Jacob, twin of blessing (ii)

Nothing in my hands I bring...

// The shape of repentance - the necessity of repentance.

// living taking pride in our accomplishments - proof: when not acknowledged

// living taking pride in our own moral fibre - proof: indignation at others who transgress

// the danger can be that we might have smoe proximity to god… and some of his blessings… and no genuine repentance and confesision/contrition

// met by God - at wit’s end -

// Self-made - by my own hands, my own wits (I did it my way)

// Making things happen - engineering events //

Oer 6 chapters of material. Mostly going to be overlooked.

In summary:

Jacob runs away, meets Uncle Laban - promises 7 years labour to marry Rachel,

Meets his match in Uncle Laban (my own flesh and blood)

Laban tricks Jacob into marrying the firstborn Leah (irony of darkness and mistaken identity)

Jacob agrees to 7 further years to get Rachel.

Leah’s unloved, but God gives her children.

Rachel cannot conceive but gives her maidservant

Leah gives her maidservant.

God gives Rachel a child.

They all invoke God at various points - but it’s about them, not God.

Jacob is like a mating animal, but otherwise irrelevant in the breeding - except that he loves one wife more.

In moment similar to the Esau birthright one (“give me... or I’ll die”)

Genesis 30:1–2 NIV

1 When Rachel saw that she was not bearing Jacob any children, she became jealous of her sister. So she said to Jacob, “Give me children, or I’ll die!” 2 Jacob became angry with her and said, “Am I in the place of God, who has kept you from having children?”

In all this though, he does get one thing right - ‘Am I in the place of God?’ - does he see this properly though?

Jacob wants to go back home. Laban wants to keep this blessing around for his own profit.

They make a deal about livestock, Laban rips Jacob off, Jacob selectively breeds perhaps trying magic. God blesses Jacob.

Time to go home. Rachel steals idols and sits on them. Laban gives hot pursuit.

Jacob has his final outburst about injustice. God has warned Laban to leave Jacob alone.

We noticed last week loud and clear that God chooses the undeserving (Jacob, and us) because of his rich mercy

It will take 20 years, being himself deceived, practically enslaved, and at his own wits end, before Jacob comes to see God’s grace and his unworthiness.

Jacob seeks to meet his brother - out of his way - to reconcile.

Something is changing inside him.

Genesis 32:6 NIV

6 When the messengers returned to Jacob, they said, “We went to your brother Esau, and now he is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him.”

At his wits end - now, finally, 20 years in, he’s reached his limit of what he can do

[If God will spare my life I’ll… //

Jacob prays

Genesis 32:9–10 NIV

9 Then Jacob prayed, “O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, Lord, you who said to me, ‘Go back to your country and your relatives, and I will make you prosper,’ 10 I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness you have shown your servant. I had only my staff when I crossed this Jordan, but now I have become two camps.

I am unworthy.

You have shown your servant kindness and faithfulness.

Everything I have is from you.

It was true for Jacob.

Grabbing for the birthright, deceiving for the blessing, working for his brides and livestock - all that he has which is good is a gift:

1 Corinthians 4:7 NIV

7 For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?

James 1:17 NIV

17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

Whatever is good is a gift.

In this moment of realising his vulnerability, his weakness and his desperate need - he sees things clearly.

[May God spare us from needing this danger pressing in on us to realise this.

The prayer continues:

Genesis 32:11–12 NIV

11 Save me, I pray, from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid he will come and attack me, and also the mothers with their children. 12 But you have said, ‘I will surely make you prosper and will make your descendants like the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted.’ ”

He is pleading for others here too. And leaning on God’s Word and promise and God as the one to sort this out. This scenario cannot be ‘Jacob’d’.

He prays then takes his own steps, preparing a gift for his brother. Later, when he actually encounters Esau, his actions and heart are exposed:

Genesis 33:11 NIV

11 Please accept the present that was brought to you, for God has been gracious to me and I have all I need.” And because Jacob insisted, Esau accepted it.

In the text to this point they’re called presents - but although trnalsatrdd present here too - it’s blessing - please take my blessing, because God has given me everything I need.

Knowing God’s grace - we can seek to make amends.

//

Jacob sees himself in the dark

Before he meets with Esau.

Genesis 32:24 NIV

24 So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak.

So many mistaken identities in the dark - blind Isaac, darkness of the wedding bed, now - who is who.

As we read, we’re not sure till the end - much like Jacob.

Jacob has only his wits and his strength

Genesis 32:25–26 NIV

25 When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. 26 Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.” But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”

In spite of the pain, and his now powerlessness, he wants that blessing.

If only we would cling to the Lord Jesus with equal tenacity rather than our own schemes.

Genesis 32:27 NIV

27 The man asked him, “What is your name?” “Jacob,” he answered.

Who are you? I’m a grabber. I’m unworthy. I haven’t deserved anything in this life where I’ve schemed and grabbed.

I’m a deceiver.

In a story famous for its mistaken identities in the dark - Jacob shines light on himself.

We zoomed in last week on the mercy of God to the undeserving.

Jacob’s moment here is a moment we also need. In Jesus prodigal son story, the son comes to his senses and returns to the Father. In Jacob’s story, God has come to Jacob and brought him to the end of himself, and to his senses.

Genesis 32:28 NIV

28 Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.”

This struggle with God is not without consequences. He is renamed. And he will walk with a limp.

Jacob is not a perfect character after this struggle - far from it. He has not learnt his lessons about the evils of playing favourites. Nor does he speak up when he should in the face of horrific sin.

And Israel’s national history will in many ways mirror Jacob’s life - scheming, deceiving, naming but avoiding God. And always being pursued by God as well.

Genesis 32:30 NIV

30 So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.”

In the end, in that struggle, he only makes it through by God’s grace.

Jacob is given a vision of God at the very beginning of his running away from Esau. He sees that stairway and God himself as angels go up and down.

He sees God in the man who wrestles him in the darkness.

If only we had a vision of God so that we too might come to know ourselves better -

But we do - the way to be close to God - the way to God - is not accomplishment and our own goodness:

John 1:51 NIV

51 He then added, “Very truly I tell you, you will see ‘heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on’ the Son of Man.”

Jesus speaks this to Nathanael, but also to each of us who meet Jesus in the Gospels.

More than Jacob we come to see God. And the closer we look at the Lord Jesus in his glory, his light, the more clearly we see ourselves.

Repentance comes as we see Jesus.

As you look into the mirror, what are you grabbing at? - achievements, your self-achieved godliness, that you’re not like ‘them’ (whoever ‘them’ is for you), your accumulations (or collection of things other people owe you or have done to you - that’s just another grab for self-respect) -

can you instead see the mercy and gift of God for you in Jesus - who shines the light on our filth and dies for us anyway?

can God’s love for you, God’s welcome for you, give you the freedom to confess your grasping and grabbing,

None of us has a right to be here - to call God our Father - can we acknowledge this by our lives and in our treatment of others - all others.

None of us has the moral perfection to be unforgiving to others.