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(31: 37-42). Laban and Jacob build a "witness heap" and a "watch tower", for Laban
said, "the Lord watch between me and thee when we are absent one from another".
At the close of the solemn covenanting Laban departed and "Jacob went on his way,
and the angel of God met him". Upon hearing of the approach of Esau with a company
of four hundred men Jacob does two things: he first disposed of his forces, with foresight
and wisdom taking the "two bands" of angels as his guide, and secondly he prayed. Here
is the first real prayer recorded in the Bible. Abraham's intercession for Sodom is more
like an argument. Abraham's servant's words in Gen. xxiv are the expression of a
desire for a sign. Here is a real prayer. It commences and ends with a reference to the
covenant. Jacob's conception of his claim on God is not based upon his worthiness or his
need, but upon the covenant made with his fathers. The reference to the covenant made
unto the fathers is followed by a remembrance of a personal promise, which in its turn is
echoed by a confessed fear and felt need; in the center comes the repudiation of all
worthiness echoed by an acknowledgment of God's faithfulness:--
A | 32: 9-. The God of the covenant with Abraham and Isaac.
B | -9. Reminder of promise.
C | 10-. Confession of utter unworthiness.
C | -10. Acknowledgment of overflowing blessing.
B | 11-. Prayer for deliverance.
A | -11. Reference to covenant blessing.
Jacob after this prayer arranges a present to pass over the ford that Esau may be
appeased and accept his returning brother in peace. His two wives and his two women
servants together with his eleven sons pass over the ford, "and Jacob was left alone". If
Jacob could say of Bethel "how dreadful is this place", what shall he say of this all-night
wrestling with the angel of God? "And there wrestled a Man with him." This wrestler is
called God in verse 30.
There is a division of opinion regarding the meaning of this midnight wrestling. Some
see in it a picture of overcoming prayer--but it does not say Jacob wrestled, but the Man
wrestled--Jacob's attitude was one of resistance. This passage, coupled with the strange
supplanting act at his birth, is referred to in Hosea 12:, and possibly the reference there
will aid us in understanding the purport of Gen. 32: The passage in the A.V. reads as
follows:--
"He took his brother by the heel in the womb, and by strength he had power with God
(margin `was a prince, or behaved himself princely'), yea, he had power over the angel,
and prevailed, he wept and made supplication unto him, he found him in Bethel, and
there he spake with us, even the Lord God of hosts; the Lord is his memorial."
The Companion Bible differs from the majority of commentators, both in the passage
in Gen. 32: and in Hosea 12: In Gen. 32: the changed name Israel is interpreted,
"God commands, orders or rules", and the additional remark is made that "out of some
forty Hebrew names compounded with El or Jah God is always the doer of what the verb
means (cf. Dan-el, God judges). "The name" (continues the note) "is used here not to
dignify but to reproach", and the references are given. The words "hast thou power with