Genesis 32:32

32. Eat not… the sinew which shrank This is understood of the ischiadic, or sciatic nerve, extending from the thigh bone downwards .

Even to the present day the Jews religiously abstain from eating this sinew in animals.

The narrative of Jacob’s experiences in this chapter is wonderfully suggestive. We trace the struggles of a man of great natural endowments from the period of a mighty awakening to a mighty triumph. Released from Laban, he turns his face towards the Land of Promise, but before he enters it, he must be made to know more of himself and more of God. His acquaintance with God, thus far, has been only general, formal, and not sufficient to work any deep spiritual change in his inner life. He has stood altogether in his own strength. He obtained Esau’s birthright by taking advantage of him at an hour of want. He obtained Isaac’s blessing by guile. He had practiced many an artifice against Laban, and in their recent interview he had said much more about his own works than about the blessing of God. It is time for him to be humbled. First, then, comes the vision of angels at Mahanaim. But immediately after that he sends messengers to Esau with words that show great leaning to his own devices. Then follows the report of Esau’s coming with four hundred men, and fear and trembling take hold of Jacob’s soul. In his excitement and distress he plans for possible escape; but having little hope in that way, he turns to God in prayer. See notes on Genesis 32:9-12. Then he sets apart a princely present for his brother. He would fain make restitution for the wrongs of other days. He sends the present on by night. Still he cannot rest, and gets up in the night, and sends his family forward over the Jabbok. He is all excitement and emotion; and now, having done all he can, he lingers behind alone. Then comes the wonderful struggle with the angel, which was, in its first hours, like all the course of his life thus far, a struggle against God. God lets him wrestle, to know all his strength, and to find in the end that it is altogether weakness. At last a touch of the divine power breaks all Jacob’s energy, and opens his eyes to see that he struggles not with man, but with God. It is a wondrous revelation that thus bursts upon his soul. It brings to him at once a conviction of the divine mercy as well as of divine power. Thus he is made “confident in self-despair,” and learns, what every child of saving faith may know, that victory with God is had, not by a wrestling against him, but a confident clinging to him. Then and thus he obtained the new and princely name, and the blessing of God.