It might please Almighty God
to bless us together this morning as we meditate in His holy word.
Let us turn to the book of Genesis, chapter 32, and we'll read verses
24, 25, and 26. So the book of Genesis, chapter
32, and reading verses 24 to 26. and Jacob was left alone. And there wrestled a man with
him until the breaking of the day. And when he saw that he
prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh.
And the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint as he wrestled
with him. And he said, let me go for the
day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee
go except thou bless me. We should be thankful that the
Spirit of God has ordained that We have such an account recorded
in the Word of God for our encouragement and our instruction. And of course we read a lot about
Jacob's life in the Word of God and this is just a part of his
life. It's an important part of his
life and it's good if we can understand therefore God's gracious
dealings with Jacob on an occasion like this and to also be able
to compare such an occasion with our own life. And we might think,
well, of course, I'm not in that kind of situation. Well, we're
not in that situation in one sense, but in another sense,
we are. And we are, from this perspective,
that Jacob had a great need. And we have great needs in our
life, perhaps in a very different way. But nonetheless, we do have
needs, and we do need the Lord to come and to bless us exactly
the same, really, as we read in the 29th verse, the result
of this situation. We read, and he blessed him there. And that surely is what all of
us need, to be blessed, blessed of our God. and to realise the
Lord was gracious and merciful to Jacob and we could think,
if we look back and think of Jacob's life and we could think,
well surely Jacob wasn't worthy of any blessing like this, well
neither are we. And therefore it's good to recognise
we have someone here that we can examine and see how the Lord
did graciously come to him. Well, we read this 32nd chapter
together this morning. You know the account, you know
that Jacob was returning and he was coming close to where
his brother Esau was and he sent this present to him to appease
him. You may remember, of course,
that Jacob had deceived his father and taken the blessing although
in one sense it was Jacob's because Esau had despised his birthright
and had sold his birthright to Jacob for just a bowl of pottage
or a bowl of soup and therefore the birthright was in reality
Jacob's But nonetheless, there was this situation here which
was trying and difficult. And we see that Jacob then decided
to send a present to Esau. And when the messengers came
back from that present, they told Jacob that they came to
his brother and he comes to meet you with 400 men. Now we're not
told whether those men were coming for a war or just coming to meet
Jacob perhaps to encourage him and to acknowledge that he's
come back. We're not told that, but clearly
Jacob's conscience was such that he thought he was coming probably
to attack him. And so therefore he came before
God. And it's good to just read his
prayer just for a moment. It's in the earlier verses and
how Jacob approached unto God because these Words in the Bible
are for our direction and for our instruction, and we shouldn't
think they are irrelevant to us. Well, Jacob comes and he
says, O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, the
Lord which said unto me, return unto thy country and to thy kindred
and I will deal well with thee. What is he doing? Well, he's
acknowledging that his father worshipped the true God, and
Abraham and Isaac did, and therefore he's coming to God with a desire
to come to the same God that they'd worshipped. And he knew,
of course, that they'd worshipped the same God, and that that same
God had greatly blessed them. And it's good, you know, in our
little lives when we can look back and see the lives of other
people who God has clearly blessed, clearly instructed, clearly guided,
to realize, well, they worship the true God. And I want to worship
the same true God also. And so he then refers to what
God had done and the promise that God had given to him. And again, it's good if God has
encouraged you and me in our lives and directed us in certain
things to be able to come to God and remind him of his promise
toward us. Jacob's very clear. He said,
the Lord which said unto me, return unto thy country and to
thy kindred, and I will deal well with thee. That was the
promise. That was why Jacob was where
he was in this situation, because he was obeying what God had spoken
to him. And now it appeared to him There
was a great obstacle and he wondered if he was doing the right thing
and therefore he committed his way to his God. Well we should
remember to come in a similar situation. If God has directed
us in a certain way and a certain path and now it doesn't seem
to be working out and it doesn't seem to be following the pattern
that we expected. We should come to God humbly
and remind God of what he said to us, that we go in that strength. But then you see Jacob comes
and tells God what he feels to be. And again, that's good for
us to recognize this situation. He says, I am not worthy of the
least of all thy mercies and of all the truth which thou showed
unto thy servant. What a blessing that is for you
and me if we realize we are not worthy of God's notice. That's a good position to be
in. Many people think they deserve God's notice. Many people dictate
to God what he should do. And yet you see here is an honest
person under the influence of the Holy Spirit of God and coming
and telling the Lord that he's not worthy of the least of all
the mercies and of all the truth which thou hast shown unto thy
servant. It's good for us to remember such a position, to
come to God just like that. That means we recognize ourselves
as nothing at all, really, and yet to recognize the amazing
mercy and the amazing love of God towards such an unworthy
person. That's what Jacob did here. And
he tells God in his prayer, for with my staff, I passed over
this Jordan, and now I have become two bands. He had to divide his
company up because of fear of what might happen. He's able
to speak to God about it. And it's good because God knows
everything about us. And we don't have to think that
God doesn't know, but it's good to come to him and confess our
situation and to acknowledge his direction and his leading
toward us. So we have here a very good example,
a very good testimony for us today. And then he comes and
he pleads with God and he asks for deliverance. 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. Again, we can come to our God.
And we can tell our God everything, every detail, all our fears. It's wonderful, isn't it? Because
God knows all about us. God knows our innermost thoughts,
our innermost fears, our great concerns. They're all known to
God. And sometimes we struggle on.
ourselves and we forget we have an almighty God. One who is our
Father in heaven and one who looks upon us indeed as his children
and as a child comes to his Father. So you and I can come to our
Father confessing our sins asking the Lord will deliver us. Deliver
me, I pray thee. From this situation, I find myself
in something I didn't really expect. But he comes to a God
with faith to believe that he's not coming in vain. May you and
I have faith to come to God with our every difficulty, our every
need and pray to our God. And he says, for I fear him,
lest he will come and smite me and the mother with the children.
And then again, he reminds God of what he said. And now says,
I will surely do thee good and make thy seed as the sand of
the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude. Well, sometimes
God does give us great promises with regard to our little life. And perhaps we may doubt it. And perhaps God brings us then
into a situation where we have to plead the promise to God. That's what he was doing here.
He was pleading God's promise that it might be fulfilled. It's good if we follow the example
we have here. The Word of God is so wonderfully
clear and so wonderfully gracious to instruct us and to direct
us in our life that we live now upon the earth. great blessing
is that we have a God who is exactly the same that Jacob came
to all those many years ago I am the Lord I change not therefore
you sons of Jacob are not consumed and we're not consumed because
God is still a merciful God because he still deals with us in love
otherwise we would be consumed as we look into our hearts and
we see so much evil there. Well, what a mercy it is to have
such a God. Well, remember then this prayer
that Jacob made from the 9th to the 12th verse in this 32nd
chapter. And it's very appropriate for
the children of God. It's very appropriate for you
and me to ponder and to recognize how he did come to his God. But all the same, He still had
to go forward. He still had to go forward. And
therefore he went forward in the fear of the Lord and prepared
a vast present to send to Esau. It was a great company of cattle. I think it's something like,
I think 580 cattle. Tremendous present, wasn't it?
And it just showed how really wealthy Jacob was to be able
to give such a large present. and yet only be a small part
really of that which he possessed. And so that's just what he did. And then he divided his, he told
them what to do when they came to Esau, how he was to, how they
were to approach Esau and what they were to say to him. to take
this present. So went the present 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 eleven sons and passed over the four jabbok. And he took
them and sent them over the brook and sent over that he had. And then we're told, and Jacob
was left alone. The relevant truth is that often
we are left alone. But we're not by ourselves, because
physically we are. But you see, God was with Jacob
on this occasion. And although perhaps it may seem
that we are alone, We do walk sometimes a lonely path, and
we think perhaps no one else can understand it, and no doubt
Jacob was in, you might think, a fairly unique situation, and
there he was. sent everyone away and he was
by himself and Jacob was left alone and yet what we find is
there he was alone and yet God came to him and God blessed him
but the blessing that he received didn't come easily We should not forget that either. Blessings from God often do not
come easily. You may say, well, what do you
mean by that? Well, what I mean by that is
this. We may have to pray often, we may have to pray much, and
it won't be just A mere form of words. You know, sometimes
our prayers can become very repetitive. In one sense, nothing wrong in
that because we need the same things day by day. But it's great
when the Lord brings into our hearts an urgency. And here you see
Jacob had an urgency. He needed his God to appear. He needed his God to go before
him. And so God had brought him into
this situation where he was by himself with his God. And that's
an amazingly wonderful privilege. We might say he was locked up
to God. And as we're told here, there
wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. Well, we know, of course, he
sent his family across in the nighttime and we're not told
how many hours it was. But clearly he wrestled with
this man and this man would seem to be indeed none less than the
Lord Jesus Christ himself. We do get a little picture of
this in the book of Hosea which is quite interesting and that's
why just to remind you, and especially young people, to read the Word
of God and not think, well, I don't have to read all the Old Testament. Well, all the Old Testament does
have many words of very clear and very wonderful direction
to us. And we have that. In the book
of Hosea here, we have an example of God fulfilling the instructions
to his servant Jacob. And we read the account in the
12th chapter of Hosea. It's probably a book which most
of you haven't read very much, but it is instructive. And in
the third verse, we're told here about Jacob. Let me read the
second verse. The Lord hath also a controversy with Judah, and
will punish Jacob according to his ways. According to his doings
will he recompense him. He took his brother by the heel
in the womb, and you can read that account, and by his strength
he had power with God. Yea, he had power over the angel. and prevailed. He wept and made
supplication unto him. He found him in Bethel, and there
he spoke with us. Even the Lord God of hosts, the
Lord is his memorial. Well that's very clearly an account
of what Jacob was passing through at this time and how indeed we're
told here he had power over the angel. Well just who that was
we can't be absolutely certain but it would seem that it was
probably the Son of God himself described here as an angel. And in one sense, you see, when
God gives us wrestling prayer, we are praying to God himself. And we have this great and wonderful
intercessor, the Lord Jesus Christ, who we so need to take and present
our prayers to his Father and our Father, that they may be
answered. And you see, these things don't
come easily and don't come lightly, that the blessing of God of prevailing
prayer is a wonderful, wonderful mercy. Well, Jacob was blessed
here with prevailing prayer. But let us not underestimate
the cost it was and how difficult it was. We should not think that
we can just come to God and expect an answer straight away and expect
something easy. No, blessings normally come in
the way that the Word of God describes it to us. And if you
follow through the Word of God, you'll find many, many examples.
The life of David, the life of Abraham, the life of Jehoshaphat. There are many examples where
These men of God came into difficult situations. And what did they
do? They cried unto God. They prayed unto God. God heard
and answered their prayers. And God hasn't changed the way
that he blesses people. He blesses them in this way so
that the Lord grants us providing prayer. But that pervading prayer
comes as God gives us wrestling prayer, as God gives us that
real desire to urgently pray to God. And it will be in this
way. You won't be able to come in
a crowd, as it were. You may be in a crowd, but you'll
be, as it were, alone. You'll be by yourself, just like
Jacob was here. left alone, but he wasn't alone. God was with him. And that should be a very comforting
truth to each one of us. Jacob is left alone. Sometimes
we may feel to be just like that, to think, well, no one understands
my situation. No one's come into this pathway.
It may be so, but we have a God who understands the pathway. And the Lord brings us into these
situations so that we realize that it's not man that's delivered
us, It's God that's delivered us. It's God that's heard our
prayer. Just like Jacob here as he came
to God, praying in this way, deliver me, I pray thee. Deliver me. And we will need
God to come and deliver us. We have a personal need, a real
need. Jacob had a real need here, didn't
he? And God brings us into times in our spiritual life Also, he
brings us in times in our natural life. You see, this was really
a time in Jacob's natural life. But the Lord was very gracious
and caused him to walk this path. And there was a mark left upon
Jacob that he would never forget. the time when, by God's grace,
he prevailed with Almighty God. That's very humbling, isn't it? To think that poor, wretched,
puny man can prevail with God. It's not
because of any great favour that we have in our own ability. It's because of God's mercy.
It's because of God's love. It's because of God's gracious
plan toward us. And it's good then that we come
to a situation where God touches us in such a way that we don't
forget We don't forget the occasion
when God met with us. They're special times. They're not only special times,
they're precious times. You may say, why are they precious?
What if they're precious? They're valuable. and they're
valuable because it gives to us the very clear
consolation that the Lord is dealing with us in love to our
soul. It is his wonderful mercy toward
us. It's a well-known text I just
referred to in the epistle of Paul to the Romans in the eighth
chapter, which is a well-known chapter. And in the 26th verse,
we're told this likewise. Let me read the 25th verse. But
if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait
for it, In one sense, that was just what Jacob was having to
do. And likewise, the Spirit, the
Holy Spirit of God, also helpeth our infirmities. For we know
not what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit itself
maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts
knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession
for the saints according to the will of God. And then just to read the next
verse, familiar verse 28. And he says, and we know. You
see, the apostle Paul knew the truth of these things that Jacob
went through. He knew in his life. There are
many occasions, hadn't he, when God met with him. And he's able
to therefore tell us. And we know that all things work
together for good. to them that love God, to them
who are called according to his purpose. The Apostle Paul was
called according to the purpose of God. Jacob was called according
to the purpose of God. And how humbling it is for you
and me today. They have the evidence that we have been called, called
by God to set forth what he has said and what he has done. And so here was Jacob then in
this situation. And when he saw they prevailed
not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh and the hollow
of Jacob's thigh was out of joint. as he wrestled with him. And
he said, let me go. Well, there was a mark, you see,
which he wouldn't forget. And it's good, therefore, in
our lives if there's something that we don't forget, a situation,
a place perhaps, the place perhaps where God blessed us. It's not
that we are to idolize such places, but it's good to remember. all
the way the Lord has led us through the wilderness, through our life. And when he sorely prevailed
not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh and the hollow
of Jacob's thigh was out of joint as he wrestled with him. And
he said, let me go for the day breaketh. And Jacob's response
was, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me. Well, that
was the wonderful work of the spirit that gave to Jacob the
power to wrestle on this occasion and to not give up, to not give
up. We may perhaps think, well, I've prayed for this and that
for a long time, and I haven't received any answer. Well, remember,
the Lord waits to be gracious. The Lord has a set time to favor
Zion, a set time to favor his people. a set time and a set
way to bless them. And it will be a time and a way
wherein you and I will not be able to claim any
glory for ourselves. And it will bring us into that
position where we will come and realise it's Jesus only. And that's why these things will
be real and precious. To come and realize that God
brings us into situations which are perhaps exceedingly hard,
exceedingly difficult, exceedingly trying to bring us to a situation
where in our spiritual life we realize it's bringing us closer
to the Savior and bringing us to that realization of that great
need we have to know the Lord Jesus Christ as our Saviour,
to realise that He is the only One who can deliver us, the only
One who can deliver us and free us from our sins, from that great
burden which perhaps has increased and increased. And we know not
how to deliver ourselves, Well, what a blessing it is if God
gives us wrestling prayer. To wrestle with our God, that
he will come and hear us and come and deliver
us. And to have this urgency to be
able to come and say, I will not let thee go. except thou
bless me. What a mercy that is. And what
is it? It's the gift of God. Because
you and I wouldn't naturally continue. We'd give up. Well,
what a mercy. When God gives us, like he did
Jacob here, and it's so clear, isn't it? Prevailing prayer. Prevailing prayer. What a mercy
then, when God gives us prevailing prayer. It doesn't come instantly,
does it? It doesn't suddenly occur. There's labour. Yes, it's a conflict. But what a mercy it is to realise
that we are in communion with our God. We're pleading to Him. and to think that He comes and
will come and reveal Himself unto us as He does not unto the
world. What a blessing it is when He
leads us therefore to Himself. There's the glory, there's the
freedom, there's the deliverance. when we view Christ as our all-sufficient
Savior. No one else, no one else can
deliver our souls, but we have a great and glorious God who
can and does. And what a mercy, therefore,
is we come to the end of this account with Jacob and we see
the outcome. We're not left in a void. We're
not left in a vacuum. We see the wonderful work of
God and we see how it came to pass. You've read this account.
It wasn't something that just occurred, did it? You had to
go through a number of different situations to bring him to this
situation where he was alone, everything else had gone. He
was alone and God came and met with him. Remember that, God
came and met with him. Jacob left alone and there wrestled
a man with him. until the breaking of the day
what a deliverance there was in this situation what a mercy
because God came to him and we're told and it's such a wonderful
deliverance isn't it and he blessed him there yes God does come and
God does bless but in such a way as it was with Jacob, he would
not be able to claim any glory for himself. He would have to
realise, which he did, that he was wrestling with Almighty God
and that God heard and God delivered him. What a mercy for us today. Now be encouraged, as I've already
said, we come to that God who hasn't changed. that God who still hears and
answers prayer. But it may be you and I come
into places where we have to wrestle with God and not give
up, and not give up. Remember, Jacob said, I will
not let thee go, except thou bless me. Sometimes we might
think, well, there's no point in continuing. There's no point in praying anymore. Don't forget Jacob's case. Don't forget the example we have. And it's recorded for our direction
and for our encouragement. And as we read together, he said
unto him, what is thy name? And he said, Jacob. And he said,
thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel, for as a prince
hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed. And that's exceedingly humbling,
isn't it, to think that you and me, as unworthy sinners, prevail
with God through the merits of our great and glorious intercessor,
the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us not then give up, let
us not turn away, but let us be encouraged to realise that
we need to continue and come with this real urgency as Jacob
did and said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me. And the result, and he blessed
him there. Well, may we all know what it
is to be blessed of our God and to rejoice in his goodness and
mercy toward us. Amen.