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Genesis 32.7-24
May 7th 2023
So, we left off with Jacob sending messengers out to greet his brother Esau and to tell him of his return but the messengers come back and say at verse 6 of chapter 32;
6 “We came to thy brother Esau, and also he cometh to meet thee, and four hundred men with him.”
Then, after describing all that God had done to prove himself to Jacob, we read
Genesis 32:7-8 Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed: and he divided the people that was with him, and the flocks, and herds, and the camels, into two bands;
come to the one company, and smite it, then the other company which is left shall escape.
Let’s pause for a moment and talk about some of the ways that God reaches us human beings and to motivates us to look to him and rely upon him.
And the first obvious way is by fear. It is said that religion got is legs when our ancestors were out working in the fields or hunting and gathering and an earthquake hit, or lightening strikes destroying a tree and this was a sign that there was something bigger than us out in the universe that said, “be afraid of me,” pay me sacrifices,” etc.
Because Isaiah wrote, “the heavens declare the glory of God,” I see this as viable, even reasonable even though Isaiah was probably taking about the magnificence of space.
We are afraid of what we don’t understand, what is bigger and more powerful than us and we will, in fear, seek it out to please it.
Hawaiians did not understand volcano eruptions and would sacrifice to it as a means to keep it happy.
In Jacobs case, however, he knew the living God but was afraid of his brother Esau and this fear will also cause him to seek out protection from something bigger than his brother – which again is God.
The fears of life tend to keep people calling out to God including firefight (don’t they say there are no atheists in foxholes) and innumerable other causes like sickness in a lovedone, financial problems, and every other confrontation or difficulty we face.
Some are fearful of God because of guilt, shame and the fact that there is unresolved sin in their lives. So, fear of God and fear of other matters that we cannot control or fix is one thing that draws many to call out and seek God.
Closely relative to fear, some folks seek God because of superstition. They think that they must include or appease Him in order to keep the wheels of life greased.
I’ve mentioned that I lived with the largest cutter and sewer of fabric in southeast Asia back in the day and he had a live-in Buddhist monk who would start and end his day with blessings to make his business prosper.
Some people feel that they must appeal to God when they bless their food, their travels, or when they send their children or spouses off to work or school.
Its fear. Its superstition but is it still good and its still a humble form of reaching out. I can’t believe God rejects such because they are from a so-called lesser motivation.
So, fearful and/or superstitious appeals to God are some common ones, right.
Then there is what is called deontogical ethics, or calling to God the higher power for the simple reason that it is right or the moral thing to do in their eyes.
They believe that there is a God, they believe that it is important to pray and call on Him (because He says so in the Bible or the Quran or whatever) and they do so out of pure duty, pure law and because it is right. Deontological reasons.
We find this type of calling out to God in groups that loosely admit to there being a God like Government powers, civic leaders, scout troops or leaders of certain corporations that pray because it is the right thing to do.
These are often religiously inclined and can be motivated by some as a means to be seen of men. Jesus speaks to this in motivation in the leaders of His day.
Moving up the chain of motivations away from fear and superstition and duty some appear to seek God because they want to know Him – or they want to know if He is real or exists.
This is far less motivated by fears or superstitions but due to sheer desire for or what Jesus called, “a love of the Truth” so in the face of this they will embark on seeking or including Him in their lives.
Others reach out and call for God out of gratitude. These realize the way God has blessed them and this is NOT because they fear He will stop blessing them but because He has blessed them so much they reach out.
This is often the case when someone realizes in the Spirit what Jesus, who God sent, has done for them. And in gratitude they call out in thanks. This gratitude can easily fade and so we study the word which reminds us of His will, ways and existence.
Then at the top of the motivations for calling out to God there is love – agape love. That is the unconditional kind. It is calling out to God because you have humbly realized who and what God is (incomprehensible compared to you) what He has done (in sending His Son, and giving us life, and blessings) and because its only right to respectfully reach to Our Maker that we do actually love, and we do it (and continue to do it) because our love for Him is frankly unconditional
These we will call out and continue to call out to Him in faith no matter what He allows – lightening, earthquakes, or even allowing us to be taken to a cross and nailed to it.
Of course, this is the first and great commandment, isn’t it – to love God with our all – but God understands that our love for Him is a growing thing, and a thing that needs to be tested over time, a thing that matures.
Being loving he leads us step by step, rung by rung up a ladder, when the higher we go toward Him, the more frightening the vista becomes, which interestingly causes us to cry out to him even more.
These motivations are all intermingled with each other in the human condition and we often find ourselves calling out to him for a number of reasons.
The point is we want to get to the place where our outreach to Him is not solely based in fear, shame or guilt before Him, not on susperstition, and not just because its religiously correct, but because we truly do want to know Him better, we do want to show our gratitude and that we ultimately do really, truly love Him unconditionally from the heart.
In the biblical description we get of heaven consisting of a new Jerusalem and then space outside of it, most people tend to believe that I am describing a lala land of goodness whether in or out.
I wonder if this life is the la la land where we all have a time and a choice to receive Him of our own free will but that that destination, meaning out side of the Kingdom will be incomprehensibly daunting upon the souls who have chosen to reject Him.
In other words, they wouldn’t freely break and come to Him so in love – remember, out of complete love, he works on them, and that work is not necessarily fun, with every choice serving to eradicate the obstinance of the soul.
Just a thought.
Jacob here, though matured over the years, is still turning to his own strength to protect himself, and this is something that isn’t necessarily bad in and of itself but he has had numerous witnesses from the Living God that He has His back and instead of first deciding to split his family into two groups perhaps He could have trusted the Lord or at least consulted Him and looked to him to defend him.
I think this is the principle here – go to God first. Consult Him, invite Him into the situation before concocting your own approach. See what He will do, or what He will instruct you to do.
Develop that faith in Him because as you do you will increasingly develop love for Him.
However, in Jacobs case he is improving because now we read (beginning at verse 9:
9 And Jacob said, O God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, the LORD which saidst unto me, Return unto thy country, and to thy kindred, and I will deal well with thee:
10 I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth, which thou hast shewed unto thy servant; for with my staff I passed over this Jordan; and now I am become two bands.
11 Deliver me, I pray thee, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau: for I fear him, lest he will come and smite me, and the mother with the children.
12 And thou saidst, I will surely do thee good, and make thy seed as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.
Here Jacob chooses, amidst his fear, to include God. Of course, he reminds God of his promises to him but it’s a good step forward, right?
Let’s just cover this prayer found in verse 9-12. First notice that Jacob humbled Himself to even approach God, saying
9 And Jacob said, O God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, the LORD which saidst unto me, Return unto thy country, and to thy kindred, and I will deal well with thee:
Then in this humility he speaks the truth of his person before God, saying
10 I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth, which thou hast shewed unto thy servant;
There is a lot of Christian rhetoric in the world that will echo these sentiments before God but when they are heart felt, they mean everything in our approach to Him.
If we are just repeating what we have read or heard said by others, not so much, but when you, from the heart, see God for who He really is, compared to you, and what He has really done, for you, in giving us life, the world, blessings and most of all His only human Son, this heart condition is more valuable to you than ANYTHING else you could possibly possess in this world, that is, a broken heart and contrite spirit before our Maker.
Can I repeat this for emphasis?
when we, from the heart, see God for who He really is, compared to ourselves, and see what He has really done, for us in giving us life, the world, blessings and most of all His only human Son, this heart condition is more valuable to you than ANYTHING else you could possibly possess in this world, that is, a broken heart and contrite spirit before our Maker.
Jacob has it here and this is what distinguishes him from his approaching brother of strength. It is this humility, this faith, this reliance upon the living God and trusting in His words that makes Jacob who He is in God’s eyes.
PRIDE is antithetical to Him and to the heart He loves. Brokenness, humility, contrition undergirding faith is what He seeks.
I have often said, and will say to my grave, that the best of the best (Jesus) saved the worst of the worst (me).
Its not feigned humility – it’s a living reality, “For I,” as someone famous once said, “have never met a man more evil than myself.” I DO see myself, in my flesh, in this way and it helps me remember who I was, who He is, and how he saved me.
Interestingly, the better translation of Jacobs words are,
“I am less than all the compassions, and than all the faithfulness, which thou hast showed unto thy servant. “
It is believed that Paul was motivated by this attitude when he wrote, to Timothy
“that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.”
Jacob adds at verse 12
for with my staff I passed over this Jordan; and now I am become two bands.
This language, which appears to come from the Chaldee, seems to be a way that Jacob is stating that he, alone and without anybody else, passed over the Jordan and became two bands or groups.
And Jacob makes his request, saying
11 Deliver me, I pray thee, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau: for I fear him, lest he will come and smite me, and the mother with the children.
And Jacob, reminds God, saying in verse 12
12 And thou saidst, I will surely do thee good, and make thy seed as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.
Now, this promise of God made to Abraham was really far fetched and it took Abraham a lot of faith to accept it. After all, he was ancient and so was Sarah before they had kids.
For Isaac, the promise was a little less far fetched as his very existence proved it to be unfolding and liewise the birth of their twins Esau and Jacob.
For Jacob, the promise at this point was on its way – after all he and the four women had twelve kids between them at this point. So, the promise of propagation could have continued with or without Jacob around.
Nevertheless, Jacob appeals to this promise as a means to stack the deck and get God to act on his behalf.
So, let’s read on from verse 13 to 24
13 And he lodged there that same night; and took of that which came to his hand a present for Esau his brother;
14 Two hundred she goats, and twenty he goats, two hundred ewes, and twenty rams,
15 Thirty milch camels with their colts, forty kine, and ten bulls, twenty she asses, and ten foals.
16 And he delivered them into the hand of his servants, every drove by themselves; and said unto his servants, Pass over before me, and put a space betwixt drove and drove.
17 And he commanded the foremost, saying, When Esau my brother meeteth thee, and asketh thee, saying, Whose art thou? and whither goest thou? and whose are these before thee?
18 Then thou shalt say, They be thy servant Jacob’s; it is a present sent unto my lord Esau: and, behold, also he is behind us.
19 And so commanded he the second, and the third, and all that followed the droves, saying, On this manner shall ye speak unto Esau, when ye find him.
20 And say ye moreover, Behold, thy servant Jacob is behind us. For he said, I will appease him with the present that goeth before me, and afterward I will see his face; peradventure he will accept of me.
21 So went the present over before him: and himself lodged that night in the company.
22 And he rose up that night, and took his two wives, and his two womenservants, and his eleven sons, and passed over the ford Jabbok.
23 And he took them, and sent them over the brook, and sent over that he had.
24 And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day.
Back to verse 13
13 And he (Jacob) lodged there that same night; and took of that which came to his hand a present for Esau his brother;
After praying, Jacob took from the many flocks that “came to his hand” (from God’s providence, remember) and created a “present for his brother, Esau who was headed his way with four hundred men). What did this present look like (verse 14)
14 Two hundred she goats, and twenty he goats, two hundred ewes, and twenty rams,
15 Thirty milch camels with their colts, forty kine, and ten bulls, twenty she asses, and ten foals.
Just as an aside, I always wonder at the providence of God for this world and they ways He has set the globe up for human inhabitants.
For instance, to me it’s a wonder that in beach and desert communities where the sun tends to burn our flesh aloe plants naturally grow. That is amazing to me. Or the fact that the combination of beans AND rice provide humans who cant afford meat all the essential amino acids for health.
And then when I look at what Moses calls Milch Camels, I marvel at this actual animal that has the perfect traits to bless human beings in the places where it naturally thrives – waterless desert lands.
I know that what I am saying might be cast into the wastebin of child-like thinking when it comes to godless evolutionists, but I see His hand in this world and it repeatedly evidences His love.
As an FYI, where the King James version writes “the ten” in the last line, the Syriac and Vulgate have “twenty.”
So Jacob directs them to an amazing bit of strategy, saying
16 And he delivered them into the hand of his servants, every drove by themselves; and said unto his servants, Pass over before me, and put a space between “drove and drove.”
17 And he commanded the foremost, saying, When Esau my brother meeteth thee, and asketh thee, saying, “Whose art thou? and whither goest thou? and whose are these before thee?”
18 Then thou shalt say, “They be thy servant Jacob’s; it is a present sent unto my lord Esau: and, behold, also he is behind us.
19 And so commanded he the second, and the third, and all that followed the droves, saying, On this manner shall ye speak unto Esau, when ye find him.
20 And say ye moreover, Behold, thy servant Jacob is behind us. For he said, I will appease him with the present that goeth before me, and afterward I will see his face; peradventure he will accept of me.
In other words, Jacob has the insight on how to really blow his brother away and to break his potential wrath down by staggering all these animal gifts as they would come to Esau in waves overwhelming him along the way.
Pretty sharp, this heel catcher. (Verse 21)
21 So went the present over before him: and himself lodged that night in the company.
22 And he rose up that night, and took his two wives, and his two women servants, and his eleven sons, and passed over the ford Jabbok.
This very brook is said to rise in the mountains of Gilead, then fall into the Jordan at the south extremity of the lake of Gennesaret.
23 And he took them, and sent them over the brook, and sent over that he had.
24 And Jacob was left alone;
(beat)
I want to take you forward into the Apostolic Record, where Jesus, preparing to go to the cross, prays with his eleven remaining disciples in John 17.
Then we come to chapter 18 and read
John 18:1 When Jesus had spoken these words (in chapter 17), he went forth with his disciples over the brook Cedron, where was a garden, into the which he entered, and his eleven disciples.
I see parallels to Jacob who too, facing what he believed was death through the hand of his brother and their army,
22 And he rose up that night, and took his two wives, and his two womenservants, and his eleven sons, and passed over the ford Jabbok.
What was Jesus going to the Garden to face? His coming passion.
And what did Jesus do when he got to the Garden to prepare for this event. He told his disciples to separate themselves from him and then he went a way off to commune with God.
What did Jacob do? Listen to verse 23-24
23 And he took them, (his wives and eleven sons) and sent them over the brook, and sent over that he had. (And the first line of verse 24??)
And Jacob was left alone.
What was Jacob left alone to do? And what was Jesus left alone to do in Gethsemane?
Jesus says to the disciples with Him, “stay here while I go yonder to pray.”
And what did that prayer end up causing for the Lord – great stress. So much so that he goes back to his disciples who are sleeping, and he says
Matthew 26:38 Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with me.
39 And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.
This was Jesus wrestling with what lied ahead of him – the cross. It was a battle between being tempted to follow His own will or to embrace the will of His Father.
It was what Paul called, “working out our own salvation with fear and trembling.”
This scene for Christ was arduous. He was being tempted to turn from the will of His father and was choosing to submitting Himself to what He knew would be an incomprehensible death. Sweating, as it were, great drops of blood at just the thought.
Now, I want you to know something that Paul makes clear: it was only AFTER Jesus faced the His flesh, faced the temptation to do His own will, then chose to do the will of His father in totality, surrendering His life, then dying and rising again, did God refer to Him as His Only begotten Son. Before that He was called by a different name, my beloved Son. In every case.
But once Jesus overcame it all, he was given another name and another title, My Only Begotten Son, because He was victorious in doing what God His Father commanded.
Got that in your minds?
So, back to Jacob who, of course, preceded Jesus. And after doing all he could to bring peace to his brother after 20 years of hurt feelings for harming him, Jacob too went off a ways and did what?
Let’s read verse 24-
24 And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day.
Wasn’t Jesus in Gethsemane all night? Didn’t the cock crow shortly thereafter “at the break of day?”
25 And when he (the angel) saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob’s thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him.
26 And he (the angel) said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he (Jacob) said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.
27 And he (the angel) said unto him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob.
28 And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: (which means, A prince for God) for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.
Holy camole! Is this not the most beautiful type of our Lord Jesus Christ! It is CERTAINLY a Type – at least in my mind.
But is Jacob wrestling with a man, or a heavenly angel, or is it a preincarnate expression of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, or God Himself (resulting in Jacob later proclaiming (at verse 30) to “have seen God face to face and my life is preserved?”)
Let’s get to some brass tacks here folks.
Ready? We don’t know. Period.
What we do know “know know” is . . .
Jacob was alone and he did wrestle with someone he calls a man.
We also know/know that God interacts with human beings thus far in scripture with messengers who might be angels, men or angels in the form of man.
What we also know, in spite of what Jacob says at verse 30 is He did not see God face to face because Jesus says that no man can do that.
This has caused believers to call this a Christophany meaning that it was the pre-incarnate Christ in a body form sent to wrestle. I believe that this is entirely possible but NOT . . . if the Trinity is true.
Again, if this is the preincarnate Jesus that has taken on a form to wrestle in (and its not the form he will get as a man through Mary) then the Trinity cannot be true. Why?? Because if no man can see God at anytime (as Jesus plainly said) and if Jesus is God (as the Trinity says) then if Jacob sees the preincarnate Jesus (who the trinitarians say is God the Son), then Jesus was wrong and men can see God.
Get it?
I suggest that we read the text and take it for what it says. This was a messenger from heaven in the form of a man.
And as we have seen in the past, God appears to people in this time through messengers that might be in human form or heavenly.
We will talk next week about Jacob claiming that he had seen God face to face.
But what was this messenger and Jacob doing? The text says, wrestling but that was more than a physical rowe.
Hosea, speaking of Jacob wrote in Hosea 12:3-4
He took his brother by the heel in the womb, and by his strength he had power with God; Yea, he had power over the angel, and prevailed: he wept, and made supplication unto him: he found him in Bethel, and there he spake with us.
Note a couple of things here – Hosea referred to what Moses described as a man as an angel. So let the scripture interpret the scripture. And he also points out that
He had power over the angel
And prevailed
And that he wept
And made supplication to him
So, let’s first ask – how did Jacob have power over this angel?
Remember, Jacob was fearful and this fear led him to a night of prayer. This night and this prayer is described as His wrestling with a man, which Hosea calls an angel.
Wrestling how? It seems physical but Hosea adds that there were tears and supplications, which appear to be pleads for mercy.
In my estimation, this was Jacob coming to terms with his will verses the will of God, his ways against the ways of God, and his desire, in the face of what he believes is immanent death, the mercy of God upon him and his family.
The troops of Esau were headed his way and this appears to have broken the heel catcher, causing him to make war on the floor with his Maker, from the heart, and the wrestling is a term for the battle of surrender, of allowing God and trusting Him as our flesh wars to have our will and ways.
I don’t see the prevailing as the Angel was pinned but rather one of Jacob wrestling with his own person, ways along with his need to be saved from what he feared.
The match is highly symbolic and representational of anyone who is confronted with a fearful situation and truly needs God’s help only to discover that God wants us to face ourselves, and wrestle with what stops us from fully letting everything go and placing everything into His hands.
Jacob was facing the fear of his brother and went to the Lord which resulted in an all-night wrestling match.
It’s sort of like we go out to just get a haircut, but hit a homeless man in the crosswalk, have the police take us to jail because our registration expired the day before and in jail it is discovered that a court in another state has issued a warrant for our arrest for a ticket never paid when we were a teenager.
Jacob, in a state of fear, approached God to receive from him a blessing of mercy – God said, and listen, while you are here, we’ve got a few things to work out between us Jacob, things that are really needed in your relationship with me.
Let the wrestling begin.
Let your will become my will.
Work out your salvation with fear and trembling . . .
And I will not only bless you, as you desire, but I am going to bestow upon you a new identity which will include a new name.
We will come back to this story next week. Love YOU.
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