Our Struggle, God's Grace - Pastor Tom Loghry
As Jacob travels back to Canaan after leaving Laban in Paddan Aram, he struggles to fully place his full faith in the promises of God. Much the same, we continue to strive for our own way rather than trusting God to take care of things.
As the tallest person in my house, I get asked to grab a lot, to grab a lot of things. Dishes for Sara, cups for James, and eliminating any bugs that appear on the ceiling, though that request isn't only due to my height. Admittedly, I often sigh at these requests. But the truth is, is I wouldn't, I really wouldn't want my family trying to get these things on their own.
Reaching for glass on your tippy toes is a recipe for disaster. I'd much rather they ask me for help so I can give them what they need. There's no need for them to strain and hurt themselves. Unlike me, God never sighs when we ask for his help. In fact, he wants us to go to him, looking to his provision.
Now, considering the account of Jacob's life in Genesis, we see a man who kind of varied in his trust in God. There was a point at which he showed great faith. You think about when he left his home and headed to Haran, but God promised him that he would bring him back, showing great faith, walking into the unknown.
And yet we know from Jacob's life that he's has a tendency to try to work out his own schemes by his own wit to secure a good life for himself. Despite his deceptive ways, despite the chaos, and drama of his polygamous marriages, God blesses him when he suffered mistreatment from Laban. God did not abandon him, and now he's on his way back to Canaan, the land promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
God has gotten him this far, so how will Jacob respond in the face of new danger? As we turn to chapter 32, we find Jacob coming face to face with death in the form of his brother Esau. So again, we'll, I encourage you to open up to chapter 32. We're gonna be covering chapters 32 through 36.
Some of these will be summarizing, so it's good to have the scriptures open before you so you can be tracking with what I am summarizing.
So, in chapter 32, Jacob is continuing his journey toward Canaan. And, on his way there, he encounters some angels of God. And, this becomes a boost of confidence to him, to know that God is indeed present with him. And so, he names the place Mahanaim, which means two camps. Referring to the fact that he has his own camp, but the camp of God also travels with him.
And as he's preparing to go back home, he is anticipating an encounter with Esau. And in anticipation of that encounter, he sends messengers ahead to assure Esau that he's no threat. He tells his messengers to explain how he's basically done well for himself. He's not looking to take anything from Esau and explains the reason why he's been absent.
Not because he's been trying to hide from Esau, but just because he's been bound up in Haran, working for Laban. Now, Jacob's message, messengers returned to him and, he's told that his brother Esau is coming towards their, their little caravan with 400 men.
Hearing that news, Jacob fears the worst. He says, well, this sounds like a mini army. It sounds like Esau is coming to do me and my family in. And this just compels Jacob to a place of pleading for mercy before God. Looking at verses 9 through 12, he prays this, he says, Oh God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, Lord, you who said to me, go back to your country and your relatives and I will make you prosper.
I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness you have shown your servant. I had only my staff when I crossed this Jordan, but now I have become two camps. Save me, I pray, from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid he will come and attack me and also the mothers with their children. But you have said, I will surely make you prosper and will make your descendants like the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted.
So, Jacob is calling upon God, he's saying, this is the situation, it feels like I'm under danger. Something else that occurred in this passage is that he had separated, his children and family so that they wouldn't get hurt potentially by this assault. And he's calling upon God saying, I know what you've promised me.
And I believe, so please come through basically, please protect me. Now after offering this prayer, Jacob does take some practical steps to try to see if he can turn away Esau's wrath. He sends a series of gifts to Esau. Various herds of animals. And at every time that one of these groups approaches Esau, they're to tell him, This is a gift from Jacob to you.
And It doesn't say that this was the intentional effect, so, but you could say the unintended effect of this, besides softening Esau's heart, would have been, it would have slown Esau down quite a bit. To keep having to, okay, we got this group, now we've got to add them. And, all of a sudden, you had a group of just 400 men there, just kind of going along, and now they've got all these animals going with them, too.
So he, so Jacob's prayed. He's deployed these gifts, and all he can do now is just wait. And that evening, he's expecting the worst from Esau, the day that will follow. But that night, Jacob has a life changing encounter. So, picking up in verse 22.
It says, That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two female servants, and his eleven sons, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions. So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob's hip, so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man.
Then the man said, Let me go for it is daybreak. But Jacob replied, I will not let you go unless you bless me. The man asked him, What is your name? Jacob, he answered. Then the man said, Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome. Jacob said, Please tell me your name.
But he replied, Why do you ask my name? Then he blessed him there. So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared. The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel, and he was limping because of his hip. Therefore, to this day, the Israelites do not eat the tendon attached to the socket of the hip, because the socket of Jacob's hip was touched near the tendon.
So, Jacob is all by himself in the night on one side of the river. He sent his family over to the other, other side. And, something that's interesting to know about Jacob at this point is he's a bit advanced in age. Now I've told you before that probably, you know, their upper ages are not the same as ours because we've probably experienced a little bit more genetic mutation over a few thousand years, but he's nine, one commentator suggests that he's about the age of 97.
So no spring chicken. And he's engaging in a wrestling match with this mysterious man who appears to him in the night. Now, apparently, Jacob perceives something supernatural about this man, because he continues to wrestle him, and the reason why he's continuing to wrestle him is because, because he's seeking a blessing, and he just won't give up.
And it comes to the point that as daybreak approached, then this mysterious man tears his hip out of socket. He just pops it right out of socket.
And he tells Jacob, you know, let me go. But even at that point, after he's been injured pretty badly, I can't imagine how much that would hurt. Jacob's still holding on. He's like, bless me, bless me, bless me.
And this prompts a reply from this man, a strange reply that you might not expect, which is that he says, I'm going to change your name. Your name's no longer going to be Jacob. It's going to be Israel because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome. So, just reading that, we might think, okay, this is positive.
This is a commendation on, towards Jacob. That the fact that he has struggled with God and he has overcome. But, there's some signs here that that's not really the case. There's some signs here that Jacob might not have been going about things the right way, wrestling for a blessing. First, the fact that his hip got put out of socket, and there's a lot of speculation as to what that actually means, how that actually came about.
Some commentators suggest that, Jacob basically got punched in the groin. He got like boom, and it knocked the socket out. And if you get punched in that area, that has implications for your procreative powers. And so there might be a message being sent to Jacob and that like you're relying so much in your own power and strength and struggle, I'm going to strike you there.
We also see just Jacob's response in the end in which he is humble, but we also find in other passages of scripture indications that this wasn't exactly all positive. In Hosea, Verses 12, 2 through 5, the Lord's speaking to the tribe of Judah. To the nation of Judah. But, He refers back to this incident between Jacob and God.
It says, The Lord has a charge to bring against Judah. He will punish Jacob according to his ways. Repay him according to his deeds. In the womb, he grasped his brother's heel. As a man, he struggled with God. He struggled with the angel and overcame him. He wept and begged for his favor. He found him at Bethel and talked with him there.
The Lord, God Almighty, the Lord is his name. So it's a, the Lord is saying that he's going to punish Jacob according to his deeds. And then it goes to recite some, some things that we know about. We know that Jacob grabs after the heel. He's, he's got this kind of deceptive characteristic about him. And that he also struggled with God in this, in this wrestling match.
So, all together, just thinking about the lesson that Jacob might learn here. It's that God is already prepared to bless Jacob. He's already promised blessing to Jacob. It's like, God's like, there's no need to fight, bro. Like, there's no need to be wrestling with me about, about this.
But Jacob's just so insistent on just struggling, grasping for what God is prepared to give him when it's not necessary at all. Now, after this transpires, the fact that God gives Jacob this new name, Jacob asks this man, and we understand that this man is God, he asks, What, what is your name? And the reply is, Why do you ask my name?
And there's a divine, again, there's a divine implication there.
Because to withhold the name is to preserve the authority of this figure, this man. To name someone, it's like a mother and father, when they name a child, they have the authority to name that, that child. So there's an authoritative power in naming someone. The man is named Jacob, but the name of this man cannot be, cannot be said.
Now, we can put the pieces together here and understand that this was, in fact, God, because both of, both because of Hosea's testimony, but also because of Jacob's own testimony. He understands the message here. He names the place Peniel, which means face of God. In verse 30, he says, it is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.
So that's where we see the humility here. From Jacob. He recognizes, wow. What was I thinking? Wrestling, wrestling with God for a blessing. But he's shown me mercy. He spared my life. But he has a limp. Now we don't know how long that limp lasted, but it probably lasted a good while. Maybe it lasted his whole life.
We don't know. But he's recognized he's been spared and he goes limping back off to his camp. Not the greatest way to approach your, your brother the next day. You want to appear somewhat strong. Instead, he's got this great limp going on. And it's because of this, everything that transpires here that it says that the people of Israel would not eat the tendon socket of the hip just to remember, this encounter.
The dawn of a new day with a new name brings with it Jacob's confrontation with Esau. So looking to chapter 33, we'll summarize chapter 33.
Jacob encounters Esau with his company of 400 men and he takes some protective measures. He, he orders out his, his family, basically in terms of favor, he puts the women who are just his servants, his concubines and their children first, then he puts Leah, and then he puts Rachel in the back, because he loves Rachel the most.
And he goes out in front of them to, face Esau. But what's incredible is that when Esau comes to him, he's elated to see Jacob. In fact, the encounter is reminiscent of the return of the prodigal son to his father. It says that, in verse 4, it says, Esau ran to meet Jacob and embraced him. He threw his arms around his neck and kissed him, and they wept.
So it's really a beautiful scene of, of reconciliation here. And he says like, what's the meaning of all these gifts? I don't need gifts, you're my brother, that kind of thing. But Jacob insists, no, I want you to have it. I've, I've got plenty. And so it seems that they are on good terms. They're on good terms, but for now, but they ultimately part ways and ultimately their, their families, the nations that would come from them, end up being at odds with each other. Esau had invited to go with him to, he invited Jacob to come with him to Seir. but that doesn't end up happening. Jacob says that he, he, he'll go there, but there's no explanation as to why he doesn't go to, where Esau is, is living, but he doesn't.
They go their separate ways. And, Jacob and his family arrive near the city of Shechem and purchase a land, that they call Sukkoth. Now, there's kind of this question of why did he stop there? Why did he stop at Shechem? Because he's not yet back into where he's supposed to be. He's not at Bethel, where God had told them to return to, where, where Jacob at least had vowed like, I'm going to offer sacrifices to you here.
He doesn't. Instead he, he stops near the outside the city of Shechem and he sets up quarters there. Really strange. He sets up an altar. He names it El Elohe Israel, God, the God of Israel. So he's continuing to worship God, but there still seems like, he's kind of dragging his feet for some reason. And we don't know the reasons why exactly.
He doesn't just proceed. You can kind of see a bit of the area here. At this point he is
down towards, he's up here in Shechem. He's supposed to go down to this area down below. Down to Bethel. So he stops short of there. We don't know why.
But it doesn't take long before trouble arises between Jacob and his new neighbors. Looking to chapter 34. That's just a little, I zoomed in a little bit. So you can see it, there's Shechem. It's like, why not just go a little further? Looking at chapter 34, we'll summarize that. Jacob runs into some trouble. His family runs into some trouble. Leah's daughter, Dinah, is violated, raped by Shechem son of Hamor, the Hivite who's a local ruler, and as you would expect, Jacob's family's enraged. And Jacob doesn't respond immediately. He waits for his sons to come back from, from their fields.
And at that point that they have a meeting with Hamor, Shechem's father. And Hamor proposes marriage between Shechem and Dinah on whatever terms Jacob's family would choose. Now, this sounds unimaginable to us. Like, why, why, why would Jacob and his family accept marriage considering it seems like, Shechem had violently assaulted Dinah. Well, there's two things to consider here. Is one, the language might not be exactly clear as to whether he violently assaulted or not.
It may have been that he just put the cart before the, before the horse and kind of, just charmed her, but it's also possible that he violently assaulted her. And the difficulties of that time were that if that occurred, there were very limited options for the women. If you're a woman, a woman and you suffered that, at that point it'd be difficult to find a hand in marriage. So the best form of restitution they could find, unfortunately,was like, yeah, lets get you two married so you at least have some security. Doesn't mean that it's good, it's just a report on the brokenness of the human condition that we see going back thousands of years, we see that brokenness in our own day, just in different forms. The deal that they strike is very interesting. So we understand that the sons of Israel, anyone that's in the family of Abraham, that they must undergo circumcision. Every male. Now Jacob's sons make that proposal to Hamor, Shechem, all the men, that they must be circumcised. And Shechem's so eager to marry Dinah that they accept the terms. And they figure that they're going to stand to benefit anyways as, as they intermarry, everything that's Jacob's will eventually become theirs.
So just, all in all, it seems like a good deal for them. Well, what appears to be a good deal for them quickly turns very sour. I'm looking at verses 25 through 31. It says that while all the men of that city were recovering from their surgeries, Simeon and Levi went in and, and slaughtered all the men and took back Dinah.
Now you're wondering, how did they manage to do that? How did they slaughter everybody? Well, they had surgery. It wasn't a great, it wasn't a great, you know, It wasn't a great instance of prowess in fighting skill, I think. The men were really debilitated. And so, it was really just an instance of great brutality.
They went in and slaughtered all these men and they took their sister back. And something that's interesting to know here is just that Dinah is the full sister of Simeon and Levi. So you understand, like, with polygamy you have a whole lot of half siblings. In this case, Simeon and Levi are the full brothers of Dinah.
So maybe they feel it most acutely, this, this wrong that's been done to their sister. And they're like, we're gonna get them. In addition, a city is plundered, and they take people and goods. So just really, really brutal, they just completely subjugate those people. Now, I think what we see here with Simeon and Levi is a desire for justice, because I think, I don't know about you, as I read this passage, you're initially sympathetic to Simeon and Levi for like, you know, You did this to our sister.
Why do you get to marry her? You're sympathetic to them wanting for there to be justice done. The trouble is, is that there's no proportionality here at all. It basically goes back to the adage, two wrongs don't make a right. And they do something wrong here.
And this is, Jacob recognizes the trouble that they've created for him in verse 30 and 31. He says, you have brought trouble on me by making me obnoxious to the Canaanites and Perrizites, the people living in this land. We are few in number, and if they joined forces against me and attack me, I and my household will be destroyed.
But they replied, should he have treated our sister like a prostitute? So again, you see that, you see that tension there where they wanted justice. They were upset about how Dinah had been treated, how their family had been treated because there's a collective identity here as, as well. But they went too far and it's creating problems.
It's producing kind of an unstable situation and eventually later on, when Jacob offers blessings for his sons in Genesis 49, he has this to say about Simeon and Levi says, Simeon and Levi are brothers, their swords are weapons of violence. Let me not enter their council, let me not join their assembly, for they have killed men in their anger and hamstrung oxen as they pleased. Cursed be their anger, so fierce in their fury, so cruel. I will scatter them in Jacob and disperse them in Israel. So clearly a very negative episode here, but it's what happened. And that's why the Bible is telling us about it. It's telling us what happened. This is a description of everything that transpired. Now following this terrible series of events, Jacob hears again from God go to chapter 35 starting with verses one through four.
And then God said to Jacob, go up to Bethel and settle there and build an altar there to God who appeared to you when you were fleeing from your brother Esau. So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, get rid of the foreign gods with you and purify yourselves and change your clothes.
Then come, let us go up to Bethel where I will build an altar to God. And he answered me in the day of my distress and who has been with me wherever I have gone. So they gave Jacob all the foreign gods they had and the rings in their ears and Jacob buried them under the oak at Shechem. So, at this point, after hearing from God, Jacob and his family do leave Shechem for Bethel, per God's command, per his previous vow.
And again, we don't have details as to why he stopped in Shechem. He might not have been in disobedience to God. But at this point, anyways, as soon as he hears from God, he goes, he is obedient. He goes to Bethel and he's going there to build an altar to God. And if you're building an altar, you're building an altar to offer sacrifices.
And this is where he will present his tithe that he previously promised. But before they go, it's necessary that they purify themselves. And the way that they do that is they get rid of their foreign gods. They even get rid of their, their clothing. That's not that they were naked, but they just, they changed their clothing and they, they bury it. They bury it under the oak at Shechem. So they bury the gods and notes that they had rings in their ears. These may have, may have been some kind of idolatrous charms of some sort that they, that they buried. And so it's as though they're turning a completely new page. Or before, maybe their affections were divided. Maybe before they were occasionally calling on these other false gods, especially the members of Jacob's household. You remember, the reason why they had these, some, some of these gods anyways, or maybe it was all, all the gods that they had was because Rachel stole the household gods that had belonged to Laban.
They're living in a time where most people worship many gods. But now they're turning a new page where they're going to be worshiping the one true God. Moving on to verse 5. It says, Then they set out, and the terror of God fell on the towns all around them, so that no one pursued them. Jacob and all the people with him came to Luz, that is Bethel, in the land of Canaan.
There he built an altar, and he called the place El Bethel, because it was there that God revealed himself to him when he was fleeing from his brother. Now Deborah, Rebekah's nurse died and was buried under the oak outside Bethel. So it was named Allon Bakuth.. After Jacob returned from Paddan Aram, God appeared to him again and blessed him.
So as they're proceeding through the land, it's notable that they don't encounter any trouble. Now this goes perhaps to the fear that Jacob had. You know, Simeon and Levi had done all these things. He's like, now they're gonna be really after us, but as they move forward, no one's giving them trouble.
Instead, the terror of God fell on the towns all around them, it says. So they arrive at Bethel and, an altar is built. And it's also noted here that this time that Rebekah's nurse, Deborah, had passed away. And it's interesting because we don't have any record of Rebekah's passing. Presumably this happened while Jacob was away from Canaan, and so that's why we don't have any record of it. But, they do have a record of the passing of her nurse, who must have been a very important member of the family. I mean, not too many women get mentioned in this context. Certainly not servants. So she must have been very important. And that goes to the fact that they named the, location where she was buried, Allon Bakuth, which means, oak of weeping.
So it was very mournful loss for them. And as, after they've done all this, God appears to him again and, and blessed him. Going on in verse 10, God said to him, your name is Jacob, but you will no longer be called Jacob. Your name will be Israel. So he named him Israel and God said to him, I am God almighty, be fruitful and increase in number.
A nation and a community of nations will come from you and kings will be among your descendants. The land I gave to Abraham and Isaac I also give to you, and I will give this land to your descendants after you. And God went up from him at the place where he had talked with him. Jacob set up a stone pillar at the place where God had talked with him.
He poured out a drink offering on it. He also poured oil on it. Jacob called the place where God had talked with him, Bethel. So we have this reiteration of Jacob's name change from Jacob to Israel. Now, throughout the story, they'll still refer to him as Jacob, but Israel is his new name, and this is why the, the, his children and those, his descendants thereafter will be referred to as Israel.
When God appears to him offering this blessing, He refers to himself as I am God Almighty, which in the Hebrew is El Shaddai. And we see that name utilized in Genesis 17 when God encounters Abraham and He forms the covenant of circumcision and promises blessing to Abraham and his descendants there as well. And just as he's promised blessings to Abraham and Isaac, he reiterates those sorts of blessings to Jacob as well.
That he's going to be a great nation, a community of nations, that kings will come from him. And then of course, that the land, the land of Canaan, will in fact become theirs. And so in response, Jacob, erects this stone pillar,. we talked about that before, how that was a common practice in the ancient near east to kind of designate this place as a house of God.
Earlier he had done this because he had seen a ladder going up and down with angels descending up and down on it. And God spoke to him then. And now like 20 years later, he's, He's doing the same. He's offering a drink offering, which is a drink. You pour it. He's, he's offering drink. He's pouring out oil.
And again, the place is called Bethel. Now from Bethel, it appears that Jacob begins to make his way to his father, Isaac in Hebron. So you've got Bethel. So this body of water here is the Dead Sea. And Jerusalem, even though it's not named here, because it wasn't so named at this time, at least it's not listed at this time, is right around where Bethlehem is.
So Bethel is just a little north of that, and he's going to be heading from Bethel down south to Beersheba. You see the red line going down there. That's where he's heading. He's heading back home, back to dad. So, looking at verses 16 through 28, it tells us that, during the course of their journey, near the area of Bethlehem, Rachel dies in childbirth.
And she was giving birth to, a son. The son that would be called Benjamin, but initially she names him Ben-Oni, which means son of my trouble. Now, no one really wants to have that as, as their name. You know, you can imagine the burden of being that son. It's like my mom died in childbirth and she called me son of my trouble.
And so Jacob instead gives him the name Benjamin, which means son of my right hand. We have a really interesting just little side note here, here in verse 22, which is that, Reuben does something very terrible and sleeps with Jacob's concubine, Bilhah, so one of his brother's mothers, and Reuben is the firstborn of the family.
So he's supposed to be Mr. Reliable. He's supposed to be your top son, and he does that, and it's going to result in a curse for him, once we get to Genesis 49. Isaac dies at the age of 180. Something that's really interesting about the way that, you know, deaths are recorded in Genesis is that just because the death is recorded at this time, doesn't mean that what follows, doesn't also occur in that person's lifetime.
And so actually when you have Joseph going into Egypt, when he's sold as a slave into Egypt, Isaac's still alive at that time. Just something kind of interesting to know. And, when he dies, though, Jacob and Esau come together and they bury him. Now, the twelve sons of Israel are listed behind me.
You've got Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun. Those are the sons of Leah. Joseph and Benjamin, the sons of Rachel. Dan and Naphtali, the sons of Bilhah. That was Rachel's servant. And Gad and Asher, sons of Zilpah. That was Leah's servant. So between this chapter and chapter 36, kind of all the loose ends are being tied up as we prepare to transition to Joseph's story. And that's what we have in Genesis 36.
We have a summary of the line of Esau. Part of the explanation as to why they both don't reside in Canaan is that there simply wasn't enough room for them both. We also think about the blessing that, that Esau was given by his father, where it said he'd be away from kind of the fatness of the land.
He'd be away from blessing. So that's probably, that's part of it as well. But there wasn't enough room for the both of them. And so Jacob is in Canaan. Esau is in Seir, which also would become known as Edom. And so what we have here in chapter 36 is just Esau's lineage. Also the lineage of Seir the Horite, because they intermarried into that family.
Some notable names to pick out is Amalek, so later on, in the course of Israel's history you'll hear the conflict that they had with the Amalekites, so descendant from Amalek. You also see the names Eliphaz, Teman, Uz, those names appear in the Book of Job, which suggests an Edomite connection to the book of Job, because we don't know a lot about the location of everything that's happening in Job.
So it's kind of just interesting to connect those dots there. Now, if you're reading through Genesis in your daily devotions and you come across this chapter, like I'm reading one chapter today, I'm going to read chapter 36. You're like, like, what do I get out of this passage? Important thing to remember as we read scripture, is that we are not the first audience of scripture.
That is, the Bible is written for us, but is not written to us. It is written to people at the time in which all these details would have made a whole lot of sense to them. And they'd say, oh yeah, I understand what they're talking about there. All of it's lost on us. I think what you can take away from it is this, though, is that it reminds us that these accounts are grounded in history.
Real places with real people at a real time. It's not like the Greek myths where they just make up a bunch of stuff and spin it, spin a tale. If you're doing that, if you're just only about telling a good story, you wouldn't bother with writing a whole chapter with just a bunch of lists of names. Now, covering chapters 32 through 36, there's, there's plenty for us to chew on here.
Most importantly, God's plan of redemption is moving forward. He promised Abraham countless descendants in the land of Canaan. His son, Isaac, had two sons. The son, the chosen son, Jacob, now has 12 sons. And from these the nation of Israel will emerge. Everything is moving forward, according to God's plan and by God's power.
Esau could have slaughtered Jacob and his family, but he didn't. Jacob's family could have been tossed out of Shechem and Canaan by neighboring people, but they weren't. And by now, Jacob is learning that this is God's doing. Not his own. Jacob struggles with God. He wrestles with him because he simply doesn't understand God.
God had already promised Jacob blessing. There's nothing to wrestle about. The struggle reveals Jacob's stubbornness. But all the more, it reveals God's power. By a touch, he throws Jacob's hip out of joint, even as he clings with his demands. God gives Jacob a new name, even as he keeps his name hidden. God is in charge, not Jacob.
Jacob has come face to face, not only with God, but with his own foolishness. I think Jacob's experience is instructive for Christians. Like Jacob, we have entered into relationship with God. That connection is established for us in Jesus. And we are promised a share in all that belongs to Christ. Yet, also like Jacob, many of us, myself included, prefer to wrestle God rather than resting in his promises.
We get all wound up in our pursuit of blessings rather than resting in the one who will provide. We believe we need that job, that house, that family now. We believe we need one political administration or another or else. What has Christ promised us?
He says, Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. I cannot say it emphatically enough. We will inherit the earth.
We cannot comprehend what awaits us. Just as emphatically, I tell you, now, is not the time for our inheritance.
Luxury, perfect felicity, political perfection, is not on the table in this hour. Christ did not promise us worldly kingdoms. He promised us his kingdom, the kingdom of God. So do not wrestle. Rest, rest in the God who will give all good things at his appointed time. What we need for today and everything else. All that has been promised when Christ returns.
Harken to the words that the Apostle Peter tells us.
Humble yourselves therefore, under God's mighty hand that he may lift you up in due time, cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. So you are weary. So you are burdened. Accept God's invitation. Take on the yoke that Christ honors and find rest for your soul. Let's pray.
Dear Father,
We thank you for the promises that you've given. The promises that you gave to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Those promises which now also belong to us because of Jesus Christ. Father, we are looking forward to the new heavens and the new earth. We're looking forward to a world in which righteousness will dwell and all will be right.
Father, we confess that in our waiting, rather than resting, sometimes we can turn to wrestling. Wrestling for the good things that you've promised us. Father, help us not to do that. Father, may it not take our hip getting knocked out of socket for us to just sit down and rest. Help us to trust in your word, a promise to us that you will bless us, that you will meet our needs, and that we'll receive far, far much more on the day of Christ's return.
Increase our faith, Father, we pray. In Christ's name. Amen.
Hey there, Pastor Tom here. I hope you enjoyed this sermon I offered to Rockland Community Church. Rockland Community Church is located at 212 Rockland Road in North Scituate, Rhode Island, just around the bend from the Scituate Public High School. We invite you to join us in person or virtually this Sunday as we continue our series entitled Israel Arises. It's our joy to welcome you into our community.
Intro/Outro Song
Title: River Meditation
Artist: Jason Shaw
Source:http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Jason_Shaw/Audionautix_Acoustic/RIVER_MEDITATION___________2-58
License:(CC BY 3.0 US)