Good morning. We are nearing the end of our study through the book of Genesis. This morning, we're going to look some more at the life of Jacob. And then for the next three weeks, we'll look at the life of Jacob's son, Joseph. And that will bring us to the end of the book at the end of December. And then we'll be moving on in the new year to other things. Well, as we continue to look at the life of Jacob this morning, we're going to see how his life was characterized by struggling. It's characterized by struggling with others. Struggling against others. Jacob was a shrewd man. We've already seen this as we've looked at the beginning of his life. He was a manipulative man. He was cunning and deceitful. In fact, his name means he cheats. He was a cheater. Jacob spent much of his life striving to gain things for himself. And he was very successful in these endeavors. He would see something that he wanted and he would somehow figure out a way to get that. His life was a life of struggle. It was a life of struggling to get what he wanted by his own efforts. But then one night, that changed, as we're going to see later in our passage this morning. God changed Jacob. He changed him from a self-reliant man, a self-sufficient man, or so he thought. God changed him from a self-reliant man into a man who recognized his own weakness and his need for God. I want to begin this sermon this morning by asking you whether you are striving to be a self-made man or woman, whether you're striving to be self-sufficient, self-reliant, or have you been changed into a person who recognizes your own weakness and your desperate need for God? This is the critical question for all of us to examine this morning as we examine our own hearts. Are you struggling for gain? Are you struggling against those around you in order to get what you want by your own efforts, by your own power, and in the hopes that you will ultimately somehow make yourself happy by these things that you're grasping for? Or have you realized that you are weak and poor and unable to find any lasting pleasure for yourself? You must cling to Jesus Christ and to Him alone to receive eternal blessings and to find pleasures forevermore. It's so common to look around and see people who are striving, struggling, grasping for things, trying to get ahead in this world. And on the surface, it may appear that they are indeed getting ahead. They are getting the things that the world tells us we should have. But on the inside, it's like they're spinning their wheels. The accomplishments, the possessions, the prestige and the wealth and the comfort and all these things, they do not satisfy. The only real satisfaction comes when a person sees God for who He is and sees Himself for the weak and powerless person that He is and is radically changed. by this new understanding of yourself and this new understanding of who God is. This is what we're going to see in Jacob's life. And this is what I hope has happened or soon will happen in your life. First, we're going to look at the ongoing family struggles in Jacob's life. We're going to look at that under the heading, Struggling for Gain. Struggling for Gain. And then, we'll look at the spiritual struggle that Jacob had with God. Struggling with God. So first of all, struggling for gain, and then later, struggling with God. Struggling for gain. Jacob's life began with struggle. He and his brother weren't even out of the womb yet, and they were struggling together. In chapter 25, verse 22, it says, the children struggled together within their mother, Rebekah. These two babies, these twins in the womb together were struggling against each other before they were even born. And then a few verses later, it says that Jacob, who was born second, Esau was born first and then Jacob was born second, and Jacob came out with his hand holding Esau's heel. So his name was called Jacob. The name Jacob means he takes by the heel, or as I said, he cheats. From the very beginning of his life, Jacob was a struggler. He was a cheater. He was grasping for something more. He was always reaching and trying to get something more. When the brothers grew up, Jacob shrewdly manipulated a situation and was able to obtain his brother's birthright. In a sense, steal it from him. He traded it for a bowl of stew. When Esau was in a desperate situation and was famished, he came in from the field and Jacob took advantage of that and got his brother's birthright. And then later, when his father was old and blind, Jacob stole the blessing that was intended for Esau. We saw that last week. Now, where we are in the story now, Jacob is fleeing for his life. Because of these horrible things he's done to his brother Esau, Esau is angry and wants to kill Jacob. So Jacob is fleeing from home and he is heading to Haran in the region of Paddan Aram where his uncle Laban lives. And here Jacob finally meets his match because his uncle Laban is a schemer too. His Uncle Laban is a cheater and a deceiver. There is intense irony in the events of chapter 29. And we're going to be moving through several chapters this morning, but if you want to turn to Genesis 29, here we see how Jacob gets his due from Laban. What goes around comes around. Your sin will find you out. And this is what happens to Jacob here. Jacob fell in love with this young woman named Rachel. the daughter of Laban. And Jacob agreed to work for seven years for Laban to be able to marry Rachel. And at the end of the seven years, Jacob says in verse 21, he says, give me my wife. And Laban makes a big feast, a big marriage festival. And then it says in verse 23, look at what Laban did here. In the evening, Laban took his daughter Leah and brought her to Jacob, and he went in to her." Then verse 25, "'And in the morning, behold, it was Leah.' And Jacob said to Laban, "'What is this you have done to me? Did I not serve with you for Rachel? Why then have you deceived me?' You see, Jacob is deceived here by Laban. He ends up with the wrong wife. And you just wonder if at this moment, as Jacob is saying to Laban, why did you deceive me? You just wonder if he may have thought back to the detestable ways that he cheated his own father and his brother in stealing the blessing. Back in chapter 27, Isaac had said to Esau, your brother came deceitfully and he has taken away your blessing. And Esau had said, is he not rightly named Jacob for he has cheated me these two times? He took away my birthright and behold, now he has taken away my blessing. Jacob was a cheater and a deceiver, and now the deceiver is himself deceived. He wakes up in the morning with Leah by his side rather than Rachel. A further irony is found here in the fact that Laban deceived Jacob because he wanted to uphold this tradition of giving the older daughter first before giving the younger daughter in marriage. Very similar to the rites of the firstborn that Jacob had overturned by taking the birthright and stealing the blessing. Well, Jacob has been duped here by Laban. There's nothing he can really do about it, so he completes the marriage week with Leah, and then Laban lets him marry Rachel in exchange for another seven years of work. But the struggles are far from over. In Jacob's life, one struggle ends and another struggle begins. And we see that here because the struggles only increase. Because now he has two wives, And each wife is struggling to win Jacob's affections. We know from the story that Jacob loved Rachel more than he loved Leah. But Leah thought that she could win Jacob's affections by bearing him many children, many sons. And at the end of chapter 29, it's recorded that Leah did have many sons. She bore Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, and then later she also had Issachar and Zebulun. Six sons. And then later also a daughter, Dinah. But still, Jacob's affections always inclined toward Rachel, even though Rachel was barren at first. We see the struggle between these two sisters, these two wives. At the beginning of chapter 30, it says that Rachel envied her sister. And Rachel said to Jacob, give me children or I will die. Jacob was angry and responded, am I in the place of God who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb? And then they committed the same sin that Abraham and Sarah had committed before them. Rachel said in verse 3, Here is my servant Bilhah. Go into her so that she may give birth on my behalf that even I may have children through her. Bilhah then gave birth to Dan and Naphtali. Then Leah stopped bearing children. So Leah did the same thing. Leah gave her servant Zilpah to Jacob and she bore Gad and Asher. Later, Rachel finally did conceive and she gave birth to Joseph. And then at the very end of Rachel's life, she gave birth to Benjamin as she was dying. Well, these were the intense struggles within Jacob's household. Struggles throughout his life. Struggles in his own home. Two sisters here who were given to him as wives. Each of them having a servant whom they gave to Jacob as wives. So he had four wives, twelve sons, and a daughter. And as we'll see in the life of Joseph, there were struggles among the brothers too, as well as these struggles between the wives. The second half of chapter 30 turns our attention back to the struggle between Jacob and Laban. And this struggle has to do with Joseph, with Jacob's compensation for his continued work for Laban. He has served Laban for 14 years for these two wives, and now he continues to work for him. And so they have to work out of an agreement. OK, what what is Jacob's payment going to be for his work? And Laban agrees to give Jacob a portion of his flock. This is in chapter 30, verse 32. Jacob asks, let me pass through all your flock today, removing from it every speckled and spotted sheep and every black lamb and the spotted and speckled among the goats, and they shall be my wages. And then in verse 34, Laban says, good, let it be as you have said. So this is the agreement. Jacob's going to take the spotted and the speckled lambs from Laban's flocks, and that's going to be his wages. But then look at what Laban does in the next verse, in verse 35. But that day Laban removed the male goats that were striped and spotted, and all the female goats that were speckled and spotted, every one that had white on it, and every lamb that was black, and put them in charge of his sons." So immediately Laban cheated and deceived. He tried to make sure that this man Jacob was not going to take anything from him. We see these two deceivers continuing to struggle against one another. Jacob then, he continued to live up to his name and he tried, and if you've read through this passage, and if you haven't, I encourage you to, but Jacob tries all these bizarre things to produce striped and speckled and spotted lambs and somehow it works. It's only by God's grace that this works. God is blessing Jacob in spite of himself. And Jacob was successful here. So that by the end of chapter 30, it says, thus, the man increased greatly and had large flocks, female servants and male servants and camels and donkeys. And so, of course, this created even more tension between these two men because Jacob's gain is Laban's loss. As Jacob continues to succeed and abound in all these riches, everything he has, he's just getting from Laban. So the tension just increases. In 31, verse 1, Jacob heard that the sons of Laban were saying, Jacob has taken all that was our father's, and from what was our father's, he has gained all his wealth. At this point, the Lord commanded Jacob and promised Jacob Return to the land of your fathers and to your kindred, and I will be with you." God is involved in Jacob's life and directing him even though Jacob is a liar and a deceiver and a cheater. And Jacob left without even telling Laban. He snuck away. He fled from that place. Verse 20 in chapter 31. And Jacob tricked Laban the Aramean by not telling him that he intended to flee. And then three days later, Laban heard what had happened. Laban ran and caught up with Jacob. And in verse 26, Laban says, what have you done that you have tricked me and driven away my daughters like captives of the sword? Why did you flee secretly and tricked me and did not tell me? Well, again, it was only by God's grace that Jacob was not harmed. Laban wanted to harm him, but God met Laban and said, don't don't say anything good or bad to him. So God protected Jacob again. Jacob and Laban ended up parting by making a covenant. And this was not a warm kind of covenant of love between the two of these guys. They still hated each other, I think, and were struggling against each other. But they basically said, OK, we'll part ways and I'm not going to harm you and you're not going to harm me. And they said their goodbyes and Laban returned home. Before we come to chapter 32, I want to emphasize again a point that I made last week that God is bigger, so much bigger than the sin and the deception and the lying and the cheating that we see in these passages. Jacob is indeed a liar, a cheater. He is a despicable sinner. the things that he does. And yet, God had chosen to bless this man and to use him as a pivotal piece in bringing about the promises that he had originally made to Abraham and then to Isaac and now to Jacob. Consider two things here. First of all, the promise that God had made to Abraham, the promise that his descendants would be like the stars of the sky. like the sand on the seashore, that Abraham's descendants would multiply to such a degree. That promise always seemed so bleak and so distant, but now, for the first time, it's beginning to take shape. It's beginning to look like maybe Abraham's descendants will be multiplied like that. The family is for the first time experiencing significant growth. Jacob had 12 sons. Twelve sons and a daughter. So in spite of the fact that there was sin and envy and struggling within Jacob's household, God was overseeing all of this and God was accomplishing His purposes. At the end of Genesis in chapter 46, we read that there were 70 people in Jacob's family. What God began with Abraham and Sarah has turned into a family of 70. The other thing to notice here is that Jesus Christ is a descendant of Leah's son Judah. Humanly speaking, the only reason Judah existed, the only reason Judah was ever born, was because Laban deceitfully gave Leah rather than Rachel. And Leah was the unloved wife in this polygamous marriage. Both of these things are contrary to God's will. There should be no unloved wives. And there should be no polygamous relationships. But God intended to bless these patriarchs and to bless all the nations of the earth through their descendants. And that indeed is what God is doing. God is bigger than the sins and the deception that we see in these passages. God is at work. God is in control of all of these details, as wicked as some of them may be. Well, we've seen how Jacob struggled for gain. He struggled to gain his brother's birthright and the blessing. He struggled to gain a wife. He struggled to gain possessions. Within his own home, there were struggles between the wives and between the children. Struggling for gain. Now, let's turn to the second point and look in chapter 32 and see how Jacob struggled with God. struggling with God. In Jacob's life, if it was not one thing, it was another. At this point, he is relieved that the struggle with his father-in-law is now behind him. Laban is headed off back to home. But now, as he sets his face to head back to his homeland, Jacob has to look forward to meeting his brother Esau. And as far as he knows, If nothing has changed over the past 20 years, Esau wants to murder him. So now he's got rid of the father-in-law, but now he has to deal with his brother who wants to kill him. At the beginning of chapter 32, Jacob meets these angels whom he had met back in chapter 28 when he had the dream about the ladder stretching from the earth up to heaven and the angels going up and down that ladder. He had met those angels on his way out of the Promised Land when he was fleeing from Esau, and now he meets them again on his way back into the Promised Land, as he wonders whether Esau's anger has subsided at all over the past 20 years. In verse 6, Jacob receives the worst possible news. These messengers that he sent out, the messengers come back to him and say, we came to your brother Esau, and he is coming to meet you, and there are 400 men with him. That's bad news. That's real bad news. That's an army. And what could that possibly mean but that Esau wants to totally destroy Jacob and everything he has. So Jacob is terrified here. And he divides his family and all his belongings into two camps because he thinks, well, if Esau attacks one camp, at least maybe part of my family will survive. And then, Jacob does something else. Jacob prays. And this is a prayer that we can learn from because I think Jacob's heart is beginning to change here. He is coming to the end of himself and he's beginning to realize his dependence on God. He is starting to let go of that self-reliance. And he shows a humble but bold petition to God. Let's look at this prayer of Jacob in chapter 32, verses 9-11. 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. 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. 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. 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." Notice three things about this prayer, three ways in which Jacob's prayer is a model for us to follow. First, in verse 10, Jacob admits that he is not worthy of God's blessings on his life. He is not worthy. He does not deserve these things that God has done for him. We need to have that kind of attitude. We need to come to the Lord humbly knowing that we don't deserve any blessing from Him. We deserve punishment from Him. And yet, He gives us these blessings. Every good thing we have is a gift. A gift that we do not deserve. Second, in verse 11, Jacob honestly admits his fear. I think that's a model for us to follow. When we talk to God in prayer, we should share our emotions, share how we're feeling. There's no need to lie to God about how we're feeling. He knows. He knows how we're feeling. He knows our fears. He knows when we're scared. So we ought to be open and honest with the Lord. about what's going on in our hearts. And then third, in v. 12, Jacob bases his request on God's promise. Did you notice that in v. 12? Jacob says to God, but You said, I will surely do You good and make Your offspring as the sand of the sea. That's how we ought to pray. We should pray according to the things that God promises in His Word. Well then, after his prayer, Jacob sent a massive amount of gifts to his brother Esau, hoping that these gifts would appease Esau's anger. And his last effort to save his family was to send them across the Jabbok River. Verse 24 says, "...and Jacob was left alone." This is at night. He's alone. His family has crossed over the river. Just think for a moment about how Jacob must have felt at this point. He was scared. He was terrified of what the next day would have for him. It may be his last night on this earth if Esau came and destroyed him the next day. So he's scared of what his brother's going to do. He's completely alone. He had prayed to God and was trying to trust in the promises of God, and in the darkness of the night, as Jacob wrestled in his mind with these doubts and these fears and these concerns, all of a sudden, a man grasped him and began to wrestle with him. That must have been terrifying. This wrestling match lasted all night long until the breaking of the day the next morning. Let's look at verses 25 and following. 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 rested with him. Then he said, Let me go, for the day is broken. But Jacob said, I will not let you go unless you bless me. And he said to him, What is your name? And he said, Jacob. Then he said, Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men and have prevailed. Then Jacob asked him, Please tell me your name. But he said, Why is it that you ask me my name? And there he blessed him. 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. What we see here is power in weakness. Power in weakness. This is where Jacob truly came to the end of himself and came to rely on God alone. He did not prevail here because he was stronger. He prevailed because he recognized his weakness and his desperate need for God's blessing. He held on. That's how he prevailed. Not by defeating his enemy, but by holding on, by clinging to him. He refused to let him go until the man blessed him. And this man who was wrestling with him, this man who was God in the flesh, we see in the passage, this is God. He was striving with God here. God in the flesh. This man asked him what his name was. And Jacob, this was an embarrassing question, because Jacob had to admit his name. He had to reveal his identity that, yeah, I'm Jacob. I'm the deceiver. I'm the cheater. And God changed Jacob's name to Israel, meaning he strives with God. And Jacob called this place Peniel, which means the face of God. He said, for I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered. This is a very mysterious and yet a very profound encounter here. And I think it is very instructive for us today because our only hope in life is to cling to Jesus Christ. To hold on to Jesus Christ. That's what Jacob is doing here. He's clinging to Jesus Christ. I believe this is a pre-incarnate appearance of Jesus Christ. He did not reveal His name here to Jacob. But He is God in the flesh. Notice three things that happen to Jacob here and happen to us when we cling to Jesus Christ. We are afflicted. Jacob's hip was dislocated simply by his opponent touching his hip socket. As we cling to Jesus Christ, we will be afflicted because Jesus will do whatever He needs to do to show us our weakness and our need for Him, to show us our frailty. to make us rely totally on Him. These afflictions will be for our good. But God will do what He needs to do to let us see that we cannot strive on our own. We cannot be self-reliant. We are not self-reliant. We must rely on Him. We must hold on to Him. Second, we are changed. Jacob the deceiver, the cheater, the liar. He was changed into Israel, the one who strives with God for His blessing. And Christ will change us too. He will change us and make us new men and women who cling to Him and more and more begin to be like Him, to take on His resemblance. The third thing that we see that happens here is that we see God for who He is. It was an amazing privilege that Jacob saw God face to face as the sun came up that morning. And he did not die. He saw God face to face. And it's a marvelous blessing that we can see God for who He is in the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is how God has revealed Himself to us. He sent His own Son, revealing His own character and His own being to this earth. Well, in closing then, and to bring us back to the question that I asked at the beginning, All of us. I want you to see your desperate need for God. If you are struggling for gain in this life, if you are struggling for power or wealth or comfort or popularity or worldly pleasure, you will never find what you are looking for. And you will never be satisfied. If that is the struggle of your life, if that's what you're striving for, grasping for, you are wasting your life. You'll never attain what you think you're going to attain. It is out of your grasp. But, if you are struggling, if the struggling in your life is a struggle to cling to Jesus Christ, if that is the struggle of your life, then you will be afflicted, yes, but you will be changed from the inside out and you will experience the immense joy of seeing God for who He is, for delighting in the beauty of His greatness. That will be the reward. If you're an unbeliever here this morning, you must realize your need for God. You must humbly admit that you are nothing apart from Him. Many people, you know, think that they have to be good enough to be accepted by God. Well, I just kind of have to get my life in order. I have to live in such and such a way. I have to keep these rules and then maybe God will accept me if I can just be good enough. Ironically, what the Bible teaches us is that the only ones who are accepted by God are those who realize they cannot be good enough. There's no hope of reforming ourselves to make ourselves good enough to be accepted by God. That's impossible. The only ones who are accepted by God are those who say, I recognize that, Lord. I see that I'm totally unable. I'm weak. I'm poor. I'm frail. I'm crippled. I cannot meet Your standard. As the hymn says, all the fitness He requireth. is to feel your need of Him. That's all you need. All you need to do to be accepted by God is to feel your need of Him. Don't strive to be good enough for Him. That's the wrong way to God. That's an impossible way to God. The only way to God is to see your need of Him and to cling to Jesus Christ. The application for believers is that The Christian life is a continual process of seeing our own weakness and clinging to Christ. Even as believers, our tendency is still to rely on ourselves, to try to be the self-made man, the self-made woman, the self-reliant, self-sufficient person. But we are weak. We are frail. We are crippled. And our only hope is to cling to Jesus Christ and to say, I will not let You go unless You bless me. Let's pray. God, we pray for Your blessing. We cling to Your Son, Jesus Christ. He is our only hope. He is our only hope. We are weak and poor We are sinners. We deserve Your punishment. Our only hope is to hold on to Jesus Christ and we pray for Your blessing upon our lives. Change us. Change us. Make us Your own. And make us more like Christ. Let us see You for who You are, God. May we delight in the beauty of Your greatness. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.