August 15, 2004

Reading through the Bible in one Year: Psalm 96-98

Weekly Memory Verse: Romans 8:1

Good Evening Brothers and Sisters,

It is Sunday Morning, so this will be a lite study, if you wish to add to the study be sure to write in.

Genesis 32:1-23 (NASB95)
¹ Now as Jacob went on his way, the angels of God met him. ² Jacob said when he saw them, “This is God’s camp.” So he named that place Mahanaim. ³ Then Jacob sent messengers before him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom. ⁴ 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; ⁵ 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.” ’ ” 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.” 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 companies; ⁸ for he said, “If Esau comes to the one company and attacks it, then the company which is left will escape.” ⁹ 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,’ ¹⁰ 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. 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. 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.’ ” ¹³ So he spent the night there. Then he selected from what he had with him 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 colts, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys. 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.” 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?’ 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.’ ” ¹⁹ 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; ²⁰ 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.” ²¹ So the present passed on before him, while he himself spent that night in the camp. 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. ²³ He took them and sent them across the stream. And he sent across whatever he had.^[1]

The first thing God did when Jacob started down the path of faith was to verify his calling by sending angels to meet with him!  Take this to heart, God may not send angels, but once you start down the pathway that God has called you to follow, there will be verifications along the path.

What is amazing to me is how big Esau had become in the twenty years that Jacob had been gone.  When he was at home, Jacob was not afraid to stand against his brother and to even steal the precious blessing from him.  Look at the attitude change, now Jacob was scared to death of Esau.  That did not stop him though, God had called him to return to his homeland, and he was traveling in that direction.

A few points, first, Jacob recognized that God was the God of his life, and the God of his heritage.  He worshipped God, gave praise to God and recognized who God was in his life.

Second, Jacob reminded God of his calling.  He did not hesitate to boldly go before God and state that "this is what You said".  This is an example of us to claim the promise that God has given to us.  It is not a wishful thinking type of prayer, this is calling what God has promised as being the truth. 

Third, Jacob demonstrated that he was unworthy of God's magnificent grace.  This means that Jacob recognized that in himself, he knew that he was not worthy of the promise that God had given.  Jacob did not do anything to earn God's favor in his life.  In this recognition of grace, Jacob also recognized that God had blessed every area of his life, causing him to become extremely wealthy.  Nothing that Jacob had done was worthy of considering that he had made himself wealthy. 

God had made him wealthy, totally and completely, this is significant.  Jacob recognized that he did absolutely nothing to get in the position that he was in.  We would argue with him today, "Jacob, you used your skills and your cunning to manage Laban's flocks, therefore you earned the wages that you now have by your own strength."  He did not see it that way, This was a life that was surrendered to God, and was in complete assurance that God was the one that had caused the increase in his life.  Perhaps this is a sore point in our society, we have forgotten that God is the one who has caused increase in our lives.  We have forgotten that God is the one who causes us to have good jobs, and blesses the earnings that we have from those jobs.

Lastly, Jacob recognized that God had called him, and that God was the guarantor of the promise that He had given to Jacob.  In Jacob's flesh, there was no way to accomplish the task, it was impossible.  Jacob prayed for deliverance from Esau's wrath, and in doing so bared his soul, speaking out to God the fears and terrors that haunted his conscience.  Didn't God know his fears?  I would challenge you to consider this for a moment, God is willing to listen to our doubts and to our fears.  By speaking out and admitting that we have weaknesses before God, we are recognizing that we are placing those very weaknesses into His hands, thus giving him authority over our weaknesses.  I can't help but think that God is the greatest of psychologists, waiting for us to speak out to Him about our weaknesses.  The difference is that when we speak out to Him, He gives us the strength and the assurance to go on.

Consider also that Jacob moved in the direction that God had called him, but he did not fully believe God.  He took all kinds of precautions to protect his family just in case it did not work.  His greatest precaution was the magnificent prayer that he offered.  We can learn a lot from that prayer.

It is obvious from the list of the possessions that Jacob had that he had certainly become very wealthy.  Jacob was very careful, he split his family into two companies just to make sure that if one suffered, both would not die.  Jacob thought that way because he also prayed and indicated that his family was two separate companies, unless the separation was because of the strife between the sisters.

Genesis 32:24-32 (NASB95)
²⁴ Then Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. ²⁵ When he saw that he had not prevailed against him, he touched the socket of his thigh; 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 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 He said, “Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel; for you have striven with God and with men and have prevailed.” ²⁹ Then Jacob asked him and said, “Please tell me your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” And he blessed him there. ³⁰ So Jacob named the place Peniel, for he said, “I have seen God face to face, yet my life has been preserved.” ³¹ Now the sun rose upon him just as he crossed over Penuel, and he was limping on his thigh. ³² Therefore, to this day the sons of Israel do not eat the sinew of the hip which is on the socket of the thigh, because he touched the socket of Jacob’s thigh in the sinew of the hip.^[2]

Why would Jacob have struggled with God?  Did this demonstrated that Jacob was extremely strong? The new name commemorated the event.  It is interesting though, Israel means "one who strives with God".  Didn't that play true in Israel's future, it seemed that every way that they turned they were striving with God and going against His will.  I have often wondered at the significance of this passage.  What I think is significant is that Jacob was very capable and very powerful physically, after striving with God he went away a cripple.  God wanted him to be in a humble state when he returned to his homeland.  God wanted the credit for Jacob's outlook on life.  Another thought on this, could the wrestling have been prophetic as to the way that Israel's descendants would constantly be wrestling with God?  The nation was typified by a constant propensity to follow after false gods and to follow after everything but God.  Another meaning of that name was "God fights" in that scenario, God is seen as fighting for Israel.  He is seen as constantly fighting to protect and to promote Israel.  Either way you look at the name, it opens a can of worms.

Enough for today.  If you have anything to add, be sure to write in.

Questions for thought:

What have I learned from the prayer written in this chapter?

What does the prayer teach me about faith?

Lord, as we read Your word, teach each one of us how to pray.  As we pray from our hearts, remove the falsehood from our lives and let us pray earnestly and honestly.

In Him,

Joe Turner.