James Nisbet Commentary - Genesis 32:31 - 32:31

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James Nisbet Commentary - Genesis 32:31 - 32:31


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

LIFE’S SUNRISE

‘And as he passed over Penuel the sun rose upon him, and he halted upon his thigh.’

Gen_32:31

I. From the great conflict with sin none come off without many a scar. We may wrestle and prevail, but there will be touches of the enemy, which will leave their long and bitter memories. The way to heaven is made of falling down and rising up again. The battle is no steady, onward fight, but rallies and retreats, retreats and rallies.

II. The reason of our defeats is that the old sin of the character continues, and continues with unabated force, in the heart of a child of God. There are two ways in which sin breaks out and gains an advantage over a believer. (1) A new temptation suddenly presents itself. (2) The old habit of sin recurs—recurs, indeed, sevenfold, but still the same sin.

III. All sin in a believer must arise from a reduction of grace. This is the result of grieving the Holy Ghost by a careless omission of prayer or other means of grace. There was an inward defeat before there was an outward and apparent one.

IV. Defeat is not final. It is not the end of the campaign. It is but one event in the war. It may even be converted into a positive good to the soul, for God can and will overrule guilt to gain. He allows the defeat to teach us repentance and humility.

Rev. J. Vaughan.

Illustration

‘In a spirit of humility, Jacob at last returns to Canaan, but first must pass the moral crisis of his life. God grapples with him, and not until Jacob had tried, in vain, every means of self-defence does he yield wholly to God and become his man. Whether this interpretation of Gen_32:24-32 as a spiritual struggle exhausts its significance is not easily dertermined. The writer apparently describes it as a literal wrestling of Jacob with God. Its importance, however, is due to the spiritual revolution which took place. The Jacob of the days that follow is another man. He is in the keeping of God, ready to confess his dependence, and patient under every dispensation. The consequences of his earlier deeds follow him, but he endures them.’