If you haven’t watched the first video of “With Thee” on the above topics in Chinese at “https://youtu.be/rvK1Nzn7WBg?si=lEVPlG1pEOdxmctr“, I suggest you spend less than thirty minutes watching it. By this way, it’s easier to see why I’m discussing this. If you don’t know the Chinese, it is also ok to read the rest of the article just by ignoring the timing referred to that video since the discussions are based upon Genesis 32:23-26.
In that video at about 26:05 minutes, he said that he hopes to grow with us. I believe he is not just talking, so in the following article, I’ll talk about what I learned due to that video, because I didn’t see them previously. I’ll also discuss the parts of that video that are not based on biblical words. Under the premise that God telling us through the Bible is consistent, please also take a look at whether there are any errors in our logic based on the words of the Bible? Thanks.
The following discussions are based on these verses, so we list them first: “He took them and sent them across the stream. And he sent across whatever he had. Then Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. When he saw that he had not prevailed against him, he touched the socket of his thigh; so the socket of Jacob’s thigh was dislocated while he wrestled with him. Then he said, “Let me go, for the dawn is breaking.” But he said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.””(Genesis 32:22-26)
1. To people who do not understand the original languages, it is sometimes necessary to read the original languages by using the Strong’s Concordance when reading the Bible
About 4 minutes, he mentions that there is a need to read a few more versions of the Bible translation. This is right, but saying that there is no problem in reading which version, such a narrative will be problematic. If you look at different versions of translation, you may find that the parts that have no problems are similar, but the translations of the parts that have problems will be very different. In the English version, you will even find examples with completely opposite meanings. When reading the Bible, sometimes you have to read the version with original languages such as Greek and Hebrew, so that you have a chance of not forcefully interpret the Bible. He gave an example that must be read in the original language in Chinese translation, which is “When he saw that he had not prevailed against him, he touched (H5060) the socket of his thigh; so the socket of Jacob’s thigh was dislocated while he wrestled with him.”(Genesis 32:25)
I don’t understand the original languages, so I use a tool book such as the Strong’s Concordance to understand the meaning of an word in the original language. You may already know that even the Bible in original languages has different versions. For the version selected by the author of the Strong’s Concordance, a number is used to represent the word, so H5060 in brackets is the number of the word “touched” . Because most of the Old Testament was written in Hebrew and a few were written in Aramaic, the words in the Old Testament all begin with H. The New Testament is written in Greek, so it always starts with G, for example, “For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed (G4832) to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren.”(Romans 8:29) So, after one person becomes a Christian, the essence of his life will be changed.
Here, let’s share how the Strong’s Concordance can be used by people who don’t understand the original languages. Since the author of the Strong’s Concordance has numbered each word, it is easy to find all the verses in the Bible that use the same word. If there are enough of those verses, the meaning of that word can be understood from those verses. Take H5060 just now as an example. According to the compilation, that word appears 150 times in the Old Testament. Although it only appears 8 times in Genesis, it is enough to know the meaning of that word. A typical example is, “Then Abimelech spoke to all the people, saying, “Whoever touches (H5060) this man or his wife must be put to death.” (Genesis 26:11) The the Chinese translation of CNV translates it as “hit a bit”. Why does anyone think about this word means “hit a bit”? It is obvious that the CNV is wrong, contradictory to what said in that video.
In terms of how to use the Strong’s Concordance, we discussed before in “1041 For those who don’t know original languages to read Bible.” To find this article, you can go to the website “https://a-christian-voice.com/” and click “Understanding of Spiritual Life.”
2. God did not say that Jacob was deceitful, but some people said so
At about 17:10 minutes, he said that after reading the Bible, have you seen God’s condemnation of Jacob? This is right. God didn’t condemned him. There is no reason at all for us to condemn Jacob from a human perspective.
To see this, let’s first look at it from Esau’s perspective first. “Then he said, “Is he not rightly named Jacob, for he has supplanted me these two times? He took away my birthright, and behold, now he has taken away my blessing.” …”(Genesis 27:36) From what happened, we can see where Esau’s mistake was.
The first time was when “…Jacob said, “First sell me your birthright.””(Genesis 25:31) “And Jacob said, “First swear to me”; so he swore to him, and sold his birthright to Jacob.”(Genesis 25:33) Did Jacob lie to him? No, as mentioned in that video, Esau swore an oath but now he denies it! We will know this even more when we look at how the Bible condemns Esau, “…Thus Esau despised his birthright.”(Genesis 25:34) In Esau’s eyes, the birthright was only worth a bowl of lentil stew. In the end, he got a little more than he asked for, including bread (see Genesis 25:34) .
The second time was when Isaac wanted to bless Esau when Isaac was old. As mentioned in that video, when Jacob was born, Isaac should have known, “…the older shall serve the younger.”(Genesis 25:23) He should also know that Esau had sold his birthright to Jacob, but he still wanted to look at it from a human perspective and insisted on giving Esau the blessing of the firstborn just because he loved Esau. It wasn’t until he finished blessing Jacob that he realized that this was God’s will and could not be changed. We can know this by looking at his trembling reaction. “Then Isaac trembled violently, and said, “Who was he then that hunted game and brought it to me, so that I ate of all of it before you came, and blessed him? Yes, and he shall be blessed.””(Genesis 27:33)
Let’s look at it from Rebekah’s perspective. She paid a price to help Jacob got what he deserved. Jacob did not dare to deceive his father originally, “But his mother said to him, “Your curse be on me, my son; only obey my voice, and go, get them for me.””(Genesis 27:13) The Bible does not say whether she was cursed because of this. We only know that after Jacob left her to live with Laban, she never saw Jacob again for the rest of her life. This was very difficult for her. It’s quite sad. But we know, “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.”(Galatians 6:7) Since the Bible does not say it clearly, we should not make random guesses. Guessing is useless. We will not get the only conclusion. In fact, if it is not an act of God, even if a person successfully deceives others, can he defraud God’s blessings?
“So Esau bore a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him; and Esau said to himself, “The days of mourning for my father are near; then I will kill my brother Jacob.” Now when the words of her elder son Esau were reported to Rebekah, she sent and called her younger son Jacob, and said to him, “Behold your brother Esau is consoling himself concerning you by planning to kill you. Now therefore, my son, obey my voice, and arise, flee to Haran, to my brother Laban! Stay with him a few days, until your brother’s fury subsides.”(Genesis 27:41-44) Jacob did because of Rebekah’s persistence. He deceived his father and therefore had to flee to Laban. We can see later that Jacob’s escape was also God’s will, because His will was fulfilled in this way.
”“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the LORD. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts.”(Isaiah 55:8-9) This is an example of this. In fact, this can be seen often in the New Testament. For example, in the book of Acts, Christians were persecuted, but the Gospel was thus spread. If you truly believe this, you will still persevere in your faith when you encounter difficulties, knowing that “No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.”(1 Corinthians 10:13) God will intervene Himself if necessary. An example of this is in the book of Job, God spoke to Job in the whirlwind (see Job 38:1) So, it is a blessing to really believe so and do so correspondingly.
Regarding Laban, the Bible says, “Yet your father has cheated me and changed my wages ten times; however, God did not allow him to hurt me.”(Genesis 31:7) It was Laban who deceived Jacob, and God helped Jacob. The fact that Laban deceived Jacob was even more obvious in the matter of Leah and Rachel (see Genesis 29:16-25). But doesn’t the Bible clearly say that Israel had the twelve tribes because of this? Isn’t this how God’s will is accomplished? Therefore, Jacob’s escape was also God’s will.
3. Commentary on Jacob being the only one left
Concerning his interpretation of this scripture, “Then Jacob was left alone, …”(Genesis 32:24), starting about 4:35, which is quite long. If you have seen the original video, you know that we are unlikely to quote the approximate time he spoke every time, so our discussion is holistic.
I have heard others said before that Jacob is treacherous and is ready to run away if the situation goes wrong. Watching his video, I believe he is right when he says that Jacob is not ready to run away. Jacob came back this time because God wanted him to come back. The scriptures make it very clear, “Then the LORD said to Jacob, “Return to the land of your fathers and to your relatives, and I will be with you.””(Genesis 31:3) I didn’t notice the scripture quoted in that video, “Now as Jacob went on his way, the angels of God met him. Jacob said when he saw them, “This is God’s camp.” So he named that place Mahanaim.”(Genesis 32:1-2) God was indeed with Jacob as He promised.
We see that Jacob was ready to meet his brother Esau this time to settle their old feud, since “…Jacob sent messengers before him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom.”(Genesis 32:3) Even if God wants him to come back, he can come back secretly. Although the Bible does not say it explicitly, we can see from the ending that God wants Jacob to come back to achieve this goal. Faced with this old feud and fix it.
We first see, “The messengers returned to Jacob, saying, “We came to your brother Esau, and furthermore he is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him.””(Genesis 32:6) If Esau were to welcome Jacob, do you think he would need four hundred people? In particular, due to the old feud, “…Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed; …”(Genesis 32:7) Obviously, Jacob thought that Esau had evil intentions, so he did what he did to him from a human perspective. He thought it was the best thing to do and gave Esau a great gift (see Genesis 32:13-21), “…For he said, “I will appease him with the present that goes before me. Then afterward I will see his face; perhaps he will accept me.””(Genesis 32:20) Do you think Jacob is going to run away? Especially we know, “So Jacob served seven years for Rachel and they seemed to him but a few days because of his love for her.”(Genesis 29:20) If he was planning to abandon Rachel, Leah, and their children and run away, how could he pray to God like this? “Deliver me, I pray, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau; for I fear him, that he will come and attack me and the mothers with the children.”(Genesis 32:11) Judging from the consistency of what God tells us through the Bible, we can clearly know that Jacob wasn’t planning to run away no matter what.
“But he himself passed on ahead of them and bowed down to the ground seven times, until he came near to his brother. Then Esau ran to meet him and embraced him, and fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept.”(Genesis 33:3-4) How could he be ready to run if he went ahead of them? I think it was Esau who changed his mind. God listened to Jacob’s prayer and fulfilled His promise, “For You said, ‘I will surely prosper you and make your descendants as the sand of the sea, which is too great to be numbered.’”(Genesis 32:12) My mind told me that this was Esau remembering brotherhood. I doubted that this came from the Holy Spirit, because if Esau was like this, how could he lead four hundred people in the first place? Come? If Esau only thought of brotherhood after seeing the gifts, what kind of brotherhood is this? You have to be discerning, especially about supernatural things, or else you will be like Eliphaz the Temanite, doing the work of Satan and thinking you are working for God? (See the mixed words of right and wrong in Job 4:12-21)
Don’t continue to be a spiritual baby, “For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant. But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.”(Hebrews 5:12-14) To grow up, you must know that only God can make life grow. Just as the scripture says, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth.”(1 Corinthians 3:6-
I believe that God has indeed done work and fulfilled His promises, so we have seen the change in Esau, but the Bible does not clearly say how He did the work. Just like when Paul and Silas were preaching, the Bible records, “They passed through the Phrygian and Galatian region, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia; and after they came to Mysia, they were trying to go into Bithynia, and the Spirit of Jesus did not permit them; and passing by Mysia, they came down to Troas.”(Acts 16:6-8) It only said to ban them, but not how to ban. Isn’t it the same here?
4. Who is this man wrestling with Jacob?
Let’s look at this verse, “He said, “Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel; for you have striven with God(H430, plural, original text: elohiym) and with men and have prevailed.””(Genesis 32:28) The scripture just says at the beginning, “…a man wrestled with him until daybreak.”(Genesis 32:24), but here it is clearly stated that Jacob was wrestled with God, so that man was one of the Trinity. For the Lord said to Moses, “…You cannot see My face, for no man can see Me and live!”(Exodus 33:20) So it could not have been Jehovah that Jacob saw. In addition, it is impossible for people to see the Holy Spirit, so what Jacob saw was Christ before the incarnation.
In fact, in the Old Testament, we can see such narratives in more than one place. In the Old Testament, Jehovah sometimes refers to Christ before the incarnation, such as the Jehovah seen by Abraham (see Genesis 18:22-33) . When we see that the Old Testament speaks of Jehovah, sometimes referring to the pre-incarnate Christ, we can see the consistency with what God tells us through the Bible and see clearly what some scriptures are trying to express.
5. Jacob struggled with God and men and prevailed
“He said, “Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel; for you have striven with God and with men and have prevailed.””(Genesis 32:28) I have never understood this verse, because God is a powerful God, how can man compete with God and win? It wasn’t until I saw that video explanation that I understood. Yes, contending with God and being able to win refers to a spiritual matter. If a person chooses not to want God, God really has no choice, because God has given people free will and He has never forced people to choose. To see this, at the beginning, Adam and Eve could choose to disobey God. The ten plagues that befell Pharaoh showed that He could create circumstances but did not force Pharaoh’s decision. The first nine plagues would not really be related to Pharaoh’s own family. By the tenth plague, Pharaoh’s eldest son died. He was no longer stubborn and let Moses lead the Israelites out of Egypt. Therefore, judging from the consistency of what God tells us through the Bible, God allowed (H7185) Pharaoh to make all his own decisions.
This word H7185 appears 29 times, and it only appears twice in Exodus, which is “But I will harden (H7185) Pharaoh’s heart that I may multiply My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt.”(Exodus 7:3) and “It came about, when Pharaoh was stubborn (H7185) about letting us go, that the LORD killed every firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man and the firstborn of beast. …”(Exodus 13:15) When we look at all 29 times, not once did God harden the heart. Let’s look at this verse, “Yet Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he did not listen to them, as the LORD had said.”(Exodus 7:13) It was Pharaoh’s own heart that was hardened, and God just allowed his heart to be hardened.
Let’s look at another verse, “The LORD said to Moses, “When you go back to Egypt see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders which I have put in your power; but I will harden (H2388, or let him go according to UV) his heart so that he will not let the people go.”(Exodus 4:21). This word H2388 appears 290 times. From the fact that God tells us through the Bible is consistent, it should obviously be translated as “allowed his heart to be hardened” here.
The video also explains the difference between Esau and Jacob. Esau despised his birthright and did not want God, while Jacob was determined to grasp God and expressed it by his actions of seeking God’s blessing. No wonder, it is said in the book of Romans, “for though the twins were not yet born and had not done anything good or bad, so that God’s purpose according to His choice would stand, not because of works but because of Him who calls, it was said to her, “The older will serve the younger.””(Romans 9:11-12) This is a predestination. This is exactly what the prophecy said, “The LORD said to her, “Two nations are in your womb; And two peoples will be separated from your body; And one people shall be stronger than the other; And the older shall serve the younger.”(Genesis 25:23) Because God has already foreknew their future behavior, that is why He said, “…Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”(Romans 9:13) No wonder the book of Romans says that there is both foreknowledge and predestination, “For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, …”(Romans 8 :29) So foreknowledge and predestination are two sides of the same coin.
As for why God didn’t touch him in the beginning as mentioned in that video, we can see that it was God Who is politely not let him to lose at the beginning, and we also saw that touching him as mentioned in the video was God’s grace. Jacob indeed had no choice to be lame, but he chose not to complain to God because he knew that this was God’s will, allowing him to rely entirely on God. Jacob was lame when he crossed the ford of the Jabbok. Even if he wanted to fight Esau, it was impossible for him to do so by then. Therefore, he had to rely entirely on God. When people are like this, God will work Himself when necessary.
The last thing I want to mention is that about 8 minutes into the video, it is mentioned that Esau led 400 people to “welcome” Jacob. I believe this is a slip of the tongue, because both the UV and CNV are translated as “to meet you.” This word cannot be misunderstood. If Esau originally welcomed Jacob, we would not be able to see Esau’s change and thus the work of God. Some people will say, what does this matter? It has nothing to do with the plan of salvation and will not affect my belief that Jesus is the Son of God. It’s right that it’ll not affect this belief, but the plan of salvation is more than just this. As the Great Commission says, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, …teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; …”(Matthew 28:19-20) In other words, this is only the beginning of salvation. You must be able to embark on the road to sanctification and continue to gain life. It is not something that changes immediately after a person believes and is baptized, but there is a continuous change in life. Just like foreknowledge and predestination are two sides of the same coin, not interpreting the Bible forcefully and living it out, and the growth of life are also two sides of the same coin. We know, “…faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.”(Romans 10:17) Some people are illiterate and cannot read the Bible, so they can only listen to it. For a person who can read the Bible, the degree of life change is often reflected in the degree of carefulness in reading the Bible. Therefore, we must be very careful when reading the Bible. “Read out” what God wants to tell us through the Bible, and do not read into your own thoughts.
(Verses refer to those in NASB95 unless otherwise specified.)
(You can get all articles in “https://a-christian-voice.com/” under “On spiritual understanding about life.”)
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