Charles Spurgeon Commentary Genesis 32:22-24

"And he rose up that night, and took his two wives, and his two handmaids, and his eleven children, and passed over the ford of the Jabbok. And he took them, and sent them over the stream, and sent over that which he had. And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day." — Genesis 32:22-24 (ASV)

And he rose up that night, and took his two wives, and his two womenservants, and his eleven sons, and passed over the ford Jabbok. And he took them, and sent them over the brook, and sent over that he had. And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day.

It was the man Christ Jesus putting on the form of manhood before the time when he would actually be incarnate, and the wrestling seems to have been more on his side than on Jacob's, for it is not said that Jacob wrestled, but that there wrestled a man with him. There was something that needed to be taken out of Jacob — his strength and his craftiness; and this angel came to get it out of him. But, on the other hand, Jacob spied his opportunity, and, as the angel wrestled with him, he in turn began to wrestle with the angel.

And he rose up that night, and took his two wives, and his two womenservants, and his eleven sons, and passed over the ford Jabbok. And he took them, and sent them over the brook, and sent over that he had. And Jacob was left alone; (Genesis 32:22–24)

He had made a quiet oratory for himself by sending everyone else of the company over to the other side of the brook; his own resolve being—

"With you all night I mean to stay,
And wrestle till the break of day."

And he rose up that night, and took his two wives, and his two womenservants, and his eleven sons, and passed over the ford Jabbok. And he took them, and sent them over the brook, and sent over that he had. And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day.

It does not say that he wrestled with the man, but there wrestled a man with him. We call him "wrestling Jacob," and so he was; but we must not forget the wrestling man—or, rather, the wrestling Christ—the wrestling Angel of the covenant, who had come to wrestle out of him much of his own strength and wisdom, which, though commendable in a measure, and we have commended it, was an evil because it kept him from relying on the strength and wisdom of God.