If you have a copy of the scriptures, let me invite you to turn to the book of Genesis and to the 32nd chapter. And if you've been worshiping with us, you know that we have been working our way through this first and foundational book in the Christian scriptures, the book of Genesis, chapter by chapter. And today we're in Genesis and chapter 32. Lord willing, we're going to look at the entirety of the chapter. But for now, I'm going to read aloud just a portion of it, verses 9 through 12, which is Jacob's prayer for deliverance. And so let me invite you, as you're able, we'll stand in honor of the reading and hearing of God's word once again. Again, I'm reading from Genesis 32 and beginning in verse 9, wherein Moses faithfully records. And Jacob said, O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, the Lord which sets unto me returned unto thy country and to thy kindred, and I will deal well with thee. I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies and of all the truth which thou hast showed unto thy servant. For with my staff I passed over this Jordan, and now I am become two bands. Deliver me, I pray thee, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear him, lest he will come and smite me, and the mother with the children. And thou saidst, I will surely do thee good, and make thy seed as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude. May God bless, again today, the reading and the hearing of his word, and let us join together in prayer. Gracious and loving God, as we stand before the open Bible, as we stand before the word read and heard, we ask that you would give us the illumination of the Holy Spirit. Open our eyes, unstop our ears, loosen our minds and hearts so that we might receive thy truth. We ask this in Christ's name and for his sake. Amen. And you may be seated. Well, as I said, we're returning today to this exposition of the book of Genesis, this very foundational book. You really can't understand the rest of the Bible. You really can't understand the gospel unless you understand the events, the background that is recorded here in Genesis. And of late, we've been looking especially at the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and now especially at Jacob. And of course, foundational for really understanding everything that's happening in Genesis 12. Hard to overestimate Genesis 12, 1 through 3, as Abraham is called out by the Lord to leave his father, to go to the land of promise with the promise that he will be made a great nation, that this great nation will be a blessing to all the families of the earth and this was the covenant promise it was given to Abraham and then it continued through Abraham's son Isaac and now it is taken up by Jacob and so even back in Genesis 28 and verse 4 Jacob was spoken of as the one who was bearing the blessing of Abraham And so the Lord has been providing for, protecting Jacob all this time. Of course, in protecting him, he's also protecting the promise of the gospel because through this line, through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, eventually will come the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we've seen over the last several chapters how in, for example, in Genesis 29, God had provided for Jacob. He had provided for him, his wife, Rachel, and also Leah. And we said it's also a fallen world that God is providing for his saints because to have two wives was not God's good original design. Genesis 2.24, man was to leave father and mother, cleave to his wife. The two would be one flesh. But God still provided for Jacob a wife, because if the line was going to continue, if the covenant promise to Abraham was going to be perpetuated, then Jacob must have a wife, and he must produce children. And then God blessed Jacob. We saw this in Genesis 30. He had 11 sons and a daughter up to this point. Later, Benjamin will be born. But there is the structure there for this nation that is being raised up from whom the Messiah will come. And then we saw last time in Genesis 31 how God protected Jacob, how God intervened and warned Jacob that he needed to flee from the household of Laban, his father-in-law. And so we've seen that God himself has been the unseen hand, sheltering and directing Jacob all along the way. Genesis 31 depicted, again, the flight of Jacob from the threat of Laban. When one flees, he leaves from one place to another, perhaps from someone to someone else. And this is what we see being played out in Genesis 32. Jacob, in chapter 31, fled from the land of Paddan Aram, where he had been for 20 years, 14 years of which he spent laboring for Laban to have his wives. Seven years for Leah, then seven years for Rachel, and then another six years. And then he was told by God directly that he was to flee. And we can look back at Genesis 31 and verse 3. The Lord intervened and said to him, return unto the land of thy fathers and to thy kindred and I will be with thee. That Emmanuel promise coming through again. If you look at verse 13, the Lord spoke to him in a dream and said, latter half of verse 13 of chapter 31, now arise, get thee out of this land and return unto the land of thy kindred. And so he fled from the threat of Laban. Although it was encouraging to see at the end of Genesis 31 that there was a covenant made between Jacob and Laban. Now, though, he's fleeing from Laban, and he's going to the land of his father's, the land of his kindred. But who is waiting there? Esau. Esau, his brother, the brother with whom he had struggled in the womb of Rebekah. They were struggling with one another even before they were born. And then after their birth, Esau, the hairy man, the red man, the hunter, the sportsman, the outdoorsman. And Jacob, the weak, the frail, the man of the tents with his mother. There had been this rivalry between them. And remember, Jacob had taken Esau's birthright as Esau had traded his birthright for a mess of pottage. And then he had stolen the blessing of Father Isaac. by deceiving him. Through that deception, the connivance of Jacob's mother, he had taken these things from Esau. And when we last saw Esau, we saw that he was threatening even the very life of Jacob. Go back for a second and look at the last scene we had of Esau. It's in Genesis 27, verse 41. And Esau hated Jacob. because of the blessing wherewith his father blessed him. And Esau said in his heart, the days of mourning for my father are at hand. Then will I slay my brother Jacob. And so Jacob is threatened by Esau. Esau has been plotting to take the life of Jacob. And so humanly speaking, it seems that Jacob has gone from the frying pan into the fire, leaving Laban, who had been abusive, and taken advantage of him, but going to Esau, who is ready to slay him. And yet we also see, do we not, the continuance of that unseen hand of God, that God who is with him, and then not even always unseen, sometimes intervening, speaking to him. And indeed, this is what the Lord had promised him. If you go back and look at Genesis 28 and verse 15, when he had left the land of Paddan Aram, he was given the promise by the Lord. Verse 15, I am with thee and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest and will bring thee again into this land. Or when he was leaving to go to Paddan Aram. For I will not leave thee until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of. And so the promise had been made to him by God. And now we're seeing the playing out of the fulfillment of this. We see in Jacob the fulfillment also of what was recorded. We read this last week in our call to worship from Psalm 37 verse 23. The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord and he delighteth in his way. In Genesis 32, we continue to see the fulfillment of God's promises to Jacob, that God will keep him, that God will protect him, that he is that good man whose steps are ordered by the Lord. And we begin to see the development in chapter 32 of a more, what we could call a more sanctified and mature spirituality in Jacob. Now, when the Lord chose Jacob and not Esau, as is described for us in Scripture, we're not told that the Lord chose Jacob because he was a spiritually better man than Esau. In fact, quite the opposite. Paul interprets it in Romans 9, and he says God chose Jacob, and he didn't choose Esau before the boys had grown up and done anything good or bad. Paul said in Romans 9-11 that God's election or choosing of Jacob was merely so that his purposes according to election might stand. His choosing of Jacob was unconditional. We talk about unconditional election, do we not, as a tulip-toting Calvinist. And there weren't any conditions that Jacob had met that made him electable. God simply chose him. God is sovereign. He chooses whom he will. He has mercy and compassion on whom he will. Jacob was a deceiver. We haven't seen much meritorious in Jacob up to this point. He was unconditionally chosen by God and yet those whom God chooses, he also begins to work out a life and a spirit of faithfulness, of holiness. And so we can trace to some degree, I think, a pathway of sanctification in Jacob as we read through this inspired account of his life in Genesis. One place where I see that in particular is in our passage today. One of the few points where we see some things about Jacob that seem praiseworthy, spiritually speaking. As we'll see, as we read earlier, he will enter into this prayer, this prayer for deliverance. And he will especially, in verse 10, acknowledge his unworthiness in the Lord's sight. I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies and of all the truth which thou hast showed unto thy servant. Many interpreters, when they come to Genesis 32, probably it's best known for the last scene, which we'll get to. And that is when Jacob wrestles with a man, an angel, and he's given a new name, his name has changed from Jacob to Israel, although it continues throughout the narrative to be called Jacob. And the name Israel means a prince of God. That's significant. But before the new name, at the end of Genesis 32, there's this prayer that is right here in the middle of it. And that's going to take up some of our attention, rightly so. So let's look at our passage. Let's walk through it. let's see what we might learn about Jacob and what might be profitable for us to hear as well. As we turn to Genesis 32 and we look at this chapter, if you happen to have the authorized version which we normally read and preach from, you'll notice that the old Protestant fathers who made this translation, that they added paragraph divisions. You see it like a big, looks like a backward P in a printing of the authorized version. And guess how many sections they divided Genesis 32 into? Five. We've seen this over and over. When they divide it up, they're like, here's five sections. I'm not sure why they did that. Maybe they were thinking of, The Torah had five books, the first five books of Moses, but they want us to think in terms of five sections of Genesis 32, verses 1 through 5, verses 6 through 8, verses 9 through 12, verses 13 through 23, and verses 24 through 32. And so let's walk through each of these five sections and see if we can understand better what's being described here. So we're going to start off the first part, verses 1 through 5. And I'm going to label it simply, Jacob Went On His Way. Very creative title for this section, as it starts in verse 1, and Jacob went on his way. It took me hours to think of that title for this. And I was struck by thinking about this is a mark of obedience. So again, we're seeing some more signs of a sanctified life in Jacob. He obeys what God tells him to do. Remember, look back at chapter 31, verse 3, return unto the land of thy fathers. Or verse 13b, now arise, get thee out of this land and return unto the land of thy kindred. He obeys. Jacob went on his way. So there's a sign somewhat of obedience. We've already noted it seems though he's going from danger to danger. He has escaped the danger of Laban, but there are more dangers ahead. But then, right at the beginning, there's a note of assurance there in verse 1. And the angels of God met him. and the angels of God met him. There is a preemptive act of divine assurance. He will be accompanied by God's angelic servants. There are many things in the return to his homeland that mirror things that happened in his journey there. In Genesis 28, remember, when he was heading to Laban, he had stopped at a place called Bethel and he saw a ladder and angels ascending and descending on the ladder. Now, as he leaves, he's joined by an angelic band. In verse 2, we read, it says, and when Jacob saw them, he said, this is God's host. And the word host is a military term. This is an angelic army. Later in the Old Testament, in 2 Samuel 5, there will be an account of a time when David was going out to do battle with the Philistines. And God told him not to strike the Philistines until he heard the sound of a going in the tops of the mulberry trees. For then shall the Lord go before thee, 2 Samuel 5, 24. Presumably, that sound at the top of the mulberry trees was the angelic host going before David and indeed we're told in 2 Samuel 5 25 when he heard that he went out and he smote the Philistines. In Luke chapter 2 we read of the heavenly host praising God and saying glory to God in the highest and on earth peace goodwill toward men at the birth of the Lord Jesus. This wasn't merely a choir but an army a heavenly host. And when Christ was in the garden and was arrested, Peter drew his sword to prevent this. And the Lord told him to put his sword away. Those who live by the sword will die by it. And then the Lord said to Peter, Matthew 26, 53, thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my father and he shall presently give me more than 12 legions of angels. So there are these hosts, we think of the angels, touched by an angel, got a little glass figurine. Think of an army of God's host and he sends them to protect Jacob. We're told also in verse two that he called the place, the name of that place, Mahanaim, meaning in Hebrew, two hosts or two camps. There were so many of them, there were like two armies, two angelic armies that had been sent out to protect him. Jacob knew that there was going to have to be a reckoning with his estranged brother Esau. Again, he's fleeing from Laban. He knows there's going to be an encounter with Esau. And so with some foresight, he begins to think about sending messengers to reconcile with his brother. Look at verse 3. And Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau, his brother, unto the land of Seir, the country of Edom. And so remember, whereas Jacob will be the father of Israel, Esau was the father of the Edomites. And so he sends messengers to his brother. Here we see, again, something else that may be hopeful with respect to sanctification in Jacob, and that is he's a peacemaker. The Lord Jesus Christ will say in the Beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5, 9, blessed are the peacemakers. They shall be called the children of God. In verses 4 and 5, we have the message that he commanded them. Look at verse 4. And he commanded them, saying, thus shall ye speak. unto my Lord, notice the honorific title Esau, thy servant Jacob, calling himself Esau's servant, saith thus, I have sojourned with Laban and stayed there until now. And so he's letting his brother know of what's transpired in his life. He continues in verse five and he describes the prosperity that he has received. And I have oxen and asses, flocks and men's servants and women's servants. And so he's not hiding this. He's telling him of the prosperity that he has. And he continues in verse five. And I have sent to tell my Lord second time this honorific title. And why does he say what does he tell these messengers to do? What is his hopes? that I may find grace in thy sight. This might call to your mind Genesis 6, 8, which says of Noah at the time of the flood, but Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Jacob is essentially asking Esau to look with grace upon him as God himself did upon Noah at the time of the flood. This brings us now to our second of our five parts of our text, and it's verses 6 through 8. And here we have a record of Jacob's fear and distress. We read in verse 6, and the messengers returned to Jacob saying, we came to thy brother Esau, and also he cometh to meet thee, and 400 men with him. Jacob is coming with flocks and servants and family and wealth. And then he learns that Esau is sending to him a group of 400 men, military age men. He's sending a small army. And it doesn't seem like they are the welcome wagon. They're not bringing bouquets of flowers. But there are 400 armed men who are coming out. This doesn't look well, and Jacob knows it. And so we read in verse 7, then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed. Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed. This could be a sign now of his lack of confidence in God's protection, that perhaps he was having a crisis of faith and confidence in the Lord's provision. The great Victorian pastor Charles Spurgeon talked about the minister having fainting fits, times of despair, and Jacob seems to be going through one of those periods of time. He was greatly afraid and distressed. And this despite the fact that he had two angelic hosts overseeing him. Despite his fear, he does not lose his wits but begins to think pragmatically about how to arrange things as best as he can under the circumstances. And so we read in verse 7, Always skillful, clever, Jacob, it says in verse 7. And he divided the people that was with him and the flocks and herds and the camels into two bands. And perhaps the two bands are reflecting the two angelic hosts that are overseeing him. And we learn the method in this in verse 8. And said, if Esau come to the one company and smite it, then the other company which is left shall escape. And so he has a contingency plan. If one group is wiped out, perhaps the other will be able to escape. And this brings us to the third part of our passage, 305, right in the heart of the chapter, I think, with respect to its spiritual weight. And this is Jacob's prayer for deliverance, which I read aloud earlier. And so he's fearful, he's distressed, he's trying pragmatically to hustle about and get things figured out and arrange, humanly speaking, the best way he can. And it's at this point that he offers this prayer of distress for deliverance. The old adage is that there are no atheists in foxholes. In times of deepest distress, men often turn to the Lord in prayer, even if it is a prayer of desperation. You ever heard of people who, like, go to prison for something, and all of a sudden they're in prison, and they have a spiritual awakening, and a lot of times people are scoff at that, sometimes rightly so, because they're false professors and false conversions. But I've met more than one person who I think genuinely did get converted when they hit the very bottom in prison. And I've heard some of them say it was, oddly enough, the best thing that ever happened to them, because it made them cry out to God. It made them seek the face of God, and I judge some of those testimonies I've heard to be sincere. Jacob begins this prayer that comes out of, again, the great fear and distress described in verse 7. He begins verse 9. Jacob said, O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, the Lord which saith unto me, return unto thy country and to thy kindred, and I will deal well with thee. And so he begins addressing God, not the force, not some amorphous God, not the gods, but the particular God, the God of the Bible, the God who made covenant with Abraham and with Isaac, this God who made himself known, the Lord, all capitals there, Jehovah. It's the four consonants there in Hebrew, the tetragrammaton, the I am that I am. He prays to this God. But he does say, he basically says, you're the one who sent me on this journey. You're the one who told me, again, Genesis 31, verse 3, returned unto thy country and to thy kindred, and you had promised me I will deal well with thee. He's recalling unto the Lord the promises that the Lord had made unto him. And then really verse 10 I see is the spiritual high point thus far of Jacob's spirituality. As he says in verse 4, I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies and of all the truth which thou hast showed unto thy servant. Authentic prayers of desperation begin with expressions of humility, lowliness, and a declaration of unworthiness before a sovereign God. I'm not worthy of the least of all mercies and of all truth. He adds that he stands out this turning point into verse 10. For with my staff, I passed over this Jordan, and now I am become two bands. He recognizes this sort of state of distress that he is in. And as we meditate on verse 10, there really is, here we are in the Old Testament and Genesis, patriarchal narrative, but there's really very much an evangelical sense to these words in this prayer right here. It's a very evangelical type of prayer. I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies and all the truth which thou hast showed unto thy servant. It might recall things like in Luke chapter 18 when Christ tells the parable of the Pharisee and the publican or the tax collector, whereas the Pharisee is standing afar off, praying and thanking God that he's not like this tax collector. What is the tax collector doing? We're told in Luke 18, 13, the publican was standing afar off and would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. Or think of the Apostle Paul in Romans 7, verse 24, saying, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? Or think of the Apostle James in James 4, 8 and following, where James said, Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners, and purify your hearts, ye double-minded. Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and he shall lift you up. So there's an evangelical sense of this prayer. In verse 11, we have the specific petition for deliverance. As he says in verse 11, deliver me, I pray thee, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau. And he confesses in verse 11 his fear of his brother. For I fear him lest he will come and smite me and the mother with the children. So he fears not only that his own life might be taken, but also the lives of his dear children and their mothers that Esau will deal violently with him, mercilessly with him. And again, what's the overtone of this? If this were to happen, the promise that had been made to Abraham, that had been made to Isaac, and now is being continued by Jacob, that has it at the long end, which they can't yet see, the promise of the gospel, the coming of the Messiah. If this were to happen, all that would be wiped out. So the whole threat of the gospel, salvation, we might say, would be under threat. And so his prayer is, deliver me. Deliver me from this. Of course, again, there have been the promise that God had made, and he brings that up. Look at verse 12. And thou sets, I will surely do thee good and make thy seed is the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude. And again, we can turn back to Genesis 28 verses 14 and 15, which was the promise that God made before he left to go to Laban. Including in verse 14, and thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth. Genesis 28, 14. And thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south. And in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. You promised this, God. Keep your word to me. As Titus will put it in Titus 1-2, God cannot lie. And so he calls for the honor, the integrity, the righteousness of God to keep his word. This takes us to the fourth part of our passage, verses 13 through 23. And I would title this, Jacob sends presents unto his brother Esau. We have seen Jacob fall upon the Lord in prayer, but this does not mean that he then sits passively by But we see his pragmatic efforts to use means to bring about peace with his brother. We read in verse 13, and he lodged there that same night and took of that which came to his hand a present for Esau, his brother. So he's prayed, but he knows the Lord uses means, and so he begins pragmatically to work toward the thing that he has asked the Lord for, that the Lord might be pleased to use these means. And he is going to try to shower his brother with presents. And so we see this happening, starting in verse 14. Here's the presents. 200 she-goats, 20 he-goats, 200 ewes, and 20 rams, 30 milk camels with their colts, 40 kine, or cows, and 10 bulls, 20 she-asses, and 10 foals. And so it's quite a menagerie of all these animals. I think if you counted them up, it's at least 540 animals, not counting how many colts the milk camels had. And he delivers them, orders them to be delivered. Look at verse 16. And he delivered them into the hand of his servants. Every drove or herd by themselves. And said unto his servants, pass over before me, and put a space betwixt drove and drove. So you've got the 200 she-goats, and there's a space, and the 20 he-goats, and a space, and the 200 ewes, and a space, and the 20 rams, and so forth. And it's this wave upon wave of these gifts that are going to be coming toward Esau, his brother, who last we saw was threatening to kill him. And he gives instructions to these men, look at verse 17, and he commanded the foremost, the one leading the first of these presents, presumably the 200 she goats. saying, when Esau, my brother, meeteth thee, and asketh thee, saying, whose art thou? And whither goest thou? And whose are these before thee? Verse 18. Then thou shalt say, they be thy servant, Jacob's. Thy servant, Jacob's. It is a present sent unto my Lord, honorific title, Esau. And behold, also he is behind us. So we get this sense of wave after wave of these presence coming to Esau to ameliorate whatever anger this disgruntled, discontented brother had with him. He says that not only to the first, but to each one of these servants who are leading forward the next drove or the next herd. Look at verse 19. And so commanded he the second and the third and all that followed the drove saying on this manner shall you speak unto Esau when you find him. Verse 20 and say ye moreover behold thy servant Jacob is behind us and aside from all these gifts and presents he's sending the cherry on the top is eventually you're going to find Jacob at the back of all these gifts. And in verse 20 also it's revealed to us again his method and this means of inundating his brother with these presents. Look at verse 20, for he said, I will appease him with the present that goeth before me, and afterward I will see his face. Peradventure, or perhaps he will accept of me. And so this was his plan. He had prayed. He had set in a plan of reconciliation. And he put it into practice. Verse 21, so went the president over before him and himself lodged that night in the company. And he rose up that night and took his two wives and his two women servants and his 11 sons and passed over the Ford Jabbok. Now, he kept back. his family, and that very night, though, perhaps in a moment of, I don't know, panic, he sends them and puts them over the river, and what we should imagine is Esau is coming, and he sends his family over to protect them. The gifts have gone to Esau, and as he's sort of standing alone on one side of the river, the family's on the other, and he's, again, trying to come up with the best sort of plan that he can under the circumstances. We read in verse 23, and he took them and sent them over the brook and sent over that he had. And this leads us to our fifth and final part of our text, verses 24 through 32. And I've labeled this, Jacob is given the name Israel. One commentator called this last part of the chapter a mysterious and perplexing narrative. It begins in verse 24, where it says, and Jacob was left alone. So he's by himself. He's sent these presents ahead. He's sent his family and the rest of his stock across the river. And it's just him standing between all that he has and the threat of Esau. And then it tells us, this is what the commentator, why he called it mysterious and perplexing, is this scene that, humanly speaking, seems kind of odd and hard to understand. It says, and there he wrestled a man, or there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. And so all night long, this man comes, and he's wrestling with him. Who is this man? This man was apparently an angel taking the appearance of a man. Some of you will remember back in Genesis 18 verses 1 and 2 when the three men met Abraham in the plains of Mamre and they were angels that had been sent. One was the angel of the Lord, one were the two angels who were sent to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. And so this man comes and we can authoritatively say that this man was an angel because we actually have a place in the prophets where a prophet inspired by the Spirit describes this man as an angel. It's in Hosea chapter 12, verse 4, where it says, he, meaning Jacob, had power over the angel and prevailed. In verse 25, we read that this angel was wrestling with Jacob. Look at verse 25. And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, meaning the angel didn't prevail against Jacob, he touched the hollow of his thigh And the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint as he wrestled with him. Many questions arise here. And maybe, again, this is why that commentator called this a very perplexing passage. How could Jacob have possibly prevailed over an angel of the Lord in such an encounter? We must not consider this a sign of angelic weakness, but of divine permission. The angel did not prevail because God did not permit him to prevail over Jacob, because God was working out of purpose. And he touched his thigh to send it out of joint, to weaken him, perhaps to show him that any prevalence he has over this angel isn't given coming by his own strength, but it's by divine permission. The same thing is true of verse 26, which says, and he, the angel said, the man said, let me go for the day breaketh. And Jacob said, I will not let thee go except thou bless me. Again, was Jacob now with a wounded thigh being able to prevail over this man? No. It's not the weakness of the angel. It's the divine and merciful permission of God. In verse 27, this angel asks Jacob, what is thy name? And he said, Jacob. And you might remember that the name Jacob is thought to mean something like the supplanter, or even the deceiver, or one who grasped the heel, because he came out grasping the heel of Esau. He was one known for his craftiness, for his cleverness, for his tenacity, Remember how he had used all those skills to take away his brother's birthright and his father's blessing? But now, in verse 28, the angel, as a messenger of God, says to him, thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel. And that name Israel means a prince of God. For as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed." So he's given this new name, this name Israel. And of course, this name that Jacob is given, a prince of God, is going to be the name that is going to be given collectively to all his seed who come after him through what will be the 12 tribes. The descendants of Father Abraham will be the people of Israel, the Israelites. And of course, later the Apostle Paul in Galatians 6.16 will call the church, the spiritual descendants of Abraham, the Israel of God. Jacob, likewise in verse 29, asked for the name of the one who wrestled with him. And Jacob asked him, verse 29, tell me, I pray thee, thy name. And he said, wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name? He doesn't tell him his name. Remember, God will reveal his name, I am that I am, later at the burning bush to Moses. But it does say in verse 29 that he blessed him. He was blessed by his father Isaac, He's blessed of God, and here he's blessed yet again by this messenger of God, even by God himself. In verse 30, then, Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, which means in Hebrew, the face of God. He says, for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved. Of course, he saw the angel. this angel appearing as a man. Later in Exodus 33, Moses, you might remember, will ask to see the Lord's glory. And he will be told in Exodus 33, verse 20, thou canst not see my face, for there shall no man see me and live. And even when God showed his glory to Moses, he had to put him in the cliff to the rock. Here in Genesis 32, God's presence was being mediated to Jacob by this angel. And so he could call this place Peniel, the place where he had met God, as it were, face to face in meeting this messenger. In verse 31, he says, and as he passed over Penuel, another spelling of that same name, Peniel, the sun rose upon him and he halted upon his thigh. He limped on that injured thigh. And then Moses just adds it was a practice even in his day for the Israelites, although this was never made part of the ceremonial law, the written law, that they did not eat of the sinew which shrank, which is upon the hollow of the thigh. Under this day, Moses says in his time, verse 32, because he touched the hollow of Jacob's thigh in the sinew that shrank. Well, friends, we've worked through the passage, through this chapter. Wonderful account of ancient Near Eastern history, right? But why? Why are we reading it in a meeting house of Christian worship? What is being told us here about ourselves, about our lives? Well, I think there's much that we might take from this. In many ways, Jacob stands as a figure for the believer. He was chosen by God, not conditioned on any merit in him. And God, having chosen him, having brought him to faith and confidence in him, begins the work of sanctifying him, though he is still a fallen man, a man with remaining corruptions, living in a fallen world. And so the Lord is progressively working not only his plan of salvation that started with the promise to Abraham, but also this promise of this work of sanctification in Jacob's life. As I looked at this chapter, I was thinking about what, as we've sometimes done, what New Testament passage would I lay alongside this one? And one passage that came to my mind was our Lord's teaching of what we call the Great Commandment. It's found in Matthew 22, Mark 12, where Christ is asked, which is the greatest commandment? And our Lord answers by summarizing the Ten Commandments. First table of the law, the Ten Commandments are man's duties to God. No gods before God, no graven images, No taking God's name in vain. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Then the second table, beginning with the fifth commandment, is man's duties to his fellow man. Beginning with honor father and mother, and do not kill, and do not steal, and do not commit adultery, and do not bear false witness, and do not covet. And so our Lord was asked, which is the greatest commandment? And he famously answered, first, quoting from Deuteronomy 6, 4, and 5, love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. That's the vertical, love God. And then our Lord had answered, quoting Leviticus 19.18, love your neighbor as yourself, the horizontal. And in this work of sanctification that God is doing in Jacob, I think we see some hints of this. First, Jacob was to be reconciled to God. The God who had chosen him, the God who had blessed him, The God who had provided for him, the God who had protected him, the God who had given his angels charge over him, the God who had changed by grace his life, was also the God who was sanctifying him. And what does Jacob do within this chapter? learns about prayer. He prays to the Lord in his distress. And he learns humility. That he is not worthy of God's mercies. He's not worthy of God's truth. He has not attained this household and these children and these material possessions because of any inherent merit in him or labors in him. But he has received them by God's grace, and he is acknowledging that. And he has to have that point of that prayer before he can rightly be called a prince of God, Israel, a co-heir with Christ by spiritual adoption. Secondly, we learn that Jacob There is being worked out in Jacob's life reconciliation to his brethren. Reconciliation had been worked out with Laban at the end of chapter 31. In chapter 32, it's now beginning to be worked out. We'll see next chapter what happens. It's beginning to be worked out with Esau, his brother. Notice how Jacob is something of a model here. He takes the initiative. He sends messengers ahead. He overwhelms his enemy with gifts. There's something evangelical about that. The Apostle Paul in Romans 12, 18 will write, if it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men. And then later in that same chapter in Romans 12, Paul echoes the teachings of our Lord in the Sermon on the Mount in Romans 12 20. And he says, therefore, if thine enemy hunger feed him, if he thirst, give him drink for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. Jacob sent wave after wave of gifts to the brotherhood sworn he wanted to kill him. Well, we'll get to see what the cumulative impact of that might be in the next chapter. But he saw it means to be reconciled to his brother. Finally, friends, we can ask some questions of ourselves. Thinking about those two lines of thought, Christ said, what's the heart of the Christian life? It's loving God with your heart, mind, soul, and strength. And it's loving your neighbor as yourself. And so if we take Genesis 32, the teachings of Christ, and we think about it today, here's the questions we might ask. Friend, first, are we reconciled with God through Christ? Have we been reconciled with God through Christ, who died on the cross for sinners and was raised to life for our justification? Have we humbled ourselves before him, saying, I am not worthy to receive the least of thy mercies and truth, yet thou hast given them unto me in Christ? And secondly, are we reconciled with men? Is there an Esau in our lives? Is there someone we hate or who hates us? Is there an Esau that would call forth from us counter-currently to what our natural desires may be? Is there an Esau that requires our entreaties and our gifts of kindness and our waves of presence? that might lead to reconciliation. For if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he thirst, give him drink. And in so doing, thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. Amen. Let me invite you to stand together. Let's join in prayer. Gracious and loving God, we give thee thanks for thy word and for this ancient account, an inspired account of the patriarchs and of Jacob. And we ask, oh God, that you would use thy word, that it would be applied to our hearts, that we might be drawn closer unto Christ. We ask this in his name and for his sake, amen.