Gen 32: Jacob preparing to meet Esau and sending gifts to appease him; Jacob's wrestling with an angel who renamed him Israel.

Jacob continued on his journey to Canaan

• v1: The angels of God met Jacob i.e. God was with him and guiding him on his path. When God allows us to fall into trials and tribulations, He sends us comfort and strength proportional to the trial. "For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways" (Ps 91:11)
  
• v2: Jacob thanked God for this protection and renamed the place Mahanaim (two camps).
• v3-6: Jacob was not obliged to send a message to Esau, but he paid him the respect due to his brother. He called Esau his lord, himself his servant, in an attempt to pacify Esau.
• v7-8: Esau went to meet Jacob with four hundred men as he remembered the old quarrel and probably now wanted to avenge Jacob for the birthright and blessing. Jacob was hence greatly afraid and distressed, and put himself into the best defence that his present circumstances would allow.
• v9-12: Jacob then called upon God in the time of his trouble, even though he saw the angels with him. It was this prayer that won him the honour of being Israel, i.e. "he struggles with God" He believed God for the impossible - that the power of God could rescue him as a lamb from the jaws of his brother
• v10: He acknowledged his own unworthiness to receive any favour from God. He spoke of the great mercies God had shown to him and disclaimed all thoughts of his own merit. The people whom Christ commended were those who said "Lord, I am not worthy" (Matt 8:8), and the woman who said "even the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their master's table" (Matt 15:27)
• v12: He recalled the promsie God had made him. God's promises are what we can lay claim .to in confidence as we pray. "Remember your word to your servant, for you have given me hope" (Ps 119:49)
• v13-16: Jacob's prayer did not put him into a place of inaction, but rather, it spurred him into using whatever means he could to turn the situation around. Our prayers must be followed up with effort and endeavours. "A bribe is a charm to the one who gives it; wherever he turns, he succeeds" (Prov 17:8)
• v17-21: He ordered his servants to deliver a humble message, in hope that his submission, repeated, might influence Esau and to assert that Jacob had not fled through fear.
• v24-25: "He struggled with the angel and overcame him; he wept and begged for his favor. He found him at Bethel and talked with him there" (Hos 12:4) Jacob engaged the angel and wrestled with prayers and tears. It was not only a physical, but spiritual wrestling, an acting out of Jacob's faith and desire. The discouragement of the angel did not shake his faith nor silence his prayer, because it was not by his strength that he prevailed, but by heaven's. It is God's Spiirit that intercedes in us. (Rom 8:26)
• v25: The angel put out Jacob's thigh, to show him what he could do and remind him that it was God he was wrestling with.
• v26: The angel requested Jacob to let him go. It was not as though the angel could not get clear of Jacob's grapple, but it was to put an honour on Jacob's faith and prayer. The reason the angel gave (for it was daybreak) was because it was a new dawn, a new day; the communion Jacob enjoyed alone with God had to now give way to the necessary affairs and business of his life.
• v26b: Jacob resolved to make the best he could of this opportunity and receive a blessing. How desperate are we to attain God's blessing over our lives?
• v27-28: Jacob was no longer celebrated for his craft and cunning ways, but for being Israel, a prince with God.
• v29: It was unnecessary to know the angel's name, and better to attain the blessing.
  
• v30: Jacob did not say "in this place I wrestled with God and prevailed"'; rather, he said "in this place I saw God face to face, and yet my life was preserved". It was a place where he saw God and obtained favour and God's free grace.
• v32: Perhaps Jacob went limpiong to his grave, to serve the same purpose as Paul's thorn in the flesh. Gal 6:17 - "finally, let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus."