Jacob part 6c
Trust in Yourself or trust in others or trust in God
Genesis 32 Now Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him. 2 Then Jacob said when he saw them, “This is God’s [a]camp.” So he named that place [b]Mahanaim.
24 Then Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until the [h]breaking of dawn. 25 And he saw that he had not prevailed against him, so he touched the socket of his thigh; and so the socket of Jacob’s thigh was dislocated while he wrestled with him. 26 Then he said, “Let me go, for the dawn is [i]breaking.” But he 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 He said, “Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but [j]Israel; for you have striven with God and with men and have prevailed.”
I. Trust in God. What does that mean?
A television program preceding the 1988 Winter Olympics featured blind skiers being trained for slalom skiing, impossible as that sounds. Paired with sighted skiers, the blind skiers were taught on the flats how to make right and left turns. When that was mastered, they were taken to the slalom slope, where their sighted partners skied beside them shouting, "Left!" and "Right!" As they obeyed the commands, they were able to negotiate the course and cross the finish line, depending solely on the sighted skiers' word. It was either complete trust or catastrophe.
What a vivid picture of the Christian life! In this world, we are in reality blind about what course to take. We must rely solely on the Word of the only One who is truly sighted--God Himself. His Word gives us the direction we need to finish the course.
Robert W. Sutton.
So, God was at work teaching Jacob that lesson from the start of his life. Think about this. From the start of Jacob’s life, he was given a choice as to whether he would trust what God said, what people said, or his own words. He would have been told the story of how God called his grandfather away from Ur of the Chaldees and had promised him that he and his family would inherit the land they walked on, become a great nation, and bless the world. He heard that the same promise was made to his father Isaac. And now the same promise was made to him. Would he believe God’s word, or would he try and get all he could get by his own conniving devices?
His mother was told by God that he, the younger twin, would be the master over his brother. Would he believe God’s Word, or would he try and manipulate himself into the highest position. God had promised him before he came to Padden-Aram, and Laban that he would watch over him, prosper him, and bring him back home. But instead of trusting God, he kept working the swindle against his father-in-law Laban.
We should put our trust in God. Jacob’s story tells us why. God was at work visibly and invisibly to mold and bless Jacob. And God gave Jacob exactly what he needed, when he needed it.
I have a cheap digital clock at school that I bought this year. It is nothing fancy. It just helps me keep up with how the hour is progressing. But it doesn’t keep good time. It loses a minute or so every two or three days. So, I have to update it weekly if I don’t want it to go to far off.
I think that is how many people view God. Sometimes we read these Bible stories like they are stories of people, and then God just pops in every once in a while to set things straight. That is not how God works. Look at the story of Jacob. God worked through even his dysfunctional family to mold Jacob into a patriarch. And just when he is at his lowest point, fleeing the country to escape his brother, God gives him a vision of a staircase up to heaven with His angels going up and down. The point God was making; even though he didn’t see me, I was here, and my angels were at work doing my bidding, ministering to you.
And in all the years that he is working for Laban, it has been God who kept Laban from sending him away empty. And let me show you one other story.
32 Now Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him. 2 Then Jacob said when he saw them, “This is God’s [a]camp.” So he named that place [b]Mahanaim.
Jacob is returning home after twenty years away. He has two wives, two concubines, 11 sons and a daughter, man servants and lots of cattle and sheep. He has traveled all the way back into the land promised him. But, he decides that before he gets all of the way back home, he is going to contact his brother. He wants to return in peace. So, this is the message he sends.
“Thus you shall say to my lord, to Esau: ‘Thus says your servant Jacob, “I have sojourned with Laban and have been delayed until now; 5 and I have oxen and donkeys and flocks and male and female slaves; and I have sent to tell my lord, that I may find favor in your sight.”’”
He is seeking to curry favor with Esau. It’s been 20 years, and he hopes that Esau is over being angry. So, the message is sent, and a message comes back.
6 Then the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, “We came to your brother, to Esau, and furthermore he is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him.” 7 Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed;
Oh no. This is not good news. Esau is coming with an army of men. Jacob becomes distressed. He can’t fight Esau. His band is a group of shepherds, wives, children, servants and sheep. When thinks about the number 400 who are coming with Esau, all he can see is his own death, and possibly the death of his family. So, who is he going to trust? Is he going to trust himself? Other people? And it is here that God does what He did when Jacob left home the first time. He reminds him who is on his side. Let’s go back to verse one and two, which happened before he even sent a message to Esau.
32 Now Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him.
Did you even pay attention to that when we read it? When we recount the story of Jacob in Sunday School, these verses often just get glossed over. He is back in the land, and walking along one day, and the angels of God met him. Oh, okay, that’s an everyday event. It doesn’t say how many met him. He calls the “God’s camp” which would seem to indicate a very large number. But he knows they are God’s host. Members of God’s army. It doesn’t say anything about the meeting. I think that indicates that few or no words were exchanged. So, if they don’t have a message, what was the point of their being revealed to him? I think it was a reminder of when he saw the staircase up to heaven and God’s angels ascending and descending on it. That was a vision telling Him that God was present and that His angels were at work in his life. This was a reminder of that. Jacob, “we haven’t gone anywhere.” And now the angels are not going up and down a staircase with messages and commands from God. They are in a camp. They are prepared for battle.
2 Then Jacob said when he saw them, “This is God’s [a]camp.” So he named that place [b]Mahanaim.
Mahanaim means 2 camps. That could either describe Jacob’s family camp, and the camp of angels, or it could describe the angels having 2 camps that surrounded his family.
Now, you would think that this would be enough for Jacob to understand that God was watching over him. But here’s the problem. He is still Jacob-the supplanter. At heart, he is still the man who thinks he has to work out his own solutions. That he has to move people into doing what he needs. You say, how do you know he is still that man? Listen to what he says and does.
6 Then the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, “We came to your brother, to Esau, and furthermore he is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him.” 7 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 camps. 8 And he said, “If Esau comes to the one camp and strikes it, then the camp which remains will escape.”
He is afraid that Esau will destroy them all. So, he splits his group in two, hoping that part of them will survive.
So, do you know what God does? He reveals Himself, again, to Jacob. I think that this is the moment when Jacob becomes the patriarch that God wants him to be. He will still have major struggles and troubles after this. But from this point forward, God makes him a different man. Read this.
9 And Jacob said, “O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O Yahweh, who said to me, ‘Return to your land and to your kin, and I will [d]prosper you,’ 10 [e]I am unworthy of all the lovingkindness and of all the truth which You have shown to Your slave; for with my staff only I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two camps. 11 Deliver me, I pray, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau; for I fear him, lest he come and strike me down with the mothers and the children. 12 For You said, ‘I will surely [f]prosper you and make your seed as the sand of the sea, which is too great to be numbered.’”
Jacob calls out to God. This is the first record of Jacob really opening his heart to God. He asks God for His mercy. He recites God’s promises back to Him. He confesses his unworthiness and his fear. He leaves it in God’s hands.
This prayer is a great model for where God wants to take all of us. We can spend a lifetime working and fighting to inch ourselves forward. We can demand things from God in prayer, even accuse God of being uncaring. But it isn’t until we reach this moment that we really come to where God wants us; done with our own resources, repentant of our sins, fearful of going forward without God, believing His Word, and trusting Him with whatever He deems to be the right outcome. My friends, that is faith.
And look at what happens to Jacob.
22 And he arose that same night and took his two wives and his two servant-women and his eleven children and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. 23 And he took them and sent them across the stream. And he sent across whatever he had.
24 Then Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until the [h]breaking of dawn. 25 And he saw that he had not prevailed against him, so he touched the socket of his thigh; and so the socket of Jacob’s thigh was dislocated while he wrestled with him.
This is a strange episode. Who is this man that comes and wrestles with Jacob until the break of day? Well, there are really only two viable interpretations. He is either one of God’s angels, or he is God Himself, manifesting Himself in a limiting human form, even as Jesus was God in flesh, putting limits on Himself in order to relate to humankind. Whichever it was, they wrestled. And this to is important. Jacob has been a man who spent his life trying to gain victory by his own strength and cunning. He started the match with his brother by grabbing his heal. He wrestled with his father, and Laban. But here, try as he might, he cannot gain the mastery. Though exhausted by a night of struggling, he will not relent. Until “the man” demonstrated that He wasn’t just a man, and touched Jacob’s thigh and threw the socket out of joint. Even then, with a limp leg, he clings to the man with all his might. One commentator I read said this.
https://biblehub.com/commentaries/genesis/32-24.htm
The thigh is the pillar of a man's strength, and its joint with the hip the seat of physical force for the wrestler. Let the thigh bone be thrown out of joint, and the man is utterly disabled. Jacob now finds that this mysterious wrestler has wrested from him, by one touch, all his might, and he can no longer stand alone. Without any support whatever from himself, he hangs upon the conqueror, and in that condition learns by experience the practice of sole reliance on one mightier than himself. This is the turning-point in this strange drama.
He has to lean on the One who disabled him.
Henceforth Jacob now feels himself strong, not in himself, but in the Lord, and in the power of his might. What follows is merely the explication and the consequence of this bodily conflict.
26 Then he said, “Let me go, for the dawn is [i]breaking.” But he 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 He said, “Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but [j]Israel; for you have striven with God and with men and have prevailed.”
God changes his name from supplanter to prince with God. He prevailed with God. But he didn’t prevail by his own strength. If God or the angel had wanted to end the wrestling match, he could have. That is demonstrated by the fact that with one touch he was able to throw Jacob’s hip out of joint. But he was demonstrating to Jacob that he could find new strength, not in himself, but by leaning on God. Trusting in God.
Where does your trust lie?
1.
What a fellowship, what a
joy divine,
Leaning on the everlasting arms;
What a blessedness, what a peace is mine,
Leaning on the everlasting arms.
o
Refrain:
Leaning, leaning,
Safe and secure from all alarms;
Leaning, leaning,
Leaning on the everlasting arms.
2.
Oh, how sweet to walk in
this pilgrim way,
Leaning on the everlasting arms;
Oh, how bright the path grows from day to day,
Leaning on the everlasting arms.
3.
What have I to dread, what
have I to fear,
Leaning on the everlasting arms?
I have blessed peace with my Lord so near,
Leaning on the everlasting arms.