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And so listen now to God's word
from Genesis chapter 32 verses 1 through 21. 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 Machaniah. And Jacob sent messengers before
him to Esau his brother in the land of Seir, the country of
Edom, instructing them, Thus you shall say to my lord Esau,
Thus says your servant Jacob, I have sojourned with Laban and
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 four hundred 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, 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." So he stayed there that night, and from what
he had with him, he took a present for his brother Esau. 200 female goats and 20 male
goats, 200 ewes and 20 rams, 30 milking camels and their calves,
40 cows and 10 bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys. These he handed over to his servants,
every drove by itself, and said to his servants, Pass on ahead
of me, and put a space between drove and drove. 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 the third, and all who follow the droves, you
shall say 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 after
what 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 flowers
fade, but the word of our God endures forever. Let's ask his
blessing upon our study of his word tonight in prayer. Lord God, as we come to your
holy word tonight, we pray that you would give us
eyes to see, ears to hear, and hearts to understand and believe
what you have here revealed to us. Bless us, we pray, and help
us to see the care which you have for your saints who are
in covenant with you. This we ask in the name of our
Lord. Amen. Grudges can be nasty things. Have you ever been involved in
one? Maybe you've held a grudge against someone else, or maybe
someone else has held a grudge against you. It doesn't matter
much, I don't think. Because being in a grudge is an uncomfortable
thing. regardless of which end of the
arrangement you're on. They tend to weigh heavy on the
hearts and the minds of those who get wrapped up in them. It's
the sort of thing that we ought to try to avoid and that we ought
to try to bring to an end if we do become involved in one. When we come to Genesis 32 tonight
we encounter a man who knew plenty about grudges. Really this text
revolves around a grudge and its resolution. Jacob had fled
from Canaan to Mesopotamia on account of his brother's anger
towards him. Jacob's mother Rebecca, do you
recall, told him she would send word when it was safe for him
to return when his brother Esau's anger had cooled. That word never
came. So as far as Jacob knew, his
brother had been nursing a grudge against him for the last 20 years. But he could not stay in Mesopotamia
forever just to avoid his brother. The Lord had promised to bring
him back to the land of Canaan before he had ever left. The
Lord had recently indicated that it was time for him to return. And the Lord had delivered him,
as we saw in chapter 31, from the tyranny of his uncle Laban,
thereby clearing the way. So when we come to chapter 32,
ready or not, here Jacob comes. And thus our text describes for
us this evening in verses 1-21 of this chapter, Jacob's plan,
his prayer, and his preparation as he pursues reconciliation
with Esau. Amid all that, I think the central
impression given by this account is that when the moment to face
Esau drew near, he was filled with dread. Yet in desperation,
Jacob here casts himself upon the Lord for deliverance. Consequently, the text, I believe,
points us in the same direction that Jacob learned to turn. This isn't just about Jacob's
deliverance. This text shows us that because our faithful
Lord cares for us, we can lean upon His promises and trust Him
to deliver us from our foes. That's what I hope you'll see
tonight. But first, let us consider Jacob's plan in verses 1-8. In Genesis chapter 31, the patriarch
finally made that break with his uncle Laban. The departure,
we know, had greatly upset his uncle. The Lord had to intervene
and protect his servant, but the two men were able to reach
a peaceable agreement to part ways. But when chapter 32 begins,
Jacob, we see, he's back on the move. He's headed towards the
land of promise. And that's when something mysterious
happens to him. It's not the first time something
mysterious has happened to Jacob. It's not the last time that something
mysterious is going to happen to Jacob. But in short, on this
occasion, we are told that as Jacob went on his way, the angels
of God met him. The mysteriousness of this, I
think, largely stems from how little is said about it. The
record here It includes no description of the angels' actions or words. Nothing. They're simply there. Jacob sees them and makes an
observation. When Jacob sees them, he takes
it as a sign of the divine presence. He sees angels and he says, this
is God's camp. That makes good sense. The last
time that Jacob had seen a vision of angels, they were going up
and down a ladder. Do you remember that? And who
was at the top? The Lord. The Lord was at the
top of the line. So now he sees these angels and
he calls the name of the place Machanaim which means two camps. Alongside his camp there was
another camp inhabited by angels signaling to him that the Lord
who had appeared to him so long ago at Bethel was still with
him. So as Jacob made his way He was
suddenly and subtly reminded that the one who had promised
him a safe return was indeed still with him. He was not making
this journey on his own. The Lord of the Covenant accompanied
the recipient of the covenant promises. Brothers and sisters, this is
a reassuring picture of the way in which our covenant Lord accompanies
us as believers on our pilgrim journey through this world. It's
only on a handful of occasions in the scriptures that God pulls
back the curtains for His servants to see that He is actively sending
forth angelic messengers to watch over and protect them. We don't
ordinarily get to see things like that. The Lord does not
always pull back the veil for us. But the question is, why
should we think that the immutable God who does not change acts
any differently today? When we walk through the valley
of tears that is this world, feeling as if we are surrounded
by the enemy, feeling as if this world is out to get us, the God
of the covenant is still busy dispatching all means necessary
to get us right where He wants us. He's going to do what needs
to be done to get us where we need to go. It's what He did
for Jacob, it's what He does for us. And Jacob, since this,
and he had the appropriate response, he took comfort. He took comfort. His confidence began to build. He began to stand up a little
straighter. He'd been browbeaten by his uncle for 20 years. Now
he sees the Lord's on his side. The result is that he is primed
and prepared to confront his brother Esau after 20 years apart. It's time. According to verse
3, Jacob sent messengers to his brother Esau in Edom. He takes
the initiative. I think this is instructive because
if you were to take time to flip to the back of your Bible and
look at a map of the region, you will discover something,
which is that Edom is to the southeast of the land of Canaan,
and Mesopotamia, where he had been dwelling, it is to the northeast,
and so Jacob could have avoided the area that his brother was
dwelling in altogether. He could have just gone around
it. But the Lord was camping alongside
him. He's comforted, he's consoled,
he's confident, and he is determined to bring this feud to an end. The grudge cannot last forever,
so he sends messengers to his brother. And he sends these messengers
on ahead with the purpose of testing the waters. We'll see
just how he's feeling after 20 years. They are to go and they
are to respectfully entreat with Esau. They are to explain the
circumstances of Jacob's long absence, as well as his intention
to return with a full entourage of oxen and donkeys and flocks
and male servants and female servants. And furthermore, they
are to make clear that Jacob desires peace. They're to speak
on his behalf, as verse 5 explains, they're to say this, I have sent
to tell my Lord, he's speaking very respectfully, I have sent
to tell my Lord in order that I may find favor in your sight. Jacob's plan is, in essence,
to bury the hatchet. Let's let it go. Let's let bygones
be bygones. And this plan to send messengers,
it's quickly executed. They go to Seir and Edom. They
find Esau. They evidently deliver the message.
No words are recorded here between the two parties. But then they
return. And what's their report? We came
to your brother Esau, and he's coming to meet you. And there
are 400 men with him. That is not the response that
Jacob was looking for. I don't know what response he
was looking for, but that wasn't it. The messenger's report fills
Jacob with fear. Verse 7 says, Jacob was greatly
afraid and distressed. And maybe you can understand
why he would feel this way. If you were to wake up in the
morning, you heard something going on outside, and you looked
out in your driveway, and you saw police cars flying up your
driveway with lights blazing and sirens blaring, you would
probably assume that they intended to arrest you, not give you a
reward. I'm guessing. That's what I would
assume. So likewise, when Jacob heard that Esau was headed his
way with 400 men, he fears the worst. That sounds more like
a militia than a welcome wagon. So his response here in the text
is to employ a self-preservation strategy. And I don't mean that
to say that he was being selfish. I mean self-preservation including
all of his family, his people, his camp. While he had just been
comforted by the presence of a second camp of angels, now
it's fear that's going to drive him to establish a second camp
of his own. That's a recurring theme in this
passage. Two camps, two camps, two camps. He's going to split his camp,
dividing his family and his flocks, thinking if Esau comes to one
camp and attacks it, then the camp that is left will escape.
He's thinking worst-case scenario. And if worst-case scenario happens,
at least someone would survive. See how quickly our circumstances
can bring us low? He had just seen the angels of
God, and now he's panicking. And haven't we all experienced
something like this? You come to worship. You hear God's word. You sense His presence. You're
filled with hope, confidence, peace. You get out in the parking
lot. You flip open your phone. You've
received a text about some crisis in your life that's going to
negatively affect you and the spell is broken. It's over. You
fall into despair. You're panicking. You're filled
with fear. Our faith can begin to waver
at lightning speed. It's not unique to Jacob. Jacob, fortunately,
has not, despite the fear that he feels, he has not forgotten
the promises of God. In fact, while he is sorely afraid,
his mind... What sanctification has happened
in his life? His mind goes straight to God. who is going to have
to be the source of his deliverance if he is to be delivered. And
so we've seen his plan, but his reliance on God is portrayed
more clearly in the second portion of this text, which contains
Jacob's prayer in verses 9 through 12. And I want you to see that
this prayer is actually a marvelous display of faith in a time of
trial. Jacob begins by calling on the
God of his father Abraham and his father Isaac, the Lord, Yahweh. And Jacob identifies the recipient
of his purse such because only the covenant God of Abraham and
Isaac can deliver him, their heir, from his brother. Over
many years the Lord had spoken words of life to all three men,
and Jacob's survival is going to depend on the Lord making
good on those words which have been passed down from generation
to generation. The Lord, after all, is the one
who had told Jacob to return home to his kindred to begin
with. This was God's idea. This trip back to Canaan was
supposed to be the channel through which God funneled goodness and
blessing Jacob's way, not evil. He was supposed to be turning
over a new leaf. Notice, while Jacob recalls that
past promise, he does not presume upon it. This is a lot of humility
for a man who has not previously had a lot of humility. the last
two decades had caused some spiritual growth in him. He's been a greedy
cheat in the past, but now he knows that even if God has promised
he does not deserve the Lord's generosity, he confesses to the
Lord, 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. But despite that unworthiness,
God had shown him such steadfast love, that word hesed, which
you may be familiar with, that is covenant, mercy, love, and
faithfulness. And he had shown this in a multitude
of ways. Even though Laban had tried to
bring him down, the Lord had been there to raise him up. And
he gives a very concrete example of this. When Jacob crossed the
Jordan on the way to Bananaram, all that he had, A staff in his
hand and his walking stick. Now God has so abundantly blessed
him that his family and his flocks can be divided into two large,
sizable camps. It is precisely because God has
shown unworthy Jacob such grace that he has here the wherewithal
to plead for deliverance on this occasion. If Yahweh had done
more for Jacob than he had deserved in the past, well then he may
well do more for him than he deserves in the present. Specifically,
what he wants from the Lord in the present is he requests to
be delivered or saved from the hand of his brother Esau. He
fears that brother that he once cheated. He knows that he done
him wrong. He fears for his life. He fears for his wives and for
his children. And so all Jacob knows to do
is to cast himself on the mercy of the one who had said to his
grandfather Abraham, I will surely do you good and make your offspring
as the sand of the sea which cannot be numbered for multitude. Surely, God is going to have
to preserve at least some of Jacob's children in order to
uphold that decree. And so he casts himself upon
the word of the Lord. I want to suggest to you that
this is an exemplary prayer for deliverance. Think about it. Jacob comes to God with an awareness
of God's character and covenant. He recounts and reflects upon
the Word of God which had been formerly revealed to him. Then
with all humility he makes his request on the basis of that
revelation as he seeks deliverance from the Deliverer. And finally,
having made his request, he closes his prayer by again pleading
God's promises back to him. This is a prayer of faith which
holds tight to God and his word. Jacob's prayer here brings to
my mind that hymn, maybe you're familiar with it, which says,
standing on the promises of God that cannot fail, when the howling
storms of doubt and fear assail, by the living word of God I shall
prevail, standing on the promises of God. When you're backed against
the wall, when you're afraid, when you are at the end of your
rope, You don't know how to tie a knot to hold on. You have got
to stand the promises of God and trust Him to deliver you
from all your foes, whatever form they may take. You have
got to plead the Bible's promises with the Lord. You have got to
cry out to Him and make your desires for deliverance known. And you can do these things with
faith that our Lord cares for you deeply. As we've already
sang tonight, what a friend we have in Jesus. What a friend. So we can take all these things
to the Lord in prayer. Why can we do that? Jacob could
do it. He knew to do it because God
had expressed his care for him in a very pointed way. The Lord had spoken to him from
heaven. We've not heard an audible voice
from heaven. But here's the good news. Despite
that fact, we have something really that's better. We have
a fuller revelation which is preserved for us in the pages
of the scriptures. And that revelation centers around
Jesus Christ, who is the surest sign of God's care for his people. Think back on those words from
2 Corinthians chapter 1. As we read them earlier, we see
that Paul described to the church the intense affliction that he
had experienced alongside his other apostolic co-workers. They
had faced such opposition, such hardship, that Paul was afraid.
They were all afraid they were going to die. But with that behind
them, with hindsight in their favor, Paul was able to perceive
that God had allowed them to face this hardship in order to
force them to rely on Him. They had shared in Christ's suffering. They had picked up their crosses,
they had followed the crucified Christ until they thought they
had come to the end of the line. But they did so as those who
believed, now I'm quoting verse 5, 2 Corinthians chapter 1, they
did so as those who believed that as we share abundantly in
Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in
comfort too. and therefore being comforted
in Christ, Paul could conclude in verse 10 of that chapter,
God delivered us from such a deadly peril and he will deliver us
again. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us
again. And then when you look for an instrument, how did this
come to pass? Well, Paul mentions explicitly
the prayers of the people of God. Accordingly, we see that we can
walk through the crucible with the Christ who was crucified,
because the Christ who was crucified was also raised, and having been
raised, he now comforts us. As he pledged to his disciples
while he was still on the earth, Jesus sent the Comforter, the
Holy Spirit from heaven, so that we might never walk alone in
the Christian life. Really, we see that the entire
Trinity is involved in consoling us and assuring us of our spiritual
deliverance and security. We've not heard a booming voice
from heaven like Jacob. But the Bible teaches us that
the Father's ascending of Christ expresses God's care for His
people. The Son's sacrifice expresses God's care for His people. The
Spirit of Christ's presence expresses God's care for his people. And
so when we are afraid or suffering or afflicted, we can turn to
the Lord in prayer in full confidence, clinging to his character and
covenant promises, knowing that for the Lord, for those in the
Lord, it's never just sufferings. It's sufferings and comfort,
too, because the Lord died and was raised. And this comfort,
this is the gospel here, this comfort, this hope of deliverance,
this security is available if your faith is in Jesus Christ,
in whom the Abrahamic covenant has been fulfilled. And so this
text, if we want to know the comfort, the consolation, the
security that Jacob could find in prayer, that Paul could find
in prayer, Then we turn from our sin, we turn to that crucified
and risen Christ, we receive the promises of God, and then,
crucially, we stand on those promises, content that the God
who has promised will watch over and care for us. He will deliver
us from the world, the flesh, and the devil. There are no greater
foes than that. The Lord can deliver us from
them all. Well, Jacob offered his prayer
of faith after his plan appeared to stoke Esau's anger. So then we come in the third
place to the fact that Jacob here, at the close of this section,
began to prepare for the moment of truth. This is Jacob's preparation
for the worst. You can see the preparatory work
in verses 13 through 21. After praying, Jacob stays put
for the night. But he's going to send others
on ahead of him in an attempt to assuage Esau's anger. Or at least what he perceives
to be Esau's anger. That they're going to carry an
extremely lavish gift on ahead of Jacob and the Oaks. That this
is going to change Esau's mind. Now Jacob has tricked his brother
out of his birthright and his blessing. He's not going to give
it back. That's not what this is about. It was clear by now
that he was God's chosen servant. It would be wrong, actually,
I think, for him to have given it back. He was in that long
line connected to the offspring of the woman mentioned in Genesis
3.16. Esau is the son of the serpent. But that's not going to stop
Jacob from using the blessing which he had received to bless
his brother. And yes, he does hope to benefit
from blessing his brother by not dying. He sends 200 female
goats, 20 male goats, 200 ewes, 20 rams, 30 milking camels, their
calves, 40 cows, 10 bulls, 20 female donkeys, and 10 male donkeys. If I received that gift, I would
be overwhelmed. But, you know, this was the sort
of thing that people wanted back in that time. And so these are
supposed to be delivered to Esau in droves by servants. And every
time a servant arrives with another slew of animals, they're to say
of the gift, they belong to your servant Jacob. They're a present
sent to my lord Esau. And moreover, he's behind us. They were all to say the same
thing. with great respect and kindness in the hope that the
gift might appease Esau and turn away his wrath. And maybe there
was something to the idea that this would be an overwhelming
gift. Hard to fight a battle in the middle of a herd of animals.
And so he wants to turn away his brother's wrath and that
aim is expressed openly in verse 20. Jacob instructs his servants
to deliver his gifts prior to their encounter. For what reason?
because 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. In other words, this gift was
supposed to be something of a propitiation. Do you remember what that means?
A propitiation is an offering which is meant to satisfy the
wrath and anger of an offended party. That's what Jacob wants. He wants to satisfy, cool, tamp
down the wrath of someone who is angry at him. We might say
that Jacob is trying to put his best foot forward. That's what
all this is about. He's going to put his best foot
forward so that he might be reconciled to Esau. and he wants to be reconciled
to Esau so that he can live in peace in the land of Canaan,
which the Lord his God has promised him. He does not want to live
the rest of his life looking over his shoulder. So filled
with a mix of, I think, fear and faith, he prays and prepares
for the worst. He believes, that's what this
prayer teaches us, But he's also afraid, and so his fear sends
him into a frenzy as he tries to think of something to placate
Esau. The grudge needed to die if Jacob
was going to move on with his life. In this text we're not
going to see the resolution. No appearance of Esau in this
passage. That long-awaited meeting between Jacob and Esau is going
to have to wait, and Jacob is going to have to undergo a profound
spiritual transformation first, as we're going to see next week,
Lord willing. But for now, the preparatory work moves forward
as the propitiatory present passes ahead of Jacob while he remains
in the camp with his family. He is putting his best foot forward,
yes, but only God can deliver him now. Brothers and sisters, I don't
know what might be instilling fear and worry in your mind right
now. I don't know what might be stoking
dread in your heart. I don't know who might be playing
the role of Esau in your life. But I do know this. As we said
at the beginning, because our faithful Lord cares for us, we
can lean upon his promises and trust him to deliver us from
our foes. The God who camped alongside
Jacob, to whom Jacob prayed, in whom Jacob trusts, even as
he divided his camp and sent his brother a gift, that God
is worthy of your trust and the work of Christ revealed in God's
word is the surest sign that it is so. And so we can, with
Jacob, no matter what fear we may be feeling, for Christ's
sake, because character and covenant, we can entrust ourselves to our
faithful Savior and believe that He will deliver us. Let's pray.
Best Foot Forward
Series Genesis
| Sermon ID | 819251845287653 |
| Duration | 34:28 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday - PM |
| Bible Text | Genesis 32:1-21 |
| Language | English |
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