QUESTION: Over the years I have been reading the story of Jacob in the book of Genesis and I can’t seem to understand something. When the Bible says he wrestled with the angel, was it a physical fight?

ANSWER: As we shall see, this was indeed a “physical fight” with a “Man” who is also called an “Angel” and Jacob realized during the wrestling match that the Man/Angel was none other than God Himself. This interesting account is in Genesis 32:22-32 and we will break this down to see what we can learn.

Verses 22-24: “And he rose up that night, and took his two wives, and his two female servants, and his eleven sons, and crossed over the ford of Jabbok. He took them, sent them over the brook, and sent over what he had. Then Jacob was left alone; and a Man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day.” There is no reason not to believe that this was a “literal wrestling with a Man” that went on all night long. Notice how the word “Man” is capitalized. Why is this? Ah, because this was no “ordinary man.” In Hosea 12:4 we read, “Yes, he struggled with the Angel and prevailed; he wept, and sought favor from Him, he found Him in Bethel, and there He spoke to us.” Hosea is describing this same wrestling match and he calls the Man “the Angel.” This was not any “ordinary angel” for it is indeed “THE Angel of the Lord,” which is a name the God took when He appeared to men at times throughout the Old Testament. Hosea goes on to say that Jacob “sought favor from Him” which also tells us this was God Himself, for no one would ask a mere angel to bless him. Let’s read on and this will become clearer.

Verses 25-29: “Now when He saw that He did not prevail against him, He touched the socket of his hip; and the socket of Jacob’s hip was out of joint as He wrestled with him. And He said, ‘Let Me go, for the day breaks.’ But he said, ‘I will not let You go unless You bless me!’ So He said to him, ‘What is your name?” He said, ‘Jacob.’ And He said, ‘Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel; for you have struggled with God and with men, and have prevailed.’ Then Jacob asked, saying, ‘Tell me Your name, I pray.’ And He said, ‘Why is it that you ask about My name?’ And He blessed him there.” As we read this carefully, we see that it was actually God that wrestled with Jacob and that Jacob prevailed, even though God put the socket of Jacob’s hip out of joint. Jacob may have lost the “physical fight” but he did win a “spiritual victory” since he was determined to cling to the Man/Angel until he was blessed by Him and God did bless him! He changed his name Jacob (which means “supplanter, deceiver”) to Israel (a Prince with God). Jacob’s “new name” became the name of the nation which would be born through him! Again, Jacob lost the wrestling match, but he was awarded a spiritual blessing because in faith he held on to the Lord and asked Him to bless him. In other words, he was “pleading for God to show him grace” and that’s exactly what God did! This teaches us, dear fellow-believers, that even though we are “weak in ourselves,” we can be “strong in faith” and cling to the Lord for His blessings which He, in His bountiful grace, loves to bestow upon us.

Verses 30-32: And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: ‘For I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.’ Just as he crossed over Penuel, the sun rose on him, and HE LIMPED ON HIS HIP. Therefore ... (READ MORE)
https://www.livingalter.com.ng/2022/10/question-over-years-i-have-been-reading.html

I also want to know more

duro4chang:
I also want to know more

when God come's to you, it's usually in dreams, His spirit, in the beginning of 1 kings 22:19, it talks about how all the host in Heaven standing by on His right hand and on His left. this story is about God sending a lying spirit-who persuaded 400 prophets to lie to Ahab.
So yes, we come up against principalities and demonic spiritual activity. We don't fight against flesh and blood-when dealing with the spiritual activity, fasting and reading the bible is a sure way-to accomplish our difficult times..

In the biblical text Jacob wrestled Elohim and Elohim lost.

This is incredible!

brocab:
when God come's to you, it's usually in dreams, His spirit, in the beginning of 1 kings 22:19, it talks about how all the host in Heaven standing by on His right hand and on His left. this story is about God sending a lying spirit-who persuaded 400 prophets to lie to Ahab.
So yes, we come up against principalities and demonic spiritual activity. We don't fight against flesh and blood-when dealing with the spiritual activity, fasting and reading the bible is a sure way-to accomplish our difficult times..

Thank you but you have not explain the issue of Jacob fighting with the angels.

AntiChristian:
In the biblical text Jacob wrestled Elohim and Elohim lost.

This is incredible!

And your prophet said that Moses beat an angel and knocked out the angels’ eyes

Sahih Muslim 2372 a
Abu Huraira reported that the Angel of Death was sent to Moses (peace be upon him) to inform of his Lord's summons. When he came, he (Moses) boxed him and his eye was knocked out. He (the Angel of Death) came back to the Lord and said:
You sent me to a servant. who did not want to die. Allah restored his eye to its proper place (and revived his eyesight), and then said: Go back to him and tell him that if he wants life he must place his hand on the back of an ox, and he would be granted as many years of life as the number of hair covered by his hand. He (Moses) said: My Lord what would happen then He said: Then you must court death. He said: Let it be now. And he supplicated Allah to bring him close to the sacred land. Thereupon Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) said: If I were there, I would have shown you his grave beside the road at the red mound.

advocatejare:

And your prophet said that Moses beat an angel and knocked out the angels’ eyes

Sahih Muslim 2372 a
Abu Huraira reported that the Angel of Death was sent to Moses (peace be upon him) to inform of his Lord's summons. When he came, he (Moses) boxed him and his eye was knocked out. He (the Angel of Death) came back to the Lord and said:
You sent me to a servant. who did not want to die. Allah restored his eye to its proper place (and revived his eyesight), and then said: Go back to him and tell him that if he wants life he must place his hand on the back of an ox, and he would be granted as many years of life as the number of hair covered by his hand. He (Moses) said: My Lord what would happen then He said: Then you must court death. He said: Let it be now. And he supplicated Allah to bring him close to the sacred land. Thereupon Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) said: If I were there, I would have shown you his grave beside the road at the red mound.

You keep proving you truly need a psychiatrist!

Get well soon!

AntiChristian:


You keep proving you truly need a psychiatrist!

Get well soon!

When muhammad was labelled a madman in the Quran did you take him to the psychiatrist or when he was bewitched and hallucinated about sex or when he was snorting like a camel?



And they say, "O you upon whom the message has been sent down, indeed you are mad .
-Quran 15:6


Then they turned away from him and said, “[He Muhammad was] taught and he is a madman.”
Quran 44:14


And as expected, muhammad exhibited madness by thinking that he did what he didn’t do


Sahih al-Bukhari 3175
Narrated Aisha:
Once the Prophet (ﷺ) was bewitched so that he began to imagine that he had done a thing which in fact he had not done.




Sahih al-Bukhari 6063
Narrated `Aisha:
The Prophet (ﷺ) continued for such-and-such period imagining that he has slept (had sexual relations) with his wives, and in fact he did not. One day he said, to me, "O `Aisha! Allah has instructed me regarding a matter about which I had asked Him. There came to me two men, one of them sat near…



He even snorted like a camel:

"...Would that I see revelation coming to the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ). He (Hadrat 'Umar) said: Would it please you to see the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) receiving the revelations 'Umar lifted a corner of the cloth and I looked at him and he was emitting a sound of snorting. He (the narrator) said: I thought it was the sound of a camel..."
-Sahih Muslim Book 7, Hadith 2654

duro4chang:
Thank you but you have not explain the issue of Jacob fighting with the angels.

There are ways to find info on line, I just looked up Got Questions on line, and they explained it quiet well-like I said-everything in Spirit-Jacob wrestled with God, only because Jacob was a stubborn man-Jacob was a man who didn't listen to anybody-God knock out his hip for the rest of his days, only because of his stubbornness-when reading the story, it's obvious Jacob wrestling through his heart and mind..
All night he wrestled-think about it. obviously Jacob didn't get any sleep,
No one has seen God at anytime, so it's understandable when God is seen through an angel-Moses also seen an angel on Mount Sinai, and it was God that wrote the 10 commandments-how about the disciples seen God through Jesus.
God connects to us through dreams and visions, it's written Angels are ministering Spirits, Jacob obliviously had a vision, and because of Jacob's stubbornest God wrestled with him. only because He wanted to bless Jacob, so you can see-this wasn't a natural thing.

Isn't it fascinating that in this allegory story, Jacob wrestled with an Angel and after the encounter, he renamed the place as "PENIEL"?

In your brain, there is a tiny gland called the PINEAL gland.

According to esoteric philosophers, this gland is also known as the third eye and when activated, it gives humans metaphysical abilities to "see" and "experience" energy frequencies beyond our normal 3D reality.

Even the representation of the all seeing eye of Horus/RA from ancient KEMET (Egypt), bears a striking resemblance to the PINEAL gland in the our brain.

Is this just pure COINCIDENCE?

See pictures below for better context.

The Hebrew text rendered WRESTLE spiritually means to contend it doesn't literally mean physical fight.
For instance Rachel used the same word when talking about the contention between herself and her sister! Genesis 30:8

So when a man is said to be contending with the supernatural it simply means such a man is using everything manly possible to convince the supernatural that he deserves FAVOUR, hence Jacob WEPT before that angels in the vision and the angel was compelled to grant Jacob's supplications! Hosea 12:4

We can relate that event to what happened when Abraham also found three angels going to Sodom and Gomorrah for a destructive mission. Abraham first told the one representing God among the three that it's unthinkable on God's part to destroy the righteous along with the wicked and afterwards Abraham began pleading (bargaining) with this angel from 50 righteous people to 10.

Angels have powers far superior to what man could imagine {2Kings 19:35} but when it comes to faithful servants of God this supernatural creatures becomes helpless as they marvel at the steadfastness of the imperfect descendants of Adam who are doing the will of the One they can't see with zeal.

So to them one single faithful man worths so much in their eyes just as in the eyes of their father JEHOVAH {Daniel 10:9, 11} therefore when a faithful man is begging for favour this creatures felt like being challenged physically so they give in as if they've been subdued!


God bless you and may you have PEACE!

MaxInDHouse:
The Hebrew text rendered WRESTLE spiritually means to contend it doesn't literally mean physical fight.
For instance Rachel used the same word when talking about the contention between herself and her sister! Genesis 30:8

So when a man is said to be contending with the supernatural it simply means such a man is using everything manly possible to convince the supernatural that he deserves FAVOUR, hence Jacob WEPT before that angels in the vision and the angel was compelled to grant Jacob's supplications! Hosea 12:4

We can relate that event to what happened when Abraham also found three angels going to Sodom and Gomorrah for a destructive mission. Abraham first told the one representing God among the three that it's unthinkable on God's part to destroy the righteous along with the wicked and afterwards Abraham began pleading (bargaining) with this angel from 50 righteous people to 10.

Angels have powers far superior to what man could imagine {2Kings 19:35} but when it comes to faithful servants of God this supernatural creatures becomes helpless as they marvel at the steadfastness of the imperfect descendants of Adam who are doing the will of the One they can't see with zeal.

So to them one single faithful man worths so much in their eyes just as in the eyes of their father JEHOVAH {Daniel 10:9, 11} therefore when a faithful man is begging for favour this creatures felt like being challenged physically so they give in as if they've been subdued!


God bless you and may you have PEACE!

bullshit,, it was a physical wrestle nothing spiritual there, man has degenerated and has become weaker and weaker since the fall of Adam.

this was a physical wrestling match because Jacob who was running from his brother thought that angel was his brother Esau until the angel touch his hip and dislocated his joint.

notice the angel said let me go for the day is breaking and Jacob said I will never let you go unless you bless me. Jacob realised this was an angel after he dislocated his joint by just touching and that is why he asked for blessing from him fearing for his life because of his brother.
there has to be a physical contact for some one to say let me go ,which is why the angel dislocated his joint to make him weaker.

EMILO2STAY:
bullshit,, it was a physical wrestle nothing spiritual there, man has degenerated and has become weaker and weaker since the fall of Adam.

this was a physical wrestling match because Jacob who was running from his brother thought that angel was his brother Esau until the angel touch his hip and dislocated his joint.

notice the angel said let me go for the day is breaking and Jacob said I will never let you go unless you bless me. Jacob realised this was an angel after he dislocated his joint by just touching and that is why he asked for blessing from him fearing for his life because of his brother.
there has to be a physical contact for some one to say let me go ,which is why the angel dislocated his joint to make him weaker.

You people just jump into arguments without considering what the scriptures say.

Jacob was actually BEGGING the angel with tears! Hosea 12:4

MaxInDHouse:


You people just jump into arguments without considering what the scriptures say.

Jacob was actually BEGGING the angel with tears! Hosea 12:4

na you they jump to conclusion .
read the same Hosea 12: 3 -4. it says He took his brother by the heel in the womb, and by his" STRENGTH" he had power with God:

verse 4 states... Yea, HE HAD POWER OVER THE ANGEL, and prevailed: he wept, and made supplication unto him: he found him in Beth–el, and there he spake with us;


look at the highlighted and tell me if there is anything about argument or spiritual there? this is talking about pure strength. Jacob had to cry and beg the angel after he touched his joint , notice Jacob said I will not let you go after the angel has touched him.

EMILO2STAY:
na you they jump to conclusion .
read the same Hosea 12: 3 -4. it says He took his brother by the heel in the womb, and by his" STRENGTH" he had power with God:

verse 4 states... Yea, HE HAD POWER OVER THE ANGEL, and prevailed: he wept, and made supplication unto him: he found him in Beth–el, and there he spake with us;


look at the highlighted and tell me if there is anything about argument or spiritual there? this is talking about pure strength. Jacob had to cry and beg the angel after he touched his joint , notice Jacob said I will not let you go after the angel has touched him.

So he WEPT and MADE SUPPLICATIONS!
With the highlighted i rest my case.

Thanks, God bless you and may you have PEACE!

MaxInDHouse:


So he WEPT and MADE SUPPLICATIONS!
With the highlighted i rest my case.

Thanks, God bless you and may you have PEACE!

you better rest it because you are wrong. there is nothing spiritual about what happend in genesis34:26

To best answer this question, it helps to know, among other things, that deep-seated family hostilities characterized Jacob’s life. He was a determined man; some would consider him to be ruthless. He was a con artist, a liar, and a manipulator. In fact, the name Jacob not only means “deceiver,” but more literally it means “grabber.”

To know Jacob’s story is to know his life was one of never-ending struggles. Though God promised Jacob that through him would come not only a great nation, but a whole company of nations, he was a man full of fears and anxieties. At a pivotal point in his life, Jacob was about to meet his brother, Esau, who had vowed to kill him. All Jacob’s struggles and fears were about to be realized. Sick of his father-in-law’s treatment, Jacob had fled Laban, only to encounter his embittered brother, Esau. Anxious for his very life, Jacob concocted a bribe and sent a caravan of gifts along with his women and children across the River Jabbok in hopes of pacifying his brother. Now physically exhausted, alone in the desert wilderness, facing sure death, he was divested of all his worldly possessions. In fact, he was powerless to control his fate. He collapsed into a deep sleep on the banks of the Jabbok River. With his father-in-law behind him and Esau before him, he was too spent to struggle any longer.

But only then did his real struggle begin. Fleeing his family history had been bad enough; wrestling with God Himself was a different matter altogether. That night an angelic stranger visited Jacob.
{The Angel God calls ministering spirit's came to Jacob as a man}
They wrestled throughout the night until daybreak, at which point the stranger crippled Jacob with a blow to his hip that disabled him with a limp for the rest of his life. It was then that Jacob realized what had happened: “
I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared” (Genesis 32:30).
In the process, Jacob the deceiver received a new name, Israel, which likely means: “He struggles with God.”
However, what is most important occurred at the conclusion of that struggle. We read that God “blessed him there” (Genesis 32:29).

EMILO2STApost=118689216:
bullshit,, it was a physical wrestle nothing spiritual there, man has degenerated and has become weaker and weaker since the fall of Adam.

this was a physical wrestling match because Jacob who was running from his brother thought that angel was his brother Esau until the angel touch his hip and dislocated his joint.

notice the angel said let me go for the day is breaking and Jacob said I will never let you go unless you bless me. Jacob realised this was an angel after he dislocated his joint by just touching and that is why he asked for blessing from him fearing for his life because of his brother.
there has to be a physical contact for some one to say let me go ,which is why the angel dislocated his joint to make him weaker.

In Western culture and even in our churches, we celebrate wealth, power, strength, confidence, prestige, and victory.
We despise and fear weakness, failure, and doubt.
Though we know that a measure of vulnerability, fear, discouragement, and depression come with normal lives, we tend to view these as signs of failure or even a lack of faith.
However, we also know that in real life, naïve optimism and the glowing accolades of glamour and success are a recipe for discontent and despair. Sooner or later, the cold, hard realism of life catches up with most of us.
The story of Jacob pulls us back to reality.

Frederick Buechner, one the most read authors by Christian audiences, characterizes Jacob’s divine encounter at the Jabbok River as the “magnificent defeat of the human soul at the hands of God.”
It’s in Jacob’s story we can easily recognize our own elements of struggle: fears, darkness, loneliness, vulnerabilities, empty feelings of powerlessness, exhaustion, and relentless pain.

Even the apostle Paul experienced similar discouragements and fears: “We were harassed at every turn—conflicts on the outside, fears within” (2 Corinthians 7:5).
But, in truth, God does not want to leave us with our trials, our fears, our battles in life.
What we come to learn in our conflicts of life is that God proffers us a corresponding divine gift.
It is through Him that we can receive the power of conversion and transformation, the gift of not only surrender, but freedom, and the gifts of endurance, faith, and courage.

In the end, Jacob does what we all must do.
He confronts his failures, his weaknesses, his sins, all the things that are hurting him . . . and faces God. Jacob wrestled with God all night.
It was an exhausting struggle that left him crippled.
It was only after he came to grips with God and ceased his struggling, realizing that he could not go on without Him, that he received God’s blessing (Genesis 32:29).

What we learn from this remarkable incident in the life of Jacob is that our lives are never meant to be easy.
This is especially true when we take it upon ourselves to wrestle with God and His will for our lives.
We also learn that as Christians, despite our trials and tribulations, our strivings in this life are never devoid of God’s presence, and His blessing inevitably follows the struggle, which can sometimes be messy and