He took his brother by the heel in the womb, and in his strength he wrestled with God.
Hosea has been listing Israel's sins, and now he reaches back to the family's beginning — to the twin born gripping his brother's heel, who later wrestled and won. Why does God answer a nation's guilt with its ancestor's story, and is Jacob a warning here or a hope?
(The ESV reads "he strove with God." Older translations read "by his strength he had power with God" — the wording the writers below comment on.)
The prophet is not telling old family history. He is showing a people their own face.
The prophet goes into the detail of God's moral dealings with Israel, so that the force of His rejecting them may convict them of their sin. They were to study how God had dealt with Jacob. In this chapter, as also in Hosea 10:9, the prophet refers back to the beginning of evil in the history of the people. Jacob's character reappeared in his descendants.
The first clause points to something visible before Jacob had done or chosen anything.
The second son, Jacob, followed closely, his hand holding the heel of Esau. This is told us to show what would be true of Jacob in his life. His name means "he will take by the heel." … His hand grasped for the blessing Esau was going to receive. This tells us what Jacob was in the flesh. But later his name was changed to Israel, "a prince with God." God's counsels would stand, and He did a work in Jacob's soul that made a glorious change in the man.
The verse sets a grasping birth beside a victory. One is Jacob; the other is what God gave him.
From the first, Jacob did what showed he would supplant his brother, and that was before anyone could put it down to a character he had grown into. On the other side, God recalls what grace did when it gave him strength beyond his own in his weakness. When the sinew of his thigh shrank, God strengthened him to prevail with the angel. And he gained the name that pledges to Abraham's descendants the blessing of grace and victory over everything.
Read alone, "he had power with God" sounds like a man overpowering heaven.
People often say that Jacob wrestled with the Lord who came to him that night. It is the other way round — the Lord wrestled with Jacob. … Jacob uses the same fleshly weapons he had used against God in the past. He meets Him in his own natural strength. The Lord overcomes that stubbornness by touching Jacob's hip-joint and putting it out of joint. In this way He completely crippled his strength, and now Jacob could wrestle no more. In utter weakness and helplessness he could only cling to Him and ask a blessing. … The weeping and supplication was his strength.
Hosea moves straight from the wrestling to Bethel. The order matters: winning a blessing and knowing God's name are two different moments.
He reminds them that there was a time when Jacob could wrestle with his God, plead with Him, and prevail. Afterwards God found him at Bethel, and there God, even Jehovah, spoke to him and revealed His name to him. At Peniel He had not done that.
Because Jacob's character lives on in his sons, so does the cure. Writers read that night as a map of Israel's future.
In the application, we must remember that it is a remnant that represents and grows into the nation. For these, as for their father, Peniel prepares for Bethel. God's name is still unknown to them. To keep them out of their enemies' hands, He must take them into His own hands. He cripples the human strength they fight Him with, so that in weakness they may hold Him fast for blessing. They must confess the name that is theirs by nature, so that grace may change it for the name they are to bear from then on.
The same principle holds for every reader, not only for Israel.
We must always keep in the place of weakness, for it is the place of power. … Jacob had gained the victory through his disjointed thigh. … He had to meet Esau now with a shrunken sinew. But it taught him not to trust his own natural strength, but the One who had weakened him and made him strong.
- Heel — Jacob's grip on his brother marked him a supplanter from birth. The same character came back in his descendants, so Hosea makes them study his story.
- Crippling — The wrestling was God's move, not Jacob's. The touch on his thigh took away the natural strength he had always fought with.
- Grace — His power with God was strength given beyond his own, in weakness. The victory belonged to grace, not to the grasping man.
- Bethel — Peniel won Jacob a new name, but God kept His own name back until Bethel.
- Ahead — The father's story maps the nation's future. Peniel prepares for Bethel: God breaks their strength so that in weakness they hold Him fast for blessing.
Yea, he wrestled with the Angel, and prevailed; he wept, and made supplication unto him he found him in Bethel, and there he spoke with us,
Hosea speaks to people who had turned to idols, and God answers them with a story they already know: the night their father Jacob wrestled, wept, and came away with a new name. Two places stand behind the verse — Peniel, where he prevailed, and Bethel, where God spoke to him.
Jacob wrestled with someone he afterwards called God. Commentators set Hosea's word "the angel" beside other places where an angel speaks and acts as God Himself.
At Peniel — the name means the face of God — Jacob declares that he had seen God face to face and lived. Hosea says "he had power over the angel and prevailed." It is the same with Manoah. Scripture says "the angel of the LORD did wonderful things," and Manoah says "we have seen God," and the words are received as the LORD's.
The popular picture is of a determined man holding out against heaven. Commentators turn that picture around. They make the crippling of Jacob's hip the turning point of the night.
People often say that Jacob wrestled with the Lord who came to him that night. It is the other way round: the Lord wrestled with Jacob... Jacob uses the same human weapons he had used against God in the past. He meets Him in his own natural strength. The Lord overcomes that stubbornness by touching Jacob's hip joint and putting it out of place. In this way He completely crippled his strength and now Jacob could wrestle no more. In utter weakness and helplessness he could but cling to Him and ask a blessing... The weeping and supplication was his strength. His name is changed. From now on his name is "Israel" — a Prince with God.
"He wept and sought his favor" is not a defeat tucked inside a victory. It is the victory itself.
It was his weakness that prevailed, not his strength. Yes, it is our weakness that has power with God. Just as an infant's cry has power with a mother more than the cry of a strong man. Why does a mother run so eagerly at the cry of her babe? It is the cry of helplessness, and until we learn our utter weakness we shall never have power with God.
The man who cowered before Esau is the man who prevailed and gained a new name.
When the sinew of his thigh had shrunk, God gave him strength to prevail with the angel, and he gained the name which pledges the blessing of grace and all overcoming to the seed of Abraham. What! The man who cowered and wept for fear of Esau? The very same man, on that very same occasion. Esau was coming, and the danger alarmed him; he was full of plans, though he prayed as well. There he learns that grace is enough, and this strength is made perfect in his weakness.
The verse moves from the wrestling to Bethel. Commentators mark a real difference between the two places.
He reminds them of a time when Jacob could wrestle with his God, plead with Him, and prevail. Afterwards God found him in Bethel. There God, the LORD Himself, spoke to him and revealed His name to him — which He had not done at Peniel.
For Hosea's hearers, the name Bethel was also an accusation, because of what they had set up there. Some translations read "he found him in Bethel," making God the one who came looking.
"He found him (Jacob) in Bethel!" The Lord found Jacob in Bethel, and Jacob found the Lord there. In that very place they had set up their awful, God-denying idol worship. Where God had shown such mercy, they now practised what was detestable. The LORD, the God of hosts, was still the same. He is the Lord who changes not. He was waiting still for their return.
The verse slips from "him" to "us." Jacob's story is handed to Jacob's sons as their own.
He reminds them of past mercy to their father Jacob as a present lesson to his sons. How many a soul has been brought back to God by reminding it of joys once tasted, though long, long forgotten! And the LORD will use any and every right measure to win His people back to Himself.
- Broken — God wrestled with Jacob, not Jacob with God. The touch on the hip ended the fight, and "now Jacob could wrestle no more."
- Clinging — with his strength gone, all he could do was hold on and ask. His weeping and pleading were his strength.
- Named — the same weakness won him the name Israel — the name "which pledges the blessing of grace and all overcoming to the seed of Abraham."
- Known — Peniel gave Jacob the victory. At Bethel God revealed His name, which He had not done at Peniel.
- Recalled — God sets this memory before people who had filled Bethel with idols. He "will use any and every right measure to win His people back to Himself."
-- even Jehovah, the God of hosts, -- Jehovah is his memorial.
Hosea pleads with a nation that has drifted. He does it by reaching back to their ancestor Jacob: the wrestling, the praying, the meeting at Bethel. Verse 5 is the climax of that appeal: it names the God who did all this, and the name itself becomes the argument.
The verse sits at the end of a short retelling of Jacob's life. One commentator points to something God did at Bethel that He had not done at Peniel, where Jacob wrestled.
He reminds them that there was a time when Jacob could wrestle with his God, plead with Him, and prevail. Afterwards He found him in Bethel. There God, even Jehovah, spoke to him and revealed His name to him, which in fact He had not done at Peniel. Now, the name He proclaimed on that occasion was His memorial for ever. So let them return to God, and wait on Him continually.
The sentence slips from "him" to "us." Hosea's hearers do not stand outside the story. The words include them.
"He found him in Bethel, and there he spoke with us" — a striking and moving way of identifying the children with their forefathers.
The name of the place explains why it mattered:
Bethel means "house of God." After years of wandering Jacob returned there, and learned precious lessons about the God he had to deal with (Gen. 35:1-15). Several centuries later Jehovah looked back with great tenderness on Jacob's second visit to Bethel.
The word points back to Exodus, where God gave Moses His name. One writer weighs which name God tied to Israel for ever — not the name of bare power, but one bound to people.
How infinitely gracious of God! The name He took for ever in connection with Israel is not the name that reduces every other creature to nothing, the name that makes everything only the result of His word and His will. He loves and cherishes the name in which He has bound up the objects of His choice with Himself.
That name is more than a label. It is something God has staked Himself on:
In Exodus 3:14-15, His name is the memorial for His people for ever. He remembers His covenant with the fathers (Exodus 2:24), and He pledges His name on behalf of His people.
The second title in the verse belongs to a certain moment in Israel's history. It appears not in her strong days, but in her low ones.
We do not meet with this name until 1 Samuel 1:3. It came in with prophetic testimony, when faith laid hold of Jehovah's glory after Israel had corrupted themselves and were weak and low… We read of "the God of hosts" only a few times by comparison. It is mostly "Jehovah of hosts," and at times "Jehovah God of hosts." This shows that God revealed Himself under this name in connection with Israel.
Another writer adds what the title is worth to people who have nothing left:
Many of the prophets use this name, above all in days of weakness and failure. It is good to know that, despite man's failure, there is an all-sufficient God, and His resources have no limit.
There is a sharp edge to the verse. By Hosea's time Israel had tied the place where God once spoke to their idols.
See how God remembers every point of contact of every kind between Himself and Israel! He recalls the moments of grace on His part, and even Jacob's faith. This is true affection. Meanwhile Israel drifted on, completely unfeeling and forgetful, or used these memorials, such as Bethel and Gilead, to tie idolatry to what memory still clung to. But how wonderful this is! And how we forget the proofs of the most loving grace we have had from God, and go on with lazy minds!
- Memory is the method. God recalls what He once did for Jacob, lets past grace press on present hearts, and calls them back to wait on Him.
- Memory has a place. Bethel, "house of God," is where God spoke and made His name known, which He had not done at Peniel.
- Memory includes you. "There God spoke with us" folds the descendants into their father's meeting with God; what God said to one, He said to all.
- Memory has a name. God bound His memorial name up with the people He chose, and pledged it on their behalf, from Exodus onward.
- Memory can go wrong. Israel kept the sites and lost the God. The same Bethel got tied to idols. You can hold the place and forget the Person.