This article is part of a series on Old Testament Christophanies. For important background information, see An Introduction to Old Testament Christophanies–with Justin Martyr.
In Genesis 32, Jacob came to the ford of the Jabbok, a tributary of the Jordan River from the east. He had his wives, maids, and children cross to the other side (vv. 22–23). Once alone, Jacob was again visited by the Lord at night. But this visit didn’t take place in a dream. For Jacob, it was about to get all too physical:
Then Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. When he saw that he had not prevailed against him, he touched the socket of his thigh; so the socket of Jacob’s thigh was dislocated while he wrestled with him. Then he said, “Let me go, for the dawn is breaking.” But he said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” So he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.”He said, “Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel; for you have striven with God and with men and have prevailed.” Then Jacob asked him and said, “Please tell me your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” And he blessed him there. So Jacob named the place Peniel, for he said, “I have seen God face to face, yet my life has been preserved” (Gen 32:24–30).
The “man” Jacob wrestled was the Angel of the Lord. The prophet Hosea referred to him as both “God” and “the angel” (Hos 12:3–4). If seeing the unveiled face of God would surely kill a man, how much more dangerous would it be to grapple with Him? The Angel veiled the face of God by restraining the full power of Yahweh, allowing Jacob to see and even touch Him without being destroyed. Jacob’s dislocated hip made it painfully clear that this visit wasn’t happening in a vision or dream. The injury also let Jacob know just how easily his opponent could have overtaken him. It is impossible to say just how much the Creator of the universe must have been holding back as He wrestled with a mere man.
Jacob knew who he was wrestling, and he wasn’t going to miss an opportunity to be blessed. His insistence paid off and the Lord named him Israel, which in this context means “he who strives with God.”[1] Jacob prevailed over men, notably Esau and Laban, and he prevailed in obtaining a blessing from God. Jacob’s new name marked a new phase in his life as he began to relate to God on a more personal level. In a sense, Jacob’s new name is also descriptive of Israel as a nation through history. There has been a great back and forth between the Lord and His people. It continues now as we await the salvation of all Israel, when the people will come to trust in the Lord Jesus as the Messiah (e.g., Acts 3:17–21).
By responding to Jacob’s request to know his name with “Why is it that you ask my name?” the Angel was essentially saying, “don’t you already know?” Manoah, the father of Samson, also asked the Angel His name. The Angel gave the same answer as He gave to Jacob and added “seeing it is wonderful?” (Judg 13:18). The Targum has Jacob declaring that he named the place Peniel, “because I have seen the Angel of the Lord face to face, and my soul hath been saved!”[2] Peniel means “the face of God.” Even though Jacob didn’t die, he truly did see God’s face. It is just that it wasn’t the face of God the Father, it was the face of God the Son.
The ford of the Jabbok itself is often overlooked; though like Peniel, it too is a reminder of history’s most incredible wrestling match. Fruchtenbaum explained that
The Hebrew word for wrestled is a word play based on the name of the river, which would forever serve as a reminder. The Hebrew word for “wrestling” is found only here and in verse 25 and nowhere else in the Hebrew Bible. The word itself comes from the root avak, which means “dust.” The basic meaning of this word for wrestling is “to get dusty in wrestling” or “to get dusty while wrestling.” Altogether, there are three similar-sounding words in Hebrew: Jacob; Jabbok; and “he wrestled,” yaaveik. The One he wrestled with is called a man, because He had the appearance of a man. This was the Angel of Jehovah.[3]
A common rabbinical view is that it was Esau’s guardian angel who wrestled with Jacob.[4] Later writings, such as the thirteenth-century Zohar (the foundational book of Jewish mysticism), even give a name for Esau’s angel: Samael. But wrestling a created angel is not the same as wrestling with God. Nor is seeing a created angel the same as seeing God face to face. The only angel Jacob could have wrestled with is the Angel who is God.
God Revealed Themselves
The Lord’s final visit with Jacob is recorded in Genesis 35. By that time, Jacob and his household had settled near Shechem (located north of Shiloh, just below Mount Gerizim). At least thirty years had passed since Jacob made his vow in Bethel; around ten years had passed since he returned to the Promised Land. Yet Jacob still hadn’t returned to Bethel to fulfill his vow. Perhaps Jacob had become too comfortable where he settled, or perhaps he had forgotten his promise at Bethel. In any case, the Lord hadn’t forgotten.
God came and spoke to Jacob, commanding him to return to Bethel and to make an altar to God who appeared to him when he fled from Esau decades earlier. Jacob ordered his family and all who were with him to put away their foreign gods and purify themselves, for they were going to Bethel. They handed over their idols and earrings used in idolatry, and Jacob hid them under the oak (or terebinth) near Shechem. As Jacob and his party traveled, God brought a great terror upon the nearby cities so that none of the inhabitants would move against the patriarch’s family. Eventually, Jacob and all who were with him arrived safely in Bethel (vv. 1–6). Even though Jacob had neglected his vow, the Lord continued to protect him and his family.
This brings us to what may be the most enlightening verse concerning the Lord’s appearances to Jacob:
He built an altar there, and called the place El-bethel, because there God had revealed Himself to him when he fled from his brother (Gen 35:7).
Jacob named the place where he built the altar El-bethel, which means “the God of Bethel.” This is where he first experienced the presence of the Lord. The Hebrew verb niglu, translated here as “revealed Himself,” is plural. When niglu is translated literally, the verse reads that God had “revealed themselves.” Yes, the one God had somehow, someway, revealed themselves. Both God and the divine Angel of the Lord had revealed themselves to Jacob. More specifically, the Angel of the Lord—who is God—revealed God to Jacob. When the Son of God is revealed to someone, then so too is God revealed.
Rebekah’s nurse, Deborah, died, and she was buried under the oak tree in the valley below Bethel. The tree was named Allon-bacuth, which means “oak of weeping” (v. 8). Soon after Deborah was buried, the Lord visited Jacob at Bethel for the second time:
Then God appeared to Jacob again when he came from Paddan-aram, and He blessed him.God said to him,
“Your name is Jacob;
You shall no longer be called Jacob,
But Israel shall be your name.”Thus He called him Israel.God also said to him,
“I am God Almighty;
Be fruitful and multiply;
A nation and a company of nations shall come from you,
And kings shall come forth from you.
“The land which I gave to Abraham and Isaac,
I will give it to you,
And I will give the land to your descendants after you.”Then God went up from him in the place where He had spoken with him (Gen 35:9–13).
Jacob may have treated Deborah as a proxy for his mother Rebekah. If that was the case, then perhaps the Lord chose to appear at this moment in order to comfort Jacob with His presence.
Paddan-aram was a region situated in northern Mesopotamia in which the city of Haran was located. Even though Jacob had departed from Paddan-aram years earlier, it was as if he was still traveling back from this foreign land until he made it to Bethel. Jacob’s return completed the circle that was his journey from and back to the Promised Land.
The Targum says that, “The Word of the Lord revealed Himself unto Jacob the second time on his coming from Padan Aram, and blessed him.”[5] The Son of God arrived to bless Jacob in two ways. The first was by confirming his name change to Israel. Jacob’s name in Hebrew, Yaakov, means “one who takes by the heel” or “supplanter.” While the name was originally descriptive of the circumstances of Jacob’s birth (Gen 25:26), it came to have a negative connotation (e.g., Gen 27:36). Here, Israel means “a prevailer with God” or “a prince of God.” The confirmation of the name Israel signified that as he had prevailed over men in the past, so now would the patriarch be empowered to prevail over his enemies. After this, Jacob was referred to by both his original name and Israel. Therefore, we should take verse 10 to mean that he would no longer only be called Jacob. Jacob may have been a supplanter, but he was also God’s prince.
The second way the Son of God blessed Jacob was by once again renewing the Abrahamic Covenant through him. The Lord declared that He was El Shaddai, God Almighty. This is the same name God used to identify Himself to Abraham (Gen 17:1). Because God was almighty, He could easily protect and defend not only Jacob, but his sons as well. The Promised Land would pass to Jacob and his descendants. Nations would spring from Jacob and from his twelve sons. Kings and rulers of different kinds would come from the twelve tribes. And most importantly, from Jacob’s son Judah would arise King Jesus. By making this promise, the Lord was hinting that His own incarnation would come through Jacob. When He was done speaking, Jacob must have beheld the Son of God ascend until He disappeared into the heavens. God gloriously departed from before Jacob as He had done from before Abraham (Gen 17:22).
Afterward, Jacob set up a pillar where the Lord had spoken with him; he poured out a drink offering on it and anointed it with oil. He again named the place Bethel (vv. 14–15). It would seem that Jacob took the time to build a statelier and more structurally sound pillar than the original. He likely used the same stone from the original as part of this one. The drink offering and the oil established the new pillar as a sacred memorial of his visit with the God. Jacob fulfilling his vow at Bethel renewed his relationship with the Son of God. This was a revival!
The Redeeming Angel
Upon learning that Joseph was not only alive, but ruling in Egypt, Israel (Jacob) decided to go see his son (Gen 45:25–28). On the way there, Israel stopped at Beersheba to offer sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac. During the night God spoke to him in a vision, telling him not to be afraid to go to Egypt, for there he would be made into a great nation. He further promised Israel that He would go down to Egypt with him, bring him up again, and that Joseph would close his eyes (Gen 46:1–4). Even in his now old age, the Lord was still guiding and comforting Israel. He would personally bring Israel’s descendants out of Egypt and into the Promised Land.
As Israel (Jacob) was nearing the end of his earthly life, Joseph took his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, to visit their dying patriarch in Genesis 48. Once they arrived, Israel revealed to Joseph that God Almighty had appeared to him at Luz in Canaan and blessed him there (vv. 1–4). Now Joseph would be better able to understand the words of his father’s special blessing upon him and his sons:
He blessed Joseph, and said,
“The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked,
The God who has been my shepherd all my life to this day,
The angel who has redeemed me from all evil,
Bless the lads;
And may my name live on in them,
And the names of my fathers Abraham and Isaac;
And may they grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth” (Gen 48:15–16).
Once again, the Angel of the Lord is spoken of in a way that makes Him indistinguishable from God. Jacob’s shepherd was He who would later declare, “I am the good shepherd” (John 10:11, 14), and who the Apostle Peter would call the “Chief Shepherd” (1 Pet 5:4). The Angel is called Israel’s redeemer, giving Him a title belonging to Yahweh alone (Isa 43:11, 14; 47:4). The God of Abraham and Isaac, He who guided and protected Israel throughout his life, is also the Angel who redeemed him from all evil. The Angel didn’t just redeem Israel from the outward threats coming against him, but from his own sin. And it is Messiah Jesus who delivers His people from their sins (Matt 1:21).
This blessing from Israel was an extension of the Lord’s blessing upon Him. Joseph would receive a double inheritance. For his sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, were blessed as though they were the direct sons of Israel, each becoming the head of his own tribe. The names of Israel and his fathers, and thus the blessings given to them, would continue through Manasseh and Ephraim. Like Israel’s other sons, their descendants would be fruitful and numerous, and be given the Promised Land for an everlasting possession. Israel asked the Angel to place the same blessing upon his descendants that was placed upon Abraham, Isaac, and himself. No created angel would have been capable of bestowing the Lord’s covenant blessing, nor would Israel have asked one to do so.
After giving the blessing, Israel told Joseph that he was about to die. He then assured his son that God would be with him and bring him back to the land of his fathers (v. 21). At the end of Genesis, Joseph was facing his own death. He told his brothers that God would surely visit them and bring them to the land promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Joseph then made his brothers— “the sons of Israel”—swear to take his bones with them (Gen 50:24–25). Generations later, Moses honored their oath when he took Joseph’s bones with him during the Exodus (Exod 13:19). After they arrived in the Promised Land, “the sons of Israel” buried the bones in Shechem (Josh 24:32). While Joseph and his family will be resurrected to enjoy their inheritance in the land, Israel’s promise to Joseph and Joseph’s promise to his brothers both applied to their descendants after the Exodus. The same God who shepherded Jacob, the redeeming Angel, did indeed visit the Israelites to lead them back to the Promised Land.
Minister to the Father
Justin Martyr looked to many of the same passages that we have as evidence that the Son of God visited Jacob. Before quoting Genesis 31:10–13, 32:22–30, and 35:6–10, he explained that
It is again written by Moses, my brethren, that He who is called God and appeared to the patriarchs is called both Angel and Lord, in order that from this you may understand Him to be minister to the Father of all things . . .[6]
And then, before quoting Genesis 28:10–19, Justin wrote the following about Jacob’s visitor:
He is called God, and He is and shall be God . . . Moreover, I consider it necessary to repeat to you the words which narrate how He who is both Angel and God and Lord, and who appeared as a man to Abraham, and who wrestled in human form with Jacob, was seen by him when he fled from his brother Esau.[7]
He who is called Angel, God, and Lord can only be that member of the Godhead who ministers directly to the Father: His Son.
The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
The Lord personally visited Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to ensure that His will and plan for redemption would flow through them and their descendants. He who represents the Father descended to earth to make a connection with the patriarchs. And in turn they came to intimately know their God. This is why the Lord came to be known as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (or Israel).
Asher Intrater, a scholar and Jewish follower of Jesus, recognized the patriarchs’ visitor:
El Shaddai, the great provider God, who makes covenant and blesses families and finances, appeared many times to our forefathers in the form of a man. This El Shaddai is the same Man who wrestled with Jacob that night at Peniel. He claimed to be both Man and God.
Our forefathers knew El Shaddai in the form of a God-Man Angel. However, His exact identity was somewhat of a mystery to them. In later years, He was to be revealed as Messiah. As our forefathers made covenant with El Shaddai, so do we make new covenant with Yeshua [Jesus]. He was the God-Man our forefathers believed in. He is the Messiah. [8]
Messiah Jesus
is El Shaddai, the God of covenant, whether before His incarnation or
after. He is the God of Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob.
[1] Israel may also be translated as “a prince of God” or “God strives.”
[2] Targum Onkelos on Genesis 32:31.
[3] Fruchtenbaum, Genesis, 482.
[4] Genesis Rabbah 77:3; 78:3.
[5] The Jerusalem Targum on Genesis 35:9.
[6] Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho 58.4.
[7] Ibid.
[8] Intrater, Lunch with Abraham, 14.
Thanks for this very clear explanation about Who wrestled with Jacob.
Thank you brother