Genesis 32:22-32:32

     The same night he got up and took his two wives, his two maids¹, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok.² He took them and sent them across the stream, and likewise everything that he had.
     Jacob was left alone; and a man³ wrestled with him until daybreak. When the man saw that he did not prevail⁴ against Jacob, he struck him on the hip socket; and Jacob's hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. Then he said, "Let me go,⁵ for the day is breaking."
     But Jacob said, "I will not let you go, unless you bless me."⁶
     So he said to him, "What is your name?"
     And he said, "Jacob."
     Then the man said, "You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel⁷, for you have striven with God and with humans, and have prevailed."
     Then Jacob asked him, "Please tell me your name."
     But he said, "Why is it that you ask my name?"⁸ And there he blessed him.
     So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, "For I have seen God face to face,⁹ and yet my life is preserved." The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip. Therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the thigh muscle that is on the hip socket, because he struck Jacob on the hip socket at the thigh muscle.¹⁰

^[1] "maids", not wives
^[2] Interesting that he took them across in the night. Did he know what was coming?
^[3] "a man" here
^[4] I have always wanted to know what "did not prevail" means. Does it just mean that Jacob did not back down? Or that "the man" was lacking in something and really couldn't defeat Jacob?
^[5] I think this is a test of Jacob - he does not want to be let go, but wants to see if Jacob will refuse to let him go.
^[6] Jacob knows that this man he is wrestling is in a position to bless him.
^[7] The origins of the word "Israel" is explained. This sounds like a planned test, and not just a happenstance that the man did not expect.
^[8] So cryptic. Why?
^[9] God! So strong. Does the fact that he had "striven with God" really mean that it was God he was seeing face-to-face?
^[10] Interesting connection.


Take-home: Jacob has an epic encounter with what appears to be a supernatural being, which appears to symbolize both his endurance in struggling with God and his ultimate prevailing (though in some ways he is still at God's mercy). It is interesting to think about what all of this has to do with Jacob's coming encounter with Esau.