Main idea: God’s grace should increasingly prompt you to live better with others, and worship Him.
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Good morning. Happy Thanksgiving. I am thankful for the opportunity to bring God's word to you this morning, it's been a blessing to study through it this week, thankful that you guys are here as well to to hear the message of God's Word. We have, we do have a lot to be thankful for? Do we? Perhaps you are familiar with the name Joseph Scriven, or probably not. He was a man. He was born in Ireland in 1819, he was educated at Trinity College in Dublin. It's a process, or was a Protestant College. He enrolled then in military college to prepare for a career in the army, but sadly, poor health eliminated him from that they said he couldn't carry on. He had to give up on his military ambitions. Soon after that came a second blow in his life. His fiancee died in a drowning accident on the eve of their wedding in 1844 later that year, he moved to Ontario in Canada. He taught a school in Woodstock and Brantford, and Christian ministry became one of his focuses as well. Sadly, his plans for a second marriage were dashed again when his new bride to be died after a short illness in 1855 and following that, he life took. It took more of a downturn. He was never able to sustain a regular income. He was forced to live in the homes of others. He also experienced mistrust from neighbors, from people who knew him, because they didn't appreciate the work that he liked to do with the poor and underprivileged. He was a member of the Plymouth Brethren Brethren Church, and he tried to live as closely as possible, according to the Sermon on the Mount, trying to live that out, literally giving and sharing all that he had and often doing menial tasks for the poor and the physically disabled, and then Scriven himself. His life ended in a sad way as well. He drowned in 1886 at the age of 66 so a life filled with grief and trials, Joseph Scriven wrote the hymn, what a friend we have in Jesus. And he wrote that hymn as a comfort to his mother, who was back in Ireland and grieving after the death of his second fiance. So even amidst all of that, he had a really, it was a poem that he wrote, and it was a private poem that expressed the faith that he had in God, and he wanted to share that with his mother. It was never actually intended by him to be something that was publicly known. It was just something that he wrote privately to his mother, but thankfully, we get to enjoy it as a hymn today. Someone else put it to music. What a friend we have in Jesus all our sins and griefs to bear, what a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer. Oh, what peace we often forfeit. Oh, what needless pain we bear all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer. Have we trials and temptations? Is there trouble anywhere? Jesus, Savior, is our refuge? Take it to the Lord in prayer. Can we find a friend so faithful who will all our sorrows share? Jesus knows our every weakness. Take it to the Lord in prayer. Are we weak and heavy laden, cumbered with a load of care, precious Savior, still our refuge. Take it to the Lord in prayer. Do your friends despise, forsake you. Take it to the Lord in prayer. In his arms, he will take and shield you. You will find a solace there. I think that hymn nicely encapsulates some of what Dan communicated to us last week as we look through Genesis 32 in that chapter, Dan told us those words of that chapter told us that when we are faced with grief and trials, we must first strive with God, bring these things to the Lord. God took Jacob to the spiritual gym and worked him out, teaching and training him that the events of life that we face. The present example for Jacob was his imminent confrontation with his brother Esau. These types of events must first be met with prayer. They must first be met with our dependence upon and our trust in God. So that brings us, then to this week's main idea, because the chapter this week is just a follow on from where we were at last week. And the main idea is this, that God's grace should increasingly prompt you to live better with others and worship Him. God's grace should increasingly prompt you to live better with others and worship, worship Him. So this week's passage shows us that after we have come to God and wrestled with Him in prayer, we must recognize now, as we come to meet whatever the trial is that we're facing once more, we must recognize that he is sovereign, sovereignly working in in all of these situations, he sovereignly works in all of the situations of our lives. And his great graciousness towards us, we need to recognize that as well, that in it all, he is still abundantly gracious towards us. So look for that now as we read Genesis chapter 33 please stand with me for the reading of God's word Genesis chapter 33 it's up on the screen behind me as well, if you'd rather follow along there. And Jacob lifted up his eyes and looked and behold, Esau was coming, and 400 men with him. So he defied so he divided the children among Leah and Rachel and the two female servants, and he put the servants with their children in front, then Leah with her children, and Rachel and Joseph. Last of all, he himself went on before them, bowing himself to the ground seven times until he came near to his brother. BUT ESAU ran to meet him and embraced him and fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept. And when he saw lifted his eyes and saw the women and children, he said, Who are these with you? Jacob said, the children whom God has graciously given your servant. Then the servants drew near, they and their children and bowed down. Leah, likewise and her children drew near and bowed down. And last, Joseph and Rachel drew near and they bowed down. Esau said, What do you mean by all this company that I met? Jacob answered, to find favor in your sight, in the sight of my lord. But Esau said, I have enough, my brother, keep what you have for yourself. Jacob said, no, please, if I have found favor in your sight, then accept my present from my hand, for I have seen your face, which is like seeing the face of God and you have accepted me. Please accept my blessing that is brought to you, because God has dealt graciously with me, and because I have enough. Thus, he urged him, and he took it. Then Esau said, Let us journey on our way, and I will go ahead of you. But Jacob said to him, My Lord knows that the children are frail and that the nursing flocks and herds are a care to me. If they are driven hard for one day, all the flocks will die. Let my lord pass on ahead of his servant, and I will lead on slowly, at the pace of the livestock that are ahead of me and at the pace of the children. Until I come to my lord in SEER so Esau said, Let me leave with you some of the people who are with me. But he said, What need is there? Let me find favor in the sight of my lord. So Esau returned that day on his way to see it. But Jacob journeyed to Succoth and built himself a house and made booths for his livestock. Therefore, the name of the place is called Sukkot. And Jacob came safely to the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, on his way from Padan Aram. And he camped before the city. And from the sons of Hamor she comes father, he bought for 100 pieces of money the piece of land on which he had pitched his tent there he erected. It an altar, and called it El elohiy, Israel. This is the word of the Lord.
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Let's pray together, Father, we are thankful for your word, and we come before you this morning with great Thanksgiving in our hearts. It's been a weekend of giving thanks. We are thankful for the small intricacies of life that we often overlook, your provision and your great care for us, and we are thankful for the great, eternal things that you do in our lives. Also, we're thankful for your son, who you sent to deal with our sin and the consequences of our sin and provide a way for us to be forgiven if we turn to Him in faith and repentance, Father, we're thankful for our church, thankful for your gathering of us all together. We pray for the ministry of our church, particularly toward the poor in our city. Pray that You would give us hearts of care and compassion, that we would see your ways, that we can serve and love them and reach out to them with the gospel, that they would know your truth, know your son and be saved, Father, we're thankful for our sister church, three crosses that meets up by the VA hospital here up north. We pray for Corey and Dave as they lead the church there, that You would help them to remain faithful to your word themselves, in their character and in their convictions, we pray that they would remain faithful in their in their doctrine and in their teaching as well, that the gospel would be central to all of the ministry that they do there, and that they would lead your people in the truths of Your Word. We pray for the leaders of our city here as well, think of the mayor and the council. We, we, we would love for them to know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. We pray that the gospel would come to them a fresh that you bring believers into their lives who would declare that to them and that they would be saved and that they would lead our city for your glory, father. Bigger picture we see every week, devastating things happening here at home and across the world. There's been horrific flooding this week, fires, horrible fires in Hong Kong, shootings as well, political conflict ongoing. Help us to trust you with all of these things. Help us to know that you are sovereign overall, and that we can trust that you are working your good plans out. We pray that you'd bring comfort to those who have experienced these devastating things. We pray in particular for the ongoing talks between Russia and Ukraine, that the US is a part of as well, that you would bring peace between those countries, and most of all, that those that are still at war with you, that they would be brought to peace with you. So we pray now, Father, as we look to your word, that you would help us to understand your message to us and help our lives to be changed according to in Christ's name, Amen. Please do have a seat. All right, so this passage that we're looking at in Genesis chapter 33 is the next part in the ongoing storyline of Jacob's life, and it shows us that God's graciousness toward us brings about and should bring about change in us. As God is gracious toward us, we should, in turn, reflect that graciousness toward others, and that graciousness as well, should stoke up in us, the fires of worship in our hearts, and we see both of those in this passage. We're just going to break it down into two sections. The first is verses one through 11. We'll look at that first, and it's our first point. If you have your notice sheet, the weekly that you picked up on the way in, it's got the main ideas, sermon notes and all that kind of stuff in there, and the points that we'll be going through with, the verses and all those. Kinds of things that's helpful for you to be able to take away and review things later on. So point number one is this, in verses one to 11, we must let God's grace affect our relationships with others. Let God's grace affect your relationships with others. So verses one to 11, someone told me, once, this was helpful for me, they said to me, there's a difference between the way out and the way through. And as believers, especially praying believers, is important for us to know and understand what that means. Okay, often when we pray, and I don't think it's wrong to pray this way, but we shouldn't only pray this way. We pray hoping that God will remove us from the difficulty that we're in. We're looking for a way out. But most often, when God answers our prayers, He doesn't do that. Sometimes he does, but I would say most often he doesn't. What he does instead is he offers to lead us through it. He wants to walk with us through whatever trial, difficulty, grief it is that we're facing. God is not like Wesley from The Princess Bride. Shock, if you've seen the Princess Bride, Princess Buttercup, she she says to Wesley things like there is a jug hanging over my shoulder, farm boy, will you fetch this picture for me? And Wesley says, As you wish, and he picks it up, and he gives it to her. Now that's more about like it's true love, it's romance. They love each other, and they're figuring all of that stuff out. But that's not the way prayer works with God, right? He's not our as you wish. Guy. He's not just there to make our lives easier in whatever way we want. Most often, God does not remove us from the difficulty as we might wish. Instead, he keeps us in it so that we will realize our weaknesses and also realize his sufficiency and therefore depend upon him. Remember, God is sovereign. His will is what is important, not our own. It's his plan that must be worked out. It's his plan that we must submit to, not the other way around. So use your trial as an opportunity to lean upon him more. We see that here with Jacob, he lifts up his eyes, and behold Esau was coming. He'd spent time in prayer. He'd striven with God. He'd been wrestling with God in the previous chapter. And he opens his eyes, he gets up to get on with things, the trouble is still there, Esau and his 400 men, the last of which, the last interaction that Jacob had with Esau was understanding that Esau hated him for what he had done and wanted to murder him. So Esau is still coming. 400 men are still coming. So God is there for Jacob to lean upon, to depend upon, through his difficulty. And then we get to verses two and three. Even after having prayed to God, wrestled with God, we see that Jacob still has to do something. Right? Not only should he depend upon God and lean upon God, but he still has to do something. He's still in the situation, and he still needs to respond. He was about to meet his brother, as I said, the last he'd heard, he wanted to murder him. He had no idea what was about to happen, for better or for worse, I would say. And we see this throughout this chapter. Jacob does what he thinks is best. He tries to figure out what to do, and he acts. He does something, maybe for worse, we would say he arranges his family in order of importance.
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He puts the servants who are now his wives and their children at the front of the pack, and then he puts Leah and her children just behind. Them. And then he puts Rachel and her child right at the back, and then he goes out in front and bows down seven times to his brother. We already know from chapter 29 that he loves Rachel more than he loves Leah and his other wives. In chapter 737, that we haven't gotten to yet, we'll find out that he also loves Joseph more than his other children. So Joseph, who's at the back with Rachel, his mother, he doesn't arrange them by age. He doesn't arrange them by strength to potentially meet Esau and his 400 men in battle. He arranges them, seemingly in order of importance. So maybe that wasn't the best decision. It doesn't really comment on it in the passage, but we could assume then, for better, he puts himself first. He doesn't just kind of hide at the back. He takes the lead. He doesn't flee to the lifeboat, but takes the captain, goes down with his ship mentality, and he bows down, as I said, seven times, toward his brother again. Think about the last time these two twins were together chapters 27 and 28 Jacob had deceived Esau and their father, Isaac. He stole esau's birthright, and he stole Isaac's blessing, and on the other side, Esau had sold his birthright for a meal, he had given away the blessing of his father, and he hated his twin brother. These are the words that Scripture uses. He hated him, and was plotting how he might kill him. He wanted to murder him. There was absolutely no affection or humility between these two brothers, the twins. But what we read here is a completely different story, right? A lot of time has passed. A lot of things have happened, particularly we know in Joseph, in not Joseph, Jacob's life, God's been teaching him a lot. He's put him in the gym. We don't know what's been going on with Esau, but Jacob is central to our story. Things have changed out of recognition of his past wrongs. Jacob humbles himself before his brother. That's what this bowing is. He does it seven times seven in Scripture. Is the number of perfection. It's the number of eternity. So I think by bowing himself seven times what he's communicating to his brother is, I'm your servant, and you are my master to the highest degree. I will do whatever is necessary to reconcile with you, to kind of make recompense for my past wrongs. I'll take all of the appropriate steps. I am here to make things right with you. I it. Then we get to verses four through 11, and we see what happens next. Jacob and God had been reconciled in the previous chapters since the time, the last time that the twins were together, and Jacob now hopes to find the same reconciliation with his brother, where God had once looked upon Jacob as an enemy, he now looks upon him with graciousness, grace or favor. That's what Jacob says this a number of times in this passage, in referring to God, he says he was gracious toward me. That's what it means. God acts favorably toward me now. He considers me in a favor, favorable sense, not as an enemy anymore. That's true of us, if we're believers as well, and Jacob now hopes to find the same favor with his brother. He's hoping that brother will no longer look upon him as an enemy, but will look upon him favorably, which is why he does all of these things in acts of humility and confession and seeking forgiveness with his brother. It. He hopes that the forgiveness and reconciliation that happened between himself and God can now happen between himself and his estranged twin brother, and that's what we see in verse four, far from murder or hatred. Why Esau passionately embraces his brother. It's an emotional scene, and they both weep as they come back together. And after their embrace, they catch up. Esau asks his brother, who are all these people that are with you in verses five to seven, and Jacob replies, they are the children that God has graciously given your servant. And in that statement, he first declares that God is the gracious provider of blessing to himself. He doesn't take any of the credit he recognized. Recognizes himself as an unworthy recipient of God's gracious acts toward him, of God's favor, and second, in that statement, he humbles himself once more before his brother, calling himself his servant, that God has given to your servant and his wives and his children likewise come humbling themselves before Esau, having, I assume, been filled in by Jacob somewhere along the way As to what has happened in the past with Esau, like, imagine that conversation after they were married. I wonder if he told them after they were married or before. Like, by the way, I've got some history that you should probably know about. It involves my brother wanting to murder me, so the wives and the kids come recognizing their need for esau's favor as well, because they had become entangled in the consequences of Jacob's sin that happened decades ago, certainly before they even knew him. Next. Esau asks, What was with the present that you sent me? So this was something that happened in chapter 32 Jacob was the one who actually initiated contact with his brother. He was the one who sought his brother out. He knew that there was sin in the past that he needed to make right. He knew that there was a broken relationship because of things that he had done, and he sought reconciliation with his brother. He was the one that sought it out. He sent messengers in chapter 32 down to his brother, and chapter 32 tells us to to hopefully appease him. So it wasn't a fear thing. It was a I need to deal with the wrongs of my past thing. I need to recognize to him that I'm confessing I was in the wrong like and I want to do what I need to do, to try and make it up to you, to try and try and make things right as much as I can. It was that instance where he sent this. It uses the word present in chapter 32 Dan talked about it last week. He sent, like, hundreds of goats and cows and bulls and camels and all that kind of stuff as a gift to Esau, confessing his past wrongdoing and attempting to go above and beyond to make things right with his brother. So here Esau is just saying, Why did you send all that stuff to me? And Jacob explains it to him again, and now he says, First, because Esau rejects it. He's like, No, I don't need it. Okay, I like, I've got, I've got tons of my own stuff. I don't need the stuff that you sent me and but Jacob insists. He says, first you should receive my present, because it would show me that you are now favorable toward me and not hostile anymore. And I think that's what he means in verse 10, where he says, no, please, if I have found favor in your sight, then accept my present from my hand, for I have seen your face, which is like seeing the face of God, and you have accepted me.
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I think what Jacob is thinking there, and what he's communicating to his brother, is that he is coming before Esau with his wrongdoing in a similar way as he has had to come before God in his sin. He is humble and he depends upon both for their forgiveness and favor and grace. Obviously, with God, it's in an eternal sense, and with his brother, it's just in an earthly, relational sense. But he's saying, like I come to you in humility, out of recognition that I need your forgiveness and I need your grace. Please give it to me your acceptance of my gifts would communicate to me that you're giving me your grace. You're now looking at me favorably. And second, he urges him to accept his gift. Further in verse 11, by saying, If you accept my gift, it would also give glory to God, because it would be a recognition of how abundantly he has provided for me that I can give you such a gift. So finally, Esau accepts it, and they are reconciled. They are restored. Their relationship is restored. I think the classic New Testament. Example of this is Zacchaeus, the tax collector. You know, the little guy he he's a chief tax collector in Israel, I think, rightly despised. He was a fraud. Tax collectors were fraudulent. They would steal. He was, yeah, he was a thief. And people would have seen him as a betrayer of the nation of Israel because he was collecting for Rome. So one day, Zacchaeus, he hears, you remember the story that Jesus is coming down the road, and he wants to see him, but he's too small to be able to see him. So he climbs up in the tree and sees him coming down the road. And Jesus looks up at him, and he calls out to him and says, Hey, Zacchaeus, I'm coming to your house. He invites himself to his house, and Zacchaeus then experiences the forgiving grace of Jesus. He must hear, we don't get all the details, but he must hear the words the message of the gospel that Jesus comes with. What we do see is his faith and repentance. That's what gives us the assumption that he heard the good news, he heard the gospel, he heard about life from Jesus. And what Zacchaeus does is we're told he gives his wealth, all that he had earned, fraudulently and through stealing and betrayal, it tells us he gave away his wealth to the poor. It tells us that he repays four times to those that he had defrauded in the past. So we see the grace of God overflowing in his life with good works, such is the grace of God toward you and I as well. Remember First John, chapter one and verse nine, If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Just think for a moment of what he has forgiven you. Think for a moment of what he has helped you with God shows His favor toward us who do not deserve it. Time and time again we experience His grace, and as we experience that grace, an appropriate response would be to next, let God's grace address the situations of our lives, including any relationships of our own with others that might be broken meaning if we have sinned, as was true for Jacob, humbling ourselves and doing what is necessary on our side to make the relationship right, or if we have been sinned against, first, trusting God with that situation no matter what, entrusting it into His hands, not using it as an opportunity to sin, to punish the other person with bitterness or other actions, but showing the same heart of forgiving grace toward those who have sinned against us as God has shown towards us, and then also being more than fully restored with them when they take steps of repentance. So those are a lot of specifics of things that happened in Jacob's life in. Those opening 11 verses, but in those specifics, we also see a bigger storyline unfolding. We see that God is blessing Jacob. We see that God is protecting Jacob from his enemies. Both of these things are promises that God made to Abraham in the covenant that he made with him, that he would bless him and bless his descendants, and that he would deliver them from their enemies. We also see in the life of Jacob and of Esau, for that matter, that he has established them both as nations, which were also promises that God had made to Abraham. So there's something bigger going on here than just the specifics that we see. This is God's big plan that he had communicated with Grandfather, Abraham all those years ago. Unfolding. God is remaining faithful to that covenant that he made with Abraham, and I think that that would have brought great hope and great instruction to the Israelites that Moses was speaking to at the time this was written, who had just been free from Egypt, and who themselves had been instructed by God to go and enter and take possession of the Promised Land, and it should provide hope and instruction for us too. That I think, ties with James, chapter four and verse six and First Peter, five, five, where we are told that God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. So we must humble ourselves, yes, in recognition that we are dependent upon God, and we need his help in absolutely everything, but we must also humble ourselves in our relationships with one another, making things right where we have wronged, being willing to be gracious when we have been wronged. And also being servants of one another. Point number two verses 12 to 20, let God's grace affect your relationship with him. So point number one is that God's grace should affect our relationships with one another, with people. Point number two is God's grace should also affect our relationship with Him. Verses 12 through 20. This section, we see that the twins, they now need to figure out, where do we go from here? Like, what happens next? And we see that Esau has some ideas. And then we also see that Jacob has some ideas. So how are they going to figure this out? Verses 12 through 14, Esau gives Jacob an invitation, which Jacob rejects. So Esau says, Let's do this. And Jacob says, No, I don't think we're going to do this. Esau offers that their two clans could travel together. So me and my 400 and you and your your giant family and everything that you've got, maybe thinking like strength in numbers, we can travel together and help one another. But Jacob tells Esau that with all the animals and children that he has, that they are moving really, really slow. He says, You go on, we'll continue our slow pace. If we try and make them go faster, then things are going to start dying. So let's not do that. We'll go our slow pace, and we will catch you up at seer, which is where Esau lives. We'll catch you up there. At some point in the future, we'll catch you up there. So next, Esau makes a kind of a counter proposal. It's like, okay, okay, brother,
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how about I just leave some of my people with you, and they can help you as you go on your trek. We won't all stay, but I'll just leave you some helpers and and they can travel with your group. Jacob again, responds and rejects his offer for help. Thanks, but we don't really need the help. And then he says, Please show me favor by letting me go on at my own pace, in my own way. So I think what Jacob is saying there is something like this. It's similar to what he said before, with the presence. He's asking Him to show him favor. I think he's saying show me that we're reconciled by letting me go on at my own pace, in my own way. Show me that I'm forgiven, show me that you now favor me and no longer consider me an enemy. So we see Esau does he returns home to Seir, signifying, I think, that the relationship is restored, and Jacob is now considered with favor in the sight of Esau, rather than hatred. And then there's this, but in the verse, so he returns to seer, but Jacob journeyed to Succoth. And that calls our attention to the fact that Jacob, though he had said, We will catch you up sometime down the line with our slow moving group where you live. He actually doesn't go there. He doesn't go south. He goes west. And then he builds himself a house, and he builds places for the animals to live, and he stays there for a time. And indeed, we know like he actually never goes. He never goes to catch up with his brother. And that tells us some things. First, it tells us that the two brothers, living together is not a requirement of peace. It doesn't mean that they're not reconciled. Just because they're reconciled, it doesn't mean that they have to live together now, like they can go on in their own, separate ways. It also tells us something bigger picture, maybe, that the destinies of these brothers are different. God has different plans for each of them. Esaus is outside of the Promised Land. Jacob is not. Jacob is central to it and central to God's unfolding salvific plan. Now, Sukkot is not actually in the Promised Land. It's still east of the Jordan. We're not told why he stops. But right or wrong, Jacob settles here for a time. Presumably, I would say they're worn out, and they just need some time to regroup, something like that. But eventually he does move on to Canaan, as we see in verses 18 through 20, where he buys some land. He crosses the Jordan then into Canaan with his family and all of his stuff. Canaan the land that God had promised Abram and his descendants would possess, and he comes to the Canaanite city of Shechem, which later becomes an important political city in Israel. But for now, it's inhabited by Canaanites, idol worshippers, people that don't know God. We were actually here before in Genesis 12, and it was also the first city that grandfather Abram as he crossed into Canaan for the first time. It was the first place he came to, and he built an altar there and worshiped God. So likewise, Jacob does the same, but he actually buys land from the Canaanites, follows in the footsteps of Abraham. He builds an altar to worship God, and he calls it el Elohim Israel, which means God, the God of Israel. They're just Hebrew words, God, the God of Israel. Now, when we first hear that, we think of the nation of Israel, which will be true, but the nation doesn't exist yet. It does like embryonically, but they don't exist as a nation proper. Yet Israel at this point, is Jacob, a man. So this is an important statement that he makes here. Yes, God will be the God of the nation of Israel, but he's making a declaration that God is his God. God the God of me. You are my God. I am yours. I'm not here to follow my own plans. You are my God. I will go where you call me. I don't live under the rule of others. I live under the rule of God. I don't worship other things. God is the one I worship, and he buys the land and builds the altar there as a statement of faith. Are expressing. God possesses this land, and he will give it to the descendants, to my descendants, the descendants of Jacob, as he has promised. And God will be their God in that land. I fully trust that God owns and will provide this land for me and for my descendants after me. So at this point of the story, I was a little bit confused. I'm going to be honest. Maybe you are too thinking, Where is Jacob at? Like, what's going on with him? Spiritually in chapter 32 he seems to be doing a little better with God. But then we get into chapter 33 and he's got this whole thing where he prefers some of his wives and his children, and he kind of orders them up, and it's like, what was he doing? Like? What like would a husband do that? I don't know. And then, well, none of us have multiple wives and children.
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Then, so he protects some more than others. And then we move along through the story. And then it seems like he does a good thing in putting himself in front of them all and kind of sacrificing himself potentially. Then it seems like he deceives Esau. He's like, Yeah, we'll follow you down to see her. Like, that's the way I was reading it. We'll follow you down there. And then, like, you kind of think, well, he never intended to do it. He's just being the deceiver again. Like, what's going on with Jacob? Like, is he following God, or is he not following God?
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Maybe you're familiar with the term. Someone told me before I should say this from first hour armchair quarterback, I changed it to armchair sports fan, because then it applies to all of us, but it's like the armchair quarterback. You know that? You know that phrase. So it's like, I want my team is Liverpool in the Premier League. So I watched them. They've been my team since I was a kid. And last year they won the league, and they won the league comfortably. This year they are not going to win the league comfortably, they are going to be uncomfortable all season. So what happens is, as a fan, is sometimes people will come up to me and say, What do you think is going wrong? It's like, you know what? I know exactly what's going wrong. If they would just put me in control for the games, then I could sort this whole thing out, and we would be back to the top of the league, and we would have everything figured out. Like, that's the armchair sports fan. It's like, they bought too many players. They made too many changes at the same time. They changed formation. Why did they change form? Oh, they left this guy in too long. They should have taken them out. Why did they put that guy in? And we've got all of these, all of these ideas, and you're kind of like, you sit back and think sometimes I did this this week, because I think Claire and I were talking about it, and I was like, You know what? What do I know? Like, I watch maybe an hour every now and again of a game, and all of a sudden, think, like, I have all of this expertise over the manager who, like lives, breathes with these players every day of the whole year, like literally, why? Why do I think I know better than him? I don't know but, but we do. So I was a little confused, but I think that helps explain what's going on in this passage. I think sometimes we can temp. We can be tempted to be that way when we read passages of the Bible and we're like, what's Jacob doing? Why is he doing that? Or what's what? Like now, now he's doing this, and that seems okay, but now he's doing that, and like, why? Like, he should have just done this, and then everything would have been okay, and everything would have turned out good. And we've got this, like, perfect kind of hindsight projection on what's happening in scripture of like, Oh, if everything had just gone the way that I think it should have gone, then this, it would have worked out perfectly sometimes. So I think what we see in this chapter, and how we should think about it, is this, just like our sports teams, or whatever it is you follow, shock, they're imperfect. They're going to do things wrong. Yes, they practice every hour of the waking day for years, but they're still going to do things wrong. You know what? When we see Jacob, sometimes he does things right, sometimes he does things wrong. He is the everyday believer. He is the everyday follower. God of God, He's no different than you and I. He has imperfect faith. That's how we should understand this chapter. Sometimes his actions are heroic, other times they're questionable, even shameful. Sometimes he's up and sometimes he's down, and that's true for us too, and for that reason, we should realize that we are always dependent upon God. That should lead us to that understanding, to that recognition, I depend upon him always, and God is always dependable. He's always up and he's never down. He's never questionable. He always remains faithful to His children, and he always carries out his purposes. So what a journey God has taken Jacob on right since he left his mother and father after the deception, what a journey he has been on with God to now on his return to the land that God has promised to give his family be able to declare that he exists for God, God, the God of me, the nation as well. That was with Moses, as Moses communicated these ancient stories to them, would have needed to make this their belief and their declaration as well. This god that was the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob needs to be the God of present day Israel. And there's no more important recognition for you and I to make today as well. You exist for more than obtaining the things of this world. You exist for more than accomplishing success in this world. You exist for more than making a name for yourself or being remembered. You exist for more than autonomy or being able to have whatever makes you happy. You exist for more. You exist for God. With Jacob, are you able to say God, the God of blank. God, the God of Ian God, the God of Roy God, the God of Campbell. John, are you able to fill in that blank with your name? It's been a long journey. It, maybe you feel like you've been on a long journey. Guess what? God's not done with Jacob yet, and as long as there is still breath in our lungs, God is not done with us either. He's still working on us. So again, let's take a step back amidst the trees of Jacob's life. Let's take a step back and look at the forest, because there's a bigger storyline unfolding here. God has brought Jacob to the promised land, the land that Israel will one day possess forever. And for this reason, God is worthy of worship. This is why Jacob makes the altar, and this is why Jacob worships Him, because of his work in his life, and because of his unfolding, great plan and storyline. We must worship God for what He has done, and we must worship Him with expectation for what he will do. He will certainly do it. He will accomplish all that he has said he will accomplish. So we began with the story of Joseph Scriven. What a friend we have in Jesus, how he expressed his trust in God through trials. In a few moments, we'll we'll finish the service with a song, and it's a song of worship for the unmerited favor that God has shown his people. It's a song worshiping Him because of the grace He has shown us. So as Dan said last week, Genesis 32 strive with God first, and this week next, recognize God's grace in your life and let it affect how you live with others and how you worship him. Let's pray together, Father, we are so thankful for the truth of your word and how it shapes our lives. We. Thankful that you have revealed Your grace toward us. We're thankful for the grace that we experience in Jesus Christ, in being forgiven of our sin and the ongoing, the ongoing grace that we experience as you are there to help us through every situation, trial or triumph that we face in this life. So we pray that You would help us to strive with you in prayer through everything, help us to continually recognize your grace in our lives and that that would affect how we live with others and how we worship you in Christ's name.
Ian is the Youth Pastor of Faith Bible Church. He and his wife, Claire, have six children and previously spent a few years serving in a small church in England.
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As we continue reading through Genesis, we see God’s grace and faithfulness to keep HIs promises to Jacob and his family. We see people like Jacob and Judah learning to fear God and to obey Him through many sins and failures. We begin with the J...