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Hos_12:4 Yea, he had power over the angel, and prevailed: he wept, and made supplication unto him: he found him [in] Bethel, and there he spake with us;
Ver. 4. Yea, he had power over the angel] That Angel of the covenant, Mal_3:1, the Angel of the great council ( ìåãáëçò âïõëçò áããåëïò ), as the Seventy render Isa_9:6, the Lord Christ, who redeemed Jacob from all evil, Gen_48:16, and is called Elohim in the former verse. Jacob is reproved for asking his name, an argument of his majesty. God, as he surmounteth all creatures, and hath no parallel, so he surpasseth all notion, and is above all name. The Africans call him Amon, that is, Heus, tu, cluis es? Our best eloquence of him is a humble silence: or if we say anything, to say as in the next verse following, Jehovah, God of hosts, Jehovah is his memorial.
And prevailed] Sept. åäõíáóèç . He had power, or got the better, Christ yielding himself overcome by the prayers of the patriarch: "for the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much," saith St James. There is a kind of omnipotence in it, saith Luther, of whom also that saying passed among his friends, Iste vir potuit apud Deum quod voluit, That man could do what he would with God. The reason whereof is given by St Jerome, in these words, Deus ipse qui nullis contra so viribus superari potest, precibus, vincitur; that is, God himself, who is otherwise insuperable, may be overcome by prayers ( Invictum vincunt vota precesque Deum); provided that men persevere in prayer as Jacob did, holding out till the morning light, and growing more resolute toward the latter end than he had been before.
He wept and made supplication] Jacob did (not the angel, as Mercer and Drusins would carry it). His wrestling was by weeping, and his prevailing by praying.
“ Verbum, preces, et lachrymae,
Miserae arma sunt Ecclesiae. ”
We read not till this text of his weeping for the blessing (no more we do of the earthquake in Hezekiah’s days, till Amo_1:1 Zec_14:4-5), but this we know, that ardent prayer is a pouring out of the soul to God, not without a shower of tears, or at least a storm of sighs. And as music upon the water sounds farther and more harmoniously than upon the land, so prayers with tears are more pleasing to God, and prevalent with him. Christ could not but look back to those weeping women that followed him to the cross, and comfort them. Tears of compassion and of compunction, when men love and weep, as Mary Magdalen did, are very acceptable to God, who puts them into his bottle as precious. There are tears of another sort, lachrimae nequitiae, tears of wickedness, expressed either by hypocrisy or a desire of revenge: such were Esau’s tears for the blessing too, Gen_27:38, but he went without it, because he was a profane hypocrite; he cried out of discontent, and threatened his brother Jacob; he complained of his father’s store, (Hast thou but one blessing?) of his brother’s subtilty, (was he not rightly called Jacob?) but not a word of his own wickedness. He roared for the disquietness of his heart, but he did not, as Jacob, weep and make supplication to his Judge, deploring his own wants, and imploring the supplies of his grace, quam unice expetiit, as the main thing he desired.
He found him in Bethel] That is, the Lord found Jacob there, Gen_28:18-19; but especially, Gen_35:14-15, confirming his promises to him and all his posterity.
There he spake with us] Who were then in Jacob’s loins, and promised that God should be our God; but we have falsified with him, and turned Bethel into Bethaven; abusing that place to idolatry and calf worship, where we, in our forefathers, had so many manifestations of Divine mercy. Oh better he had never spoken with us there than that we should have so slighted his promises, cast his words behind our backs, and wickedly departed from our God. Is this Jacob-like? &c. There he spake with us. What he spake with Jacob he spake with us; and we are to hold ourselves no less concerned therein than he was. See a like expression Psa_66:6. See likewise Rom_15:4 Heb_13:5. What God spake to Joshua, Jos_1:5, he spake to all believers. And that which he spake to his afflicted, Psa_102:17, "He will regard the prayer of the destitute, and not despise their prayer," that he spake to us: for, Psa_102:18, "This shall be written for the generations to come." The Hebrews have a proverb, Quae patribus acciderunt signum sunt filiis, What things befell the fathers, those were a sign to their children; and thence it is that the deeds of the fathers are often attributed to the children. Let us labour to see our own names written upon every promise; and secure our interest by searching for the conditions whereunto the promises are annexed; and then put them in suit by faithful prayer, saying with David, "Remember thy word unto thy servant, whereupon thou hast caused me to trust."