CHAPTER 12 Nov. 15 
Jacob to Be Israel’s Example 
Ephraim feeds on wind, and chases the east wind.  He daily lies more and more and multiplies his desolation. They make a covenant with Assyria, and oil is carried into Egypt. 2Yahweh also has a controversy with Judah, and will punish Jacob according to his ways; according to his deeds He will repay him. 3In the womb he took his brother by the heel; and in his maturity he had power with God. 4Indeed, he struggled with the angel, and prevailed; he wept, and made supplication to him. He found him at Bethel, and there He spoke with us, 5even Yahweh, the God of Armies; Yahweh is His name of renown! 6Therefore you also turn to your God. Keep grace and justice, and wait continually for your God. 7A merchant has dishonest scales in his hand. He loves to defraud. 8Ephraim said, Surely I have become rich, I have found myself wealth. In all my wealth they won’t find in me any iniquity that is sin.  9But I am Yahweh your God from the land of Egypt. I will yet again make you dwell in tents, as in the days of the solemn feast. 10I have also spoken to the prophets, and I have multiplied visions; and by the ministry of the prophets I have used parables. 11If Gilead is wicked, surely they are worthless. In Gilgal they sacrifice bulls. Indeed, their altars are like heaps in the furrows of the field. 12Jacob fled into the country of Aram, and Israel served to get a wife, and for a wife he tended flocks and herds. 13By a prophet Yahweh brought Israel up out of Egypt, and by a prophet he was preserved. 14Ephraim has bitterly provoked anger, therefore his blood will be left on him, and his Lord will repay his contempt.

Commentary

12:3 In his maturity he had power with God- This suggests that Jacob reached spiritual maturity that night he wrestled with the Angel. To be that familiar with God that we can reason with Him, struggle with Him in prayer, seek to change His will over an illness or situation... this is spiritual maturity. It was by his prayer and tears that he had this “power with God” and in a sense prevailed over God’s intention to slay him (:4). This whole characteristic of striving with God was memorialized in his new name: Israel, implying 'striver and prevailer with God and men'. And this must be the characteristic of Israel after the Spirit too. There is a confusion in the Hebrew between ‘striver’ and ‘prince’- for the struggle comes before the crown. Our relationship with Him, our attaining of salvation, is a struggle, a wrestling, a desperate clinging on, a pleading with tears. Yet Jacob that night really is a type of us all, for we are to turn to God as Jacob did then (:6).