Hyssops A Plenty

Kongsvinger Lutheran Church

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Eternal God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, grant us your Holy Spirit who writes the preached word into our hearts, so that we may receive it and believe it and be gladded and comforted by it in eternity.

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Glorify your word in our hearts, make it so bright and warm that we may find pleasure in it.

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Through your inspiration, think what is right, and by your power, fulfill the word. For the sake of Jesus Christ, your

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Son, our Lord. Amen. Okay, we are working our way through the book of Leviticus.

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Last week, we took an occasion to talk about some of the typology.

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And I was trying to think, if I were to explain to somebody how biblical typology works.

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Do you all ever play memory with your small kids or your grandkids?

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We have a memory game that we used to play. It's a card -based game, but it's not just cards.

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You would have pictures of frogs and sheep and a giraffe and stuff like that.

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You flip them over, so you take your turn. You've got a frog and then you've got a cricket.

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It's like, oh, bummer, so you have to close it. You've got to remember where the frog was. The kid takes his turn, and he turns over a sheep and a gorilla.

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He's got to try to remember where those are. Then you flip over a frog, and you go, oh, yeah, I remember the frog.

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It's right there, but where was it over here? Biblical typology, oddly enough, is kind of like that.

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The Bible is self -referential. Oftentimes, it's a word or a concept.

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Last week, as we were working our way through the book of Leviticus, Leviticus 14, again, we're in one of my least favorite portions of Leviticus, the skin diseases and leprosy section, which is just, yay, what a great topic.

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Again, I am so happy and thankful that I am not a Levitical priest, that I'm a

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New Covenant pastor. Leviticus 14, here's our review. Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, this shall be the law of leprous person for the day of his cleansing.

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This has to relate, then, to the cleansing of leprous person. The priest shall go out of the camp. The priest shall look.

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Then, if the case of the leprous disease is healed in the leprous person, the priest shall command them to take for him who is to be cleansed two live, clean birds and cedarwood, scarlet yarn, and hyssop.

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These three things also appear in the book of Numbers in relation to the sacrifice of the red heifer, whose ashes then get added to a mixture of water.

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It's for the purpose of taking somebody who's come in contact with a dead body so that they can be cleansed.

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It's a fascinating concept. A little bit of a note here. You'll note that Jesus touched dead bodies.

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He had this thing that he did. But it seems like every time he touched a dead body, the person ceased to be a dead person.

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They became alive. Jesus raised them from the grave. That's a great thing. Last week, we talked about the cedarwood.

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I think we can just say that this is a reference, then, to the wood of the cross. This is how the church fathers deal with it.

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Last week, we went on an extended excursion into the book of Judges and took a look at what's with scarlet yarn.

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What is that all about? We took a look at the story from the book of Joshua regarding Rahab, the prostitute, the harlot of Jericho.

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We read out the story of the fall of Jericho and noted that in type and shadow, because of the appearance of the shout, because of the appearance of the trumpets, and because this is going into the promised land, and we note promised land is like one of those memory cards.

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Promised land. It's mentioned in the Old Testament. But it's also mentioned in the New. The New tells us explicitly that the promised land is not a postage stamp -sized piece of real estate in the

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Middle East, but the promised land that's in the Middle East in the Old Testament is a type and shadow of the promised land, which is the new earth for all

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Christians, for all believers. That being the case, in the Old Covenant, in the

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Old Testament, when we have the children of Israel coming into the promised land, first order of business is the destruction of Jericho.

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We noted then that because of the details of it and some of the memory words that show up, trumpet, shout, trumpet, shout appear in the

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New Covenant, in the New Testament, that this was kind of a dress rehearsal in the ancient world for the destruction of the world itself.

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The day when Jesus comes again with glory to judge the living and the dead, and only those who are protected by the scarlet cord, only those who are protected by the scarlet cord survive the ordeal.

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The scarlet cord is a reference then to the blood of Christ, because only those who have been forgiven by Christ, whose sins, though they be as scarlet, their robes are made white in the blood of the

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Lamb, only those who have that are saved. And then Rahab herself is a type and shadow of the bride of Jesus Christ, because not only does she survive, we also then learned from the

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Gospel of Matthew, she marries the guy who's next in line for the Messiah.

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This is just crazy -go -nuts stuff. Now, what about hyssop? Hyssop, again, think of it like our analogy here.

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The word hyssop, it appears a few times in Scripture, and there's references to it.

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So here we've got somebody who's been cleansed of a leprous disease. Leprosy and those leprous diseases are a picture of the effects of sin, if you would, on people.

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So when somebody's cleansed, they've got to take cedar wood, scarlet yarn, hyssop, and dip them in the live bird, in the blood of the bird that was killed over the fresh water, and he shall sprinkle it seven times on him who is to be cleansed.

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So here we've got the interesting thing. Hyssop being dipped in blood, then this being sprinkled in water, and then this water being used for cleansing.

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Hmm. Okay. So hyssop makes its first appearance, and it only makes a few appearances, and I mean this, like just a very few limited number of appearances in Scripture in the

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Book of Exodus. Now, I should do this. Hang on a second here. Let's see.

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T, and I want H -Y -S -S -O -P.

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We talk about hyssop. What are we talking about? Of course, my internet out here is not all that reliable.

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There we go, and I want images of hyssop. My apologies.

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We can sing camp songs while we're waiting for the internet. It's like dial -up out here, man. Remember those days?

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H -Y -S -S -O -P. So hyssop itself, if we look at it kind of in its native flourishing form, looks a lot like lavender.

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It's like this is a shrubbery of some kind. It's a shrub. And what the children of Israel did is that they would take bunches of hyssop together and then make something like a branch out of it.

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And you can paint with it, apparently. But that was the idea. So this is what it looks like when it's growing.

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It's got a really pretty purple -y kind of color to it. But here's where it makes its first appearance.

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Exodus 12, then talking about the Exodus. Yahweh said to Moses and to Aaron in the land of Egypt, This month shall be for you the beginning of months.

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It shall be the first month of the year for you. Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month, every man shall take a lamb according to their father's houses, a lamb for a household, and if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his nearest neighbor shall take according to the number of persons, according to what each can eat, you shall make your count for the lamb.

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Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male, a year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats, and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the month when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight.

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Twilight is three in the afternoon. That's when twilight begins. Then they shall take some of the blood, put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat.

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So doorposts are those, you know, over here we have an example, visual aid, yes.

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Doorpost. Doorpost. Lintel. So the idea then is you're going to take some of this blood, you're going to put it on the two doorposts, and you're going to put it on the lintel.

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And funny enough, visually, this will create the points of a cross.

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Kind of a fascinating thing when you put it on both sides. So you've got blood on the right, blood on the left, blood on the top, and just draw some lines and you've got yourself a cross.

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Fascinating how that works. So they shall take some of the blood, put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat.

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They shall eat the flesh that night, roast it on the fire with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.

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They shall eat it. Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, roasted with its legs and its inner parts.

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You shall let none of it remain until the morning. Anything that remains until the morning you shall burn.

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In this manner you shall eat it with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, your staff in your hand.

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And you shall eat it in haste. It is Yahweh's Passover. And I will pass through the land of Egypt that night and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast, and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment.

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I am Yahweh. The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are.

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And when I see the blood, notice who's the destroyer then, God is, when

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I see the blood I will pass over you and no plague will befall you to destroy you when

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I strike the land of Egypt. This day shall be a memorial day and you shall keep it as a feast to Yahweh throughout your generations, a statute forever.

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You shall keep it as a feast. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven out of your houses for if anyone eats what is leavened from the first day until the seventh day that person shall be cut off from Israel.

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On the first day you shall hold a holy assembly and on the seventh day a holy assembly. No work shall be done on those days but what everyone needs to eat that alone may be prepared by you and you shall observe the feast of unleavened bread for on this very day

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I brought you and your hosts out of the land of Egypt. Therefore you shall observe this day throughout your generations as a statute forever.

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In the first month, the 14th day of the month, at evening you shall eat unleavened bread until the 21st day of the month at evening for seven days.

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No leaven is to be found in your houses. If anyone eats what is leavened, that person will be cut off from the congregation.

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Now, leaven here, kind of doing our, again, doing our little memory game, this is kind of how typology works.

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Let me show you that one real quick. Leaven, L -E -A -V -E -N and I want it in the

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New Testament. Listen to this, Jesus says, and he cautioned them, watch out, beware of the leaven of the

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Pharisees and the leaven of Herod. And then, so you'll note that leaven shows up in a negative context and then 1

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Corinthians 5, 6. Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?

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Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump as you really are unleavened for Christ our

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Passover lamb has been sacrificed. So, leaven itself, yeast, which is a really, it's a bummer if you think about it because you've got to get rid of all the leaven that you've had in your house for a year and if anyone's been making a sourdough, you know, they've got a good sourdough starter.

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That's a mysterious dark art, learning how to make a sourdough starter. Could you imagine having to, finally you've got a perfect sourdough starter and you have to throw that thing out.

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But the whole point of the leaven then is that it's symbolic of false teaching, of false belief, of sin.

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And so the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 5, in fact let me get the whole context in 1

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Corinthians 5 so you can kind of see how this plays out. As you read 1 Corinthians, it's an awkward book because the

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Apostle Paul is correcting, how shall we put it, some weird, bizarre things that are happening in this church.

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And you're thinking how can this be? Well, here's one of the weirder ones. So Paul writes in 1

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Corinthians 5, it's actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, which that's not supposed to be happening.

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And this is of a kind that is not tolerated even among the pagans. So it's like not only is there sexual immorality but this one's really kind of out there.

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And here's what's going on. A man has his father's wife. What? What?

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What? And you're arrogant. Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you.

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So this guy has to be punished because he's an impenitent. For though absent in body

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I am present in spirit and as if present I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing.

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When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present with the power of our

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Lord Jesus you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the

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Lord. Look at that. The Apostle Paul is present with him in spirit even without the internet. That's weird. Just had to throw that in there.

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So you're boasting though he says then is not good. They're actually boasting. Yeah we're so forgiven man.

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Jesus is like forgiving all of our sins. Dude check this out. That guy right there he's been sleeping with his dad's wife.

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Isn't that great? Jesus forgives us and loves us dude. He did not forgive us and set us free to be slaves to sin.

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He set us free from being slaves to sin. So he then says your boasting is not good and here we then see the typology.

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Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Cleanse out the old leaven. You know this is invoking then what we were just reading in Exodus about leaven.

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Why do you get rid of the leaven? It's a symbol of sin. Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump as you really are unleavened for and here's the reason why.

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Christ our Passover lamb has been sacrificed.

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So those little Passover lambs that are sacrificed point to Jesus.

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Point to Jesus. So let us therefore celebrate the festival not with the old leaven the leaven of malice and evil but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

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So leaven then is a picture of sin. Unleavened bread is a picture of sincerity, truth, spotlessness, sinlessness in Christ.

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That's kind of the idea. That's the picture. So we see how then the typology works then coming back then so you shall eat nothing leavened in all of your dwelling places you shall eat unleavened bread.

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So then Moses called all the elders of Israel said to them go select lambs for yourselves according to your clans.

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Kill the Passover lamb. And here's where the first appearance of hyssop is in the

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Bible. Take a bunch of hyssop dip it in the blood that is in the basin touch the lintel and the two door posts with the blood that is in the basin.

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None of you shall go out of the door of his house until the morning and Yahweh will pass through to strike the

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Egyptians and when he sees the blood on the lintel and on the two door posts the

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Lord will pass over the door and will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you and you shall observe this right as a statute for you and for your sons forever and when you come to the land that the

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Lord your God will give you as he promised you shall keep this service and when your children say to you what do you mean by this service you shall say it is the sacrifice of the

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Lord's Passover for he passed over the houses of the people of Israel and Egypt when he struck the

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Egyptians but spared our houses and the people bowed their heads and they worshipped.

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So the Passover itself is a symbol pointing to Christ.

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We know what the leaven is all about so the hyssop shows up because this is the thing where you dip the blood you dip the hyssop in the blood and you paint your thing and hyssop appears.

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So the hyssop appears here, hyssop appears in our Leviticus text, hyssop appears again in the book of Numbers and then hyssop appears at all places at all the places in the

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Gospel of John and so Jesus is on the cross John 19 -28 after this

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Jesus knowing that all was now finished said to fulfill the scripture I thirst a jar full of sour wine stood there so they took a sponge full of the sour wine the sour wine bitter herbs you notice kind of the themes here and full of sour wine and they put it on a hyssop branch held it to his mouth so there's your hyssop and when

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Jesus had received the sour wine he said it is finished he bowed his head and he gave up his spirit so hyssop makes its last appearance then at the cross so you connect all the dots here and everything this whole river is flowing to lake

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Jesus and so how does this all work out then? you kind of put all the pieces together

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Jesus is our Passover lamb it is his blood that God has sprinkled over us and on the day of judgment you can say the

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Lord takes a look at humanity Egypt then is a type and shadow of the sinful world the unbelieving sinful world and so the destroyer goes out on the day of judgment and looks and those who have the blood of the

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Passover lamb on them the destroyer passes over they are forgiven they are cleansed and so everything points to Christ in that way yes sir you know when you're reading

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Exodus you read it and how depressing it is to read that because you know you can't fulfill you can't abide by it right and then this

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I feel that this hyssop branch is a is a vehicle it is the like a paintbrush is the vehicle to paint the wall they used it the same way in most of the time in here and it is no wonderful that we follow

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Jesus rather than the Mosaic covenant and the new covenant is it can just put a smile on everybody's face because your heart is there yeah under the

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Mosaic covenant you have no chance there's no chance you can't keep yeah if you want to be saved by the law you have to keep it perfectly from the moment you're conceived to the moment you draw your last breath you want to be saved by the law you got to keep it perfectly and God does not grade on a curve and so it's not like he looks across all of humanity and goes okay here's

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Adam here's the last guy who dies the man of lawlessness on the last day we'll take all of humanity together we got ten commandments how did everybody do and we come up with this nice bell curve right and so everyone you know like within ten percentage points on the right or the left of the median they're in and all the outliers you guys are gone right it's not how that works okay there's only two scores when it comes to salvation by the law and they are pass or fail and anybody who's committed one sin fails end of story you're doomed now what well this is where the great exchange becomes so vital because Christ who is the sinless one he kept

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God's law perfectly not so he can go neener neener neener I'm more holier than you are no he keeps

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God's law perfectly and then what happens is is that God lays on him the iniquity of us all so Jesus becomes the singular sinner of all of humanity and then when we are brought to faith in Christ and this repentance and faith is a gift given by God we are brought to faith in Christ his perfect righteousness is then given to us and we are clothed in the righteousness of Christ you know kind of in a strange way you remember the story of how

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Jacob deceived his father Isaac in order to get the blessing that he was going to give to Esau you know it's one of these stories that is just so utterly scandalous that you just sit there and you go how can anything good come of this story but I would tell you that that in weird type and shadow is the whole scandal of the forgiveness of our sins so we come before God the father dressed in our brother's clothes in brother

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Jesus' clothes and the father says is that you Jesus yes it's me well you sound like Chris you don't sound like Jesus right come close to me my son okay well and then he touches me well you smell like Jesus you feel like Jesus you sound like Chris but really

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I'm Jesus right again it's a type and shadow and it's scandalous when you think about it it's utterly scandalous that a sinner like me a sinner like you that we receive the blessing of the father the forgiveness of sins reconciliation and the inheritance we're in the will man we got the we got the full inheritance as part of this and we're wearing

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Jesus' clothes covering up our own filth our own stink so we smell and look like him that's kind of the picture of salvation and so this is again this is one of the wonderful pictures of how the gospel works but yeah but it gives us hope and that's the thing we

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Christians not only you know kind of trepidatiously have hope yeah I'm kind of hoping for eternal life you know cross your fingers hope to die no no no no no we have confidence we have actual confident hope because God never lies

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Christ never lies you are in Christ you are forgiven your sins are gone you're covered in the righteousness of Christ and it's totally scandalous and you know like I always like to say man

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I'm telling you when I walk into the kingdom the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going to go oh good night

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Jesus is letting anybody in now they're going to be scandalized by my presence but that's the idea that's the idea is that chief of sinners though I be

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Jesus shed his blood for me right and that faith is even given as a gift

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Michael okay that's a great question there's a technical answer to it so the

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Hebrew word is Olam the Hebrew word is Olam and Olam is going to have several different meanings and so we read in the cross references regarding the types and shadows so let me kind of help you out here

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I'm going to give you a New Testament text and then we'll talk about how Olam works in Colossians chapter 2 we have a clear text that tells us something about these feast days so here we've got this wonderful picture in the middle portion of Colossians 2 saying to us starting at verse 13 you you

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Christians at Colossae and all of us who are in Christ you were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh

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God has made you alive together with Christ having forgiven us all of our trespasses by canceling the record of death that stood against us with its legal demands this he set aside nailing to the cross he disarmed the rulers and authorities put them to open shame by triumphing over them in him so here we got this picture then and so the picture then of salvation and what

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Christ did is that in the books we got this record of debt and of course in the digital age they've created

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Excel spreadsheets this is why spreadsheets are evil and there's a whole table in your

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Excel spreadsheet that says record of debt and so what Jesus has done is he's gone into that table in your

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Excel spreadsheet he's printed the whole thing out and he's taken that reams of paper he's taken it and he's nailed it to the cross and it says debt paid in full and you can write it out in his blood so this is a picture of salvation he's cancelled the record of debt nailed it to the cross so you are totally forgiven totally free there is nothing that you've done that can accuse you now because Christ has paid the full debt for this yes no he can't you see in good accounting you always need to have an audit trail right so you gotta have an audit trail so Jesus has taken that nailed it to the cross says debt paid in full so we've got the receipt if you would and then here's the therefore so Paul then says this therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food drink with regard to a festival a new moon or a sabbath so he's now making reference then to the mosaic covenant feast days new moon festivals and the shabbat itself the sabbath and here's what he explicitly says these are a shadow of the things to come but the substance belongs to Christ so Passover according to Colossians 217 is a type it's a shadow it's not the real thing and so we've been working our way then and we've kind of plumbed out the meaning the substance belongs to Christ Jesus is our

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Passover lamb 1 Corinthians 5 says that explicitly the leaven is a type and shadow of sin 1

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Corinthians 5 says that explicitly so Jesus is the fulfillment of it work everything around him you've got it now why then does it say in scripture that this is a statute forever

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Olam well in the cross references you're going to have a little caveat that goes along with Olam forever this is a statute forever throughout your generations as long as the mosaic covenant is in effect but see the mosaic covenant was never intended to be a permanent covenant it's a type and shadow covenant pointing to Christ and it's been done away with so then the question comes up is it well if somebody invites me to a

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Seder dinner can I go sure it's a fascinating thing to look at but you don't go to it looking treating it as a substance but really getting more information as to how the

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Seder would have worked in pointing to Jesus there's stuff that you can learn in that sense does the

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Lord suffer in Passover? yes so we kind of are still observing

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Passover in that way right the type and shadow is given away to the substance and here's a beautiful picture of the way it works then so Christ our

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Passover lamb has been slain on those Sundays when we have the

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Lord's Supper you hear these strange words on the night that Jesus was betrayed he took bread he had given thanks, broke it and gave it to the disciples and said take eat this is my body which is given for you and remember the

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Passover lamb is consumed, it's eaten and then you hear these words in the same way also he took the cup after supper and when he had given thanks he gave it to them saying drink of it all of you this cup is the new testament in my blood which is shed for you for the forgiveness of your sins this do as often as you drink it in remembrance of me so now what happens is you come to the altar come to the rail and on your knees you receive the body and blood of Jesus Christ given and shed for you for the forgiveness of your sins and your mouth is considered to be like the door of your body and so now the blood of Christ has been placed on the door of your body in your mouth, on your lips, on your tongue and do this in remembrance of me this is covenantal talk so what happens then is that you are then to remember the promises of the new covenant what are the promises of the new covenant that you are forgiven that all your sins have been bled for and died for that Christ your

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Passover lamb has been slain for you and so you remember the promises that you have been reconciled to the father forgiven in Christ that you are a new creation that you are a

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Hagioi that you are a saint and that God has made you this these are all the promises right but here's the other thing is that remember covenants go two ways in this way the new covenant goes in two directions the other person who is party to this then is

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God himself and so God himself seeing you and seeing the blood of Christ in your mouth says

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I forgive you you're forgiven I remember your sins no more I know your name but I can't remember your sins that's kind of a fuzzy thing it's gone in fact there's nothing you seem to be clothed in Jesus's clothing but you smell like Nicky but you sound but you look and smell a lot like Jesus right you see kind of how it all works we can't read the

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Old Testament and the New Testament separately we have to see that it's kind of like the drama that's going on in the

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Old Testament leads up to the New Testament and it's like Paul Harvey you got to get the rest of the story you got to get the rest of the story that's right and so there's a lot of confusion about the

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Bible because our first impulse as Christians is well that's in the

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Old Testament why do I need to study that because it's about Christ how could it be about Christ he's not mentioned and so this is the other scandal of it there's an entire school of theological thought that really is bristling against this idea of biblical typology they sit there and go it can't be about Jesus unless the

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Bible explicitly says it's about Jesus well Jesus says all of the scriptures are written about me that's in John 5 so I'm just going to go with it's all about Jesus so you know it's that silly

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Sunday school answer you ask your Sunday school kids what is the story about it's about Jesus right correct it's about Jesus the story of Rahab it's about Jesus the story of the fall of Jericho it's about Jesus all of this stuff is about Jesus and Jesus himself if you're not clear about it he keeps showing up all over the

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Old Testament what's he doing there he's all over the place in the

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Old Testament right another type and shadow at least worth looking at in this regard and this is totally just going to seem off track but it's just so good is the type and shadow as it relates to our prayers and let me find this let me see

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I think it's Genesis 32 no let me find it real quick Russell ok yeah it is 32

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Genesis 32 alright so Genesis 32 so since we've been talking about Jacob Yaakov in Hebrew heel grabber or deceiver what a great name how would you like to be called deceiver

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I mean it's like yeah that's a bad name anyway so if you recall the story

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Isaac marries Rebekah Rebekah is pregnant with twins and these twins are duking it out in utero and she thinks there's something wrong she's walking around all the tussling it's bizarre what's going on so she goes to find out to hear from the

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Lord to get a word from the Lord as to what's going on and she hears a prophecy and the prophecy is that she has twins and that the older will serve the younger

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God himself specifically says that which means that God's basically saying

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I know here on planet earth at this time in the ancient world the oldest son gets everything the youngest son gets practically nothing but God says

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I don't care about that the older is going to serve the younger the younger is going to be the one who has the blessing who has the promise and it's through the younger son that Jesus comes and so his name because he was born second but he was hanging on to his brother so out comes his brother

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Esau who's red and hairy and out then comes Jacob and he's hanging on to his brother's heel so he gets the name

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Jacob heel grabber or deceiver and so that goes but there's a fight then between Isaac and Rebekah because Rebekah favors

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Jacob Isaac favors his firstborn son Esau and so you got this back and forth and Esau God has rejected him and so that's where the story then of Jacob deceiving his father by wearing his brother's clothes receives the blessing and as soon as Esau hears what

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Jacob had done how he had stolen his blessing the way he's comforting himself is by harboring thoughts of murdering his brother and so his mother and his mother and his father say yeah you need to go visit

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Uncle Laban and get out of town because your brother wants to kill you and we can't exactly blame him and so this is where Jacob he leaves he heads up to where their relatives are he heads back to visit

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Uncle Laban and he falls in love with Rachel who's the younger daughter and Leah it says of her she has weak eyes which is just a polite way of saying that when you look at her your eyes go wobbly and you do this kind of thing she's not easy to look at alright and so he ends up with two wives two concubines twelve sons and then the

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Lord says time for you to head back this is Roseboro Reader's Digest version of this now before I get to that what?

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so you mentioned a bit about the idea of double predestination can you talk about like did

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Esau not have faith? Esau is an impetuous man who makes rash decisions and he is not spoken of in a way where he has faith but even before they had done anything

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God had chosen Jacob to be the primary because it was through him that the

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Messiah comes so when we talk about God rejecting Esau and choosing Jacob even before they had done anything we have to talk about that not in relation to the

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Calvinistic categories of like double predestination like he predestined Esau to hell that's not it at all the predestination here is in relation to who then would be the one through whom the

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Messiah would come and you're going to note that Jacob is not a minor character in the

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Old Testament he is a major character in the Old Testament he is like up there with Abraham I mean

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Abraham is written more about than Jacob is but Jacob has a huge role to play and we'll talk then about how his name is changed but I wouldn't go so far as to say that that's not supporting what's going on there but why why would he pick

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Jacob over Esau because he's God I guess

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I'm asking is there something that that conveys is that pointing to something so you've got to remember this that that God does choose

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God does predestine God does elect I mean this is exactly what Ephesians 1 says we do not deny that but why he does

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I have no clue in fact the Lutheran response to those who would try to speculate and answer that question we say that you are not permitted to climb the ladder into heaven and peek at the deus nidus you're not allowed to peek at the naked

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God we are not privy to the decisions the discussion and the counsel that occurs within the one true

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God between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit alright so I don't know why if the scripture don't tell me why

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I don't know why I don't know why he picked Jacob over Esau I don't know but I just know that God did even before they were born so yeah alright now let's take a look then at Genesis 32 kind of working out some more of this this is so fascinating um so Jacob is told by God go back go back to Canaan and as he's traveling back word is coming back to him regarding his brother and here's what it says in Genesis 32 verse 6 messengers returned to Jacob saying we came to your brother

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Esau he's coming to meet you and there are 400 men with him and it's at this point you know all the blood leaves his face you know what so he's doing what

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God told him to do return first order of business is now we got to deal with Esau who wanted to murder him and now he's got 400 men with him so Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed that makes sense so he divided the people who were with him and the flocks and the herds and the camels into two camps thinking well if Esau comes to one camp and attacks it then the camp that is left will escape so Jacob said oh

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God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac oh

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Yahweh who said to me return to your country and to your kindred that I may do good to you so notice what he's doing here and this is again teaching us how to pray you take

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God's words and you pray them back to him when you see a disparity between what

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God's word says and what's happening in your life you go back to the word and then you take that word and you go

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God you said why is this happening you said this and this is happening over here this is a good way to pray right

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I am not worthy of the least of all of the deeds of steadfast love and all the faithfulness that you've shown to your servant for with only my staff

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I crossed this Jordan now I've become two camps please deliver me from the hand of my brother from the hand of Esau for I fear him

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I fear him that he may come and attack me the mothers with the children serious anxiety serious fear legitimate fear legitimate anxiety what does it mean to have a

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God Luther says regarding the first commandment God is the one whom we turn to in our distress in our need so who does

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Jacob turn to in his time of distress, fear, anxiety, need right back to God he prays back to him what

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God has told him and then he notice he doesn't decree and declare I decree and declare that Esau and all of his 400 men that they are going to turn into mushrooms nothing like this right it's nonsense he humbly please deliver me but you said and watch what he does here again you said

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I will surely do good and make your offspring as the sand of the sea which cannot be numbered for a multitude so he reminds him back twice in this great prayer what

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God had said know your Bibles read your Bibles and see a disparity between what you're living and experiencing and what

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God's word says you take God's word you pray it back to him and you say Lord you said these things and this is what's happening please hear me do otherwise you cannot lie so he stayed there that night and from what he had with him he took a present for his brother

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Esau so he prays and then he gets busy and so his thinking is well

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Esau is coming to kill me man he's got 400 men he's going to come kill me so he decided he's going to take things in his own hands a little bit so he's going to butter up his brother just a little bit see if he can take his simmering anger and bring it down so he stayed there that night and so he took 200 female goats 20 male goats 200 ewes and 20 rams this is just a portion of his flock

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I mean Jacob is clearly very wealthy 30 milking camels and their calves 40 cows 10 bulls 20 female donkeys 10 male donkeys these he handed over to his servants every drove by itself and he said to his servants pass on ahead of me and put a space between drove and drove he instructed the first when

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Esau my brother meets you and asks you to whom do you belong and where are you going and those who are ahead of you then you shall say well they belong to your servant

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Jacob and they are a present sent to my lord Esau and moreover he is behind us he likewise instructed the second and the third and all who followed the droves you shall say the same thing to Esau when you find him and you shall say moreover your servant

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Jacob is behind us for he thought I may appease him with the present that goes ahead of me and afterwards

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I shall see his face perhaps he will accept me so the present passed on ahead of him and he himself stayed that night in the camp now the same night he rose took his two wives his two female servants his 11 children crossed the fort of the

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Jabbok he took them and sent them across the stream and everything else that he had and Jacob was left alone and listen to this a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day and we know from what comes up next the person he is wrestling with is

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God let me be more specific the person he is wrestling with is Jesus now we know how this is supposed to go right over here in this side of the ring in this corner we have

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Jesus Christ the Alpha and the Omega the beginning and the end the first and the last the creator of the universe who spoke the universe into existence in 6 days he's the reigning heavyweight champion of the universe and over here we have

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Jacob we'll pray for you brother right 10 rounds of unregulated mixed martial arts wrestling ding ding ding ding ding go for it right we know how this is supposed to go

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Jacob's gonna get pinned destroyed by Jesus in about .4

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seconds that's how this is supposed to go and the story should read at this point thus perished

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Jacob they found nothing of him afterwards except for one burnt whisker from his beard right that's how this is supposed to go but that's not how this story goes and this is a picture of prayer because remember all of this is preceded by prayer and so now we're gonna see what a real picture of prayer looks like in the types and shadows so the man so the man wrestled with Jacob until the breaking of the day this went on all night when the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob he touched his hip socket and Jacob's hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him he flat out cheated and then he said listen to this

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Jacob said let the man said let me go the day is broken Jacob says I will not let you go unless you bless me this thing went on all night and Jacob's not letting him go uh uh no way

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I'm not letting you go unless you bless me so the man said what's your name he said

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Yaakov he said your name shall no longer be Yaakov but Israel he who wrestles with God now

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I want you to think about this we all every one of us whether or not we're

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Gentile, Jewish Norwegian, Polish name your nationality doesn't matter

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Chinese, Japanese doesn't matter all of us in Christ we have been what?

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grafted into Israel you are

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Israel you are the one who now wrestles with God you are you're now in the ring you're now wrestling with God this is a picture of prayer your name will be

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Israel for you've striven with God and with men and listen to this and you've prevailed what?

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he beat Jesus? yeah I want you to think

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I want to throw something else into the mix here when we pray the Lord's prayer first words our father boom boom oh no it's the pirate right so you come out here

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I'm going to get you and he runs and then he decides he's going to stand his ground and then you have a sword fight and what happens?

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of course there's no way a 6 year old is going to beat a 50 something year old grandpa but what he does he takes his sword and he thrusts it at you and you go oh

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God me I'm dead right okay that's what this wrestling match is about and so the idea here is that we come to our father who art in heaven and he wants to wrestle with us he wants you to wrestle with him in prayer and this wrestling now let's take the small kid analogy let's bring it up a little a few age brackets teenager dad can

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I have the car okay you want what?

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I need the car for tonight oh Lord have mercy right the only worse words than dad

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I'd like to borrow the car tonight are dad I'm getting married okay that's the only in magnitude worst words okay and then your and your first inclination on this account is you know

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I don't know and so your son makes the case dad all my homework is done you took a look at my grades you know

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I'm getting good grades I'm not slacking off here's where I'm going here's where I'm going to be here's who I'm going to be with you sit there and go yeah you're right you prevailed here are the keys right this is

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God so when things are not going well in your life suffering you're afraid you're in need you come to your heavenly father and you say we need to talk you said dad this and this is what's happening and you wrestle with it let me give you another example another woman with great faith let me find it real quick it's in our gospel text that's in the gospel of Matthew here we go

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Matthew 15 listen to this woman and her wrestling with God starting at verse 21

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Jesus went away from there and withdrew to the district of Tyre and Sidon so he's in pagan territory there's no

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Jews really there this is all Gentiles so behold a Canaanite woman from that region came out and was crying have mercy on me oh lord son of David my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon you know what that's called that's called a prayer if I've ever heard a prayer that's a prayer and she even by invoking

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Christ as oh lord she even has a pretty good

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Christology and she has a sneaking suspicion more than that she actually has faith that Jesus is

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God and so she's praying crying out to him have mercy on me oh lord son of David my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon but he did not answer her a word have any of you all prayed lord have mercy help do you not care hello silence nothing how long is this going to go on God hello do you hear me have mercy on me my life is going down the toilet it's spinning around it's about to go through the trap fish me out lord don't you care right nothing silence what's going on here so his disciples came and begged him saying send her away send her away she's crying out after us

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Jesus isn't answering her this woman won't be quiet I would argue she's wrestling she's wrestling with Christ here so he answered

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I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel be gone but she came she just wouldn't take no for an answer so she came and she knelt before him this sounds a lot like a prayer and she looks at him saying lord help me who does this woman think she is she's a pagan

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Canaanite how dare you tell the lord to help you right so Jesus rebuffs her again listen it's not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs

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I always like to point this out if this happened today CNN and Fox News that would be their lead story

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Jesus calls Canaanite woman a dog I mean what would the hashtag be on that one

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I mean the internet yeah hashtag hashtag not all dogs I don't know this is just scandalous and here's the thing on the surface it looks like a complete slap in this woman's face how can

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Jesus be so cruel but she doesn't hear a slap in the face she hears an actual promise this is what faith does so now she has the ability to catch

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Jesus in his own words oh you say I'm a dog yes guess what

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Jesus dogs have rights and I want my doggy rights bow wow wow kippie yay kippie yay

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I'm a dog here so here's what she says yes lord and even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table mmm mmm mmm

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I'm a dog yeah so give me my crumbs Jesus and so Jesus answered oh woman great is your faith how great was her faith she wrestled with Jesus and at every attempt on his part to not be caught by her she stayed in the ring and she caught him in his own words and he says be it done for you as you desire and her daughter was healed instantly good stuff so in other words follow prayer no but her persistence yeah as far as to get him to bless you right exactly

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I mean this is it's the same story it's the same story but that doesn't mean we can change

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Jesus mind I mean we can't resist you'd be surprised when you talk about it says over and again scripture

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God listened to the voice of Israel God listened and heeded his words