Q. Who wrestled with an angel in the bible? Why did this wrestling match occur?

A. The person who wrestled with an angel was Jacob, son of Isaac, grandson of Abraham.  The story is that Jacob has traveled to the home of his mother’s brother, Laban to find a wife and wound up with two wives.  Laban tricked Jacob into marrying Laban’s oldest daughter, Leah, when Jacob actually meant to marry her younger sister Rachel.  He worked for Laban seven (7) years for each of the women and then decides to return to the home of his father Isaac.  On the way back, Jacob sent his sons and wives across the ford (a shallow area where one could cross without too much difficulty) in the river Jabbok but remained on the other side.  The story picks up there:

"That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two maidservants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions.

So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob's hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. Then the man said, 'Let me go, for it is daybreak.' But Jacob replied, 'I will not let you go unless you bless me.' The man asked him, 'What is your name?'   'Jacob,' he answered. Then the man said, 'Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome.' Jacob said, 'Please tell me your name.'  But he replied, 'Why do you ask my name?' Then he blessed him there.

So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, 'It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.' The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel, and he was limping because of his hip. Therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the tendon attached to the socket of the hip, because the socket of Jacob's hip was touched near the tendon. " (Genesis 32:22-32, NIV)

 

As you read, the scripture does not say that Jacob wrestled with an “angel” but with a “man”.  The man does not tell Jacob His name but says that Jacob had “struggled with God”, and Jacob says he “saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.”  Because of this, many think that this was actually God, the Son who had appeared before to both Abraham [Genesis 12:7; 17:1; 18:1 and Isaac [Genesis 26:1,24] in the form of a “man”.

It was also after the battle was over that God renamed Jacob, Israel. [Genesis 32:28]

Other Recommended Bible Study Materials:

• Who Was Melchizedek, the person Abraham met? How is Melchizedek related to Jesus?
• How did Sunday Keeping Begin?
• I hear the term "balm of Gilead" used when someone needs healing. What is it?

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