- That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two maidservants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of Jabbok. After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions. So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. Then the man said, “Let me go for it is daybreak.” But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” The man asked him, “What is your name?” “Jacob,” he answered. Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome.” Jacob said, “Please tell me your name.” But he replied, “Why do you ask my name?” Then he blessed him there. So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.”[10]
In this case, Prophet Jacob wrestled with God and defeated Him!
Clearly, the Jewish God is not all-powerful!
Timeless-eternal or omnitemporal-eternal?
The Jewish God is eternal.
For this is what the high and lofty One says – he who lives forever; whose name is holy: “I live in a high and holy place, but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite.[11]
On the one hand, the Jewish God is infinite-omnitemporal:
Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations. Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.[12]
So God exists in an infinite time in the eternal past to the eternal future.
On the other hand, the Jewish God is also timeless because He created time – day, night, evening and morning:
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light “day” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening and there was morning – the first day.[13]
God cannot both be timeless and infinite-omnitemporal, because as an immaterial being, He is not made of one part that is timeless, and another that is infinite-omnitemporal.
Therefore, the Jewish God is confused as to His eternality.