Israel Wrestles with God & Men

What are you afraid of? What brings terror and fright to you? What do you think of and really you are afraid of? What brings that emotion? How do you respond to fear? As we all have many fears, we all have things that we are frightened of, and we all have some fear that debilitates us and incapacitates us. What leaves us dead in your tracks and dead in our tracks? Is it a fear of failure? Of being found out? Of losing something? Maybe it's losing your money, your wife or your children. What kind of fear just stops us and leaves us incapacitated? We all have many fears and we all need to be able to find courage in the midst of these fears. We all need to find the way to face them, to not die in front of them. And the key question is, how do we find courage in the face of fear? Well, this morning, we're going to look and we're going to see that we must find our courage in God. We must find courage in the God who delivers us from the things we are fearful of. We must find courage in God who delivers us from our greatest enemies, sin and death. Our message this morning is from Genesis 32 and 33. You can go ahead and turn there. And the message is simple. God is faithful in his love to deliver his children. God is faithful in his love to deliver his children. And if they think about that concept of deliverance, if they think about God's action in delivering us, we have to realize there's two parts to deliverance. There's delivering from something and delivering to. God delivers us out of fear and into hope. He delivers us from death and to life. He delivers us from our enemy. He delivers us from sin and death. And He delivers us to life. And that life is going to be seen this morning as the opportunity to see God face to face. He delivers us from being cast off from God as a child of wrath. and delivering us to the opportunity to worship God face to face. This morning, we're going to be looking at Jacob still as we walk through the book of Genesis. Here we have Jacob. He's crossing the river Jebok over to his yesterday. He's having to face his past. He's been with Laban for 20 years. He's had the protection of Laban, but he's also been a servant and a slave to Laban for 20 years. He's been out of the promised land. And now, after 20 years of faithful service, He has to come back home. God has called him back home. And he's coming over with his wives and his children and his servants with more than he ever left with. And he has to come back and he has to face that brother that's been waiting for him. Remember, the original antagonist in Jacob's story is Esau. The original villain is Esau. Jacob has stolen his birthright twice, and we last saw Esau with murder on his tongue, with murder in his heart. He was angry and wanted to kill Jacob. And that's why Jacob fled. And now, after having the other antagonist, Laban, punish him for so long, we come back to the original antagonist. We come back to that original villain. And Esau is not far from Jacob as he crosses back into the Promised Land. As we look at this, we saw how this exile from Laban was somewhat like a little mini-Exodus that Moses experienced. And we actually see it even more so now. As he crosses that river, he's coming back into the Promised Land. Jacob is, in many ways, a model and a representation of Israel as a nation. Jacob, who will be renamed Israel, is a model of what it means to be an Israelite in exile. He crosses the river and he immediately faces numerous enemies. But God is with him. Jacob is coming into real danger, but what we'll learn this morning, what we'll see this morning, is that his danger is inside of him. His real danger is his own sin, not Esau. As we look to the text, I just want to point out some of the key words for this text are camp, gift, and face. These are words that are repeated throughout the story, so as you hear those words, let your antenna go up. Camp, gift, and face. We're going to look at really three episodes this morning, and they're all united. We're first going to see Jacob come in fearing Esau. Then we're going to see Jacob be conquered by God. And then we're going to see Jacob face Esau. They're all united. They all use this concept of seeing one's face. In the first episode, Jacob's afraid of seeing Esau's face. In the second episode, Jacob says, I have seen God face to face. And in the third episode, really the most interesting declaration, I have seen the face of God in Esau. You see how that motif actually runs through all these episodes, uniting them together. It's also there's a bookend. There's a fear of Esau. There's the facing of Esau. And in the middle of this very important event, the turning point of this story, God wrestling Jacob. Let's turn to our story and we'll walk through four different points. First, God delivers with assurance and comfort. God delivers us with assurance and comfort. Our message is God is faithful to deliver his children. The first thing we'll see in verses 1 through 8 is God delivers with assurance and comfort. 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. 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 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. And the messengers returned to Jacob saying, We came to your brother Esau, and he is coming to meet you, and there are four hundred 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 the camels into two camps, thinking, if Esau comes to the one camp and attacks it, then the camp that is left will escape. Now, the first thing that really should stand out in the story is the way it starts. Jacob was on his way, and the angels of God met him. The angels had built a camp there with him. And this reminds us of Psalm 34, 7, the angels of the Lord in camps around those who fear him. and he delivers them. These angels were supposed to be there. They were placed there to give Jacob a clear comfort, a clear assurance that God was going to protect him, just like he did with Laban, and care for him. The angels are there to be an assurance. There's another way to see the two camps. At one point, the two camps here is there's Jacob's camp and God's camp, and God's camp is going to protect Jacob's camp. That's the faithfulness of Jacob. That's what God wants the two camps to be. But we're also going to see that there's a turn in the story. There's a twist because Jacob then divides his household into two camps out of fear. You see, there's supposed to be two camps in the sense there's God's camp and Jacob's camp. And that's the camp that brings faithfulness and God's deliverance. But Jacob responds with fear and he divides his own camps. Jacob initiates interaction with Esau. He wants to correspond with him, and he sends out the most interesting message. He says, go tell my Lord Esau that his servant Jacob. Now, this really stands out because this isn't Jacob in his normal routine. This is somewhat stunning. There's a change in disposition here for Jacob. He's always wanted to one up his big brother. He's the ankle grabber. He's the one who's trying with deception to overthrow him over and over again. Also, we see that this is contrary to the way God has ordered it. In Genesis 25, 23, God said the older will serve the younger. God has said that Esau will be the servant and Jacob will be the Lord. But here we see Jacob not taking God's Oracle, not obeying God's way, but out of fear, saying to Jacob, You are my Lord and I am your servant. He is afraid. Remember, Jacob is the hunter, the industrious one. He's the one who's able to kill Jacob. And he is afraid. We see him trying to put gifts out in front of himself. Now, it's interesting that if we look also at the same chapter, verses 13 to 21, we'll look later. He's always putting gifts ahead of himself. This is supposed to be somewhat ironic because Jacob has never been behind anything. He's always striven to be first. He's always strived to be ahead. But here he's intentionally putting himself behind something. There's a bit of irony there. There's a change in stature. The report that he gets is not promising. Esau is coming with 400 men. Now, these 400 men are probably the same 400 men that Esau conquered Edom with. Esau has built up a kingdom. God has blessed him with strength, with courage, and with other great men of war. And he has his own kingdom now. It's Edom. And now these men are coming to meet Jacob, who was already afraid. Now, let's put this in perspective. Jacob just pulled off Laban. Laban came with great men of war and Jacob wasn't afraid of him. Jacob knew that Laban couldn't hurt him because God told Laban, you're not going to hurt him. Jacob knew God's blessing was with him. God said, I will be with you. And so he wasn't afraid of Laban. He stood up to Laban. He told Laban exactly what he felt and how he felt because he knew God was going to protect him. But why is Jacob here afraid of Esau? Why doesn't Jacob have the same faith in God here that he had with Laban? Well, I think it's this. I think he has a hard time finding courage with his guilty conscience. I think Jacob has a hard time finding the same kind of courage because with Esau, he has a guilty conscience. See, with Laban, he served him for seven years for one wife, and seven years for another, and then six years while he was waiting around for a squawks. He served faithfully. He had done Laban no wrong. But Esau, he's got a pass. With Esau, he's tricked him twice. He was once going to starve him to death for his blessing, and then he lied to his father to steal his blessing up from underneath him. I believe Esau is responding here differently because he has a guilty conscience. As Shakespeare said, our conscience does make cowards of us all. Our conscience does make cowards of us all. His guilt is what hinders him. His guilt is what paralyzes him in front of Esau. Fear is paralyzing. He should have had the camp of God there reminding him that God is with him. God is going to care for him. The angels are there with him. But I think it's that guilt within that burdens him. You see, just as Jacob is supposed to have that camp of God in mind as he's going to battle, as he's going to face his enemy, he's supposed to always be remembering God is with him. God is caring for him. God has given a clear manifestation. This is the camp of God with the angels. That should have given Jacob courage to face his enemy. Just as Jacob was supposed to be remembering that camp, we're supposed to be remembering the cross. You see, we have an enemy. We have an enemy, his name is Satan. He is always accusing us. He is always telling us about our real sin. You see, we all have guilty consciences. We all have real sin, and Satan likes to highlight and magnify and emphasize that sin that is really in us. And so he's telling a partial truth. If we're believers, Satan wants to attack us. And when he's attacking us, it feels like we're staring down a double-barreled shotgun with someone on the other end that hates us and wants to destroy us and wants to kill us. He's standing there, knowing our greatest sin, attacking our greatest sin, but it's only a partial truth. He's telling us we're guilty for that sin and we will be punished for that sin. See, that's only a part of truth because that sin is really there. But if we believe in Jesus Christ, that sin has been nailed to the cross. If we believe in Jesus Christ, we are no longer held accountable for that sin. See, those accusations are worthless. They're nothing. He can bark loud. He can roar as loud as he wants. But there's no truth behind those accusations. Really, what looks like the great enemy standing there with a shotgun, he's got a pop gun. It can only make noise. It has no meat behind it. There's no truth in it. Because our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, our Champion, has conquered our sin. Our Champion, the Risen One, has put away our debts. He has put away our guilt. But we have to do is conquer those lies, those false words with true words, true words about the cross, true words about Jesus Christ. We have to remind ourselves and be reminded as brothers and sisters together about who Christ is and what he has done. If you're here and you are overwhelmed with guilt, if you're here, you're overwhelmed with the guilt of sin. Do you believe in Jesus Christ? If you're overwhelmed with guilt, go to the cross. Talk to me or one of the men who took up the offering or asked you about the cross. Talk to us about the gospel because that is where you will feel your guilt relieved. It is only in Christ that our guilt is removed. If you believe in Jesus, but you still feel guilt, my challenge is, what have you put between you and the cross? What have you put to remove yourself farther from the cross so that you're not remembering it? When have you put between you and the cross of Christ that will give you the assurance you need to muffle the great proclamation of Christ's word that he preached on the cross? For God has given us great assurance. God has given us assurance to face our enemy, the accuser, Satan. It's Jesus Christ. The second thing we want to look at this morning is that God delivers by blessing graciously and abundantly. God delivers us by blessing us graciously and abundantly. We're going to look at chapter 32, verses 9 through 21. And Jacob said, O God, 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 and steadfast love and all the faithfulness that you have shown to your servant. For with only my staff I have crossed this Jordan, and now I have become Toucans. 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 offsprings 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, and 200 female goats, and 20 male goats, 200 ewes, and 20 rams, 30 milking camels and their calves, 40 cows, 10 bulls, 20 female donkeys, and 10 male donkeys. These he handed over to his servants. Every drove by itself and said to his servants, pass on ahead of me. And put a space between drove and drove. He instructed the first, that Esau my brother meets you, when Esau my brother meets you and asks you, To whom do these belong? You are going, 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 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 a 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. Now the, I may appease him, and perhaps he will accept me, there's actually an idiom there that uses the Hebrew word for face. So you can see how that word is being used over and over again. We see Jacob's fear. He's going to divide the camps up. He's trying to protect half at least. He's trying to send presents ahead to appease him out of fear rather than trusting God. We see Jacob here really going back and forth. He has faith in God with his prayer. He's finally showing humility and repentance, but he's also still trying to make sure he's protected. He's a man of action. What we see here is really a man who labors between faith and fear. And this shouldn't surprise us. Too often we think that the life of a Christian, you are all headed down in sin. And then as soon as you become a Christian, you're supposed to be righteous. Everyone who knows the gospel and has lived it for any time, you know that's not it. There's not a trajectory where you're going straight down. When Christ saved you, you go straight up in sanctification. No, we still have a sin nature. We still have our mortal fears. Here we see Jacob as a man who wavers between faith and fear of faith and faithlessness. We see a man who trusts God, but is also always manipulating and working because he is a sinful man as well. Let's look at Jacob's prayer. This is the first reported prayer of Jacob. Now, we've been watching Jacob for many years, and we finally see him praying for the first time. We saw him make a vow back in chapter 28, but this is the first prayer we see of Jacob. He recalls God's promise to him. He remembers God saying, I will do you good. I will surely do you good. I will make your offspring as a fan of the sea. He's reminding God of these prayers. He's also clinging to these promises. Now, this is a paraphrase of what God said, but God did give him many promises. He calls on the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the same God who's been caring for him and leading him the whole time. It's Yahweh, the one true God. Now, if you look at this, what really stands out most in the prayer is this confession in verse 10. I am not worthy of the least of all these deeds. You promised me that you will do me good, but I am not worthy of the least of these deeds, of steadfast love and of faithfulness. There's a real humility here. There's a real repentance. He is truly amazed at how God has been good to him. See, Christian, as we think about this, this is an important confession that we all have to long to make. Not just say, but believe. We have to realize that God is perfect. He doesn't need you, He doesn't need me, He doesn't need us. He is perfect in His beauty, in His holiness, in His glory without creation. Before He ever created, He was perfect. He is still perfect. You cannot add to His perfection. We do not make God better by being created. God is perfect in and of Himself. We add nothing to God. But God is abundant in His love. He chose to create us freely. He chose to allow us to sin. He chose then to pursue us with his great love. He chose to be patient with the rebellious people for thousands of years. And he's choosing to be patient with us, the present rebels, today. Well, we have to look at and see that God doesn't pursue us to make him better. God is perfect as the glorious creator without us. But in his goodness, God created us to participate in his glory. And then we sinned, then we rebelled, and God decided he was going to pursue us with grace. See, God doesn't have a Mike States hole in his heart. God doesn't have a Matt Kaiser hole in his heart. God doesn't have a Chloe Bowman hole in his heart. There's nothing that God needs from us. We need God. God doesn't need us, but yet He chooses to give us everything we need. God doesn't need us, but yet He chooses to love us. Now, the flip side of that that should humble us is that we need God, but we don't love Him. God doesn't need us, but He chooses to love us. We need God. And we fight against Him. We rebel against Him. And we ignore Him. We need to have the constant reminder that God is perfect without us. But yet in His great love and His great glory and His great holiness, He pursues us. How humbling that is. That He loves us even while we are rebelling. Jacob realizes this and he confesses it. He is not worthy of God's steadfast love. He's been watching God for 20 years and he knows God is good and knows that he has been wrong, he has been sinful, he has been manipulative, and he has received every great blessing. Now, as we look at this prayer, there's one other thing I want to comment about it. It's something Boyce pointed out that I find interesting is that the prayer is missing this. It's a humble prayer, it's an obedient prayer, but it's missing this. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. He's praying to God with humility, with a desire to be obedient, but he's not praying to God, what shall I do next? And I think that's why you see him then try to do his own thing. He doesn't ask God for the next step. He doesn't ask God to reveal light on his path so that he can make the best choice next. Instead, you see him proclaiming God's goodness, asking for God's deliverance, but then not asking God, how do you want me to be delivered? He tries to figure out his own way of being delivered. Now we turn to our third point. The climax of this entire section of Scripture, these two chapters, we're going to look at God wrestling with Jacob. Here we see that God delivers us by pursuing and humbling us. Let's look at chapter 32, verses 22 to 32. The same night he arose and took his two wives, his two female servants, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. He took them and sent them across the stream and everything else that he had, and Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until the break 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. Then he said, Let me go, for the day is broken. But Jacob said, I will not let you go unless you bless me. And he said to him, What is your name? 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 that 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, 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. Here we have Really, the second great God moment for Jacob. We have the second great God moment that makes Jacob one of the great patriarchs. Yes, we can look at Abraham and what happened on Mount Moriah, where he was up there and he was about to sacrifice Isaac and God provides the lamb. But Jacob, he had the ladder come down. Who is Jesus Christ? What a great revelation that is. But we actually see Jacob have an encounter with God that separates him from all the other patriarchs. Even Moses. Moses couldn't see God face-to-face. Here we see Jacob wrestling with God for the entire night. This is a great intimate encounter with God. He's wrestling with God all night. He even says that he sees Him face-to-face. Now, the setting of this revelation is interesting in the way it comes and how it comes. God presents Himself as the antagonist. God actually is replacing Esau as the primary antagonist in this text. That doesn't make God the villain, but it is the one who is pursuing to humble and overcome Jacob. Jacob is afraid. He's separated his wives and his children. It's late at night in the desert. You don't work at night in the desert. But Jacob is busy. He's trying to make things OK. He's trying to give himself some more security. So he separates the camps. And then it happens. He's by himself. He's by himself in the desert with an enemy about to approach, Esau. This is a scary moment. If this were made into a movie, this would be highly dramatized. He's there with his own thoughts and his own fears, alone. And then, a man wrestled with him. Notice Jacob doesn't pursue this man. This man pursues Jacob. And we already know from the ending of the story, this man is God himself. This isn't Jacob doing an all-night fast, wanting to know God's will. That's a wrong spiritualization of the text. This is God pursuing Jacob all night, seeking to submit him. Seeking to make his prayer of humility a reality. Jacob is afraid, he's alone, and God comes to wrestle him. Now, what does it mean that Jacob prevails over God? Jacob's strong. We already saw before when Rachel's coming up the hill, he turns over a stone that it would take numerous shepherds to overthrow. Now, of course, Jacob had some extra strength because he was trying to impress a woman. That's understandable. But he clearly is a strong man. He's able to overcome not only this oversized rock, but he's able to endure great punishment and endure hardships under Laban. He's a strong man. Prevailing against God doesn't mean he's actually stronger than God. He doesn't win this match. That is not what God is saying. I believe Jacob's prevailing against God is squirming and fighting and never submitting to God. He won't be pinned. It doesn't mean Jacob is standing over God, pinning him to the ground. No, it means every time God tries to pin him down, he continues to squirm and fight. He will not submit. He's a man of great strength, but more so, he's a hard-headed man with a thick sin nature. His ability to prevail against God is not having a victory over God. It's not stopping. God touches his hip and throws it out of joint, and he's still hanging on, saying, no, I'm not going to let go of you. He is persistent in not submitting. What we see here is a man who is full of sin. What we see in his denial of submitting, what we see in his prevailing as God is that his sin nature is sick. What we see here is actually the real enemy in the story. It's Jacob's sin. It's Jacob's refusal to fully and completely submit to God. The greatest enemy Esau or Jacob had to worry about was not Esau coming with 400 men. It was his heart that was rebellious against God. As Martin Luther said, I am more afraid of what is within me than from what is outside. Remember, Martin Luther had many people coming to kill him regularly. He even had numerous attacks from Satan himself face to face. But Martin Luther knew that the greatest enemy he had was that which lived within him. This is a true look at the heart that is rebellious against God. That's dangerous apart from God's grace. Then he demands a blessing. Now, this name Israel is it's a difficult name. It's actually fairly interesting that maybe the most important name change in all of scripture. This is probably more important than Avraham being turned to Abraham. There's no clarity as to what it actually means. Israel, we can break it down, El means God. Israel comes from the word Sarai, which you already hear and you're thinking, well, Sarah, princess, or many people thought for a long time, this must mean the prince of God. Well, because of the the vow pointings and things you don't want to get into right now, it's not it can't be the prince of God. It most likely means, especially from the context, he who prevails against God. It could be the one who struggles with God, the one who prevails against God, or it could be like most names in the scripture. You see, those interpretations, the one who prevails against God, it fits the context. But Jacob is the subject of the verb and God is the object, whereas most names, God is the subject. So Daniel is God judges. Joshua is God saves. So this could be interpreted in the traditional way that Israel means God prevails. But then you have the context where the explanation of the name is that you have prevailed against God and men. God prevails is the obvious conclusion. God wins because he finally submits. While he has continued to struggle and fight against God, God finally gives him the blessing and God wins because Jacob now is going to limp the rest of his life. Jacob's hard, stiff neck has been broken. I believe he was converted before this, but this is where we start to see Jacob truly have to submit to God. He can no longer rely upon his mind for tricks. He can no longer rely upon his great strength to overcome. He has to rely upon God. He has to trust God. He responds with all, true all, I have seen the face of God. Now, let's think about this confession. Moses wrote this. And as Moses writes this, I'm wondering what's going through his mind, because when Moses said, let me see your glory, God says, you can't handle my glory. You can't see me face to face. I'll show you my backside. But here, Jacob says, I've seen the face of God. It was at night time. I think that's why the man wants to leave before day breaks so that the light doesn't shine on revealing exactly who he is. But here we see Jacob. He has been in such an intimate, personal contact with God, fighting with him hand to hand all night. His response is, I have seen God and I have not died. See, as Moses writes this, he knows he can't see God face-to-face because his sin in the presence of God's holiness, face-to-face, which is an idiom and a metaphor for God's personal, powerful presence. He would be overwhelmed. He would be overcome. He would be destroyed. See, as we look to this passage, our goal in life is to see God face-to-face. We were created to know God that way. That's how Adam knew God, face-to-face. That's how God created us. That's what our hearts long for. That's what we need. But we have all sinned. That's the problem. God wants to show us his face. God will show us his face if we believe in Jesus Christ, but we cannot come as natural sinners, as men and women born in sin and those who have fought against God into God's presence. God is good. God is just. As I said before, God is perfect in His goodness and His justice. And that means when sinners come into His presence, His wrath is exercised. When we come into His presence as murderers and adulterers and liars and thieves, God will do what He most necessarily do. He punishes us in our sin. Unless, unless God can be both just and the justifier of sinners, unless God can find a way to prevail against our sin without us being personally punished for it. Well, this is the good news of the Gospel, friends. God has prevailed against our sin. God Himself came down and lived a perfect life. God Himself took upon human form. He took upon Himself a nature just like ours. He lived an obedient life, the righteous life we are supposed to live. And then He died a death that is not proper for a righteous man. He died a death as a sinner. You see, when Jesus Christ died on the cross, our sins that should be punished are punished in Him. He took upon Himself the consequences of our wrath. He took upon Himself the consequences of our sin, which is God's wrath. So that whenever we believe in Jesus, our sin is placed on that cross. Our guilt is overcome. Our punishment is relieved. So that when Christ comes again or when we die, we will be able to go up and feast with the King. We will be able to see God as He really is. We will see God face to face. We will enjoy Him and fellowship with Him and partake in His goodness. But only if we believe in Jesus Christ. See, our sin is destructive towards us. That sin that's inside of us that should scare us more than any other enemy. That's what's destroying us. And that's what will destroy us. God's wrath against that. And that's why God has given us the one and only hope that Jesus' death and resurrection conquers our sin. He is our victor. Let's look at our final point. We are instruments in the Redeemer's hands. We are instruments in the Redeemer's hands. So, here we have Jacob. He's been fearful of Esau. He's come up with a great plan against Esau. He's prayed to God. Then God wrestles him into submission. And now, Jacob must face Esau. Chapter 33. And Jacob lifted up his eyes and looked. And behold, he had a double look there. He looked, and behold, Esau was coming, and 400 men with him. If you're Jacob, you're exhausted because you've been fighting with God all night. And here, behold, your greatest enemy, the man who has been wanting to murder you in your own mind for 20 years, he's coming. 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. Notice how he separated the families. He's got the servants, and then he's got the wives, and then there's himself. He himself went on before them, bowing himself to the ground seven times until he came near to his brother. Now, stop. Don't look. I know you read ahead. You're expecting Esau to come and the red hairy man is going to beat his little brother up. That's what you expect. What an astonishing change in events. But Esau, and notice the five actions, the five emotional actions. But Esau ran to meet him. He embraced him. He fell on his neck. He kissed him and they wept. This is very emotionally charged. Two brothers who have hated, who thought the other one hated him for all these years. One brother's been manipulative. One brother wants to murder. And here we have a reunion after 20 years of embracing, of hugging, of kissing and weeping. And when Esau lifted up his eyes and saw the women and children, he said, who are these with you? This is like a long lost relative. Are these my nieces and nephews? Are these mine? You imagine him going around pinching the cheeks of all the children. Jacob said, and again, you see his acknowledgement of God. The children whom God has graciously given your servant. Then the servants drew near. They and their children bowed down. Leah likewise and her children drew near and bowed down. And last, Joseph and Rachel. The favorite. family, 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 the sight of my Lord. But Esau said, I have enough. My brother. When Esau was talking about his brother last, he called him your son to Isaac, that man, that deceiver. How sweet this must have sounded. 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 him. Now this is stopped right there. Every time God shows that he accepts an offering, he burns it up, he takes it up. It's very important for Jacob, for Esau to take this gift, because this is the sign and the action that affirms to him that Esau accepts him. Esau has accepted it truly, and finally, he has accepted the gift. 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 Seir." 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 Seir. But Jacob journeyed to Sukkoth and built himself a house and made booths for his livestock. There the name of the place is called Sukkoth. And Jacob came safely to the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, and on his way from Paddan Aram. And he camped before the city, and from the sons of Hamor, Shechem's father, he bought for a hundred pieces of money the piece of land on which he had pitched his tent. There he erected an altar and called it El Elohi Israel." Now, the last part of this, 12 through the end, we're really going to leave as a setting for the next section. where, well, Israel becomes a curse to the nations. Israel, who is supposed to be a blessing to the nations, they're going to be a curse to the nations. We're going to see a great evil done from Shechem and in Shechem. The name Shechem is actually, it's a horrible reminder for all of Israel as to what Israel has done. Here I want to focus on one thing, that we are instruments in the dreamer's hands. The man who's supposed to be an antagonist in this story, the chief antagonist against Jacob, he becomes the great hero. He is the model of love. He is the model of forgiveness. He is a model of affection and care. He's the one who runs out to Jacob. It reminds you of the prodigal son story. The father running out to the younger son who's finally come home, loving him, kissing him, weeping for him. Esau is a great man of love here. He's a great man of forgiveness. Something has happened to him. God has blessed him greatly with strength and might and good gifts. But he's also changed his heart. And that's how he has protected Jacob. As we look here, I want to just do a brief meditation as we conclude on the statement, I have seen your face, which is like seeing the face of God. You see, Esau is an instrument of God here. Through Esau, Jacob has a tangible experience with God. He's able to understand and experience in a real way here God's love, God's grace, and God's care. Here is a man who once hated his brother, but now because of God, he shows great love towards his brother. Esau becomes an instrument in the Redeemer's hands, an instrument in the deliverer's hands. We have to ask ourselves, are we this kind of brother and sister to our Christian brothers and sisters? When people come in contact with us, what will they experience? Do they experience backbiting and bitterness? Do they experience anger, negativity and selfishness? Or do they experience love and grace? Forgiveness and peace and selflessness? So we're supposed to be fellowshipping with one another. That doesn't mean we're talking about the meal or the football game or the baseball game or life in terms of work or your yard. When Christians fellowship, there's something that's very specific and unique and special that takes place. When Christians fellowship, one Christian experience Christ and another Christian. We're supposed to be experiencing Christ to one another. which means we're confessing our sins to one another, which means we're talking about our real lives, our spiritual lives, and we're talking about Jesus Christ. We're talking about how God's grace has changed and moved and fixed us and corrected us. We're supposed to be talking about what's wrong with us and what God is doing to help us. You see, it's really hard to talk about Christ unless we're going to talk about our sin. It's really hard to talk about what God is doing unless we talk about what's really wrong. So we need to be able to have a culture in the church where we're not afraid of sin. We're not afraid to talk about the gospel. We're not afraid to talk about sin because we find courage in the gospel of Jesus Christ. We're not afraid to talk about our infirmities and our trouble and our rebellion because we have absolute courage. in the gospel that God forgives us and that our other brothers and sisters will come alongside and forgive us as well. It's a high calling. I talk about it a lot through 1 John. I think this example models it. Here's some very practical ways that we can try to be a church that talks about God more, experiencing Christ in each other's lives. If you want others to experience Christ in you, and that's the real disposition we have to take. I don't want you thinking, who do I experience Christ in? No. Ask yourself, who has experienced Christ in my conversation? How can others experience Christ more in me? The first thing we have to do is commit our life to being Christ disciples. If you want others to experience Christ in you, you have to be Christ. If you want others to experience the grace of God and the power of the gospel, you have to be committed to following and believing and trusting in the power of the gospel and Jesus Christ. The second thing, we have to be quick to confess our sins humbly. Now, this is scary. I'm not going to pretend that's not scary. Confessing your sin is scary because what you're doing is you're making yourself vulnerable. You're opening up the womb and someone can stick a salty finger in there or a gospel finger. It's scary. To talk about our sin with others, it's scary. But we have to find others that we find trustworthy with the gospel and it will give us more courage in the gospel. We have to be confessing our sins humbly and quickly. And the flip side of that, we have to be quick for forgiveness. When someone comes and confesses a sin, be quick to forgive, be quick to apply the gospel. Don't let them sit there wondering how they're going to respond. Is it with the salting finger or with the gospel finger? We must be quick to forgive. Another practical way we can love one another and be instruments in the Redeemer's hands. Pray for the different relationships you have. If you want people to experience Christ anymore, be praying for them. When you're going to have a lunch or a coffee or meet with somebody, be praying for them. That God would be over that time. That God would be with our time here. That we would be experiencing Christ in one another. Finally, meditate on God's Word. So that you have something to proclaim to someone when you meet with them. You're not sending God's Word to impress, but to bless. Meditate upon God's Word so that when you gather, the Word of God is on your heart and on your lips, and others can be encouraged by that. Friends, if you're with us and you're not a Christian, the Gospel is simple. God doesn't need you, but God has chosen to love you. God has sent His Son to die for you. Your sins can be forgiven. Your guilt can be removed if you believe in Jesus Christ. If you want to know more about that, talk to me or one of the ushers or asher. If you're a believer here and you're seeking to find that Christian fellowship that you need, you're seeking to find others that you can have courage in the gospel that will encourage you in the gospel. Well, I pray that this would be a place that you could find that. If you're looking for another church, I'm happy to talk to you about another church. I just want you to be with brothers and sisters with whom you can fellowship with and experience Christ in. Let's go to the Lord and pray. How great Your Gospel is, God. How great You are. You need nothing and You give everything. We need You. Yet, we ignore You. We need Your good and perfect gifts that come from above. Yet, we walk around lying to ourselves that we're okay. that we only need church for a little while. We only need the Gospel in a little part of our life. God, overwhelm us with our need of You. Overwhelm us with Your holy, Your beauty, Your grace. Overwhelm us with Your Gospel. Wrestle us down into submission to be obedient children to Your love. Amen.