Ok… right outa the gate we have another totally wild statement just nonchalantly dropped in the text:

“Now as Jacob went on his way, the angels of God met him. And when he saw them, Jacob said, “This is God’s camp.” So he named that place Mahanaim.” Genesis‬ ‭32‬:‭1‬-‭2‬ ‭NASB2020‬‬

What. On. Earth just happened?!

😳🤯😳🤯😳🤯

Doot-duh-doo… nothin’ to see here.

Ya know, just the 52nd Airborne Division of the heavenly angel army out on patrol.

Umm. Details????

Jacob: Yeah- think I’ll name this spot Mahanaim. Means “double camp.” Cuz we camped here. WITH THE ANGELS. You’d like to know more about that wouldn’t ya? Well I’m not gonna tell. We’re just gonna name-drop that and move right along.

Mahanaim is pronounced makh-an-ah-yeem. It’s a doubled form of machaneh (camp). Maybe Jacob got an idea from the double-camp-with-the-angels experience because he divides his caravan into two groups (v7) and even calls his own squad shenayim machaneh (two camps/companies, v10). He does this as a defensive maneuver when his messengers return with news that Esau is coming to meet him. With 400 men.

Dun dun DUN…😧

Jacob sends several presents on-the-hoof ahead of them to try to appease Esau. I mean, the last thing we heard from Esau is that he planned to murder Jacob so anything is worth a try.

And Jacob prays. Probably all night. He doesn’t know as we do that they won’t all be dead in the morning.

“Then Jacob said, “God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, Lord, who said to me, ‘Return to your country and to your relatives, and I will make you prosper,’ I am unworthy of all the favor and of all the faithfulness, which You have shown to Your servant; for with only my staff I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two companies. Save me, please, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau; for I fear him, that he will come and attack me and the mothers with the children. For You said, ‘I will assuredly make you prosper and make your descendants as the sand of the sea, which is too great to be counted.’ ” Genesis‬ ‭32‬:‭9‬-‭12‬ ‭NASB2020‬‬

After sending the gifts ahead (presumably to meet up with Esau by daylight), and getting his sizable family (4 women, 11 kids) across the brook, a mystery man finds Jacob alone and wrestles with him.

This is SO weird.

Is it normal for men to wrestle before being introduced?

A stranger saunters out of the brush and… what? Jacob just tackles him first and asks questions later? Seems so.

At what point does Jacob suspect that this man is THE Angel of the Lord (the 2nd YHWH figure, the embodied Word)? He had to have known, right? Why else would he ask the mystery man to bless him?

Why is the mystery man not able to beat Jacob? Did He set aside His divine power for a moment like gentlemen removing their suit coats to have a good tussle? I mean, he dislocated Jacob’s hip with a touch but couldn’t beat him in wrestling?

I’ve wrestled with the Lord myself for several hours over this passage. It didn’t make sense. How is it that a man could wrestle with God and “prevail?” So I prayed. And dug. And the Lord gave me some clues that helped. I’m gonna share them.

In my Greek Orthodox study Bible there’s a note that is credited to Athanasius the Great and Hilary of Poitiers that says the Word of God “appeared to him (Jacob) as a weak man. When He became incarnate, He assumed the weakness of human flesh for man’s salvation.”

So the Angel of YHWH takes on weakness so Jacob can pin Him down. Is that not what Christ did on the cross? Allow sinful man to pin Him down? And in the cross, though it appears that man has prevailed, it is actually The Lord Who wins. The weakness is strength in disguise. God is tricking the trickster.

Jacob will release the man on one condition: “Bless me.” But the mystery man instead asks Jacob what his name is. I have an idea on that. Your name has to do with your identity. Jacob means “heel-catcher.” It’s the idea of tripping your competition to win. That’s what Jacob has been doing his whole life. With Esau. With Isaac. With Laban. And it’s how he self-identifies. So God is going to change that- not by adding a letter like He did with Abraham and Sarah, but a whole new name.

“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.” Genesis‬ ‭32‬:‭28‬ ‭LEB‬‬

I got so hung up here. How on earth does a human struggle with God and come out the winner?

So I prayed.

And studied more.

Then I stumbled across this text in Hosea of all places while trying to dig into what it means that Jacob “prevailed.”

“The Lord has an indictment against Judah and will punish Jacob according to his ways; he will repay him according to his deeds. In the womb he took his brother by the heel, and in his manhood he strove with God. He strove with the angel and prevailed; he wept and sought his favor. He met God at Bethel, and there God spoke with us.”
‭‭Hosea‬ ‭12‬:‭2‬-‭4‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Wait… Jacob wept? I read this Hosea passage in a bunch of translations. They all say he wept. The Genesis narrative doesn’t include that detail. Weeping and entreating another for favor is hardly the posture of a winner- one who has “prevailed.” What’s happening here? As I pictured Jacob clinging to the Angel of YHWH, weeping and begging for a blessing- it hit me:

This is exactly the picture of Esau weeping and begging Isaac for a blessing. Anything. Even a scrap. Something to claim as his own.

🪑🤔🤯

Did Jacob see his blessing as illegitimate because he got it by deceiving his father? Is that why he’s begging YHWH for a new blessing? Does the first blessing not count in Jacob’s eyes?

That kept tripping me up because I was like – Dude, God promised to bless you already! And He has! You have 4 women, 11 kids, a whole ranch-worth of livestock, and a promised land to settle in. What more do you want?!

Maybe what he was saying was “I want my own blessing! I’m not Esau. I’m tired of living a lie. I’m tired of the deception. I’m tired of trying to live out someone else’s identity. Is there any blessing for me, my Father?”

Jacob didn’t just wrestle with God. He wrestled with his own identity.

He pinned the Word of God down with his own guilty hands, wept over what his life had become and humbly entreated the Lord for a fresh start.

Is that not what happens when a person repents? Do we not recognize that it was our sins that pinned down the Son of God? And we weep and ask Him for a blessing? And it is at conversion that the Lord gives us a new name- His own name.

Depending on where you look it up, Israel means “prince with God”, “God fights”, “God prevails,” “God persists,” and a few more.

Israel is based on sara (saw-RAH) and El. Sara is used only here and in the Hosea passage I quoted. The Hebrew lemma is Shin Resh Hey. It’s translated “to prevail” (persist, persevere). The essence of it in Paleo Hebrew is: to face the Chief of Mankind. Jacob did indeed face the Chief of Mankind and, miraculously, he did not die.

Israel in Hebrew is:

Yod – ability, power

Shin – face

Resh – chief

Alef – strong

Lamed – shepherd

Who has the ability to face the chief strong shepherd? The first answer is Christ. And he shares with the saint this name. Jesus gives His brethren the ability to face the Chief Strong Shepherd- to stand before the face of God and not die.

“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” Romans‬ ‭5‬:‭1‬-‭2‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God…”
‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭2‬:‭18‬-‭19‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“…so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him.” Ephesians‬ ‭3‬:‭10‬-‭12‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Shall I keep going?

“Therefore let’s approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace for help at the time of our need.” Hebrews‬ ‭4‬:‭16‬ ‭NASB2020‬‬

“Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, through His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let’s approach God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.”
‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭10‬:‭19‬-‭22‬ ‭NASB2020‬‬

Jacob is the picture of man who wrestles with God who appears out of nowhere and enters the human story in weakness. Sinful man pins Him down but He rises up just before the break of dawn. In tearful repentance man receives a new identity and an eternal blessing. His new identity is: one who has the ability to face the Chief Strong Shepherd. Jesus is the One Who stands face to face with God (Peniel). And through Christ, a man can “prevail” (persist, persevere, live and not die) in the presence of Almighty God. The Redeemed are in Christ sharing His bold access to the Father.

I love the Septuagint translation for 32:30. Jacob said, “I saw God face to face and my soul was saved.” If you want to see God, just look into the face of Jesus. That’s what it takes to be saved.

Click here for a “Selah” moment… (Song: Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus)

As to why the mystery man won’t tell Jacob His name- this other incident comes to mind. It’s when the Angel of the Lord appears to Samson’s parents:

“Then Manoah asked the angel of the Lord, “What is your name? For when all this comes true, we want to honor you.” “Why do you ask my name?” the angel of the Lord replied. “It is too wonderful for you to understand.” Judges‬ ‭13‬:‭17‬-‭18‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Jacob: What is your name?

Mystery Man: You wouldn’t understand it if I told you.

I hope this has blessed you as much as it has blessed me. Let me leave you with this line from a song by King David:

“The angel of Yahweh encamps around those who fear him, and he rescues them.”
‭‭Psalms‬ ‭34‬:‭7‬ ‭LEB‬‬

He isn’t just a character in a story. May your home be Mahanaim. God’s Camp.