The Same God Week 1 (2)

Sermon

Explaining the Series

Throughout the summer we will be tracing through the Old Testament or Hebrew Bible

The same God that we read about in the OT is the same God that meets us here and now

Often when we read the old testament we are so distanced from the times of the stories that we think it is a different God altogether

Or worse yet sometimes we hear about the God of wrath from the Old Testament and the God of Love from the new testament, but that could not be further from the truth

There is one God

The God who was, who is, and who is to come, all the same God.

So last week we started from the beginning of creation, and our story today picks up a little later of still in the book of Genesis, but throughout a lot has happened, so I want to fill us in.

Necessary Background

All about blessing

Abraham

God commits to Abraham and says you will have the amount of stars in the sky

Covenants with Abraham

he will be a blessing to the nation

The linage of this is carried through the first born males of the family

Isaac - Names really are significant in the OT

Esau

“Hairy”

Esau is the first born

He deserves the birthright

He trades it for a bowl of soup

Jacob -

“deciever”

Jacob put fur on himself to lie to his father to receive the blessing

It was the family blessing

So Jacob is a lier he lied, and cheated, and stole his way into being the family patriarch, and hence living up to his name the deciever.

He flees the area

has 4 wives loves one

He demands that God blesses him

Jacob feels like he is constantly striving for something, and it is God’s blessing

But he has gone behind God’s back, he has even gone behind his fathers back and deceived his way into something

It is like he beat the game but he has to use cheat codes so it was dissatisfying, and now he truly and genuinely wants God’s blessing

On top of that his brother is very angry at him

Genesis 32:22–31 NRSV

22 The same night he got up and took his two wives, his two maids, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. 23 He took them and sent them across the stream, and likewise everything that he had. 24 Jacob was left alone; and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. 25 When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he struck him on the 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 is breaking.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go, unless you bless me.” 27 So he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” 28 Then the man said, “You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with humans, 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 place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is preserved.” 31 The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip.

Word play going on

Jacob - “deciever”

Jabbock - “River of Wrestling”

Penuel - “face of God”

Israel mean “striving with God”

“What is your name?” “Jacob,” he answers. “Jacob” is not only who he is, but what he is.

Who am I? Trickster. Supplanter. Heel-grabber

It is as if Jacob says this is who I am I am a lier and I am a cheater

We see who we were, God sees who we will become

Jacob (israel) received not only a new name but a new courage

We deal with God directly we don't have to lie and cheat or go behind God's back. We get the opportunity to be honest with ourselves and with God. Not just because God already knows it, but so we can come to terms with the fact that God already knows it.

Jacob didn’t was chasing something that he couldn’t grasp

Our stories tell both of who we are and who God is

We can be our fully selves with God

Jacob could only focus on how to prepare for Esau

God may meet us in the anticipated difficulty

when we refuse to turn to God in a moment of struggle we pass up an opportunity

Don’t waste your pain

We can be honest with God

We don’t have to isolate or run from God

We don’t have to only deal with the symptoms of our problems, we can be face-to-face with God

God may meet us in the anticipated difficulty

when we refuse to turn to God in a moment of struggle we pass up an opportunity

he no longer had to be sick and tired or being sick and tired

Our encounters with God transform us

Jacob won’t let him go unless he gets his blessing

God won’t give the blessing

As such he gets a new name Israel

Israel is left with this injury to remind him of what happened here

Jacob wants a new name to give to God to attribute to this interaction

God is not changed, but our relationship to God is changed

When we see who we were, God sees who we will become

Our stories tell both of who we are and who God is

Our stories disclose in a general way who we are, who God is, and what changed

God and Jacob face the future together

We can try to bargain

Or to lie to God

or to run away from God

God cannot be decieved by me

God can’t be fooled by me