The Believers Undeserved Position Genesis 33:1-20

Christians as Conquerors in the Battle of Faith

During last week's sermon, what I mentioned is that Christians are conquerors. The life of faith is difficult, and we have many outward and inward battles. The outward battle is against the devil and the world that are both opposed to God, and the inward battle is against our own sinful flesh.

But these do not hold down a true believer. In fact, in Christ, you are victorious. One of the most beautiful passages in scripture comes from the Apostle Paul, and he wrote this in Romans 8, 35 -39. He wrote, Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? Then he says, In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Without the Lord, we would all be defeated foes, along with Satan and his demons. But with the Lord, we cannot be defeated. This is the glorious position of one who belongs to God. This morning, as we continue our sermon series through Genesis, we are going to see Jacob conquer.

And the only reason things are going to go well for Jacob in a potentially dangerous situation is the Lord's gracious hand in his life. Jacob comes to realize what a wonderful God he belongs to. Our text this morning is Genesis chapter 33.

We'll be looking at verses 1 through 20. If you're using a red Bible in the pews, it's on page 33. And as always, I encourage you to turn there with me. This sermon is titled, The Undeserved Position, specifically the believers undeserved position.

And our big idea, our proposition is we must realize the incredible position we are in as God's people. And we're going to see two remarkable truths. The first truth we will see is that we are always recipients of God's grace.

And we'll see this in verses 1 through 11. But before we jump into our text, let me give you a little recap of last week's sermon. We looked at the extraordinary account of Jacob's life where he wrestles with God.

This was the second time when Jacob is with God in an intimate face-to-face way. The other time was Jacob's ladder. Jacob wrestled with God as the Lord took on human form. And what we saw is that God wrestled with Jacob all night.

And once morning came, the Lord desired to leave him. But Jacob would not let him leave unless he blessed him. The blessing that Jacob desired was to be rescued from his brother Esau, who was approaching.

Jacob desired that his offspring would continue and they would inherit the land of Canaan, the land of promise. But this could only happen if the Lord preserved Jacob from Esau. The Lord blessed Jacob, ensuring success for him and those with him.

And the Lord also gave him a new name. His name Jacob meant deceiver or cheater. But his new primary name was Israel. The Lord named him this because this was a huge point of surrender for Jacob. Jacob became more allied with God in this encounter than he ever had before.

And the people of Israel, they'd get their name from Jacob, of course, who is named Israel. And the application for us from last week's text is clear. We are to surrender ourselves fully to the Lord. This is difficult because our inclination through our sinful nature is to go our own way.

To hold on to our own desires, to hold on to our pride. However, the Lord calls us to surrender, to give away the sins we are holding on to and to follow him more closely. And when we do this, we receive transformation as Jacob did.

So this brings us to our text today. Jacob is about to meet his brother Esau, who 20 years earlier plotted to kill him. In fact, Esau comforted himself by just the thought of killing his brother. And he wanted Jacob dead because he cheated him out of his birthright and blessing.

So as Esau approaches with his 400 men, as we learned in chapter 32, verse 6, Jacob is trusting God to spare him from the one who was vengeful many years before. And he still believed that Esau wanted revenge against him.

So let's look at verse 1. And Jacob lifted up his eyes and looked and behold, Esau was coming and 400 men with him. So he, Jacob, divided the children among Leah and Rachel and the two female servants.

At this point, Jacob has crossed the Jabbok River and he's now with his family. As Esau approaches, Jacob does something that he did at the beginning of chapter 32. In 32, verse 7, Jacob divided his people into two camps, thinking if Esau attacks one, at least the other will be spared.

And what he does in verse 2 is he divides his people into sections. Verse 2 says, and he put the servants with their children in front, then Leah with her children, and Rachel and Joseph last of all. So Jacob does something that he should not have done.

He shows favoritism. If you can remember back to the end of chapter 29 and the beginning of chapter 30, Jacob had 12 children through four women. He had children through his two servants, Bilhah and Zilpah, and also his wives, Leah and Rachel.

All the children technically belong to Leah and Rachel since these two women use their servants to produce offspring for themselves. This strange competition led to 12 children in all, 11 sons and one daughter.

Now what 29 verse 30 told us is that Jacob loved Rachel more than Leah. So the order he puts his family in is least important to most important. The servants and the children they bore were in the front, Leah with her children behind them, and then Rachel with Joseph.

Now we are going to read later on in Genesis that Joseph is the favored son, and we know why. He comes from Rachel, the favored wife. We celebrated Jacob last week, and we are going to celebrate him again today.

But as we see this, we should be rightly disappointed. Jacob should not have favored one family member over the other, but this is what he does. But as we are disappointed in Jacob, we see something good from him.

Verse 3, he himself went on before them, bowing himself to the ground seven times until he came near to his brother. So Jacob, as we saw last week, when he wrestled with the Lord, he was on the north side of the Jabbok River, and he sent his family and all that he had across.

And after that encounter with the Lord, after he divides them into these sections, Jacob goes on in front of his family. And this shows courage from him. The courage he received from his encounter with the Lord prepared him for this.

The Lord blessed Jacob, and now Jacob is confident that this frightening situation with Esau is going to work out well for him. What Jacob does is he shows submission to his brother. Verse 3 says that he bowed to the ground seven times as he got closer to Esau.

And this is interesting when we realize that the Lord told their mother, Rebekah, in chapter 25, verse 23, that the older shall serve the younger. In other words, Esau would serve Jacob. But Jacob shows a servant's heart here.

One way that we may think wrongly, and the world often thinks wrongly, is that one in leadership is to be served. You get the picture of someone lying in a hammock and them holding grapes out and the person eating, and you're being served.

But that's the wrong way to think about leadership. A leader is one who serves rather than one who is served. And Jesus gives us the right understanding about this. He said in Mark chapter 42 through verse 45, He said,.

You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servants, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all.

For even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. Jesus makes clear that everyone should serve others, and leaders should especially be those who serve.

True leadership is always servant leadership. In our account, Jacob has authority over Esau, and yet he does the equivalent of washing Esau's feet by falling to the ground before him. Now this is the first time they have met in over 20 years.

The last time they met Esau was plotting to kill Jacob. Now, remarkably, we are going to see the opposite from Esau, verse 4. But Esau ran to meet him and embraced him and fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept.

So Esau falls into Jacob's arms and they cry together. These are, of course, tears of joy. Siblings have a very close bond, but when you come out of the womb at the same time, the bond is extra close.

And we know that Jackson and Mason probably have an extra close bond because they came out of the womb at about the same time. Now these twins, Jacob and Esau, had been separated for over 20 years, and they finally see each other again after a two-decade absence of seeing each other.

And we need to stop and think about how amazing this is. Esau wanted to kill Jacob, and now he shows affection for him as he joyfully weeps in his arms. What happened? Did Esau follow a seven-step program of how to become a better human being?

No. We must see this as a work of God. In chapter 32, verses 9 -11, Jacob prayed to God. He prayed that the Lord would deliver him from his brother Esau. Then we saw last week that the Lord blessed him in 32 -29.

Things were going to go well for Jacob because the Lord heard his prayer and answered. What I think is happening here is the Lord changed Esau's demeanor, his attitude, from a vengeful man to a civil one.

Now this does not mean that Esau was converted. The text of scripture says otherwise. In Malachi 1, 2 -3, the Lord said, I have loved Jacob, but Esau I have rejected. Every indication the scripture gives is that Esau is not in heaven right now.

But through God's common grace, not his saving grace, but his common grace, he made Esau more civil than he was before. The Lord does this in people. And maybe you've experienced this. Maybe someone who used to be really a bad person somehow has some kind of a transformation, but it's not saving faith.

It's just somehow the change has been brought to this person. An example in scripture of this, of the Lord softening a man's heart, would be King Cyrus of Persia. Cyrus was glad to take Israel captive, like the Babylonians before him.

But the text of scripture tells us that the Lord worked in his heart, not to save him, but to change him. Second Chronicles, chapter 36, verses 23 -23, says this. Now in the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing.

Thus says Cyrus, king of Persia, the Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all his people, may the Lord his God be with him.

Let him go up. So this text says, the Lord stirred up Cyrus' heart. This does not mean that King Cyrus of Persia became a believer. Rather, the text says that the Lord brought superficial change for the benefit of his people.

Cyrus let Israel return to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple that the Babylonians had destroyed. Think about how remarkable this is. The most powerful man in the world has these people who have been beaten and taken captive and he lets them return to their homeland to rebuild the temple.

And this happened over a thousand years from where we are in Genesis right now, but it shows that the Lord can change someone superficially. Not from the inside out, like when someone comes to faith in Christ, but he can do this for the benefit of his people.

The Lord is working for the benefit of Jacob here, as Esau appears to have changed. Now in verse 5, this is what Esau says to Jacob. And when Esau lifted up his eyes and saw the women and children, he said, Who are these with you?

So over 20 years have passed, and remember, Jacob left with just himself. And now he has all of these possessions and all this family and all these children. And Esau is wondering, wow, what happened over the last 20 years?

And sometimes when you haven't seen someone in years and also they have a family and all these different things are going on in their life, that's what's happening right here. Jacob responds to this by pointing to the source of his abundance.

Jacob said, the children whom God has graciously given your servant. So Jacob points out that this abundance that he has, this blessing that he has, has come from God. Jacob recognizes how good God has been to him.

And we ought to recognize how good the Lord has been to us in our lives. We should follow Jacob's example in this and say, if someone ever says to you, Man, so many good things have happened to you in your life, you can just say, God has been gracious to me.

Now we are going to see Jacob's family follow in the steps of bringing themselves low before Esau. This is what they do in verses 6 and 7. Then the servants drew near, they and their children, and bowed down.

Leah likewise and her children drew near and bowed down. And last, Joseph and Rachel drew near and they bowed down. So they're showing that they do not see themselves as inherently superior to Esau. They realize that God has richly blessed them.

And this blessing is not for Esau. However, they humbly approach him as a follower of the Lord should. We should always be those who count others more significantly than ourselves. That's what Philippians 2, 3 teaches us.

And Jesus gives us the best example of all in this. Now as Esau notices Jacob's large family, he also notices the large flock and cattle that Jacob brought with him. The beginning of verse 8, Esau said, What do you mean by all this company that I met?

And Jacob responds,. So Jacob reveals to Esau that he desires that he would be viewed favorably by him and therefore offers this gift. And what Esau does is what we often do when offered a gift. This is what he says in verses 9 and 10.

For I have seen your face, which is like seeing the face of God, and you have accepted me. It's funny, it's common for people to say, you know, you didn't have to do that. Or even say, I can't take that.

But we usually end up taking it. Actually, just this last week, I was shoveling and Mark came by and I said to him, oh, you don't have to help me. And then a minute later, he was helping me shovel. I was glad to take his help.

But it's just a polite thing to do. And that's what Esau is doing here. So Esau gladly takes what Jacob has offered him, all these gifts that, remember, Jacob is giving him these gifts because he wants to make him happy, because he was worried that Esau might do something to him, that he might harm him.

And then we read in verse 11, Jacob says,. And Esau took it. So Esau takes the gift. But what we must see is the most important points of verses 10 and 11. In the second half of verse 10, Jacob says, Jacob's not worthy of Esau's acceptance, and he's not worthy of the acceptance God has shown him.

What Jacob told the Lord in chapter 32, verse 10, is I am not worthy of the least of all the deeds of steadfast love and all the faithfulness that you have shown to your servant. For with only my staff I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two camps.

So Jacob is highlighting the Lord's grace to him. He's saying, I don't deserve this, but you've been so good to me. Jacob realizes that he was a cheat for most of his life. He took advantage of people just to get what he wanted.

And the Lord has stepped into his life and shown him tremendous grace. Theologians describe grace as God's unmerited favor. We do not deserve it, and yet he gives us this favor freely. This is how scripture teaches grace.

And this is why Jacob says this to Esau. He says, I don't deserve your favor because I stole your birthright and your blessing, but you have accepted me. The Hebrew word translated here, accepted, means pleased with, or as I mentioned, shown favor towards.

Jacob realizes that Esau is miraculously pleased with him, and he doesn't deserve this. This is a miracle we're seeing here. This guy was trying to kill him 20 years before, and now he's treating him like the nicest guy you've ever met.

What happened? And the most important thing we need to point out here is that Jacob realizes the source of this favor he's receiving. The glory doesn't go to Esau for having this change somehow. The glory goes to God.

It's from God. God set his sights on Jacob long ago, before he was born. Chapter 25, verse 23 said that the Lord chose Jacob to be his child, and Jacob's story is one of experiencing God's grace. That's what Rob mentioned earlier during the prayer and praise time.

Bruce Madsen's life is one of experiencing God's grace. And everybody here who knows Jesus Christ, it's a life of experiencing God's grace. He's experienced the Lord's grace through his life journey, and he experiences it here.

He was assured of God's blessing over him last week, when he met God face to face. And so when Jacob points back to that event, he knows why Esau is treating him so well. After God wrestled with Jacob, he blessed him, ensuring his success with Esau, who he feared.

God is being gracious to Jacob right here, and he's not getting what he deserves for his past sins. God has showed his grace in so many ways throughout Jacob's life, but specifically in this text, God shows grace toward Jacob by turning Esau's wrath to favor.

And this is unmerited favor. Do you see how this plays out in our lives? Every one of us comes into this world as a sinner in need of grace. We come in deserving only punishment. And if we didn't receive grace, we would all be doomed.

But thankfully, we are not doomed. Ephesians 1, 5 -7 tells us, In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the beloved.

In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace. We see God's gracious character displayed here, and we experience God's unmerited favor by him sending Christ to die for our sins.

Instead of experiencing punishment, we experience only blessing. And some would say Jacob should receive what was coming to him for his sins of the past. You know, people say your sins will find you out, and there's some truth to that, but the beauty is that your past sins as a believer, you're never going to have to pay for those because Christ already paid for those.

And instead of experiencing punishment, we experience blessing. Nothing happens to Jacob in an earthly sense here, or in an eternal one. The Lord has been gracious to him. Esau wanted to seek revenge for what Jacob had done to him in the past, and nothing is happening to him because the Lord is being gracious to Jacob.

Think about this in our own lives. We all know that we have sinned many, many, many times. I heard a pastor say this one time. If I were to put my sins on a piece of paper and then attach the pieces of paper, it would easily go over the river, probably to Forest Lake.

Think about the debt that is being erased, the grace that God is showing us in Christ. And as we reflect on the sins of our lives, realize that if you are in Christ, you will never get what was coming to you because Christ got it for you.

He paid the price for you 2 ,000 years ago when he went to the cross. And what we see in verse 11 is a change that happens in Jacob from experiencing God's grace in his life. Jacob says in verse 11, Please accept my blessing that is brought to you because God has dealt graciously with me.

So Jacob realizes that he is a recipient of God's grace and he is generous toward Esau because of this. And so not only should we understand how wonderful God's grace is toward us, but we should also be benevolent to others.

This might show in generosity, in kindness, in being quick to forgive or slow to become angry. I have no time for Christians who aren't quick to forgive. I mean, of all people, we should be those who are quick to forgive because the debt that has forgiven us is so much greater than anyone else has ever done to us.

And if we don't do that, we don't understand what God has done for us. We should be so quick to forgive. Understanding and experiencing God's grace makes you gracious. It shows in your life. Jacob was a man who experienced God's grace throughout his life and he experiences it in a special way here.

We must realize the incredible position we are in as God's people. The first remarkable truth is that we always are recipients to God's grace. So that's the first point. The first point is much longer than the second point, so I hope that's an encouragement.

Calling God Our God

The second remarkable truth is that we are able to call God our God. And we'll see this in verses 12 through 20. I realize listening to a sermon, it's a workout. It is a workout to try to take everything in.

That's why it's good to take notes. Write things down. I was telling Mark the other day, my boss, when I was a sales rep, he used to tell me, he said, people forget, paper remembers. That's why it's good to take notes to the best of your ability.

So verses 12 through 20 here, we are able to call God our God. After this encounter between Jacob and Esau that was blessed by God, Esau desires to stay in Jacob's life. Then Esau said, let us journey on our way, and I will go ahead of you.

So Esau calls Jacob to journey with him, and at the end of verse 12, he says that he will go ahead of Jacob, with Jacob following closely behind. But Jacob does not want to go with him. But Jacob said to him, my Lord knows that the children are frail, and that the nursing flocks and herds are a care to me.

If they are driven hard for one day, all the flocks will die. Jacob knew the promises of God that he and his people would live in the land of Canaan forever. So going with Esau was not the right move.

Even though they just had this nice moment, he probably still had some fear of Esau. So this is why he makes an excuse. By leaving abruptly to head west to the land of Canaan, Jacob might be reminding Esau that this wonderful blessings of God were his and not Esau's.

And he did not want to tempt the favor that Esau has shown him. And so he tries to hide the fact that he's going to leave right after this to go to the land the Lord promised him. But even though Jacob makes this excuse, he does not tell Esau that he's not going with him.

In fact, he indicates that he will follow later. Verse 14, Jacob says, let my Lord pass on ahead of his servant, and I will lead on slowly at the pace of the livestock that are ahead of me, and at the pace of the children, until I come to my Lord in seer.

So this is another failure on Jacob's part. And we should be surprised, right? Believers sin too. It's not the, as the old quote says, it's not the perfection of your life, but it is the direction of your life.

And we see that here with Jacob. Now he should have trusted the Lord fully, like he has this whole day, but he weakens a bit here. And he tells a lie to Esau. And what we are about to see is that Jacob had no intention of following Esau.

And we'll see this a few verses down. So Esau believes Jacob is coming with him. So he asked Jacob if he could leave some of his men to accompany Jacob with him as they head south to Seir. Seir was the place where Esau lived, and now he's returning home to.

So this is how Esau responds at the beginning of verse 15. So Esau said, let me leave with you some of the people who are with me. We do not know why Esau said this. It may have been a nice gesture, but he puts Jacob in an awkward position.

Jacob has no intention of going with Esau. So Jacob responds in this way in the second half of verse 15. But he said, what need is there? Let me find favor in the sight of my Lord. And Lord here is lowercase.

He's referring to Esau. Jacob says with hidden motives that he has already received his favor, and that's enough. He does not also need Esau's men to join him on this trip south to the land of Seir. But of course, we are about to find out that Jacob had no plans of joining Esau, but instead to go straight west to the land of Canaan, the land of promise.

So in verses 16 and 17, we see they parted ways. So Esau returned that day on his way to Seir, but Jacob journeyed to Sukkoth and built himself a house and made booths for his livestock. Therefore, the name of the place is called Sukkoth.

So Esau heads south to Seir. Jacob heads west to the land of Canaan to Sukkoth, or toward the land of Canaan, and he builds a house there and booths for his livestock. But the next verse tells us that Jacob did not stay in Sukkoth very long, verse 18.

And Jacob came safely to the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, on his way from Pot-on-A-Ram, and he camped before the city. So he's journeying westward toward the land of Canaan, and he comes to Shechem.

Then in verse 19, he plans on staying for a while. And from the sons of Hamor, Shechem's father, he bought for a hundred pieces of money the piece of land on which he had pitched his tent. So he purchases a piece of land from the sons of Hamor, who is the father of Shechem.

And Shechem is significant because he's going to be a villain in the next chapter, as we will see. And he's introduced here. So as Jacob's heading towards there, he's setting up shop in a few different places.

So now that we've got all those details, the most significant point of this last section, and this is what I want you to take home with you, is what happens in verse 20. There Jacob erected an altar and called it El Elohi Israel.

So Jacob builds an altar. Now we've heard this before because his grandfather Abraham often built altars. Isaac built altars, and now he does it. This was a sign of maturity at this point. The purpose of the altar was worship of the Lord.

This was an act of worship. And the naming of this altar is significant. The text says that he named it El Elohi Israel. In English this means God, the God of Israel. Remember, Israel is Jacob's new name.

And what he's saying is God is my God. At this point in his life, he's talking more boldly than he ever had before. We see this transformation that has taken place in his life when he's not afraid to exclaim publicly that God is his God.

Are you this public with your faith? Are you willing to tell someone God is my God? Would people describe you in this way? The God of the Bible is my God. The only God of the universe is my God. Do you realize that he's your God?

Think about this. He's the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Nate Tomlinson, and Sheila, and Jeremiah, and Shawn, and Rachel, and Gertie, and Barb. I can do this today because not many people are here.

Mike, and hopefully the kids in this church, and Abby, and Bree, and Rob, and Mark, and Lori, and Patsy downstairs. And if I haven't missed anyone, I don't think I've missed anyone. He's your God. He's my God.

Think about that. And I love that passage in the New Testament where Jesus is talking to the Sadducees. And these were people who didn't believe in the resurrection of the dead. They thought that when you die, that's it.

You cease to exist. And what Jesus says to them is that you don't know the Scriptures or the power of God. He says, I am the God of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob. And he says it in the present tense. They're still his people.

We say goodbye to Bruce. God is the God of Bruce Matson because he's still alive. He's just not alive on this earth. Because we live forever with the Lord. And we must realize this incredible position we have as God's people.

So the second remarkable truth here is what Jacob does. He says that God is my God. The God of Israel is his God. The God of Israel, the God of the universe, is our God. He's the God of the church. And this is a remarkable truth that we hold on to and rejoice in.

We must rejoice in. So we must realize as we close here the incredible position we are in as God's people. And we've seen two remarkable truths. The first truth is that we are always recipients of God's grace.

The second truth is that we are able to call God our God. And since we are God's people, we are forever tied to God and his plan. And this should be very encouraging to our lives. And we face frightening things like Jacob faced in his once vengeful brother Esau approaching.

But the only reason that things worked out well for Jacob is because God was with him. Not because he deserved it, but because God was fully committed to him. God committed himself fully to Jacob and has shown grace in his life.

And Jacob knew the marvelous feeling knowing that the great God, the creator of the universe, is his God, and not only his, but ours also. He experienced an outcome that would not have been possible unless God intervened in his life.

And he changed a vengeful man into a peaceful man for Jacob's sake. For the sake of his child. Just like he did for the people of Israel with Cyrus, and he does for us all the time. Have you ever had a time where an unbeliever all of a sudden did something very favorable towards you?

That's what's happening here. So we have confidence that the outcome of our life in the big picture is always good because of God's constant grace toward his people. So we don't just experience his grace just in salvation.

Every day, every breath we take is his grace. Now next week, as you know, we're having the baby, so I'm not going to be preaching next Sunday. I will be here, but Rob is going to step in and preach just to help with the preparation and all of that.

So he's going to be preaching from James, correct? A passage from James. And so I look forward to that. And the weather will be nicer and the seats will be full. It's going to be an exciting day next Sunday.

And so please prepare yourself for that this coming week. Let's pray together. Father in heaven, we do thank you for this day you've given us. Lord, everyone you brought today is such a blessing that each one is here.

And what a gift, Lord, it is to be with the people of God, to preach the Word of God, to grow together. And I pray, Lord, that people would be encouraged today and realize what a wonderful position we have as your children.

You were so good to Jacob and you are so good to us as well. And may we not lose sight of that, but may we always praise you for that. May we always thank you for that. And may that be an encouragement to us.

And we ask this in Jesus' name, Amen.