Coming Home Again

I was out of town this week for class.

I really enjoyed being with friends, and some time away from the usual routine to learn how to get better as a pastor and leader.

However, I can assure you that by Friday afternoon, I was ready to come home again.

Do you know that feeling? You’ve been away for a while, and you are ready to come back home.

Maybe you have gone away for school, or you spent some time deployed overseas.

Perhaps a job moved you away, but before long, you felt that longing to come home.

The same can happen to us spiritually as well, can’t it? We make choices and wander away from God.

For some of us, that process may have lasted years—where we thought we were going to be able to get by doing our thing our way, but we have realized that God is right, and we need to come back home to him.

Coming home isn’t reserved only for those who have gone off into sin that everyone notices, though. It is also for those of us who have slipped more and more into living as functional atheists—sure, we come to church and believe that there is a God and all, but really, we have slowly drifted into a life and rhythm where we rarely think about God or consciously choose to honor him.

We are slowly drifting farther and farther from home.

Maybe, for you to come home, to get back right with God, you are going to have to do something that scares you.

You are going to have to seek forgiveness from someone or give up a sinful habit or make some kind of other change that has you afraid.

That is where we are going to find Jacob this morning.

God has called him to go home, back to the land he had promised to give Jacob and his descendants.

However, going home is going to be scary for Jacob because he is going to have to face his brother Esau again.

If you were with us over the last few weeks as we have talked about Jacob’s life, let me ask you something: do you remember why Jacob left in the first place?

Jacob had cheated his brother out of his father’s blessing. His brother, Esau, was planning to kill Jacob after their father died.

Jacob ran away with nothing more than his staff.

On his way out of the land God promised to Jacob’s family, God promised that he would be with Jacob wherever he went and eventually would bring him back to the land (28:15).

Fast forward 20 years. God has prospered all Jacob had done, so he has flocks, herds, wives, and sons.

He’s been working for his uncle Laban, and as chapter 31 opens, we find out that Laban and his sons are jealous of Jacob.

In verse 3, God tells Jacob that it is time to go home.

The rest of chapter 31 tells us about Jacob and his family fleeing Laban, and Laban pursuing.

They argue for a while and eventually strike a treaty and head their separate ways.

Keep in mind what God is doing as he his having Moses write all these things down for the generation leaving Egypt in the Exodus.

Here, he is showing how he worked in Jacob’s life, just like he did in Egypt for the entire nation.

Jacob has been basically enslaved to Laban just like the Israelites were to the Egyptians. Jacob took great wealth with him when he left Laban just like the Israelites did when they left Egypt. God was bringing both Jacob and Israel into the Promised Land, so he is quick to point out the similarities.

So Jacob has left Laban successfully behind and is nearing home.

However, he still has a major hurdle to face before he can go home: his brother Esau, who, last Jacob heard, was so mad that he wanted to kill Jacob.

God records the events leading up to their reconciliation in chapters 32-33, which is where we are going to spend our time today.

We can tell that what happens next is going to be different because of how the chapter starts.

Look at 32:1-2— Without any real detail given, we find that somehow God showed Jacob that angels were camped near by.

That doesn’t mean they were at the KOA; the idea here is more likely that they were camped like an army, ready to do battle and a symbol of God’s continued protection of Jacob.

It’s amazing that we just get a little note about this before the account moves on, but we see God’s presence with Jacob from the beginning of this section on.

Jacob then starts preparing to meet his brother. He sent messengers to Edom to meet Esau and give him the heads up that Jacob is coming and isn’t looking for a fight.

The report they bring back doesn’t sound great. Pick up in verse 6...

Esau, the hunter and man’s man, is coming with a group of 400 men.

Jacob becomes even more afraid and starts preparing.

He divides the people with him and all his livestock into two camps, hoping that if Esau attacked one, at least the other might be able to get away.

So far, he has realized God is with him, but he still seems to be the same old Jacob—he is coming up with his plan for how he is going to deal with the situation.

That changes, though, in verse 9. In his fear, Jacob stops and does exactly what we need to do if we are going to come home today: He prays.

Anytime you see someone praying in Scripture, it is a good idea to look at how they pray to see what it teaches us, so that’s what we are going to do this morning.

Jacob gives us a great model for how to pray, not just when we are coming home, but also whenever we are afraid and are praying for God to work in a situation.

We won’t always include every element of this in our prayer, but we should make sure that we have times where all of these elements are included.

If you need to come home today, I would encourage you to think through each of these in light of your own situation.

If you are in a good place with your relationship with God, Jacob’s prayer still gives us a great model to use about how to pray about the things that we are scared about.

By the way, as we go through these different components of prayer, you might notice these sound familiar.

We talked about some of this when we talked about worship last fall—we see God as he is, we see ourselves as we are, and we respond in repentance and obedience.

That’s reflected in Jacob’s prayer here. Let’s read it together… (read 9-12)

We want to break his prayer into four components.

As we seek God’s face, we need to...

1) Start with who God is.

Jacob begins his prayer by reflecting on who God is.

He starts by acknowledging God as the God of his father Abraham and his father Isaac.

He recognizes that the God he is praying to is the same God who has shown himself faithful for generations to his family.

He is the same God who called Abraham to follow him and made these promises about descendants and land and blessing the world.

He is the same God who took care of his father Isaac and continued keeping the promises he had made.

He also acknowledges that he is praying to the same God who reiterated the promises to him, which we will talk more about in a minute.

As you think about the need you are coming to God with, spend a few moments thinking about the attributes of God that apply in a unique way to what you need.

You can always start with the fact that God is gracious and loving enough to allow us into his presence.

Jesus taught us in Luke 11:13 that God is a loving Father who delights to give good gifts to his children.

Maybe you are facing a decision and need wisdom, so reflect on the fact that Romans 16:27 calls God “the only wise God”.

Perhaps you are discouraged and you want to reflect on the fact that 2 Corinthians 1:3 calls God “the God of all comfort.”

Learn who God is and begin your time in prayer by calling out to God based off who he is.

Focusing on who God is as we start our prayer helps us reframe our fears.

We are coming to the God who is wise and powerful and loving and righteous and all of these things.

As we focus on who God is, our fears can become smaller as we see the size and power and incredible goodness of God’s character.

Obviously, the only way to do that accurately is to get to know God as he has told us about himself in the Bible, which is his Word.

As we see who God is in Scripture, we won’t end up drifting off into making God the way we want him, saying things like, “Well, my god would never...”

Instead, we search through the Bible, acknowledging that this is how God chose to reveal himself to us day by day.

Then, as we pray, we start by addressing him as the God he is.

Spending time in Scripture leads closely to the next component of Jacob’s prayer:

2) Remember what God has said.

Keep in mind that Moses was writing about 400 years after these things happened, so Jacob didn’t have the written word of God like we do.

Instead, God had spoken to him directly and affirmed his promises. He had commanded Jacob to go back.

It is good and helpful, then, to remember what God says he will do by praying the promises of Scripture.

Why do we do that? I mean, doesn’t God know what he said?

Praying promises isn’t about reminding God what he has said or twisting his arm; rather, it is declaring in faith that we believe God will do what he says he will do.

It is an assertion that we know God well enough to know what kind of God he is and what he has said.

Not only that, but praying back the promises of God allows us to better align our requests with what God has said, helping us make sure we are praying for things that honor him.

Again, it isn’t about twisting God’s arm or boxing him into a corner.

It’s is about recognizing who he is and what he has said he will do and basing our requests off that.

These first two components lead us to...

3) Acknowledge your status.

When people get glimpses of God’s power and holiness throughout the Bible, it leads them to recognize their own unworthiness.

We saw that last fall when we looked at Isaiah 6, but we see it everywhere from Genesis through the book of Revelation.

Jacob knows he has lived his life as a deceiver, manipulating people and situations and trying to make things happen on his own.

He recognizes that it wasn’t his great idea that made him rich; everything he has is because of the goodness of God to him.

You and I may or may not be wealthy, but we have to acknowledge that everything we are and have is a direct result of God’s work in our lives.

Contrary to popular belief, God doesn’t owe you and me anything; everything we have is because of his goodness and grace and mercy.

When we are getting ready to ask him to do something, it is essential for us to humble ourselves before him and acknowledge all God has done already.

With those understandings, then, we can...

4) Ask God to work.

Look at verse 11...

With a proper view of God, his promises, and ourselves, we can then make our request.

We aren’t demanding anything we deserve from him; we are humbly requesting God to act in ways we know and believe he is good enough to act on behalf of his people.

Jacob makes a humble and honest request.

In this moment, all the scheming is over and Jacob acknowledges exactly where he is.

If you’re coming home, are you ready to be that transparent?

Are you willing to stop pretending, stop scheming, and stop trying to make it work on your own?

We are all in need of rescue. Maybe not from an angry brother, but from our own sin.

We have all sinned and are separated from God.

We don’t deserve for God to do anything for us, yet in his goodness and mercy, he is a God who rescues.

Cry out to him like Jacob--Please, Lord, rescue me; not from Esau but from my own self. Rescue me from my sin and what I deserve for the way I have lived without you.

After the prayer, things begin to change in Jacob’s preparations for Esau.

He prepares a really generous gift of animals for Esau, and he sends them in several waves.

Although some scholars think this is more of Jacob’s scheming, it could also be that he is trying to make up for some of the wrong he has done to Esau.

He isn’t giving up the blessing or birthright, but he has humbled himself before God and is now humbling himself before his brother by giving him a large gift.

He sent his wives and sons across the river, and for some reason, Jacob stays behind.

It seems that the work God began in Jacob through Jacob’s prayer isn’t finished.

Pick up in verse 24-29...

Alone, in the middle of the night, Jacob gets into a wrestling match with a man.

The Bible doesn’t tell us explicitly, but all the indicators seem to point to this being either an angel in general or possibly even the angel of the Lord, which we know from other passages is likely Jesus taking on a physical form.

Jacob fights with everything he has and demands that the man bless him before Jacob will let him go.

The blessing Jacob receives is a recognition of what God has done in Jacob’s life.

Jacob, the one whose name means “deceiver,” receives a new name- “Israel,” which means either “he strives with God” or “God strives”. In this instance, both had been true. Jacob had fought with God in wrestling his angel, but God had initiated the struggle.

Not only that, but this is the name that would characterize his people. Jacob’s sons would become known as the “sons of Israel,” and the nation would adopt that name.

God strove to protect Jacob from Laban’s schemes, and he would strive for his people for the rest of time.

Jacob, or Israel was now ready to face Esau.

He had prayed to and wrestled with God.

He had turned to God with his fears, he received the blessing God promised, and he had a new name that reflected what God was going to do in him in the future.

We don’t have time to look at it in chapter 33, but God had prepared Esau’s heart and the two men were reconciled, although they still went their separate ways.

While Esau went back to Mount Seir, Jacob, now Israel, came home to the land God had promised to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

God worked in a big way to change Esau’s heart so that Jacob’s fears were unfounded.

I would love to say that if you pray and get your heart squared away, God will automatically resolve that thing that you are scared to do to come home.

He very well may, because he is amazing like that.

However, even if that thing ends up being hard or scary or disappointing, we don’t want to lose sight of what God has done for you.

When you come back to him, you can know that you are being led by God into whatever you are going to have to do.

Because of what Jesus has done on your behalf, if you have trusted in Christ, you have the Holy Spirit living inside you this very moment.

Whatever you face, you face with his presence and power guiding you every step of the way.

So stop running from God, no matter what you are afraid it will cost.

He loves you more than you can imagine, and he is working in and through your life and after you die in ways you don’t even know he is working.

Why not come home?