4235. And the angels of God ran to meet him. That this signifies enlightenment from good, is evident from the signification of the “angels of God,” as being something of the Lord; here, the Divine which was in the Lord; for in the Lord was the Divine Itself which is called the “Father.” The very essence of life (which in man is called the soul) was therefrom, and was Himself. This Divine is what is called in common speech the Divine nature, or rather the Lord’s Divine essence. (That something of the Divine of the Lord is signified in the Word by the “angels of God,” may be seen above, n. 1925, 2319, 2821, 3039, 4085.) By “the angels of God running to meet him” is signified in the proximate sense the influx of the Divine into the natural, and the consequent enlightenment; for all enlightenment is from the influx of the Divine. As the subject treated of is the inversion of state in the Lord’s natural, in order that good might be in the first place, and truth in the second; and as the subject treated of in this first part of the chapter is the implantation of truth in good therein (n. 4232), and as this could not be effected without enlightenment from the Divine, therefore the first thing treated of is the enlightenment effected by the good into which truth was to be implanted.

4232. GENESIS 32

1. And Jacob went to his way, and the angels of God ran to meet him.

2. And Jacob said when he saw them, This is the camp of God; and he called the name of that place Mahanaim.

3. And Jacob sent messengers before him, to Esau his brother unto the land of Seir, the field of Edom.

4. And he commanded them, saying, Thus shall ye say unto my lord Esau: Thus saith thy servant Jacob, I have sojourned with Laban, and have tarried until now.

5. And I had ox and ass, flock and manservant and handmaid; and I send to tell my lord, to find grace in thine eyes.

6. And the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, We came to thy brother, to Esau, and moreover he cometh to meet thee, and four hundred men with him.

7. And Jacob feared exceedingly, and was distressed; and he halved the people that was with him, and the flock, and the herd, and the camels, into two camps.

8. And he said, If Esau come to the one camp, and smite it, then there will be a camp left for escape.

9. And Jacob said, O God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, O Jehovah, that saith unto me, Return unto thy land, and to thy birth, and I will do well with thee;

10. I am less than all the mercies, and all the truth, which Thou hast done with Thy servant; for in my staff I passed over this Jordan, and now I am in two camps.

11. Rescue me I pray from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear him, lest he come and smite me, the mother upon the sons.

12. And Thou saidst, I will surely do well with thee, and I will make thy seed as the sand of the sea, which is not numbered for multitude.

13. And he passed the night there in that night, and he took of that which came into his hand a present for Esau his brother:

14. Two hundred she-goats and twenty he-goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams:

15. Thirty milch camels and their colts, forty heifers and ten bullocks, twenty she-asses and ten foals.

16. And he gave into the hand of his servants each drove by itself; and said unto his servants, Pass over before me, and put a space between drove and drove.

17. And he commanded the first, saying, When Esau my brother meeteth thee, and asketh thee, saying, Whose art thou? and whither goest thou? and whose are these before thee?

18. Then thou shalt say, Thy servant Jacob’s; this is a present sent unto my lord Esau; and behold he also is behind us.

19. And he commanded also the second, and the third, and all that went after the droves, saying, According to this word shall ye speak unto Esau, when ye find him.

20. And ye shall also say, Behold thy servant Jacob is behind us. For he said, I will expiate his faces in a present that goeth before me, and afterward I will see his faces; peradventure he will lift up my faces.

21. And the present passed over before him, and he passed the night in that night in the camp.

22. And he rose up in that night, and took his two women, and his two handmaids, and his eleven sons, and passed over the passage of Jabbok.

23. And he took them, and caused them to pass the river, and caused to pass what he had.

24. And Jacob remained alone, and there wrestled a man with him until the dawn arose.

25. And he saw that he prevailed not over him, and he touched the hollow of his thigh, and the hollow of Jacob’s thigh was out of joint in his wrestling with him.

26. And he said, Let me go, for the dawn ariseth. And he said, I will not let thee go, unless thou bless me.

27. And he said unto him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob.

28. And he said, Thy name shall no more be called Jacob, but Israel; for as a prince hast thou contended with God and with men, and hast prevailed.

29. And Jacob asked and said, Tell I pray thy name. And he said, Wherefore is this that thou dost ask after my name? And he

blessed him there.

30. And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel; for I have seen God faces to faces, and my soul is delivered.

31. And the sun arose to him as he passed over Penuel, and he halted upon his thigh.

32. Therefore the sons of Israel eat not the nerve of that which was displaced, which is upon the hollow of the thigh, even unto this day, because he touched in the hollow of Jacob’s thigh the nerve of that which was displaced.

THE CONTENTS.

The subject here treated of in the internal sense is the inversion of state in the natural, in order that good may be in the first place, and truth in the second. The implantation of truth in good is treated of (verses 32 to 23); and the wrestlings of the temptations which are then to be sustained (verses 24 to 32). At the same time the Jewish nation is also treated of, because although that nation could receive nothing of the church, it nevertheless represented the things of the church.