What is happening in the Bible Passage Genesis 32:22-31?
The personal discipline of maturity requires conscious and intentional engagement of the grace of God, wrestling with angels—like Jacob wrestled with the angel of the Lord at Peniel (Genesis 32:30). Jacob wrestled with God, and the angel could not prevail against Jacob. This story provides a biblical model of faithfulness in this regard. We are to engage God and wrestle Him for God’s blessing. Genesis tells us that the angel prevailed not over Jacob. The Hebrew indicates that the angel was not able, that he did not had the ability, that he could not prevail over Jacob in this sense, that he did not have the power to do so. The wrestling match was a tie. They wrestled all night and neither prevailed. Then the angel 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, for you have striven with God and with
