Genesis chapter 32, verses one through 21. And as you arrive there, I do invite you to stand and have respect for the reading of God's inspired word. Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him. And when Jacob saw them, he said, this is God's camp. So he called the name of that place Mahanaim. And Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau, his brother in the land of Syre, the country of Edom, instructing them, thus you shall say to the Lord, to my Lord Esau, thus says your servant Jacob, I have sojourned with Laban. stayed until now. I have oxen, donkeys, flocks, male servants and female servants I have sent to tell my Lord in order that I may find favor in your sight." And the messengers returned to Jacob saying, we came to your brother Esau and he is coming to meet you and there are 400 men with him. Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed. He divided the people who were with him and the flocks and herds and camels into two camps thinking If Esau comes to the one camp and attacks it, then the camp that is left will escape. 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 and 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. So he stayed there that night, and from what he had with him, he took a present for his brother Esau. 200 female goats, 20 male goats, 200 ewes, 20 rams, 30 milking camels and their calves, 40 cows and 10 bulls, 20 female donkeys and 10 male donkeys. These he handed over to his servants. Every drove by itself, and said to his servant, Pass on ahead of me, and put a space between drove and drove. And he instructed the first, When Esau, my brother, meets you, and asks you, To whom do you belong? Where are you going? And whose are these ahead of you? Then you shall say, They belong to your servant Jacob. They are a present sent to my lord Esau. And moreover, he is behind us. He likewise instructed the second and third and all who followed the droves, you shall say to the same thing to Esau when you find him. And you shall say, moreover, your servant Jacob is behind us. For he thought, I may appease him with the present that goes ahead of me, and afterward I shall see his face. Perhaps he will accept me. So the present passed on ahead of him, and he himself stayed that night in the camp. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God abides forever. Amen, you may be seated. I want you to imagine with me the moments leading up to something that you absolutely dread. Think of the hours you spend waiting for a confrontation with someone who scares you very much. Or think of those painstaking moments you spend in the waiting room before a serious medical procedure. Or think of the sleepless night before a court date which is going to affect the rest of your life. How can God's people face times of unpredictable crises? How can they face these moments of turmoil, of tribulation, even when they themselves have somehow contributed? They know that it's their sins, it's actions of their past that have contributed to this very moment. How can God's people face times of crises? Jacob has something to teach us, doesn't he? You see, the time had come for Jacob to face his greatest fear. It was time to face his brother Esau. Yes, time to face the brother he had conned and robbed of blessing. You think back to earlier in the book of Genesis, you remember all the awful things that Jacob did to his brother Esau, who was the firstborn, and yet he tricked him into selling his birthright And then he tricked him again by stealing his father's blessing. And he then runs away out of fear for his brother into the wilderness, far from his brother. And he does all this, of course, because he had stolen so cruelly his brother's blessing. And his 20 years spent in service to Laban in Haran were 20 years where he didn't have to think much about Esau. But you had to wonder if sometimes in the dead of night, the nightmare struck him. And he pictured his brother creeping into the room, ready to attack him. He finally found him. And Jacob says, one day I'm going to have to face him. One day I'm just going to have to deal with what I've done. The brother who was so angry, he promised to kill Jacob. There's no more hiding from him. There's no more hiding from the sins of his past. It's time for the crisis moment. And what Jacob teaches us through this, you see him, the night before this crisis, what he really teaches us is that, brothers and sisters, we face times of crisis by letting God's covenant care drive our fear to faith. We let God's covenant care drive our fear to faith. And we see this, I'll tell you how this message will unfold this morning. First, we need to see God's presence. God's presence secures his people. God's presence secures his people. And then we need to see that God's mercy humbles the fearful heart. And then we do need to see that God's people still struggle with self-reliance. All of these unfolding, in Jacob's encounter with Esau. All of these things unfolding in our own lives as we walk by faith. Now, I want you to consider how in this passage, God's presence secures his people. It's beautiful. Verses one through two really bring this out. The Lord's faithfulness precedes and surrounds every trial of his people. Now, how do we know this? Well, Jacob knew this because of what he saw on his way to speak with Esau. He saw the angels of God. And remember, he's seen these angels before. This isn't the first time. He saw them back in chapter 28 when he was running away from his brother. You remember this? With Jacob's ladder, he saw in a vision, in a dream, that there was a ladder, a stairway to heaven, and ascending and descending that stairway were the angels of God. They were coming down to protect Jacob, to make sure that no one, not even his murderous brother, could take a single hair from Jacob's head. Jacob saw those angels in chapter 28 on his way out of the promised land, and notice he sees them again now on his entrance into the promised land. Jacob is so impressed with what he sees that he gives the place a name, Mahanaim, and that name means two camps. Now, what were the two camps? Were the two camps, the camps that he ends up dividing his family into? No, because that will happen later. The two camps are, first of all, his own camp, and he sees them, right? He'll see the women and the children and the flocks sleeping and waiting. But the other camp is the camp of angels. The army of God. And it's like he sees a double vision, and he sees everything right in front of him, but then he sees, in the spiritual realm, he gets this sudden glimpse of the angels who are camping around God's people. They're surrounding Jacob's family. There they are. It must have been a sight to behold. These fearsome angels. all around the people of God. And for just a moment, Jacob sees them and then they disappear again, although he knows they're still there in the spiritual realm. Two camps, an invisible army standing guard over God's people in the night. Their presence said to Jacob that he wouldn't be going to meet Esau alone. God's tenacious, intentional, protective grace was going to go with Jacob into the crisis. You're not alone, Jacob. I was with you when you went out of the promised land. I'm with you as you come back into it. I'm with you as you go to face your greatest fear. I'm with you as the sweat runs down your face and you're stressed out as can be and you know that there is a reckoning to come. I'm with you, Jacob. I will not leave you or forsake you. I'm with you always, even to the end of the age. My angels go with you. My angels go to protect you. And believer, as you hear this, you realize right away, don't you, that the vision of Mahanaim is with you too. Wherever you are, wherever you go, you who are in Christ Jesus have this promise and assurance that there is not one camp, but two. Not just your family, not just your home, Not just your congregation, but what? But double vision, but two. Your camp and God's camp. Your congregation and God's army. Your family and God's bodyguards. Psalm 34, seven says this. It's a passage to jot down, to be honest. Psalm 34, verse seven. 34, verse seven. The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him and delivers them. God's protective army of angels around his people. And Hebrews 11, 14 says much of the same thing. It calls God's angels ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherent salvation. Do you believe that? Do you believe that there is a whole realm you cannot even see? There's a whole dimension that your physical eyes do not yet have the privilege of seeing, and yet by the eyes of faith we can believe that what Jacob saw is there for us too. It's not the only time this happens in the Scriptures. It happens again with Elisha. Israel's army is threatened by another army and suddenly Elisha gets a glimpse of an army of angels standing to protect them. This is for you too. Here's what you need to know ahead of that dreaded crisis. You won't be facing it alone. The God of angel armies goes with you. So God's presence secures his people, and you can imagine what a comfort this was to Jacob, what a comfort I hope it is, beloved, to you this morning. Whatever it is you're facing on the horizon, whatever hypotheticals might come into your mind in the dead of night as you dread, God's presence secures his people, God's presence secures you. Christ Jesus. But there's another promise here that God's mercy humbles the fearful heart. Look at this in verses 3 through 12. We see that as the night wears on, Jacob becomes more and more afraid of Esau. He is nearly petrified of what this brother that he is so offended is going to do to him. This isn't some, you know, made up fear. This is real. Esau had said in his own words, I'm going to find him, I'm going to kill him. And so Jacob suddenly realizes as he's obeying God and coming back into the land, He has great reasons to be afraid. And I think of you this morning, it does no help, does it, to be told by someone that your greatest fears are no fears at all, right? When you say, I'm afraid, and someone says, well, you shouldn't be, it's not very scary. You say, but it's real, but I am afraid. The way to deal with fear is not by minimizing your fears, but as we're going to see, by pivoting from those fears to faith. Using fear as a trampoline of sorts. You say, I have much to be afraid of, and indeed you do. There's much at every moment that could threaten you, people that could take your life, things that could really hurt you. I'm not going to lie and say, oh, you shouldn't really be afraid. But notice how Jacob teaches us to move from fear to faith through intentional prayer. Prayer becomes like a trampoline that faith bounces off of and fear becomes something that we tread underfoot as we bounce up onto heights of adoration of God and trusting in God. Notice the important model of prayer here that Jacob gives us in times of crisis. He gives us actual things to say and do when we're afraid. What does he do? Notice first, he confesses his unworthiness. He says in verse 10, I am not worthy. And you know he isn't. He's the one who got himself in this situation. If he hadn't stolen the blessing, if he'd waited on God in the first place, he wouldn't be here. This is a crisis of his own contribution. He got himself here. And he knows it, and he recognizes it. He says, I don't deserve to call upon your grace, God, but I will do so. And I'm gonna do so first, speaking what is obviously the case. I don't deserve to come into your presence. I am low. What a worm I am. And beloved, we can do this too. We must do this. As we come into God's presence, we ought to come confessing our sins, saying, God, I'm going to call upon your help, but I don't deserve your help. I come humbly, Lord, knowing that I got myself into this mess. Somehow, somewhere, I contributed through my sin, through my selfishness. I am not worthy. And then he moves from this. He doesn't just wallow in his unworthiness. He states it, and then he starts to name specific fears to the Lord. What does he say? He says, I fear the hand of Esau. I fear him, that he may come and attack me, the mothers with the children. You see how specific he is? He doesn't minimize his fears, doesn't say, God, this is gonna sound silly. He says, Esau scares me. This is what he could do, Lord, and you know it. We ought to name our specific fears in our prayers too. We ought to be specific with God. Give voice to the things that keep us up in the middle of the night. We've gotta say it to someone. Who better to say it than to God? What is it? If you were to speak it right now to the Lord, what would it be that you would say to him? I fear this. What would it be? What are the fears that keep you up at night? What are the fears that you have not brought in petition to the Lord? Jacob gives us a good example here. When we're afraid, we must name those fears. to the Lord, and then we must move to then place our trust in the Lord's deliverance, just as Jacob does here in his prayer. He says, deliver me from the hand of Esau. Deliver me from the one who would seek my life, and don't Christians pray this too, in our act of trust to God? Didn't Jesus teach us to pray, deliver us from Esau? The evil one, deliver me from the one who would seek to strike me down. Deliver me from the one who would seek evil. Deliver me from Satan. Deliver me from all the ill that would befall me. Deliver me from those who would take advantage of me. And we pray this to God. Why? Because we actually believe we're not just speaking to a therapist of sorts who could offer us advice. We're speaking in prayer to the almighty God, to the sovereign hand who can actually intervene and deliver us from that which fears us the most. We're speaking to the one who has the power over evil, the power to stay it, the power to restrain it, the power to work it towards our good and not towards our evil. And so when we pray, we must say, Lord, I trust you. I trust that you will work all things for good for the one who is in Christ Jesus. So Lord, this is what I fear. Would you deliver me from it in whatever sovereign way you see fit? but do not allow it, Lord, to overtake me. You are sovereign over this thing. You are sovereign over this person. And then he gives us this final example, which is really important to us. Notice how Jacob now prays God's promises back to him. Verse 12, verse 12, he says, but you said, God, I will surely do you good and make your offspring as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude. So what Jacob is basically doing here is something the rest of the scriptures teach us to do, particularly the Psalms, that when we're afraid, we don't just come up with our own words and solutions, we can fundamentally grab ahold of the scriptures and say, look, God's already given me words, I'm going to ask God to do what he's already told me he's gonna do in his word. I'm gonna pray God's promises back to him. But you said, God, So imagine in your moment of fear, in the middle of the night, you're up and you're so stressed about what is about to come, and you say, God, I'm not worthy. God, I call upon your name alone, deliver me from this evil, and remember what you told me, God, remember what you promised in your word, that nothing can separate me from Christ. You see, When we turn to God with His words, we remind the Lord of something that He'll never forget. Matthew Henry says this, the best way, the best we can say to God in prayer is what He has already said to us. Now I want you to notice what's happening here in Jacob's prayer. When we turn to God in times of fear, we make fear the servant of faith. Fear becomes an opportunity to deepen our friendship with God. Psalm 56.3, this is a passage which all of us can memorize. I'm thinking even of our young children here. I know what it's like to be afraid. I know what it's like to be afraid at night when you hear sounds and have thoughts. Guess what you can pray back to the Lord? Psalm 37, or rather Psalm 56. When I am afraid, I will trust in you. That's easy to remember, isn't it? When I'm afraid, I will trust in you. And so we remember from Psalm 56 that the moment we're afraid, we take that fear to God in prayer. A good example so far from Jacob But the moment after he's done praying, he does slip. And he gives us an example which is not to be followed, but certainly to be learned from. You see, in verses 13 through 21, as soon as Jacob's done praying, he gives in to his anxiety and he starts strategizing like Jacob knows so well in his flesh to do. He's already divided his camp in two so that if Esau attacks one, the other can escape. You say so much for remembering that you already have two camps and one's the angel army. Now you're separating your camp into two to try to keep yourself safe. Now there's nothing wrong with planning, is there? There's nothing wrong with planning ahead and when you have a crisis coming up and trying to be wise, but we start to see that Jacob's doing way more than that. Jacob is trying to, in his own strength and his own self-reliance, protect himself from this upcoming crisis. He now starts to send waves of gifts to appease Esau. He sends over 500 cattle of different sorts to Esau, after wave, after wave, after wave, and it's ridiculous kind of what he's doing. He's saying, well, I'm gonna send gift, after gift, after gift, after gift, so that maybe by the time he sees me, it's, hey, brother, how's it going? And he just forgets all of it, because he's so happy about these presents. Jacob is basically giving away all of his blessings, which God gave him under Laban. 20 years of service, he leaves with this fortune that God has blessed him with. And he's so afraid, he just starts to give it all away to try to protect himself. Jacob's trying to manipulate the outcome with his own cunning maneuvers. Half-hearted faith on display here. He prays to God, but then immediately hedges his bets. And I wonder, how often is it that we do this? I think it's pretty often if we're honest. We pray as if God's in control, but then right after we pray, we switch gears to act like we're in control. And Jacob will soon learn to rely more fully on God and to stop wrestling for control. We'll hear more of this next week for sure. We need to learn this too. We need to learn to truly rely on the Lord. and to set our cunning strategies and our manipulative maneuvers aside. And we need to really trust God. Psalm 37, seven says this, be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him. Worry not. Another good psalm. We've tagged to each one of these main points a psalm. And this particular point, we have Psalm 37, seven. Be still before the Lord. Wait patiently for him. Don't worry. Jacob gives us, doesn't he, a flawed model, flawed example. But Jesus gives us a perfect one. This is where we need to close. There will be more next week. and in the week to come about Jacob and Esau. It's going to take us nearly a month to work through this crisis situation. But right here, right now, let's just pause where we're at and appreciate what we see of our Savior in this text. We've already seen so much of him. None of these blessings, none of this model in prayer can come to us apart from Christ. You see, the night before the great trial of the cross, the night in Gethsemane, Jesus has a crisis moment, doesn't he? He's filled with impending doom about what was about to happen. He cries out to the Father earnestly. He says, if it be your will, take this cup from me. Deliver me from this evil. He cries out, much like Jacob did. And it says that he was so stressed that there was sweat pouring down his face like tears of blood. And Jesus on that night in Gethsemane, he knows what's coming the next day. He knows the evil he's about to face. And he goes to the Lord in prayer. But I want you to notice that as the cross drew closer, Jesus did not send any gifts to appease the men who sought his life. Instead, he gave himself into their hands. He could have called down 12 legions of angels. He said that on the night he was betrayed. He had armies, the full army of God at his disposal. He created the army. But instead, he chose to go and face the crisis alone. Not two camps, but one. His own lonely camp, why? Why did Jesus do this? He did this so that you and I would not have to. The crisis that fell upon him was ours, a crisis of our own sinful making. Like Jacob, we contributed to it. We were complicit. We were part of it all. the crisis of the wrath of God due to our sins, the crisis of the final reckoning. But Jesus took that crisis on the cross so that now every crisis we experience can only draw us closer to God. Every crisis we experience, we do not face alone, but with legions of angels who surround us, who encompass us, and do God's bidding to protect us and to do what? to deliver us fully and finally from the evil one. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we have much in this text to behold. There is instruction for us, instruction as to what we must do when we are afraid. There is also great encouragement here, encouragement that Christ, faced our crisis, our greatest crisis, so that now the little ones that we face in this life take on a totally different character, not to destroy us, but to somehow, in your own sovereign plan, draw us closer to you. We pray that we would be facing our fears this way. And Lord, we pray as we continue to study this, this passage in these upcoming weeks, that we would even grow in greater depths in our reliance upon you, not trusting in ourselves, but trusting in the Savior. We pray all this in his name, amen.