A Study in God’s Plan for Mankind: Study 4a

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“Jacob’s Hip: A Brief Side-Study and Reflection”

“And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his
thigh; and the hollow of Jacob’s thigh was strained, as he wrestled with him.” – Genesis 32:25

The previous set of posts in the study of God’s plan for mankind have focused on the period of time in mankind’s history that we named “the Patriarchal Age”. In these posts, we have been examining how, during this age, God had been dealing with mankind through three successive leaders, or patriarchs: Abraham, his son Isaac, and then Isaac’s son, Jacob. We also discussed how the Bible recounts how God Himself refers to Himself as “the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob”, and how, throughout the Bible, others also refer to God by this identification. In this post, we pause from our examination of God’s plan to reflect on an incident involving one of these three patriarchs, Jacob, and to reflect more a brief period on what the experience may mean to us, as followers of God in today’s world.

The story of Jacob and his brother Esau is probably a familiar one to those of even a passing familiarity with the Bible’s Old Testament, as it has been a Sunday school stable for young ones for many generations. As Bible students, Jacob remains a keen person of interest, due in no small part because of his lineage as Abraham’s direct grandson.

One of the most important series of events in the Old Testament is the repeated promise of God to Abraham that “in thy seed [Abraham’s lineage] shall all the nations of the earth be blessed (Genesis 22:18). This promise is often referred to as the Abrahamic Covenant, which we have reviewed in the past few posts in this study. This promise was repeated to later, as we have seen, to Jacob, Abraham’s grandson, in Genesis 35:11. If nothing else, the fact that Jacob was a direct recipient of a re-iteration of a promise from the Supreme Creator of all, and further that the fulfillment of that promise would have an overwhelmingly profound impact and application to every person who ever lived, suggests that he is a figure in the Bible well worth continued consideration and reflection.

Probably the account that most people will recall about Jacob takes place in Genesis 27 1-46. Here we find out that when Isaac, Jacob’s father (and Abraham’s son) was approaching the end of his life, his eyesight became very poor (verse 1). It was very important in those days for fathers to hand their chosen sons a blessing before they died. This concept, combined with the concept of a birthright, is referred to also as primogeniture, is well-established throughout history, and still has implications in today’s laws, although maybe not to the same degree as in Isaac and Jacob’s day (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primogeniture). As his firstborn son, Esau had expected to receive Isaac’s blessing. It should be noted that Esau had previously already sold his birthright to his brother Jacob for a bowl of stew (Genesis 25:27-34).

Perhaps this was on Esau’s mind as his father neared the end of his life, and contributed to the value Esau was placing on obtaining his father’s blessing. Regardless, when Isaac called Esau to his side as he neared the end of his life, he asked Esau to go out and hunt some game, prepare it for him, then return with the food and receive his blessing (Genesis 27:1-4). Esau was no doubt glad to fulfill what he may have perceived as his father’s last request, and was certainly looking forward to receiving his father’s blessing as well. However, after Esau left to hunt the food that his father had requested, Jacob’s mother, Rebekah, spoke to Jacob, and convinced him to to allow her to make food to give to his father, and to wrap his hands in animal skins. By doing so, she hoped to convince Isaac, whose sight was extremely poor, that Jacob was Esau, and that by so doing, would give his blessing to Jacob. (Genesis 27:6-17).

The plan worked. Isaac did indeed give his blessing to Jacob, instead of Esau. When Esau returned from hunting, as his father had requested, and discovered what had taken place while his was away, he was extremely angry with Jacob. News of his anger reached Rebekah, Jacob’s mother, and before Esau could find him, warned Jacob to leave and go live with her brother, Jacob’s uncle, for a time, until Esau’s anger had passed (Genesis 27:41-46).

Although Isaac originally told Jacob to go to his uncle’s for a few days (Genesis 27:44), he ended up staying and working for his uncle for twenty years (Genesis 31:41). While there, through hard work and God’s assistance, Jacob gained two wives, servants, livestock, and other riches. Eventually, Jacob felt it was time to return home. However, a fear of his brother Esau’s anger, even after twenty years, still stayed with Jacob, to the point that he sent messengers to Esau, to determine the extent of his brother’s remaining anger. The messengers returned, saying that Esau was coming to meet Jacob, and that Esau was bringing four hundred men with him (Genesis 32:3-7).

This news caused Jacob to be greatly afraid. In his distress, he turned to God for help, through prayer. Even though he was greatly afraid, Jacob was determined that he would not turn back from returning home. After his prayer, he began to divide up the livestock that he had with him, and had them driven ahead of Jacob and his family, with the intention of providing them as gifts to Esau, in the hopes of quelling his brother’s anger. (Genesis 32:9-18).

At one point in the journey, Jacob and his group reach what Gensis 32:22 refers to as a “ford”. According to Strong’s Concordance, the word “ford” only appears four times in the Old Testament (Strong’s word 4569), and is defined as “a crossing place of a river”. Perhaps wishing one last evening to pray in solitude to God before meeting his brother. Jacob sent all of his company, including his wives and sons, across the ford, and stayed alone there, on his side, during the night. Genesis 22:24 then lays out an account of how, all that night, after Jacob was left alone, he “wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day.”

The word “man” used in verse 24 is Strong’s word 376, which in Hebrew, is the work iysh. Strong’s defines this as “a man as an individual, or a male person… champion… worthy). As one might expect, this same Hebrew word is used extensively throughout the Old Testament. Although the scriptures do not explicitly declare through the use of the word, the general understanding is that the “man” referred to here was an angel; one of God’s messengers, taking a human form, sent, perhaps, in response to Jacob’s earlier fervent prayers earlier in the chapter.

This is not the only time the Bible refers to God’s spiritual agents (angels), who, taking human form, were simply referred to as “men” and not “angels”. One such incident occurs earlier in the same book of Genesis, in chapter 18. Although the Bible does not explicitly refer to these “men” as angels having taken human form, it is clear, when we read the full accounts as given in the scriptures, that that God’s people with whom they interacted recognized them as such. It was certainly clear that Jacob did, as verse 26 of chapter 32 shows Jacob refusing to let go of the man, until the man gave Jacob his blessing. Such was Jacob’s firm and ardent desire for this blessing, that he continued to hold the man even after the man touched the hollow of Jacob’s leg, around the hip, which caused him great physical pain.

In an article first published in September of 1901, Pastor Charles Russell examines this account in detail. The article (R2864) is actually part of a set of two consecutive articles which examine Jacob and the accounts we have of him in the scriptures. In his commentary, Pastor Russell points out that an angel, even one having taken the form of a man, could no doubt have easily broken free of a man such as Jacob. God could have also instructed the angel to give Jacob His blessing, without the need for such a struggle. Indeed, God could have just delivered His blessing to Jacob and assuaged his fears in some sort of direct response to Jacob’s fervent prayers earlier in the day. However, God saw fit to wait until Jacob was alone to send His messenger, and further, have Jacob wrestle throughout the entire night to receive His blessing, and further still, have Jacob receive a wound to his hip in the process. Although the following chapters of Genesis which chronicle the remainder of Jacob’s (or Israel, as he came to be known after being renamed by God), life do not refer to this wound directly again, Pastor Russell suggests that this wound probably stayed with Jacob during the remainder of his life, perhaps even causing an outward sign of the pain of the wound, resulting in a permanent limp (R2866:5).

With only a surface level of inspection, this account may, at first, seem unusual, perhaps even distressing. Earnest students of the Bible know God to not be a cold, unfeeling cruel God, but quite the opposite. Those who know God know him by the perfect balance of the four attributes of his character – love, justice, power and wisdom. Although such students do not seek to question God or the decisions He makes in how he unfolds His plans, such do seek better understand His motives so as to better understand His plans, and thus to become even more obedient and knowledgeable servants in His service. From this perspective, it may be reasonable to ask why a God of love and wisdom would cause one of His agents to cause bodily harm, perhaps resulting in permanent injury, to one who was prayerfully seeking His blessing during a time of fear?

From the accounts of the resolution of Jacob’s journey from his uncle’s land back to his own land, Jacob does in fact reunite with his brother Esau, and far from being a conflict or harsh reunion, the reunion is one filled with love and forgiveness (Genesis 33:4). True to His word as always, God continued to bless Jacob all through the remainder of his life. Jacob continued to prosper both in worldly goods and in special communication with God. In his commentary on the receipt of the wound, Pastor Russell proposes that God allowed Jacob to suffer the wound and resulting limp as a permanent reminder that all of the blessings to follow were a result of God’s grace, and to draw Jacob’s mind back to a time when he was full of fear, and cried out to God for help and blessing, and that God delivered that blessing. Moreover, by allowing Jacob to manifest such an outward display of the results of his wrestling for a blessing, any resulting limp would also serve as a tangible, manifest testimony to all of Jacob’s family, household, and any he came in contact with, that all subsequent blessings received by Jacob were given to him by God as a result of Jacob’s fervent prayers (R2866:5)

Although we today do not experience God’s messengers in the flesh, and do not physically wrestle with them to receive God’s blessings, all earnest seekers of God certainly do experience our own forms of struggles. In order to receive God’s blessings, seekers must study the scriptures, which are the only tried and true way to knowing our Supreme Creator. These studies take a great deal of time, energy, and patience. This means, in proportion as we seek God’s blessing through study of His word and through work in His name, the less time we have for transitory and fleeting worldly pursuits and pleasures, and indeed, even less, or no, time for things the world considers to be important. Some of these experiences may even be personally costly. There are those in some parts of the world, even today, whose earnest desire to study God’s word and follow in what they understand His teachings, and the teachings of Jesus, His son, to be, result in a danger to their very freedom, safety, and even life. In addition, if a study of the Bible reveals a different path than what even traditional systems may define as acceptable paths, it may be extremely difficult to consider following what one might determine as a course outlined by the Bible, but perhaps not by mankind or even traditional systems. After much hard work and study, that may be, perhaps, considered as “wrestling” – with the scriptures, or with our personal time, or with conflicting priorities that attempt to take us from the understanding of God’s word and plan, we may come to exhibit the signs that we have only achieved that understanding and that ability to serve and follow God at some kind of cost. When seen by the rest of the world, who is not currently seeking God’s blessing, this cost could be seen as a “limp” or a “wound” that we are perhaps seen as inflicting upon ourselves in our pursuit. However, also just, if not more, manifest, will be the fruits of our efforts. Far greater will be the evidences of the blessing we receive through study and work in God’s name. As we study and assimilate His word and plans, so too does our character grow, and the world in general will see the fruits of our blessing – patience, kindness, generosity, and exceeding peace of heart and mind. Keeping in mind the cost of this understanding perhaps helps us to remember that we can achieve nothing on our own; that all our great gifts, all blessings, all of these fruits are graciously given to us by our most benevolent and exceedingly kind Heavenly Father.

Posts in the “God’s Plan for Mankind” Study

Further Readings and References

  • Much of the material covered in this collective study on God’s plan for mankind is laid out in the booklet God’s Grand Plan of the Ages
  • For a much more definitive, in-depth study of God’s plan for mankind, The Divine Plan of the Ages will prove to be an invaluable resource
  • Those wishing to read the full article concerning Jacob, that was quoted in this study, can reference it here. Search for the sub-title of the article “A Model Prayer”
  • (Please note that although some of these links will take you to the Chicago Bible Students online bookstore, where physical copies of these books/booklets may be purchased, each of the books/booklets may be also downloaded from the bookstore, free of charge, with no obligation to provide any personal information. Simply click under the description of each item to find the download link.)

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