven as in their watch tower {whence they are called watchers, Daniel 4:13}, to keep the world, the saints especially, their chief charge, in whose behalf, they "stand ever before the face of God," [Matthew 18:10] waiting and wishing to be sent upon any design or expedition, for the service and safety of the saints. They are like masters or tutors, to whom the great King of heaven commits his children: these they bear in their bosoms, as the nurse doth her babe, or as the servants of the house do their young master, glad to do them any good office; ready to secure them from that roaring lion, that rangeth up and down, seeking to devour them. The philosopher told his friends, when they came into his little and low cottage, E , The gods are here with me. The true Christian may say, though he dwell never so meanly, God and his holy angels are ever with him, &c.

SBC, "I. Notice first the angels themselves. (1) Their number is very great. (2) They are

swift as the flames of fire. (3) They are also strong: "Bless the Lord, ye His angels that excel in strength." (4) They seem to be all young. (5) They are evidently endowed with corresponding moral excellences.

II. The ministry of angels has these characteristics. (1) It is a ministry of guardianship. (2) It is a ministry of cheerfulness. (3) It is a ministry of animation. (4) It is a ministry of consolation. (5) It is a ministry of fellowship and convoy through death to life and from earth to heaven.

III. The whole subject shows in a very striking manner (1) the exceeding greatness of the glory of Christ; (2) the value and greatness of salvation.

A. Raleigh, Quiet Resting-places, p. 182.

Jacob called the name of that place Mahanaim (i.e., two camps). One camp was the little one containing his women and children and his frightened and defenceless self, and the other was the great one up there, or rather in shadowy but most real spiritual presence round about him as a bodyguard, making an impregnable wall between him and every foe. We may take some plain lessons from the story.

I. The angels of God meet us on the dusty road of common life. "Jacob went on his way and the angels of God met him."

II. Gods angels meet us punctually at the hour of need.

III. The angels of God come in the shape which we need. Jacobs want was protection; therefore the angels appear in warlike guise, and present before the defenceless man another camp. Gods gifts to us change their character; as the Rabbis fabled that the manna tasted to each man what each most desired. In that great fulness each of us may have the thing we need.

A. Maclaren, Christ in the Heart, p. 195.

References: Gen_32:1.S. Baring-Gould, Preachers Pocket, p. 1. Gen_32:1, Gen_32:2.Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxvi., No. 1544. Gen_32:1-32.Clergymans Magazine, vol. v., p. 101.

Genesis 32:1

Gen_32:1, Gen_32:24

Every man lives two livesan outward and an inward. The one is that denoted in the former text: Jacob went on his way. The other is denoted in the latter text: Jacob was left alone. In either state God dealt with him.

I. The angels of God met him. We do not know in what form they appeared, or by what sign Jacob recognised them.

In its simplicity the angelic office is a doctrine of revelation. There exists even now a society and a fellowship between the sinless and the fallen. As man goes on his way, the

angels of God meet him.

II. Are there any special ways in which we may recognise and use this sympathy? (1) The angelic office is sometimes discharged in human form. We may entertain angels unawares. Let us count common life a ministry; let us be on the look-out for angels. (2) We must exercise a vigorous self-control lest we harm or tempt. Our Saviour, has warned us of the presence of the angels as a reason for not offending His little ones. Their angels He calls them, as though to express the closeness of the tie that binds together the unfallen and the struggling. We may gather from the story two practical lessons. (a) The day and the night mutually act and react. A day of meeting with angels may well be followed by a night of wrestling with God. (b) Earnestness is the condition of success. Jacob had to wrestle a whole night for his change of name, for his knowledge of God. Never will you say, from the world that shall be, that you laboured here too long or too earnestly to win it.

C. J. Vaughan, Last Words at Doncaster, p. 197.

Reference: Gen_32:2.Clergymans Magazine, vol. xvi., p. 90.

Genesis 32:1-32

Genesis 32

I. God selects men for His work on earth, not because of their personal agreeableness, but because of their adaptation to the work they have to perform.

II. There is something affecting in the way in which guilty persons invoke the God of their fathers. Conscious that they deserve nothing at the hands of God, they seek to bring down on themselves the blessing of the God of their father and mother.

III. When a man is overtaken in his transgression, and all his wickedness seems to come down upon him, how true it is that then there rises up before him the concurrent suffering of all his household! It takes hold on him through his wife and his children and all that he loves.

IV. Mens sins carry with them a punishment in this life. Different sins are differently punished.

V. Nothing but a change of heart will put a man right with himself, right with society, and right with God.

VI. No man who is in earnest need ever despair because of past misdoing.

H. W. Beecher, Sermons, 2nd series, p. 106.

BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR, "And Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him. And when Jacob saw them, he said, This is Gods host: and he called the name of that place Mahanaim.

The ministry of angels

I. THE ANGELS THEMSELVES.

1. Their number is very great.

2. They are swift as the flames of fire.

3. They are strong.

4. They seem to be all young.

5. They are evidently endowed with corresponding moral excellences.

II. THE MINISTRY OF ANGELS HAS THESE CHARACTERISTICS. It is a ministry of

1. Guardianship.

2. Cheerfulness.

3. Animation.

4. Consolation.

5. Fellowship and convoy through death to life, and from earth to heaven.

III. THE WHOLE SUBJECT SHOWS IN A VERY STRIKING MANNER

1. The exceeding greatness of the glory of Christ.

2. The value and greatness of salvation. (A. Raleigh, D. D.)

Angelic ministrations

Every man has two livesan outward and an inward. The one is that denoted here: Jacob went on his way, &c. The other is denoted in Gen_32:24: Jacob was left alone, &c. In either state God dealt with him.

I. THE ANGELS OF GOD MET HIM, We do not know in what form they appeared, or by what sign Jacob recognized them. In its simplicity the angelic office is a doctrine of revelation. There exists even now a society and a fellowship between the sinless and the fallen. As man goes on his way, the angels of God meet him.

II. ARE THERE ANY SPECIAL WAYS IN WHICH WE MAY RECOGNIZE AND USE THIS SYMPATHY?

1. The angelic office is sometimes discharged in human form. We may entertain angels unawares. Let us count common life a ministry; let us be on the look-out for angels.

2. We must exercise a vigorous self-control lest we harm or tempt. Our Saviour has warned us of the presence of the angels as a reason for not offending His little ones. Their angels He calls them, as though to express the closeness of the tie that binds together the unfallen and the struggling. We may gather from the story two practical lessons.

(1) The day and the night mutually act and react. A day of meeting with angels may well be followed by a night of wrestling with God.

(2) Earnestness is the condition of success. Jacob had to wrestle a whole night for his change of name, for his knowledge of God. Never will you say, from the world that shall be, that you laboured here too long or too earnestly to win it. (Dean Vaughan.)

Meeting with angels

I. The angels of God meet us on THE DUSTY ROAD OF COMMON LIFE.

II. Gods angels meet us PUNCTUALLY at the hour of need.

III. The angels of God come IN THE SHAPE WHICH WE NEED. Jacobs want was protection; therefore the angels appear in warlike guise, and present before the defenceless man another camp. Gods gifts to us change their character; as the Rabbis fabled that manna tasted to each man what each most desired. In that great fulness each of us may have the thing we need. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)

Jacobs visible and invisible world

I. JACOBS VISIBLE WORLD. He had just escaped the persecutions of his father-in-law, and was now expecting to meet with a fiercer enemy in his brother. All was dread and anxiety.

II. JACOBS INVISIBLE WORLD. What a different scene is presented to him when his spiritual eye is opened, and God permits him to see those invisible forces which were engaged on his side. We are told that the angels of God met him. He was weak to all human appearance; but he was really strong, for Gods host had come to deliver him from any host of men that might oppose. The host of God is described as parting into two bands, as if to protect him behind and before; or to assure him that as he had been delivered from one enemy, so he would be delivered from another enemy, which was coming forth to meet him. Thus Jacob was taught

1. To whom he owed his late mercies.

2. The true source of his protection.

3. His faith is confirmed. It is justified for the past, and placed upon a firmer basis for the future. (T. H. Leale.)

Hosts of angels

1. God has a multitude of servants, and all these are on the side of believers. His camp is very great, and all the hosts in that camp are our allies. Some of these are visible agents, and many more are invisible, but none the less real and powerful.

2. We know that a guard of angels always surrounds every believer. Omnipotence has servants everywhere. These servants of the strong God are all filled with power; there is not one that fainteth among them all, they run like mighty men, they prevail as men of war. We know that they excel in strength, as they do His commandments, hearkening unto the voice of His word. Rejoice, O children of God! There are vast armies upon your side, and each one of the warriors is clothed with the strength of God.

3. All these agents work in order, for it is Gods host, and the host is made up of beings which march or fly, according to the order of command. Neither shall one thrust another; they shall walk every one in his path. All the forces of nature are loyal to their Lord. They are perfectly happy, because consecrated; full of delight,

because completely absorbed in doing the will of the Most High. Oh that we could do His will on earth as that will is done in heaven by all the heavenly ones!

4. Observe that in this great host they were all punctual to the Divine command. Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him. The patriarch is no sooner astir than the hosts of God are on the wing. They did not linger till Jacob had crossed the frontier, nor did they keep him waiting when he came to the appointed rendezvous; but they were there to the moment. When God means to deliver you, beloved, in the hour of danger, you will find the appointed force ready for your succour. Gods messengers are neither behind nor before their time; they will meet us to the inch and to the second in the time of need; therefore let us proceed without fear, like Jacob, going on our way even though an Esau with a band of desperadoes should block up the road.

5. Those forces of God, too, were all engaged personally to attend upon Jacob. I like to set forth this thought: Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him; he did not chance to fall in with them. They did not happen to be on the march, and so crossed the patriarchs track; no, no; he went on his way, and the angels of God met him with design and purpose. They came on purpose to meet him: they had no other appointment. Squadrons of angels marched to meet that one lone man He was a saint, but by no means a perfect one; we cannot help seeing many flaws in him, even upon a superficial glance at his life, and yet the angels of God met him. All came to wait upon Jacob, on that one man: The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear Him; but in this case it was to one man with his family of children that a host was sent. The man himself, the lone man who abode in covenant with God when all the rest of the world was given up to idols, was favoured by this mark of Divine favour. One delights to think that the angels should be willing, and even eager, troops of them, to meet one man. Are ye not well cared for, oh ye sons of the Most High!

6. Those forces, though in themselves invisible to the natural senses, are manifest to faith at certain times. There are times when the child of God is able to cry, like Jacob, The angels of God have met me. When do such seasons occur? Our Mahanaims occur at much the same time as that in which Jacob beheld this great sight. Jacob was entering upon a more separated life. He was leaving Laban and the school of all those tricks of bargaining and bartering which belong to the ungodly world. By a desperate stroke he cut himself clear of entanglements; but he must have felt lonely, and as one cast adrift. He missed all the associations of the old house of Mesopotamia, which, despite its annoyances, was his home. The angels come to congratulate him. Their presence said, You are come to this land to be a stranger and sojourner with God, as all your fathers were. We have, some of us, talked with Abraham, again and again, and we are now coming to smile on you. You recollect how we bade you good-bye that night, when you had a stone for your pillow at Bethel; now you have come back to the reserved inheritance, over which we are set as guardians, and we have come to salute you. Take up the nonconforming life without fear, for we are with you. Welcome I welcome I we are glad to receive you under our special care. Again, the reason why the angels met Jacob at that time was, doubtless, because he was surrounded with great cares. He had a large family of little children; and great flocks and herds and many servants were with him. Again, the Lords host appeared when Jacob felt a great dread. His brother Esau was coming to meet him armed to the teeth, and, as he feared, thirsty for his blood. In times when our danger is greatest, if we are real believers, we shall be specially under the Divine protection, and we shall know that it is so. This shall be our comfort in the hour of

distress. And, once again, when you and I, like Jacob, shall be near Jordan, when we shall just be passing into the better land, then is the time when we may expect to come to Mahanaim. The angels of God and the God of angels, both come to meet the spirits of the blessed in the solemn article of death.

7. Thus I have mentioned the time when these invisible forces become visible to faith; and there is no doubt whatever that they are sent for a purpose. Why were they sent to Jacob at this time? Perhaps the purpose was first to revive an ancient memory which had well-nigh slipped from him. I am afraid he had almost forgotten Bethel. Surely it must have brought his vow at Bethel to mind, the vow which he made unto the Lord when he saw the ladder, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon it. Here they were; they had left heaven and come down that they might hold communion with him. Mahanaim was granted to Jacob, not only to refresh his memory, but to lift him out of the ordinary low level of his life. Jacob, you know, the father of all the Jews, was great at huckstering: it was the very nature of him to drive bargains. Jacob had all his wits about him, and rather more than he should have had, well answering to his name of supplanter. He would let no one deceive him, and he was ready at all times to take advantage of those with whom he had any dealings. Here the Lord seems to say to him, O Jacob, My servant, rise out of this miserable way of dealing with Me, and be of a princely mind. Oh for grace to live according to our true position and character, not as poor dependents upon our own wits or upon the help of man, but as grandly independent of things seen, because our entire reliance is fixed upon the unseen and eternal. Believe as much in the invisible as in the visible, and act upon your faith. This seems to me to be Gods object in giving to any of His servants a clearer view of the powers which are engaged on their behalf. If such a special vision be granted to us, let us keep it in memory. Jacob called the name of that place Mahanaim. I wish we had some way in this western world, in these modern times, of naming places, and children, too, more sensibly. We must needs either borrow some antiquated title, as if we were too short of sense to make one for ourselves, or else our names are sheer nonsense, and mean nothing. Why not choose names which should commemorate our mercies? (C. H.Spurgeon.)

Gods host

I. THE PATH OF COMMON DUTIES IN DAILY LIFE IS THE BEST AND SUREST WAY TO HEAVENLY VISIONS. Jacobs track lay downward to the deep valley, and through its shadows to the fords of Jordan. So, if our life is led downward, through toil and care and sorrow, heaven may open as freely above it as on the hill-tops. All know how the proof of a soldier is given on the march as much as in battle; and it is so in common life. But in spiritual application there is a difference: the rewards of men are won only on the field; but our Divine Commander observes and honours equally those equally faithful in the daily march, in farm, or shop, or household, or in the shut-in camp of sickness those faithful in that which is least.

II. GODS CARE OVER THOSE THAT FEAR HIM.

III. GODS WAY OF APPEARING FOR MANS HELP. (W. H. Randall.)

Lessons

1. Labans departure and Jacobs progress are adjoining. Oppressors retreat and saints advance.

2. Gods servants are careful to move in their own way enjoined by God.

3. In their way commanded, God appoints His angels to meet them Psa_91:2; Psa_91:4). God with His angels appears to comfort His, after conflicts with their adversaries (verse 1).

5. God sometimes affords His visible helps unto visible troubles for His saints support.

6. Gods angels are Gods mighty host indeed, and that in the judgment of the saints.

7. Not single angels but troops God appoints for the guard of single saints.

8. Gods saints desire to call mercies by their right names. Gods angels are called Gods hosts.

9. It is proper to Gods saved ones, to leave memorials of Gods strength in saving them (verse 2). (G. Hughes, B. D.)

Mahanaim

I cannot tell, for Scripture says not, in what form they appeared, or by what sign Jacob recognized them. It is perhaps in the most general view of the passage that its truest comfort lies. It matters not to us what the Patriarchs thought or knew of the ministry of angels, so long as we ourselves recognize the true place of that ministry in the economy of God. In its simplicity, the angelic office is a doctrine of revelation. There are beings beside and (for the present) above man; beings, like him, intelligent, rational, spiritual; beings capable, like him, of knowing, loving, and communing with God; beings, unlike him, pure from the stain of sintried once, as all moral natures must be tried, by the alternative of loyalty or self-pleasingyet faithful among the faithless through that great ordeal, and now for ever secured by the seal of that holiness which they have chosen. Man is not yet, save in one single aspect, the head and the chief of all Gods creation. In the person of the God-Man he has the pledge indeed that one day he shall be so. But as yet, when the eye of faith looks upward through the infinite space, it discerns essences in all things equal to the human, and in their sinlessness superior; it sees those who in heavens primeval warfare sided with God and conqueredleft not their original estate, nor despised their first habitation. The existence of a nature purer than mans, more refined in its enjoyments and more elevated in its converse, presents no practical difficulty to the thoughtful. We find nothing but refreshment and nothing but encouragement in the belief that above as well as beneath us are beings performing perfectly the law of their creation; spirits that see Gods face, as well as animals instinctively true to Gods order. Man only mars the sweet accord: higher existences have not fallen, lower existences could not fall. If for man God has provided a redemption, then may there be in the end a restoration of that original perfection in which God saw everything that He had made, and, behold, it was very good. That contrast which shames shall also comfort. But how much more when we read in the sure word of revelation that there exists even now a society and a fellowship between the sinless and the fallen! As man goes on his way, the angels of God meet him. In all his ways they have charge of him, that he dash not his foot against a stone. That which God has done for man, angels desire to look into. Angels are ministering spirits, sent forth to minister to the heirs of salvation. Angels spend not their immortal age in abject prostration, or in delicious

dreamy contemplation: rather do they excel in strength, doing Gods commandments, hearkening (for obedience sake) to the voice of Gods Word. When God spake to man from a material mountain, His holy ones were around Him: The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels; and the Lord is among them, as in the holy place of Sinai. Theirs were those wondrous utterances, which Israel took for the voice of the trumpet, sounding long, and waxing louder and louder; theirs those fearful manifestations of blinding smoke and consuming fire, amidst which the Lord descended, while all the people that was in the camp trembled; theirs, it may be, the hewing and the graving of those tables of stone, on which were written, as by Gods finger, the words of His first testimony. The law was ordained by angels; the law was given by the disposition of angels; the word spoken by angels was steadfast. And if even that temporary, that parenthetical dispensation was thus introduced by the ministry of angels; if mans recovery was dear to them, even in its earlier and more imperfect stages, while he was but learning his lesson of weakness, and heaving his first sighs after forgiveness and sanctificationwell can we understand how they might herald a Saviours birth, and soothe a Saviours sorrows; strengthen Him in His agony, and minister in His tomb; proclaim His resurrection, predict His advent, and greet at the everlasting doors the return of the King of glory. Not even there, nor then, did their ministry terminate. He Himself has told us how in heaven, in the presence of the angels of God, there is joy still over each sinner that repenteth; how His little ones below, His weak and tempted disciples, have their angels ever in heaven, beholding the face of His Father; how angels carry dying saints into Abrahams bosom; and how, in the last great crisis of the worlds harvest, it is they who shall execute the reapers office, gather together His elect from the four winds, and gather also out of His kingdom all things that offend. Wheresoever there is a work to be done as between God and man, there is the great ladder still reared, and the angels of God are ascending and descending by it. Ministering spirits are they still; and mans best wish for himself is that he may at last be enabled to do as well as to suffer Gods will, even as they, the inmates of heaven, have from the beginning borne and done it. Thy will be done, he prays, as in heaven, so on earth. Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him. We know not how extensive, and we know not how minute, may be that ministration even in the things that are seen. We know not what angelic workings may be concealed behind the phenomena of nature, or latent in the accidents and the escapes of human life. We know not how, in seasons of mortal weakness or of fiendish temptation, we may be indebted to their instrumentality for the reviving courage or the resisting strength. We dare not say but that even the indwelling Spirit may avail Himself of their ministry to assist or to protect, to invigorate or to reanimate. This we knowfor the Word of God has told usthat one portion of that holy communion and fellowship to which the citizen of the heavenly Jerusalem has come, not only in hope, but in present union and incorporation, is an innumerable company of angels. I read not these words as glimpses only of a glorious future, but as expressive of a present trust and a practical help and aid. The sympathy of angels is one of the Christians privileges. Are there any special ways in which we may recognize and use this sympathy? As we go on our way, can we in any special manner hope to meet the angels?

1. An apostle speaks of entertaining angels unawares. He says that the duty of hospitality may be exercised in this remembrancethereby some have entertained angels. It is so still. The angelic office is discharged sometimes in human form. Let us count common life a ministry: let us, in common life, be on the look-out for angels!

2. And more especially, in the exercise of a vigilant self-control, lest we harm or tempt. Our Saviour Himself has warned us of the presence of the angels as a reason for not offendingthat is, for not thwarting and not temptingHis little ones.

Beware, careless parent! beware, sinful brother! beware, false friend! That child, that boy, that youth, has his angel, and the home of that angel is the heaven of God l (Dean Vaughan.)

Gods host always near

We who live in this matter-of-fact and mechanical age are apt to think that it was a wrapt and wondrous life which the patriarch led in that old time, when he could meet Gods host among the hills, and could see convoys of bright angels like the burning clouds of sunset hovering round him in the solitudes of the mountains. But Gods host is always nearer than we are apt to suppose in the dark hours of trial and conflict. The angels have not yet forsaken the earth, nor have they ceased to protect the homes and journeys of good men. Heaven and earth are nearer each other now than they were when Jacob saw Gods host in the broad day and Abraham entertained the Divine messengers under the shadow of the oak at noon. The spiritual world is all around us, and its living inhabitants are our fellow-servants and companions in all our work for God and for our own salvation. The inhabitants of heaven find more friends and acquaintances on earth now than they did in former times. It is not from any want of interest in the affairs of men that they do not now meet us in the daily walks of life or speak to us in the dreams of the night. If we do not see angels come and take us by the hand and lead us out of danger, as they led Lot out of Sodom, it is not because they have ceased to come, or because they fail to guard us when we need protection. We must not think that God was more interested in the world in ancient times, when He spoke by miracles and prophets and apostles, than He is now when He speaks by His written word and by His holy providence. The heart of the Infinite Father never yearned toward His earthly children with a deeper or more tender compassion than now. There never was a time when God was doing more to govern, to instruct, and to save the world than He is doing now. To those who look for Him the tokens of His presence are manifest everywhere; the voice of His providence is in every wind; every path of life is covered with the overshadowings of His glory. To the devout mind this world, which has been consecrated by the sacrificial blood of the cross, is only the outer court of the everlasting temple in which God sits enthroned, with the worshipping hosts of the blessed around Him. We need only a pure heart to see God as much in the world now as He was when He talked with men face to face. He speaks in all the discoveries of science, in all the inventions of heart, in all the progress of the centuries, in everything which enriches life and enlarges the resources of men. All the great conflicts and agitations of society prove that God is on the field. We need only add the faith of the patriarchs to the science of the philosophers, and we shall find Bethels in the city and in the solitude, Mahanaims in every days march in the journey of life (D. March, D. D.)

Angelic ministration

I did not see, early in the morning, the flight of all those birds that filled all the bushes and all the orchard trees, but they were there, though I did not see their coming, and heard their songs afterwards. It does not matter whether you have ministered to you yet those perceptions by which you perceive angelic existence. The fact that we want to bear in mind is, that we are environed by them, that we move in their midst. How, where, what the philosophy is, whether it be spiritual philosophy, no man can tell, and they least that think they know most about it. The fact which we prize and lay hold of is this,

that angelic ministration is a part, not of the heavenly state, but of the universal condition of men, and that as soon as we become Christs we come not to the home of the living God, but to the innumerable company of angels. (H. W.Beecher.)

Angels on the path of life

Though no vision is vouchsafed to our mortal eyes, yet angels of God are with us oftener than we know, and to the pure heart every home is a Bethel, and every path of life a Penuel and a Mahanaim. In the outer world and the inner world, we see and meet continually these messengers of God. Wrestle with them in faith and prayer they are angels with hands full of immortal gifts; to those who neglect or use them ill they are angels with drawn sword and scathing flame.

I. The earliest angel is the angel of youth. Do not think that you can retain him long. Use, as wise stewards, this blessed portion of your lives. Remember that as your faces are setting into the look which they shall wear in later years, so is it with your lives.

II. Next is the angel of innocent pleasure. Trifle not with this angel. Remember that in heathen mythology the Lord of Pleasure is also the God of Death. Guilty pleasure there is; guilty happiness there is not on earth.

III. There are the angels of time and opportunity. They are with us now, and we may unclench from their conquered hands garlands of immortal flowers. Hallow each new day in your morning prayer, for prayer, too, is an angelan angel who can turn pollution into purity, sinners into penitents, and penitents into saints.

IV. There is one angel with whom we must wrestle whether we will or no, and whose power of curse or blessing we cannot alterthe angel of death. (Archdeacon Farrar.)

EBC, "JACOB AT PENIEL

"Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up." Jas_4:10

JACOB had a double reason for wishing to leave Padan-aram. He believed in the promise of God to give him Canaan: and he saw that Laban was a man with whom he could never be on a thoroughly good understanding. He saw plainly that Laban was resolved to make what he could out of his skill at as cheap a rate as possible-the characteristic of a selfish, greedy, ungrateful, and therefore, in the end, ill-served master. Laban and Esau were the two men who had hitherto chiefly influenced Jacobs life. But they were very different in character. Esau could never see that there was any important difference between himself and Jacob-except that his brother was trickier. Esau was the type of those who honestly think that there is not much in religion, and that saints are but white-washed sinners. Laban, on the contrary, is almost superstitiously impressed by the distinction between Gods people and others. But the chief practical, issue of this impression is, not that he seeks Gods friendship for himself, but that he tries to make a profitable use of Gods friends. He seeks to get Gods blessing, as it were, at secondhand. If men could be related to God indirectly, as if in law and not by blood, that would suit Laban. If God would admit men to his inheritance on any other terms than being sons in the direct line, if there were some relationship once removed, a kind of sons-in-law, so that mere connection with the godly, though not with God, would win His blessing, this would suit Laban.

Laban is the man who appreciates the social value of virtue, truthfulness, fidelity,

temperance, godliness, but wishes to enjoy their fruits without the pain of cultivating the qualities themselves. He is scrupulous as to the character of those he takes into his employment, and seeks to connect himself in business with good men. In his domestic life he acts on the idea which his experience has suggested to him, that persons really godly will make his home more peaceful, better regulated, safer than otherwise it might be. If he holds a position of authority, he knows how to make use, for the preservation of order and for the promotion of his own ends, of the voluntary efforts of Christian societies, of the trustworthiness of Christian officials, and of the support of the Christian community. But with all this recognition of the reality and influence of godliness, he never for one moment entertains the idea of himself becoming a godly man. In all ages there are Labans, who clearly recognise the utility and worth of a connection with God, who have been much mixed up with persons in whom that worth was very conspicuous, and who yet, at the last, "depart and return unto their place," like Jacobs father-in-law, without having themselves entered into any affectionate relations with God.

From Laban, then, Jacob was resolved to escape. And though to escape with large droves of slow-moving sheep and cattle, as well as with many women and children, seemed hopeless, the cleverness of Jacob did not fail him here. He did not get beyond reach of pursuit; he could never have expected to do so. But he stole away to such a distance from Haran as made it much easier for him to come to terms with Laban, and much more difficult for Laban to try any further device for detaining him.

But, delivered as he was from Laban, he had an even more formidable person to deal with, As soon as Labans company disappear on the northern horizon, Jacob sends messengers south to sound Esau. His message is so contrived as to beget the idea in Esaus mind that his younger brother is a person of some importance, and yet is prepared to show greater deference to himself than formerly. But the answer brought back by the messengers is the curt and haughty despatch of the man of war to the man of peace. No notice is taken of Jacobs vaunted wealth. No proposal of terms as if Esau had an equal to deal with, is carried back. There is only the startling announcement: "Esau cometh to meet thee, and four hundred men with him." Jacob at once recognises the significance of this armed advance on Esaus part. Esau has not forgotten the wrong he suffered at Jacobs hands, and he means to show him that he is entirely in his power.

Therefore was Jacob "greatly afraid and distressed." The joy with which, a few days ago, he had greeted the host of God, was quite overcast by the tidings brought him regarding the host of Esau. Things heavenly do always look so like a mere show; visits of angels seem so delusive and fleeting; the exhibition of the powers of heaven seems so often but as a tournament painted on the sky, and so unavailable for the stern encounters that await us on earth, that one seems, even after the most impressive of such displays, to be left to fight on alone. No wonder Jacob is disturbed. His wives and dependants gather round him in dismay; the children, catching the infectious panic, cower with cries and weeping about their mothers; the whole camp is rudely shaken out of its brief truce by the news of this rough Esau, whose impetuosity and warlike ways they had all heard of and were now to experience. The accounts of the messengers would no doubt grow in alarming descriptive detail as they saw how much importance was attached to their words. Their accounts would also be exaggerated by their own unwarlike nature, and by the indistinctness with which they had made out the temper of Esaus followers, and the novelty of the equipments of war they had seen in his camp. Could we have been surprised had Jacob turned and fled when thus he was made to picture the troops of Esau sweeping from his grasp all he had so laboriously earned, and snatching the promised inheritance from him when in the very act of entering on possession? But though in fancy he already hears their rude shouts of triumph as they fall upon his

defenceless band, and already sees the merciless horde dividing the spoil with shouts of derision and coarse triumph, and though all around him are clamouring to be led into a safe retreat, Jacob sees stretched before him the land that is his, and resolves that, by Gods help, he shall win it. What he does is not the act of a man rendered incompetent through fear, but of one who has recovered from the first shock of alarm and has all his wits about him. He disposes his household and followers in two companies, so that each might advance with the hope that it might be the one which should not meet Esau; and having done all that his circumstances permit, he commends himself to God in prayer.

After Jacob had prayed to God, a happy thought strikes him, which he at once puts in execution. Anticipating the experience of Solomon, that "a brother offended is harder to be won than a strong city," he, in the style of a skilled tactician, lays siege to Esaus wrath, and directs against it train after train of gifts, which, like successive battalions pouring into a breach, might at length quite win his brother. This disposition of his peaceful battering trains having occupied him till sunset, he retires to the short rest of a general on the eve of battle. As soon as he judges that the weaker members of the camp are refreshed enough to begin their eventful march, he rises and goes from tent to tent awaking the sleepers, and quickly forming them into their usual line of march, sends them over the brook in the darkness, and himself is left alone, not with the depression of a man who waits for the inevitable, but with the high spirits of intense activity, and with the return of the old complacent confidence of his own superiority to his powerful but sluggish-minded brother-a confidence regained now by the certainty he felt, at least for the time, that Esaus rage could not blaze through all the relays of gifts he had sent forward. Having in this spirit seen all his camp across the brook, he himself pauses for a moment; end looks with interest at the stream before him, and at the promised land on its southern bank. This stream, too, has an interest for him as bearing a name like his own-a name that signifies the "struggler," and was given to the mountain torrent from the pain and difficulty with which it seemed to find its way through the hills. Sitting on the bank of the stream, he sees gleaming through the darkness the foam that it churned as it writhed through the obstructing rocks, or heard through the night the roar of its torrent as it leapt downwards, tortuously finding its way towards Jordan; and Jacob says, So will I, opposed though I be, win my way, by the circuitous routes of craft or by the impetuous rush of courage, into the land whither that stream is going. With compressed lips,