"I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved." Gen. 32:30. What a wonderful experience Jacob must have had to so glimpse what God is in His perfection, goodness, and omnipresence that he could see something of the unreality of the error he was struggling with—"a mortal sense," Mrs. Eddy explains, "of life, substance, and intelligence as existent in matter with its false pleasures and pains . . . ." Science and Health, p. 308. He was so spiritually uplifted that he called the place "Peniel" or "Face of God."
Jacob, a revered patriarch of Biblical history, made this profound discovery at a crucial point in his life when death at the hands of his twin brother seemed likely. But he had so glimpsed God's all inclusive love that when he met his brother it was a joyful reunion. Jacob even told him, "I have seen thy face, as though I had seen the face of God, and thou wast pleased with me." Gen. 33:10.
Jacob had undertaken a long journey, literally and figuratively, before he came to that point and was willing to yield to God's harmonious control of his affairs. Through deceit and trickery he had stolen his brother's inheritance and blessing and then was forced to flee when his brother threatened to kill him.
