And when he saw that he did not prevail against him, he touched the joint of his thigh; and the joint of Jacob's thigh was dislocated as he wrestled with him.
Jacob is alone at night, waiting to face the brother he cheated, when a stranger takes hold of him. They struggle until dawn. The verse turns on one touch. That single moment ends the fight and marks Jacob for life.
The scene is often read as a picture of a determined man storming heaven. Commentators read the grammar the other way round. Who is holding whom changes the whole meaning.
"Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him." Notice, it was not Jacob wrestling with a man, but a man wrestling with Jacob. This scene is very commonly referred to as an instance of Jacob's power in prayer. That it is not this is clear from the simple wording of the passage. My wrestling with a man, and a man wrestling with me, present two totally different ideas to the mind. In the first case I want to gain something from him; in the second, he wants to gain something from me. Now, in Jacob's case, the divine object was to bring him to see what a poor, feeble, worthless creature he was, and when Jacob held out so stubbornly against God's dealing with him, God touched his hip socket and put it out of joint. The sentence of death must be written on the flesh. We must know the power of the cross before we can walk with God steadily and happily.
The verse says the man did not prevail against Jacob — a strange thing to say of God. One writer finds grace in it.
God, as a man, meets him and wrestles with him. He had been wrestling with him all his life, but now it was face to face. God stooped to say, "Let me go, for the day is breaking," and then He put it into Jacob's heart to say, "I will not let you go unless you bless me." It is the very thing God was waiting to hear... So here with Jacob: God wanted him to prevail so that He might bless him. This is the way His grace works. And He gives him a new name. We read that the lesser is blessed by the greater. The Greater here is the One who "did not prevail against him." Wonderful! The One who blesses is the one who did not prevail, and the poor man who as a prince had power with God and had prevailed is made lame for life.
Commentators name the wrestler differently. One says God met Jacob face to face as a man; another speaks of the angel.
The wrestler waits until dawn to use the one move that settles it. That delay is deliberate. Older translations call the hip socket "the hollow of his thigh."
Finally, because Jacob continued to struggle, the Lord simply "touched the hollow of his thigh," putting it out of joint (v. 25). He could have done this earlier, but He had given Jacob a chance to submit without any drastic action. Usually, though, we need some hard measures before we learn to truly submit to God.
The target chosen is not random. It is the exact place that decides a wrestling match.
At last the angel put forth a little more power, for he wrestled as man meets man, and crippled Jacob in the thigh. The thigh is a vulnerable point in the wrestler. When the thigh is out of joint, a man is not able to wrestle any more.
Once the hip goes, Jacob cannot fight — but he does not let go. One writer makes that shift the test of every believer.
It is not now God wrestling with Jacob, but Jacob clinging to God; and this is what it ought to be with all of us. If we cling to another, it implies that we trust in his strength; if we wrestle, it shows that we have confidence in our own. Are we clinging or wrestling? Weakness clings, strength wrestles.
The injury never heals. Jacob walks with a limp for the rest of his days.
He touches the hollow of Jacob's thigh. The Lord breaks him down. If He is to bless, He must give Jacob a lasting discovery of what he is, and Jacob carries it with him all along. It was grace and mercy. He was a limping Jacob all through, because he was limping in his walk with God... He had been limping morally, and God makes him limp in his body.
The same writer compares Jacob before the touch with Jacob after it.
It was his weakness that prevailed, not his strength... It was not the strong Jacob of verse 24, but the weak Jacob of verse 25, that prevailed.
- Direction. Read the sentence carefully: a man wrestles with Jacob, not Jacob with a man. God is the one seeking something here.
- Delay. The touch could have come at any hour. God gave Jacob a whole night to yield before taking the harder route.
- Touch. One touch on the hip socket ends a night of straining. The thigh is where a wrestler's strength lives.
- Cling. A man who cannot wrestle can still hold on. Wrestling trusts our strength; clinging trusts His.
- Limp. Jacob had been limping morally for years. Now he limps for all to see — the lasting mark that his weakness, not his strength, prevailed.
And he said, Let me go, for the dawn ariseth. And he said, I will not let thee go except thou bless me.
Jacob is alone at night, and a man wrestles with him until daybreak. A single touch has just thrown his hip out of joint. He speaks the words of this verse as a crippled man, and commentators read his demand in more than one way.
Jacob had spent his life arranging outcomes. One writer points to the exact moment his words changed.
This was a new era in the history of the supplanting, planning Jacob. Up to this point he had held on to his own ways and means. But now God brings him to say, "I will not let you go." Notice, reader, that Jacob did not speak like this until "the hollow of his thigh was touched." That simple fact is enough to settle the true meaning of the whole scene. God was wrestling with Jacob to bring him to this point.
"Let me go" sounds like a wish to escape. One writer reads it as an opening left for Jacob.
The Lord had made Jacob unfit to wrestle any more, but Jacob was still clinging to Him. The Lord told him, "Let me go, for the day has broken." He could have left at once. Instead He gave Jacob the chance to say what he did: "I will not let You go unless You bless me" (v. 26). At least Jacob's faith was real, though it was weak.
The scene changes direction at this verse. The grip is still there, but it now means the opposite of what it meant before.
It is not now God wrestling with Jacob, but Jacob clinging to God; and this is what it ought to be with all of us. If we cling to another, it implies that we trust in his strength; if we wrestle, it shows that we have confidence in our own. Are we clinging or wrestling? Weakness clings, strength wrestles. … It is one thing for God to lay hold of us, and quite another for us to lay hold of Him. Only a person who feels his own weakness knows how to do that.
Jacob asks his blessing from the very person who has just injured him. The writer turns that into an appeal to the reader.
He finds his joint is out, and he clings to the One who has crippled him. Friend! Cling to the mighty One. Cling to the One who brings you down and reduces you. It is blessing to cling to Him. It is sorrow to oppose Him.
The change in Jacob is not only in his body. One writer describes what now fills his mind.
It is no longer his own ability that fills Jacob's mind, but the resources of God. What a vast change! He now takes the place of a receiver instead of a planner. He draws his blessings from another, knowing he has nothing in himself to draw on.
Scripture looks back at this night later, and the picture is not one of muscle.
At the very time the sinew of his thigh was shrunk, God strengthened him to prevail with the angel. He gained the name that pledges the blessing of grace, and every victory, to the descendants of Abraham. "Yes, he had power over the angel, and prevailed: he wept, and made supplication to him." What! The man who cowered and wept for fear of Esau? That same man, on that very occasion, learns that grace is enough. He finds this strength made perfect in his weakness.
Jacob gets the blessing he asks for. He does not get everything he wants.
He says, "I will not let You go unless You bless me." It was right in its place. But it was not happy fellowship; it was forcing blessing out of God, as it were. He will not tell Jacob His name. Faith won the blessing, but God did not reveal Himself… He came to give blessing, but He does not reveal Himself. That is the effect of not walking with God.
Commentators differ over Jacob's tone here. Most hear faith holding on; one writer hears bargaining.
"He said, Let me go, for the day has broken": the most critical moment has arrived. Will Jacob answer to it? No! … Jacob dares to argue with the Lord, and to make terms with Him. At first he had made God's glory depend on his blessing, and now he would stake his blessing on his strength.
- Touched — Jacob speaks these words only after the touch that put his thigh out of joint. That order settles the meaning of the scene.
- Clinging — the grip changes meaning: wrestling trusts my strength, clinging trusts His. Weakness clings.
- Receiving — the planner stops planning and takes his blessing as a gift from another.
- Prevailing — Scripture describes the victory as weeping and pleading, strength made perfect in weakness.
- Limited — he leaves with the blessing and a new name, but God does not tell him His own name.