Big idea: Winning the greatest contests of faith will first require the most humble prayers.
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let's turn our attention to Genesis, 32 if you are new with us, new to the Bible. This is the passage where Jacob gets a new name called Israel, and we still use the name today. Stand with me for the reading of God's Word. Turn to Genesis, 32 I'll read the whole chapter. It's a compelling story, including a wrestling match with the angel of the Lord. So it's a fascinating piece, and it's one of the high points of Jacob's life, one of the high points of his life. This chapter is very encouraging for us as we read, Jacob went on his way from Laban, and the angels of God met him. When Jacob saw them, he said, This is God's camp. So he called the name of that place mahanaim. And Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau, his brother in the land of Seir, the country of Edom, instructing them, thus you shall say to my Lord Esau, Thus says Your servant, Jacob, I have sojourned with Laban and stayed with him until now I have oxen and donkeys, flocks, male servants, female servants. I have sent to tell my Lord, in order that I may find favor in your sight, the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, We came to your brother, Esau, and he is coming to meet you. And there are 400 men with him. Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed. He divided the people who were with him and the flocks and the herds and camels into two camps, thinking, if Esau comes to the one camp and attacks it, then the camp that is left will escape. And Jacob said, O God of my father, Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, O Lord, who said to me, return to your country and to your kindred that I may do you good I am not worthy of the least of all the deeds of steadfast love and all the faithfulness that you have shown to your servant. For with only my staff, I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two camps. 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. So he stayed there that night, and from what he had with him, he took a present for his brother, Esau, 200 female goats, 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 himself, and said to his servants, pass on ahead of me and put a space between drove and drove. He instructed the first, when Esau, my brother, meets you and asks you, to whom do you belong, and where are you going, and Whose 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 the following 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 I may appease him with the present that goes ahead of me, and afterward I shall see his face, perhaps he will accept me. So the present passed on ahead of him, and he himself stayed that night in the camp. The same night, he arose and took his two wives, his two female servants and his 11 children, and crossed the Ford of the Jabbok. He took them and sent them across the stream and everyone else that he had, and Jacob was left alone, 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 his chips, and Jacob's hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. Then he said, let me go, for the day has broken. But Jacob said, I will not let you go unless you bless me. And he said to him, What is your name? And he said, Jacob. Then he said, Your Name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men and have prevailed. Then Jacob asked him, Please tell me your name. But he said, Why is it that you ask my name? And there he blessed him. 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. The sun rose upon him as he passed. Penuel Lynn. Limping because of his hip. Therefore to this day, the people of Israel do not eat the sinew of the thigh that is on the hip socket because he touched the socket of Jacob's hip on the sinew of the thigh. This is the word of the Lord our God and Father. We thank you for the work that you're doing. Jacob is facing a great trial in going to Esau. It's a great contest of faith, and there is one other that he must deal with in you. We are all very much like this, where we think the circumstance that we face, the challenging one, is the thing, but really it is our hearts before you, and we would pray that You would help us understand this passage. Use your spirit to illuminate. Help me. Give me your spirit's understanding. Give all the listeners ears understanding. Pray that you would be at work Lord Jesus, thank You that You have done something far superior to Jacob by giving your own life and rising and your reign right now in heaven goes out through the proclamation of the gospel, and may the Gospel preached in the middle of this sermon and through our lives this coming week, as we would gather with families over Thanksgiving holidays, that it would bear fruit, that you would bring people to yourself and help us Father. My my thoughts have turned much this week to the training of our men. We have aspiring men. We have aspiring women they met yesterday, or learning how to study the Word to teach women. And we have the master seminary and men finishing their finals, strengthen them and help them. Already, there are requests to us about pastors ready to go to fill pulpits, and so I pray that You would help the men make steady progress in that whether it's church planters or not, I pray for education across our city. I pray that you would do a work in our public schools, saving administrators, saving the state superintendent of public education, saving many who would bring truth back into the classroom, into education in an ongoing way. I pray that you would do a work in the private education. I pray for so many of our Christian schools, our moms and dads who home school, give them wisdom to hold fast to your all sufficient word. Raise up another generation of men and women who will bear the torch, who will carry the flame of the gospel? Pray for Whitworth, pray for Great Northern pray for moody aviation, all of them which are to equip people for following Christ in the ministry. Help them be faithful to the all sufficient word in the Gospel, so that they could be well equipped to make an impact in this world. We ask all of this in Christ's name. Amen. You may be seated. Wrestling practice began for high school students. Monday, yes, the sweat, the training and singlets. Singlets have all returned. Imagine yesterday, because CB and U high and GSL schools had a practice yesterday. Imagine the end of practice, the three time medalist senior was called out by the brand new head coach who was a 2024 Olympic champion. He said, we're gonna have a Weber have a wrestling match to finish the day. Everybody's gonna watch. You imagine that like the anticipation of that scene, and the match goes three rounds and the senior doesn't get pinned, you'd be like, I bet that guy feels ready to go on to a season. The coach wanted to make sure his best wrestler was prepared for the season ahead. It's a little picture of what happens with Jacob in chapter 32 we see prayer and a wrestling match that prepares Jacob to enter the promised land, but it's not a high school wrestling match. These aren't freshmen in the middle of the night saying, Hey, do you want to wrestle? It's not what's happening here. Something else has Jacob has been in God's gym for 20 years, and he needs one more practice contest with God before he can enter the promised land. The result is so significant that Jacob gets a new name Israel. We still use it today. It becomes a name that becomes the head of the nation that he founded, winning the greatest common. Contest of Jacob's faith did not depend on his craftiness or his scheming, but on his humble dependence on God.
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We see Jacob here growing, maturing, and as mature as we will see Him until the very end. It's a high point for Jacob's life. How do you and I deal with the great contests or challenges to our faith? Jacob, who is going to be named Israel, who is going to head the nation, the Israelites are going to look at Jacob and they're going to recognize what Jacob needed as an individual, they need as a nation. We should look back from the church and say what Jacob needed is what we need in the church, what we need as heads of families, what we need in various places in our work. We We need as we deal in our contests of faith, great grace. Big idea is something like this, winning the greatest contests of faith will first require the most humble prayers. We get the example of a great prayer, the greatest of Genesis, and we get the wrestling match with God. Both end up being examples to us in prayer. The passage here gives us a road map for the great contest of faith. I don't know what your contest is. Clearly, Jacob needs to get into the promised land, and he has a reconciliation issue with Esau. Your great contest might be something different. It might be in your relationship with your spouse. It might be in a family rift. It might be in what the world calls an addiction. You might call a we might call a dominating or binding sin pattern. And you have something that is monstrously difficult. The passage gives us this road map. These contests are those that begin with a direct command of God. This isn't a this isn't just Jacob had a thought. He had his own personal vision. He was told to return. There is a monstrously difficult obstacle. It's going to be Esau and 400 warriors. And then there is the character of God and His promises. It's in them. It's in them, the character of God and His promises that you find, that you find help and hope. Interestingly, the greatest challenge in Jacob's life is not Esau. It's his heart before God. It's your soul before God. I think people, families, fathers, nations, churches seem all to suffer from this same dilemma. There is an obvious lack of humble, God centered prayer. I mean, who needs prayer? When you have doctors? Who needs prayer? When you can go to Costco and stand in front of stacks my eye level or higher, of medicines, vitamins, health products. I mean, all the gummies, just the gummies alone, at least the medicine is tasty. Now, who needs prayer when you have that? Who needs prayer when there's a therapist to make you feel about better about every problem. Who needs wisdom from God when there's AI Tiktok videos or how to the How to everything on YouTube, and if we're willing to admit it, especially at a Bible Church, who needs prayer when we have biblical principles and 10,000 Christian experts on theology and every area of practical life, I've got the experts. What do I need prayer for? I've got all the how tos. What do I need to draw near to God for? And yet God, in His mercy, will never let the person, never let the family, never let the church go very far without humbling them to return them to prayer. The issues are almost always connected to interpersonal, to political, to international conflict. Jacob was told to return to the promised land, and now he's got to deal with Esau. So what's your contest? What's your contest? Are you in the middle of a major of major family strife, trying to reconcile? I mean this, this passage will display what must happen at the deepest level. Enough to get reconciliation when you've been the offender. But it is more, more importantly, most importantly, it sets the framework for God's people to face the next contest on your journey toward your heavenly home, Jacob is on his way to the Promised Land. Promised Land doesn't end up being his final promised land. He, like Abraham, is looking for a lasting city. We, like them, are still looking for our final Promised Land, and we are going to have contests of faith all the way through. So there's a marvelous picture of the kind of humble response before the Almighty and gracious God that we have as we face them, we'll have three parts. We'll need to trust God's protection. We're going to need to seek His grace in prayer, and we're going to have to deal with our old identity and take hold of our new identity. We're going to need to admit that our first and greatest struggle is with God and our greatest need is his grace. So let's take this part. It's a fabulous story. One of the high points, if we're brand new to the Bible, you've at least heard there's a country called Israel. This is where it gets its name. There'd be more to dive into if you continue to join us. Number one, trust God's protection for humble reconciliation. That's the issue at hand for Jacob, he's going to go to the Promised Land. He's got to deal with his brother, Esau, who he left 20 years before, fled 20 years before because of what he did to him. He he cheated him out of his blessing, he connived his way into the birthright. And if you remember the story, Esau would lay back against a tent pole in the afternoon of the day and think, when my dad dies, this is how I'm going to kill my brother. Maybe I'll kill him this other way, he was comforting himself with the thoughts about how to kill his brother. It's been 20 years, Jacob's on his way back. He has come through modern day Syria, through the hill country that is the northern part of the Jordan, and he is going to need to cross the Jordan River and go into his land. And now he's got to deal with the realities of Esau. Verse one, Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him. And when Jacob saw them, he said, This is God's camp. So he called that the name of that place, mahanaim. The angels of God met him. The fact that he calls it God's camp means that it was an encampment of angels, a host of angels, and we use the word something like Lord of hosts, but we don't really know what host means. It's a military term for an army host. They are encamped and they come to meet Jacob. Jacob left the country after seeing a vision of angels coming up and down out of heaven for his aid. God had not forgotten his promises. Was still working on behalf of the people that he's saving. Now, Jacob is back, and an army meets him, not to challenge him, but to comfort him. God is using this as an encouragement. He calls the place mahanaim two camps. Jacob is one camp. The angels are another camp. Certainly, he feels very secure. The angels are meeting him, at least he does for a few minutes. You remember the angels? We don't see them. They're invisible servants. Rarely in the Bible, did anybody see them, but they did because the Bible is a big book, and there's lots of recordings. Here is one set of those. Normally they remain invisible ministers. And in Hebrews 114 it describes what God's angels, God's messengers do. It says, are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation, which is what Jacob is going to do, inherit salvation first in the Promised Land. Look what Jacob was able to do, and it's significant. He's greeted by angels, which has to give him a great comfort. God is on our side, and I got to see a manifestation of His protection. And then he does this. He sent messengers before him to Esau, his brother in the land of Seir, the country of Edom. Now, Seir is not on the way. I should have made a nice graphic. If you have a Bible, a study Bible, with a map Israel, if we say, this is the Mediterranean, and there's the Jordan River that runs down through the middle Sea of Galilee, the Dead Sea, and on this side is Jordan, way down on the other side of the Dead Sea, to the east is Edom. It's not on the way. Seir, one of the key cities, is not on the way. Why is this happening? Where Jacob is going to go is where his father Isaac is still alive, near Hebron at Mamre. What is he doing?
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Jacob doesn't need reconciliation to get home. He wants reconciliation because it is now time to right a set of wrongs. Interestingly, he follows the same steps that Jesus lays out in Matthew 523, through 25 and giving an offering. Matthew 523 says, So, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there, remember that your brother has something against you. Leave your gift there before the altar and go First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. He sends a message to Esau. He wants to reconcile with Esau. Verse four, he tells his servants, thus you shall say to my Lord, Esau, Thus says Your servant, Jacob. Notice, throughout this whole situation, this whole dialog, as he is giving orders, he puts Esau as his superior. He is the older brother. He should have deserved that respect. He puts himself as the servant. That is not how Jacob has lived his whole life. He has lived his whole life as the man who is tricking and conniving and scheming and plotting and lying to get some for himself. We'll see it every time we read a verse Your servant, Jacob. For you, Lord Esau.
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He humbles himself before Esau, and what's interesting is after he sees the angels and the angel army, he humbles himself, you wouldn't think he'd need to humble himself. He's got an angel army. He's got back up, heavenly back up. But it is in the security of God's grace, God's redemption and God's protection that he can step forward and initiate reconciliation. It is actually the grace of God, the protection of God, the redemption of God, that allows any child of God to step forward and initiate redemption. It is the humility that you can have because you're free from condemnation.
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He's
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not asking for anything other than favor, Grace, an initiation of a relationship. He instructs him thus. So you say, I have sojourned with Laban and stayed until now. I have oxen, donkeys, flocks, male servants, female servants. I have sent to tell my Lord, in order that I may find favor in your sight. I'm not asking you for anything. I'm not I'm not trying to cheat you out of anything. I am amply supplied. God has been gracious to me, and with the confidence of God's grace, He initiated reconciliation. I it when you have done wrong, but still stand in the grace of God. You can humble yourself to make reconciliation when you have done wrong, but stand in the grace of God, you can humble yourself for reconciliation. You don't need any other protection. You don't need any other standing. If you believe in the grace of God, you can strive for peace with others and seek to make restitution. You can humble yourself. This is what he does, he sees the angels and he initiates reconciliation. Second, seek God's grace. First, trust God's grace to pursue humble reconciliation. Second, seek God's grace through humble prayer. The great contests of faith are those where God must act in glory and grace, something so significant is here you can't handle it. That's how all the great contests are and and we must seek grace through humble prayer. And here is a great answer, or a great example of it, the messengers come back and they say, we went. We saw Esau. He is coming with 400 men, a militia. The commentators would say that that number for 400 was a pretty common number for a militia or a small army. They're coming to meet Jacob. Now, remember, 20 years earlier, Esau was plotting his death, musing about it, daydreaming, and it says Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed. I mean, he doesn't know if these are Rohirrim or if these are Uruk like are these orcs, or are these good guys? I don't know who's coming, and that's why he has to turn to prayer. I mean, he thinks on his feet. He divides up the camp, and he says, if I separate them. If Esau comes to one camp and attacks it, then the camp that is left will escape. Maybe that will help. But he has very little confidence in that, and he rushes to God in prayer, and it is a model of prayer, like the standards. He calls on God by God's character and name. We call that an invocation. He gives a confession of his sin and unworthiness. He asks, we call that a petition. He has a specific request, and it's worth unpacking. It's worth using, as you think about your life with God in various contests, trials, difficulties that you face, verse nine, Jacob said, O God of my father, Abraham and God of my father, Isaac, the invocation calling on God, O Lord Yahweh, who said to me, return to your country, to your Kindred, that I may do you good. He's linking the faith of Abraham, the faith of Isaac, to his own faith. They were personal to God. God was personal to them. They had a personal covenant relationship. I am standing in the same line with the same personal commitment, understanding your same personal promise to me, the creator, sustainer of heaven and earth and the plan of redemption, He calls on him. He uses for the first time, Yahweh O Lord, who said to me eternal living covenant keeping God so he's acknowledging I'm coming in line with the covenants that have been made. You told me return to your country and to your kindred that I may do you good. Remember the great contests of faith always begin with a direct command of God, there's usually a monstrously difficult obstacle, and it provokes the necessity of trusting the character of God and His promises. It's just what happens here. He's relying on covenant promises. And as I look at this, let me remind you why we study ancient texts of Scripture in modern times. I mean, come on, aren't we a long way removed? We're modern people. Here's the reason, the same God who was is the same God who did, does? Ancient Wisdom from an ancient god who has ancient promises that he is keeping perfectly. The basis of his request would be on the grace promises and good already done, already promised. See, knowing who you're talking to when you pray, remembering what he promised when you pray, give you confidence in asking him to do what he said he would do. He said he would do certain things. So he looks like Jacob says, I'm in trouble. Here are your promises. Here are your commands. I'm asking you to do your work. Launches us to the petition. The request, please deliver me from the hand of my brother. 400 men are about to come. I fear Him that He may come and attack me, the mothers with the children. I am afraid he will kill us all. He's very plain with God about what he is concerned about. It would help us to be very plain with God with what we're concerned about. You said, I will surely do you good and make your offspring as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered from multitude. Jacob was told that he would have descendants as much as the dust of the earth, apparently also as the sand of the sea, dust of the earth, sand of the sea. Sky, stars in the sky which cannot. Be numbered. All right, God, I know who you are. I know what you've said. 400 people are about to come, and it looks like they could kill us all. I am counting on you fulfilling your promise to protect my life, my wives and my children. I Jacob's request was not based on his worthiness. NOTICE This in his confession, I am not worthy of the least of all, the deeds of the steadfast love and faithfulness that you have shown to your servant, not worthy of any of it. For only my staff. I crossed this Jordan now have become two camps. I'm too little. I'm not worthy of the smallest blessing in all this process. And every blessing is an example of your steadfast love and faithfulness, and those are always paired with the covenants. When God made a covenant with Abraham, every time he moves to act on behalf of his people, it is said to be done with steadfast love. He is committed to a loving relationship. And all the blessings that Jacob has experienced, all the preservation that he's experienced, has been an example of God's love to him. Faithfulness has to do with God's resolve to make good on the promises he's going to be truthful, faithful. He promised, and he delivers the smallest of the deeds. I'm not worthy of any of them. Everything I have is because you gave it to me. It's a good opportunity. Thanksgiving meal this week, the drive to wherever Thanksgiving is, two rounds of Thanksgiving, all the examples of how God provides Providence is the big idea, where God orchestrates all things by His grace to achieve his ends, including the lasagna that you're going to have at Thanksgiving because you hate turkey. God gives all the things that gets our family together, that allows us to enjoy a variety of things, all the practical things. Round One, around the table, acts of God's providence and Grace round to all the acts of redemption, how God, through Christ, has redeemed. He recognizes He is not worthy of any of the grace of God. He says, For with only my staff, I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two camps. The two camps is repeated. You see it again,
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two camps, all by God's grace. What he does then, after acknowledging of this, after the petition, is he makes he seeks to make good on the wrong that he's done. It says that he puts together a present. There's five different droves of animals in large numbers, and when you put them all together, it is a gift worthy of a king. And remember what Jacob had done to Esau. He connived his way out of the birthright that's on Esau. And Jacob should have just given his brother a meal, but he's trying to take the promises of God and by trickery and deceit keep them for himself, he steals the birthright by impersonating Esau. He should have had his father's blessing, which would have meant an abundance for the survival of his family and his children and the building of a nation, and Jacob puts together a present fitting for the losses Esau would have suffered. It's a great principle of restitution if you have wronged someone, because you stand in grace, forgiven by God and restored to God, you freely offer what is necessary for restitution. If it was financial, it's financial. If it was emotional and spiritual, it is that, if it's safety and security, if it was violence, and you offer something in restitution that is commensurate with what's taken and he does this here. It's a great example. His confidence in the grace of God to provide, even for someone who has sinned and now is trying to make it right, shows up. Remember, God will provide when you seek to make. It right. Seek to make it right. He's given all these directions. They repeat the Lord servant over and over down to verse 2021. Says, This is what we're going to do. Here's how you're going to say it. I am coming to follow up tell Esau this, and he says, I may 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. Jacob had humbled himself before God. He had made a very humble plea. The result of the prayer was that Jacob was willing to make this restitution, trusting God's protection, seeking God's grace, through humble prayer, led him to seeking restitution with his brother and accomplishing Peace. The great contests of faith may involve different things than this, but the willingness to make right what you have done wrong should be a characteristic of those who trust in the grace of God through Jesus Christ Ian it leads us to our third trust God's protection, seeks God's grace through humble prayer. Remember, humble prayer isn't so much your posture or your vocal inflection, although those can be demonstrations of it. It is a heart that recognizes your unworthiness of anything from God that is humble prayer. It is Reliance solely on God's promises, not on your pride and ability, trust God's protection, seek God's grace through humble prayer. Three, admit your first you could say greatest but admit your first struggle and greatest need. Your greatest struggle and greatest need might be the same, but I want to say it first, because Jacob had one really important thing to learn before he could cross into the Promised Land, even before he could deal with his brother, and you and I, we often think that the thing that puts us in danger or the thing that causes us fear is the greatest struggle, the thing the circumstance the other person. You think that's the greatest issue. That's not the greatest issue. Your greatest issue is your struggle with God. God wants you to be in a good place with him, so that you can be in a good place with other people in your life. There's a particular thing Jacob needs to learn, and we all do too. And it's the surprise of the passage. I mean, it's, it's a famous story. Somebody texted me this week knowing that I used to be a YouTube fan and bullet the blue sky has a line from Bono. Jacob wrestled the angel, and the angel was overcome. Well, kind of, kind of was overcome. It's a really famous story. I mean, for Bono to recognize it. So it's got to be it's got to be popular. So you probably have heard it. What in the world is going on with this? The same night as he had divided up the camps, he arose and took his two wives, his two female servants, and his 11 children, and crossed the fort of the Jabbok, which was a large stream. He took them across the stream, and everything else that he had had, it seems to be preparation for the coming day. Who knows how fast it's going to be before Esau and his 400 make it. He makes the moonlight crossing, and it appears that he hangs back alone for prayer. It says, Here Jacob, verse 24 Jacob was left alone, and it says a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day. Remember, freshmen boys might say in the middle of the night, I'll wrestle you, and they will wrestle. That's not what was happening. Jacob is alone, and a man comes and grapples with him. People don't just have random wrestling matches in the middle of the night in the ancient Near East. This is an attack. Jacob feels it's an attack. It seems like it's mortal combat. I mean, that's the language of this kind of wrestling. It's not, Hey, dude, Let's wrestle. This is a five, maybe even seven, hour scratch and claw fight. I did. Wrestle in junior high. Yeah, I know I was horrible. Shocking. Six minutes of wrestling is exhausting. It's exhausting. They do this for hours. But slowly, it appears that this is not a mere man. A couple things to say, Jacob's not a mama's boy anymore. He is a tough he is a tough hombre. He grapples. But it's not a mere man. When the man started to come into our idea this is an angel, or the angel of the Lord. This man is powerful enough to dislocate Jacob's hip. Says, 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. That's a dislocated hip having had a hip replacement in the last year. They say they dislocate my hip 13 times to get all the fittings right. Of course, it hurts a lot when you're done. It dislocated his hip. They're grappling, wrestling. I don't know what Jacob is holding one of the hands, like with a steel grip around the body, around the legs, but all the man has to do is touch the hip socket and he dislocates his hip, which would be excruciating. You would imagine the howl from Jacob,
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the angel. The man asks to let him go. Jacob said, I will not let you go until you bless me. And here we see it. Jacob moves from scheming and conniving to recognizing he has an absolute need for the grace of God. I will not let you go until you bless me what he needs to face Esau to lead his family to found a nation is going to be the blessing of God
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and so as a little assertion, John, one is going to say that no one has ever seen God, but Jesus Christ has made him known.
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This man is no mere man. It is Jesus before the Incarnation with Mary. Remember Jesus was there in the garden. God got down in the dirt and formed Adam and Eve out of his side. He was personally involved. It was Jesus who showed up with Abraham announcing destruction of Sodom and Abraham negotiated for sodoms rescue or protection. And here Jesus is wrestling in mortal combat with Jacob. He's got this great transformation that he needs Jacob to own. I will not let you go until you bless me or grasp me. I will not let you go till bless me. I don't know what exhausted grappling sounds like. And he said to him, What is your name? And he said, Jacob got to remember names. Got to remember names. What does Jacob mean? Deceiver, supplanter, liar, cheat. Jacob is my name. He is asking, Jacob, what's your identity? Jacob's saying, My identity is the deceiver, cheat. This is who I am. It's what I do. He's doing it right now. I won't let you go until you bless me. Then he said, Your Name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed. What does Jacob need to grapple with God for to embrace his new name, his new identity? He has a new name, a new identity, the one. One who strives with God and prevails strives with God and men, and we have seen it with his brother, Esau, not well with Laban, better with God crossing in to see Esau best King James might render it God's fighter. Sometimes that's the name, but it's the idea of the one who strives with God, wrestles with God, wrestles with men, is in great combat, and yet prevails. He becomes so desperate for the grace of God to do what God has called him to do, that he will not let go of God. And in that not letting go of God, he prevails, and he gets a new name. And this is a foreshadow of what happens to the believer who trusts in Christ. I'll get to that in a minute, there is a new creation, no longer cheater, deceiver, schemer, Israel and the nation needed to see this. The nation needed to see that if they strive with God, humbly seeking Him. He provides their protection, he provides their blessing, he provides their need. He provides the growth in holiness and godliness in the nation when they strive with God in fervent, humble prayer. God protects, transforms, advances.
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He won in that he would not relent until he got the grace he needed. This becomes a prototype. It's often the metaphor for a Christian's praying over difficult issues, wrestling with God, those difficult issues might be internal. Jacob was not yet walking in his new identity, and he needed to walk in his new identity. He needs to get his new name. This wrestling match is internal. His first problem, his first struggle with was with God. His second will be with Esau. Jacob asked for something in return, please tell me your name. But he says, Why is it that you ask my name? Jacob wanted to know the name of the man. He wanted fuller revelation. He's got questions and he wants answers, but there was no answer. God refused. God essentially says to Jacob, what you know of me already is sufficient for you. What I have revealed to you and the promises to Abraham and Isaac, what I have given to you in the scripture that you have is what you need. And don't we all want to know more about God? Don't we all want to know more of what God's doing? Don't we want to know the why questions and the how questions. And who are you to do this to me? Questions all of us have those, and God wants us to rest in what he's revealed to us already.
48:30
So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, saying, For I have seen God face to face, if we add the New Testament's teaching to it, he saw Jesus, and yet my life has been delivered unholy God or unholy man, sorry, unholy man dealing with Holy God should mean death, but he has been delivered. The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip, Jacob was left with a reminder of his weakness. So just step back, all the stories of the Bible are about key leaders as they follow the story line to Christ. All of those in the Old Testament lead to him. They foreshadow Jesus. After Jesus testing in the wilderness. He was ministered to by angels. He is constantly reliant on the father in prayer, and the great contest of Jesus' faith happens at the beginning of his prayer session with God, in which he goes to the disciples and says, Can't you pray with me just one hour? And he's looking for another way to get out of the cross. Gethsemane, this great agony of praying, he is pleading for another way. But each time he prays and God says, No, you must go, he submits himself to God. So he is a. Abandoned by his disciples. He is arrested, he's tried, He's crucified. And the fever pitch of the wrestling match between the greater Jacob, between Jesus and God, happens on the cross where it's not a hip put out of place, it's nails piercing hands and feet. It is suffocation, and even more grievous the wrath of God, the holy justice of God is poured out on Jesus in place of sinners, Jesus is buried, and the miraculous happens. The third day he rises from the dead. That is where your new name comes in. Who are you? You might come in here as addict, as filled with various mental maladies, anxiousness, fear, worry, depression. Who are you? What's your name? I think of it just before I was saved, if I was to have this wrestling match, and God would have said, What's your name? It'd be interesting to think what my identity was in just before I was saved. And it's interesting what we think our identity in, even after a bit after we're saved. If you're trying to be worthy of God by your various levels of obedience by doing all the good things, church kid, going to church all the time, hearing the gospel, being able to recite the gospel. But when, when you're asked how you enter heaven, you still say, Well, I'm a church kid. Why wouldn't I go there? Or you're the average American. I do a lot of really good things, and I'm worthy of all of God's love and care. I mean, God loves me. Of course, he loves me. What's not to love? I'm amazing. Those are all the kinds of things that are American worthiness. What are you relying on for your relationship with God? For the next phase of God's life for you, and for eternal life, it must be solely in the one who was not just wounded but killed on your behalf, so that you can find your sins forgiven. And I would plead with you, trust and repent. Trust Jesus Christ, repent. Stop relying on anything of yourselves once you're saved. This is a very common problem with Christians too. They get saved by grace, but they think they get their identity, or they get their progress to stand before others and stand before God by now earning it well, I was saved by grace, but now I have to finish it out under my own strength, my own power and my own achievement. And the angel would would wrestle with you and say, What's your name? If you have trusted in Christ, you're a new creature in Christ. You have a new identity in Christ, your name is no longer sinner. Although you sin, it is Saint. In reliance on Christ, you have a new relationship. I
53:44
if you are facing a contest of your faith, it is tempting when the issue is so strong that you would say, I did this and I did this and I did this, couldn't you at least come through by doing this? It is tempting to negotiate with God, but you don't need to. You have the scriptures, commands in a variety of places. You have the scriptures, promises all over. You don't need to rely on what you bring to the table. You need to rely on the grace of a faithful, righteous God at the same time, it doesn't feel like jump up and down victory. Jesus died, Jesus rose. All of Jesus' servants will carry something like a dislocated hip in their soul, some weakness, some inability. You might be making great progress in killing an area of sin. And you kind of think, I'm getting good at this. And you start counseling other people. You start. Demanding that they do what you do, and then you start getting proud about what you do that they're not doing. And then you are brought low by falling prey to the same sin there is still a dislocated hip in the soul. Sometimes it's a health challenge, sometimes it's a circumstantial challenge, sometimes it's a financial challenge. And there, what God does is bring you back to asking you the question, what's your name? If you're in Christ, you're a child of God, you have a new name, you're a saint. You're a new creation. What will it feel like? John Calvin writes it this way about Jacob's hip. By this sign, it is made manifest to all the faithful that they can come forth conquerors in their temptations, contests only by being injured and wounded in the conflict. For we know that the strength of God is made perfect in our weakness, in order that our exaltation might be joined with humility. That's what the Apostle Paul says. Therefore, I am content in my weaknesses. For in my weaknesses, I am strong. It is clearly an object lesson for Israel as the people of God and for the church as the people of God. God throws a mighty test into the believer's life. Jacob's case, it was Esau a fearful encounter, but he relies on God's grace. He wrestles with God. He is now a new man. What's the greatest conflict you want resolved? How are you wrestling in prayer? About that? How are you going to prayer about that? We have a trust in Christ that can allow us be free to make right anything we do wrong with another person, we can seek His grace through humble prayer. You deserve nothing but because of God's love, faithfulness and promises. You can ask for anything. You can admit your need of grace by persistent, passionate, earnest prayer, trusting in who you are, if you are now in Christ, Father, thank you for this wonderful story. It is so compelling to see, to see Jacob at one of his best moments, we pray that You would help us be a people who recognize who you are, that we would be people who were are compelled before The crisis erupts, to pray. We ask this in Christ. In Christ's name.
Dr. Dan Jarms is lead pastor at Faith Bible Church in Spokane Washington, as well as associate dean at The Master's Seminary in Spokane. He has been married for over 30 years to Linda, and has three adult children. He earned his B.A. in English at the Master’s College, B.Ed. at Eastern Washington University, M.Div and D.Min in Expository Preaching at The Master’s Seminary. His other interests include NCAA basketball, woodworking, and art.
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Main idea: God’s grace should increasingly prompt you to live better with others, and worship Him. Let God’s Grace Affect Your Relationships with Others (1-11)Let God’s Grace Affect Your Relationship with Him (12-20)...
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...