32:1 angels of God. This is Jacob’s second encounter with angels; the first, twenty years earlier, was as he left the promised land. He encounters them again as he returns. In both cases, whether facing the external dangers of the material world (typified by Laban) or the internal dangers of the religious world (typified by Esau), Jacob could rely on the help of God’s invisible army of ministering spirits (Hebrews 1:14); the same is true for faithful men of God today.