Well, come with me to Genesis
chapter 32. Genesis chapter 32. The gospel
in a wrestling match. The gospel in a wrestling match.
The purpose of God throughout creation is to reveal saving
grace, by which I mean the grace which secures, has secured, the
qualification of sinners, a multitude that no man can number. It qualifies
that elect multitude of God's chosen people for sinless glory,
though they be sinners, yet Saving grace secures their qualification
for sinless glory. The highest glory of God is sovereign
grace. We know that from His words,
show me your glory. Is it His power in creation?
Is it His judgment in holiness? No, it's His grace. He said,
I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious. And that sovereign
grace of God, the highest glory of the God who has made all things,
is revealed on the canvas of creation. You know, like an artist
takes a bare canvas and washes it and puts the base coat on,
and then the whole picture starts to emerge as the artist creates
the picture. Well, God has painted the picture
of saving sovereign grace on the canvas that is this creation,
this world, this universe in which we live. It reveals that
he who is God is perfectly just, for he is holy. Holy, holy, holy,
cry the angels. They hide their faces, for he
is so holy, and yet the one who is just has devised a way to
justly justify those who deserve condemnation for their sin. This
plan was formulated in covenant grace between the persons of
the Godhead, the Father choosing, the Son committing to come and
redeem and to pay redemption's price, and the Spirit undertaking
to quicken, to make alive with His irresistible call everyone
for whom Christ died. And all that was settled before
the beginning of time. We truly are, when you know that
you believe the gospel of grace, know this, you are justified
from eternity. from before the beginning of
time. And it's all determined by redeeming love, electing love. I have loved you with an everlasting
love, says God to his people by Jeremiah. Loved with an everlasting
love. Never was a time when God did
not love his people. And the plan was effected, it
was put into effect by redeeming blood. The Lord Jesus Christ
took on him the flesh of the children, that he might die the
death that the law demanded of the children, that he might redeem
them from the curse of the law. And it's manifested by irresistible
grace, grace that you cannot resist, I don't care how stubborn
and unbelieving you are, if the Spirit of God comes upon you.
And the Spirit of God takes you and teaches you the truth of
this Gospel of Grace. You cannot resist it. You will
not be able to resist it. You must believe it. You must
say, I don't care what else I have or thought I was going to do.
I must, from this moment onwards, be the bondservant of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And that call comes by preaching,
for it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save those who
believe. You say, we've heard this all
before, you preach it every week. I know. I'm going to keep on
preaching it every week. Woe is me if I preach not this
gospel of the grace of God. It's the only truth ultimately
that matters. It's the only thing that is good
for your souls and the souls of everybody that hears this
message. And it's experienced by faith. It's not just merely
academic, it's something that is experienced. You grasp it,
you hold it, you live in the good of it, you live in the light
of it. And those that are saved are kept by God. The perseverance
of the saints, kept by God to the very end. It's this same
Gospel truth that is revealed throughout the Scripture, from
the fall in the Garden of Eden, to the revelation of God right
at the very end of the New Testament. It's the truth of the Way, the
Way, capital W-A-Y, to the tree of life. There's a tree of life
in the paradise of God. It speaks of the life of God,
the true, pure life of God that we, as sentient beings made in
the image of God, desire to have. But there's only one way to that
tree of life. And Jesus said, I am the Way,
the truth, and the life. and no man comes to the Father
but by me. And so this gospel truth of the
way to the tree of life is illustrated throughout the scripture. It's
in poetry, it's in prophecy, it's in the gospel narratives
of Christ's earthly ministry, it's in the epistles, it's in
the revelation, and it's in the Old Testament history of the
people of God. Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel,
Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and now Jacob. Last week we saw
how God revealed to him the gospel in a ladder, in his dream at
Bethel, the ladder from earth. It was standing on the earth
where sin is, where man is in his fallen state, incapable of
coming to God. barred from the very presence
of God, by the justice of God, by the truth of God, barred from
that presence, and yet here is a ladder in the dream of Jacob
that stretches from this sinful earth up into the very presence
of God, with God standing at the top of it. And that ladder
was Christ. As Jesus said to Nathanael in
John chapter 1, you believe that I am the Son of God because of
just what I've said to you? You shall see the angels of God
ascending and descending, not upon a ladder, but upon the Son
of Man. Christ is what this ladder pictured. The gospel of His grace is what
this ladder pictured. Christ bridging the chasm between
sin on earth and the sinless, holy glory of God in heaven,
to which as creatures made in the image of God, we must aspire
if God gives us that light of the knowledge of the glory of
God in the face of Jesus Christ. Well, the account that we come
to in chapter 32 is about 20 years later, and it's an account
of a wrestling match, in verse 24 of chapter 32. A wrestling
match. Just the background to start
with. Jacob, of course his name means
supplanter. He's the sinner. He's everything
that symbolizes what we are by nature in the flesh, sinners.
He's a deceiver. He'll do anything to advance
his own case. He's a thief. He robbed the birthright
that was strictly that of his brother alone and was not available
to be traded or bartered or given away. But yet, this sinner, as
God says in the Scriptures, in Malachi, and then Paul repeats
it in Romans, Jacob have I loved. This one, this one, in sovereign
grace, God had loved him with an everlasting love. Therefore,
whatever he was like, God would redeem him from what the law
demanded. for Jacob's sins, he would redeem
him. And Jacob is the symbol, the
symbolical head of every sinner that comes to God by the Lord
Jesus Christ. He was shown, as I've just said,
he was shown at Bethel the way to heaven via the ladder which
was Christ. It was revealed to him the promised
blessing. He'd heard about the seed to
come from Isaac and from Abraham. He'd heard about the seed that
was promised to Eve that would come, the seed which was the
Messiah, the Christ, who would come to crush Satan's head, to
redeem his people from the curse of the law, to undo the effects
of the fall. he had that truth revealed to
him of the seed. And now, because of the sinful
entanglement that's gone on, Isaac said to him, don't marry
a wife from the daughters of Canaan, but go to Paddanarum,
to your mother's brother's family, and find a wife there. And he
goes, and I'm not going into the story, you can read it for
yourself, but he finds Rachel, who was his cousin, and she's
the daughter of Laban, and She has a sister, Leah, and Jacob
works for Laban for seven years. to marry Rachel, and Laban deceives
him, and he ends up marrying Leah. And then he says, what
have you done? This is Leah, not Rachel. And
so he says, okay, you can have Rachel, but you must work another
seven years for her. And then there were six more
years of working for the flocks and herds that he took with him.
So it's 20 years later, and he has 11 sons. The only one missing
is Benjamin. He has 11 sons. And God's told
him to go back to Canaan. to go back to the land promised
to his fathers, promised to Abraham. And he's rich with goods. He's
rich with goods that God ordered for him to take from Laban for
all of his labors. But he's in danger from Laban.
But God preserves him through it all. In verses 1 and 2 of
chapter 32, Jacob went on his way and the angels of God met
with him. He's got the angels of God with
him. This is God's host, he said. when he saw them. This is God's
host, and he called the name of that place Mahanaim. The angels
were with him. What are the angels? We know
from Hebrews. Are they not all ministering
spirits? They're doing the bidding of
God. They're ordering events in accordance with God's will
and purpose. They're the ones that are around
his people all the time. He hedges his people about. You
know, Elisha, with his young servant, where he was surrounded
by the Assyrian army in 2 Kings chapter 6, And the young servant
said, oh, it's all up for us, we're finished, we're done for,
look at the Assyrian army, there's just the two of us, this is it,
we're going to die. And Elisha said, Elisha prayed,
in verse six, I think it is, he prayed, Lord, open his eyes
that he might see. And the Lord opens his eyes and
he sees surrounding them multitudes of angels, and the angels, do
that which is necessary to protect the people of God. This is how
God orders all things. We know that God causes all things
to work together for good to those who love God, who are called
according to his purpose. He sends his ministering spirits
to order events, to plan things, to put things in place. But you
see, even though the angels are there, in verse 3 he sends messengers
because he knows to go back where he wanted to go, where God had
told him to go, back to his father's land, the land promised to him,
he would have to pass near to Esau. And Esau had sworn vengeance
against Jacob for stealing his birthright and stealing the blessing
from his father. Jacob sought peace with Esau,
it's 20 years on. He wants to make peace, he wants
to appease him. But look at verse 6, he sends
messengers with a message of peace to Esau, and they come
back and they say, your brother's coming looking for you, and not
only that, he's got 400 men with him. Oh dear. Esau, Jacob was
greatly afraid and distressed. God had promised, but Jacob was
greatly afraid and distressed, so he prays to God. Did you notice
as we read verses 9 to 12, this is the prayer of faith. Look,
O God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, which
God do you pray to? Often when I hear people say,
pray to God, which God are you praying to? There is only one
true God who is only known in one true way, the way revealed
in this book. No other way. All other gods
are idols. They're figments of men's imagination. To the law and to the testimony,
if they speak not according to this word, there is no light
in them. This is the God to whom Jacob prayed. the God of my father
Abraham and my father Isaac, the Lord which said to me, look,
Lord, you are the one who told me to go back there to the country
and my kindred, and I will deal well with it. You are the one
who rules over all things. You are this God. I'm not worthy. There's nothing in me. I'm not
worthy of the least of thy mercies. You see, there's some repentance
here in the heart of Jacob, isn't there? There's some humility
and meekness. There's a spirit. There's the
fruit of the spirit, which is meekness. I am not worthy of
the least of thy mercies, and of all the truth which you have
shown. Why show it to me? I don't deserve it. Is that not
the cry of the child of God, Why me? When you read of election
and sovereign grace and you say, Why me? I'm no better than anybody
else. I'm worse than most. For with
my staff I passed over this Jordan, and am now become two bands.
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 basically
kill us all. And you said, I will surely do
thee good, and make thy seed as the sand of the sea, which
cannot be numbered for multitude." Don't you think that that was
a prayer? You know, when Jesus said, whatsoever
you ask in my name, that shall be done. Praying in accordance
with the revealed will of God. What has God revealed he is going
to do? We pray, we seek to pray in accordance
with that. We don't just seek for all the
traffic lights to be green. on our path of life, but we say,
look Lord, you have promised to do this. You've said, I will
make your seed, your descendants as the sand of the sea. How can
they possibly be wiped out by Esau now? This is why I'm praying,
because you're a God of grace who has revealed his will and
promise, and I'm praying that you will do your will. Thy will
be done, is what he's praying. Nevertheless, he's terrified.
and he plans, in the next few verses, risk mitigation to So
that if part of his wives and children and cattle are destroyed
by Esau, the other half might escape. So he divides his company
and sends gifts, trying to appease Esau. Does he really trust God?
His actions seem to suggest that he's not really trusting God,
he's fearing the arm of flesh. Does he more trust his own ability
to persuade by bribery, He's done it before, he's done similar
things before. He protects his family as much
as he could, but then look at verse 24. He's done what he can,
he's prayed to God, he's partially believing God, but mostly disbelieving
and fearing his brother. And there he is, he sent all
of those that are with him forward across the brook to relative
safety and he, Jacob, was left alone. There it is, it's night
and he's left alone. He was left alone to face his
offended brother and the 400 with him, this brother who had
sworn to kill him. You only have to go back a few
chapters to see. Rachel said, your brother intends to kill
you, you better flee. It seems that Jacob, when he's
all alone, he has forgotten Romans 8.31. I know Romans 8.31 wasn't
written by when Jacob was alive, but the God who wrote it will
have told him the same message. If God be for us, who can be
against us? If God is on your side, the God
of the promises he made, can Esau be against him? No. There's
no weapons or reinforcements, there's no worldly alliances
can do him any good, but God will do him good. Would God now
answer his prayer? Would he again send the angels
that he saw in verses 1 and 2? Will he send that same troop
of angels? He doesn't see them now. He's
all alone. There's no evidence of God sending
his angels. There's no basis for his confidence
because he doesn't see them now. No basis for confidence or hope
in the flesh. Do you know that's a good place
to be? These are the true people of God. those who worship God
in the Spirit, who rejoice in Christ Jesus, and those who have
no confidence in the flesh. Jeremiah 17 verse 5 says this,
Cursed be the man that trusts in man and makes flesh his arm,
whose heart departs from the Lord. No, don't trust in the
things of flesh. You know what? Israel, the mistake
that Israel and Judah made again and again was seeking alliances
with Egypt in the face of threats from other nations. No, don't
trust in the flesh. Anyway, there he is all alone,
and a man wrestled with him until the breaking of day. Just a man. who came to Jacob. There they
were, just the two of them, this man and Jacob. And it was the
man who came to Jacob, not the other way round. Who is this
man? Look at verse 30. Look at verse
30. Jacob called the name of the
place Peniel, for I have seen God face to face. This is a manifestation
of God in human form, in the form of a man. It's the Lord
Jesus Christ, but not in His incarnate flesh, not in the flesh
with which He was clothed when He was made of a woman, born
of Mary at Bethlehem. No, not that flesh, but in the
form of a man. You see, He hadn't come to pay
redemption's price and die and shed his precious blood when
he met and wrestled with Jacob, but he'd come to manifest God
to Jacob. He is a man who came to Jacob,
a manifestation of God, the pre-incarnate Christ in human form, and he's
wrestling with Jacob. He's striving with Jacob's fleshly
confidence all night long. Wouldn't you think God could
have just snapped his fingers and it was done? This is the
way he chose to do it, to wrestle with him all night long, for
that's the way his child will learn the lesson. He's showing
him that he can't trust in the arm of flesh to save him. He's
teaching him what Hezekiah later knew, facing Assyria. Look at 2 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles
chapter 32 and verse 7. And Hezekiah says to those in
Judah with him, Be strong and courageous. Be not afraid nor
dismayed for the king of Assyria, nor for all the multitude that
is with him. For there be more with us than
with him. You see that? What's he got faith
in? That God has got a multitude
of ministering spirits, angels. See with him, with the Assyrian,
with Sennacherib, with him is an arm of flesh. That's all his
strength. The number of soldiers he has,
the number of chariots and weapons of war. But with us is the Lord
our God to help us and to fight our battles. Listen, and the
people rested themselves upon the words of Hezekiah, king of
Judah. And so it goes on, we know how
that turned out. But that was the trust. Similar
to John, we think that John spent his last years at Ephesus before
being exiled to Patmos. where there, they thought they'd
finally shut him up and got rid of him. They'd put him in a place
where he could have no more influence over people. And yet there, in
exile, on Patmos, totally alone, totally alone, with all the forces
of the world against him, God opened heaven to him. Come up
hither, come up. And he goes up and in vision,
sees things of eternal reality. Another one I could point to
is Bunyan, John Bunyan, 12 years in Bedford jail, not far from
where we are at the moment, in Bedford jail for 12 years to
stop him preaching the truth. And oh, how that word has gone
out and reached millions and millions of people since he was
put there. Zacchaeus, in the ministry of
Jesus, Zacchaeus at Jericho. He thought he was entirely alone.
You know, the tax collector, the hated little tax collector,
the devious little man. And he thought, well, I'll go
and see Jesus, but I don't want to make a fuss. I want to maintain
my anonymity. And there's Zacchaeus in a crowd
alone. Do you know you can be so alone
when you're in a great big crowd? You can be entirely alone. It's
not the number of people. You can be entirely alone. He
thought he was anonymous. He climbed up into a sycamore
tree to hide in amongst the leaves and the branches. This way he'll
be able to see without being seen. He's anonymous. He's hidden
in the tree. But the man, Jesus, meets him. Zacchaeus, come down. I'm coming
to your house to dine there today, you must come down. And there's
the call, the irresistible call of God to that sinner, and he
came down. Maybe you, in this lockdown situation,
will the God of saving grace get you alone? away from the
things that distract you all the time. Get you alone and wrestle
with you, and subdue your fleshly confidence so that you learn
to trust God alone. That's it. Are you clinging on
to fleshly confidence, something of a fleshly nature, to keep
you from committing fully to God? Well he'll wrestle with
you, he'll come to you. In grace he'll come and wrestle
with you to subdue your fleshly confidence so that you learn
to trust him alone. And Jacob was subdued under God. Look at verse 25, when he saw
that he prevailed not against him, He touched the hollow, the
socket of his thigh, and the hollow, the socket of Jacob's
thigh, was out of joint as he wrestled with him. He dislocated
his hip, it seems. He rendered him lame. He who
was alone, and facing an army of Esau and 400, and terrified
for his life, God took away even the little bit of strength that
he thought he had. He gave him a thorn in the flesh,
even. A thorn in the flesh? Look at
2 Corinthians. You know this passage, but it's
good to be reminded. 2 Corinthians, and chapter 12. And verse 7, Paul says, he's
had all sorts of visions. And lest I should be exalted
above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was
given to me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet
me. Lest I should be exalted above measure for the things
that I'd seen, the spiritual things I'd seen. For this thing
I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. Please,
Lord, take it 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. Therefore I take pleasure in
infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions,
in distresses, for Christ's sake. For then, when I am weak, then
I am strong. I am become a fool in glorying.
You have compelled me." And so he goes on. God made his servant
weak. that in relying on God he might
be truly strong. Made weak in the flesh, having
no confidence in the flesh, so as to be made strong in God. As Paul writes to the Philippians,
chapter 4, verse 13, I can do all things through Christ which
strengtheneth me. learning to float, if I can put
it that way, rather than swim against the rapids, rather than
fight against the rip currents, learning to float by faith in
the current where God ordains to take me, rather than striving
to swim against it. Jacob was taught of God what
the psalmist learned. We read it before, right at the
start. Psalm 116, I was brought low and he helped me. I was brought
low. That's it. Verse 6, I was brought
low and he helped me. Gracious is the Lord and righteous.
Our God is merciful. He preserves the simple. I was
brought low by God that he might help me with the strength of
God. That's the message of this book. Here's Jacob alone and without
any fleshly strength or alliance, and Esau coming for all he knew
for just revenge with four hundred men, and now God has stripped
him of his remaining strength by rendering him lame. Yet Jacob
knows his only hope is God's blessing. Hasn't God particularly
blessed him all these years? Even Laban acknowledged that,
that I've done pretty well because you're here and God's blessing
you. He says, God, this is effectively what he's saying, I will not
let you go except you bless me. This is what Jacob is praying
in effect. God who gave me life, who as Paul put it, separated
me from my mother's womb. You know, my life, my days, my
death is all in the hands... With God are the issues of death. With Him is everything to do
with life. You know? You know, we hear,
every death is a tragedy. Is that not the message of the
current politicians and experts? Every death is a tragedy. I tell
you, if every death is a tragedy, then every birth is a tragedy,
because every birth results in death in years to come. No, every
death is not a tragedy. Precious in the sight of the
Lord is the death of his saints, says that same Psalm 116. Precious? Death? The death of God's saints
is not a tragedy, it's precious in the sight of the Lord. God
who separated me from my mother's womb, God who has providentially
led me all these years, God who is omnipotent. If you, God, don't
divinely favor me, bless me, I am nothing. This is effectively
what he prayed. I will not let thee go, except
thou bless me. But you see, God is not finished
yet with subduing him. Verse 27, you might wonder, what's
this got to do with it? Didn't God know his name? He
said unto him, What is thy name? Remind me, what is your name?
Tell me, come on, confess it, what is your name? My name is
Jacob. Yes, go on, meaning, supplanter,
sinner, deceiver, totally unworthy of the grace of God. That is
your name, Jacob, sinner, without hope of favor from God. Jacob,
sinner, spiritually bankrupt. only able to pray what that publican
prayed. You know, there was the Pharisee
showing off as to what a good man he was, and Jesus pointed
out to his disciples, look, there's the Pharisee praying by the temple
wall, boasting of how good he is, and there's the sinner. the
publican, God be merciful to me, the sinner. Jesus said, I
tell you, that publican went back to his house justified,
not the self-righteous Pharisee. This is the message, nothing
in my hand I bring subdued of any human fleshly confidence. And the blessing is pronounced,
verse 28, he says, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but
Israel, for as a prince thou hast power with God and with
men, and hast prevailed. Power with God! Under the omnipotent,
that means all-powerful, under the all-powerful, providential
hand of God, in his affairs, it means that God is the one
who governs everything that happens. So his meeting with Esau was
peaceful. Jacob's meeting with Esau was
peaceful. Under God's power, Esau has no
power to take away Jacob's life, nor anything else, nor Covid
in this pandemic. None of it has any power. It's
all in God's hand. Psalm 31 verse 15, David said,
My times are in thy hand. My times, your times, our times,
are in the hands of God to do with what He will. He is the
one who gave the breath of life to each one of us, and He is
the one who, when the time is up, will take it away from us.
my times are in thy hand. But we're talking far more than
just physical security, we're talking a name change. Jacob,
the sinner, the supplanter, is renamed Israel, the one who is
a prince of God, a prince with God, a prince with God. For you
have power with God and with men. He has power with God because
As a prince of God, he's an heir of God, an heir of God and a
joint heir with Christ, as we read in the New Testament. He's
a sinner. Jacob, who is made, made the
righteousness of God in Christ. For Christ, the sinner's substitute,
was made the sin of his people and satisfied the law's justice
regarding that sin, so that sinners might be made the righteousness
of God in him. How should a man be just with
God? Answer, he must have power with
God. He must have the power with God
that's necessary when it comes to righteous judgment. And that
power is in a currency. Money. Money. Not the money of
this world, but the currency that speaks peace with God. The
currency of the precious blood of the Lamb of God. Hebrews 12,
24. That blood of sprinkling, that
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ shed at Calvary, speaks better
things. than that of Abel, the blood
of Abel cries out for justice and vengeance. The blood of Christ
speaks of justice satisfied for the people for whom he died.
It speaks of the blessing of certain salvation, and that is
what Jacob heard from God. In verse 30, he tells us that
it was Christ he saw. I have seen God. The man who
wrestled with him was God, was Christ, was a manifestation of
Christ. And there, in the face of Jesus
Christ, he saw the light of the knowledge of the glory of God.
Where do we see it? Only in the face of the Lord
Jesus Christ. The knowledge of glory, the knowledge
of the grace of God, in the face of Christ. And the result of
that grace? And the blessing of it is cleansing
from sin. Cleansing. Psalm 32. Psalm 32
verses 1 and 2. Listen. Bless me, he says. Bless me.
And God says, you're a prince. You're Israel, a prince with
God. And you have power with God. He has been blessed. How
is he blessed? The way that all God's people
are blessed. Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven. You
see, to this world, blessed is he that inherits a huge amount
of money. Blessed is he who wins on the lottery. Blessed is he
who's got a fantastic job that pays an enormous salary. No,
according to the Scriptures, according to the truth of God,
blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. What does anything else matter?
If you've got that, what does anything else matter? And all
these things, said Jesus, shall be added unto you as you need
them. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.
Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity. This whole world is going down
to hell with all of its iniquity imputed to it and responsible
for it. But not for those for whom Christ
has died. not those blessed of God whose
transgression is forgiven, whom the Lord imputes not iniquity
to, and in whose spirit there is no guile. He probably now, Jacob, knew
what I said earlier on he'd forgotten, that if God before us, who can
be against us? And regarding Esau, regarding
Esau, This is the trust of the people of God regarding their
Esau's, whatever those situations might be, Psalm 56 verse 11. In God have I put my trust. I
will not be afraid of what man can do unto me. Can you think
how bad times might become? We've had a foretaste with the
megalomania that's been demonstrated by politicians and others in
recent months. Do we have an inkling of how
hard it might get before the end comes? As God has indicated,
he will keep his people, he will shorten the days for the elect's
sake, but days might get hard. But if we put our trust in God,
I will not be afraid of what man can do unto me. At the end
of his life, this man Jacob, in Genesis 47 verse 9, he's down
in Egypt and he's before Pharaoh and Joseph, his son, has gone
and become the prime minister of Egypt and they've all been
saved from the famine. Before Pharaoh in Egypt, when
Pharaoh asks him, the father of the man that saved their country
from famine, he says, how old are you? And Jacob says, what
does he say? 139 years, something like that,
have been the days of my pilgrimage. And what a sorry tale they've
been, he says. They've been nothing like the
glory of my fathers and my ancestors. He was meek. he was stripped
of all fleshly pride. And as he died, he was pronouncing
a blessing on his sons. And he looks to Judah, and he
sees the seed of God, the promised seed of God. The scepter shall
not depart from Judah until Shiloh come. That's the promised seed,
that's the Christ coming, in whom all the nations of the earth
would be blessed. His descendants, by faith, as
the sand on the seashore, blessed with salvation. The Gospel revealed
to Jacob is the same one we seek to proclaim week by week. It
is the only way to God, in Christ who alone is the way, the only
way to the tree of life in the midst of the paradise of God.
Will you seek him? Will you find him? God says he
that seeks shall find. Will you trust him? Amen.