Thank you for tuning into our Podbean subscription. We hope that you enjoy the message and we trust that God will speak to your heart. If you would like to serve into the ministry of rebirth, please feel free to do so. You will find our banking details along with our pay-fossing in the sermon description. Now, let's get straight into this week's message. - Turn it me to Genesis chapter 32. Genesis chapter 32, when you're there, please give me an amen. I'm reading from the English standard version. The English standard version. I'm gonna be very swift this morning. I need you to follow with me close behind me. Like you're walking with your kids and pick and pay. I need you to tag along with me, you know? Don't get lost. We're gonna move very swiftly. There's always a lot to say and so little time to say it. Candice, if possible. When I get to verses 22, verses 22, you're welcome to hop on to the Munstrel instrument, the piano. Let's go. We all there? - Amen. - Are we all there? - Amen. - Come on, somebody. We're dealing with the life of Jacob. And the Bible reads from verse one. Jacob went on his way and the angels of God met him. And when Jacob saw them, he said, this is God's camp. So he called the name of the place, may her name. And Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau, his brother in the land of Sia, the country of Edom, instructing them. Thus, you shall say to my Lord Esau. Thus is your servant Jacob. I have so journeyed with labor and stayed until now. I have oxen, donkeys, flocks, male servants, and female servants, I've sent to tell my Lord in order that I may find favor in your sight. And the messengers return to Jacob saying, we came to your brother Esau and he is coming to meet you and there's 400 men with him. Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed. I hope some of you have been reading the book of Genesis this week. He divided the people who were with him and the flocks and the herds and the camels into two camps thinking if Esau comes to one camp and attacks it, then the other campers is left to escape. And Jacob said, oh God, my father, oh God, oh my father, papa, pushiri, God. I'm just seeing if you're still listening here, you know what I mean? God, I'm a papa, he prays, he says, oh God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac. Oh Lord, who said to me, return to your country and to your kingdom that I may do you good. I am not worthy of the least of all the deeds of steadfast love and all the faithfulness that you've shown to your servant. For with only my staff I have crossed this Jordan and now I've become two camps. Please deliver me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau. I fear him that he may come and attack me, the mothers with their children as well. But you said, I will surely do you good and make your offspring as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude. So he stayed there that night and from what he had with him he took a presence for his brother Esau, 200 female goats and 20 male goats, 200 ewes and 20 rams, 30 milking camels and their calves, 40 cows and 10 bulls, 20 female donkeys and 10 male donkeys. These he handed over to his servants every drove by itself and said to his servants, pass on ahead of me and put a space between drove and drove. Jacob was a strategist, he's the reason why he's doing this. He's trying to slow Esau down in case Esau thinks of attacking him. And so he instructed the first, he said, when Esau, my brother meets you and asks you to whom do you belong? Where are you going? And who are these ahead of you? Then you shall say, they belong to your servant Jacob. They are present to my Lord Esau and moreover, he is behind us. He likewise instructed the second and the third and all who followed the drove, you shall say, the same thing to Esau when you find him. And you shall say, moreover, your servant Jacob is behind us. For he thought I may appease him with the present that goes ahead of me and afterwards I will see his face. He's trying to buy Esau's face. Perhaps he will accept me if all these gifts go before me. Verse 21, so the present passed on ahead of Jacob and he himself stayed that night in the camp. Verse 22, the same night he arose and he took his two wives and his two female servants and his 11 children and crossed the fold of the Jabok. He took them and sent them across the stream and everything else he had and Jacob was left alone. And the man wrestled with him until the breaking of day and when the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched his hip socket. And Jacob's hip was put out of joints and he wrestled with him as he wrestled with him and then he said, let me go for the day as broken. But Jacob said, I will not let you go unless you bless me. They said to him, what is your name? And he said, Jacob. And then he said, your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have driven with God and with man and have prevailed. Then Jacob asked him, please tell me your name. But he said, why is it that you asked my name? And they blessed him. So Jacob called the name of the place Paneo saying, for I have seen God face to face and yet my life has been delivered. The sun rose upon him as he passed Paneo, lumping because of his hip. Therefore to this day, the people of Israel do not eat the sinew of the thigh that is on the hip socket because he touched the socket of Jacob's hip on the sinew of the thigh. And Jacob had that lump his entire life to remind him of the county he had at Jabok. Can we pray? Father, Lord, we thank you for your presence. And I thank you that in your presence, there's not only fullness of joy, but there's the flexibility of time. Bless our hearts and our ears to hear what the spell of the Lord is saying in Jesus' name. And everybody says, amen, amen. Family, I've got a case study with me and a quick Bible topic. For the case study, we are gonna look at very quickly, angelology. So that simply means the study of angels and we'll be very, very brief with this, okay? You saw with me? - Yeah. - Okay, so in the Old Testament, the term angel appears 213 times. In 24 out of 39 Old Testament books. In the Old Testament, neither Satan nor demons are referred to as angels. It's only when we get into the New Testament that the scriptures make reference to Satan and his angels. In the New Testament, we have 176 appearances of angels, 18 times out of 27 New Testament books are their reference. Some of the characteristics of angels, as you're all familiar with, probably looking at your wife and saying, "Yes, my angel." But I'm actually talking about real angels, the supernatural spiritual beings, okay? So angels possess three identifiable characteristics, the traits of personhood that makes them persons that intellect, emotions, and war. Firstly, we see that angels are wise, they are intelligent beings. They are able to have conversations like in Matthew 28. They're able to sing, they're able to worship, they are intelligent beings. Secondly, we see that they do have the capacity for emotion because the scripture says, "Look, Jesus told us that when one sinner comes to repentance, all of heaven's angels rejoice." So they are given to emotion. Thirdly, scripture tells us and indicates that they do have a world because we do understand that there were a company and band of angels that rebelled against God and were kicked out of God's presence. And so first Peter one also tells us that angels, God's angels have a desire to look into the masses of salvation. So they long to experience, in some sense, what we experience. Scripture also indicates that angels are not bound by physical spaces and dimensions. They are able to move between worlds, both the natural world and the supernatural world. They are spirit beings. Okay, they are also without any gender, but when they do appear and manifest themselves, they appear as males, not females in scripture. We also see that according to the teachings of Jesus, that angels cannot reproduce after their own kind. They cannot procreate and make babies and children together and you have little angel chubby stomach, angels running around. Okay, angels are ageless and they are immortal. They cannot die. Okay, there is a hierarchy of angels that we see in scripture. They are your common ordinary angels. They're your ark angels. They're these heavenly beings, cherubim, seraphim. And in this the full living creatures is a 24 hours. So the closer they get to the throne of God, the more authority and rank they have. There are a number of misconceptions we have around angels. I'm just gonna list a few. Firstly, the number one misconception we have around angels is that they don't exist. Scripture from Old Testament to New Testament makes it very clear and plainly that angels do exist. And if I handed over the mic to some of you right now, you might even be able to tell us some stories because I know a couple of people in our presence here that have had encounters, okay? Some of us may even have had encounters without knowing. And you wondered how did you survive that accident, you know? And you could only attribute it to some unseen influence, okay? Not just happenstance. Second misconception is that when people die, they receive their wings, they become angels. That is not biblical, okay? I know we like to say it, you know? She on these wings, she on these wings. No, people don't become angels. Thirdly, not all angels address in white family. Some of us have been watching touch by an angel for too long. (audience laughing) Your angel could have an encounter with angels as wedding LaCoste. (audience laughing) And Babi Yani, who knows? Okay. Fourthly, you cannot, this is the teaching and here to see that they're floating around our circles of Pentecostalism and Catholicism is that we can command angels. No, you don't get that kind of power to order angels around like your day, your servants. No, you cannot command angels. They are appointed to serve us as heirs of salvation day. Follow God's instructions. Not just, okay? We like to assume power and authority that doesn't belong to us, it's the human nature. Okay. Second to lastly, not all angels have wings, family. Not all of them have wings, okay? There are a few that's mentioned with wings, but when we examined the Old Testament and New Testament, we see that not every appearance of angels resemble angels with wings. And lastly, for those of you who have been reading the book of Enoch, angels are not responsible for the flood. God made it clear that the flood occurred because of man's disobedience and continuous wickedness in the imagination. Okay, according to Wayne Grudem, the place of angels in God's purpose and plans are forefold. Firstly, they help demonstrate the greatness of God's love and plan for us. Secondly, they remind us that there is an unseen realm and world. Thirdly, they exist to directly glorify God. Lastly, they are examples for us of obedience and worship because they obey and worship God without hesitation. And so they serve as examples to you and I. And scripture tells us in Hebrews that we should be hospitable to all people, not knowing that we might entertain angels' unknowees. And as the truth be told, many of us have had encounters with angels without even knowing it. Amen. Moving on to our Bible topic. This morning's a partial summary of Jacob's life because something tells me that not all of you have been reading through the life of Jacob. Does this week anybody read through Jacob's life? - Yeah. (sighs) - Anybody? Somebody? Guys, love breaking my heart, eh? Okay, so Jacob's story starts with Isaac's story starts. Chapter 25. So promise me this week you're gonna give it a read. Before we are out of the story of the patriarchs. Okay, just a pledge. Make it like it's a financial pledge. (laughs) No, I'm gonna pledge to read through the story of Jacob. Okay. Okay, so Jacob was obviously one of the patriarchs. Scripture refers to God as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But when you get to consider who Jacob is, I honestly think Jacob depicts more of God's grace and mercy towards us because Jacob's life is messy. Unlike Abraham and Isaac. So when God refers to himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is actually not just associating himself with people whose lives are squeaky clean, but it refers himself as the God of Jacob too. And so Jacob is a patriot in my opinion and view that most depicts the power and grace of God towards us and his power and ability to change us and renew us. And so if you know the story of Jacob, you know according to Hamilton that there are three points of tension in the life of Jacob and his brother Esso, they are twin brothers, okay? Let's add the point of birth, birthright, and blessing. Those are the three points of tension for him. Okay, firstly we see in Genesis chapter 25 that Wavi Becca is pregnant with these twin brothers. There is almost like a wrestling inside of a womb and then Esso is born and then Jacob comes out and is holding the heel of Esso. And so like it was accustomed back then, they gave Jacob the name heel grabber. Supplanta, so Jacob, the name Jacob literally means someone who was a supplanta, someone who grabs after the heel, in other words, someone who always wants to be ahead. Everybody, okay. Later on in Genesis 25, we read how Jacob cunningly manipulates his brother Esso into selling his birthright for a bowl of soup and according to Walter and Matthew's a birthright was the eldest son's double share of inheritance. So a birthright concerned only material blessings. So every son would get a portion of the material wealth of the family but the first one would get double of the share. And so Jacob managed to cunningly manipulate Esso for trading and exchanging his birthright for bowl of lentil stew. Can you love stew so much? You know, and then when we get into chapter 27, we see that Isaac now, the father of Jacob and Esso is now old and aged and he's lost his vision, his vision is impaired and he has a sense that he's near his death. And so he speaks to Esso, he says, "Esso go ahead, make my favorite stew go and kill a lamb and come back that you may receive the blessing." You know, the blessing of the patriarchs and so Esso leaves out, it's almost a day's journey and Rebecca Isaac's wife overhears the conversation and she together with Jacob's scheme now for Jacob to rob Esso of the blessing. And Jacob did it in a dramatic fashion. I mean, Jacob put on, because Esso was hairy, he put on goat's skin, you know. And he had this whole dramatized fashion of how he would deceive his brother and pretend to be Esso and he robs Esso of his blessing. Now, the blessing of the patriarch according to Walton when a patriarch or father pronounced a blessing over the eldest son, it was an irrevocable blessing. He could not undo it. And so we see this when Esso comes back from his journey and to Isaac and his surprise, Jacob had already received the blessing. And you see how distraught and how impacted Esso was by this in that he pleads and he begs his father to bless him. And his father says, I cannot undo what I have done. Jacob has received the blessing and this impacted on Esso to such an extent that in chapter 27 of Genesis he vows, he makes a vow and he says, the day Isaac, my father dies, Jacob dies with him. I'm gonna kill it. And Rebecca gets the news. And Rebecca says like any mother would say and do, Jacob, we're gonna send you to your uncle. She sends him away from the travel and he makes his way over to his uncle, Laban. When Jacob gets to Laban, something weird occurs. A con man meets a super con man. He meets his match. His uncle was more sure than him. So Laban cheats him, you know the story, cheats him into laboring for the wrong daughter. He was supposed to met. So he met, he labored seven years for the wrong wife. So in total that was the level of the day. And so in total he worked 14 years for one wife instead of seven. And then if you read the account or you read the account you'll find out that Laban changes his wages 10 times. Laban was a shrewd con man. He was always one up on Jacob. And so there are a few takeaways from the relationship between Jacob and Laban. He's uncle that we can actually draw from, you know, that we can actually learn from. Firstly, this might shock you. But family can take advantage of you. - Yes. (laughing) - That's sinking but the pause is intentional. Secondly, that one or two bad decisions in your life can actually lead to a series of problems. - Yeah. - And we can pray for you all we want up here. One wrong decision can unleash a world of trauma for you. Thirdly, we also learned that God has a way of dealing with unfair treatments. And lastly, what we learned from Jacob is that when you are in a time when you're trusting God to deal with unfair treatments, set yourself up for success. Because that's what Jacob did. When he left Laban, he left more wealthy than Laban. But eventually, when we get to chapter 31, we see that Jacob and Laban eventually have a peace agreement and he ends up living in peace. And that brings us to chapter 32. I just saved you so much reading. - Yeah. (laughing) - That brings us to chapter 32. Jacob and his entire family with all his cattle and wealth have now left Heron and have left Laban and now they are on the route to the promised land. To Canaan, where he's come from, where God has promised to the patriarchs, God promised Jacob that he'll bring him back into the land that he left, the land of promise, but there's only one problem. He will run into Esau. Jacob must be confronted with his past. And what we see playing out in the life of Jacob is not calmer, it's the law of reciprocity. God's law of sowing and reaping. And so Jacob would, and he has paid the price for the times that he has manipulated and cheated others. And what we see take place in the life of Jacob is that we see the wheels of God do turn. But when they turn, they may turn exceedingly slow. You know, extremely slow. But when they turn, they turn and the grinds exceedingly fine. When we look at Chapter 32, Chapter 32 marks the end of a 20-year struggle that Jacob had with Laban. We see that Jacob is now married to his favorite wife, Rachel. Rachel has borne him an heir, Joseph. He has a son. His wilderness years in Heran have now come to an end. The chapter looks full of promise for Jacob and his family. Jacob is on his way to the promised land with his entire family. He is on his way to Kannan. And God spoke to him in the dream in Chapter 28. When he first left Canaan, when his mother sent him running for his life, God gave him a dream of a ladder. You remember that, the dream? And in this dream, angels were sending and descending it. And in God reiterated the promise that he gave Abraham, Isaac, and said, "Jacob, I'm gonna bless you. "I'm gonna bring you back into this land. "Your descendants are gonna be great." And then Jacob after waking up from this dream, he was in this place called Luz. And he woke up. He actually had fallen asleep on a rock. When he got up from the dream, he anointed the rock and he woke up and he said these words. He said, "Surely the Lord is in this place "and I did not even know it." How awesome is this place? This is none other than the house of God, the gateway of heaven. Now, when we look at the life of Abraham, God's call to Abraham. God's call to Abraham was mentioned in Genesis chapter 12. And is contrasted with the rebellion of those who built the tower in Genesis chapter 11. You remember that story? So when Jacob gets up from this place in Luz, he calls it the house of God. Surely the presence of Lord is in it. I didn't even know it. At the gate of heaven, this place is a special place. He called the place Beethal. - Yeah. - Beethal. And what we actually see when we compare Genesis 11 in the life of the patriarchs, reaching into Jacob's dream and his experience is that they actually, they actually is a background to Beethal and the background to Beethal is Beethal. The background for the vision of the tower of the Beethal story where these men and rebels got together and said, "We are gonna build a tower "which is called a ziggurat that is a stepped pyramid. "All the way to heaven. "We're gonna build a staircase "to heaven, a gateway to heaven." And so the Hebrew name for Babel is Babylon and the Kedian name for Babel is the gates of heaven. And so what we see in Jacob's encounter with God is a stock vivid contrast with his experience of a ladder going ascending from earth to heaven with Babel. What men and the rebels were tempting in Genesis chapter 11, we have God freely given undeserving man. Jacob wasn't looking for God. In fact, he had done nothing in his life to earn God's favor, quite the opposites. He was a liar and a cheat. And all he was looking for was a place to raise that died at Beethal. What we see with these rebels is that they were seeking to reach the heavens. They were seeking to create a gateway to heaven. And what God promised Abraham, Isaac and Jacob was actually in effect an answer to the fiasco that was happening at Babel. And so what we see in Babel, we see God divide all these rebels and what we see in the lives of the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as God tried to establish our community. What he divided there, he tried to unite through Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, a community of people that will serve him. And so Jacob's vision and dream of this angel ascending with this ladder, with angels ascending and descending, if you know your New Testament, is actually fulfilled in the life and ministry of Christ, because when Jesus speaks to the Daniel in John chapter one verse verse 51, he says to the Daniel from this day on, the Daniel you will see ascending angels and descending upon the Son of God. I am the true Beethal. I am the gateway to heaven. I am the truth, the way and the life. I am the only way to the Father. So Jacob now is moving towards Canaan. He's moving towards the future that God had promised him a Beethal initially. And now he turns around now after 20 years and he's making his way back to Canaan, but he has to deal with his past. He has to confront Esau. He had to take responsibility for his unresolved past actions. And what we learned from Jacob is that you cannot deal with your past and you cannot deal with the unresolved issues of your past as the same person. Come on. You have to have a change of heart and character. Yeah. You have to allow God to forgive you. You have to allow yourself to grow and learn from your past experiences. You have to confront your past as a different individual. You must have a change of behavior that is consistent with the lessons that you've claimed to have learned through your time of life. And you must be willing to absorb the impact of what you have done and embrace the consequences for it. You don't resolve or deal with the issues in your past by denying or minimizing the impact of your actions. Don't make small of your actions. Secondly, don't shift the blame on to circumstances or others. Take full responsibility for it. Ignoring the issue and saying the past is in the past and it's not resolved, doesn't make a go away. Being defensive doesn't help either. Yeah. Probably, this point is going to take a while to go down. Don't expect instant forgiveness from people. Demanding or expecting immediate forgiveness without giving people time to process their feelings and their can be selfish and unrealistic. So when we look at chapter 32, we should look at chapter 32 and chapter 33 together because chapter 32 and chapter 33 conclude and culminate in the full cycle of what happened between Jacob and Esau. And so in chapter 32, we have the preliminary buildup to the encounter. And in chapter 33, we have encounter with Esau that brings that story and cycle to an end and brings closure to the Jacob, Esau, Saga and struggle. So Ross states that the four major parts, when we look at chapter 32 and chapter 33, firstly from verses one to two, we have the vision of the camp of God. Secondly from verses three to 21, we have the sending of the gifts to Esau, which is done in fear. And then from verses 22 to 32, we have the result that Jacob has with the angel of the Lord at Jabok. And then the entire chapter three, we see Jacob reconciling peacefully with Esau. So this morning, we'll just discuss the first three parts. And so we see in chapter 30, the reconciliation with Jacob and Esau, but this occurs after he is crippled and he is blessed. And after all these developments take place. And chapter 33 actually shows us that while Esau and Jacob, probably at different intentions or expectations of how the confrontation would come about, that actually it was God who brings about reconciliation. And that's the big point here, that God brings reconciliation. In spite of Jacob's attempts to appease his brother, in spite of his guilt and his tactics and strategies to win over his brother, it was really God who orchestrated the reconciliation between the two. And so when we look at chapter 32 by itself, at the heart of chapter two, and hear me on this point, is the prayer of Jacob, which we have in verses nine to 12. The prayer of Jacob and the intercession of Jacob is framed by two reports of Jacob sending messengers. Two Esau, which we see in verses three to eight, and verses 13 to 21. Smack in the middle of that sandwich, like a slice of pink poloni, is Jacob's prayer and cry out to God. Prayer must be at the center of all activities. And so the entire section and chapter begins from verses one to two with the revelation of the camp of God, with an encounter with angels. And then we see at the end of the chapter, another encounter with an angel. What we also see in this chapter is, is that there's a play on words that knit the entire chapter together. So the first two verses, we read about the messengers of God, the angels. And then we read about how Jacob names the places at the camp of God in Hebrew, which means two camps. And then we see immediately after that in verses three to eight, that Jacob sends messengers to Esau. And then he divides his family into two camps. So there's the theme and motif of the messengers and the two camps that knit the narrative together. And we see this play on words that just unify the entire chapter. And so some scholars have said that the word play, we see actually indicates that in Jacob's desperation and in his fears, he was actually either trying to minimize and downplay, not intentionally, the experience and encounter he had with his angels, or possibly he saw it as a strategy given to him to resolve the conflict between him and Esau. So when we look at verses one to two, verses one to two reads, Jacob went on his way and the angels of God met him. And when Jacob saw them, he said, this is God's camp. And so he called the name of the place a mayor name, which means two camps. And it's interesting to note that when Jacob left the promised land in chapter 28, he had an angelic dream. And now on his way back to the promised land, he has an angelic counter. And so this forms in literature was called an inclusion where an event or feature occurs at the beginning and at the end. And so this also indicates for us that there is actually a divine presence and sanction and blessing over the life of Jacob who is the heir of the covenant of Abraham. And so when Jacob draws back the veil on his life experience, he can actually see that God has been with him all along. And that's what we learned from the story of Jacob. That God has not left him in spite of his behavior, in spite of his cunning, deceptive ways. God was always there. At the beginning and at the end, God was there. In the darkest moments of his life and in the most terrifying moments of his life, God was present from beginning to end, from start to finish, God had not left him. And some of us have developed this notion that if I do something wrong, God leaves me. And that's a life from the enemy. Amen. And so he has this vision of the camp of God and what occurs between verses one and two is the predominant theological idea in the chapter. Because of its place of prominence, it occurs at the beginning before the climactic encounter that he has with the angel. And the meaning of this encounter here at Mahineh name, establishes for us some kind of standard of faith whenever we are faced with a crisis, whenever we are going through a challenge. God is a shoring Jacob that I am with you. There's no record of anything this angel said. There's no record of any special extraordinary activity that they did when Jacob saw these angels, they were just simply there. And they were simply there because God was affirming and assuring to Jacob that I am with you and that those who are with you are more than those who are against you. God wanted Jacob to know that along his life's journey, I am the end, that's all the encouragement he needed. That's all the encouragement we need when going through a crisis that is with you. You know what it's like to go through the most darkest, challenging storms. And perhaps one of the greatest blessings and assurances we have is the presence of God. And the Lord has his peculiar ways of assuring us that he's with us. Sometimes he sends someone you haven't met in a long time with the word of encouragement. Sometimes it's a messenger. Sometimes a song on your playlist that the Holy Spirit uses. God just uses to assure you that I am with you. Sometimes it's a verse of Scripture, a passage of Scripture. Sometimes it's a sermon you listen to on the way to work. And sometimes it's the smallest of circumstances that play out repeatedly throughout your day or throughout your week. And that's just God assuring you that I am with you. I have not abandoned you. I am still with you. Amen. He has his ways. I mean sometimes it's even while you're praying. Sometimes you're not engaged in anything spiritual. Sometimes you're cooking, you're thriving. You're in the shower. And God has just this way of letting his presence be made known. And his way of telling you that you're going to make it through. So when we look at verses 3 to 8, and verses 13 to 21 which requires the two instances and moments where Jacob sends his messengers and servants to Esau, we see that particularly in 3 to 8 verses 3 to 8, that Jacob sends before him gifts of oxen, donkeys, and catals. And Jacob becomes so terrified of this encounter that he's about to have with Esau that he tries to appease him with gifts. And verse 6 tells us that when the messengers of Jacob came back from Esau, they said Esau is on his way to meet you, but he's coming with 400 men. Now for Jacob to hear that was alarming because if you read 1 Samuel 22 and chapter 30, a small raiding party was usually considered 400 men. So Jacob had no reason to think that, you know, or no other reason to think that Esau was on his way to actually kill him. You know, Kozik states for us that, because Jacob could not bring himself to think the best of Esau, for obviously understandable reasons, he was convinced that the 400 men were an army that was intending to destroy him and his entire family. And understandably so, he had every reason to assume that his brother wanted to kill him. Because when he lost left his brother, it was under the vow that he made, that he would kill Jacob. And so in verse 7 we read that Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed. When Laban confronts Jacob for what he's little army in chapter 31, in verse 36 and 42, Jacob was bold enough to stand up to him. But with Esau, Jacob was afraid to meet him. Why was Esau? This was because Jacob knew that he was in the right, and his dealings with Laban. And he knew he was in the wrong with his dealings with Esau. In the week I read a Gothic short story by Edgar, Alan Poe, and it's called "The Telltale Heart". So it's actually a short story, about four or five pages long. And it's a story of a murderer that describes how he murdered an old man. This old man had what they call a vulture eye, a pale blue eye. And every time this mad man would look upon this old man with this vulture eye, he described the feeling of his blood running cold. And it just disturbed him and agitated him. So this mad man would creep into the old man's house every night, while he's forced to sleep for about seven days, and he sneak into this old man's room while he's passed out, and he turned the land to shine on this old man's eye. And he just stand there, dead silence staring at this old man's eye. And so on the eighth day, the old man woke up, and this mad man decided he's going to kill this old man. And so he jumps onto the bed, and he suffocates him with his bedding. I should have given a disclaimer, PG-13 disclaimer here. So he suffocates this old man, and he dismembers him, cuts him up into pieces, and then he hides him in the wooden floor of his lounge. And then the very next day, he had three policemen visiting, and they came to investigate because they heard the reports from the neighbors that there were some screams. And so he made these three policemen sit down in the lounge ironically over the wooden floors that buried this dead man. And all of a sudden this mad man out of nowhere begins to hear this low, dull, but quick sound. And so the longer he stands, he's talking with the policemen, the sound gets louder. And it gets so loud that he's actually surprised so why the policemen know near the sound. And the sound becomes louder and louder and he says to the police, "Do you not hear that sound?" And the sound gets louder and louder until the mad man finally loses his self-control and he says, "I admit it, I did it. Tear up the wooden floors." You'll find that this remembered old man beneath the floors. You see, it was the sound of the beating heart that came from the murderer's heart. They're told on him. His telltale heart was unseen, but it was unforgiving. And the time span between the crime and the fix on the murderer was brief. But for some of us may not be their brief. May take weeks, may take months, and it may even take some years where the unresolved issues of our past begin to have an impact on us. So Shakespeare was said, and he was rightly so. He says, "Our conscience that makes a coward of us all." And as we see with Jacob, he had enough strength to deal with labor, but no strength to deal with evil because of his guilty conscience. And for a moment, Jacob forgot that the angels were even with him because of his telltale heart. And then we, in verses 9 to 12, after having seen Jacob in great fear and in great anxiety, he turns to God in prayer. He reacted initially in fear, but now he responds to God in prayer. And it reminds God of his promises, and it reminds God of his covenant, and he confesses his unworthiness. And he proclaims God's steadfast love and faithfulness, and then he cries out to God for his deliverance. And he closes off his prayer by reminding God again of his promise. This is actually the first recorded prayer of Jacob. This is actually the only extended prayer in the Book of Genesis. Finally, after all these 20 years we get to see Jacob developing a relationship with God. We can turn to him in prayer. And as Walkiw said that the prayer of Jacob actually resembles the penitential song, a confessional song. He prays and invokes praise upon the name of God, and then he confesses his sin, and then he brings the petition towards him, and then he closes off his praying confidence and in motivation that God will fulfill his promises. Jacob's prayer actually really depicted his dependence and his desperation on God to come through for him, and that's in a nutshell what prayer is. Prayer really expresses out dependence upon him. The act of turning to God in prayer by itself communicates to him, "I need your strength. I need your wisdom. I need your power. I need an answer from you. I'm totally dependent upon you." When you ask him for his help, he acknowledges that you depend on him. And as the practice of surrendering, control over to him that the church needs so desperately. Pravanil said, "The church has many organizes, but few agonizes. Many who pray, but few who pray. Many restless, but few restless. Many who are enterprising, but few who are interceding. People who are not praying and praying are a failure. Prayer is still the most underutilized weapon and tool we have." Ruth Graham said, "Pray when you feel like it for it is a sin to neglect such an opportunity. Pray when you don't feel like it for it's dangerous to remain in such a condition." Child of God are you praying. He has another insight to pray that we don't often consider. Great man of faith, George Mueller, was once asked, "What's the most important part of the prayer?" And he replied, "The 15 minutes after you said, "I'm in." Because no matter how great Jacob's prayer was, his faith would be seen in how he responds to his prayer. And so we see him still, given over to his fear. And then we see him verses 13 to 21. In three droves, Jacob sends his servants. He sends 200 female goats, 20 male goats, 200 ewes, 20 ramp, 30 milking cows in their calves, 40 cows, 10 bulls. It sounds like he's been working on Sir Ramaphosa's farm or something. You know, he's just sending all this cattle and the wealth as the asset of the day. And he's commanding his servants that you should put some distance between each trove of gifts. This was an overwhelming catalogue of gifts that Jacob was sending to his brother, Esau. And it's in this moment that we actually see a change in Jacob, because Jacob was never a giver. He was a taker. These gifts came from the Me first brother, the man who wanted to be ahead of everybody. The man who wanted to be ahead of the pack, the man who was cunning and selfish and ego-centric, and the man who was grasping at heels and who had robbed his brother of his material inheritances now giving everything he has over to Esau. What a drastic change in Jacob. He has finally content and even at the place where he considers himself to be the least. He considers himself to be lost. And so when he sends his servants over to Esau, he says, "Your servants, Jacob, my Lord, has sent these gifts." Jacob in a sense, after having earned the blessing, earned the birthright to be in a sense, legally the older brother and superior brother, he's now saying, no, you're the superior one. You're the greater one. I'm giving this back to you. Somewhere in God's program for his life, Jacob learned how to be a small man. Somewhere in God's program for his life, he learned that if you want greatness in God's kingdom, you have to learn how to become small. Somewhere in God's program for his life, he learned that if you want to be first, you've got to be lost. If you want to be great, you've got to be a servant of all. Some things changed in the life and heart of Jacob. This is not the same man. And then we come to Allah's segment, verses 22 to 31. And we arrive at the scene in the chapter that is arguably one of the weirdest and most spectacular occasions in all of the Bible. Something unprecedented and unrepetaled occurs here. A mortal is in combat with an immortal. No, some of you in your head do your mortal combat. Earth meets heaven in combat. Man meets God in mortal combat. When the dust has settled on the battle, the weirdest thing happens. Jacob comes out the victor. He has a new name. He has a story to tell to his children. And he has a lump to tell you that he wasn't lying. It really happened. He spent the night alone at the river of Jabok. Presumably, he's spending the night alone because he's preparing his heart for the encounter with Esau. Because he's terrified. He's finally going to run into the man and brother who vowed to kill him. But before Jacob meets Esau, Jacob meets God. And as the story unfolds, it becomes clear to us that this is no ordinary man that he's battling and resting with. Firstly, Jacob says to the man after he's wrestled with him, he says, "Bless me. I'm not letting you go until you bless me." And this is a strange request of the resting stranger. Secondly, in the Bible, especially in the lives of the patriarchs, God is the only one who named changes. He changed Abraham to Abraham. He changed Sarai to Sarah. And now he changes Jacob's name to Israel. So this is no ordinary man. Thirdly, there's a refusal of this man that he's wrestling with. A refusal from him to disclose who he really is. This occurs with Samson's father as well, in Judges 13. And then finally, when the dust has settled and the fight and wrestling matches over, Jacob says he was in verse 13. Jacob called the name of the place, "Peneel," saying, "For I have seen God face to face and my life has been delivered." Elwell states that this is none other than a Theophany. Theophany is a manifestation of God in temporary forms. Every Theophany you read about in Scripture is a special appearance of Jesus. On this singular occasion, the Son of God slipped into a temporary human frame and he stayed overnight at Jabok. With hands and feet and biceps and prawn, the Son of God took on the temporary form of a human. And the result is sweet and blood with Jacob. Jacob who embodied the whole nation of Israel. The divine Son of God accommodated himself to human limitations. Being omnipotent or powerful, he limited his strength so that Jacob might have an opportunity to win. Philippians 2 says, "Though he was God, he emptied himself, taking on the form of a human wrestler, manifesting himself in the likeness of man, and having found himself in human form, he refused to win the fight with Jacob. Verse 25 tells us that when this man saw that he could not prevail and win over Jacob, he touched his hip. Jacob's hip was out of choice. The Son of God did not prevail in his wrestle against Jacob. He would not win the fight. Not that he could not win the fight. He would not win the fight. And even after Jacob is lumping an injured, Jacob still grabs a hold of him and gets on top of him and says, "I'm not going to let you go until you bless me." The patriarch stubbornly refused to let his divine opponent go until he blessed him God was losing to a man. Jacob was still holding on. This fight gives us a keyhole gaze into the room of the crucifixion. 1,836 years later, the descendants of Jacob would too lay their hands on the Son of God and prevail. The one who had humbled himself and appeared as a man and who came in the flesh, would too be pinned down by the descendants of Jacob, but not pinned down to the ground, pinned down and exphyxiated to a cross, a wooden beam, and God there would allow man to prevail. Why? Not so that he could bless himself, not so that he could pronounce the blessing on you and I. In his love and in his grace he allowed himself to be assaulted by man. It was as though God lost so that we could win. He was bruised for our iniquities, wounded for our transgressions. He was chastised for our peace, so that we could be saved. Jacob was involved in what seemed to be a life and dead struggle. That seemed like he was going to lose. And this was a struggle that actually encapsulated the entire life of Jacob. He had made a career out of extracting a blessing from the most uncompromising of circumstances. He always was determined to come away with the upper hand. And at this moment God taught him how to seek the blessing. What was the point of the strange incidents? What if God deal with Jacob in such a rough and tumble fashion? What lessons can we learn from this encounter? One of the most beautiful truths we can learn from this encounter is verse 26. We see that Jacob refuses to let God go. He said, "I will not let you go unless you bless me." Jacob is clinging on to the Lord, refusing for him to let him go. But the real truth is this. It wasn't that Jacob was clinging on to God. God was clinging on to him. God had held on to him his entire life. And I want to encourage someone here this morning. You don't really have to hold on. He's been holding on to you. Amen. God hasn't left you, Mommy. God hasn't left you, my sister. I know you've messed up. I know you've made a train wreck of your life. But the real truth is he's never let you go. Not once. How could we ever miss the connection of this encounter to the cross? At Jabbok, Jacob endured the assaults of God. He was physically assaulted by God. There too on God, God has healed the Son of God. Would endure the most agonizing and terrifying assaults from the Father. The Son of God would have wrestled with man throughout his earthly journey. And now at the cross he had to wrestle with his Father. He wrestled with a difficult, painful will of God. When we're reading, it's so many how we cried, Lord, if it's possible. If it's possible, let this cup pass from me. He wrestled with the fearsome wrath of God on the cross. When he cried out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And the outcome of this struggle wasn't a crippled hip. It was bruised hands and feet in a pure sight. Jacob throughout his life would bear this lump. Jesus throughout eternity will bear the scars. Throughout this painful clinging of Jesus to the Father, he too has prevailed, prevailed over sin and death. And just as Jacob was given a new name, he was given a name above every name. That at that name every knee will bow and every tongue confess, and he of Lord to the glory of God the Father. I came to remind you today that he has prevailed and he wrestled with the Father for you so that we could get the blessing. Could we all stand this morning, families?
