Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis. Tonight is study #10 of Genesis 32, and we are going to read Genesis 32:24-26:
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.
I will stop reading there. We know that Jacob was 100 years at that point in time, and he had been having dealings with God for quite a number of years. And yet, something is different as we read this account. Suddenly Jacob found himself in a wrestling match with God, and he is all alone. It is just him and this “man.” It does say, “…there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day.” But we should not think that some stranger just happened to come along and grabbed him and started wrestling with him. This “man” is God, and we are told that in Genesis 32:30:
And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.
So the “man” is God, and Jacob has seen God face to face, and he wrestled with Him: “…and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day.” But before we look at some of those words, let us first look at the first part of the verse where we read, “And Jacob was left alone.” The word “left” is Strong’s #3498 in the Hebrew Concordance, and it is translated that way a few times. We find this word in Ezekiel 6:8:
Yet will I leave a remnant, that ye may have some that shall escape the sword among the nations, when ye shall be scattered through the countries.
Also, it says in Ezekiel 14:22:
Yet, behold, therein shall be left a remnant that shall be brought forth, both sons and daughters: behold, they shall come forth unto you, and ye shall see their way and their doings: and ye shall be comforted concerning the evil that I have brought upon Jerusalem, even concerning all that I have brought upon it.
Therein shall be left a remnant. In both of these verses, this word is related to the “remnant,” and the remnant are God’s elect, the few.
We also find this same word a couple of times in Zechariah. (It is found in other places too, but these are the ones we are going to go to.) It says in Zechariah 13:8:
And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith JEHOVAH, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein.
The “third part” also identifies with God’s elect.
The other verse is in Zechariah 14:16:
And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem…
That is, the nations came against Jerusalem, but those that were left of them would be the remnant in the nations. Again, it says in Zechariah 14:16:
And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, JEHOVAH of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles.
Again, this is telling us that God’s elect will keep the feast of Tabernacles in the spiritual sense in this end-time fulfilling of this feast, which is over the course of 40 years, according to what we can see in the Bible. It goes from 1994, a Jubilee year, to the year 2033.
So when we are looking at this passage that starts out by telling us that Jacob was left alone, I think we are guided by the use of this word “left,” and we can see Jacob as a type of the elect. Of course we know he is used in that way often in the Bible, but we have been seeing him used as a type of Christ.
But here, Jacob was left alone, and God tells us concerning His election program in Romans 9: “Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.” So, again, it would appear the elect are in view, the body of Christ, so Christ is always in view, even when the elect are in view.
It goes on to say in Genesis 32:24:
… and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day.
I mentioned in our last study that the word “wrestled” is Strong’s #79, and it is found two times in the Bible, and both times are in this passage. So that does not help us too much, but #79 is related to #80, and they have identical consonants and very similar vowel pointing, which is only slightly different. It is translated six times as “dust” or “small dust.” Let us go to Exodus 9 where it refers to handfuls of ashes from the furnace that Moses was to sprinkle, and it says in Exodus 9:9:
And it shall become small dust in all the land of Egypt, and shall be a boil breaking forth with blains upon man, and upon beast, throughout all the land of Egypt.
This is describing one of the plagues that God sent upon the Egyptians, and each of the plagues would identify with the wrath of God. God was bringing judgment on Egypt.
Also, it says in Deuteronomy 28:24:
JEHOVAH shall make the rain of thy land powder and dust: from heaven shall it come down upon thee, until thou be destroyed.
Again, this verse has to do with the pronouncement of God’s judgment upon a rebellious people. It is describing the wrath of God, which would spiritually be fulfilled with the judgment that began at the “house of God,” the corporate church.
This word is used only six times, and we will not go to all of them, but look it up, and you will see that it is used in connection with wrath and judgment.
Another place it is found is in Isaiah 5:24:
Therefore as the fire devoureth the stubble, and the flame consumeth the chaff, so their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust: because they have cast away the law of JEHOVAH of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.
This is another verse that is clearly identified with God’s judgment and wrath.
We will turn to one more example in Nahum 1:3:
JEHOVAH is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked: JEHOVAH hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.
Again, the word “dust” is used in relationship to whirlwind and storm, describing the wrath of God.
So what does this tell us? It is difficult to draw the connection between this “man” wrestling with Jacob, and the word “dust.” As you can see, it really does not have to do with the “dust of the ground,” but it has to do with “dust” in relationship to God’s judgment. I think that is one thing we can safely take away. We do not have to define “wrestling,” although we can understand them to be wrestling, but based on the related word that is identical as far as their consonants, and which has to do with God pouring out His judgment, we can understand that what is happening here has something to do with the judgment or wrath of God. And Jacob was left alone. He is this “remnant.” He is all by himself, and there he wrestled a “man,” and we know the man was God.
God wrestled with him, and it had to do with the wrath of God “until the breaking of the day,” and this phrase will confirm that it does have to do with the wrath of God. And this is repeated in Genesis 32:25-26:
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.
God was wrestling with Jacob, and He said to Jacob, “Let me go, for the day breaketh.” Jacob refused, and he said, “I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.” So there must be something very important about the “breaking of the day.” The wrestling continued until the breaking of the day, but when the day was breaking, God said to Jacob, “Let me go.” God did not want to continue the wrestling match into the breaking of the day, but He was willing to wrestle him until that point, but He did not want to wrestle with him past that point. That is apparently what was going on, and this makes us very interested. What does this “breaking of the day” refer to? And the same Hebrew word is translated as “breaking” and as “breaketh,” and we find it with “day.” The word “day” is not the typical Hebrew word for day, which is “yôm,” #3117 in the concordance, and it is found hundreds of times. This is a different word, and it is used here, as well as in Genesis 19:12-16:
And the men said unto Lot, Hast thou here any besides? son in law, and thy sons, and thy daughters, and whatsoever thou hast in the city, bring them out of this place: For we will destroy this place, because the cry of them is waxen great before the face of JEHOVAH; and JEHOVAH hath sent us to destroy it. And Lot went out, and spake unto his sons in law, which married his daughters, and said, Up, get you out of this place; for JEHOVAH will destroy this city. But he seemed as one that mocked unto his sons in law. 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. And while he lingered, the men laid hold upon his hand, and upon the hand of his wife, and upon the hand of his two daughters; JEHOVAH being merciful unto him: and they brought him forth, and set him without the city.
Again, we know this is the chapter where God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities of the plain, and it is about to happen. God had entered into the gates of Sodom, and Lot met them and took them into his house. Then the wicked men of the city wanted “to know” them. And now this is the point where the fire and brimstone are about to fall from heaven, and the “angels” are hastening Lot to get out of the city and to take his wife and two daughters. But Lot lingered, so they took hold of his hand, which represents the will, and they brought him forth out of the city, God being merciful to him. That is a picture of God’s salvation. They came out of the city, and they fled to the little city of Zoar. The Lord waited for them to enter into that city before He rained down fire and brimstone from heaven. So when the morning arose, it brought judgment day and the wrath of God, and when the “day breaketh, that was what it brought forth.
If we go to Joshua 6, we read of the account of Joshua and the Israelites going around the city of Jericho. We read in Joshua 6:12-15:
And Joshua rose early in the morning, and the priests took up the ark of JEHOVAH. And seven priests bearing seven trumpets of rams' horns before the ark of JEHOVAH went on continually, and blew with the trumpets: and the armed men went before them; but the rereward came after the ark of JEHOVAH, the priests going on, and blowing with the trumpets. And the second day they compassed the city once, and returned into the camp: so they did six days. And it came to pass on the seventh day, that they rose early about the dawning of the day, and compassed the city after the same manner seven times: only on that day they compassed the city seven times.
The words translated as “dawning of the day,” are a translation of the same two words as “morning arose” in Genesis 19, and the “day breaketh” in Genesis 32. Then it goes on to say in Joshua 6:16:
And it came to pass at the seventh time, when the priests blew with the trumpets, Joshua said unto the people, Shout; for JEHOVAH hath given you the city.
We know what happened next. The walls of Jericho fell down, and the Israelites easily defeated the inhabitants of Jericho, except for Rahab and her family. The significant thing is that they went around the city once for six days, totaling six times, and on the seventh day, they went around seven times, so the sum total would be 13 times around the city. Then after 13 times around Jericho, the walls fell down, and that happened the same day that “…they rose early about the dawning of the day.” That day was judgment day for Jericho, as 13 times around the city were reached, and that ties into the end of the world because the end stage of earth’s history began in the year 1988, which was the 13,000th year of history since the creation, and Judgment Day began at the house of God (in 1988) and has continued ever since.
So this phrase or this language that we are reading in Genesis 32 can be understood to relate to the wrath of God, just as the word “wrestled,” or “small dust” relates to God’s wrath. So too, the term “breaking of the day” relates to the wrath of God. So this “wrestling” continued all night until the “breaking of the day,” or the time that judgment was coming.
So we read in Genesis 32:25:
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.
This is very strange. When God saw that He prevailed not against Jacob…and, of course, we realize that God is the almighty, all-powerful God, so the only way He would not have prevailed over this puny man Jacob would be if He did not want to prevail. God enabled and strengthened Jacob to give him the ability to stay with Him in this wrestling match. It must have been that way. And yet, as Jacob was wrestling with Him, God touched the hollow of his thigh, and it says, “the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him.” We understand from later verses what happened to Jacob if we go to Genesis 32:31-32:
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.
The word “hollow” is also translated as “spoon” or “palm” or “hand” or “sole,” as I mentioned last time. It is like that little “cup” in our hand. It is like the little hollow place in a spoon, and you bring the soup to your mouth. So it is a good translation of this word. It is the area of the thigh that God touched, and we know that when He touched the hollow of his thigh, the sinew shrank, and that resulted in Jacob walking with a halt, and he was lame from this time forward.
And that is something for us to think about, but let us first look at this word “touch,” and we find it used in the book of Job a few times. Let us go to Job 19:21:
Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends; for the hand of God hath touched me.
Job was telling his friends that the hand of God had touched him because of the calamities that had befallen him. We know the story. Just read the first couple chapters of Job, and it is just horrible and extremely tragic regarding what happened to this man, with the loss of his 10 children and the loss of all riches. And everything was happening at once. So the word “touched” is also used back in Job 1, if we read Job 1:9-12:
Then Satan answered JEHOVAH, and said, Doth Job fear God for nought? Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land. But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face. And JEHOVAH said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of JEHOVAH.
Here, we see why Satan is the accuser of the brethren. He was accusing Job because God had said of Job in verse 1, “…man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil.” So Satan comes along and accuses Job before God: “Doth Job fear God for nought? Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land. But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face.” Do you see the word “touch” there? It is used in the sense of allowing affliction or tribulation to come to Job. And Satan said, “If you ‘touch’ him, then he will curse you to your face.” And in our verse, we see that God is “touching” the hollow of Jacob’s thigh, causing the sinew of his thigh to shrink, and this related in Jacob being lame.
There is an interesting tie-in in verse Job 1:10 where it says, “Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side?” The word “hedge,” #7753, is also found in Job 10:11:
Thou hast clothed me with skin and flesh, and hast fenced me with bones and sinews.
The word “fenced” is the word “hedge.” Again, this is Job whom the Lord is moving to say that he has been clothed with skin and flesh, and hedged with bones and sinews. You see, Satan is making the accusation that this “hedge” or “fence” about his bones and sinews was the reason he feared God, and Satan said that if God took away the hedge or the fence, he would curse Him.
And in our verse, God is touching Jacob’s sinew, and if He is touching it, there is no fence or hedge around it, is there? He went right for the sinew and caused it to shrink, and then we learn that Jacob will walk with a limp for the rest of his life.