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Shri Datta Swami

Posted on: 23 Feb 2021

               

Did Jacob actually wrestle with God-in-human-form?

[Śrī Anil asked: Padanamaskaram Swami! In the Old Testament of the Bible in Genesis 32:22–32, there is an incident in which Jacob wrestles with a man who is supposed to be God, as per Jacobs own words. The relevant verses are given below:

The same night Jacob arose and took his two wives, his two female servants, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. He took them and sent them across the stream, and everything else that he had. And Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day. When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched Jacob’s hip socket, and Jacob's hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. Then he said, “Let me go, for the day has broken.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” And he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” Then he said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel (meaning: contends-with-God), for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.” Then Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” And there he blessed him. So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered.”

Some interpretations say that Jacob really wrestled with God and some other says that it was only an angel of God. If we go as per the first interpretation, why did God wrestle with Jacob and why could He not win until Jacob’s hip socket was dislocated by His touch? At Your Divine Feet –anil]

Swami replied: O Learned and Devoted Servants of God! Some people think that a small miracle is done by an angel, whereas, a big miracle is done by God. The truth is that every miracle is done by the unimaginable God alone. The quantitative aspect is immaterial, because, irrespective of the magnitude of the miracle, the unimaginable nature is qualitatively one and the same. The miracle proves the existence of the unimaginable domain. This incident indicates the concept of Human Incarnation. The person with whom Jacob had wrestled and from whom he received the blessing was indeed the human form of God.

 
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