1 Jacob went on his way and the angels of Gods met him;
2 and when Jacob saw them he said, "This is a camp of Gods!" So he called the name of that place Mahanaim.
The name Mahanaim means "two camps," "two hosts," "companies." In the individual consciousness, Mahanaim represents spiritual ideas and the physical realm ("two hosts"). This idea is brought out very clearly in the naming of the place by Jacob. The "two hosts" are the angels of Gods (messengers of Gods: spiritual ideas) on the one hand, and Jacob and his company, his wives, children, and possessions (manifestations of ideas) on the other.
3 And Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau his brother in the land of Seir, the country of Edom,
4 instructing them, "Thus you shall say to my Lord Esau: Thus says your servant Jacob, 'I have sojourned with Laban, and stayed until now;
5 and I have oxen, asses, flocks, menservants, and maidservants; and I have sent to tell my Lord, in order that I may find favor in your sight.'"
Edom was the name of the country where Esau's descendants lived. It represents the animalistic man, the body, or the carnal, physical phase of man's consciousness and organism. The significance of Seir is virtually the same as that of Edom. Seir, apparently, designates especially the emotional and stormy, yet deep-seated, carnal tendencies in the physical.
6 And the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, "We came to your brother Esau, and he is coming to meet you, and four hundred men with him."
7 Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed; and he divided the people that were with him, and the flocks and herds and camels, into two companies,
8 thinking, "If Esau comes to the one company and destroys it, then the company which is left will escape."
9 And Jacob said, "O God of my Father Abraham and God of my Father Isaac, O YHVH who didst say to me, 'Return to your country and to your kindred, and I will do you good,'
10 I am not worthy of the least of all the steadfast love and all the faithfulness which thou hast shown to thy servant, for with only my staff I crossed this Jordan; and now I have become two companies.
The Jordan ("flowing of judgment") may be said to represent that place in consciousness where we are willing to meet the results of our thoughts face to face and understandingly and courageously to pass judgment on all thoughts.
11 Deliver me, I pray thee, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear him, lest he come and slay us all, the mothers with the children.
In the soul's development, the higher faculties forge ahead, establish states of consciousness, and gather possessions of substance that must afterward be distributed to the lower faculties. Jacob represents the soul that has become rich in ideas.
Until love has done its perfect work man is fearful. Jacob feared to meet Esau. We find it hard to face the full claims of the body (Esau) after we have cheated it of its birthright, unity of soul and body in One Mind. Divine courage must supplant this fear before we are equal to facing the consequences of our self-centered thoughts and to taking up the task of harmonizing all our forces. But the vital power of Spirit animates the body, and it responds readily to our true thought when we give it of our substance.
12 But thou didst say, 'I will do you good, and make your descendants as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.'"
13 So he lodged there that night, and took from what he had with him a present for his brother Esau,
14 two hundred she-goats and twenty he-goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams,
15 thirty milch camels and their colts, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty she-asses and ten he-asses.
16 These he delivered into the hand of his servants, every drove by itself, and said to his servants, "Pass on before me, and put a space between drove and drove."
A time comes when an equalizing process begins and the body (Esau) must be given some of the riches of the soul.
17 He instructed the foremost, "When Esau, my brother, meets you, and asks you, 'To whom do you belong? Where are you going? And whose are these before you?'
18 then you shall say, 'They belong to your servant Jacob; they are a present sent to my Lord Esau; and moreover he is behind us.'"
19 He likewise instructed the second and the third and all who followed the droves, "You shall say the same thing to Esau when you meet him,
20 and you shall say, 'Moreover your servant, Jacob, is behind us.'" For he thought, "I may appease him with the present that goes before me, and afterwards I shall see his face; perhaps he will accept me."
21 So the present passed on before him; and he himself lodged that night in the camp.
22 The same night he arose and took his two wives, his two maids, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok.
23 He took them and sent them across the stream, and likewise everything that he had.
24 And Jacob was left alone; and a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day.
25 When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and Jacob's thigh was put out of joint as he wrestled with him.
The mind controls the body through the thoughts acting on the nerves. The sciatic nerve runs down the leg through the hollow of the thigh, and the will acts directly through this nerve. When the Intellect (Jacob) exercises its power in the effort to control the natural man within, there follows a letting go of Human Will--Jacob's thigh is out of joint. A great light of understanding breaks in on the struggling soul, of which the intellect is a part, when it discovers that there is a divine-natural body, and it clings to that inner life and strength until it brings to the surface the blessing of perpetual physical vigor.
The soul does not like to enter into struggles to overcome material habits, but it is necessary that it do so. The name of the ford where Jacob wrestled with the angel means "wrestling," and the inference is that it was hard for Jacob to put aside the things that he loved and to enter alone into the invisible to wrestle with the forces of the subconscious or animal consciousness in darkness. This struggle with the physical is illustrated in the overcoming by Yeshua in the garden of Gethsemane. The error is "pressed out" and the rich oil of reality saved.
The life in the subconscious has several planes of action. In the deep recesses of the nerves it sends its energy to and fro, coming to the surface here and there in flesh-and-blood sensation. There is a strong man down there about whom the average person knows little. He lives so far below the plane of common consciousness that the great majority of men go through their whole life without making his acquaintance. This man is pure nature, the foundation of the body. Without him man could not take form, and it is his tenacity that keeps our organism intact. He belongs to nature and is universal; hence when the individual attempts to control him and to lift him up, there is resistance, and a severe struggle with him is inevitable.
26 Then he said, "Let me go, for the day is breaking." But Jacob said, "I will not let you go, unless you bless me."
27 And he said to him, "What is your name?" And he said, "Jacob."
28 Then he said, "Your name shall no more be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with Gods and with men, and have prevailed."
The blessing carried with it a new name, Israel; one who has striven with Gods and with men and has prevailed. "Israel" is one who is a prince and has power as regards both Gods and Man, the Spiritual and the Material.
29 Then Jacob asked him, "Tell me, I pray, your name." But he said, "Why is it that you ask my name?" And there he blessed him.
30 So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, saying, "For I have seen Gods face to face, and yet my life is preserved."
The name Peniel means "turned toward God," "face of God," "within the presence of God." Peniel symbolizes the inner realization of the divine presence, the realization of having met the gods face to face and of having succeeded through prayer in attaining the divine favor and blessing that have been sought.
31 The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his thigh.
32 Therefore, to this day, the Israelites do not eat the sinew of the hip which is upon the hollow of the thigh, because he touched the hollow of Jacob's thigh on the sinew of the hip.
The "children of Israel eat not the sinew of the hip which is upon the hollow of the thigh, unto this day," as a reminder of a spiritual truth that they may not understand now, but will eventually: True Power comes from uniting the Spiritual Will with the Animal Forces in Human Consciousness.