Let's take our Bibles and turn
with me to the book of Genesis chapter 32. Genesis 32. It's an amazing passage of scripture
that was dealing with the life of Jacob. And in our passage,
The Spirit of God reveals to us what led this man Jacob, a
man that God loved. What he said, Jacob have I loved. And moved this man to pray. And the Spirit of God recorded
that prayer. And I want us to look at it.
I'm actually going to be looking in verses. The verses I'm looking
at is verses 9 through verse 11 or 12. But I want us to look at verse
1 and kind of work our way up to this. The scripture says,
And Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God Now, Jacob
is on a journey, and he's on this journey because the Lord
instructed him to go. Just turn back the page or look
over to Genesis 31, verse 3. The scripture says, And the Lord
said unto Jacob, Return unto the land of thy fathers, and
to thy kindred, and I will be with thee. Jacob, years before,
had left. You know why? Because of the
birthright and the blessing that the Lord gave him, rather than
Esau, his brother. And the Spirit of God moved upon
his mama to tell him, say, you better leave. You go live with
Laban, her brother. And now the Lord has told Jacob,
He said, I want you to go back to where you're from. And so
Genesis 32, 1, Jacob went on his way. And the angels of God
met him. Now in that journey, the Scripture
says God's angels met him. And all the writers that I read,
the wording and everything, They were actually angels. Ministering
spirits that were sent by God for the protection and the deliverance
of Jacob and his family. To deliver him from any that
might oppose him. And so, just like when the Lord
had all those angels that were surrounding Elijah Elisha and
his servant. And Elisha prayed and asked the
Lord to open the eyes of his servant so he could see. And he saw them. They were surrounded by angels.
Previously he couldn't see them, but then he could. God gave him
sight. His eyes were holding at first
and he couldn't. Then he did. Now here's Jacob. And he sees The angels of God. And they met him. Psalm 91 11
says, for he shall give his angels charge over thee to keep thee
in all thy ways. All the mysterious charge of
God's protection. I'm absolutely convinced that
we're sitting here today and there's more than just us right
here. Don't you? I believe that, Neil, don't you?
I believe the Lord's here. Two or three are gathered together,
I believe he's here. And I believe his angels are here. And he's
allowed us to read that. That's the only way we'd know
it. How would we know that? So, verse two, and when Jacob
saw them, he said, this is God's host. And he called the name
of that place Mahanaim. Mahanaim. It means two hosts,
or two camps. And it probably refers to the
angels that were seen and described as possibly parting. That's what
the insinuation is. Into two groups or two bands,
possibly one on one side, one on the other, one in front, one
in back. But Jacob saw them. He saw and he said, this is a
place of two hosts. Two bands. Psalm 34 7, the angel
of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him and delivereth
them. Whether that refers to the angel
of the covenant himself or his ministering spirits, here's what
I know, the Lord keeps his own. We are, as men have said rightly
so, God's people are invincible until God's ready to call. Nothing
happens to them. Everything that happens is by
God's good pleasure. or coordination. Verse 3, And
Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau his brother unto
the land of Seir, the country of Edom. Now, not that he had come there to
see his brother. That's not why he was there.
He was there because the Lord told him to go back to his country. the land of his fathers. But
knowing that Esau was in that part of the country and surely
desiring to see his brother and learn of his disposition of mine,
moved Jacob to send some messengers to his brother. The Lord had
ordered his steps. God had put him exactly where
he was. And the scripture says in 4 and 5, And he commanded
them, saying, Thus shall you speak unto my lord Esau. Thy servant, Jacob, saith thus,
I have sojourned with Laban and stayed there till now. I have
oxen and asses, flocks, men's servants, women's servants. I
have sent to tell my Lord that I may find grace in thy sight. Now, I want us to notice the
humility of Jacob's mind. Jacob was favored of the Lord. God had blessed him. God loved
him, didn't love his brother. And that right there is one of
those things that, but for the grace of God, we'd all do this. Well, I'm one of God's elect. I don't know about those people.
But I'm one that God's everlastingly loved. And He doesn't love them. And I'm telling you, pride comes
before fall. Brethren, we are what we are
by the grace of God, and that's it. And Jacob, in a spirit of
humility, and he knew, he knew that God had shown him affection. But he knew that there was nothing
in him deserving of it. He knew what he was. And when
the Lord wrestled with him, he asked him, he said, what's your
name? He said, my name's Jacob. I'm a cheat, I'm a liar, I'm
a conniver, and every believer will say that of himself. That's
what I am by nature. I'm proud, I'm arrogant, I think
I can handle it, and it is only by the grace of God that God
brings us down in ourself. It causes us to see. And I'm
telling you, the Lord will send that trial, that thorn in the
flesh, and we don't want it by nature, but He's going to say
to us as He said to Paul, my grace is sufficient for thee. We need to be humbled. We need
to be brought down. We don't think we do. We think we got it all, you know,
I got this under control. I got this. It's good that we've
been afflicted, that we can learn of the Lord's statutes. So Jacob,
favored of God, he told his servants, he said, you go and say to my
elder brother, you say to my Lord. You notice when he said
Lord there in 4 and 5, he says, thus speak unto my lower case
l. He didn't refer to him any higher
than he was deserving, but that was his older brother. He said,
you go and say to my elder brother Esau, my Lord, you say unto him,
thy servant, Jacob. And surely Jacob is longing to
make amends for the past. He has a spirit of humility when
he comes to approach through these messengers his brother.
He wanted to inform Esau that he wasn't coming to seek anything.
He wasn't going to come ask for anything. He said, I'm coming
and I might find grace in Esau's sight. Jacob desired that harmony
and brotherly love might be restored between them. That's the spirit
of a believer. We've got those that oppose us, resent us and stuff. And in ourselves, we deserve
it. No, Mark, we talked about that.
How you doing? Better than I deserve. Jacob,
he's warning there to not be any animosity. I don't want this.
What happened, happened by the grace of God, by the will of
God, by the purpose of God. But it's no reason for pride
and arrogance. Verse 6, And the messengers returned
to Jacob, saying, We came to thy brother Esau, and also he
cometh to meet thee, and four hundred men with him. Now it would be absolute pride
and arrogance and vanity for us to try to attempt to determine
Esau's intent, because the Spirit of God chose to be silent upon
that. All they did, they said, we went
and told him what you said, and he's coming to meet you, and
he's got 400 guys with him. And whatever the intent, this
is what Jacob surmised was his intent. Verse 7, then Jacob was
greatly afraid and distressed, and he divided the people that
was with him and the flocks and herds and the camels into two
bands. Jacob mused, I'm sure, on what
happened years before. I mean, you think back on that,
and here's what we know. I said a moment ago, what happened
was by the will and purpose of God. God was going to give the
birthright and the blessing to Jacob, because that's what God
purposed to do. But Jacob still knew what he
had done. Somebody said, well, I can't
figure that out. Well, I may not be able to figure
it out either, but that's the way it is. We do many times what
we do, and we do it because that's what we wanted to do, and the
Lord will take it and turn it for our good. Let me ask you something. What
was the difference between Judas denying the Lord, and Peter denying
the Lord. What was the difference? In themselves, nothing. They
both did it. The grace of God. I will have
mercy on whom I'll have mercy. I'll have compassion on whom
I'll have compassion. So it's not of him that willeth, or of
him that runneth, but of God that shows mercy. Peter did what Judas did. I know
it. Why didn't he? Because God chose
to not judge him with it. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute iniquity. Won't charge him with it. Jacob
did what he did and he did it. He lied. He came before his father. Came before his father. His father
couldn't hardly see him. He had skins on his arms and
he had Esau's robe coat on him. His father asked him, he said,
are you Esau? Yeah. You're truly my son Esau? Yes. Did he lie? Yes. And God turned it for good. All
things work together. Friend, that's mercy. That's
compassion. Almighty God does what Almighty
God does because that's what he does. And we bow. You go tell my brother Esau,
my older brother, your servant, I want to come see you. He's
coming to see you and he's bringing 400 guys with him. Man, I'm telling you, I'm sure
Jacob said, I am up a creek. Scripture says, verse 7, Jacob
was greatly afraid and distressed, and he divided the people that
was with him, and the flocks, and the herd, and the camels
into two bands, and said, if Esau come to one company and
smite it, then the other company which is left shall escape. Now
you know it's easy for us, as we read this account, to blame
Jacob for a lack of faith. I mean, how can a man You know,
not trust God instead of resting and trusting in Him. But listen,
don't let us ever forget we're all possessors of that old man.
We all struggle. We all disbelieve God. I believe. Lord, help my unbelief. I believe God. I want to believe
God. I trust Him. I want to trust Him. But I see
in me that is in my flesh there dwells no good thing. And Jacob was doing just exactly
what... Have you ever been afraid and
then you say, you know, I tell you what, okay, I'm done. I'm
done being afraid. I'm done. Can you turn it off? If you're
afraid, you're afraid. If you're scared, you're scared.
Somebody said, well, I tell you what, that's just a lack of faith. No, it's an old man. I'm going to show you what he
did. Just a minute. This man that
God loved, he was afraid, he was distressed, and he did the
best thing he could do. I'm going to divide them up,
and if Esau gets one of them, maybe the other will get away.
What else am I going to do? This man was loved and called
of God. A man that knew that God was
not going to leave him. The Lord told him, you go back
and I'm going to be with you. He knew that. He knew that. He knew that it was like Peter. When Peter got out of the boat
and he got in the water and he saw the wind and he began to
sink. Lord, save me! I'm going to perish. He's going
to be like that everyone that finds themselves in need. But Jacob, he was afraid. He was a man with light, passions,
like all of us. But the thing that revealed Jacob's
hope for deliverance in the midst of fear, and we're all like this,
the Lord will allow us to see ourselves. What will a believer do? In the
midst of the trial and the tribulation, what would he do? Even in fear,
when he was afraid and distressed, he did the only thing he could
do. He called upon God. Now there's
the difference. A believer in the midst of fear,
will go to the only source of his hope. And the scripture says
in verse 9, in Jacob, it said, O God of my father Abraham, and
God of my father Isaac, the Lord which settest unto me. return
unto thy country and to thy kindred, and I will deal well with thee."
The first thing he did was called upon the Lord as the covenant
God. That's what he said. Oh God of
my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac. That's the Lord
who revealed Himself to Jacob in a vision. Just turn back a
few pages, Genesis 28.10. 2810, and Jacob went out from Beersheba
and went toward Haran, and he lighted upon a certain place,
tarried there all night because the sun was set, and he took
the stones of that place, put them for his pillows, laid down
in that place to sleep, and he dreamed, and behold, a ladder
set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven,
and behold, the angels of God ascending and descending on it,
And beholding, the LORD stood above, and said, I am the LORD
God of Abraham thy father, and God of Isaac, the land whereon
thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed. And thy
seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread
abroad to the west, to the east, to the north, to the south, and
in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth
be blessed. So who was he calling upon? He
was calling upon the Lord who is the covenant God. The one
who had made in covenant mercy Jacob to be an object of his
affection. He was pleased to show Jacob
compassion. He was one of God's elect according
to God's will and purpose. And he called upon the Lord who
had promised his father Abraham with an oath that God would surely
bless Abraham and his seed of whom Jacob was one. He said,
I will bless you. Turn to Genesis 17, 1-7. Genesis
17, verses 1-7. When Abram was ninety years old
and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram and said unto him, I am
the Almighty God. Walk before me and be thou perfect,
and I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply
thee exceedingly. And Abram fell on his face, and
God talked with him, saying, As for me, behold, my covenant
is with thee. and thou shalt be a father of
many nations. Neither shall thy name any more
be called Abram, that is high father, but thy name shall be
called Abraham, or father of a great multitude. For a father
of many nations have I made thee. and I will make thee exceeding
fruitful, and will make nations of thee, and kings shall come
out of thee, and I will establish my covenant between me and thee,
and thy seed after thee, and thy generations, for an everlasting
covenant to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee."
So, when we pray, how do we pray? I've entitled this the prayer
of faith. When we pray, how do we pray? The Lord says when you
pray, say, our Father. We call upon our Father who is
our covenant God, our Father. We remember that we're calling
upon Him who has everlastingly promised to show mercy and compassion
to those that He's loved in Christ and raised up together and made
to sit in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. And He did this
that in the ages to come, the Scripture says in Ephesians,
He might show the exceeding riches of His grace and His kindness
toward us through Christ Jesus. So back in Genesis chapter 32,
Jacob, in a spirit of humbleness before God, he called upon the
covenant God. And then he called upon Him and
reminded the Lord where he was now. in trouble, in distress, and
in fear, was exactly where the Lord told him to go. That's what he says in verse
9. And Jacob said, O God of my father Abraham, and God of my
father Isaac, the Lord which said to me, return unto thy country
and to thy kindred, and I will deal well with thee. What he's
saying is, Lord, you told me to come here. You told me to
come this way. And we always remember that the
Lord is the one that leads His people, and we follow Him. We
just sang about that. Where He leads, I'll follow.
The Lord said, My sheep hear My voice, I know them. And they
follow Me. They're directed, steps of a
good man. He, the shepherd, leads the sheep. God had told Jacob to go back
to the land of his fathers, his family, and he did just exactly
what he was instructed to do, knowing that the Lord leads and
orders our steps, we pray to that effect. Lord, You have led
me, You said, You told me, that Lord the steps of a good man,
one made so in Christ, are ordered by the Lord. And where I am is
where You put me. I know that, and Lord I'm seeking
after Your directions, I'm seeking after your leadership, Lord,
I'm asking you for help. I'm where you have put me. Proverbs 3, 6 says, In all thy
ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy path. So Jacob
in the hour of his desperation, he said, Lord, you told me to
go back, and you said that you were going to deal well with
me. Lord, I just want to pray. to that effect. And then thirdly,
Jacob acknowledged his unworthiness concerning all the mercy that
God had shown him. This is the verse of Scripture
that originally, when I started thinking about this passage of
Scripture, this is the verse of Scripture that came to my
mind, verse 10, Genesis 32, 10. I'm not worthy of the least of
all the mercies and 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." He prayed to the
God of covenant mercy and grace. He prayed telling Him, Lord I'm
here because you sent me here. And then he said, Lord, I'm not
worthy of all the least of your mercies. I think about that The
least of God's mercies are more than we deserve. That's what
he said. I don't deserve the very least of your mercies. But is that not the confession
of a believer? Is that not the heart of those
that think back where the Lord found them? He's praying. He
said, I passed over this Jordan and now I've become two bands. years before he had passed over
the Jordan River. And when he went back, I mean
when he went that first time, he said this, John Gill said
this, I'll read what he said. He said, talking about Jacob,
saying I came across this Jordan River with nothing more than
a staff in my hand. John Gill said the first time
he had no friends, he had no money, no servants, no livestock,
all he had was a staff. He got a stick. That's all he
had. And now, he said, now I'm coming
back over here and I've got these two bands. I've got all these
people that you've blessed me with. You've blessed me with
this family. And I'm not worthy. Everything
you've given me, all that he had, he possessed. And we know
this. Jacob knew it too. God has richly blessed us with
the things The natural things, the earthly things that we have.
I'm so thankful. I'm so thankful. I'm thankful
I got a suit. There's people that don't have
a suit. They don't have anything. I've got an automobile to drive.
I've got a house that I can go in. I'm going to go home, Lord
willing, I'm going to have something to eat. I don't deserve that. I didn't
deserve that. But oh, the spiritual blessings. That the blessings of Almighty
God, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings, He chose
us in Christ. He adopted us, predestinated
us to the adoption of children. We're heirs of God, joint heirs
with Christ. The Lord has gone to prepare
a mansion for us. He said, in my Father's house
are many mansions. I've gone to prepare one for
you. And he said, if it wasn't so, he said, I would have told
you. He wasn't saying that just to,
you know, but you know, oh, how many times has the Lord kept
us from ourselves? I think back when the Lord told
Peter, I was talking a while ago about the difference in Peter
denying and Judas denying. The Lord told Peter, he said,
Peter, before the cock crows twice, you're going to deny me
three times. Satan has desired to have you,
that he might sift you as wheat. But I prayed for you. He didn't pray for Judas. He
said, I prayed for you. Can you imagine those sweet words,
I prayed for you? Almighty God has a covenant people. He's leading and directing them,
and He's blessing them, and He's showing mercy to them. Next,
the mercy sought by Jacob was according to God's covenant and
pleasure to have a people. Verses back in 32, look at verse
11, 12. 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 saidest, I will surely
do thee good and make thy seed as the sand of the sea, which
cannot be numbered for multitude." Now here's what we've got to
remember. This was God's promise to His
daddy, grandfather Abraham. He told Abraham, He said, I'm
going to make your seed as sand of the sea. Look at the stars,
Abraham. Can you count them? That's what you're going to have
too as far as your heritage. And now here's Jacob and he's
thinking, my brother is coming and he's coming with 400 guys
and I know what I did to him. Lord, you promised, you promised that
there was going to be a people Jacob, all those people that
he'd get of him, if Esau destroys these people, he'll be destroying
the people of God's promise to my granddaddy and my daddy and
to me. The sense is the same as when God
told Abraham concerning God's blessing to Isaac. It's what he said about his daddy.
Right here, Isaac. God gave a son to Abraham. His son's name was Isaac. And
this is what God said to Abraham about Isaac, Jacob's daddy. My covenant will I establish
with Isaac which Sarah shall bear unto thee at his set time
the next year. Abraham had two sons, Isaac and
Ishmael, one of a bondwoman, one of a free, but God was going
to bless just one. He said in Genesis 21-12, For
in Isaac shall thy seed be called. Knowing that God had told Abraham
afterwards, Take thy son, thine only son, Isaac, whom thou lovest,
get thee into the land of Moriah, and offer him there for a burnt
offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of. And
Abraham obeyed him. Now I'm going to bless, I'm going
to bless you Abraham, I'm going to bless Isaac. And out of Isaac
shall that spiritual seed come. And Isaac, you know, I'm going
to show mercy. Isaac shall thy seed be called.
Now I want you to take Isaac and go sacrifice him to me. Hebrews 11, 17. Hebrews 11, 17 to verse 19. It's
just an amazing passage of scripture. Abraham knew. Isaac, in Isaac,
was Christ gonna come. In Isaac, the Messiah was gonna
come through Isaac. Isaac was a young man. Through Isaac, didn't have any
kids. The Messiah's coming through
your son, Isaac. Now I want you to go take him and sacrifice
him. Hebrews 11, 17, by faith Abraham when he was tried offered
up Isaac. What did he do? He put him on
that altar. He put him on that altar and he took that knife
and he raised it and that boy was dead. In Abraham's heart
that boy was dead. He offered up Isaac, and he that
had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of
whom it was said that in Isaac shall thy seed be called, accounting
that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead, from
whence also he received him in a figure." In Isaac, the Messiah is coming.
If God told me to sacrifice him and I'm going to do it, and I
know this, God can raise him up. Now that's faith. To believe
God. So Isaac back in Genesis 32,
Jacob, I'm sorry. He's calling upon the Lord. And
he says in that 12th verse, Thou saidest, I will surely do thee
good and make thy seed as the sand of the sea which cannot
be numbered for multitude. believe in God, and he was saying
that. Robert Hawker said of this, he
said, we never pray better than in telling God what God told
us. We never pray more consistently. It's when we say back to the
Lord, what the Lord said, Lord, you said, you said, Lord, you
said, you'll never leave me. You'll never say, you said that.
Lord, you said, surely I will do you. You said you're going
to order my steps. Lord, you said, you said. And you wait on God. Wait on
the Lord. Well, I just can't leave it right
there. I'm going to end with this. Afterward,
Jacob sent the gifts to Esau. He was left alone after that
with the Lord, the man that he wrestled with. All night, blessed
him by changing his name from Jacob to Israel. I want to just
read what happened. His brother did come to him.
Look at verse 33. I'm just, I'm gonna read the
first 11 verses and then I'm gonna be done. This is what happened.
He was so fearful. Esau's coming, got 400 guys with
him. Jacob said, he's coming to kill
me. I deserve it. I'm gonna make two bands, maybe
one of them get away. He's prayed and asked God. He
said, God have mercy. You said, Lord, you said, you
said. Genesis 33, one to 11. This is the most precious thing. I can't hardly read it without
tearing up. Jacob lifted up his eyes, and
he looked, and behold, Esau came with him, 400 men. He divided
the children unto Leah, Rachel, unto the two handmaids. He put
the handmaids and their children foremost, and Leah, her children
after, and Rachel and Joseph hindermost. And he passed over
before them and bowed himself to the ground seven times till
he came near his brother, Esau, ran to meet him and embraced
him, fell on his neck and kissed him and they wept. And he lifted
up his eyes and he saw the women and the children and he said,
who are these with thee? And he said, Esau. Esau's asking him. He said, who's
all these people with you? He said, the children which God
hath graciously given thy servant. Then the handmaidens came near,
and they and their children bowed themselves, and Leah also with
her children came near and bowed themselves, and after came Joseph
near and Rachel, and they bowed themselves, and he said, What
meanest thou by all this drove which I met? to find grace in
the sight of my Lord. And Esau said, I have enough,
my brother. Keep that thou hast unto thyself.
And Jacob said, Nay, I pray thee, if now I have found grace in
thy sight, then receive my presence at my hand. For therefore I have
seen thy face, and though I have seen the face of God, and thou
was pleased with me. Take, I pray thee, my blessing
that is brought to thee, because God has dealt graciously with
me, and because I have enough, I have all." And he urged him,
and he took it. Isn't that the sweetest ending? I mean, what a, you know, that
spirit, God blessed it. He blessed that prayer. He blessed
what the Lord had put on him to pray. In his greatest distress,
my brother, my brother, my brother going to kill me because of what
I did to him. Man by nature, a huckster, a
liar, a cheat, a conniver. Oh, but by the grace of God,
a prince with God. But he loved his brother. He
loved him. God showed mercy to Jacob. and didn't show mercy
to Esau, but that gave Jacob no right to treat his brother
with anything but respect. I pray God teach us something
about our attitude, about prayer, about trusting the Lord, and
wait on God. Let God handle it. Let the Lord
take care of these things for his glory and our good.