What Did the Sun Rising On Jacob Mean?
Is the significance of the sun rising on Jacob in Genesis 32:31?
In the Old and the New Testaments, the temporal setting or time at which an event occurs sometimes has symbolic or thematic significance, but we must be careful not to force Scripture to find deeper or hidden meaning. But, taken within context, sometimes the normal sense of the text has symbolic overtones. Here, the narrator notes that the sun rose upon Jacob. The narrator might be suggesting that the sun is rising on Jacob in more ways than one. This was a significant day for Jacob in his walk with God and in his practical sanctification.
Like Jacob, when we turn to God, acknowledging our weakness, we are experiencing a “breaking of the day” moment in our walk with the Lord Jesus Christ. In that moment, the sun rises on us, breaking through with victory.
BY Dr. Winfred O. Neely
Dr. Winfred Neely is Vice President and Dean of Moody Theological Seminary and Graduate School. An ordained minister, Winfred has served churches across the city of Chicago, the near west suburbs, and Senegal, West Africa. He is the author of How to Overcome Worry (Moody Publishers) and a contributor to the Moody Bible Commentary and Moody Handbook of Preaching. Winfred and his wife Stephne have been married for forty years and have four adult children and nine grandchildren.