Inerrant Lie #9

Another lie from "God's ineffable, inerrant word":

Genesis 32:30 says, "And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved;" the obvious lie, here, being Jacob's claim that the man he wrestled with all night was God.

The backstory, here, concerns Jacob's return to Canaan: after his sojourn in Syria with the 'kissing cousins.' During his stay in Syria, Jake demonstrated his proficiency in sex- magic (in ‘stealing’ Laban's flock by utility of "rods of green poplar, and of the hazel and chesnut tree [Genesis 30:37, et. al.]," with which he presumably controlled which livestock would bear offspring with proper markings and which ones would produce aesthetically less- desirable calves) among other things.

Jake had absconded to Syria in fear of his twin brother, Esau, after supplanting Esau one- too- many times: at which time Esau swore to kill Jacob for his devilishness. So, it was with some trepidation that Jake returned; even though he'd been gone for twenty years. On the night before the day in which he and Esau were reunited, "there wrestled a man with [Jake] until the breaking of the day [Genesis 32:24]."

During the "wrestling" match, Jake's thigh is set "out of joint" by the one "wrestling" with him 'touching' it. (Who was trying to rape whom? I am compelled to wonder.) At any rate, Jake is led to believe he's had the mastery of his opponent when the man "wrestling" with him says, "Let me go, for the day breaketh [Genesis 32:26]." Likewise, Jake is led to believe this combative man is God, when the man says, "as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed [Genesis 32:28]."

Later in the same day, when he and Esau ‘kiss and make- up’, Jake worships Esau as God (whom he claims to have "wrestled" with all night), saying, "I have seen thy face, as though I had seen the face of God, and thou wast pleased with me [Genesis 33:10]." (Kissy- kiss.) All these things notwithstanding, the thing Jake "wrestled" with all night was clearly not God.

God is not-- unlike sorcerers "wrestling" with the dead ancestors of other peoples' families-- afraid of the light God created. God can wrestle in the daylight. God can kill you or do anything else God wants to do to you without touching you. God can talk you to death. "And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh [Revelation 19:21]." It's unadulterated, wilfull obfuscation to call a man afraid of daybreak "God."