Why did jacob wrestles with the angel

In return for 20 years of service, Jacob tricked Laban into giving him his desired choice of wages - speckled and spotted sheep and goats - by stripping back the branches of poplar, almond, and plane trees and placing them at the watering troughs where the strongest animals came to drink and mate Genesis When Jacob was returning home to Canaan with his family after his many years of service under Laban, Jacob received the news that his brother, who had threatened to kill him for his past trickery, was on his way to meet him Genesis Despite sending gifts of appeasement, Jacob was afraid for his life and family.

He prayed to God for help and sent his family and possessions on ahead of him to protect them. Left alone in his camp, God came and wrestled with Jacob until daybreak Genesis God blessed Jacob and gave him a new name — Israel Genesis and with it a new identity. Names in the Bible have a bigger significance than they do now. Now, when we give someone a nickname, we do it for fun or because we enjoy a certain aspect about someone.

But when someone changed a name in the Bible, it was a massive deal. It determined their whole identity moving forward. As a continuous reminder of their encounter and His blessing, God gave Jacob a permanent limp Genesis Like Jacob, we can enter into a relationship with Christ today by asking forgiveness for our sins and declaring God to be our Savior and Redeemer.

Through admitting our brokenness to Him, God can give us a new life as His children, and we can enter into an eternal relationship with Him, full of His blessings and good promises over our lives. The meeting with Esau goes peacefully. Both Rachel and Isaac die and are buried. All alone on the night before he is to finally meet up again with his estranged brother Esau, Jacob is approached by a mysterious stranger, who wrestles with him until the dawn.

Jacob holds on until he can reach some understanding of the moment; at the end of the struggle, the mystery wrestler announces that Jacob, like his grandfather Abraham, will receive a new name. Some commentators, as noted above, understand this as an encounter with an angel, and some, especially Rambam , understand Jacob as experiencing some kind of holy vision, rather than an actual wrestling match.

Along these lines, Radak R. The first example Radak offers of a rhetorical question is from story of the Garden of Eden. After the man and woman eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge, they become self-conscious of their nakedness, and attempt to hide from God in the Garden. We are still wounded. Pseudonyms will no longer be permitted.

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Comments are welcome while open. We reserve the right to close comments at any time. Join the conversation Create account. Already have an account? Ideas Jacob wrestling his 'angel' is our own struggle Jacob, the biblical patriarch, seems far from our time. But his all-night wrestling match with a strange being throws shadows across the ages, and exposes powerful elements of our own humanity.

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