Did Jacob Actually Wrestle With God?

In Genesis 32 we encounter an unusual passage where Jacob is said to have wrestled with God.  What are we to make of this passage?  Did Jacob actually wrestle with God himself?  

(Genesis 32:24)"And Jacob was left alone.  And a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day." (ESV) 

(Genesis 32:28)"Then he said, Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed." (ESV) 

(Genesis 32:30)"So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, saying, For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered." (ESV) 

An important principle in Biblical interpretation is that Scripture interprets Scripture.  So we will also look at a passage in Hosea.  

(Hosea 12:3-4a)"In the womb he took his brother by the heel, and in his manhood he strove with God.  He strove with the angel and prevailed; he wept and sought his favor." (ESV) 

From the Hosea passage we see that Jacob strove with the angel.  But it also says that he strove with God, as does the passage from Genesis 32.  Jacob even named the place Peniel which means the face of God, because he had seen God face to face.  We might say that Jacob wrestled with God through the angel.  In a sense Jacob did wrestle with God, but it seems that the actual figure he wrestled with was the angel.  

Jacob was transformed by this encounter.  The God of Abraham and Isaac had now become the God of Jacob as well.  His name was changed from Jacob to Israel.  Jacob means he cheats or he deceives, while Israel means he strives with God.  

Was The Resurrection Of Christ Bodily Or Just Spiritual?

So what was the nature of the resurrection of Christ?  When the New Testament was written the idea of a bodily resurrection was absurd to the surrounding Greek culture.  The Greeks spoke of the immortality of the soul and viewed matter as evil.  They thought that salvation was found by the soul escaping from the body.  In our time the idea that Christ's resurrection was just as a spirit has been held by groups from the Jehovah's Witnesses to the liberals.   

(Luke 24:39) "See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself.  Touch me, and see.  For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have."  (ESV)  

Jesus had appeared to his disciples and they thought they had seen a spirit.  Jesus showed that his body was physical, "flesh and bones" and not a spirit.  In 1 Corinthians 15 Paul stressed that the resurrection of Jesus was not just his spirit going to heaven but that his body was raised from the dead.  

Paul also pointed out that over 500 people witnessed his bodily resurrection.  Also in 1 Corinthians 15:12-13 the phrase "resurrection of the dead" literally means "the standing up of dead ones."  The Apostle Paul proclaimed that if Christ is not raised bodily from the dead then your faith is futile, you have no hope, and there is no Christianity.  

The Bible plainly teaches that the resurrection of Christ was bodily and not just spiritual.  Jesus was victorious over sin, death, and the devil, accomplishing salvation for his people.