Jacob fearful & wrestling

Good morning. Well, I'm a bit curious. What do you do when it's just too scary to look? What do you do when it's just too scary to look? Have you got any things going on in your life that are kind of like that? Approximately or maybe precisely? When you're afraid, where do you turn? What do you do? Where do you look at that point in time?

As we step through the passage here this morning, just some perspectives to come into it with. Jacob, like each of us, is faced with continuing flow. of actually very important, critical questions. How will I deal with the various choices in life? What will be my life resources? I mean, what will I really draw upon? What will be their source? Where will it come from? On what, or perhaps the right question is, whom will I depend? What values and principles are going to Guide those choices. They're going to call the shots, if you will. Will the fear be my ultimate motivator? Whatever it is that I happen to be very afraid of.

Or will something else entirely? as we get into Genesis 32 and pound home the truths that are there. Genesis 32 and 33 are really two halves of one account. So we're going to be looking this morning at the first half. So consider between now and this next week is the halftime show. So, first half today. The front half.

On his way back to the promised land, because remember that's where we left off with Jacob, he was going to the promised land from the place where he'd been for basically two decades. He'd had his last dealings, as we saw in the last chapter, chapter 31, with his uncle Laban, who was also his father-in-law, as we noted.

He's coming back from this place. This is first shown on a map. This map is available as a supplement. We're going to be taking a look at the first picture there just to get the big shot of this. And what we have there is the area on the upper right there is where he is coming from. And he's headed towards this area that's now shown the red rectangle there. And so he's headed this general direction. And coming in in that red rectangle area, zooming in on that.

So here is Jacob coming down from the place where he's been with Laban. And now he, having completed his meeting, and confrontation with Laban. Now what's happening is Esau, his brother, whom he hasn't seen for a couple decades, is coming up from the south.

All right, that's the big picture here about what's happening. So this little area here, just to the east of the River Jordan, is where this meeting is going to take place. So just for point of reference, this here at the top is the Sea of Galilee, and down here, the Dead Sea. So that's where this is happening here. Genesis 32 and 33 are two halves of the one account.

Now as he returns to the promised land, Jacob must deal with a major issue in his life. The major issue. This is the elephant in the living room. This is the biggie. This is the brother whose heel he grabbed on to. As a matter of fact, that's his name, Jacob. Heel grabber. Little heel grabber. Holding on to his brother's heel as he's coming out of their mother's womb.

This guy that he had deceived and manipulated at various stages. And now this guy who had, when he departed this promised land that he's now entering again, when he had departed, Esau said, I'm going to take you out. I'm going to take you out. You're not going to die a natural death. I'm going to make sure the death you have is the one I give you." That's what Esau had determined to do. Esau is really fired up. Esau was the one who swore to kill Jacob for all his deceptions and manipulations.

After two decades of this smoldering anger, it is now really fired up. He is very upset. Something else, none of those who were with Jacob on this return trip, we're talking aside from goats and sheep and camels and oxen and all that, but especially the people, none of these people were there with Jacob when this initial threat took place. When this smoldering, burning anger was now getting stoked.

Now they're being drawn in to experience this and to take part in this thing. They really have no idea other than Jacob's second hand saying, hey, I've got a problem, I need your help with. They were not a part of it, but boy are they drawn into it. This is for this particular event that we're seeing here, something that they're really not responsible for, but boy are they drawn into it.

And there's a principle here. Sin can often and easily have negative impacts and involve people who weren't originally the source of it. Sin is of that character, and we're seeing that here. Jacob is being faced with things that are consequences from things he had done before. Esau wasn't mad for nothing. But Jacob is being faced with these issues from things he had done before, a couple decades before. And now these other people are having to be there in the midst of these consequences.

Just as we're talking about Jacob being disciplined here, one of the things I would point out, we also have another supplement available that we handed out in our biblical counseling class this morning, Practical Guidance for Parents on Godly Discipline. feel free to take advantage of that and grab one on your way out that's on the cabinet on the right as you exit here.

Alright, one of the things that happens is Jacob gets close to the promised land here as he begins seeing things, including angels. Jacob comes near the promised land. God had promised him that back when he was still in the promised land before, 20 years earlier. The Lord had promised him, I'll get you there and I'll get you back. And at that time that the Lord promised him, Jacob saw angels ascending and descending and he called that place Bethel, House of God. Here, as he comes back into the promised land, he doesn't have quite the same vision but nonetheless sees angels there right at the border. It isn't a dream this time or any kind of a vision.

It's something that he actually is allowed to see. One of the important points though is having this supernatural experience did not exclude him from all the consequences that he was still going to have to deal with. Having a supernatural experience did not exclude him from the consequences of what he was having to deal with. The troubles and difficulties from his past were still there. They remained.

One of the things that we do notice, though, is Jacob does put his focus on God, not the angels. Isn't that interesting? As he names the place, gives it a Hebrew name that's fitting, the name points to God and not the angels. Now, Jacob comes up with a peace plan. That's what we see as we enter into verse 3 here in this chapter. He comes up with a peace plan, and he's not quite ready, but you can just about see it. It comes out like this, HELP! Jacob sent his servants ahead to Esau.

He figures, I'll send these forward troops here, not in a military fashion, but just to send a message. We're not going to send anything else. We're going to get those guys out there. We're not going to encumber them with any sorts of animals or flocks or anything to drag along. Just get there, talk to Esau, and give him a message. And he's supposed to have the servants bring along this message that, hey, I've got a lot of gifts for you. He's thinking that that'll help settle this guy down a little bit. Well, let's see what happens. Okay. All right. Now, the servants returned, returned quickly. Courtney's about to faint. Okay, here we go.

Telling nothing of their words with Esau. They didn't say, hey, we talked to Esau and told him what you said and he was cool or, you know, he seemed a little bit piped, but he'll get over it. No. Instead, they come back and they just cut to the quick. Esau's coming with 400 men.

Whoa. Okay? That's the way the story goes. So anyway, you can understand. Jacob's afraid. Okay? Greatly afraid and distressed. Matter of fact, I looked this up, that greatly afraid phrase only used less than a half dozen times in the whole Bible, only once in Genesis. So this is a real point of emphasis. I mean, he is really afraid. And then the word distressed is added to it. I find no other place in the whole Bible that has it built up quite like that. He is exceptionally, really, very much, extremely afraid.

For the people and the livestock that would be to the rear of his string of gifts and messengers, he took them and divided them up into two camps. He says, okay, if, you know, he gets past all these gifts and messengers and everybody else, I'll divide it into two camps and maybe one will get preserved while the other one gets lost.

It was sort of minimizing the losses kind of a strategy. So he figures, okay. Here's his second peace plan. Jacob knew that even no matter what he did, this was still something that he wasn't going to be able to cope with very well. After all, he was thinking, after giving him a bunch of gifts, so those are lost, and then having my companies divided into two, I might save one.

I mean, he's figuring this thing is looking pretty bad. So, then what follows is very interesting. He prays. Oh, it's come to that. Well, so he does pray. It's kind of amazing. Jacob prays. He addresses God by the name of his grandfather Abraham and his father Isaac. You know, the ones that you spoke to and promised to? Those guys.

And he says, and the Lord, you told me to come back here. He says, remember Lord, you told me to come back here. I recall that. Remember it came off like this back in the last chapter. Then the Lord said to Jacob, return to the land of your fathers and to your relatives and I will be with you. All the way to right here. It says that. I remember.

He tells God, and this is the amazing part. He says, Lord, I am unworthy of the loving kindness and faithfulness that you've shown me. This guy is having a realization, isn't he? Jacob even uses the term, when he talks to God, your servant. Now that's new. Jacob, interestingly, gives God a brief status report. Here's how it looks. Here's the summary.

He asked for deliverance for himself and the others. After, okay God, this is who you are, and this is what you said, and here's how things look, please help. He asks for deliverance, not just for himself, which is interesting, himself and the others. He finishes his prayer with God's promises regarding descendants. He says, Lord, here we are, this is my family, this is my wives, my kids, This is me. You said we're going to have descendants. Is that going to happen? Or am I going to get wiped out here today? What did you mean by those promises? So he brings those up to the Lord too. So Lord, you promised this. You said this. Can I count on it? I believe it. I don't know why. This looks awful threatening.

Then Jacob begins sort of sleeping. You ever sort of slept? He's sort of sleeping, and he's also making plans. You ever done that? I've done that. You're sitting there thinking, you know, and yeah, you're sleeping, I guess. You sort of call it sleeping. But meanwhile, your mind is just cranking, right? That's Jacob.

And it's understandable. Here he is in a land about like this. Between these two bouts of sleeping and during the course of the day, he sets up extended series of people, animals, and placating messengers to Esau. Now imagine this. Here's Jacob, he gets up after a very busy night, mentally anyway. He gets up after a busy night and he says, okay, you messenger, you got this flock of goats, go. Tell Esau this. Okay, you, you've got the milking camels, okay? You take them up.

So he's going through all these different messengers and animals and sending them off and kind of spacing them out through the course of a day. This is a lot of orchestration and organization and administration. And meanwhile, the animals aren't being quiet, I'm sure. Okay?

All totaled the rams, okay? And by the way, this is a Jacob's ram. One with the spots, remember, because he's not giving them gifts of a bunch of animals that are all white and all that. These are spotted ones, right? So here's a Jacob's ram, the rams, and the goats, and the... Now, what's the matter with this? Anyway, I don't know.

Okay, the milking camels. Now, I've milked goats, I've milked cows, I've never milked camels. It's a little different, but it says milking camels. you add all the animals together, 580 gift animals to Esau. So whether Esau slaughters them, leaves them behind, whatever, he's lost 580. But the ones that he's got remaining, he's got divided into two camps.

So here's all these animals and people in a stream spaced out, distributed throughout the day, heading towards Esau. So here, They're going to be meeting with Esau through the day. So you can imagine, put yourself in Esau's shoes, or maybe you don't want to, but try to anyway. As you're trying to go after your brother with 400 men thinking, I'm going to take that guy out if it's the last thing I do.

Here comes some guy and he brings a bunch of goats. And he says, these are gifts for you. Jacob's back there. Then come a bunch of milking camels. I don't know if they stopped to milk them or what, but milking camels, okay? And the messenger says, Jacob's in the back.

And that happens throughout the course of the day. Imagine Esau's thinking, well, do I just, do I try to keep the animals? I'll leave some in behind to watch them and keep running. What do I do with this? Well, this has got to put Esau thinking, of course. Jacob finally, after this whole string of messengers and animals as gifts, sends his wives and their maids and his children. That's it. Ahead. Imagine what Esau might have thought when these arrived. What? What is this? Certainly these can't be a gift. And whose are these?

Wow, you can imagine what Esau's thinking going through this. Now, it becomes a very important turning point. Jacob wrestles with God. Anybody had that experience, by the way? I mean, we're talking physical wrestling. Now, wrestling here, there's no match. Obviously, the Lord could have just snuffed him out.

Now, this is one artist's depiction. I think it's a little Greek-looking, so I'll put a fig leaf over it and move on. So here is Jacob wrestling with God. And it comes out this way. He initially says, well, this is just a man. He's wrestling with this man. And it's interesting to ponder this. The Lord could just snuff him, and yet the Lord decides, no, I'm just going to wrestle with this guy and just kind of wear him out.

And the wrestling match takes place at night. So it's nighttime, you can't see very well. I doubt there's a wrestling pad, you know, down there. So it's all about rocks and dirt and sticks and all kinds of fun stuff like that, okay? So here's Jacob and this man wrestling. Then come towards the end of this wrestling match, the man dislocates Jacob's hip joint.

Intentionally. It's very interesting. What could the Lord have done to Jacob? He could have just wiped him out. One joint out of place? Oh, hey, how about all of them? The Lord could have wiped him out, not wrestled all night. The Lord could have put all the joints out of place and worse. But instead, nope, that one. We're going to take a look at something because in the middle of this transaction something else happens.

The Lord changes His name from Jacob to Israel. We've seen this pattern before. Abram was changed to Abraham. Sarai was changed to Sarah. And now here we see Jacob whose name is changed to Israel. We're going to see one yet again in Genesis. Ben-Oni is changed to Benjamin.

We'll pick up that story in a few chapters here. Name changes are often a sign of some significant change, God's promise, new purposes, pivotal events. Certainly that fits here. This name change is different in that Jacob's name is a name that is carried on to a whole people. A whole people who even today, there is a nation of Israel.

That's where it came from. Chapter 32. Israel. Well, what is that? It means one who strives with God or a wrestler with God. That's what it means. In the morning, isn't that amazing how things happen and you don't realize it until afterwards that's what happened?

He realized that he had wrestled with God himself and lived. I was telling Roger and Mike recently that I had seen a mountain lion a couple of times. Just a couple of times out there in the wild. And both times, I didn't realize what I'd seen until the mountain lion was out of sight. Oh, that's what I saw. And Jacob has had that kind of an experience where he has wrestled with God, but it's only after the whole thing is over that he realizes what's taken place.

We've got some questions in front of us here. Having stepped our way briefly and quickly through this chapter, we have some questions. What will it take? Here in Genesis 32, and we also see this throughout the pages of Scripture, we see that God might have to take some believers through trouble and heartache of various kinds. Yeah. Why would the Lord have to do that?

Just like here with Jacob, it's not enough that Jacob would be threatened by the coming of Esau. But the Lord says, no, you've got to be a little more tired than that. You're still trying to rely on your own resources. And not only that, But I've got to put your hip out of joint so that you further realize, no, I've got no fight left in me.

Then he comes to realize at the end of himself, no, my reliance is just on the Lord. There is a benefit that comes from the Lord taking believers through these difficult times. It means that the believer finally comes to the end of plans, resources. Ah, I know I can do this. I've got this asset. I can draw upon that. The Lord uses these kinds of events to teach believers, ah, only when I come to the end of myself. I actually went through an experience somewhat like this.

Oh, well, I didn't have camels and horses that I sent off and all that. And I didn't wrestle with the Lord. But it was almost 20 years ago that I came to a place where I told Nancy that, you know, hey, I have not been the kind of husband that I ought to be. And I told my kids, I've not been an example of a husband and father as I ought to be. And I apologized to each of my kids individually for not having been the husband and father that I ought to be. And that was a major turning point for me. And I thought, boy, I've really learned some things here.

And then the Lord said, not so fast. Just a few years after that, the Lord determined that I should have Lyme disease. and that all sorts of things in my body should stop working. And I can remember because my ability to even use a computer, play the guitar, things like that were suddenly diminished. And I can remember lying on the couch and thinking, Lord, I can't do anything. All the things that I count myself, hey, I can do this and I can do that, I can't do anything right now.

I am amazed that you still love me. And the Lord can take us through stages like that, just like the Lord did here with Jacob. We think we've learned one lesson, and the Lord says, yeah, but you've got to learn a little deeper. You've got to learn a little deeper. And the Lord can do that in our lives. What will it take to come to that place? It really comes down to just two options in life. We can either come to depend upon our own strategies and resources and values to deal with life's questions. Oh, I've got the answer for that. Oh, I know what to do. I can do it. You can do it is a message that you've heard again and again.

Or we can choose to depend upon the resources and values of the Lord Himself. Personal. Not to list. Personal. You see, the big choices in life are really all about fellowship. Will my focus and energies be on me holding the Lord at arm's length so that I can do it all myself? No, no, no, Lord, it's okay. You've told me what you want. I'll meet you there. When we get to the end, you'll be happy with the result because I'll have pulled it off. Let me show you.

Is that where we put our focus? Or do we instead come in fellowship with the Savior? Which is what the Lord had in mind all along. The Lord didn't want to say, here, here's the list. Go do it and we'll see you at the end. No. That's not what He had in mind at all. but instead it's fellowship, relationship.

Will I depend upon who he is? See, that's the question that Jacob ended up facing himself with. If I look at all the things that I can do, and the things that I can pull off, and all the things that this world says, you've got to depend on this and depend on that, and depend on this and depend on that, and it all has to do with what we have, and what the world has to offer us, then I'm hoping, assuming a relationship with God, that I can pull it off so that God will be happy in the end with the path that I've chosen. Whatever that looks like.

But God can't approve of the paths that I take separate from Him. See, finding God's will is not just about taking the right fork in the road. God's will is always, always on a path in fellowship with Him. It's not just, do I buy the blue Chevy or the yellow one? Or make it a Toyota or whatever you like. But it's not just a question of what is the external action. It's the question of fellowship.

There is no path, no choice I can make That's what the Lord has in mind, apart from fellowship with Him, because that's what He has in mind. The only paths that He ever wanted for me were those walked in fellowship with Him and a dependence upon Him. Intimate fellowship, total dependence upon Him, that's what He has in mind. I can't pick a path, no matter how good it looks, I can't pick a path that is apart from fellowship and dependence upon Him.

And this is the lesson that Jacob is in the midst of learning here, isn't he? He's finally come to the place of, boy, all my deceptions and manipulations and all the things that I intend to get and keep, in the end, Lord, it comes down to You. And even if it means, oh, well, I've got to go through this and I've got to go through that. The Lord intends to bring us through those experiences, whatever they are, so that we'll depend upon Him and rely upon Him. Let's pray. Lord, as we look here at this passage, and as we noted earlier, we're not done. The next chapter continues the story. Still, what lessons we've seen.

Here is Jacob when you would think with his life and everything he owns and everybody he loves threatened with extinction. Here he comes to the place of realizing that he cannot rely on himself or anything he has or anyone he knows, but ultimately upon you.

And Lord, if our eyes are open, we're at that place too. We can't, we were never intended to walk it by ourself, but in fellowship, in the intimate fellowship with you, in knowledge of you. Thank you, Lord, for that lesson. And thank you, Lord, that you love us and care for us so much that you long to walk in fellowship with us. In Jesus name, Amen.