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That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two female servants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions. So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.”[Gen 32:22-26]Comments:
So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.” The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel, and he was limping because of his hip. Therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the tendon attached to the socket of the hip, because the socket of Jacob’s hip was touched near the tendon. [Gen 32:30-32]
1) After being out all night, Jacob stumbled home after "daybreak." Any married man in the same circumstance, either today or 3,000 years ago, would know that he had better be ready to answer two questions, Where have you been? and What happened to your hip? Jacob's answer--that he was wrestling with a strange man who could have been an angel or even God Himself--was so dumbfounding that listeners were compelled to accept it.
2) Jacob's ailing joint would be treatable today with exercise, icepacks, anti-inflammatory drugs, and even hip-replacement surgery. The physical symptoms are commonplace....but his explanation is still unique.
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