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.