Jacob and Esau Week 4

Genesis 32

INTRODUCTION

Good morning and welcome to First Christian Church today.  I am so glad to be able to gather with you all this morning as we worship our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  I am so thankful for this body of believers, our little piece of the flock, that I have the privilege to shepherd. 

Yesterday was my 34th birthday.  I know, I know, I don’t look a day over 33.  But I was spending some time this week just reflecting and thinking about the last 34 years.  I was thinking about the faithfulness of God and how He has worked in my life.  About the joy of salvation, I am thankful that I have known Christ as my savior for nearly 20 years.  I was thinking forward, wondering what the next 34 years would look like.  I want you to know that aside from looking forward to being with my family over the next 3 and half decades, I look forward to being with this church, our forever family, for the next 34 years and more.  I look forward to watching us grow old together as a church body and plan to be here as long as you and God would allow it.  I don’t care if you have to put me in a wheelchair and prop me up in front of the microphone; it is, and always will be, my pleasure and honor to serve the Lord here at First Christian Church of Clemmons. 

Now, back to our regularly scheduled program.  We are in week 4 of our series on Jacob and Esau.  This will be our last sermon in this series. It will not fully complete the life of Jacob, which will continue through the rest of the book of Genesis, but we will wrap up this portion.  

We have seen God make a promise to Abraham and Sarah, the grandparents of Jacob and Esau, that they would have descendants like stars in the sky.  Isaac, their son, marries Rebekah and they struggle to conceive.  After 20 years of praying, they had a set of twin boys.  God tells Rebekah that those sons will be two nations, and the older will serve the younger.

We saw how Jacob, the younger brother, tricked his older brother Esau out of his birthright, and deceived Isaac to get the blessing.  Last week, we looked at Jacob and the circumstances around his marriage, or marriages.  How his father-in-law/uncle tricked him into marrying Leah and Rachel, and the problems that arose with the marriages and the birth of their children.  We ended the story with Jacob and his clan leaving the land of Laban and going back to the promised land where he grew up.  This is where we will pick up today in Genesis 32.  Would you pray with me this morning as we begin?

PRAY

We are going to walk through this chapter this morning and look at how Jacob reacts to the impending meeting of him and Esau.  Their last interaction involved Esau vowing to kill Jacob, but 20 years have passed.  Has the anger of Esau subsided?  Can Jacob be sure that it is safe for him to return.  Let’s look at Genesis 32:1-8

Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him. 2 And when Jacob saw them he said, “This is God’s camp!” So he called the name of that place Mahanaim. 3 And Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau his brother in the land of Seir, the country of Edom, 4 instructing them, “Thus you shall say to my lord Esau: Thus says your servant Jacob, ‘I have sojourned with Laban and stayed until now. 5 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.’ ” 6 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.” 7 Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed. He divided the people who were with him, and the flocks and herds and camels, into two camps, 8 thinking, “If Esau comes to the one camp and attacks it, then the camp that is left will escape.”

Jacob starts this entry back into his homeland by sending out his messengers to go to Esau and let them know Jacob was coming.  He also tells them to brag about, or share, what Jacob has.  He wants his brother to know that it isn’t just Jacob coming back, but that Jacob has done well and has prospered.  It reads as though Jacob wants Esau to be proud of him, and by hearing all that Jacob has, maybe Esau would back down.  

When the messengers return and tell him that Esau is coming and bringing 400 men with him, Jacob creates a new plan.  He wants to divide his items so that if Esau meets him and attacks, he won’t lose all he has.  If I am honest, this is a smart move by Jacob.  He only expects that his brother will attack and try to kill him.  He hopes that he can get away, and even if Esau destroys part of it, he will still have some of his things.   

Jacob’s relationship with God is interesting.  Throughout the story we see times where God is clearly working.  In the birth of Jacob and Esau, we see that it was God listening to the prayers of Isaac.  God is the one who is blessing Jacob, and Laban, while he is working for his father-in-law.  God even speaks to Jacob directing him to return to his home in Genesis 31:3, “Then the Lord said to Jacob, 'Return to the land of your fathers and to your kindred, and I will be with you.”   Even though Jacob had been deceptive, and had manipulated events to get what he wanted, God was still with Jacob.  The promise for the descendants of Abraham continued through the line of Jacob.  So, when we get to chapter 32, we see Jacob fearful of his brother Esau, and it is in this moment that he calls out to God. Let’s pick back up in Genesis 32:9.

And Jacob said, “O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O Lord who said to me, ‘Return to your country and to your kindred, that I may do you good,’ 10 I am not worthy of the least of all the deeds of steadfast love and all the faithfulness that you have shown to your servant, for with only my staff I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two camps. 11 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. 12 But you said, ‘I will surely do you good, and make your offspring as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.’ ”

Jacob cries out to God in prayer.  This prayer could have gone a very different way.  This prayer could have been Jacob crying out for God to destroy Esau.  It could have been Jacob asking God to wipe Esau from the face of the earth and not even leave a person to remember him.  Instead, Jacob prays for God to protect him.  He makes it clear in verse 10 that he is not worthy of the steadfast love and faithfulness that he has been shown.  He left this land 20 years ago with just a staff but returns with two camps worth of people and animals.

Jacob begins this prayer by reminding God of the promise made to Abraham and Isaac.  He is reminding God that it was He who called Jacob to return and that it must be God who will protect Him.  If the promise is to continue, and the offspring of his line is like the sand of the sea, God must intervene in the life of Jacob.  

For us as believers, we have seen so much in this story of how not to treat each other, how not to treat our families and other believers.  But here we see a beautiful example of Jacob understanding his place in this universe.  If there has ever been a question of whether Jacob came to realize that his plotting, scheming, and manipulating were not needed, this prayer should answer it.  Jacob knows he is not worthy of the blessings that God has given him, but he trusts God to come through with his promise.

What does that mean for us today?  It means we have to carry through with the same understanding.  I do not deserve all the things that God has blessed me with.  I don’t deserve my family, and I don’t deserve the opportunity to serve here at First Christian, but God has blessed me.  I don’t deserve salvation, but God shows his steadfast love and faithfulness to mankind by promising a savior and giving us that savior in Jesus Christ.  And through that sacrifice of Jesus, we have a way back to God.  He has not abandoned us or forsaken us, but has sacrificed His son to buy us back.  When we are viewing the world through these lenses, with an understanding of who God is and who we are not, then how we act toward others starts to look more and more like how God has called us to act.  

After making this prayer to God, Jacob decides to split more of his camps up and send them out with space between them as a gift to Esau.  In verse 20 it says, “and you shall say, ‘Moreover, your servant Jacob is behind us.’”  For he thought, “I may appease him with the present that goes ahead of me, and afterward I shall see his face.  Perhaps he will accept me.’”  He hopes that he can atone for or cover over the offense to Esau with gifts.  His hope is that the offense he has created, by deceiving his brother out of his birthright and blessing, can simply be covered with a long line of gifts to him.  When Jacob says that he hopes that it may “appease” him, it is the Hebrew word “Kapar” (kaw-fair), which is most used when speaking of the sacrifices given to pay for the sins of the Israelites.  

This word most often speaks to the act of shedding blood through a sacrifice to cover the sins of the Israelites.  This atonement that is made for their sin, which can only be made by the shedding of blood, is made to appease God.  To pay the debt of sin, but in the old testament we know that this animal sacrifice is not a once and for all payment. It is not sufficient to cover the sins forever.  It is only the sacrifice of the Messiah, of Jesus Christ, that makes that kind of payment.  But how often to we try to appease God with our works?  By simply doing things?  By thinking we can earn our way into heaven through our actions?  Jacob hopes that his gifts will turn away the wrath of his brother.  By sending his camp away, this leaves Jacob alone to spend the night wondering what will come in the morning as he finally encounters his brother again. 

Genesis 32:24-32

And Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day. 25 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. 26 Then he said, “Let me go, for the day has broken.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” 27 And he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” 28 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.” 29 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. 30 So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered.” 31 The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip. 32 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.

That night, as Jacob is alone, he wrestles with God.  He spends the whole night wrestling with this unknown man, a physical embodiment of God, and when the sun rises, he has not prevailed against Jacob.  He touches his hip socket and pulls the hip out of the joint.  Even in what I would imagine excruciating pain, Jacob will not let go.  He demands a blessing.  Here is one of the most pivotal moments in our story.  Jacob is renamed, no longer the deceiver, but now he shall be called Israel.  Israel, meaning “wrestles with God”  A new name as he returns to his home.  He has proven himself; he has wrestled with God and man and prevailed.  Jacob names the area and goes away, limping to meet his brother.  This is a beautiful reminder that when we come face to face with God, when we have spent time wrestling with God, we walk away changed.

There is an immense amount of foreshadowing in this scene.  Jacob has fathered many sons, and it is from the 12 sons of Jacob that we will see the 12 tribes of Israel come.  To this very day, the Jewish people know of their tribe and who they are a descendant of.  A great nation comes from Jacob.  The nation of Israel will be, and still are, the people of God.  These are the chosen people of God.  They are a nation blessed by God.  The rest of the Old Testament tells us the story of these people of God as they will become slaves in Egypt, be led out of captivity by Moses, be led into the promised land by Joshua, and as a nation will struggle and fight with serving God through centuries to come.  All this while awaiting the birth of a coming Messiah.

God makes a promise to Abraham, and through his grandson Jacob, we will see a great nation come into existence.  A nation that still stands today.  But a nation that has lived up to their name, Israel.  They will struggle with God.  They will disobey his commands and be taken as captives by other nations, but they are never abandoned by God.  This night begins the fulfillment of the promise of God. 

Picture this in your mind now.  Jacob spends the night wrestling with God and emerges the next morning with a new name and a new limp.  He goes into his meeting with Esau at a physical disadvantage but with a spiritual advantage.  And God answers Jacob’s prayer; his meeting with Esau is anything but a fight.  Genesis 33:4 says, “But Esau ran to meet him and embraced him and fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept.” 

Esau does not kill his brother, but falls embracing and weeping with him.  They come together and reconcile.  Jacob has been protected by God, just as he asked.  Esau does not need the gifts to appease him, but seeing his brother safe and prospering brings peace to their relationship.  

APPLICATION

We can trust God, and His promises.

Jacob prays to God, reminding God of the promise made to his family, hoping that God will protect him.  God has made a promise, and He does not break his promises.   All that we read in the bible is true and worthy of being trusted.  We can see the promises throughout scripture, promises of a messiah coming to earth and dying for our sins, and we see them come true.  

We know the next promise we await is the trumpet sound and the call of His church into the sky and with the Lord.  The Rapture is the next promise that we can trust and wait for God to come through on.  For those of us who know Jesus, we earnestly sit and watch.  We pray “come Lord Jesus” and look to the sky for our Savior.

But for those who do not know Jesus, when we talk about eternity and the Rapture, there may be an uneasiness inside of you.  A tightness in your chest as you think or feel uncertainty about eternity.  Know that the promise of the scripture is true, that the wages of our sin have earned us death.  Our sin has caused us to earn death and separation from God eternally.  And just as the earthly presents of Jacob were not what appeased Esau, our earthly works are not what make atonement for our sin.  It is only through the shed blood of Jesus that atonement is made.  And the promise that you will spend eternity somewhere is true.  We all will spend eternity either in heaven with God or in hell, eternally separated from the Father.

Today, if you do not know Jesus as your savior, you can submit yourself to God.  You can repent, turn from your sins, and turn to God.  Believe that His sacrifice was sufficient for the price of your sins, and cry out to Him as your Lord and Savior for forgiveness of your sin.  You can have a new life today, a life knowing that your eternity is with God.