The Life of Jacob (17): The Names Involved in Jacob's Wrestling Match (Genesis 32:27-32) by Rev. Angus Stewart
I. The Name of the Patriarch
II. The Name of His Opponent
III. The Name of the Place
J. Douglas MacMillan: “... when you are wrestling with someone and he takes a hold of you and he is seventeen or eighteen stone, you soon know that you are in the grasp of a mighty man! You know you are in for a struggle ... A half-hearted approach will not do ... What do you require in order to be a good wrestler? You need courage, and you need concentration, and you need strength, but above all you need enthusiasm and energy. You have to get in there and get on the attack with all your heart and soul” (Wrestling With God: Lessons From the Life of Jacob, p. 62).
John Calvin on Genesis 32:24: “Who is able to stand against an Antagonist, at whose breath alone all flesh perishes and vanishes away, at whose look the mountains melt, at whose word or beck the whole world is shaken to pieces, and therefore to attempt the least contest with him would be insane temerity? But it is easy to untie the knot. For we do not fight against him, except by his own power, and with his own weapons; for he, having challenged us to this contest, at the same time furnishes us with means of resistance, so that he both fights against us and for us. In short, such is his apportioning of this conflict, that, while he assails us with one hand, he defends us with the other; yea, inasmuch as he supplies us with more strength to resist than he employs in opposing us, we may truly and properly say, that he fights against us with his left hand, and for us with his right hand. For while he lightly opposes us, he supplies invincible strength whereby we overcome ... in granting the victory to our faith, he becomes in us stronger than the power by which he opposes us.”