Genesis 32:22: The most precisely sited sentence in his life, and he sends everyone over it ahead of him
Read it →Commentary on Genesis 32:22
Jacob is about to meet Esau, the brother he had offended. He sends his whole household over the ford of the Jabbok and stays behind alone, on the bank where God will meet him.
The Order of the Procession
Notice who crossed first and who crossed last:
He planned with real skill. But his faith was weak. And where was any generous, self-sacrificing love for his family? Everything bears the stamp of anxiety as well as cleverness, if not craft. This was his natural character. He was very much a man of God, yet God is not the one he keeps in view and depends on. He depends on his own human resources. Ill at ease, he sends over — I am sorry to say — himself last of all! What he valued most came latest. Jacob was not among the first! His flocks, herds and camels went first, wives and children next, Jacob last. He lined the groups up as a breakwater between the offended brother Esau and trembling Jacob.
Prayer Added to the Plan
There is a way of praying that still leaves us leaning on ourselves:
Nor will it do to make our prayers part of our management. We often feel very satisfied with ourselves when we add prayer to our arrangement. We feel the same when we have used every lawful means and then asked God to bless them. When this is the case, our prayers are worth about as much as our plans, because we are leaning on them instead of on God. God must truly bring us to the end of everything that self has anything to do with. Until then, He cannot show Himself. But we never reach the end of our plans until He has brought us to the end of ourselves.
The Purpose Behind the Empty Bank
The move that shows Jacob at his weakest is the move that puts him exactly where God wanted him:
All — even wives and sons — were sent over the brook at the ford Jabbok, and he was left alone, well to the rear. Not a very dignified or courageous way to act! Yet God was in all this. Now that he was alone, the moment had come for God to bring him face to face with Himself. It would give him an experience whose effect he would never lose. Up to this point his life had been mainly one of scheming against and wrestling with men. Now God, by His Messenger, was going to wrestle with him.
Alone
Now Jacob has nothing left to measure himself against but God:
This is a turning point in the history of this very remarkable man. Being left alone with God is the only true way to reach a right knowledge of ourselves and our ways. We can never get a true estimate of our nature and all it does until we have weighed it in the balance of the sanctuary. There we find out its real worth. It does not matter what we think about ourselves, or what others think about us. The great question is this: what does God think about us? We can hear the answer only when we are "left alone."
God does not deal with every believer this way:
"Jacob was left alone." God is wise, holy and loving in His dealings. Jacob was conscious that the Lord had blessed him, yet He must have Jacob discover where he was. No prosperity, no children could be any comfort to him if he did not have peace with God in practice. God has a controversy with the soul if it is not walking with Him. If I am walking up to the light I have, and not with a bad conscience, He has no controversy with me. You never hear of God wrestling with Abraham; he intercedes for others. This is God's dealing with a person who is not walking simply and practically by faith.
Who Wrestled with Whom
Who started the struggle that followed?
When Jacob was left alone, a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day — not Jacob with God, but God with Jacob. God wrestles with us: the flesh must be put to death. God can have no communion with the flesh.
Summary
- Alone by accident. Jacob sent flocks, servants, wives and children over the Jabbok as a breakwater against Esau. He came last — from fear, not courage.
- Alone by design. The fearful plan still served God's timing. Alone on the bank, Jacob had reached the moment God was waiting for.
- Alone is where self is measured. Away from everything, the only verdict left is God's verdict, and that is the one that counts.
- Alone because God had a controversy. God deals this way with a believer who is not walking simply by faith. He never wrestled with Abraham, who prayed for others.
- Alone with the stronger One. The struggle at the ford was God wrestling with Jacob, not Jacob wearing God down. The end of Jacob's own management was where God could show Himself.
