eceives its explanation--it is said: "And
Jacob called the name of the place _Peniel_, for I have seen GOD face
to face, and my life has been preserved." In Exod. xx. 19, the children
of Israel said to Moses, "Speak thou with us, and we will hear; and let
not God speak with us, [Pg 118] lest we die;" compared with Deut. v.
21: "Now therefore why should we die? for this great fire will consume
us; if we hear the voice of the Lord our God any more, then we shall
die." (Compare also Deut. xviii. 16.) And it is Jehovah who, in Exod.
xxxiii. 20, says, "There shall no man see Me and live." Israel's Lord
and God is, in the absolute energy of His nature, a "consuming fire,"
Deut. iv. 24. (Compare Deut. ix. 3; Is. xxxiii. 14: "Who among us would
dwell with the devouring fire? who among us would dwell with
everlasting burning?" Heb. xii. 29.) It is not the reflected light,
even in the most exalted creatures, nor the sight of the saints of whom
it is said, "Behold, He puts no trust in His servants, and His angels
He chargeth with folly,"--but the sight of the thrice Holy One, which
makes Isaiah exclaim, "Woe is me, for I am undone; for I am a man of
unclean lips, and dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips."

So much then is clear,--that the opinion which considers the Angel of
the Lord to be a created angel is overthrown by the first passage where
that angel is mentioned, if the exposition which we have given of vers.
13, 14--an exposition which is now generally received, and which was
last advanced by _Knobel_--be correct. But _Delitzsch_ gives another
exposition: "Thou art a God of sight, _i.e._, one whose all-seeing eye
does not overlook the helpless and destitute, even in the remotest
corner of the wilderness." Against this we remark, that [Hebrew: rai]
never denotes the act of seeing, but the sight itself. "Have I not even
here (even in the desert land of destitution) looked after Him who saw
me?" "Well of the living one who seeth me," _i.e._, of the omnipresent
divine providence. In opposition to this exposition, however, we must
remark, that God is nowhere else in Genesis called the Living One. But
our chief objection is, that these expositions destroy the connection
which so evidently exists between our passage and those already
quoted,--especially Gen. xxxii. 31; Exod. xxxiii. 20. (Compare,
moreover, Jud. xiii. 22: "And Manoah said unto his wife, We shall
surely die, because we have seen GOD.")

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