I believe it has become rather apparent that this "man" was no ordinary angel. Rashi, one of the great Jewish sages, comments that the "man" was Samael, the guardian angel of Esau. The sages teach that Samael represents evil as does no other angel. He tried desperately to distort Jacob's vision of who he was in G-d's eternal plan, and who his posterity would be. He tried to entice Jacob to lower himself to Esau, to bow to him as the superior, and relinquish his claim to the birthright and blessing.

If only Jacob would abandon this vision and belief of being the "chosen of G-d," set apart to become Patriarch of a people that ultimately would fill the whole earth with the light of the knowledge of G-d, with the Truth and the blessing of His Salvation, Yeshua. If only he would accept the lie of ordinariness, being no different from other people, being just like all men. THEN Esau's angel would have Jacob at this throat for good, and all of his future posterity. Then he could destroy the whole new race of [A-dam, recreated in the image and likeness of the Last A-dam, Messiah Yeshua] man at its very inception, as this "ancient" enemy mastered to do with the first [A-dam] man in the garden.

Imbedded in Jacob were the qualities of all three Patriarchs, which made him the unshakable foundation upon which the future ISRAEL could be built. Jacob’s titanic struggle set in motion a chain of events which would affect his offspring thousands of years into the future, it’s cause and effect reverberating throughout the ages, determining history until G-d's final Day of Judgment.

The struggle wore on UNTIL --- the DEPARTURE OF THE BLACKNESS OF NIGHT, and the RISING OF THE FIRST LIGHT OF PRE-DAWN!
At that very moment the balance shifted in Jacob’s favor! 

The Hebrew translated as "until the break of dawn - ad alot ha'shachar," lit. means until the going up, the departure of the blackness, i.e. pre-dawn. Alternately, shachar refers to the appearance of the first faint rays of daylight. This angel (of Esau) works only in darkness. He hates the light which exposes his deceitful nature. Jacob's strength, however, increased. And thus salvation dawned upon Jacob, and deliverance for the House of Israel, as it is written:

"Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the L-RD has risen upon you. For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and deep darkness all peoples; but the L-RD rises upon you and His glory appears over you. Nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn (rising -)."¹⁵

The importance and magnitude of this lit. "rising of light" I cannot emphasize enough. Not only did it promise victory to Jacob at the time of his wrestling, but it also proclaimed victory and salvation for the future generation of Israel in the last days. The night of exile, of wrestling for survival as a people among the nations will come to an end, will the present attempt to supplant Israel from its rightful inheritance¹⁶. The salvation of Messiah's Return will dawn upon Israel, and the Return of G-d’s glory will be seen. The darkness [of exile and persecution] in which Jacob's children have so desperately wrestled among the peoples will instead engulf the peoples themselves. For Jacob will be saved in the brightness of Messiah’s rising in the hearts of individuals and upon the nation¹⁷. 

We can clearly see that darkness has begun to descend upon the peoples of the world: revolutions, lawlessness, murder, immorality, barbarism, idolatry, witchcraft, drug-abuse, terrorism, the love of money and self are steadily increasing. The night of unrestrained evil in which love will grow cold¹⁸, is descending, while at the same time we can observe a dawning upon the Jewish people. As Jacob “returned” from fearing Esau to renewed faith and trust in G-d’s faithfulness and promises, so do we see today a RETURN of the Jewish people unto their G-d and unto their Messiah, YESHUA. 

Yes indeed, it is a Jewish RETURN to the Messianic faith! For Jews who believed in Yeshua numbered in the hundreds of thousands at the fall of Jerusalem in 70 C.E. (see Josephus, “History of the Jews”), and at the end of the century more than one and a half Million. All Jews, including Yeshua’s disciples, were scattered, and eventually that pagan counterfeit of the true faith, created by Emperor Constantine, put an end to the Jewish presence in the Church.

Now Messiah has begun His Return - a Return by His Spirit... He has begun to enter His own sheepfold and is calling His own sheep, for there is an increasing number of recognizable Jews - i.e. His own sheep - gathering about Him. I am one of them. And I literally experienced the rising of His light in my heart, as is also written in Job: “He has redeemed my soul from the pit, and my life shall see the light. Behold, G-d does all these things, twice, three times with a man, to bring back his soul from the pit to be lighted or enlightend with the light of life or the living.”¹⁹

His light has already risen in the hearts of hundreds of thousands of Jews both in Israel and abroad. Fearing rejection by our own people many are reluctant to come out into the open with their faith in Yeshua. Nevertheless we know that 'Esau' no longer poses a threat for us, because victory has already dawned upon us. The majority of Jacob’s children, however, are still wrestling, not recognizing as yet the “alot ha’shachor” for our people in the Savior and King of Israel, Messiah Yeshua raised in Nazareth, Son of David born in Bethlehem, Son of Abraham, Son of Adam, Son of G-d. 

No mightier battle has been fought than Jacob's, except for the one Yeshua fought on the cross. Because the weight of all our sins was laid on Him, He had to bow as Son of Man [Ben A-dam] to the grip of death. His light eclipsed by our sins during this titanic struggle, the darkness of night of that ancient enemy began to engulf the earth. The night of Yeshua's wrestling seemed an eternity. The ancient enemy, the old serpent, appeared to have won the victory when he inflicted the grievous wound of death on the Promised Seed through Whom G-d was going to raise up a whole new race of [A-dam²⁰] men. The Anointed One was indeed cut off from the living²¹ --- but only temporary! 

Yeshua emerged victorious from this struggle of the ages, perhaps at the “alot ha’shachor” of the third day²². Yeshua overcame permanently this ancient fear of Noah and the Patriarchs, this deceiver from the garden, this inner enemy. Messiah became our camp of G-d, to strengthen and encourage us into G-d's promises. Whenever a Jew turns to Messiah in faith, he will thus be met by Him, never to travel alone again!

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