Genesis #30: The Blessing - Finding Jacob
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Transcript
Handout
Finding Jacob
Finding Jacob
Last week we saw Jacob leading his family away from his uncle Laban. He’s been away from his home for over 20 years. Things didn’t end real well with his uncle, but that’s pretty typical for Jacob’s relationships.
When he left home years ago, he left things in a bad way as well.
Remember he had deceived his father, taking the blessing his father had sought to give to Esau.
But his problems with his brother went back way before that.
You may remember
Genesis 25:21-27
Genesis 25:21-27
21 Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife, because she was childless. The Lord answered his prayer, and his wife Rebekah became pregnant. 22 The babies jostled each other within her, and she said, “Why is this happening to me?” So she went to inquire of the Lord.
23 The Lord said to her,
“Two nations are in your womb,
and two peoples from within you will be separated;
one people will be stronger than the other,
and the older will serve the younger.”
24 When the time came for her to give birth, there were twin boys in her womb. 25 The first to come out was red, and his whole body was like a hairy garment; so they named him Esau. 26 After this, his brother came out, with his hand grasping Esau’s heel; so he was named Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when Rebekah gave birth to them.
27 The boys grew up, and Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the open country, while Jacob was content to stay at home among the tents.
He’s been sort of a relationship demolition ball his whole life and now he’s on his way back and will have to face his family, but honestly, there isn’t a lot of excitement about this homecoming… but rather a bit of anxiety.
You know what this is like. When you know you have to go there… and you will see them… There’s simply no way to avoid it, as much as you want to.
That’s where we find Jacob in Chapter 32
A Divine Appointment
A Divine Appointment
Jacob sets off from his meeting with Laban
1 Jacob also went on his way, and the angels of God met him. 2 When Jacob saw them, he said, “This is the camp of God!” So he named that place Mahanaim.
He sets up camp at… Mahanaim, which means “two camps” He has so much with him, that they have to spread out. Two Camps, but upon meeting the angels, Jacob recognizes that these two camps are … a camp for Jacob and a camp of God.
Nothing more is said of these angels. In fact, the story goes straight to what seems like a more pressing matter, Jacobs dealing with Esau.
How often we approach our lives like that, quickly moving our attention to encounters with God to our “more important” things...
As though anything could be more important than an encounter with the divine.
No Surprises
No Surprises
Jacob then sends messengers to his brother Esau because when you scare someone they’ll often try to hit you. If you don’t want to fight, you better let them see you coming.
Jacob doesn’t want to appear a threat to Esau, rather instructs his servants to address Esau with the message that Jacob was coming as Esau’s servant.
Instead of calming Esau; Esau got on his way to meet the approaching Jacob head on.
They reported back...
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.”
This was exactly what Jacob was afraid of.
When what you feared would happen… was actually happening.
What do you do?
Some people fight… some people denial.... at different times, we may be both.
Jacob though is relentless, he always has a plan
Plans Fearfully Made
Plans Fearfully Made
Jacob in fear of his brother
First, Jacob divides his people/property - vs 7-8
Then he sets to prayer. Granted this probably should have been the first thing, but he got there.
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. 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.’ ”
I’ll come back the prayer, but I hope you notice this seems like the first honest prayer Jacob.
Finally right.
How many times does it take us getting to the end of our wits before we turn back to God.
Asking God to bless our plans. Instead it would be significantly better to ask God to give us a plan.
This prayer he prays is a great model for us to use in our prayers. Is that because there is something special about the words he prays?
No… not particularly, but there is something special about a prayer that puts things - God, Me, My needs, My wants, His purpose - in the right perspective.
A prayer that puts things in perspective
A prayer that puts things in perspective
This prayer of Jacob does just that.
Let’s look at it.
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,’
Adoration
That puts God in perspective - Character, attributes, nature, names, etc.
Abba-daddy
Adonai- authority
El-Elyon - most high
El-Olam- everlasting
El Roi- Sees
El-Shaddai- Powerful
El-Elohim- Creator
Yahweh- present
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.
Confession
Puts us in perspective
Confession is clear when we see God as He is.
Jacob then thanks God for the blessings he has already received. What God has done already to make him who he is.
Thanksgiving
Who we are
Not just your stuff. Thank God specifically for that which he has done in your life.
Not sure… well think about God’s holiness you just prayed, your sin you just confessed.... and how bout this, you are still alive, you are still loved, you are forgiven, you are restored, on and on.
Then he gets to what we spend most of our time praying… telling God what we need.
Scripture tells us he already knows our every need, but we ask him not to make him aware, but to open our hearts to him.
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.’ ”
Supplication
Who He wants us to be
God I want to be, who you created me to be that I might glorify you.
This is a dangerous prayer because it puts things in perspective
So he does turn to God and prays a beautiful prayer… one that I think we would do well to model in our life.
Jacob and his family spent another night there and the next day he prepared to send gifts to his brother in an effort to appease him.
Jacob’s Plan B
Jacob’s Plan B
The plan is Sends gifts
200 goats, 200 sheep, dozens of camels, cows, and donkeys. He arranged them by herds and told the servants leading them that when Esau came upon them to say
18 then you are to say, ‘They belong to your servant Jacob. They are a gift sent to my lord Esau, and he is coming behind us.’ ”
So herd after herd would come to Esau.. to impress him.
Is this the old Jacob trying to manipulate, trying to get ahead, scheming? Maybe a little, but this time he sends out his servants, they announce his coming with generosity to back up the words of humility.
It’s one thing to say I love you… but never show it.
It’s one thing to say I am a servant… but never serve.
He sent the servants with the gifts, to show his humility, and Jacob and his family stayed behind at Jabbok
He’s done everything he knew to do. He’d tried to come peacefully, but it didn’t sound like Esau was interested in peace but war. But that’s who he was. A man of strength, the outdoorsman, the hunter. Jacob wasn’t much of a fighter, more of a diplomat.
But something is changing here.
The real blessing is right here
The real blessing is right here
Just in case Jacob determines to camp away from his family.
He puts them across the Jabbok to protect them in case Esau comes during the night.
It’s an interesting name of a river, Jabbok. Meaning “struggle” or “emptying”.... sort of explains what was going to happen there that night.
Verse 24 tells us that in the dark a man appeared to Jacob and he wrestled with him all night.
Scholars teach us that this man or this angel was some form of a preincarnate Jesus. I’ll be honest this is one of the most difficult texts to understand, but I’ve come to read it as the Bible wants me to read it. This man, is God. Jacob doesn’t know it until God reveals it though.
24 So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak.
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.”
The book of Hosea explains this to be God or at least an angel.
For my point, it doesn’t matter if it is God in the flesh or an angel; if Jacob is wrestling with God all night. Why did God allow that?
When with a touch of his finger, he could wrench his hip, one of the strongest joints in the body; why in the world would he wrestle all night.
Why would God hold back his power?
It makes me think back to when my son was little. We used to wrestle all over the house. We broke stuff all the time. Wrestling with my son when he was young.
To build his confidence.
Confidence in my strength… and in his ability to struggle.
That’s God's desire with allowing us to struggle sometimes… that we would develop an appreciation of his strength and our ability.
God’s teaching you in your struggle against the things you struggle with… that he is stronger… that he can deliver… that even that thing which you can’t control- is in his control.
He wants you to submit to his authority.
But look at how Jacob responds to the demand for release.
I won’t let go unless you bless me.
His life in a sentence.
This had been Jacob’s story all along. His whole life, he had been going from one place to another trying to squeeze a blessing out of every encounter, and every time he comes away unsatisfied.
If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world. – CS Lewis
Searching and searching… for blessing from his brother… then from his father.... then from his uncle… and his uncles sons…
Jacob had been born as an answer to God’s promise. He was blessed. God was his blessing. His blessing had been there all along.
For us… God sent his only son to die on a cross that the world might be saved through him… not to condemn the world… but to give us life and life in it’s fullness, found only in a relationship with God the Father, our creator and sustainer.
Our blessing has been there all along
Where ever we have been searching… it’s not there. It’s HERE at the cross.
That’s the other place in scripture that God held back his power for our benefit.
What was God’s response?
27 The man asked him, “What is your name?” “Jacob,” he answered.
This draws us back to when Jacob went in to see his father, Isaac asked who is it? Jacob answered, it’s your son Esau, give me my blessing father.”
Since day one, Jacob has been a deceiver… no surprise really, it was the name his parents gave him. How often we get our identity from the names people give us.
Makes me think of the names we hear again and again that we take on to be our identity. This is the first time Jacob has been honest about who he is.
God says to him… your name is no longer Jacob, but Israel.
You are no longer deceiver but you are known as God-wrestler because you wrestled and you’ve come through.
Jacob has overcome.
New Name
No longer deceiver
Now “struggler”
Jacob left with a new name and a new limp
Scripture refers to him as both in the future…
Jacob wants to know God’s name but he doesn't tell him, but Jacob knows…
Jacob was victorious, but he was changed.
When we find God, we find ourselves
When we find God, we find ourselves
You discover who you are by discovering whose you are.
Change is complicated
It’s not a straight line
It’s a process
We have to stay connected to God to keep in sync with his plan for our lives.
God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob will be with you
The God of the ones who burn the trail… God of the ones who follow along… and the God of the ones who just can’t seem to get it right...
I’m the God of all of you
God says… I AM