All right, let's take our Bibles
and turn back to Genesis 32. Genesis 32. Jacob has received news from
his messengers that he sent to meet his brother Esau, that Esau
is coming to meet Jacob. And the scripture says in Genesis
32, verse seven, that Jacob was greatly afraid, he was distressed. And so he divided, he divided
all those that were with him into two, two hosts. And he informed
them, he said, now, now if Esau comes, and it appears that he's
coming to do us harm, by dividing you up, maybe one, one of the
groups will be able to escape. And so Now, for the glory of
God and for those of us who are struggling with the weight of
dealing with this world, dealing with indwelling sin, struggling
with the burden of the fiery darts of Satan, but we that know
that our paths are being directed by the Lord, We who need some
encouragement in the midst of our trials, let's hear what the
Spirit of God says to the church. I'd like to read, I'll start
in Genesis 32, verse 13, and I'm gonna read through verse
23, and we'll make a few comments on that, and then I'll deal with
the rest. The scripture says, Genesis 32,
13, And he lodged there that same night and took of that which
came to his hand a present for Esau, his brother. 200 she-goats,
20 he-goats, 200 ewes, 20 rams, 30, it's either pronounced, milch
or milk camels with their colts, 40 kine, 10 bulls, 20 she-asses,
10 foals. And he delivered them into the
hand of his servants, every drove by themselves, and said unto
his servants, pass over before me, and put a space betwixt drove
and drove. And he commanded the foremost,
saying, when he saw my brother, meeteth thee, and asketh thee,
saying, whose art thou? And whither goest thou? And whose
are these before thee? Thou shalt say they be thy servant
Jacob's. It is a present sent unto my
Lord Esau and behold also he is behind us. 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 and
say ye moreover behold thy servant Jacob is behind us for he said
I will appease him with the present that goeth before me, and afterward
I will see his face, for adventure he will accept of me. 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 11 sons, and passed over
the ford Jabbok, and he took them and sent them over the brook,
sent over that he had. Now, without a doubt, Jacob is
sending these generous gifts to his brother Esau for the purpose
of making peace. He wants to be accepted of his
brother and he wants to bury the hatchet, so to speak, and
let there be some fellowship once again. And in doing so,
he's doing as we've looked at a week or so ago, that which
is commanded us in Romans 12, verse 18, if it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live
peaceably with all men. It's so much better to have some
peace and have some comfort. Jacob, as a type of God's people,
is experiencing that which was trying to him. And our trials
are hard. These trials that are sin of
God, but they're so ordered, and we know this, but they're
still hard. The writer to Hebrews said in
Hebrews 12, 11, now no chastening for the present seemeth to be
joyous, but grieve us nevertheless afterward. It yieldeth the peaceable
fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. Jacob is seeking reconciliation
with his brother, and he takes that which the Lord has provided. That's what scripture says back
in verse 13. He lodged there that same night
and took of that which came to his hand. The Lord had provided
that. And that which Jacob was to give
to his brother, the Lord had given that to him. So here he's
sending these gifts to Esau. And he's moved by the Lord to
not spare any expense. any pain, he's to show the reconciliation
that he desires. Drove after drove, he sent these
messages and he put some space between them that his brother
Esau might behold the effort that he was making to have peace. And so he sent these servants
and livestock and he's got it to where they'll come, you know,
drove after drove after drove. in hopes of appeasing him. And
then the scripture says in verse 24, and this is where I will
take the bulk of the message, I've entitled this message tonight,
Left Alone with God. And verse 24 states that fact,
and Jacob was left alone. Now, the Lord, and remember this,
Jacob here is a type In this instance, right, he's a type
of us, type of God's people. And the Lord is going to teach
Jacob something about Jacob. And according to the Lord's wisdom
and good pleasure, he's gonna teach us something too. So let's
take heart, let's remember, this is not history. It is history,
but there's more than history here. Here's some instruction.
All scripture is given by inspiration of God. It's profitable for instruction
in righteousness, correction. And so here's the Lord and he's
powerfully removing from Jacob that which is going to be a hindrance
to Jacob. Jacob, you know, he's wanting
to appease his brother, but the Lord is providentially moving
Jacob. And so everything that was going
to be a hindrance, Jacob, for the Lord to deal with him, the
Lord sent it ahead. Now we don't know, we don't know
what is going to be a hindrance to us. The Lord knows. And Jacob is here, he's left
alone with the Lord, and for us too, We must be brought to
be alone with the Lord. And whatever the Lord sees fit
to remove from us, whether it be our health or some other worldly
possession, the Lord knows how to isolate His own with himself
that he might deal with them, that he might deal with us and
teach us. When we pray, what did the Lord
say? Matthew 6, 6. But thou, when
thou prayest, enter into thy closet. When thou hast shut the
door, pray to thy father, which is in secret, and thy father,
which seeth in secret, shall reward thee Openly. Beloved,
let us cherish the times of privacy that providentially are sent
our way. Make time, make time. Whatever's time is good for you. What's good for me may not be
good for you, but I'm telling you, being alone with the Lord. Make an effort to be alone with
the Lord. And I'm assured of this. The Lord will bless it.
He'll bless it. So here's Jacob and this God
sent blessing. I just, I think it's so precious. And Jacob was left alone. This blessing to be alone with
God, to have that precious time of communion, and to enjoy the
instruction of the Lord. And Jacob's earthly concerns
and all of his natural connections that the Lord would know is going
to be a distraction, a hindrance. Here's the Lord and He's going
to set Jacob in this time of personal isolation. I'm telling you right now, the
flesh is going to resist what I'm saying. To be alone with
God and to make an effort to be in your closet, wherever that
is. If it's in your easy chair, there's
nobody else. around and find, don't turn the
TV down or anything like that, turn it off. Turn it off. And just ask Him. Lord, speak to me. Speak to my heart. Nothing given
up. It doesn't matter if it's time,
it's money, it's activities, friends, health, position. Nothing
given up. is even in comparison to the
reward of being in the Lord's presence. And Jacob was left
alone. And Jacob being left alone, the
scripture says, and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking
of the day. Now this man is none other than
the Lord of glory. This is the Lord Jesus Christ. And I know that in verse 30.
Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, for I have seen
God. Face to face in my life is preserved. This is the Lord Jesus Christ. The spirit confirmed that this
was the Lord Jesus Christ. When he moved Hosea, in Hosea
12.3, the scripture says, he took his brother by the heel
and the wound and by his strength, He had power with God, and in
the margin it says, with power with God, meaning he was a prince,
or he behaved princely. So here's the scripture, and
it's revealing that Jacob is left alone, and a man, the man
Christ Jesus, wrestled. with him until the breaking of
the day. The word wrestled there, when you look the word up, it
means to be dust, B-E-D-U-S-H, one word, be dust, or get dusty,
that's what it means. He wrestled with the man, be
dust. God Almighty personally laid hold, God, laid hold of
this needy sinner and compassionately wrestled with him. And obviously,
it wasn't a brief encounter. The scripture says, he wrestled
with him until the breaking of the day. Now, I know that this
happened. This is a fact. He wrestled with
Jacob until the breaking of the day, but this wrestling that
took place between the Lord of Glory, he laid his hands, He wrestled with Jacob. I just,
I tried to imagine. Jacob is alone. It's at night.
And all of a sudden, he's being wrestled with. And I thought,
how fearful. I mean, the middle of the night.
I mean, I just, I can't even imagine. But here he wrestled
and Jacob was wrestling. The Lord was wrestling with Jacob.
He doesn't say Jacob was wrestling with the Lord, but the Lord was
wrestling with Jacob. But this is a picture. a beautiful
picture of a lifelong work of God's grace in the subduing of
the Lord's beloved sheep until the breaking of the day, until
that breaking of that eternal day. The Lord actually wrestled
with Jacob, and he gonna wrestle with us too. He wrestled with
us. Somebody said, well, I've never
felt him put his hand on me. Well, you that felt the pains
and the struggles the trials and the chastisements. Yeah,
you felt it. Yeah, you felt it. The Lord deals
with his people. Now, what the Lord was doing
for Jacob, he does for us too. He's gonna show Jacob something
of Jacob. And Jacob is gonna have to experience
his own helplessness, and we do too. This is how the Lord
teaches us how weak We really are. He touches us. And the scripture says that Jacob
was wrestling, the Lord was wrestling with Jacob until the breaking
of the day. And the scripture says in verse
25, and this particular verse of scripture, verse 25, this
has always intrigued me. I'd read this in verse 25. 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. Now, we know who is wrestling
with Jacob. This is God Almighty. He spoke this world into existence. He created everything by the
word of His power. Let there be light. It was light.
And He saw the light. It was good. Made the creature. He made the ant. He made the
fish. He made everything. And He made man. This is God. He'll do it as He will. And here the scripture says that
He That is, the Lord himself saw that he prevailed not against
him. This is saying that God saw that
he prevailed not against Jacob. Now, who is Jacob? He's just a worm. He's just a creature of dust,
a perishing lump of clay, but a lump of clay that God loves.
and one that he's chosen to save. And the scripture declares, and
when he, that is the Lord, saw that he, the Lord, prevailed
not against him. Now I know this. I know that the
Lord has not now discovered something concerning Jacob's unbelievable
strength. But rather the Lord is here And
he said to behold that which he has graciously done for Jacob. Now look what it says. When he
saw that he prevailed not against him. The Lord has given Jacob
faith. The Lord has saved him. He's
given him faith to believe him. And the Lord sees it. The Lord
sees the faith that he's given unto Jacob, when the Lord told
Abraham, I want you to take your son, your only son, and offer
him unto me for a burnt offering on a mount that I'll show you.
And Abraham left with Isaac and servants. They got to the place
that the Lord showed him. This is the place. And Abraham
and Isaac went up on the mountain, and you know the story. Isaac
asked him, he said, Here's the fire, here's the wood, where's
the lamb? And he said, God will provide
himself a lamb. And he put Isaac on that altar. And he raised the knife and the
scripture says, God called to him, Abraham, Abraham, lay not
thine hand upon the land, neither do thou anything unto him. For
now I know that thou fearest God. You think God just discovered
that? You think God didn't know exactly what Abraham was going
to do? No. The Lord saw that faith that
he had given him. Whenever those men tore those
shingles off the top of that house and let their friend who
was on that bed, crippled man, laid him, just lowered him down
right there in front of the Lord. And the scripture says, when
the Lord saw their faith, He said, Son, thy sins be forgiven
thee. Again, do you think the Lord
just discovered that? He saw it. He saw that which
He had done. He knew that which He had done.
He beheld it. The Lord sees and knows. that which he has done for us. Jacob would be made to discover
how weak he really was and how gracious the Lord had been to
him to give him faith, faith that continues, kept by the power
of God through faith, kept. And the Lord saw, he saw in Jacob
what God had done for Jacob. He saw that he prevailed not
against Jacob. That is, he saw that Jacob wasn't
going to leave because God was keeping him. He saw that Jacob
would cling to the Lord because the Lord's clinging to him. He
saw it. He saw that he prevailed not against him. Jacob didn't
want to leave. We'll see that in a second. And
when he saw that he prevailed not against him by the grace
of God, he touched the hollow of his thigh. And the hollow
of Jacob's thigh was out of joint as he wrestled with him. Oh, the pain. I just kind of
looked it up, just kind of see what it said about when a hip
goes out of joint. And I'm telling you, everything
I read was, it was just, I mean, pain. Pain was the order of the
day and everything I could find. Jacob suffered. His hip was out of joint. Verse 32 says that that sinew
which shrank That sinew, and it says, I looked it up to try
to find out exactly what it was talking about. It was talking
about when the sinew shrank, it said the vein of the sciatic
nerve failed. It was crippled. If you've ever
had problems with a sciatic nerve, it can be painful. Go down your
hip, down into your leg, and you're just, you're looking for
some relief. You want to get somebody to help
you. But here's the thing, the way
we're made to know the truth that God Almighty has kept us
through faith is when we suffer the trials of His merciful hand
and experience the keeping grace. When God saw, He prevailed not. When He saw Jacob remaining because
of the faith that God gave Jacob, not by Jacob's God could have
put him out. Here he wrestled with Jacob.
And the strength with which Jacob wrestled was not bone and muscle,
but according to the faith that God had bestowed upon him. Listen
to this, Joel 3.16. The Lord will be the hope of
his people and the strength of the children of Israel. You know
what God saw when he saw that Jacob prevailed not against him,
God again saw what God was doing for him. God saw. Scripture says in verse 26, and
he said, let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will
not let thee go, except thou bless me. What a marvelous display
of the mercy and grace of God to a needy sinner. Let me go. Separate from me. Let me be away from you. That's
what the Lord told him. And Jacob, again, a type of every
regenerated sinner, says, I will not let thee go except thou bless
me. Here, the angel of the covenant,
the Lord himself, commands Jacob to do that which would be nothing
for the Lord to accomplish when he said, let me go. Again, you
think he couldn't have broke himself away from Jacob if he
so desired? Again, in mercy, the Lord continues
to reveal to Jacob the truth of his word. Here's what he said
in 31.3, I will be with thee. I will be with thee. Let me go. And by the grace of God and the
faith given unto Jacob, Jake says, no. No. You think he came
up with that answer according to his flesh? No. Let me go. Think about yourself. Think about yourself. Mitch, let me go. Let me go. No. Let me go. I will not let you go. lest you
bless me. The Lord reveals again to Jacob
the surety of his word, chapter 32, verse 12. I will surely do
thee good and make thy seed as the sand of the sea, which cannot
be numbered for multitude. Let me go. No. No. Jacob must prevail. He must prevail
and the Lord assures that he will. I must stay faithful to the end,
but I will not unless he holds me. He gives faith that does not
fail. He prays for us to that end like
he did for Peter. Peter, Satan has desired to have
you. He may sift your wheat, but I
prayed for you, that your faith fail not." Jacob's faith wasn't
going to fail because the Lord kept him. When the Lord told
him, he said, let me go. Here's the evidence of God's
grace. Here's the evidence of God's
grace. Here's the evidence of God's grace. Jacob said, no,
no, I won't let you go. except you bless me. The Lord
had purposed to bless Jacob. The Lord had purposed. Turn to
Ezekiel 36. The Lord had purposed to bless
Jacob. So he moved Jacob to ask for
the blessing. He just told him, he said, let
me go. And Jacob said, I will not let you go unless you bless
me. I'm asking. Ezekiel 36. We've read this before,
but there's a precious passage I want you to look. Verse 25,
Ezekiel 36, 25. Will I sprinkle clean water upon
you? You shall be clean from all your
filthiness, from all your idols. Will I cleanse you? A new heart
also will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you.
I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh. I will give
you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you,
cause you to walk in my statues. You shall keep my judgment and
do them. You shall dwell in the land which
I gave to your fathers. You shall be my people and I
will be your God. And then he says over in verse
37, Thus saith the Lord God, I will yet for this be inquired
of by the house of Israel to do it for them. I will increase
them with men like a flock. I'm going to do this for you
and you're going to ask me. The Lord was going to have that
thief that we've spoken of so many times. I love that. I love
that past scripture. The Lord was going to have that
thief with him. in paradise that day. The Lord knew it. He's known
it eternally. He knew it when he left that
trial in front of Pilate. He knew it when he was going
to the cross. He knew it when they nailed him
to the cross. He was gonna have that thief
with him. And before that thief left this
world, God Almighty moved on him in power and he moved on
him to ask. You're gonna ask for it. Lord,
when you enter into your kingdom, would you remember me? Verily,
verily, I'll say to you today, you'll be with me in paradise.
He told Jacob, I will bless you. I will. And you're gonna ask
for it. Let me go. I will not let you
go unless you bless me. Verse 27, 28. And 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.
You know, Jacob asked for a blessing. And the Lord knew the blessing
that Jacob and us need. and he mercifully gives it. He
asked Jacob what his name was. What's your name? You think the
Lord knew him? Yeah, he knew it. But Jacob is
going to acknowledge who and what he is, and we are too. What's your name? My name is
Jacob. I'm a cheat, I'm a supplanter,
I'm a deceiver, I'm a trickster. The Lord blessed him by telling
him. Jacob asked for a blessing. Now,
you want to know a blessing? A blessing is when you see a
believer that knows something by the grace of God of what they
are. And by the grace of God, they know something of who he
is and who we are in Christ. That's a blessing. What's your
name? Jacob, thy name shall be called.
No more Jacob, but Israel. For as a prince, hast thou power
with God. and with men has prevailed. Hold your place there as I, again,
wrap this up. Turn with me to Isaiah 62. Isaiah 62, verse four. Isaiah 62, four. I won't let you go unless you
bless me. Now, to know him, now think of what this verse says. The Lord says to his people,
thou shalt no more be termed forsaken, neither shall thy land
any more be termed desolate, but thou shalt be called Hephzibah. My delight is in her. In thy
name, Beulah, married. For the Lord delighteth in thee,
and thy land shall be married. You have people say, boy, the
Lord sure has blessed me. Let me tell you what a believer
says. He's blessed me too. He lifted me up. He pulled me
out of the dung heap of sin. The dungeon where I was captive. Captive to Satan. Captive to
the burden of my rebellion against God. And he washed me in his
blood. And he told me, he said, you're
not gonna be called forsaken anymore. You're gonna be called
my wife. Now, you know, if we have him,
we have it all. We have it all. What's your name? Jacob. No, your name is Israel. Back in Genesis 32, verse 29,
and Jacob asked him and said, tell me, I pray thee thy name.
And he said, wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name? And he blessed him there. You know, turn to Judges, Genesis,
Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Judges, Judges 13. That question,
that question, Judges 13, right after Joshua, that question was,
that was asked by a man named Manoah and his wife. Judges 13,
verse 15 to 23. And Manoah said unto the angel
of the Lord, I pray thee, let us detain thee until we shall
have made ready a kid for thee. And the angel of the Lord said
unto Manoah, though thou detain me, I will not eat of thy bread.
And if thou will offer a burnt offering, thou must offer it
unto the Lord. for Manoah knew not that he was an angel of the
Lord. And Manoah said unto the angel
of the Lord, what is thy name, that when thy sayings come to
pass, we may do thee honor? And the angel of the Lord said
unto him, why askest thou thus after my name, seeing it is secret? So Manoah took a kid with a meat
offering and offered it upon a rock unto the Lord, and the
angel did wondrously. And Manoah and his wife looked
on and it came to pass when the flame went up toward heaven from
off the altar that the angel of the Lord ascended in the flame
of the altar and Manoah and his wife looked upon it and fell
on their faces to the ground. But the angel of the Lord did
no more appear to Manoah and to his wife. Then Manoah knew
that he was an angel of the Lord and Manoah said unto his wife,
we shall surely die because we've seen God. But his wife said unto
him, if the Lord were pleased to kill us, he would not have
received a burnt offering and a meat offering at our hands,
neither would he have showed us all these things, nor would
as such this time have told us such things as these. What is
your name? That's what Manoah asked the
Lord. The Lord said, why do you ask me that? It's secret. It's
secret. Brethren, the Lord, refused to
tell Jacob his name. But he blessed him there. Jacob
asked that which the Lord knew best to keep secret, unrevealed. Jacob, like us, we walk within
the scope of that which the Lord has been pleased to make known. Faith believes what the Lord
manifests to us. We walk through this world through
a glass darkly. We know in part, we see in part,
we prophesy in part, but we see. What's your name? That's what
Jacob asked him. And he said, why do you ask me
my name? God blessed him. And that's where
the Lord left it. We shall see him face to face,
but right now, we walk by faith. There's much that we don't know
concerning the Lord. Verse 30, and Jacob called the
name of that place Peniel. I've seen God face to face and
my life is preserved. Here Jacob, you know, he had
called this place at one time, Maanaum, to host, camps. Now he gives it a new name, Peniel. I've seen God, the face of God,
that's what it means. And there he had seen the Lord,
the Lord appeared to him, and obtained favor of the Lord. So observe that name that Jacob
gives to the place. It wasn't because of the honor
that was given to Jacob's valor. Jacob didn't say anything about
his victory, his prevailing with God, but the honor of God's free
grace. He didn't even say, here's where
I wrestle with God and I maintain, I prevail with God, but rather,
I have seen God face to face and my life was preserved. It
was by the grace of God, the mercy of God, that the Lord wrestled
with Jacob. By grace, the Lord revealed to
Jacob what he was, who he was in himself, and who he was in
Christ. Verse 31, 32, and as he passed
over Penuel, The sun rose upon him, and he halted upon his thigh. And therefore the children of
Israel eat not of a sinew which shrank, which is upon the hollow
of the thigh unto this day, because he touched the hollow of Jacob's
thigh in the sinew that shrank. Scripture says that the sun was
now rising upon Jacob as he passed over, over Penuel. There he was in that beautiful
symbol and token of God's good pleasure. to show Jacob mercy. But the point, he halted upon
his thigh. You know, there's no mention
that Jacob ever recovered from that touch of the Lord. I know he never recovered from
the touch of the Lord. And we would desire, we would
desire that the Lord teach us something of ourselves. And I'm
going to say this, as I said a while ago, these touches from
the Lord, to the flesh, they're painful. But what a blessing,
what a blessing. You talked, I think about, I'm
thinking right now about these two precious men that, one that
the Lord's just taken and one that obviously the Lord may be
pleased to soon take. And the Lord's touched them.
Lord's touched them, touched the hollow of their thighs, spiritually
speaking. I can tell you from what the
one that has gone on and what the one is saying right now that
has yet to go. They're halting. This flesh is
weak. Jacob halted on that thigh. But
I promise you, as sure as I'm standing here, if you ask them,
would you like for the Lord to take that away? Both of them
would tell you no. Greatest blessing that God Almighty
ever gives somebody is to touch them and to show them what they
are in themselves and the grace of God that keeps them until
the day of the Lord's return. I pray that God bless this At
last verse, I want to say this, that last verse, every writer
that I read said that where they don't eat of that sinew that
shrank. Every one that I've read, and this is all I've got, I couldn't
find any other explanation on this. Most of them just do it
out of respect for what was said. The Lord touched his, and out
of respect, the Jews don't do it. But that's all I could find
on that. But as far as Jacob halting,
There was the blessing on that. He never again was not allowed
to remember that God had touched him. And that's a blessing for
our good and God's Lord.