Bible History Old Testament Vol. 1
Chapter 18
Jacob at Mahanaim—The Night of Wrestling—Reconciliation between Jacob and Esau—Jacob Settles at Shechem—Jacob Proceeds to Bethel to Pay his Vow—Death of Rachel—Jacob settles at Hebron
We are now nearing what may be described as the high point in the spiritual history of Jacob. Quite different as the previous history of Abraham had been from that of Jacob, yet, in some sense, what Mount Moriah was to Abraham, that the fords of Jabbok became to his grandson: a place of trial and of decision,—only that while the one went to it, the other only left it, with a new name, and all that this implied. BHOTV1 117.1
One dreaded meeting was past, and its apprehended dangers averted. Jacob had in his fear “stolen away” from Laban. He had been pursued as by an enemy, but God had brought peace out of it all. Standing by his “Mizpah,” he had seen Laban and his confederates disappearing behind the range of Gilead, their spears and lances glistening in the sunlight, as they wound through the pine and oak forests which cover the mountain side. One enemy was now behind him; but another and far more formidable had yet to be encountered. In dealing with Laban, Jacob could justly plead his long service and the heartless selfishness of his employer. But what could he say to Esau in excuse or palliation of the past? How would he meet him? and did his brother still cherish the purpose of revenge from which he had fled twenty years ago? To these questions there was absolutely no answer, except the one which faith alone could understand: that if he now returned to his own country, and faced the danger there awaiting him, it was by the express direction of the Lord Himself. If so, Jacob must be safe. Nor was he long in receiving such general assurance of this as might strengthen his faith. Leaving the mountains of Gilead, Jacob had entered the land of promise, in what afterwards became the possession of Gad. A glorious prospect here opened before him. Such beauty, fruitfulness, freshness of verdure, and richness of pasturage; dark mountain forests above, and rich plains below, as poor Palestine, denuded of its trees, and with them of its moisture—a land of ruins—has not known these many, many centuries! And there, as he entered the land, “the angels of God met him.” Twenty years before they had, on leaving it, met him at Bethel, and, so to speak, accompanied him on his journey. And now in similar pledge they welcomed him on his return. Only then, they had been angels ascending and descending on their ministry, while now they were “angel hosts” to defend him in the impending contest, whence also Jacob called the name of that place Mahanaim, “two hosts,” or “two camps.” And if at Bethel he had seen them in a “dream,” they now appeared to him when waking, as if to convey yet stronger assurance. BHOTV1 117.2
Such comfort was, indeed, needed by Jacob. From Mahanaim he had sent to his brother Esau a message intended to conciliate him. But the messengers returned without any reply, other than that Esau was himself coming to meet his brother, and that at the head of a band of four hundred men. This certainly was sufficiently alarming, irrespective of the circumstance that since Esau was (as we shall presently show) just then engaged in a warlike expedition against Seir, the four hundred men with whom he advanced, had probably gathered around his standard for plunder and bloodshed, just like those wild Bedouin tribes which to this day carry terror wherever they appear. Even to receive no reply at all would, in itself, be a great trial to one like Jacob. Hitherto he had by his devices succeeded in removing every obstacle, and evading every danger. But now he was absolutely helpless, in face of an enemy from whom he could neither retreat nor escape. It is said in the sacred text: “Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed.” The measures to which he resorted prove this. He divided his caravan into two bands, in the hope that if Esau attacked the one, the other might escape during the fray. The result thus aimed at was very doubtful, and, at the best, sad enough. Jacob must have deeply felt this, and he betook himself to prayer. Mingling confession of his utter unworthiness with entreaty for deliverance from the danger before him, he successively pleaded before God His express command to return to Canaan, His past mercies, and His gracious promises, at the same time addressing God as Jehovah, the covenant-God of Abraham and of Isaac. Not one of these pleas could fail. That cry of despair was the preparation for what was to follow: Jacob was now learning to obtain, otherwise than by his own efforts, that which Jehovah had promised to give. BHOTV1 118.1
We know, with almost perfect certainty, the exact spot where the most important transaction in the life of Jacob took place. It was at the ford of Jabbok, the confluence of the two streams which flow from the East into Jordan, between the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea, and almost midway between these two points. Indeed, there is only one ford of Jabbok “practicable,” “and even here,” as a recent traveler records, “the strong current reached the horse’s girths.” 1 BHOTV1 118.2
The beauty and richness of the whole district is most striking—park-like scenery alternating with sweet glades, covered with rich crops; “trees and shrubs grouped in graceful variety;” then peeps into the great Jordan valley, with its almost tropical vegetation, and of the hills of Palestine beyond. Looking down upon the ford, the brook Jabbok is almost invisible from the thicket of oleander which covers its banks; while on the steeper sides, up either way, forests of oak and of evergreen oak merge into the darker pine. It was night in this solitude. Overhead shone the innumerable stars once the pledge of the promise to Abraham. The impressive silence was only broken by the rushing of Jabbok, and the lowing of the flocks and herds, as they passed over the brook, or the preparations for transporting the women, children, and servants. Quite a large number of the cattle and sheep Jacob now sent forward in separate droves, that each, as it successively came to Esau as a gift from his brother, might tend to appease his feelings of anger, or satisfy the cupidity of his followers. At last they were all gone, each herdsman bearing a message of peace. The women also and children were safely camped on the south side of Jabbok. Only Jacob himself remained on the northern bank. It was a time for solitude—“and Jacob was left alone,” quite alone, as when first he left his father’s house. There on the oleander banks of Jabbok occurred what has ever since been of the deepest significance to the churchof God. “There wrestled with him a man till the breaking of day.” That “Man” was the Angel of Jehovah in Whom was His Presence. “And when He saw that He prevailed not against him, He touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob’s thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with Him.” The contest by wrestling must now have become impossible. But a far other contest ensued. “And He said, Let Me go, for the day breaketh. And he (Jacob) said, I will not let Thee go, except Thou bless me.” Jacob had now recognized the character of his opponent and of the contest, and he sought quite another victory, and by quite other means than before. He no longer expected to prevail in his own strength. BHOTV1 119.1
He asked to be blessed by Him with whom he had hitherto only wrestled, that so he might prevail. That blessing was given. But first the Lord brought before him what had been his old name as expressive of his old history—Jacob, “the cunning, self-helpful supplanter;” then He bestowed on him a new name, characteristic of his new experience and better contest by prayer: Israel, “a prince with God.” In that new character would he have “power with God and men,” and “prevail” against all enemies. But the mysterious name of the Angel he must not yet know; for “the mystery of godliness” was not to be fully revealed till all the purposes for which Jacob was to become Israel—had been fulfilled. And now “He blessed him there.” “And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel (the face of God): for I have seen God face to face, and my soul has recovered. 2 And as he passed over Penuel the sun rose upon him, and he halted upon his thigh. Therefore the children of Israel eat not of the sinew which shrank, which is upon the hollow of the thigh, unto this day.” And “to this day,” literally, is this custom observed among “the children of Israel.” BHOTV1 120.1
Now what was the meaning of this solemn transaction? Assuredly, it was symbolical—but of what? It was a real transaction, but symbolical of Jacob’s past, present, and future. The “man” who wrestled with Jacob “until the breaking of day” was Jehovah. Jacob had, indeed, been the believing heir to the promises, but all his life long he had wrestled with God—sought to attain success in his own strength and by his own devices. Seeming to contend with man, he had really contended with God. And God had also contended with him. At last farther contest was impossible. Jacob had become disabled, for God had touched the hollow of his thigh. In the presence of Esau Jacob was helpless. But before he could encounter his most dreaded earthly enemy, he must encounter God, with Whom he had all along, though unwittingly, contended by his struggles and devices. The contest with Esau was nothing; the contest with Jehovah everything. The Lord could not be on Jacob’s side, till he had been disabled, and learned to use other weapons than those of his own wrestling. Then it was that Jacob recognized with whom he had hitherto wrestled. Now he resorted to other weapons, even to prayer; and he sought and found another victory, even in the blessing of Jehovah and by His strength. Then also, truly at “the breaking of day,” he obtained a new name, and with it new power, in which he prevailed with God and man. Jacob, indeed, “halted upon his thigh;” but he was now Israel, a prince with God. And still to all ages this contest and this victory, in despair of our own efforts, and in the persevering prayer, “I will not let Thee go except Thou bless me,” have been and are a most precious symbol to the children of God. May we not also add, that as the prophet Hosea pointed to it as symbolical of Israels history (Hosea 12:4), so it shall be fully realized when BHOTV1 120.2
“they shall look upon Me Whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn?” (Zechariah 12:10) BHOTV1 121.1
As Jacob passed over Jabbok in the early morn, the glittering of spears and lances in the sunlight, among the dark pine forests, betokened the approach of Esau with his four hundred men. But Jacob had nothing more to fear: the only real contest was over. It was necessary, when Jacob returned to take possession of the land and of the promises, that all that was past in his history should be past—it was so! Never, after that night, did Jacob again contend with carnal weapons; and though the old name of Jacob reappears again and again by the side of his new designation, it was to remind both him and us that Jacob, though halting, is not dead, and that there is in us always the twofold nature, alike of Jacob and of Israel. What now followed we cannot tell better than in the words of a recent German writer: “Jacob, who in his contest with the Angel of Jehovah had prevailed by prayer and entreaty, now also prevails by humility and modesty against Esau, who comes to meet him with four hundred men.” As already hinted, Esau had probably been just engaged in that warlike expedition to Mount Seir, which resulted in his conquest of the land, where he afterwards settled. (Genesis 36:6, 7) This accounts for his appearance at the head of an armed band. Possibly, he may, at the same time, have wished to have the revenge of giving anxiety to his brother, and of showing him the contrast between their respective positions; or he may to the last have been undecided how to act towards his brother. At any rate, under the overruling guidance of God, and “overcome by the humility of Jacob, and by the kindliness of his own heart, Esau fell upon the neck of his brother, embraced and kissed him. With reluctance he accepted the rich presents of Jacob, and he offered to accompany him to the end of his journey with his armed men—a proposition which Jacob declined in a friendly spirit. Thus the two brothers, long separated in affection, were reconciled to each other. Their good understanding remained undisturbed till the day of their death.” BHOTV1 121.2
There was nothing in Jacob’s language to his brother which, when translated from Eastern to our Western modes of conduct and expression, is inconsistent with proper self-respect. If he declined the offer of an armed guard, it was because he felt he needed not an earthly host to protect him. Besides, it was manifestly impossible for cattle and tender children to keep up with a Bedouin warrior band. While Esau, therefore, returned to Mount Seir, there to await a visit from his brother, Jacob turned in a north-westerly direction to Succoth, a place still east of Jordan, and afterwards in the possession of the tribe of Gad. Here he probably made a lengthened stay, for we read that “he built him a house, and made booths for his cattle,” whence also the name of Succoth, or “booths.” At last Jacob once more crossed the Jordan’, “and came in peace 3 to the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan.” The words seem designedly chosen to indicate that God had amply fulfilled what Jacob had asked at Bethel: to “come again in peace.” (Genesis 28:21) But great changes had taken place in the country. When Abram entered the land, and made this his first resting-place, there was no city there, and it was only “the place of Shechem.” (Genesis 12:6) But now the district was all cultivated and possessed, and a city had been built, probably by “Hamor the Hivite,” the father of Shechem, who called it after his son. (Comp. Genesis 4:17) From “the children of Hamor” Jacob bought the field on which he “spread his tent.” This was “the portion” which Jacob afterwards gave to his son Joseph (Genesis 48:22), and here the “bones of Joseph, which the children of Israel brought out of Egypt,” were, at least at one time, buried. (Joshua 24:32) Far more interesting than this, we know that by the well which Jacob there dug, sat, many centuries afterwards, “David’s greater Son,” to tell the poor sinning woman of Samaria concerning the “well of water springing up unto everlasting life”—the first non-Jewess blessed to taste the water of which “whosoever drinketh” “shall never thirst.” (John 4:14) Here Jacob erected an altar, and called it El-elohe-Israel, “God, the God of Israel.” BHOTV1 122.1
But his stay at Shechem was to prove a fresh source of trial to Jacob. Dinah, his daughter, at that time (as we gather) about fifteen years of age, in the language of the sacred text, “went out to see the daughters of the land,” or, as Josephus, the Jewish historian, tells us, to take part in a feast of the Shechemites. A more terrible warning than that afforded by the results of her thoughtless and blameworthy participation in irreligious and even heathen festivities could scarcely be given. It led to the ruin of Dinah herself, then to a proposal of an alliance between the Hivites and Israel, to which Israel could not, of course, have agreed; and finally to vile deceit on the part of Simeon and Levi, for the purpose of exacting bloody revenge, by which the whole male population of Shechem were literally exterminated. How deeply the soul of Jacob recoiled from this piece of Eastern cruelty, appears from the fact, that even on his deathbed, many years afterwards, he reverted to it in these words:— BHOTV1 123.1
“Simeon and Levi are brethren; Their swords are weapons of iniquity. O my soul, come not thou into their council; Unto their assembly, mine honor, be not thou united!” (Genesis 49:5, 6) BHOTV1 123.2
But one, though undesigned, consequence of the crime proved a further blessing to Jacob. It was quite clear that he and his family must remove from the scene of Simeon’s and Levi’s treachery and cruelty. Then it was that God directed Jacob to return to Bethel, and fulfill the promise which he had there made on fleeing from the face of Esau his brother. About ten years must have elapsed since the return of Jacob from Mesopotamia’, and yet he had not paid his vows unto the Lord! From what follows, we infer that, in all probability, the reason of this delay had been that the family of Jacob had not been purged from idolatry, and that hitherto Jacob had been too weak to remove from his household what must have rendered his appearance at Bethel morally impossible. But now we read, that “he said unto his household, and to all that were with him, Put away the strange gods that are among you, and be clean, and change your garments” (this as a symbol of purification): “and let us arise, and go up to Bethel.” And all the teraphim and idolatrous “charms” were buried deep down below a terebinth-tree “which was by Shechem.” A touching incident is recorded immediately on their arrival at Bethel. “Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died, and she was buried beneath Bethel, under an oak, and the name of it was called Allon-bachuth (the oak of weeping).” Thus Deborah’s long and faithful service in the household of Isaac, and the family-mourning over the old, tried family friend, are deemed worthy of perpetual memorial in the Book of God! But from the circumstance that Deborah died in the house of Jacob, we infer not only that her mistress Rebekah was dead, but that there must have been some intercourse between Isaac and Jacob since his return to Canaan’. Most probably Jacob had visited his aged parent, though Scripture does not mention it, because it in no way affects the history of the covenant. At Bethel God again appeared to Jacob; and while He once more bestowed on him the name of Israeland the covenant-promises previously given, Jacob also paid his vow unto the Lord, and on his part likewise renewed the designation of the place as Bethel. BHOTV1 123.3
From Bethel they continued their journey towards Mamre, the place of Isaac’s residence. On the way, some distance from Ephrath, “the fruitful,” which in later times was called Bethlehem, “the house of bread,” (Micah 5:2) Rachel died in giving birth to Jacob’s twelfth son. His mother wished to call her child Ben-oni, “the son of my sorrow;” but his father named him Benjamin, which has been variously interpreted as meaning “son of the right hand,” “son of days, i.e. of old age,” and “son of happiness,” because he completed the number of twelve sons. From Jeremiah 31:15, we gather that Rachel actually died in Ramah. “Jacob set a pillar upon her grave.” As the oak, or rather the terebinth, of Deborah was still known at the time of the Judges, when Deborah’s greater namesake dwelt under its shadow, “between Ramah and Bethel in Mount Ephraim,” (Judges 4:5) so the pillar which marked Rachel’s grave was a landmark at the time of Samuel. (1 Samuel 10:2, 3) Another crime yet stained the family of Jacob at Migdal Eder, “the watchtower of the flock,” in consequence of which Reuben was deprived of the privileges of the firstborn. (Genesis 49:4) At last Jacob came to his journey’s end, “unto Isaac his father, unto Mamre, unto the city of Arbah’, which is Hebron, where Abraham and Isaac sojourned.” Here Scripture pauses to record, by way of anticipation, the death of Isaac, at the age of one hundred and eighty years, although that event took place twelve years after Jacob’s arrival at Hebron; and, indeed, Isaac had lived to share his son’s sorrow, when Joseph was sold into Egypt, having only died ten years before Jacob and his sons settled in Egypt. 4 But the course of sacred history has turned from Isaac, and, in fact, Jacob himself is now but a secondary actor in its events. The main interest henceforth centers in Joseph, the elder son of Rachel, with whose life the progress of sacred history is identified. BHOTV1 124.1