3.3.22 4.25.2021 Hebrews 11.21, Genesis 32 Jacob: Reflecting Hope,

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Entice: Jacob is one of the least admirable heroes in the entire Old Testament. Maybe that is why the Hebrew author says little about him. Just a glimpse in

Hebrews 11:21 ESV

21 By faith Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, bowing in worship over the head of his staff.

He was a sneak.

He was a cheat.

A liar.

A bamboozling,

hornswoggling

cad.

His approach was to divide, pick sides, create unnecessary conflict.

Sometimes He was too clever for his own good, at others recklessly naive .

Despite the example of his grandfather and his own father his faith was episodic and at times entirely absent.

Engage: His flight from the wrath of his brother Esau first brings him into an intimate experience of God; the famous Jacob's ladder. This is his Promise at the end of what will be a formative experience for him.

Genesis 28:18–22 ESV

18 So early in the morning Jacob took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up for a pillar and poured oil on the top of it. 19 He called the name of that place Bethel, but the name of the city was Luz at the first. 20 Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, 21 so that I come again to my father’s house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God, 22 and this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God’s house. And of all that you give me I will give a full tenth to you.”

Expand: You need to understand…that when you make those kinds of promises to God, He hears and then patiently waits.

After that "conversion" experience Jacob finds his uncle Laban--and was able to learn first-hand what it felt like to be treated like he had treated others. He became the lied to rather than the liar. He who had formerly hornswoggled others, got hornswoggled. He, his father in law, all those wives and their competitive broods of children became an infamous example of a truly dysfunctional family. Finally, it was time to flee before he lost everything he had worked for--after a long life of manipulative acquisition-Jacob fled from one dangerous situation to the next.

Excite: He had never been a hero. To save his family he had to become a hero. He had to learn to trust God in the hardest situation he had ever encountered. I don't care how you have lived your life. God has been working. Sometimes silently. Sometimes openly and sometimes secretly to change you. God creates heroic hopeful faith through a lifetime engagement. And, every so often He provides a moment where we can embrace the transformation He empowers.

Explore:

Estrangement from God can lead to engagement: the distance is only as permanent as you make it.

Explain: Reflection leads to engagement which prompts action.

Body of Sermon:

1. Responsibility.

1.1 Precaution.

Genesis 32:1–8 ESV

1 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.”

1.2 Preparation.

Genesis 32:13–21 ESV

13 So he stayed there that night, and from what he had with him he took a present for his brother Esau, 14 two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, 15 thirty milking camels and their calves, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys. 16 These he handed over to his servants, every drove by itself, and said to his servants, “Pass on ahead of me and put a space between drove and drove.” 17 He instructed the first, “When Esau my brother meets you and asks you, ‘To whom do you belong? Where are you going? And whose are these ahead of you?’ 18 then you shall say, ‘They belong to your servant Jacob. They are a present sent to my lord Esau. And moreover, he is behind us.’ ” 19 He likewise instructed the second and the third and all who followed the droves, “You shall say the same thing to Esau when you find him, 20 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.” 21 So the present passed on ahead of him, and he himself stayed that night in the camp.

Reconciliation.

2. Repentance.

Genesis 32:9–12 ESV

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.’ ”

The need for repentance is universal. The nature of an individual's repentence is unique. Jacob's repentance required him to abandon his controlling, conniving, capricious nature and to trust God entirely.

2.1 Recognition of our need.

2.2 Reconfiguration of our minds.

2.3 Redirection of our journey.

3. Relationship.

Genesis 32:22–32 ESV

22 The same night he arose and took his two wives, his two female servants, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. 23 He took them and sent them across the stream, and everything else that he had. 24 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.

3.1 Alone wrestling

w/God.

3.2 Face to face

Name to name w/God

3.3 Limping & Leaning

Shut Down:

I have said this over and over again in different ways but to the same point. 2020 gave us an opportunity which we must not squander by learning no lesson or the wrong lesson. It took Jacob most of his life before he reflected on the mess it had become and resolved to change. Do not wait.

It does not matter whether you have been a jerk like Jacob did or lived a squeaky clean life. We all need to reflect upon what we are without a life-changing engagement with God. Most of us need to limp before we are ready to leap for joy. Most of us need to wrestle with God before we worship. We need to change mind and direction before we can follow Jesus in faithful discipleship.

The hope which gets us through hard times is not given like a participation trophy. It is won through growth and maturity. It's time for us to get some of that hope.