The text for today’s commentary is Jacob’s travels with angels, specifically as he escaped from his father-in-law, Laban, toward Shalem, a city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, known also as “Salem” wherein Melchizedek was king in the days of Abraham. “Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him. “And when Jacob saw them, he said, ‘This is God's host’” (Gen 32:1-2). Hence, Jacob was accompanied by angels when he engaged with Esau.
Esau, according to ancient Jewish writings, was the angel Uriel in the flesh, born in the womb of Rebecca, and that Jacob was “The Angel of God,” Israel, also born in the same womb in competition with his heavenly rival. Although God had a great purpose for both of those “Angels,” perhaps their roles were more symbolic. Who knows what God’s motives are?
In an earlier commentary, I made the hypothesis that Isaac was the son of God from the womb of Sarah, in that Abraham was laughably impotent and Sarah barren; that the conception of Isaac was when Abraham was away. (Later, I considered another possibility; that God made Abraham potent, and it was with His own “seed” and genes.) Again, who knows the miracles of God? Either way, both Esau and Jacob had the genes of God from Isaac and mitochondrial DNA from Rebeccah, so that they were at least symbolic of Uriel and Israel.
Therein, I assume, as the writer of “The Prayer of Joseph,” that “Israel” (Sariel) was “The Angel of God,” with whom Jacob wrestled:
24 And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day.
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.
26 And He said, “Let me go, for the day breaketh.” And he said, “I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.”
27 And He said unto him, “What is thy name?” And he said, “Jacob.”
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.”
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.
30 And Jacob called the name of the place ‘Peniel:’ “for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.”
31 And as he passed over Penuel the sun rose upon him, and he halted upon his thigh.
32 Therefore the children of Israel eat not of the sinew which shrank, which is upon the hollow of the thigh, unto this day: because He touched the hollow of Jacob's thigh in the sinew that shrank. (Gen 36)
Before that, Jacob feared fighting his brother, Esau, his rival, between Laban’s homr and Salem. As it turned out, Esau would not be his adversary and peace between the two would prevail. Salem, many believe was two places — Salem in the heavenly Paradise where Melchizedek reigned and Jerusalem in Eden — the future Kingdom of David. If that is the case, then Jacob would be pursuing entrance to the Garden of Eden wherein Salem was in the midst of it, and in the Presence of God.
To disallow entrance for the unworthy, if you remember, “He (God) drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the Tree of Life” (Gen 3:24). Angels were accompanying Jacob because he would be made worthy and when he wrestled with the “man” God, he was blessed. The Angel of God allowed Jacob victory. By grace, Jacob was allowed entry through the obstacles on his way — first Esau, then perhaps incarnated “Jesus” Himself, the “Face of God.” Jacob was allowed entry and past the Cherumbim in the guise of “Israel” and with the genome of Sariel.
Some ancients believe that Jacob first encountered the incarnated angel, Uriel, as Esau with whom he shared brotherly love, although his adversary. If so, that love was what gained him entry to the east of the Garden.
Many believe that Jacob did wrestle with Esau when he wrestled with The Angel of the Lord. They believe that that angel was the archangel, Uriel. As for myself, I do not believe that Uriel was The Angel of God whose face Jacob saw; I believe he wrestled with Jesus by another name which turned out to be his own, “Israel.”
Esau and Jacob had wrestled in the womb, and that time, Esau had won the wrestling match and Esau obtained the birthright because of primogeniture. He was the first-born genes of Isaac whose genes were of God.
Perhaps Esau and Jacob were the incarnations of the archangels, Uriel and Sariel! Of course, we will never know but that correspond quite well with the ancient beliefs. The name “Sariel” means “God Is My Ruler” whereas Uriel means “God Is My Flame.”
Uriel is noted in scripture as The Angel of God that punishes, such as The Angel of Death of the Exodus. If that is true, then Uriel and Sariel are possibly the same Angel of the Lord whose roles are different — Uriel does the destruction for God and Sariel, the blessings. They may be one just as Esau and Jacob were one in the womb when Jacob grabbed the heel of his twin.
Uriel is not mentioned by name in the Bible (but is in the Book of Enoch) because, I believe, that Sariel and Uriel were one angel who functioned according to the purpose of God, just as Jesus is both Savior and Punisher:
18 He that believeth on Him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the Name of the only begotten Son of God... 36 He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him. (John 3:18, 36)
Just as Jacob and Esau became one flesh on the road to Shechem, it may have been Uriel who wrestled with Jacob. It was Uriel, not as the punishing angel, but Uriel as The Angel of Blessings, Sariel. Note that Jacob got a new name, and it was not “Isuriel” but “Israel” because Sariel was the Angel of Peace and “Israel” the Prince of Peace. But you thought that Jesus was “The Prince of Peace.” In the Bible, preincarnate Jesus had many names, and “Israel” was one of the many!
Jesus was of the house of Israel and of the gens of Israel (Jacob). Jesus is the Father of Israel and Israel, just as God is the “Father” and the “Son.”
There were several archangels, and as many as eight are mentioned in literature. Personally, I believe that Nathaniel was an archangel sent in the time of Christ to introduce the Church and Jesus. I base that on the Words of Jesus when he saw Nathaniel, “Jesus saw Nathanael coming to Hm, and saith of him, ‘Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile’” (John 1:47)!
Jesus saw him firstly under the fig tree. Perhaps it was the fig tree under which Eve was beguiled in the beginning (Gen 3:13). Perhaps Nathaniel had no guile because he was there to protect Adam and Eve from death as a guardian angel, and here he was with the guileless Jesus!
Jesus called Nathaniel “an Israelite indeed.” Perhaps He did not mean a Jew but a blessed Angel beknown to Sariel; hence and “Israelite” in the manner of Jacob! He was an Is-ra-el.
In “The Prayer of Josephus,” “the name “Israel” was understood to be derived from ‘ys r’h el ‘’ a man seeing God’” (fragment A, 3). Nathaniel had apparently seen God from under the fig tree and Jesus had seen him there as well. If Nathaniel was an apostle, he may also have been an angel sent from God to deliver the message of the gospel!
Now, the point to this commentary is that Jesus was perhaps both Uriel and Sariel, and that each were a different personality of God when mankind was encountered.
That Jacob was Israel, and that Israel is Jesus is in the fleshes of the two: firstly, The Angel of God, Sariel, dislocated the socket of Israel’s thigh presumably to identify him outwardly as Israel, and that was symbolic, perhaps, of Jesus himself who is identified as “Israel” (Sariel in the flesh):
“For true and righteous are his judgments: for He (the Lord) hath judged the great whore, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand” (Rev. 19:2)
The “great whore,” called Babylon, was neither Babylon nor Rome but wicked Israel. God would judge the whoredom of Israel, the nation. That personality of Jesus fits “The Angel of God” Sariel quite well. Israel will judge Israel fairly. But John saw another vision:
15 And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.
16 And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, King Of Kings, And Lord Of Lords. (Rev 19:15-16)
John saw the punishing Angel, Uriel. As it turns out Uriel and Sariel are both Israel, now called “Jesus.” Jesus is the Punishing Angel of God as well as the Angel of Mercy who blesses mankind by grace.
That “personality” of Jesus called “Uriel” has a name written on His thigh — “King Of Kings and Lord Of Lords). Jacob wrestled, it seems, with Uriel inside but Sariel physically. Inside, Jacob was “Sariel” and outwardly he was “Uriel.” Both together may have been the “King Of Kings and Lord Of Lords” that was revealed to John.
Note that these hunches are based on scripture but the esoteric aspect of them on insight from ancient sacred literature from men who had the same thoughts that I have had. Regardless of any mistakes herein, there is no malice intended. However, it is obvious to any reader that something supranatural was going on when those two brothers wrestled in the womb and when Jacob wrestled with God in the flesh.
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