Genesis 32:1

LET us go even unto Mahanaim and see these great sights. First, let us go with Jacob and see the two camps of angels and then with David to observe his troops of friends. Jacob shall have our first consideration. What a varied experience is that of God's people! Their pilgrimage is over a shifting sand; their tent is always moving and the scene around them always changing. Here is Jacob, at one time contending for a livelihood with Laban, playing trick against trick in order to match his father-in-law.

LET us go even unto Mahanaim and see these great sights. First, let us go with Jacob and see the two camps of angels and then with David to observe his troops of friends. Jacob shall have our first consideration. What a varied experience is that of God's people! Their pilgrimage is over a shifting sand; their tent is always moving and the scene around them always changing. Here is Jacob, at one time contending for a livelihood with Laban, playing trick against trick in order to match his father-in-law. Then he prospers and determines to abide no more in such servitude. He flees, is pursued, debates with his angry relative and ends the contention with a truce and a sacrifice. This unseemly family warfare must have been a very unhappy thing for Jacob, by no means tending to raise the tone of his thoughts, or sweeten his temper, or ennoble his spirit. What a change happened to him when, the next day, after Laban had gone, Jacob found himself in the presence of angels! Here is a picture of a very different kind—the churl has gone and the cherubs have come—the greedy taskmaster has turned his back and the happy messengers of the blessed God have come to welcome the Patriarch on his return from exile! It is hard to realize, to the full, the complete transformation. Such changes occur in all lives but, I think, most of all in the lives of Believers. Few passages across the ocean of life are quite free from storm, but the redeemed of the Lord may reckon upon being tossed with tempest even if others escape. "Many are the afflictions of the righteous." Yet trials last not forever—clear shining comes after rain. Change always works. We pass from storm to calm, from breeze to hurricane—we coast the shores of peace and then we are driven upon the sandbanks of fear.

The angels of God met him - Our word angel comes from the Greek αγγελος aggelos, which literally signifies a messenger; or, as translated in some of our old Bibles, a tidings-bringer. The Hebrew word מלאך malach, from לאך laach, to send, minister to, employ, is nearly of the same import; and hence we may see the propriety of St. Augustine’s remark: Nomen non naturae sed officii, “It is a name, not of nature, but of office;” and hence it is applied indifferently to a human agent or messenger, 2Sa 2:5; to a prophet, Hag 1:13; to a priest, Mal 2:7; to celestial spirits, Psa 103:19, Psa 103:20, Psa 103:22; Psa 104:4. “We often,” says Mr. Parkhurst, “read of the מלאך יהוה malach Yehovah, or מלאכי אלהים malakey Elohim, the angel of Jehovah, or the angels of God, that is, his agent, personator, mean of visibility or action, what was employed by God to render himself visible and approachable by flesh and blood.”

- Jacob Wrestles in Prayer 3. מחנים machănāyı̂m, Machanaim, “two camps.” 22. יבק yaboq, Jabboq; related: בקק bāqaq “gush or gurgle out” or אבק 'ābaq in niphal, “wrestle.” Now Wady Zurka. 29. ישׂראל yı̂śrā'ēl, Jisrael, “prince of God.” 31. פניאל penı̂y'ēl = פנוּאל penû'ēl, Peniel, Penuel, “face of God.” After twenty years spent in Aram, Jacob now returns to Kenann. As his departure was marked by a great moment in his spiritual life, so he is now approaching to a crisis in his life of no less significance Gen 32:1-3 Jacob has a vision of the heavenly host.