John Calvin Commentary Genesis 32:24

"And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day." — Genesis 32:24 (ASV)

There wrestled a man with him, although this vision was particularly useful to Jacob himself, teaching him in advance that many conflicts awaited him and that he could certainly conclude he would be the conqueror in them all, there is still not the least doubt that the Lord, in Jacob's person, presented an example of the temptations common to all His people.

These are temptations that await them and must be constantly endured in this transitory life.

Therefore, it is right to keep in view this design of the vision, which is to represent all the servants of God in this world as wrestlers, because the Lord tests them with various kinds of conflicts.

Moreover, it is not said that Satan or any mortal man wrestled with Jacob, but God Himself. This teaches us that our faith is tested by Him; and whenever we are tempted, we are truly dealing with Him, not only because we fight under His guidance, but because He, as an antagonist, enters the arena to test our strength.

Though this may seem absurd at first sight, experience and reason teach us it is true. For just as all prosperity flows from His goodness, so adversity is either the rod with which He corrects our sins or the test of our faith and patience.

And since there is no kind of temptation by which God does not test His faithful people, the analogy is very fitting, which represents Him as coming hand to hand to fight with them.

Therefore, what was once shown in a visible form to our father Jacob is daily fulfilled in the individual members of the Church: namely, that in their temptations, it is necessary for them to wrestle with God.

He is said, indeed, to tempt us in a different manner from Satan; but because He alone is the Author of our trials and afflictions, and He alone creates light and darkness (as is declared in Isaiah), He is said to tempt us when He tests our faith.

But the question now arises: 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 command the whole world is shaken to pieces? Therefore, would it not be insane recklessness to attempt the least contest with Him?

But it is easy to resolve this difficulty. For we do not fight against Him, except by His own power and with His own weapons. He, having challenged us to this contest, at the same time provides us with the 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. Indeed, since He supplies us with more strength to resist than He uses 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 by which we overcome. It is true He remains at perfect unity with Himself.

But the twofold way He deals with us cannot be expressed otherwise than that in striking us with a human rod, He does not exert His full strength in the temptation; but that in granting the victory to our faith, He becomes in us stronger than the power by which He opposes us.

And although these ways of speaking are harsh, their harshness will be easily lessened in practice. For if temptations are contests (and we know that they are not accidental, but are divinely appointed for us), it follows from this that God acts in the role of an antagonist. On this the rest depends: namely, that in the temptation itself He appears to be weak against us, so that He may conquer in us.

Some limit this to only one kind of temptation, where God openly and admittedly shows Himself as our adversary, as if armed for our destruction. And truly, I confess, this differs from common conflicts and requires, beyond all others, a rare and even heroic strength.

Yet I willingly include every kind of conflict in which God tests the faithful, since in all of them they have God as an antagonist, although He may not openly proclaim Himself hostile to them.

That Moses here calls Him a man, whom a little later he declares to have been God, is a common enough way of speaking. For since God appeared in the form of a man, the name is assumed from that; just as, because of the visible symbol, the Spirit is called a dove, and, in turn, the name of the Spirit is transferred to the dove.

That this disclosure was not made sooner to the holy man, I understand, was because God had resolved to call him, as a soldier robust and skillful in war, to more severe contests.

For just as raw recruits are spared, and young oxen are not immediately yoked to the plow, so the Lord more gently tests His own people, until, having gathered strength, they become more accustomed to hardship.

Jacob, therefore, having been accustomed to endure sufferings, was now led forth to real war. Perhaps also, the Lord was referring to the conflict that was then approaching. But I think Jacob was warned, at his very entrance into the promised land, that he was not to expect a tranquil life for himself there.

For his return to his own country might have seemed to be a kind of release; and thus Jacob, like a soldier who had completed his term of service, would have given himself up to rest. Therefore, it was highly necessary for him to be taught what his future condition would be.

We also are to learn from him that we must fight during the entire course of our life, lest anyone, promising himself rest, should willfully deceive himself. And this warning is very necessary for us, for we see how prone we are to laziness. From this it arises that we will not only be thinking of a truce in perpetual war but also of peace in the heat of the conflict, unless the Lord rouses us.