Let's be returning to Genesis
32 Now in the last hour we looked
at Jacob's prayer and it was the a prayer of fruit fruit born
of the Lord and we see that it was a prevailing prayer meaning
the Lord did answer his prayer. The Lord gave it, and the Lord
answered it. And we'll see that at another
time. But along with this prayer of
faith, we are given a list of things that Jacob had done in
trying to provide for himself a warm welcome with his brother
Esau. And so while he's sitting in
the company of his family, his wives and children and servants
and all his possessions there, he began to take steps to further
ensure that Jacob would receive him warmly. And one of the things
that I see in this is that Jacob really wanted reconciliation
with his brother. He wanted reconciliation and
he was looking at that and examining, what can I do? What can I do
more to ensure that Jacob receives me? And let's just look at that
in verse 13. He lodged there that same night
and took of that which came to his hand a present for Esau,
his brother. And then it goes into all that
he did. He took 200 she-goats and 20 he-goats, and same thing
with the sheep and rams, and then 30 milch camels, which are
milking camels and their colts, 40 kine and 10 bulls, 20 she-asses
and 10 foals. And he delivered them into the
hand of his servants. Every drove by themselves and
said unto his servants, Passover before me. put a space between
drove and drove, and he commanded the foremost, saying, When Esau,
my brother, meeteth thee, and asketh thee, saying, Whose art
thou? and whither goest thou? and whose are these before thee?
Then 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 we see him here coaching
his servants, what they're going to say to Esau with regards to
these herds that Jacob's giving to Esau. But notice down in verse
20. You know, he's telling them to
say these things and a little ways into it where it says, for
he said, here's what Jacob's thinking. For he said, I will
appease him with the present that goeth before me and afterward
I will see his face. adventure he will accept of me. And what we see here is that
for all the scheming Jacob does, right, for all the planning and
steps and care he takes to receive a warm welcome, the best he can
say is peradventure. Maybe. Maybe I'll be received
by my brother. And that shows us, brethren,
that everything that we do in the flesh is uncertain at best. It's uncertain at best. We try
to do things that we think are right. We try to reconcile things
or do things differently or do what we think is the best thing
to do. But it's uncertain at best. But
what the Lord does is sure and certain. And His gifts are without
repentance. When He does something, it is
for good. It's according to purpose. And
that's where my hope is fixed, and that's where I want your
hope to be fixed, is in the Lord. Not in what we do or don't do,
but ever be looking to the Lord and trust Him. beg Him, and we
lean upon Him. And we'll see at the end of this
chapter, that's where Jacob is brought to, to lean upon his
Lord for all things. That's the blessing that the
Lord gives to Jacob, one of the ways we see His blessing to Jacob. Now, what I want to show you
here is that What the Lord did in revealing to Jacob here is
that as we get to this wrestling here with this man who wrestles
with Jacob, there is a sense in which it's a picture of a
new creation. And the Lord opposed Jacob. until
he was a new creation before he came into the promised land.
He was made a new creation. But don't confuse this. Jacob
is a new creature. He is a saved man already. The
Lord has blessed him. It's just being pronounced to
us here in a sense. We see what the Lord does, and
we're always coming to the Lord. I think if you ask an older saint,
they'll confess They've come to the Lord a lot, and they've
had experiences where all things are made new to them again, and
a time of refreshing. And there's times that are so
profoundly made to us that there's times where we think, did I even
know the Lord before this? Did I even know Him at all? And
we could go back and forth and drive ourselves nuts with it.
The Lord doesn't ask us. to know the exact day, but to
trust Him that He is growing us and keeping us. And as long
as we are here on this earth, He's going to, in grace, keep
revealing Himself more and more to us. He gives us more light
in Christ. And this is a beautiful picture. of what the Lord does for his
child. And Jacob is profoundly apparent
here, a new creature, though he was a new creature before
by the Lord's grace. But there's pictures in that.
He's making known to Jacob that he's his. You know, Jacob was
always, there's a sense in which Jacob was always second fiddle
his whole life. missed coming out before his
brother. His brother stuck his hand out first, and then he came. And always, he's trying to get
a footing in life and prove himself and be of some value or worth.
And he uses his craft to do it in his subtle ways. And he supplants his brother in many
ways. But the Lord here is saying,
Jacob, You're mine. I love you, Jacob. You're my
chosen possession. Through you, the promised seed
is come. And so he's in a very profound
way, establishing that in Jacob here. And the Lord does that
for his people. He shows us by his grace, time
and time again, how that he is our God and we are his purchased
possession. We are His purchased possession.
And if we're led by the Spirit and you that believe Christ,
it's by His Spirit that you believe Him and trust Him. That's not
fruit of the flesh. The flesh doesn't have any fruit.
The flesh brings forth dead fruit. But if we bring forth fruit,
if we do believe Christ and He's our righteousness and all our
hope, that's of the Lord, brought in you by His Spirit. And trust
Him. Lean upon the Lord and trust
Him. Believe Him. Because that's what He's showing
us time and time again in Christ and through His Word here. It's
a work of His grace. And what we see here is, like
Jacob, we're Jacobs by nature. But God's blessing is Israel. He blesses us with Christ, in
Christ here, through His grace. So this work is done in a very
pronounced way, and the Lord is showing him that he is his. And he proves it. He proves it in his child that
we are his. He brings forth, when faith is
found, when we go through trials, that when faith is found, in
other words, God isn't looking for the faith. He knows the faith's
there because he put it there. But he's revealing it and manifesting
it to you that you are his. And he keeps you in that. And
that's what he's doing. doing here in Jacob. And the
Lord demonstrates to Jacob that he is his, he's his creation,
and so that's what we're entering into now here. And the first
thing that the Lord does is he's going to make Jacob alone. He's going to shut him up to
the Lord so that nothing more is coming to his hand. He's going
to separate him from all those things that he was doing, and
he's going to shut him up into darkness, right? Night falls,
and he's shut up into darkness. Let me just read that there. that there night night has has
fallen here and in verse 24 it says that Jacob was left alone
and that's what the Lord does now he puts us in dark places
Jeremiah wrote this in Lamentations he said he hath set me in dark
places as they that be dead of old the Lord will bring us into
darkness he'll he'll He'll sit us down in dark places. And that's
where Jacob is now. And he gets up at some point,
and he sends his wives over. And I think he's sending his
wives away from Jacob. He's putting himself there. And he puts them back over the
brook Jabok. Jabok, it's called. And Jabok
means emptying. And all his wives went over.
His children went over. All he had. went over, and there's
Jacob, alone, waiting to face Esau, and he's empty. There's
nothing in him. Just like that Baruch J book,
he's emptied out. It's nightfall, it's dark, and
he's in emptiness here. And that's what the Lord does
for His child. When He brings us into the trial,
don't be surprised when you're made empty and shut up in darkness
and alone and feel yourself to be alone. You're not the first
saint that the Lord has done that to for your good. that you would have nothing and
can't turn to anything to help yourself. And so he'll put us
in that darkness. And all these little details
here are pictures of what our Lord does to lead us out from
this flesh. Because otherwise, that's what
we lean on. We lean on our staff. We trust
our works. We figure things out. And that's
what we're trusting in. our wisdom, our riches, our abilities,
what we got. And that's what we'll trust in,
except the Lord be gracious to us. Now, it's in this place of
darkness and night that our Lord comes to Jacob. And it's in order that he may
bring forth fruit. He's going to bless Jacob. And this is his work that we
see described here in our text. And we're gonna pick up now in
verse 24. And Jacob was left alone. And
there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. Now, oftentimes people point
out or say that this is Jacob wrestling for a blessing. But
that's not what the text says. This text says that a man wrestled
Jacob. The Lord came and wrestled Jacob. He was going to bring forth,
he had an object that this man had an object that he was going
for, that he was wrestling Jacob for, in order to bring him low
in himself. That's what he's seeking. He's
going to reduce Jacob to a poor, helpless beggar. A man who leans
not on his own staff, but who leans on Christ. And every time
he's leaning, he's made to remember, Christ is all my stay. He's all
my strength. I have no strength but Christ. And that's what the Lord is teaching
us through the wrestlings. when he withers this flesh and
makes us weak in ourselves that we might find our all, our strength,
in Christ. And he uses trials for that very
purpose. Difficulties and hardships and
darkness and strippings and emptying, he withers this flesh. and gives
us our strength in Christ our Lord. Now it says that they wrestled
in darkness until the breaking of the day. And I'm reminded
that's what the Lord does. He tells us, you stay upon me
till the dawn break. Till the day dawn and the day
star arise in your hearts. We stay upon the Lord. In Lamentations,
Jeremiah wrote, the Lord will not cast off forever. That's
not his purpose. He's not bringing you into darkness
just to destroy you. He deals with you. He chastens
you or he strips you for your good because you are his child. This is why he does this for
you. The Lord's mercies are new every morning great is thy faithfulness
So they wrestled until the breaking of the day and third in this
we see the patience of God For us our Lord is very long-suffering
With us. He's very patient toward us. There are things that that I
can admit to you take me a long time to learn. And I still think
I haven't learned them yet as I ought to have learned them.
That's because the Lord is very patient. He doesn't remove everything
from you immediately. We see what we are in this flesh. And some things are a long time
before we get them. Thinking of Jacob in this chapter,
I was thinking so much of what I've done in life and thought
of my own youth. And I came away with the sense
of, I don't know if it's just boys, but I just was so slow
to make connections. And so slow to put together the
cause and the effect of things. I don't know if girls have that
same trouble, but I sure did. Growing up and and you know,
I'd come I'd do something and come out with a smart bottom
at the end of it And it took me a long time before I realized.
Oh, I'm I'm the cause of all these things I'm doing this to
myself and the Lord is very patient with his people and how he Grows
us and shows us and teaches us and there's times where we see
I'm learning the same Lesson that I thought I learned before
and here I am learning it all over again. I have to be taught
this lesson again. And this is what the Lord's doing
with Jacob here. He's very long-suffering so that
Jacob went all night and didn't learn a thing yet. Didn't learn
anything through this whole night of wrestling. And he hasn't learned
anything. Now, the Lord is able to bring
to pass what He wills in us immediately. There's things that He takes
from us and strips from us with great success immediately, but
not everything. There's things that we really
labor in and struggle in and come back to like a dog to its
vomit at times. And the Lord is very, very patient. with us. And so it is that they
go till the day dawn, until the breaking of day. And this gives
us great hope in the Lord that we trust. Believe Him. Trust
Him. What He's doing for you is for
your good. And every trial, every darkness
is for your good. It's with purpose and intention
that he meets you and brings forth his fruit. You can depend
upon it. You can depend upon him. And
that's what he showed Jacob in Mahanaim, is saying, I'm your
God, and I've provided for you, and I will continue to provide
for you. And you're my child. And that's really what he's showing
to his people. And he's shown us that we're
not our own, that we're not on our own, but that he is the Lord.
and he's provided for us and he's keeping us. And then as
soon as God's pleased, he brought Jacob to the end of his strength,
that he might bless him. And that's what the Lord does.
He brings us to the end of ourselves. Now Genesis 32, 25, when he saw
that he prevailed not against Jacob, there, he touched the
hollow of his thigh And the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint
as he wrestled with him. And this is another key to our
understanding of the purpose of the trial that the Lord brings
us through and what this object is that the Lord is seeking here.
He brings us to the end of ourselves. He brings us into darkness. He
brings us low in ourselves. We'll be discouraged. and upset
and ashamed of our behaviors and actions and what we've done
and it's to bring us to the end of our road. Because we'll keep
fighting and clinging and doing what we can do that comes to
our hand so long as it's there. And so the Lord brings you to
the end of your rope there, to the end of ourselves, and He
shows us that we are powerless to save ourselves. He's going
to make us to know our sin. He's going to make us to know
our shame and folly, even though we've striven or strove with
Him for a very, very long time, through the night. And that night
can last for years sometimes for people. There's examples
in Scripture. I mean, David, After he murdered Uriah and took
Bathsheba to his wife, it was, I think, about a year before
Nathan came to him. David probably thought, everything's
fine, I've gotten away with it, I've made atonement for my sin,
and I'm sure he was very religious and trying to do things, but
the Lord visited him, and David knew it. When the prophet Nathan
came, he knew why the prophet, well, he was made to know it.
He was made to know it. And the Lord does that for his
people, for our good. He'll bring us through that darkness.
And he's making Jacob to have no confidence in the flesh, because
Jacob is very confident up to this point of himself. And he
shows us that his strength is made perfect in weakness. Now,
we'll look at that more deeply. So he's going to make known to
Jacob here a third important thing about his intention, verse
26. And the Lord said, let me go
for the day. breaketh. Let me go, Jacob, for
the day breaketh. And Jacob said, I will not let
thee go, except thou bless me. Now, I don't know to what degree
Jacob realized what the Lord had done in putting his hip joint
out of joint. I don't even know, but Jacob
is clinging. He's clinging now onto the Lord
that's wrestling with him. And that's what the Lord does
in bringing us to the end of ourselves. He makes us to cleave
to the Lord, to cling to the Lord because we're made to know
if I let go, I'm free falling, I'm dropping. And I will not
be recovered if I let go here. And so he has no strength to
hold himself up anymore. And when the Lord threatened,
as it were, to leave him, let me go, Jacob. The day breaks.
He couldn't let go. He could not let go. Lord, don't.
Don't until you bless me. I'm not letting go until you
bless me. He clung on waiting for the Lord. So what changed? What changed
in Jacob? What did the Lord do for Jacob
here? Jacob didn't do anything for
himself. This is what the Lord did. This is the fruit that the
Lord brought in Jacob. Well, basically, he touched him
in the seat. Literally and figuratively, he
touched him in the seat of his strength. He touched that hip. And Jacob was immediately weakened
so that all he could do was cling to the Lord because his hip was
put out of joint. And the seat of his strength,
all his power, all his confidence, all his trust was touched by
the Lord in that one touch. That's what the Lord does for
His people. He knows right where to touch
us. For you, it might not be in your
hip joint, it might be somewhere else, but the Lord knows exactly
where to touch each one of His people to make us know, I've
got nothing but you, Lord. And that sounds scary, but it's
a blessing. It's a blessing that the Lord
does for His people when He brings us to the end of ourselves. And so Jacob, who was a schemer
and a planner and a man of action, relying on his cunning ways to
get what he wants from others, he provided for blessings for
himself, making sure that he was a supplanter over his brother
Esau. With regard to the birthright
and the blessing, we see how he navigated things with Laban,
And now he's trying to win over favor with Esau, and the Lord
weakens him so that he has no confidence in himself or what
he's doing. And he's asking the Lord, I need
your blessing, Lord. I need you to bless me. All this
time I've been blessing myself, getting my own blessings, but
Lord, I need your blessing. I need your blessing. And so
this is the object that our Lord wrestled with Jacob for, to bring
Jacob to this. This is what the Lord was going
for in wrestling Jacob. He emptied him, he brought him
low, he brought him into darkness. There he wrestled Jacob, and
after bearing with Jacob for a long, long time in darkness,
Jacob in darkness, he touched him in the seed of his strength
so that all Jacob could do was cling and beg God to bless him. bless me Lord don't don't let
me go and so this brings us to the blessing which Jacob was
given and I think this needs explanation because I'd imagine
there's a lot of false doctrine or misunderstanding that comes
out of this whole chapter and and We need the Lord's grace
to understand this. But in verse 27, he said unto
him, what is thy name? So the Lord says to Jacob, what
is thy name? Does the Lord not know Jacob's
name? Of course he does. But he's putting Jacob in remembrance
of his name. Jacob the supplanter. What's
your name? I'm the supplanter. I've supplanted,
Lord, I've done all these works, I've done all these things, all
these sins, Lord. I'm Jacob, the supplanter. And
he said, so Jacob knows it, he's reminded. 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. So this name Jacob means supplanter,
one who takes power, who assumes power through craft and subtlety
in his ways. A usurper is more like he takes
it by violence. But a supplanter is more crafty
in his ways of getting power and what he wants. But Jacob,
he's a fighter. He's a fighter by nature. And
he's fought with his brother Esau and prevailed over him. Took his birthright, took his
blessing. He prevailed over Laban. He's a fighter. He's a contender.
And the Lord reminds him what he is by nature. Yes, you are,
Jacob, the supplanter. You are. And Jacob knows I'm
a sinner who's gotten myself into, by all these things that
I've done, I've put myself into great distress and trouble. Great
distress and trouble. And I'm undone, Lord. I'm undone,
and he knows that, and he's leaning upon the Lord, and he's about
to lose everything at the cruel hand of his brother Esau. But God gives him a new name,
Israel. And that name, Israel, right? El, El meaning God's name. Israel,
Israel. It means that when you see that,
it's saying God is the doer of the verb. of that verb there,
and it means God prevails, God commands. God is the prevailing
one here, and Jacob's blessed in God prevailing over him. And so you see it in the name
Daniel, Daniel means God judges. Gabriel means God is my strength. Israel means God prevails, God
strives, God commands. God is the one who now prevails
in Jacob's life. God commands what shall be in
Jacob's life. Before, Jacob succeeded in his
plans, in his striving, in his contending with men, but now
he will succeed with men, not because of what he does, but
because of God's gracious will and purpose to him. And that's
what he's demonstrating so firmly to Jacob, who's always been seeing
himself as having to fight for these things to get any kind
of respect or any kind of substance for himself. He's had to fight,
fight, fight. And the Lord saying, Jacob, I'm
your God. You're mine. You're my possession. I'm not letting you go. That's
why he put Mahanaim there. To show him, I provided for you,
Jacob, and I'll provide for you again and again and again. Trust
me, Jacob. And he's really making this,
he's driving this home to Jacob, that he's a prince with God.
He's royalty in the royal family of God by the blood of the promised
seed, by the blood of Christ. That's what we are, brethren.
So he's the happy one in all this. He comes out happy because
of God's defeating him and prevailing on him, Jacob prevails. Jacob's
the winner here. And that's how it is for us.
God conquers our hearts. He's overcome us. We're the Lord's
servants. We're the Lord's people, which
he has obtained for himself by his purchase. And we're the blessed
people for it. We're the happy ones for it.
We receive all the blessings. in that, and we're made happy
and rejoicing in what the Lord has done, and so that's how he
prevails with God, by God prevailing over him, and reducing him to
nothing, to cling to the Lord. By being made weak, he prevails. And so that's how he wins. And it says in Hosea 12, it speaks
of this. Hosea 12 in verse three says,
he took his brother by the heel in the womb and by his strength
he had power with God. Now who's his strength? Christ. Who's your strength? Christ. That's how we have power with
God. That's how God doesn't destroy
us and yet actually blesses us. because we have Christ our strength. Peter tells us, you're a chosen
generation, a royal priesthood, and holy nation, a peculiar people,
that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called
you out of darkness and into his marvelous light. Jacob was
in darkness, and God called him into his marvelous light, blessed
him there in the breaking of day. Blessed him in Christ. And so this name Israel, every
time he uses it, it's a reminder to him that it's not he who's
ordering his life and bringing comforts to himself. It's God. It's God that's prevailing. I
don't have to do this anymore. God is providing everything I
need. He's keeping me. He's not destroyed me. In fact,
he's blessed me for my good. And so God rules, and Jacob's
the blessed one. Now, it was deep into Paul's
ministry when he wrote of this to the Corinthians. He writes
of this thing in 2 Corinthians chapter 1. Turn over there, let's
see that. 2 Corinthians chapter 1 in verse
8. Paul says, we would not, brethren,
so this is Paul and his companions that were there in Asia, we would
not have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia
that we were pressed out of measure above strength insomuch that
we despaired even of life. When you read Jacob, Jacob was
pressed and despaired of life. He thought this is it. Esau's
gonna come and slaughter me and all that I have. But here's the
blessed purpose of God for this in them. Verse 9, but we had
the sentence of death in ourselves that we should not trust in ourselves,
but in God which raiseth the dead. And that's what the Lord
does. We're brought to death in ourselves. We're brought to measure beyond
ourselves to see that God is the one providing for us in all
things. And not us, not we, ourselves. Who delivered us from so great
a death, and doth deliver, in whom we trust that he will yet
deliver us. Mechanaim, there, right? Two
camps. God putting his marker. We've
seen him provide for us, and we know he's going to continue
to provide for us. We've lived through it. God did
it. He proved it to us. Turn again to 2 Corinthians chapter
12. Chapter 12, verse 8 again, verse
8 through 10. God had given Paul a thorn in
the flesh. And Paul prayed, verse 8, for
this thing I besought the Lord three times that it might depart
from me. And he said unto me, my grace
is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, will
I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may
rest upon me. And this is what Israel was taught
of God. Jacob was taught. I'm weak, but
his strength rests upon me. In verse 10, therefore, I take
pleasure in infirmities, and reproaches, and necessities,
and persecutions, and distresses for Christ's sake. For when I
am weak, then am I strong. And that's what we see here with
Jacob. And that's what the Lord is showing
you in the trials when you are made weak and emptied of yourself
and your strength, and you see the hand of God providing for
you, when you see the power of Christ resting on you, you're
made glad to know God has done this. God is ordering my life
and doing all things for my blessing. He's doing it graciously for
me. Now back in Genesis 32, verse 29 and 30, 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 them
there. In one sense, it wasn't to be
revealed yet. But in another sense, he knew
who this was. This is God. And I know that
because he names the place. I've seen the face of God, and
he preserved me. Verse 30, and Jacob called the
name of the place Peniel. There's that L at the end, Peniel. For I have seen God face to face,
and my life is preserved. In other words, God has faced
me. He put his face against mine, and yet he didn't destroy me.
He didn't judge me in my sins and judge me according to my
wicked ways, but he preserved my life. Because brethren, we're
preserved in Christ. That we may have the light of
God in the face of Jesus Christ. God who commanded the shine out
of darkness has shined in our hearts to give the light of the
knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 2 Corinthians 4, 6. And so that's
what he shows us. Christ, brethren, our lives are
preserved in and by the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 31, and as
he passed over Penuel, which is the same as Peniel, The sun
rose upon him and he halted upon his thigh. And that brethren
is a picture of the life we now have in Christ. His light has
risen upon us. His light shines upon you. You
believe him because his light shines upon you and warms your
face and warms your heart, gives life to you. In that stiff, cold,
dark deadness, he gives you life and vigor in Christ, who shines
upon you and is your very strength. And so Jacob continued weak in
his flesh, but was strong in Christ. Jacob was clothed now
in humility, But the Lord was providing for him everything
that he needed. He's a blessed man in faith.
Therefore the children of Israel eat not the sinew which shrank
which is upon the hollow of the thigh. unto this day, because
he touched the hollow of Jacob's thigh, and the sinew that shrank."
I can't talk to the idolatry of the people of Israel there,
but what it does show us is that that sinew withered, right? It remained. It was still there,
like this flesh is still here, but by God's grace, he withers
this flesh, makes it weak, and the Lord prevails through His
Spirit, through His grace, through His faith which He gives to us,
through the leading of His grace and Spirit, we are led of Him
and we rejoice in Christ. So that sinew is a picture of
our withered flesh, which He withers by His gospel, by the
light of Christ, through the trials He puts us through, and
through it all, our strength is the Lord Jesus Christ. Brethren,
that's what the Lord does for his people. Jacob was already
a man of God, and yet the Lord used that further to bless him
and show him again and again and again, you're mine, you're
mine, and that's what he's showing you in Christ. He's keeping you
here, he's giving you his gospel, he's feeding you Christ, and
he's saying, you're mine, you're mine, but trust me, believe me,
stay upon me, because I'm your strength. And you that are weak,
Don't be afraid. My strength is made perfect in
weakness. So rejoice in what God has done for you. Give him
thanks because it's of his grace that he does it. Amen.