Genesis 32-33 - 2009 - Skip Heitzig

[Music] Heavenly Father we thank you we thank you because your mercies are new every morning great is your faithfulness you have been so good to us some of us Lord however are right in the midst smack dab in the middle of a giant trial and we're looking for your faithfulness we're looking for what it is you're saying we're trying to hear what it is you're talking to us about or how you're gonna resolve this or what we're going to learn through it I pray a special a prayer for those who have gathered under difficult circumstances and pray Lord that they would find unexpected blessing in the midst of it as you give them answers and as you work behind the scenes because you're behind all of the scenes were involved in working powerfully we pray that we would see your hand we pray that you'd give us ears to hear and a heart to receive what we're going to learn about tonight in Jesus name Amen many years ago many many many many many years ago when I first came to know the Lord right afterwards I had a real desire for fellowship I was living in the Bay Area of Northern California all I had was a motorcycle at a backpack all that I owned but I wanted to go back down back home see my family see my friends get involved in growing in the Lord so I took a long motorcycle trip from the Bay Area back down to Southern California I especially couldn't wait to see my brother I wanted him to hear this message now I was very green I was very wet-behind-the-ears I needed to grow in the Lord I knew nothing except Jesus Christ and him crucified and that's a good thing but it was a bad thing in another sense because I was there to give him advice about his life and I really didn't have much advice to give without going into all of that the Lord was dealing with me early on about surrendering to him I like so many other Christians that I have met since then sort of saw Christianity as adding Jesus to my life here's my life here's my plans it's all about my future and in effect Jesus Christ had become a spoke in my wheel I soon discovered he didn't want to be a spoke in my wheel he wanted to be the very hub of the wheel that my life was to revolve and rotate around him his plan his purpose not to have him added to my life and him revolving around my purpose so after that long journey I was sitting at my parents house in my previous bedroom and I was reading through the Bible that I owned called good news for modern man it was the New Testament and in modern English that's the translation and I was reading through Matthew that's the first book I'm reading through Matthew I come to chapter 5 I'm going to the Beatitudes the Sermon on the Mount and I remember distinctly that particular version of the New Testament in the Beatitudes and one of them put in that good news for modern man version went like this happy are those whose greatest desire is to do what God requires and I stopped I stopped because I knew I was busted I was nailed to the wall I read that and I went oh oh now granted I was only a week or two old in the Lord but that particular text reached out and grabbed me and I had to admit my greatest zyre in life was not to do what God requires but now I wanted it to be and that was a turning point for me that was one of those threshold moments and there would be many more after that where God was trying to deal with me skip I don't want to be a spoke in your wheel I want to be the very hub are you willing to pray for and make your greatest desire to be what I require and I remember that afternoon that summer afternoon in July very very very prominently in my mind after that moment I found this book I still have it by Andrew Murray called absolute surrender it's exactly what I needed to read it's exactly what the Lord was dealing with me on and in particular something that jumped out at me and I'll read it for you is in that book by Andrew Murray where he writes this God wants us to be separate from the world we are called to come out from the world that hates God come out for God and say Lord anything for thee if you say that with prayer and speak that into God's ear he will accept it and he will teach you what it means I say again God will bless you you've been praying for blessing but do remember there must be absolute surrender every tea table shows you that why is tea poured into that cup because it's empty and it's given up for the tea but put ink or vinegar or wine into it and will they pour tea into that vessel and can God fill you can God bless you if you are not absolutely surrendered to him he cannot let us believe that God has wonderful blessings for us if he will but stand up for God and say even with a trembling will yet with a believing heart oh God I accept thy demands I am thine and all that I have absolute surrender is what my soul yields to thee by divine grace many people who have become Christians are Christians they're saved by God's grace and yet they're still mastered by their own flesh they're not mastered by God they're still resisting God's will they're still living as though God exists to please them rather than vice-versa I share all of that as an introduction to chapter 32 because we find that God will be has been and will be dealing with Jacob on this very issue chapter 32 is a turning point for a con man named Jacob there's already been one turning point and that was at Bethel remember Bethel where he had that dream of God some 20 years earlier of the angels of God ascending and descending upon that ladder and he woke up the next day and said God's here I didn't even know it well now he's coming back and the second turning point isn't beth-el but penny el penny o which means the face of God because of an incident that we're going to read in chapter 32 where God gets ahold of Jacob in fact wrestles him in fact cripples him so that after that incident he walks with a limp and we'll see why it's one of the best things that ever happened to Jacob do you know that the Bible says whom the Lord loves he chastens he scourge Azur spanks every son every child that comes to him and you know what I've learned to thank God for all of the spankings that my gracious wonderful loving heavenly dad dishes out I've needed every one of them and I've learned from every one of them as Jacob will learn he whom the Lord loves he chastens and tonight I think we're gonna see that in chapter 32 now for 20 years Jacob has been outside the land of promise the land of promise is Canaan he's gonna give it to Abraham Isaac Jacob and their progeny the 12 tribes and that nation he's been outside of the land of promise for 20 years but mark this he's been outside of the land of promise but not outside of the hand of promise God has been with him as he said when he was leaving at Bethel and now he is coming back into the land let me just remind you where he's at he's up in a place called Gilead and he's going to come down and cross over the Jabbok River a tributary of the Jordan and come back into the land that he left he is between Laban his uncle and Esau his brother none of which he has a good relationship with he's between paddan-aram or what is ancient Iraq that would be called Iraq and modern terms padana Ram and ancient terms and he's coming on very difficult territory into the land of Canaan to meet his brother whom he believes is out to kill him because after all 20 years before this his brother Esau said as soon as the days of mourning for my father are over I'm gonna kill that brother of mine that's what's in his mind so that's why I said you can name this chapter between Iraq and a hard place Iraq and a hard place between two very very difficult places now he's in between two difficult places he'd just left Laban he's going to meet Esau he's as you'll see very very scared frightened like a little child he's between these two difficult places and God has allowed him to be mark that as well God has allowed him to be between two difficult places because he has some things to deal with when I was a kid at Christmas time we'd always have I remember my parents would bring out nuts it was a Christmas tradition but not like shelled nuts they were nuts in the shells and a little nut cracker next time you crack him yourself oh I love that because it gave me something to do I was like to be busy so I'd crack the nuts I discovered that some nuts were harder to crack than others some shells are just tough and the way that the construction of them is and the symmetry and the roundness it takes more pressure to crack them some people like those nuts require more pressure you know some people learn easily some people do not and I've discovered God as a class for each type of person a special classroom you think that paddan-aram was the school of hard knocks what he's going to get here is also a very difficult situation for him but he's going to discover that God goes before him chapter 32 verse 1 so Jacob went on his way that's after the Laban incident after saying goodbye to him and the angels of God met him when Jacob saw them he said this is God's camp and he called the name of that place Mahanaim which means double camp in other words there's others in this campground boys we're not the only ones camping out here the angels are now it just says it as a matter of fact you know he passed from there and he went to there and the angels of God were there to meet him hey Jacob how you doing today good angels great to see you now we discovered back in chapter 28 that angels were there on Jacobs way out of the land and now Jacobs way into the land they show up again why I don't exactly know it could be that it's showing us that this is a very special land that the borders are guarded by God's angels as God even said in Deuteronomy the eyes my eyes are on this land the land of Canaan Israel from the beginning of the year to the very end of it or it could be simply God's Way of saying I've been watching over you and directing and guiding you all of this time you're going out and now you're coming in it was a sign to him Psalm 34 says the angel of the lord encamps love that encamps around those who fear him and delivers him so here's the angels of God that are in camping around him as he's coming back in in our modern era Angels have been popularized they've become very popular in the last decade or two but almost over popularized they've gotten to the schmaltzy stage where people to see them as little decorations oh do you like my angel collection if you have an angel collection please don't write me an email about this my mom used to collect angels I read an article of some woman who had collected like a hundred and four thousand angels she had to move doors and windows and she didn't have enough cabinets so she added an extra room just for her dumb angel collection whatever whatever you're into and there's angel sightings I've heard people say yeah the so-and-so is out in the freeway the other day and you and they tell you this fanciful story and angel sightings have got about as popular nowadays as Elvis sightings I don't know if there's like an Elvis angel out there to combine the two I don't know about that but one woman who claims to be an angel ologist said her guardian angel I read this in an article helped her to lose a hundred and fifty pounds so new diet plan the angel plan I guess you need angel food cake for the now you couldn't do that now I want you to think about something it says angels met him do you know that perhaps you've met an angel before I know what you're thinking to think oh no no if I've met an angel I would definitely have realized you know that the wings and the white robe the halo would have given it away it says in the book of Hebrews be careful how you entertain strangers or how you show hospitality to strangers and that you should do that because in so doing the writer of Hebrews says some have entertained angels unaware or without knowing without realizing it the person that you met that one that you thought was a person could have perhaps been an angel could it be it says be careful this show hospitality some have entertained angels unaware now here it plainly says that the angels met him and so he called the name double camp Mahanaim Billy Graham calls them secret agents the angels are God's secret agents they do a few things and I'll just sum it up for you they're by the way they're mentioned in 34 books of the Bible 17 in the old seventeen in the new if you look up the word angel in the Old Testament I believe it's found a hundred and three times in the New Testament I believe it's a hundred and sixty-five times thirty four books of the Bible all together talk about angels so they're very real they are if I were to give you a definition noncorporeal that is non-physical spirit shall be their spiritual beings without physical form however it would seem that from time to time God clothed them with some ability to share human form so as to interact with humans now whenever they have a physical form and a human concede them they're still magnificent because typically the first thing an angel says when they meet a human is don't be afraid fear not because I'm sure a person goes even at the amazing dazzling appearance so oftentimes of these beings their gods secret agents what do they do well number one they stand in his presence they stand in his presence just like kings queens presidents have their own troops in entourage around them there are angels like in Isaiah six or in Revelation 4 and 5 that are angels of God's presence that render worship praise to God incessantly so they stand in his presence second they serve God's people hebrews 1 says they are ministering spirits sent by god to minister to those of us who inherit salvation angels play an active role in your life I believe you have guardian angels they minister the Bible says to those who inherit salvation now some of us buy some of the things we do the activities we do be it skateboarding or maybe you do some radical skiing or snowboarding or mountain bike jumping you know maybe you have like doubled up angels on your or you know some kind of massively strong very attentive angels but the truth is all of us have interacted with them we aren't aware of it but goddess dispatched them to minister to us who are heirs of salvation ok so they met him he called that name Mahanaim double camp then Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau his brother in the land of Seir now Sarah's down if you go east of the Jordan River and you go down in the deserts of Jordan south of what is ancient Edom toward Saudi Arabia you're gonna discover sere Mount Seir is where Esau went and he evidently had conquered the inhabitants of that land called the rights and another group called the hoary ins and he had become very successful God had blessed him and he has noticed the entourage he has come Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau his brother in the land of Seir the country of Edom and he commanded them saying speak thus to my lord interesting choice of words my lord Esau thus your servant again interesting choice of words your servant Jacob says I have dwelt with Laban and stayed there until now I have oxen donkeys flocks male and female servants hint hint hint and I have sent to tell my Lord that I might find favor in your sight now Jacob is the one who initiates contact with his brother why we'll remember how they had that falling-out when Jacob stole his brothers blessing Jacob knows there's going to be no peace between he and his brother unless he resolves the issue that he has left unresolved twenty years before when he had to flee because he stole his brother's blessing now I do find it interesting that he calls his brother my lord Esau because that's not how he thought about him 20 years before this where did he learn this buttering up approach where do you learned this kind of flattery from uncle Laban 20 years of being with Laban Laban knew how to pour it on the first time you saw Jacob he goes oh my you're my own flesh and blood sent to me by God and all the time he's figuring out a way to connive and get him to work for him and he does successfully and then when he's about to leave he says oh you can't leave don't you know God your God our God has blessed me because of you I'll give you anything you want he just knew how to butter up Jacob Jacob learned quite well was watching this quite attentively and I think he's employing the same kind of characteristics to flatter his brother because he doesn't want his brother to kill him then verse X the messengers returned to Jacob saying we came to your brother Esau and he is also coming to meet you and four hundred men are with him that's not what Jacob wanted to hear he's thinking oh man am i toast it's curtains for me so Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed and he divided the people that were with him and the flocks and the herds and the camels into two companies and he said if he saw comes to the one company and attacks it then the other company which is left will escape now watch how Jacob operates he's going to divide his his people into two camps and then more camps four camps later on and he's anticipating that his brother's going to attack and kill the first camp guess which camp he's gonna be in personally I think he'll be in the first one oh no he's gonna be way in the back using his children and wives as buffers for him little wuss that's his approach he's figuring it all out he's anticipating it all in his mind verse 9 watch this then Jacob said now he's gonna pray this is the first recorded or written this is the first time we get to hear Jacob prays I'm not saying it's the first time he prayed he did brave before but now it's recorded for us so let's read through it and then we'll make comment at it Jacob said o God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac the Lord who said to me return to your country into your family and I will deal well with you I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies and of all the truth which you have shown your servant for I have crossed over this Jordan with my staff and now I have become to companies deliver me I pray from the hand of my brother from the hand of Esau for I fear him lest he come and attack me and the mother with the children for you have said I will surely treat you well and make your descendants as the sand of the sea which cannot be numbered for the multitude Jacob really isn't much different than we are right it seems that when our back is against the wall when we're in a pinch when there is adversity then we go Oh God we start praying I find his prayer interestingly time I'm glad he prayed I don't want to knock him too much but I also know it's part of human nature we merrily go our way I got it all under control I got this covered I'm a smart one you know I got it all figured out until we're out of options we're at the end of our rope we're between a rock and a hard place and then we say Oh God we start praying because now we realize we need to depend on one greater than ourselves the hymn writer put it well Oh what peace we often forfeit Oh what needless pain we bear all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer everything but he's afraid and in his fear and in distress he begins to pray to the Lord could it be just a possibility that one of the reasons God allows or prescribes steady amounts of adversity in our lives is so that we'll always depend on him there were three ministers having a theological discussion about the proper position for prayer one of them said I have discovered that the proper position for prayer is while seated with the hands folded in the thumbs pointing heavenward indicating to whom I trust the second Reverend in the group said I disagree wholeheartedly I found the best position in prayer is to show humility and be on one's knees with your hands raised in the air to God the third Reverend said I have to disagree with both of you chaps I think if you really want to show humility you have to get prostrate on the ground all the way down before God now in the background a telephone repairman was listening to these three theologians talk and he finally interrupted and said you know what I've discovered fellas the best position for prayer that I've ever been in is when I was dangling 40 feet above the ground on a telephone pole telephone pole by my heels that was the most effective prayer I ever prayed in other words while in extremists at the end of my rope or at the end of my pole in his situation they are very effective this was a very effective prayer now notice something about it I'm glad it's given to us in verse 9 he recounts the past I'm giving you a few of the of his prayer he recounts the pass notice he calls God by his covenant name god of my father abraham and god of my father isaac he's putting God in the context of who he has been historically I think that's healthy when you pray recognize to whom you're praying remember in Acts chapter 4 when the disciples were threatened by the leadership in Jerusalem the church got together and the prayer went something like this Oh God or Lord God you made the heavens and the earth and everything that is in them who by the mouth of your servant David and he quotes Psalm 2 he put it into the context I realized the one I'm talking to is the one who made everything I realized the one I'm talking to is the same one who has fulfilled all of the promises to Abraham all of the promises to my father Jacob so he recounts the past number two he recalls the promise as if he's saying look Lord the reason I'm here in this land this new land the reason I left paddan-aram is because you told me I should come and you bless me for it so here I am I'm here because you told me to go he's reminding God not that you need to remind God but really reminding himself in prayer before the Lord God's purpose the third element is he realizes his own unworthiness did you notice that verse 10 boy Jacob's changing I am not worthy he says of the least of all of the mercies and the truth which you have shown your servant I'm not worthy your merciful but I'm not worthy in other words he's acknowledging that he's a sinner that he's falling short proverbs 28 says he who covers his sin will not prosper but whoever confesses and forsakes his sin that God would bless that person we'll find mercy it says in proverbs 28 find mercy I'm not worthy he said of the least of your mercy finally notice he requests deliverance this is the heart of his prayer verse 11 deliver me I pray from the hand of my brother from the hand of Esau now watch this for I fear Him lest he come and attack me and the mother with his children he confesses something negative before the Lord please notice that and notice that it's in his prayer and the reason I bring it up is because some folks make such a big deal out of having a positive confession don't have a negative confession never utter a negative confession but always a positive confession so if you're sick don't say I'm sick that's a negative confession because you'll get sick if you say I'm sick all of that nonsense listen you know why he made a negative confession because he was honest it's better to make a negative confession and be honest than to make a positive confession and be dishonest tell the Lord what you feel if you feel it tell him do you think God can't handle it you think I'll go oh I can't believe you said that doesn't the Bible say the Lord knows our frame and remembers that we are dust do you think God has high expectations for dust I'm just so disappointed in my dust today I'm afraid God I'm afraid I'm I'm gonna die several years ago it was a man who came up to me after a service with crutches he had a broken leg I had heard that he broke his leg and I said to him I'm so sorry that you broke your leg I'd like to pray for you when he goes don't bother it's not broken I said excuse me not broken I'm believing and standing on faith now he's saying this while he's on crutches hobbling telling me he doesn't have a broken leg and he says because God has healed me I said are you sure about that yes I'm sure don't give me a negative confession I said well then do me a favor would you don't tell any unbelievers that God has healed you while you're on crutches they're all gonna thank God as a lousy job of healing people if you call that a healing Lord I'm afraid I know it's coming and he was honest before God for you said verse 12 I will surely treat you well and make your descendants as the sand of the sea which cannot be number for a multi did I love this God did tell him that he's thinking things out loud he's processing things out loud I'm afraid for my life yet at the same time how can I die if you said I'm gonna have a lot of kids and how can these children die if you made these promises we have to live for this thing to be fulfilled and so he lodged there that same night and took what came to his hand as a present for Esau his brother now watch this present two hundred female goats twenty male goats two hundred used twenty Rams thirty milk camels with their Colts forty cows ten bulls twenty female donkeys ten foals then he delivered them to the hand of a servant every drove by itself and said to his servants pass over before me and put some distance between successive droves and he commanded the first one saying when Esau my brother meets you and you saying to whom do you belong and where are you going and whose are these in front of you then you shall say they are your servant Jacobs it is a present sent to my lord Esau and behold he is behind us behind us there are the human shields so he commanded the second the third and all who followed the drove saying in this manner you shall speak to Esau when you find him and also say behold your servant Jacob is behind us for he said I will appease him with the present that goes before me and afterward I will see his face perhaps he will accept me so the present went on over before him but he himself lodged that night in the camp 580 animals was the gift it proves that Jacob had gotten very wealthy while he was in patan Aram God had been very good to him because this is a sizeable gift this is a huge flock in and of itself that he's giving so what is he doing he's softening the blow he's trying to buy him off give him president after President after present successive waves of gift after gift after gift so finally he would think if he's angry how can I kill this guy he's so nice to me that's what all this is about softening him up okay go back to his prayer you don't have to go back to it really you can if you want but I mean think in your mind of his prayer when he prayed and asked God for deliverance did he really believe God was going to deliver him well evidently it wasn't that strong of a prayer or it didn't have that much faith he did say look Lord you said this and I'm gonna put my trust into you but you know with all of this wrangling afterwards it would seem that though he prayed it wasn't very much faith involved and can I just say I relate to that I relate to that remember the man who came to Jesus and Jesus said do you anything's possible to those who believe and he said I believe Lord but help my unbelief do you ever feel that way sometimes yeah Lord I trust you but you know there's just this part of me help my unbelief that's how he comes it's so typical it's so typical of us how often do we unload our burden in prayer before the Lord and then no sooner did we unload it but we pick it back up nicely place it on a little back and March out of God's presence God um you doing anything with that little burden I gave you do you mind if I have it back just for a while it seems we do that it seems that Jacob did that let's see what happens verse 22 and he arose that night took his two wives two female servants his eleven sons he had daughters too but the eleven sons are mentioned and cross over the Ford of Jabbok let me just help you place Jabbok in between the Sea of Galilee up north and the Dead Sea down south the jordan river connects both of those bodies of water right in between about midway is the Jabbok river about twenty-two miles it flows from the east northeast and joins and flows into the Jordan River very very steep and precipitous that's why the Jabbok was the ancient boundary between North Gilead and South Gilead or OGG and Bashan before that it was a natural barrier natural border he crossed that that night the aquiver he took them verse 23 sent them over the brook sent over what he had and then jacob was left alone so often God wants to get us alone quiet no one around and then he'll speak to us now he's going to speak very dramatically Jacob is left alone a man noticed that and noticed that if he you Bible as my version is capitalized is it not okay and Jacob is left alone and a man wrestled with him until the breaking of day and when he saw that he did not prevail against him he touched the socket of his hip and the socket of Jacob's hip was out of joint as he wrestled with him it's the first wrestling match in history you remember the show some years ago touched by an angel this is the first episode but it was called punched by an angel Jacob was assaulted by this man now it's funny I've read a lot of different commentaries a lot of different books and seen this as an example and typically how how commentators and pastors love to deal with this passages here's Jacob wrestling with God in prayer that's how it's often taken Jacob isn't wrestling with God the man assaulted him wrestled with him it's not that Jacob Psalm goes I'm gonna pick me a fight that's gone a rustle and get something out of them it's God through this hymn this man wrestling Jacob to bring him to an end of himself and cause him to surrender so this wrestling match goes on and I got to give it to Jacob on and on through the night now probably I'm just figuring I'm figuring this but I believe it happened I think he sent his wives and and and everybody over the river and said I'll join you I'm just gonna spend the night here why I'm thinking he's he's thinking I just need one night good sleep I'd been with Laban and had two confrontation with him and I I didn't have a good night's sleep with him and now that's gone I'm about to see Esau and you know if I could just get alone with my lots and just get one goodnight sleep well he didn't get one good night's sleep middle of the night he's attacked as it says he was left alone any man wrestled with him to the breaking of day what is happening as we'll see I believe is God is cracking the nut the hard shell of Jacob till he finally just clings to the Lord toward the end of this ayah I distinctly remember witnessing to a gal named Linda at a hospital I worked at years ago in California every time I would witnessed her and share something with her day after day she would always have some little smart remark or she would do a little bit of research to try to prove me wrong and prove the Bible wrong and day after day I keep sharing with her and I'd answer her questions and share a little bit more and answer the next question and eventually I could see her starting to crack till one night in desperation out in the parking lot at the hospital she just lashed out at me and I said Linda you're fighting God he's got you pinned up against the wall just give it up just throwing the towel just quit fighting him surrender to him tonight and watch what happens she just broke down in tears and cried and four or five minutes later she prayed to receive Jesus Christ threw up the white flag I surrender and that's what Jacob is doing I believe in this passage when he saw that he did not prevail against him he touched the socket of his hip and the socket of Jacob's hip was out of joint as he wrestled with him and he said let me go for the day breaks but he said I will not let you go unless you bless me interesting that's exactly what he asked his father for 20 years earlier now he's asking this man for a blessing Judah should have done 20 years before and he said to him what is her name he said he'll catch her and he said your name shall no longer be called Yakov or Jacob but Israel for you have struggled with God and with men and have prevailed who is this person he's called a man here hosea chapter 12 calls him an angel of the Lord but it goes on to say that God Almighty met with Jacob and because of that Hosea chapter 12 along with what we dis read most Christian scholars believe an even 1 Hebrew Old Testament scholar that I found believed that this is some physical apparition of God in the Old Testament and most scholars believe it's called a christophany or if you will a theophany the appearance of Christ in a pre incarnate form in the Old Testament or if you prefer v-not and the angel of the Lord much like Genesis chapter 18 when the Lord appeared to Abraham with two other angels those two angels went on to Sodom and Gomorrah and Abraham stood before the Lord he is called the appearance of a man on a mission thus the term messenger or angel same thing but some believe it is the Lord Himself that he was fighting with now it's really not a wrestling match I don't want you to get this idea that you know gosh you know who's gonna win this there's Jacob fighting this man whoa Jacob got a really good grip on him what's gonna happen it wasn't that at all as soon as this man wanted to end it he just touched didn't even hit just touch Jacobs hip and bam he's incapacitated question why did he touch his hip so he couldn't run that's what he was used to doing his whole life running when he stole the blessing 20 years before from his brother what did he do he ran away when he was with Laban and he wanted to leave how did he do it he ran away and he's probably thinking I can just run away touched his hip incapacitated he can't run now he's clinging to the Lord at this point he's saying verse 26 let me go for the day breaks but he said I will not let you go unless you bless me he's asking this man the Lord to bless him clinging to him God's turning him from a conniver to a clinger from a wrestler to a restoration boom used to say stop wrestling and start nestling he's just abiding in the Lord verse 28 I'm not going to call you Jacob anymore your name will no longer be called Jacob but Israel for you have struggled with God and with men and have prevailed and Jacob asked saying tell me your name I pray and he said why is it that you ask about my name and he blessed him there so Jacob called the name of that place penny L and this is why for I have seen God face to face and my life is preserved just as he crossed over Penuel the Sun rose on him and he limped on his hip therefore to this day the children of Israel did not eat the muscle the Trank which is on the hip socket because he touched the socket of Jacob's hip in the muscle that shrank what is the word Israel mean some scholars translated God strives or God fights or God rules I think the best idea of the change is one who fights victoriously with God that's the idea Jacob you've been fighting God and man your whole life I'm changing your name because I'm changing you into somebody who fights victoriously with God no longer against God no longer even for God but with God Israel one who fights victoriously with God verse 32 gives us a little footnote therefore to this day the children of Israel do not eat the muscle that shrank which is on the hip socket because he touched the socket of Jacob's hip in the muscle that shrank according to scribal law called the halaqa it is the kosher thing to pull out the tendon and the sciatic nerve of this area and throw it away and discard it and not eat it because because of this Jacob because of this comes to an end of himself and the real secret of your strength if you want to know what is the secret of Christian strength you don't want to know what is the real secret admitting your weakness it's not look in the mirror smile tell tell you look confident so you can go out and go and say hi and have that confidence about you the secret of great spiritual strength is to admit I'm weak you go skip that doesn't make sense that's counterintuitive but it's what Paul learned Paul in 2nd Corinthians 12 said you know I got this weird thing he called it a thorn in the flesh a messenger of Satan to buff at me three times I asked the Lord to deliver me from it and all that God said to him was my grace is enough for you sufficient he said I asked the Lord three times to deliver me from the thorn and the flesh and God just kept saying my grace is enough for you my strength God said is made perfect when you're weak so then Paul continues and he says most gladly then I will boast in my weakness and my infirmity I will take pleasure in my weakness in my infirmity for when I'm weak then I'm strong how does that work how could it be that when you're a weak you're strong because when you're weak you recognize you're weak and you depend and lean upon him and he gives you strength beyond yourself that's why it's the secret of strength I'm calling you Israel one who fights victoriously with God not one who trips somebody up catching their heel manipulating them conning them it indicated God had a change in store now we have just 9 minutes which is plenty of time to finish chapter 33 trust me we're just going to go through it because it's the payoff Jacob lifted his eyes and looked there was Esau coming and with him four hundred men he swallowed hard so he divided the children among Leah Rachel and the two maid servants and he put the maid servants and their children in front yeah yeah Leah and her children behind and Rachel and Joseph last because those are his prized possessions that's the woman he loved and the only son by him and he crossed over before them and bowed himself to the ground seven times until he came here to his brother just bowing and the little closer bowing a little bit closer bowing a little bit closer bowing this for a little bit closer bowing five you get the picture seven times but watch this but Esau ran to meet him and embraced him and fell on his neck and kissed him and they wept you know what this tells me it wasn't Jacob's plan that worked it was Jacobs prayer that worked he prayed oh god I would you please help me okay now let me figure this out here I had a plan this for a company maybe five companies animals present yeah God had already gotten it all handled changed Esau his heart let me tell you a quick little story it comes to us by Flavius Josephus the historian you've heard of Alexander the Great Alexander the Great conquered the world so quickly that he even surprised himself he made it all the way to the Indus River and there he wept like a baby because there were no more world's for him to conquer he was such a swift apt warrior when Alexander the Great on his journeys eastward came to tyre the city of Tyre up in modern-day Lebanon to overtake it and he surrounded the city and he eventually knew that he had to take tyre he sent troops down to Jerusalem to get an alliance from the Jews in Jerusalem to get food supplies and help to conquer tyre he was met by a guy named Joshua the high priest who said I'm sorry we can't help you because we have signed an agreement with your arch enemy Darius the Persian so the message went back to Alexander the Great Alexander now marches against Jerusalem and everybody thinks the Jews are dead Jerusalem's toast is going to be destroyed when he comes outside of Jerusalem Joshua the high priest marches out to meet Alexander the Great this is 332 BC according to Josephus opens the scrolls of the Old Testament and shows Alexander the Great where he is predicted by the prophet Daniel to conquer the medo-persian Empire and the world swiftly he shows him the prophecy about himself in the scripture and they have a meeting the high priest and Alexander the Great Alexander the Great dismounts from off his horse and boughs down to the ground in front of the high priest the Jewish high priest Alexander's second-in-command is like baffled they can ah why are you gonna kill these people and he says because before I even made my journey the East while I was still in Macedonia I had a dream at night that I would meet a man dressed in the garb of a high priest who would predict to me that I would rule the world and so he comes there and he meets a man of God who shows him the scripture and he sees this as the fulfillment of a already given dream and he spares the city in other words God had it all in control before Alexander the Great came to Jerusalem in a very similar manner God had it all handled God handled Esau way before Jacob Psalm so jacob's going oh no oh no oh no and Esau just weeps and embraces him and loves on him it's amazing and they wept he lifted up his eyes saw the women the children had said who are these with you so he said the children whom God has graciously given your servant then the maidservants came near and their children bowed and Leah also came there with her children and bowed down afterward Joseph Rachel came near they bowed down Esau said what do you mean by all of this company which I met and he said these are to find favor in the sight of my lord but Esau said I have enough my brother keep what you have for yourself now do you notice the language between these two Jacob is calling him my Lord and I'm your servant and here's Esau there's there's nothing between the be just call it look you're my brother man we're brothers enough of this stuff Jacob said no please if I have now found favor in your sight then receive my present from my hand in as much as I have seen your face as though I have seen the face of God oh please and you were pleased with me please take my blessing that is brought to you because God is duh graciously with me and because I have enough so he urged him and he took it and Esau said let us take our journey let us go I will go before you but Jacob said my Lord knows that the children are weak and the flocks and the herds are nursing with me and if the men should drive them hard one day all the flocks will die please let my Lord go on ahead before his servant I will lead on slowly but at a pace which the livestock that go before me and the children are able to endure until I come to my Lord in seer now a footnote there's never a record that Jacob went to meet Esau in seer now he may have but there's no record that he did it would seem like he says no go on and I'll go and I'll visit you you know don't call me I'll call you look at there like well you know we'll do lunch I never saw him after that so he saw a return that day on his way to seer Jacob journeyed to Sukkot and made himself a house and made booths that's what Sukkot means by the way there's a feast called that we'll get to it later and made booths for his livestock therefore the name of the place was called Sukkot Jacob came safely to the city of Shechem which is in the land of Canaan and he came to from paddan-aram and he pitched his tent before that city and he bought the parcel of land which he pitched his tent from the children of hay more Shechem father for 100 pieces of money notice he bought a house up to this point he was living in a tent he was a Bedouin moving around from place to place the fact that he's buying land and making a permanent shelter shows that he's settling down finally I remember a conversation my mom had with me I was taking a three-month vacation around the United States driving in my truck years ago I remember the last words my mom said to me she goes I just hope you find a place and settle down finally Jacob is settling down in the land that he's going back to now notice is called Shechem fast-forward to John chapter 4 the woman at the well of Samaria this is the place and remember what Jesus said to her if you knew the gift of God and who it is who says to you give me a drink you two asked him and he would give you living water and she looks at him and says what are you greater than our Father Jacob who gave us this well and drank from it himself this is that place that she will be living at in the area of Samaria later on verse 20 ends it just on time and he erected an altar and he called it ell and lo hey Israel the God the God of Israel Leighton Ford who worked with dr. Billy Graham used to say God loves you just the way you are but he loves you too much to leave you that way God loved Jacob way too much to leave him Jacob he wanted to change him and to change him he had to sort of chase him and get him in between these two rocky tough places and add pressure to his life maybe you are discovering that maybe tonight you're saying boy and feeling really beat up and I'm afflicted okay then look at it as God you have my attention because David wrote before I was afflicted I went astray but now I keep your word psalm 119 could it be that you're resisting something that God is trying to do in your life don't know but just ask him like like the book absolute surrender ask him sincerely Lord I sincerely surrender all to you tonight I don't want to resist I want to cooperate with you I want to fight with you I want to go where you're going instead of saying Lord here's my plans bless me and bless my plans why not say Lord what are your plans what are you doing how can I be on board and be a part of that that is the most exciting way to live let's pray Heavenly Father we take this moment and we sit before you arms outstretched a heart open to you and we ask Lord with with every bit that is in us would you take us would you take all of us we surrender tonight to you Lord absolutely totally we want to be empty vessels like an empty teacup that you can fill with your spirit and we can know your purpose and we can represent you in this city in our neighborhoods in this world so Lord would you take us these weak very similar to jacob vessels would you work on us and then would you use us thank you Lord for your grace your mercy and the angels of God that encamp around us thank you for your favour thank you for your promises and thank you for this story as Paul said it was written for our admonition in Jesus name Amen

Channel: Calvary Church with Skip Heitzig

Views: 12,747

Rating: 4.7866669 out of 5

Keywords: Calvary, Albuquerque, Skip, Heitzig, Jesus, Genesis, Sermon

Id: z9Q28nPBhgA

Length: 62min 0sec (3720 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 19 2018