Hello, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #9 of Genesis 32, and we are going to read Genesis 32:22-23:

And he rose up that night, and took his two wives, and his two womenservants, and his eleven sons, and passed over the ford Jabbok. And he took them, and sent them over the brook, and sent over that he had.

I will stop reading there.  As we spent some time discussing last time, the river Jabbok identifies with  the Ammonites, and the children of Ammon identify with the Law of God, just as do Moab and Edom.

Here, Jacob, his family, and flocks have come out of Haran, and we have talked about how he is leaving the kingdom of Satan, and he is on his way to Canaan, the Promised Land, but in order to reach the land of Canaan, one must follow the Law of God.  (I kind of mixed some spiritual understanding with some historical things, and that could be confusing.)  But he is on his way to the land of Canaan, and he is going by way of Ammon as he and his family cross over this river Jabbok, and the land of Canaan points to the kingdom of heaven, just as God’s people are sojourning in this world on their way to the Promised Land of the kingdom of God, and in order to get there, we must follow the Law of God.  Remember that Bible verse we looked at back in Deuteronomy 1 when we looked at mount Seir as a picture of the Law?  It said in Deuteronomy 1:2:

(There are eleven days' journey from Horeb by the way of mount Seir unto Kadeshbarnea.)

The Law of God is given, and the 11 days directs us all the way back to the Garden of Eden when God first gave the Law regarding the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  So there are 11,000 years from mount Seir unto Kadeshbarnea, the place the spies first entered into the Promised Land to spy it out.  That identifies with the kingdom of God, and with the Lord Jesus Christ’s atoning work that was demonstrated at the cross after 11,000 years.  But we should observe that the 11,000 years from the giving of the Law until we come to the kingdom of God, and it is by the way of mount Seir.  And mount Seir identifies with Sinai, and here, with Horeb.  So God is saying that the way that will take you to the Promised Land (Kadeshbarnea) is laid out in the Word of God; the Law of God, the Bible, will direct your path to that glorious kingdom of heaven.  This is also why the Lord Jesus say in John 14:2-6:

In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know. Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way? Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

Jesus said, “I am the way,” and Jesus is the Word made flesh.  You see, the Word, which is the Law of God, is the way to glory.  It is the way to the Father’s house, the kingdom of God.  In other words, it is the Bible that will bring faith, as faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God during the proper time and season within the boundaries of the “day of salvation.”  That is what delivered a person from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of God’s dear Son.  But it is also the Bible that will enlighten the path before the elect sinner, directing his course: “This is the next step to take.  This is the narrow way to follow.  You follow the things that I have said in my Word.”  Christ is the way, so our lives are directed by the Law of God.  We live according to God’s Laws.  We show love to God.  He has given us His Spirit, and that gives us the ability to keep His Law.  As we are following the pathway of the Law obediently, we are showing forth love toward the Lord Jesus Christ.

Let us go back to Genesis 3 when the Law was first given, and then broken.  After Adam and Eve covered themselves with fig leaves, trying to cover their spiritual nakedness before God, then God gives us this information at the end of the chapter, in Genesis 3:22-24:

And JEHOVAH God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: Therefore JEHOVAH God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.

The Cherubims are a representation of God Himself, and “flaming” has to do with God’s wrath against sin, and the “sword” is the Law or the Word of God.  It is the “flaming Law” because it is the Law that condemns the sinner for transgressing the commandments, and the sentence is death: “For the wages of sin is death.”  So the flaming sword would slay anyone seeking to go the way of the tree of life, and the tree of life is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ and the eternal life that God gives His people through the Lord Jesus Christ.  So it is really saying that the way to eternal life is through the wrath of God, and the wrath of God has to do with vengeance of the Law, as the Law was “married” to mankind.  Mankind has adulterated that spiritual marriage between himself and the Law by transgressing or going astray from the Law.  So in the Day of Judgment, the vengeance of the man is the vengeance of the Law of God, and it is necessary to go through the “flaming sword,” the wrath of the Law of God, in order to reach the tree of life.  That is the way.

Here, Jacob has taken his wives and children, which typify the elect of God, and he is crossing over the ford Jabbok into Ammon, which identifies with the Law, but they are not going to stay there.  It is not their intention to dwell in Ammon or inhabit Ammon (or Moab, or Edom).  God would forbid that.  But it is their intention to go through it to reach their destination, which is that Promised Land that God has given to Abraham and his seed after him.  So that is the way to the kingdom of God, just as the people of God that are alive and remaining on the earth in our day are seeking to enter into the kingdom of God.  We already have done so in our soul, but we want this for our “whole personality.”  We want to be taken to that glorious kingdom and live for evermore.  So in our time period, which is Judgment Day, it is as though we are going through the “flaming sword,” the wrath of God and the wrath of the Word of God.  The Word will judge in the last day, as John 12:48 tells us.  The Word is the Law, so the Law is judging mankind in this time period, and we, God’s elect, have to go through it.  We have to travel through this prolonged Judgment Day period, and he who endures to the end shall be saved.

But who can endure the flaming sword of the wrath of God?  Only God’s elect can endure because the Lord Jesus has paid for our sins, so we have no actual sin upon us, and the flaming sword will not slay us.  But it is “the way” we have to travel, and we continually turn to the Bible, the Law of God, to find our way.  “What do we do next?  What should we do, Lord?”  Then the Lord opens up His Word at this time of the end to reveal the things that instruct and guide us.

Let us go back to Genesis 32, and we will move on to a very interesting passage.  It says in Genesis 32:24-32:

And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him. And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me. And he said unto him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob. And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed. And Jacob asked him, and said, Tell me, I pray thee, thy name. And he said, Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name? And he blessed him there. And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved. And as he passed over Penuel the sun rose upon him, and he halted upon his thigh. Therefore the children of Israel eat not of the sinew which shrank, which is upon the hollow of the thigh, unto this day: because he touched the hollow of Jacob's thigh in the sinew that shrank.

This brings us to the end of the chapter.  We read this strange encounter.  Jacob had just sent his family over the ford Jabbok, and he was left alone.  Then all of a sudden we are told that there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day.  And this “man” was not a man, but God.  Of course the Lord Jesus was a man, so it could have been the Lord Jesus Christ, but the Lord Jesus Christ is God.  And we know that Jacob was wrestling with God because of what we read in verse 30: “And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.”  So he recognized that the man he wrestled with is God, and he saw him face to face.  It is very unusual, and very unusual that it is happening at this time, plus the fact that he wrestled with God. 

The Hebrew word translated as “wrestled” is Strong’s #79, and it is found twice in this passage, but it is only used here.  It comes from a related, Strong’s #80, and that word is found six times.  But I do not know how much that helps us because in all six instances where this related Hebrew word is used, it is translated as “dust” or “small dust.”  One thing that is helpful is that in all six of the places it is translated as “dust” or “small dust,” judgment seems to be in view, so that would tie together the idea of God wrestling with Jacob.  Maybe the translators saw that these two words were related, and they are very closely related because they have identical consonants, and that means they are the same Hebrew word.  It is just the vowel pointing that is slightly different.  Strong’s #79, which is translated as “wrestled,” has a strong “a” sound, and then a minor “a” sound, with the vowel pointing, while Strong’s #80 has two strong “a” sounds, or alpha sounds, so these words are about as close as they can get.  So the word “dust” or “small dust” would seem to have something to do with wrestling.  When we think of wrestling, we do think of being thrown to the ground, as one man that wrestles with another throws the man to the ground and gets on top of him, so the dust of the ground would come into view.  But this is not the same word for “dust” when we read that God made Adam of the dust of the ground.  That is a different word, and we will take a look at some of the places this word is used, but right now I just want to go over a few things, and then we will be better prepared to go into this passage in our next Bible study.

So that could be where the translators got the idea of wrestling.  Here is a man, and he has something to do with the “dust,” so they must be wrestling on the ground.  Anyway, we know that God allowed it, so this is the understanding that we can go with.  It is not a problem.  It will actually fit into the spiritual meaning of this passage, and I think the Lord will open up some of the truths that are here, and this would be an important truth for our time – God was wrestling with Jacob until the breaking of the day.  And that is something else to look into, as the “breaking of the day” is found in Genesis 19:15:

And when the morning arose, then the angels hastened Lot, saying, Arise, take thy wife, and thy two daughters, which are here; lest thou be consumed in the iniquity of the city.

The translation “morning arose” is a translation of the same two words.  Here, God was about to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah.  When the morning arose, it was the day of destruction (judgment) for Sodom and Gomorrah.  And there are other Bible verses that would connect the two words translated as “breaking of the day” to the wrath of God and judgment.  In one place, it is judgment on the churches, and in another place, it is judgment on the world.  But when we read, “there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day,” then we read that this man, who is God, said in verse 26: “Let me go, for the day breaketh.”  So God was telling Jacob to let Him go because it is time for judgment, as the day breaketh.  And Jacob said, “I will not let thee go unless thou bless me.”  And Jacob is holding on “for dear life,” if you have ever heard that expression, and it would really apply.  Jacob is holding on “for dear life,” and he will not let God go, except that God bless him.

And then there is the name change, and this is a major moment in biblical history.  This is a big deal that God changed Jacob’s name to “Israel,” telling him, “for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.”  This was the first time Israel is mentioned in the Bible.  We have not found this word used in the previous 31 chapters because this is the instant in which God is calling Jacob “Israel.”  And if you look in the concordance, there are hundreds and hundreds of references to “Israel,” in the Old Testament and the New Testament, and we will try to spend some time looking at that. 

And also we will look at the “timing” of this, as it was 1907 B. C. when “Israel” came into existence, in the sense that there was no name “Israel” prior to this.  You know, there is always the question, “When do we date Old Testament Israel?  Do we go back to Abraham, and at what point would it be in Abraham’s life?  Was it when God came to him and gave him the promise, or was it the birth of Isaac?”  But this is a significant date for Israel as a nation or people, as Jacob became “Israel,” and his sons became the children of Israel.  Prior to this, they were the children of Jacob, but now they are the children of Israel.

When we read of Jacob calling the place “Peniel,” Strong’s #6439, we also read in verse 31 that he passed over “Penuel,” which is also #6439.  They are identical words, so I am not sure why the King James translators translated as “Peniel” in  verse 30, and it is the only verse in the Bible where it is spelled this way.  And yet, it is the identical word translated as “Penuel” in verse 31, and when you find reference to Penuel elsewhere, it has the “u,” so it is a mystery, although it is not all that important.

Finally, we are then told, “Therefore the children of Israel eat not of the sinew which shrank, which is upon the hollow of the thigh, unto this day.”  And the word “hollow” is an interesting word because it is translated as “hand,” or “hands,” and it is also translated as “sole,” regarding the sole of the foot.  It is also translated as “spoon,” and that is the translation that helped me to understand what this word means.  A spoon has that “hollowed out” section, which allows you to scoop the soup and get it to your mouth.  It is the same thing with the hand, as this word is also translated as “palm.”  If you open up your hand, there is a place where things can be placed in your hands.  You could hold some raisins in your hand because there is a “hollow” section, and in the sole of the foot, we would probably call it the “arch,” where there is that little hollow at the sole of the foot.  So I can understand why the translators translated this word as “hollow,” as it says, “Therefore the children of Israel eat not of the sinew which shrank, which is upon the hollow of the thigh, unto this day: because he touched the hollow of Jacob's thigh in the sinew that shrank.”  From this point forward, Jacob will walk with a limp.  He is “halt.”  That is what we are told in verse 31: “…he halted upon his thigh.”  He met God face to face, and he wrestled with God.  God touched the hollow of his thigh, and the sinew shrank, causing him to be lame, in a way.  He would walk with a limp for the rest of his life – he halted upon his thigh.

And that brings us to the end of the chapter.  We are very curious.  What is going on?  What is this all about?  What is the spiritual meaning?  The historical meaning is very odd, and it is a curiosity, but that does not help us.  It is the spiritual meaning that will provide help to our soul.