Gen. xxxii. 26. And he said, I will not let thee go, except
thou bless me.
SOME have thought that the circumstances here recorded were a mere vision ; and others a reality : but they seem to have been neither the one nor the other ; but a real transaction under a figurative re- presentation. The " wrestling" was not a corporeal trial of strength between two men, but a spiritual exercise of Jacob with his God under the form of an angel or a man. That it was not a mere man who withstood Jacob, is clear, from his being expressly called " God," and from his taking upon him offices which none but God could perform3. And that it was a spiritual, and not a corporeal, exercise on the part of Jacob, is evident, from what the prophet Hosea says respecting it ; " By his strength Jacob had power with God ; yea, he had power over the Angel, and prevailed : he wept, and made supplication unto him\" Such manifestations of God under the 8 ver. 29, 30. b Hos. xii. 3, 4.
angelic or human form were not uncommon in the earlier parts of the Jewish history : and it is generally thought, that the Lord Jesus Christ was the person who assumed these appearances ; and that he did so in order to prepare his people for his actual assump- tion of our nature at the time appointed of the Father. His appearance to Jacob at this time was for the purpose of comforting him under the distress- ing apprehensions which he felt on account of his brother Esau, who was " coining with four hundred men" to destroy himc. Jacob used the best means he could devise to pacify his brother, and to preserve as many as he could of his family, in case a part of them should be slain. But he was not satisfied with any expedients which he could use. He well knew, that none but God could afford him any effectual succour: he therefore "remained alone" all the night, that he might spread his wants and fears before God, and implore help from him. On this occasion God appeared to him in the shape and form of a man, and apparently withstood him till the break of day. Then the person would have departed from him : but Jacob would not suffer him; but held him fast, as it were, saying, " I will not let thee go, except thou bless me."
From these words I shall take occasion to shew,
I. The constituents of acceptable prayer —
These are beautifully displayed in the prayer of Jacob :
1. A renunciation of all dependence on ourselves —
[With this acknowledgment Jacob began his prayer: " O God of my father Abraham, I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies and of all the truth which thou hast shewed unto thy servant'1." And such is the feeling that must influence our hearts whensoever we attempt to draw nigh to God. If we think ourselves deserving of the divine favour, not one word can we utter with becoming humility ; nor have we the smallest prospect of acceptance with God : " The hungry he will fill with good things ; but the rich he will send empty away e." It is "he who humbleth himself, and he alone, that shall ever be exalted." In this respect the returning prodigal is a pattern
c ver. 6,7. d ver. 10. e Luke i. 53.