Ver. 1. Angels of God met him.] Sensibly and visibly, as servants meet their masters, as the guard their prince. Oh, the dignity and safety of the saints! who are in five respects, say some, above the angels. (1.) Our nature is more highly advanced in Christ. (2.) The righteousness whereby we come to glory is more excellent than theirs; which, though perfect in its kind, is but the righteousness of mere creatures, such as God may find fault with, (Job 4:18) such as may need mercy; therefore the cherubims are said to stand upon the mercy seat, and to be made of the matter thereof. (3.) The sonship of the saints is founded in a higher right than theirs—viz., in the Sonship of the second Person in Trinity. (4.) They are members of Christ, and so in nearer union than any creature. (5.) They are the spouse, the bride; angels only servants of the Bridegroom, and “ministering spirits, sent out (as here) to minister for them that shall be heirs of salvation”. (Hebrews 1:14) They meet us still, as they did Jacob: they minister many blessings to us, yet will not be seen to receive any thanks of us: they stand at our right hands, (Luke 1:11) as ready to relieve us as the devils to mischief us. (Zechariah 3:1) If Satan, for terror, show himself like the great “leviathan”; or, for fraud, like a “crooked” and “piercing serpent”; or, for violence and fury, like “the dragon in the seas”; yet the Lord will smite him by his angels, as with his “great, and sore, and strong sword”. (Isaiah 27:1) Angels are in heaven as in their watch tower [whence they are called watchers, Daniel 4:13], to keep the world, the saints especially, their chief charge, in whose behalf, they “stand ever before the face of God,” (Matthew 18:10) waiting and wishing to be sent upon any design or expedition, for the service and safety of the saints. They are like masters or tutors, to whom the great King of heaven commits his children: these they bear in their bosoms, as the nurse doth her babe, or as the servants of the house do their young master, glad to do them any good office; ready to secure them from that roari ng lion, that rangeth up and down, seeking to devour them. The philosopher told his friends, when they came into his little and low cottage, Εντευθεν ουκ απεισι θεοι, The gods are here with me. The true Christian may say, though he dwell never so meanly, God and his holy angels are ever with him, &c.
Ver. 2. This is God’s host.] So called, for their number, order, obedience, strength, &c. God hath a complete host of horse and foot. Angels, and heavenly bodies, are his horse, as it were; “horses and chariots of fire”; (2 Kings 6:17) yea, both horse and foot: for there are whole “legions” of them. (Matthew 26:53) Now a legion is judged to be six thousand foot, and seven hundred horse. Daniel tells us, there be millions of angels, (Daniel 7:10) yea, “an innumerable company,” saith the author to the Hebrews. (Hebrews 12:22) The Greek poet could say, There were thirty thousands of them here upon earth, keepers of mortal men, and observers of their works: some think they are meant in the parable, by the ninety and nine sheep; as if they were ninety and nine times as many as mankind in number. All these, how many soever, pitch camp round about the godly, (Psalms 34:7) make a lane for them, as they did here for Jacob at Mahanaim (which signifies a double camp), fight in battle array against their enemies, (Daniel 10:20) and convey them at death, as they did Lazarus, through their enemies’ country, the air, into Abraham’s bosom. (Luke 16:22) So that all God’s children may call death, as Jacob did this place, Mahanaim; because there the angels meet them. And as the palsied man, in the gospel, was let down with his bed through the tiling before Jesus, (Luke 5:19) so is every good soul taken up in a heavenly couch (or coach, rather) through the roof of his house, and carried into Christ’s presence, by the blessed angels. Τρις γαρ μυριοι εισις επι χθονι πουλυβοτειρη Δαιμονες αθανατοι, φυλακες μεροπψν ανθρωπων.— Hesiod.
Ver. 3. And Jacob sent messengers.] Means, he knew, was to be used by him, though well assured of safeguard. God must be trusted, not tempted: means must be used, but not trusted. Jacob was “as one that fled from a lion, and a bear met him”. (Amos 5:19) Laban, as a lion, had some shamefacedness, saith a Rabbi: Esau, as a bear, had none. Jacob therefore prays, and sends, and submits, and presents him; and all to pacify him. He that meets with a bear, will not strive with him for the wall, but be glad to escape by him. Pirkei R. Eliez., cap. 37.
Ver. 4. Unto my lord Esau; Thy servant Jacob, &c.] This was not baseness of spirit, much less a renouncing of his birthright and blessing; but a necessary submission for a time, such as was that of David to Saul, (1 Samuel 24:7,9) till the prophecy of his superiority should be fulfilled. That was baseness in the Samaritans, that in writing to Antiochus Epiphanes, that great king of Syria, because he tormented the Jews, to excuse themselves that they were no Jews they styled him, Antiochus the mighty God: the Scripture styles him “a vile person”. (Daniel 11:21) So was that also in Teridates, king of the Parthians, who, with bended knee and hands held up, worshipped Nero, and thus bespake that monster of mankind: To thee I come as to my god; and thee I adore as I do the sun: what thou decreest of me, I will be and do; for thou art to me both fate and fortune &c. And what shall we think of those superstitious Sicilians, who, when they were excommunicated by Pope Martin IV, laid themselves prostrate at his feet, and cried; -O Lamb of God that takest away the sins of the world, grant us thy peace. The Venetians also, being excommunicated by Pope Clemens V, could not be absolved till such time as their ambassador Dandalus had not only fallen at the Pope’s feet, but lain also under his table as a dog with an iron chain about his neck, feeding on such scraps as were cast unto him. Had this dog dealt by the Pope as the Earl of Wiltshire’s spaniel did, he had served him but right. This earl, with Doctor Cranmer, and others, being sent ambassador to Rome about King Henry’s divorce; when he should have kissed the Pope’s foot, his spaniel, as though he had been of purpose appointed thereunto, went and caught the Pope by the great toe, which the spaniel haply mistook for some kind of repast. But this by the way only. What hard servitude kings and emperors were forced to undergo in former times, and how basely to avile themselves to the beast of Rome, is better known than that it need to be here related. Henry II of England, Henry IV of France, and Henry, the fourth Emperor of Germany, for instance. This last came, in the midst of a sore winter, upon his bare feet, to the gates of the Castle of Canusium, and stood there fasting from morning to night for three days together, waiting for the Pope’s judicial sentence, and craving his pardon: which yet he could not obtain by his own or others’ tears, or by the intercession of any saint, save only of a certain harlot, with whom the Pope was then taking his carnal pleasure. The good emperor mistook who thought that the Pope could be pacified by fasting and prayer. This god required another kind of sacrifice than these. And here that of Solomon was fulfilled, “I have seen servants upon horses, and princes walking as servants upon the earth”. (Ecclesiastes 10:7) Josephus. Ηλθον προς σε τον εμον θεον, προσκυνησων σε, ως και τον Μιθραν, και εσομαι τουτο οτι αν συ επικλωσης συ γαρ μοι και μοιρα ει και τυχη.— Dio in Vita Neronis. Jac. Rev., De Vitis Pontif., p. 198. Unde ei Canis cognomentum apud suos. -Ibid. Act. and Mon., fol. 1690. Abase. Brightm., Upon the Revel., fol. 449.