NAMED (GENESIS 32)
Notes
Transcript
JACOB RETURNS (GENESIS 32:1-8)
JACOB RETURNS (GENESIS 32:1-8)
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.
ANGELS OF GOD POINTS US BACK TO GENESIS 28:10-12 WHERE JACOB FIRST WITNESSED THE ANGELS AT BETHEL.
JACOB HAS BEEN OUTSIDE OF THE LAND OF PROMISE BUT NOT OUTSIDE OF THE HAND OF PROMISE.
MAHANAIM MEANS “TWO CAMPS”.
7 The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them.
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.”
SEIR = HAIRY EDOM = RED
JUST LIKE ABRAHAM AND ISAAC BEFORE HIM, JACOB RETURNS FROM HIS SOJOURNING BLESSED BY GOD.
• “I have been staying with Laban and have remained there till now.” Implication, “I have not been hiding, avoiding you, or sneaking around behind your back.”
• “I have cattle and donkeys, sheep and goats, menservants and maidservants.” Implication, “I am not coming to try to take anything from you. I have plenty. I am not going to try to trick you out of anything or lay claim to anything that you have acquired.”
• “I am sending this message … that I may find favor in your eyes.” Implication, “Why don’t we let bygones be bygones; forget the past and start over?
FOUR HUNDRED MEN WAS THE NORMAL SIZE OF A MILITIA.
The participle hōlēk, “he [Esau] is coming,” conveys an alarmingly vivid picture of the man and his horde approaching rapidly.
The string of verbs in close order heightens the urgency of his reaction, lit., “Jacob was greatly afraid … distressed … divided.”
JACOB PRAYS AND PLANS(GENESIS 32:9-21)
JACOB PRAYS AND PLANS(GENESIS 32:9-21)
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.’ ”
FIRST PRAYER OF JACOB.
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.
(1) The five distinct groups of animals arriving in succession will wear down the military readiness of Esau’s band. If they were planning an ambush, they would have to set it up each time a group arrives. When they discover that Jacob is not in the group, they would all gather again and proceed on their way. After five times it is unlikely that they are as alert for combat as they may have been at first. By that time Esau and his men will probably have given up the idea of an ambush altogether.
(2) As the gifts arrive, Esau becomes more and more encumbered in his travel. The animals will force him to move more slowly and will make his band much noisier. It will be difficult to take Jacob by surprise given the unavoidable cacophony from the livestock.
(3) As Jacob’s servants bring the gifts, they join the march of Esau’s band. How effective can any of Esau’s intended military strategies be if he has to cope with members of Jacob’s household mixed in among his own retinue of soldiers?
IRONY: JACOB HAD ALWAYS SOUGHT TO BE FIRST - NOW HE IS LAST/BEHIND
APPEASE HIM: LIT. APPEASE HIS FACE…THEN I SHALL SEE HIS FACE…PERHAPS HE WILL LIFT UP MY FACE
JACOB WRESTLES (GENESIS 32:22-32)
JACOB WRESTLES (GENESIS 32:22-32)
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.
ISRAEL MEANS GOD STRUGGLES OR MAY GOD STRUGGLE BUT THE ANGEL FLIPS IT TO MEAN YOU HAVE STRUGGLED WITH GOD.
JACOB’S VICTORY IS IN HIS DEFEAT.
7 So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited.
8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me.
9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
1 For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not be quiet, until her righteousness goes forth as brightness, and her salvation as a burning torch.
2 The nations shall see your righteousness, and all the kings your glory, and you shall be called by a new name that the mouth of the Lord will give.
3 You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God.
4 You shall no more be termed Forsaken, and your land shall no more be termed Desolate, but you shall be called My Delight Is in Her, and your land Married; for the Lord delights in you, and your land shall be married.
17 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it.’