Angel Divine
With expressing my sincere regret over so many recent victims in the U.S. and Iraq, I would like to discuss Jacob, for he was ordered to call himself Israelite, for the first time in the human history, by the God.
* * *
Jacob met strange persons who he thought to be angels of God:
Gen 32:1 And Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him.
Then, he wrestled with a mysterious person at night he thought to be God or an angel of God:
Gen 32:24 And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day.
Gen 32:25 And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him.
Gen 32:26 And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.
Gen 32:27 And he said unto him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob.
Gen 32:28 And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.
Gen 32:29 And Jacob asked him, and said, Tell me, I pray thee, thy name. And he said, Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name? And he blessed him there.
Gen 32:30 And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.
* * *
It is all judgment and understanding of Jacob himself (or any other witnesses or reporters there and then?).
For others, they, who were angels in the daytime and an angel at night for Jacob, might be simply ordinary persons.
The issue is whether you have ever experienced such an encounter: you met with a stranger who you suddenly found to be holy, though others around you would not share the same view as yours on the stranger.
For others, they were ordinary nomads or travelers; but Jacob, who had just had a tough time dealing with his father-in-law and was going to have another tough time to deal with his brother, desperately needed God's help, since each of them might have killed him if things had been poorly handled.
Jacob was subconsciously looking for a sign of God's help.
Even when Jacob met the strangers in the daytime, he tried hard to see any holiness inside minds of the strangers.
And, if the strangers, though being ordinary persons, felt compassion for Jacob who was apparently under heavy pressure, Jacob must have sensed it.
And, God could really use the strangers feeling compassion for Jacob so as to show His mercy to Jacob.
When Jacob sensed such holy compassion in the strangers' eyes and behaviors, his mind must have been eased.
* * *
At night, there came another strange man. Jacob also sensed holiness in the stranger's attitude.
The stranger might have been one of 400 guards his brother, coming near to see Jacob, had led. Esau might have sent the one as a scout to see what happened to Jacob who had ordered his servants with his assets to proceed to Esau and offer the assets as a gift to Esau.
(Indeed, Jacob looked too nice to Esau this time, though Jacob once presumed on Esau's frivolities so as to inherit the right of representation of their clan to God.)
But if the scout had compassion for Jacob, God must have used him as an angel to Jacob. In fact, later, when Esau met Jacob, Esau showed no old grudge but was extremely joyful to see his twin but younger brother.
Or, the strange man might have been an attacker his father-in-law, who apparently still held grudge despite reconciliation before God, had sent to kill Jacob, since Jacob took two of his daughters as wives. But, if the attacker had compassion for Jacob, God must have used him as an angel to Jacob.
* * *
It would be easier for God to use an existent man as His angel than to create a new man from atoms and molecules, as long as the existent man could show true compassion, friendship, or respect to a target man such as Jacob.
In this way, Jacob got a message and a help from God of his family.
In this way, GENESIS 32 was recorded.
(Later, I may refer to the ladder coming down from Heaven to the ground Jacob saw in his dream; Jacob saw angels using the ladder to come down and up to Heaven.)
* * *
It would be a great honor for a man to be used by the God, so that he would play a role of an angel to somebody the God has chosen. But, in most cases, such a man seems to play the role without realizing what he is meant to be for the chosen person such as Jacob.
Now, you have to humbly admit the wonder of the work of human mind and soul.
The origin of this wonder is older than the Material Universe and the Logical Universe precedent to the former.
It must have come from the world where miracles are the norm as the God has not yet regulated newly born concepts and their logical conditions and material feasibility far before the so-called Big Bang of the universe.
(Now, have you become a believer? But, you yourself might have been an "Angel Divine" for somebody, when you were, say, sixteen.
[A sound and fresh sense of ancient people or young men in any era would appreciate any invaluable thing with genuine wonder. Such a sense should not be harmed and damaged. It is indeed what money cannot buy.])
"REJOICE, GENTILES, WITH GOD'S PEOPLE"