Sermon Notes + Quotes:
Transcript:
We study through books of the Bible though here at the Village Chapel and we’re teaching through Genesis. We’ll be in Genesis 32, and if you want a copy, just raise your hand. Thank you for joining us online by the way, if you are online. There’s a little Bible tab there at the bottom if you want to follow along in the text. Having some text in front of you will be helpful as we study a story like the one we’re going to study today. One of the great English hymns of the faith by Charles Wesley, And Can It Be. I love that hymn that we sang together.
Stanza three goes like this, “Long my imprisoned spirit lay, fast bound in sin and nature’s night. Thine eye diffused a quickening ray.” He’s saying, “But Lord, Your face turned towards me.” “I woke, and the dungeon flamed with light. My chains fell off and my heart was free.” And then his response is, “I rose, I went forth and I followed Thee.” One of the great English hymnists of our faith, Charles Wesley. And this is by all accounts, an autobiographical account of Charles’s own conversion. “My chains fell off; my heart was free. I rose, went forth and I followed Thee.”
This is a portrait of a man who’s been awakened by the grace of God, a man who was dead and who’s now alive. Here in this one stanza, we sing together with such vivid clarity, I love the poetry in this song. Clarity about what life is like apart from God, darkness, imprisonment, being bound by sin, essentially a life turned in on itself. But with equal detail and clarity, the grace of God described in terms of God’s eyes, His face turning towards Charles, turning towards you and turning towards me, setting His eyes on us and waking us up from that dungeon.
The shackles dropping off. Can you hear that sound as we sing that poetry? The shackles dropping off, hitting the floor and the response, “I rise, I get up and I follow.” To follow the One who brought Charles from death to life, to follow the One who made him into a new man; I hope that’s your story today as well. Such a beautiful hymn that describes the life of every believer. Not every believer has the same dramatic experience and this experience echoes that of the apostle Paul on the Damascus road. But all of us who believe were once dead and, because the grace of God, those who have placed our faith in Christ alone, those of us who were dead are now alive.
Until the pursuing grace of God was set upon me, was set upon you, the initiative of God, it’s only until then do we come to life. In our texts today, as we read in chapter 32 of Genesis, we’re going to see something similar in the life of Jacob. Jacob is a wrestler; he’s a struggler. His name means one who strives, a cheater, a twister, a heel grabber quite literally. From the get-go, his name described who he was, his character. He wrestled in the form of deception, in the form of manipulation, attempting to control outcomes in his favor. Manipulatively acquiring the birthright of his brother, Esau, deceptively taking the blessing from his father, Isaac. Manipulation and deception.
Then after doing that, he flees in fear that his brother Esau would kill him. And that’s what we’ve been reading recently as we’ve been studying this text. And after fleeing home, the very land that was promised to him, he faces another skilled manipulator, which we read about last week and have read before: Uncle Laban. And in the process, he’s with Uncle Laban during these wilderness years away from home, his family has grown, his wealth has grown, and that’s where we find ourselves in this text. As we read last week, this wilderness season with his uncle has come to an end, and now Jacob is leaving. This wilderness season has been 20 years of Jacob growing, and we’re going to see some of this growth here.
So, as we read the text this morning, I want us all, including myself, to look closely for the grace of God working in the heart of Jacob and see how God does it in many and varied ways, a renovating grace that is shaping him into a new man. “I woke, the dungeon flamed with light, and my chains fell off.” That’s how Charles Wesley describes it. And here in this text today, we’ll see something similar happened to Jacob. A man waking up to the reality of who God is and who Jacob is. The question I’ve been asking myself this week and invite us all to ask this question this morning: Where is the grace of God at work in my life today? Second question, how am I responding to that grace?
Good questions to ask no matter where you’re coming from today. I know many of us in this room are coming from weariness. I have much to learn, we have much to learn from our brother Jacob. Before we do that, would you pray with me? Then we’ll get started: Everlasting God, we need to hear from You today, I need to hear from You today. This week we’ve heard the clamor of the world entice us to trust anything except for Your Word. In spirit, we ask You to open our ears, open our hearts to hear and to trust Your Word alone. Help us to rise, to go forth and to follow You in faithfulness and obedience. And church, we all said, Amen.
All right, chapter 32, verse one, and I’m going to be reading from the English standard version this morning. “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 that place, Mahanaim.” Now if you remember all the way back to Genesis 28, Jacob flees from the Promised Land, from his brother who’s trying to kill him or looks like he’s going to kill him. He flees and what happens at Bethel, the house of God? Jacob meets with God. We see angels ascending and descending and God reminds him of His covenantal promise, God’s covenantal promise to Jacob.
That was 20 years ago for us, Genesis chapter 28, and here bracketing this wilderness season with his Uncle Laban, we see again the angels of God. God has come to meet with Jacob and Jacob calls it Mahanaim, two camps, quite literally God’s camp and my camp— Jacob’s camp and God’s camp. And friends, it’s good to remind ourselves that there’s always two camps. Verse three. “And Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau his brother in the land of Seir, the country of Edom instructing them, ‘Thus shall you say to my Lord, Esau…’ Interesting, he uses the word, “My Lord.” In these 20 years he’s learned some humility, subservient language.
“’Thus shall you say to my Lord.’” So, he is sending a message to Esau ahead of his return to the Promised Land, “Thus says your servant Jacob, ‘I have sojourned with Laban and stayed until now. I have oxen, donkeys, flocks, male servants and female servants I have sent to tell my Lord in order that I may find favor in your sight.’” So, what’s Jacob doing here? He’s shrewdly planning ahead. What’s interesting, this is a side note in the story, is this path is like a long line, a straight line, right in the middle of the Promised Land. Canaan is where Jacob has been for about 20 years, 300 or 400 miles away and he’s returning. Esau is actually on the other side, in the far south. So, Jacob doesn’t actually, geographically speaking, need to cross paths with Esau, but spiritually he does. There’s a repair that needs to happen, a repentance that needs to happen and spiritually Jacob needs to encounter the one who he’s harmed, the one he’s taken from.
And so that’s what we have here. Jacob, not sure what the posture of Esau is, if you remember the last time we saw Esau, Esau was prepared to kill Jacob. So, Jacob doesn’t know what Esau’s heart is like, he doesn’t know his posture, so he sends out messengers ahead, mimicking God who sent messengers to him. He sends out messengers ahead to say, “Esau, here I come.” And he’s not bragging when he lists all the things that he has. I think what the text is showing us is he’s telling Esau, “Look, I have nothing to take from you. The Lord has blessed me in these 20 years as I’ve been with our Uncle Laban. I have oxen and donkeys and flocks, male servants, female servants; I have all of this wealth, Esau, I have nothing to take from you.”
We’ll keep reading it to verse six. “And the messengers returned to Jacob.” I’m speculating here, but that happened pretty quickly. These messengers came back and told Jacob, “We came to your brother Esau, and he is coming to meet you and there were 400 men with him.” Four hundred men. You don’t bring 400 men for a party. Four hundred men is emblematic, it’s symbolic, we see this in other texts in the Old Testament of a military regimen, typically a militia. And so, Jacob is clearly afraid, fearful, in distress by these 400 men.
Verse 7, “Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed and he divided the people who were with him [more strategy] and the flocks and the herds and the camels into two camps thinking ‘If Esau comes to the one camp and attacks it, then the camp that is left will escape.’” So again, he’s a shrewd planner; he’s a good administrator. He’s separating his camp in case one gets attacked. Jacob has a pattern here, and we’re going to see it in this context of planning. Now we’re going to see him praying here in the next bit of text. By the way, before I read this prayer, such a beautiful prayer, a model prayer, this is the first time we read of Jacob praying. Longest prayer in the Book of Genesis, in fact. He plans and he prays.
Verse nine, listen to this prayer. And Jacob said, “Oh God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac…” He recognizes who God is. “Oh Lord, who said to me, ‘Return to your country and to your kindred that I may do you good.'” So, he’s reminding God of God’s promise to him. Verse 10, “I am not worthy of the least of all the deeds of steadfast love and all the faithfulness that you have shown to your servant.” Such humility there. “For with only my staff,” meaning his walking stick, “I crossed this Jordan and now I have become two camps.”
He’s saying, “Lord, I recognize that I have brought nothing to this, it is only by Your grace that my family has grown, that my wealth has grown. I only brought my staff, which is to say I brought nothing to the table.” He’s recognizing who God is and who Jacob is. Verse 11, now he’s asking, “God, please deliver me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear him that he may come and attack me, the mothers with the children. 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.'”
Such a beautiful prayer. What a change in the heart of Jacob so far. He acknowledges who God is, “Oh God, the God of my grandfather Abraham, the God of my father, Isaac, the one who held them fast.” He recognizes that. He acknowledges who he is, one who didn’t really bring anything to the party, it’s only God’s grace that has brought him this far. And he recognizes that Jacob calls himself a servant of Esau and now a servant of God. We haven’t seen that before. In 20 years, haughtiness has turned into humility. Did you notice that the prayer was flanked by the promises? He started at the beginning with the promises of God, and he ended with the promises of God, which is indicative of where Jacob’s confidence is beginning to lie. His confidence is in the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and now the God of Jacob. You can learn so much about someone from their prayers, have you noticed that?
In chapter 28, as I mentioned that before, God meets with Jacob. And there’s not so much a prayer there, Jacob doesn’t really pray with God, if you remember. He dictates to God, “God, if You do this, then I’ll do that.” And then he went on his way. Here in chapter 32, his prayer is now a humble recognition that he is dependent on God alone and his mercy. What a change! I love this prayer from Henri Nouwen,
“Dear God, I’m so afraid to open my clenched fists. Who will I be when I have nothing left to hold on to? Who will I be when I stand before You with empty hands? Please help me to gradually open my hands and to discover that I am not what I own, but what You want to give me.”
–Henri Nouwen, The Only Necessary Thing: Living a Prayerful Life
Jacob recognizes that all is grace. We’ll keep reading it to verse 13. “So, he, Jacob stayed there that night and from what he had with him, he took a present for his brother Esau.” Again, he’s shrewdly planning. Verse 14, “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 he said to his servants, ‘Pass on ahead of me.'”
Interesting, Jacob, the heel grabber, the one who always wants to be first now says, “Go ahead of me, I’ll be last.” And he puts a space between drove and drove, he instructed the first, “When Esau my brother meets you and asks you, ‘To whom do you belong? Where are you going? And who’s are these ahead of you?’ Then you shall say, ‘They belong to your servant, Jacob. They are a present sent to my Lord Esau and moreover, he is behind us.’ He likewise instructed the second and the third and all who followed the droves, ‘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 [ meaning Jacob thought] I may appease him.” His brother who was out to kill him the last time you met him. “That I may appease him with the present that goes ahead of me and afterward I shall see his face. Perhaps he will accept me for the present passed on ahead of him and he himself stayed that night in the camp.”
This is easy to miss in the English language, I did when I first read it, but when it says, “Afterward I shall see his face.” What the text is saying here, there’s something about showing someone your face or revealing your name that reveals a bit of your character. In this case, Esau’s face would be a face of forgiveness. Jacob is looking for countenance in Esau’s face that is grace. Jacob is looking for grace, he’s looking for forgiveness from his brother, Esau. And it could be mixed motives, but he’s trying to do that by sending all these gifts ahead.
Jacob, for much of his life has been a deceiver, a twister, his name could even mean cheater, one who’s taken. And like I said, there could be a variety of motives at work here, but I think the language of the text is personal; it’s contrite, it’s humble. After these gifts, Jacob’s saying, “I hope to see Esau’s face intimate, that he might look upon me with forgiveness.” He’s saying, “Esau, I know what I took from you, take these gifts as a first step towards restoring the relationship that I broke.” This is a picture of repentance.
I’ll paraphrase the way Sinclair Ferguson describes the fruits of repentance. Repentance often leads us to bend our energies towards repairing what we have broken by our sin. It’s not always possible, but the natural fruit of repentance is the desire to repair what has been broken. That’s a natural fruit. Let’s keep reading, if you would, at verse 22. “The same night he arose and he took his two wives, his two female servants and his 11 children, and he crossed the forward of the Jabbok. He took them and sent them across the stream and everything else that he had.” So, he’s taking the remaining family and his belongings and he’s putting them to safety, that’s what’s going on here.
Verse 24. “And Jacob was left alone [presumably to pray]. And a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day. When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched his hip socket and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him.” We say in English that he touched his hip, in the original language and within the context here, really it should say barely touched. Who is this man? We don’t know for sure, but he’s a divine representative. An angel sent from God, perhaps God himself, a theophany, we don’t know. But what he’s saying here is that this wasn’t a strike, this wasn’t a thump on his hip, this was barely touching his hip, meaning this was a divine touch that knocked out one of the strongest bones in Jacob’s body. Likely, in this instant, is the moment that Jacob realized who he was wrestling with. He barely touched him, and his hip was dislocated.
Verse 26. Then he said, meaning God or this divine representative, “Let me go for the day has broken.” And here we’re seeing grace, some mercy here. Do you remember when we see Moses later on in the story? Moses, because he’s a sinful man, he cannot look upon God on his face because a sinful man cannot look upon the glory and the holiness of God. And that’s what’s happening here. There’s a mercy coming, through this divine representative. God is saying, “The sun’s about to come up, you cannot see my face. Jacob, let me go.” Verse 26, “Let me go for the day is broken.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” Jacob realizes who he’s wrestling with. Josiah 12, the prophet would look back on this text and fill it out a little bit more and says that Jacob wept. This is a cry of faith. He realizes who he’s striving with. The one who strives with man, the heel grabber is now striving with God. And Jacob knows, because he can’t win this, his only hope is to hold on. And he does just that.
“Until Lord, You bless me, until Lord, You have mercy on me.” And he said to him, meaning God or the divine representative, said to Jacob, “What is your name?” And Jacob says his name, “Jacob.” And this right here is a self-disclosure; this is likely a confession because what does Jacob mean? Deceiver, heel grabber, twister, cheater. Jacob saying, “Here’s who I am, a sinner.” But then God said, this divine representative, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob but Israel, for you as striven with God and with men and have prevailed.” Meaning you’ve been with God, and He’s had mercy on you. Then Jacob asks him, “Please tell me your name?” But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” Basically, you know who this is, you know who I am. And there he blessed him. Jacob’s self-sufficiency is now gone, named a wound of grace here.
Verse 30. “So Jacob called the name of the place, Peniel saying, for I have seen God face-to-face and yet my life has been delivered.” Jacob recognizes mercy, recognizes grace. Verse 31, “Then the sun rose upon him and as he passed Peniel limping because of his hip. Therefore, to this day, the people of Israel…” And this is the first time that the Hebrews have been called the people of Israel. What’s his name? His name is no longer Jacob but Israel. So even in this text, we see a hope for Jacob’s future, a promise fulfilled.
“So 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.” Such grace. For most of his life, again, he was defined by deception, controlled by his manipulating dispositions, striving he thought with other men, namely Esau. And in this story, we see Jacob preparing to meet his brother, hoping to receive forgiveness from Esau, some absolution from his brother. But what happens in this wrestling match is that Jacob’s eyes were open to see who he was really striving with his whole life.
This encounter with God, this outpouring of grace would forever change Jacob as he walks the rest of his days with a limp, a wound of grace that would serve as a reminder of who God is and who he is. A new name, a new identity. When we look at an account like this, we see the sovereign hand of God moving in so many different ways, and we can only scratch the surface today. If we took the time, we could start to see some of those glimpses of grace in our own lives. And I’d love for us to focus on at least three expressions of God’s grace in this text.
Number one, the pursuing grace of God. If you’ve grown up in the church, you’ve probably heard this story used in regard to prayer. If you’re looking for an answer for something or you’re wanting something to happen, this story is often used as an example of holding onto God until you get the answer. And there’s some warrant for that, in the New Testament, Jesus has the parable of the persistent widow, for example. But I don’t think that’s what this story is about. This story is less about Jacob pursuing something from God and more about God’s pursuit of Jacob. Even before Jacob was born, God had told his mother, Rebecca, that the younger son would inherit the promise.
The promise to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, that through them all the nations of the world would be blessed. The Lord had always been in pursuit of Jacob for his good and for God’s purposes. Purposes that would go much further than Jacob would ever know, their fulfillment, of course, in another man, Jesus. The true Israel who would take wounds upon himself and by this man, Jesus, his wounds, we are healed. And God’s mysterious providence and timing, it’s only because of what Christ accomplished on our behalf, bearing the weight, the just wrath of God for our sins on Himself, that we also are invited to wrestle with God, to meet with God and to know Him.
Neither Isaac, Rebecca, Esau or Jacob were ever in control of God’s redemptive plan and we know that, but sometimes we don’t live like that. Sometimes I don’t. And that’s the point, isn’t it? For most of his life, Jacob had wrestled with everyone for control, for the reins and it was in a wrestling moment that he realized he’d been wrestling with God his whole life. Have you ever had a realization like that? I know I have. There’s no other major world religion where God would come down, would accommodate Himself to the common man to wrestle, much less wrestle with a man who set against Him. The God of the Bible, so full of grace.
J.I. Packer, I love the way he puts this.
“…Knowing God is a matter of grace. It’s a relationship in which the initiative throughout is with God – as it must be, since God is so completely above us and we have so completely forfeited all claim on His favor by our sins. We do not make friends with God; God makes friends with us, bringing us to know Him by making His love known to us.”
–J.I. Packer, Knowing God
Praise God. That’s good news for us today. This should leave us in awe and in wonder. I love the name of that hymn that I mentioned at the beginning, And Can It Be? How can it possibly be that God would have grace on someone like me?
On his way back home after 20 years, on his way to meet his potential enemy in his brother, in trepidation, in fear, in hope perhaps of some absolution, God gives Jacob much more in this holy wrestling match. What does He give him? He gives him a new name, which means a new identity and He gives him a limp. A wounding grace. And that’s our second expression of grace, something that I don’t often talk about, we don’t often talk about, the wounding grace of God. Proverbs 27 reminds us, “Faithful are the wounds of a friend.” This limp, this dislocation of something strong in Jacob’s physical body was a means for him to see what he really needed. The wound, painful to be sure, continued this work of renovation in the life of Jacob. This limp that would be in his body, that he would carry with him for the rest of his life would be a constant companion. A reminder to him of the struggle, but not only the struggle, what the outcome of the struggle was. A new name, no longer Jacob the deceiver, Jacob the twister, the cheater, the heel grabber, but Israel.
With every painful step, he would be reminded of that night when he met with God and he submitted to him, broken, humble, yes, but with a heart that could finally rest in steady submission to God. This is good news for us, not everyone has to have their hip dislocated in order to rest in submission to a holy God. Praise God. But God can, and sometimes does, use a wounding grace to rescue us. And I know some of your stories and I’ve seen that, seen it in my own life, when an addiction you’ve been hiding and that shame has been exposed, painful to be sure, but grace is found there.
When a friend says something to you that you desperately do not want to hear, painful to be sure, grace can be found there. When you’re walking contrary to the ways of God revealed in His Word, a way that is meant for our flourishing, when you’re walking contrary to that, your heart may ache. Your body may even ache because you’ve gone to the world, and the world says that this is the way to a flourishing life, this is the way to a good life, and it’s left you empty. There’s grace there. This doesn’t mean that every time suffering or hardship enters your life, we should celebrate it as grace. You need to hear me say that. This is still a broken world, we all prayed together about that today.
We live in a fallen world that groans for all things to be set right and we hope for that one day. We pray with hope and expectation that the resurrected Christ will return to do just that. But Paul encountered God with a blinding light and a flesh wound in his side. Zacchaeus needed to be called out and to dine with Jesus. Moses needed to encounter God in a burning bush. Jacob needed to wrestle with God and needed a limp. Why? So that they might know God. That’s the end, that’s the goal. So that they might know God. It’s so they might come awake to the reality of His sovereignty, of His goodness, of His grace and of their need, of our need, of my need today; it’s so that we might come awake to His love for us and become more and more conformed to the image of Christ.
Cornelius Plantinga, we read one of his prayers earlier. He says this, and it’s a beautiful prayer,
“Oh God, holy beyond our thought, we do not belong in Your fellowship, except that in Your goodness, it is a fellowship provided explicitly for sinners,” Can we say amen? “A fellowship of mercy… Correct me. Unite me. Pull me apart and put me back together the right way. Let me be whole.”
–Cornelius Plantinga, Morning and Evening Prayers
Number three, the third expression of God’s grace, the renovating grace of God. You could say the transforming grace of God or the old theological term, the sanctifying grace of God. We see that all over this text here today. After the wrestling match, he rose, he went forth and he followed, but with a limp. That limp pointed to something new, pointed to a new man, a new creature, a renovated heart or a renovating heart.
Oh, I desperately need that today. I’ve been a believer for most of my life and the more I come to know of the Lord, of His glory, of His goodness, of His holiness, the more I’m aware of the fear, the deception, the manipulation that can crop up in my own heart. My own need is for renovating grace, your own need is for renovating grace, a grace that’s available to me and to you today. The more that I continue to learn of the Lord, I see examples like this, when we see a pursuing God who knows exactly what we need. He knows exactly the grace that we need to submit to Him, so that we might cry out in faith, “I cannot let you go. I need you.” And then that leads us back to the pursuing grace of God, because in that moment when we’re holding onto Him, we realize that He’s been holding us all along. I cannot let You go.
Eugene Peterson is the last quote for the morning.
“The message of the gospel is that God invades us with new life, and the life changes what we presently are. He is not a means by which we solve problems. He is not a means to avoid problems. He creates new life. He is not a problem solver, but a person creator.”
–Eugene Peterson, Every Step an Arrival
And that is good news. That’s good news for me this morning. We’re all in need of the renovating grace of God. The way to win is to lose, to submit to one who invites us to rest in Him. Such grace is on offer to me and to you today. So, I’ll ask the question again that we asked earlier. Where’s the grace of God at work in your life today? And how might you be responding? How might I be responding?
Maybe the pursuing grace of God is actively at work in you this morning, and like Charles Wesley, you came in today in prison, bound by sin and nature’s night, your life turned in on itself. Oh, that you and I this morning might cry out in faith, “Lord, I cannot let You go. I am at my end. I’m dependent on You, I need a divine touch from You.” So, we pray with Cornelius, “Correct me, Lord! Unite me and pull me apart and put me back together the right way.”
Let’s pray this morning: Lord, we know that You are eager to do that today. Spirit, this morning move us from those who are wrestlers to those who hold on to You. Many of us today are weary and You invite us to rest. Might we do that today? Spirit, empower us, give us the strength, give us the joy to rise, go forth and to follow You in all faith and obedience. Renovate, unite, pull me apart where I need to be pulled apart, and put me back together the right way. We praise You and we thank You for Your grace and for Your glory. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we all said amen.
(Edited for Reading)
