Genesis 32:9 - Meaning and Application

Our rule is to call on God in time of trouble. Jacob gives us an example of that rule, and the good result encourages us to follow it. This was a time of Jacob’s trouble, but he would be saved from it, and here he prays for that rescue (Jeremiah 30:7). In his distress he sought the Lord, and the Lord heard him. Times of fear should become times of prayer. Whatever scares us should drive us to our knees and to our God.

Jacob had recently seen his camp guarded by angels, but in this crisis he turned to God, not to them. He knew they were fellow servants, not the ones to trust (Revelation 22:9). He did not consult Laban’s household idols either. It was enough for him that he had a God to go to. He brings his case to God with full seriousness, running for safety into the name of the Lord, like a strong tower (Proverbs 18:10).

This prayer is especially notable because it helped win him the honor of being Israel, a prince with God, and the father of the praying remnant, the people who are called the seed of Jacob, to whom God never says, “Seek me in vain.” It is worth asking what was so special about this prayer that it brought him such honor.

The request itself is clear and direct: “Deliver me from the hand of my brother” (Genesis 32:11). Humanly speaking, there was no hope on his side, yet he believed God’s power could rescue him like a lamb from the jaws of a lion. We are allowed to be specific in our prayers and name the exact troubles we face, because the God we come to is one with whom we may speak freely. We have bold access at the throne of grace. And when our brothers try to destroy us, it is a comfort to know we have a Father to whom we may turn as our Deliverer.

Jacob also gives many strong reasons for his plea. Never was a case better prepared (Job 23:4). He asks with faith, urgency, and humility. How earnestly he pleads, “Deliver me, I pray” (Genesis 32:11). His fear made him urgent. His reasoning is careful and strong. This is a noble example to follow.

He begins by speaking to God as the God of his fathers (Genesis 32:9). In deep humility, he does not call God his own God, but the God in covenant with his ancestors, “the God of my father Abraham, and the God of my father Isaac.” He can plead this all the better because God had appointed that covenant line to come through him. God’s covenant with our fathers can be a comfort to us when we are in distress. It has often been so for the Lord’s people (Psalm 22:4, 5). If we are born into God’s house, we are under his special care.

Jacob then presents his warrant: “You told me to return to your country.” He did not leave Laban’s house on a whim or from mere homesickness. He went because God commanded him. We may be in the path of duty and still meet trouble there. Good circumstances do not prove we are right, and hard circumstances do not prove we are wrong. We may be going where God sends us and still feel the road is blocked with thorns. Still, we can trust God with our safety while we faithfully stay in our duty. If God is our guide, he will also be our guard.

He next humbly admits that he does not deserve any kindness from God (Genesis 32:10). This is an unusual plea. Some might think he should have argued that what was in danger was his own property, won honestly and at great cost. Instead, he says, “Lord, I am not worthy.” Self-denial and self-humbling fit well in every prayer we bring to God. Christ never praised anyone more than the man who said, “Lord, I am not worthy” (Matthew 8:8), and the woman who said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table” (Matthew 15:27).

Jacob speaks very highly and gratefully of God’s mercy toward him. He speaks of “mercies,” in the plural, as a boundless spring with countless streams. He speaks of “mercies and truth,” meaning past mercies given according to promise, and future mercies secured by promise. What is stored up in God’s truth, as well as what is already given in God’s mercy, should shape both the comfort and the praise of believers. His words are full, showing how full his heart was with God’s goodness.

At the same time, he speaks very humbly of himself, with no thought of merit. “I am not worthy of the least of all your mercies, much less of so great a favor as this.” Jacob was a man of weight and worth in many respects, and when dealing with Laban he could rightly insist on his rights. But before God, he lays all claim aside. The sense is, “I am less than all your mercies.” The best and greatest people are still not worthy of even the smallest kindness from God, and we should be ready to admit that at all times. It was the motto of the godly writer Herbert, “Less than the least of all God’s mercies.” Those who see themselves as unworthy of the least mercy are best prepared for the greatest ones.

Jacob also thankfully remembers how God had sustained him in exile and had exceeded his expectations. “With my staff I crossed this Jordan” meant he had gone over it poor and alone, like a lonely and despised traveler. He had no guides, no companions, no servants, and no travel comforts, only his staff and nothing else to lean on. “Now I have become two camps,” he says, now surrounded by a large and comforting company of children and servants. Though his present trouble had forced him to divide his family into two groups, he uses even that to magnify God’s mercy in increasing him. The growth of our families is truly comforting when we see God’s mercy and truth in it. And those whose later years are greatly increased should remember, with humility and thankfulness, how small their beginning was. Jacob is saying, in effect, “Lord, you kept me when I left with only my staff and only one life to lose. Will you not keep me now that so many are with me?”

He then presses the danger he faces. “Deliver me from Esau, for I fear him” (Genesis 32:11). God’s people have not been ashamed to tell God their fears, because they know he notices and understands them. The fear that leads to prayer is itself a good plea. Jacob was not afraid of a thief, but of a murderer. And it was not only his own life at risk, but the lives of the mothers and the children who had left their homeland with him. Natural love can rightly give us acceptable reasons in prayer.

Finally, he puts special weight on God’s promise (Genesis 32:9). “You said, ‘I will surely do you good,’” and again at the end (Genesis 32:12), “You said, ‘I will surely do you good.’”

Note, first, the best thing we can say to God in prayer is what he has already said to us. His promises are the surest guide for our desires, and they give us the best requests to make. They are also the firmest ground for our hope, and they give us the strongest reasons for asking. We may say, “Lord, you said this and that. Will you not be as good as your word, the word that made me hope?” (Psalm 119:49).

Second, even the most general promises apply to particular needs. Jacob can pray, “You said, ‘I will do you good,’ so Lord, do me good in this matter.” He also lays hold of the special promise that his family would be greatly increased. “Lord, what will become of that promise if they are all destroyed?” There are promises made to the families of godly people, and these can be used in prayer for family blessings, both ordinary and unusual (Genesis 17:7; Psalm 112:2; Psalm 102:28). The world’s threats should drive us to God’s promises.