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Gen_32:30 And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.
Ver. 30. I have seen God face to face.] Christ would not tell Jacob his name, to lift up his mind above what he saw of him, and to insinuate that his name was "Wonderful," his essence incomprehensible. {Jdg_13:17-18} And whereas Jacob said here, he had "seen God face to face": he means only, praesens praesentem, as Moses spake with God "mouth to mouth". {Num_12:8} He saw not God’s majesty and essence; for he is a God "that hides himself," {Isa_8:17} and "dwells in the light unapproachable". {1Ti_6:16} But he saw him more apparently and manifestly than ever he had done before. We can see but his "back parts" {Exo_33:23} and live; we need see no more, that we may live. God that fills all, saith Nazianzen, though he lighten the mind, yet flies before the beams thereof; still leaving it, as it is able, in sight to follow him; draws it by degrees to higher things; but ever interposeth between it and his incomparable essence, as many vails as were over the tabernacle. Some created shape, some glimpse of glory, Jacob saw; whereby God was pleased, for the present, to testify his more immediate presence; but not himself.