Genesis 32.24a-Jacob is Alone in Prayer
Sunday August 27, 2006
Genesis: Genesis 32:24a-Jacob is Alone in Prayer
Lesson # 194
Please turn in your Bibles to Genesis 32:1.
This morning we will continue with our studies of Genesis 32 by noting Genesis 32:24a where we see Jacob alone in prayer prior to his encounter with Esau as he entered the land of Canaan in obedience to the Lord’s command.
Thus far, by way of review of this chapter, we have noted the following:
In Genesis 31:1-2, we saw Jacob encountering the angels of God as he was returning to the land of Canaan and naming the place, “Mahanaim,” which means, “two camps.”
Jacob’s encounter with the elect angels of God was designed to reassure him once again of the divine presence and protection and to motivate him to walk by faith and not by sight.
2 Corinthians 5:7, “for we walk by faith, not by sight.”
Hebrews 11:1, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”
Then, we noted Genesis 32:3-6, where Jacob by faith initiates contact with Esau his brother by sending a delegation to him in order to communicate to Esau his desire to reconcile with him but Jacob receives information from the messengers that Esau is coming with four hundred men to meet him.
As we noted the delegation did not make contact with Esau and therefore, did not convey Jacob’s message to Esau but rather they simply turned around after seeing Esau coming with four hundred men and assumed that Esau had hostile intentions.
In Genesis 32:7-8, we saw Jacob’s response to this information, which was to divide his family into two companies in order to save lives in case Esau’s intentions were hostile.
Then, we noted Genesis 32:9-12 where Jacob prays for protection from Esau and claims the covenant promises of God (32:9-12) in order to meet his fear of Esau.
In Genesis 32:13-21 we saw that by faith Jacob sent gifts to Esau as restitution for stealing the blessing of the birthright twenty years before.
This gift was intended to signify to Esau that Jacob’s intentions towards Esau were not hostile but rather conciliatory.
On Thursday evening we studied Genesis 32:22-23 where by faith Jacob sends his family across Jabbok and into the land of Canaan.
This morning we will note the first part of Genesis 3:24a where we see Jacob alone in prayer prior to his encounter with Esau and entrance into the land of Canaan, which was in obedience to the Lord’s command.
Genesis 32:1, “Now as Jacob went on his way, the angels of God met him.”
Genesis 32:2, “Jacob said when he saw them, ‘This is God's camp.’ So he named that place Mahanaim.”
Genesis 32:3, “Then Jacob sent messengers before him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom.”
Genesis 32:4-5, “He also commanded them saying, ‘Thus you shall say to my lord Esau: ‘Thus says your servant Jacob, ‘I have sojourned with Laban, and stayed until now; I have oxen and donkeys and flocks and male and female servants; and I have sent to tell my lord, that I may find favor in your sight.’”
Genesis 32:6, “The messengers returned to Jacob, saying, ‘We came to your brother Esau, and furthermore he is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him.’”
Genesis 32:7-8, “Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed; and he divided the people who were with him, and the flocks and the herds and the camels, into two companies; for he said, ‘If Esau comes to the one company and attacks it, then the company which is left will escape.’”
Genesis 32:9-10, “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 relatives, and I will prosper you, I am unworthy of all the lovingkindness and of all the faithfulness which You have shown to Your servant; for with my staff only I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two companies.’”
Genesis 32:11, “Deliver me, I pray, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau; for I fear him, that he will come and attack me and the mothers with the children.”
Genesis 32:12, “For You said, ‘I will surely prosper you and make your descendants as the sand of the sea, which is too great to be numbered.’”
Genesis 32:13-15, “So he spent the night there. Then he selected from what he had with him a present for his brother Esau: two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, thirty milking camels and their colts, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys.”
Genesis 32:16, “He delivered them into the hand of his servants, every drove by itself, and said to his servants, ‘Pass on before me, and put a space between droves.’”
Genesis 32:17, “He commanded the one in front, saying, ‘When my brother Esau meets you and asks you, saying, ‘To whom do you belong, and where are you going, and to whom do these animals in front of you belong?’”
Genesis 32:18, “then you shall say, ‘These belong to your servant Jacob; it is a present sent to my lord Esau. And behold, he also is behind us.’”
Genesis 32:19-20, “Then he commanded also the second and the third, and all those who followed the droves, saying, ‘After this manner you shall speak to Esau when you find him and you shall say, ‘Behold, your servant Jacob also is behind us.’ For he said, ‘I will appease him with the present that goes before me. Then afterward I will see his face; perhaps he will accept me.’”
Genesis 32:21, “So the present passed on before him, while he himself spent that night in the camp.”
Genesis 32:22, “Now he arose that same night and took his two wives and his two maids and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok.”
Genesis 32:23, “He took them and sent them across the stream. And he sent across whatever he had.”
Genesis 32:24, “Then Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak.”
So after Jacob had done everything he could in the way of offering restitution to Esau for his deceitfulness towards Esau twenty years before, and after sending his wives and children across, we see Jacob alone.
Several questions come to mind when we view this passage.
First of all, why did Jacob rise in the night and send his family across at night, why not wait till daylight?
Secondly, why after taking his family across the Jabbok, did he return to the other side of the river to be alone?
The answer to both of these questions is that Jacob wanted to be alone with God in prayer before his meeting with Esau the next morning.
He knew that Esau would not arrive until the next morning and so his family would be safe for the night with the other servants.
Though the text does not say specifically, the implication is that Jacob sent everyone across the Jabbok and stayed behind in order to be completely alone with God in prayer.
So we see that Jacob prayed not only before sending the gift to Esau but also he will pray once again after sending the gift and his family across the Jabbok before meeting Esau.
Jacob’s desire to be alone with God in prayer presents to us a great example to follow in approaching our relationship with God and when facing great adversity.
In our hurry up, man-centered, man-dependent world that measures success by activity, making big bucks, or how much we accomplish, finding time to hide ourselves alone with God for steady spiritual growth is a lost priority.
It is viewed by many as a nonessential, as something for those who have nothing to do.
The question people often ask is where is the practicality of time alone with God?
We find it extremely hard to look at time in terms other than ‘To Do’ lists and projects, performance and accomplishments.
Others view time alone with God as a virtual impossibility.
There are centrifugal forces at work in our modern world that propel us into a whirlwind of activity or business.
But perhaps more than anything else our society has been led into a dangerous mood of impatience.
Eugene Peterson accurately captures this mood of our day and writes:
One aspect of the world that I have been able to identify as harmful to Christians is the assumption that anything worthwhile can be acquired at once. We assume that if something can be done at all, it can be done quickly and efficiently. Our attention spans have been conditioned by thirty-second commercials. Our sense of reality has been flattened by thirty-page abridgments. There is a great market for religious experience in our world; there is little enthusiasm for the patient acquisition of virtue, little inclination to sign up for a long apprenticeship in what earlier generations of Christians called holiness. Everyone is in a hurry. The persons whom I lead in worship, among whom I counsel, visit, pray, preach, and teach, want short cuts … They are impatient for results …The Christian life cannot mature under such conditions and in such ways (A Long Obedience in the Same Direction, InterVarsity, Downers Grove, IL, 1980, pages 11-12).
King David knew his need of daily time alone with God and, though faced with trials and pressures that were pulling him in other directions, he vowed that nothing would keep him from meeting with God daily, especially at the beginning his day.
Psalm 5:3, “In the morning, O LORD, You will hear my voice; In the morning I will order my prayer to You and eagerly watch.”
No doubt it was this intimate morning-by-morning meeting with the Lord that developed David’s faith and made him a man after God’s own heart.
This morning watch, as we might call it, has the special reward of knowing God more intimately and of Christ-like transformation.
The Lord Jesus Christ prayed in the morning (Mark 1:35-38; Luke 4:42).
Mark 1:35, “In the early morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and went away to a secluded place, and was praying there.”
The rewards of time alone with God are often not immediately evident and in our impatience we run to something more visibly practical but there is a self-deception at work here as well.
The negative effects of ignoring daily time to be alone with God is also not immediately visible.
It’s not like falling off a roof where gravity immediately takes over and swiftly plunges us to the ground.
Ecclesiastes 8:11, “Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed quickly, therefore the hearts of the sons of men among them are given fully to do evil.”
Ecclesiastes 8:12, “Although a sinner does evil a hundred times and may lengthen his life, still I know that it will be well for those who fear God, who fear Him openly.”
The aftermath of failing to draw near to God is more like the decomposition of organic material, slow but sure.
In time we can begin to see and even smell the signs of spiritual and moral decay.
Ironically, spiritual decay is often accompanied by a paradox, the rock-like hardening of our souls which may blind us to the rot taking place in our heart.
Hebrews 3:7-8, “Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says, ‘TODAY IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE, DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS AS WHEN THEY PROVOKED ME, AS IN THE DAY OF TRIAL IN THE WILDERNESS.’”
Hebrews 3:12-13, “Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called ‘Today,’ so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.”
Unless, we make time alone with God a priority, the other hours devoted to our busy schedules will be poorly used.
We are prone to ignore times of retreat because our work, ministry, families, all seem more important.
Doing seems so much more practical than praying or meditating on the Word.
But the spiritual disciplines of prayer and meditation on the Word do not constitute idleness or indolence.
They are rigorous disciplines that are vital to the spiritual life.
1 Thessalonians 5:17, “Make it your habit to pray on a consistent basis.”
Psalm 119:15, “I will meditate on Your precepts and regard Your ways.”
We can too easily be like Martha, who was distracted by so many things, rather than Mary who sat at the feet of the Savior to hear His Word.
Luke 10:38-39, “Now as they were traveling along, He entered a village; and a woman named Martha welcomed Him into her home. She had a sister called Mary, who was seated at the Lord's feet, listening to His word.”
Luke 10:40, “But Martha was distracted with all her preparations; and she came up to Him and said, ‘Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone? Then tell her to help me.’”
Luke 10:41-42, “But the Lord answered and said to her, ‘Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things; but only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her.’”