God's Camp

Well, I can certainly say it's it's good to be back.

I don't know that it was good to be back a few days ago Leaving the Florida climate, but it's

certainly good to be back among the Saints this morning here a couple weeks

ago as we Worked our way through Genesis 31.

We're reminded that God had called Jacob to leave the land of

Haran to leave Laban and his influence and his shadow and to return to the

land the land of his own family the land of his inheritance to return to Canaan.

Jacob had spent 20 years under the shadow of Laban weathering the storm.

He was not led by blessing nor by trial to depart.

He was only led by God's Word by God's command to depart.

And now.

Of course he didn't depart in the best way as we saw but now having been delivered from Laban in the shadow

of the pile.

Of Gilead.

He is returning to Canaan.

But as we begin chapter 32 we find our protagonist our twisting Protagonist jumping out of

the boiling pot of his encounter with Laban into the frying pan of an inevitable

Face -down with his brother Esau for 20 years.

There's been this seething murder plot as far as Jacob knows.

And so we're gonna begin chapter 32 this morning.

We're gonna look at the first 21 verses in five parts five parts

Jacob's path secondly Jacob's panic.

Third Jacob's prayer.

Fourth Jacob's present and lastly Jacob's peace.

So path panic prayer present peace.

That'll get us through verse 21 first Jacob's path we read Jacob went on his

way and the angels of God met him.

When Jacob saw them he said this is God's camp and he called the name of that place

Mahanaim.

First notice in verse 1 the text says Jacob went on his way.

Of course, we know that this is really not Jacob's way.

This is God's way for Jacob all along.

This has been God's path leading him not only to Bethel and on to Haran.

But now out of Haran and back toward Bethel back into the promised land itself.

So Jacob is on his way and because of God's work in Jacob's life Jacob is also on

God's way all along.

If we've been reading carefully We've seen God's work evident in Jacob's life.

Step by step, however small and sprouting it may be God's guiding hand has been

evident.

Now if Jacob had somehow lost sight of the fact that God was guiding him if he had what we

call Christian amnesia where we are quick to forget God's blessings and revelations and

we're quick to write in cement as Spurgeon would say All of our trials and woes if

he somehow had forgotten that it was God's command that he leave Laban.

Or if he had even forgotten that divine intervention that spared him when Laban and his band of

thugs Confronted him he would have found God's guidance here in verses 1

2 with this angelic reception Jacob went on his way

and the angels of God met him.

Now this phrase is significant the angels of God as a phrase.

It only occurs here and back in chapter 28 verse 12

so we have bookended his Departure from Bethel where he had encountered God when

he was leaving the promised land and now after 20 years He encounters the angels of

God again as he returns toward the promised land and so Jacob's vision of

these angels is a marker almost a signal of the fact that Jacob is walking in God's

will that he is entering into his inheritance.

And also we can see something even more intimate in terms of God's interaction with Jacob.

He knows how weak Jacob's faith is.

He knows that part of the reason he stayed under the the wretch Laban and the

treachery of Laban's dealings with him is because of the fear he had for his wild hunter of a

brother Esau and so as he takes these weak steps of faith back toward the land

back toward this inevitable showdown with Esau God sends his ministering angels

to reinforce his strength.

To comfort him and give him a sense of resolve.

You may persevere in this very difficult way.

I am with you Jacob.

Remember the promise I made to you at Bethel that I would be with you that I would Protect you

and bless you that I would be your God.

Well here I am Jacob.

We see the truth of Hebrews 1 14, don't we?

The writer of the Hebrews says are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those who will inherit

salvation.

We read Genesis 32 and we say yes.

Yes, they are.

They are ministering spirits.

God sends them forth to minister to those who will inherit salvation.

It's exactly how these angels are working in the life of Jacob.

And that's exactly how angels work in our life.

Now that strikes you as something strange.

I think that says a lot more about our views of the divine realm of spirituality and our

Christian faith.

Perhaps more than it does about the text.

I Remember having an assignment some years ago in a course to write a sort of confession of faith.

It was sort of like a 30 -page confession of faith and you had to hit all the big issues in systematic theology.

And I didn't have too many red marks.

Thank the Lord, but I did have one on the very last page, which was you never addressed

Angelology, you never dealt with angels.

Don't you know angels are in the Bible?

Don't you know that part of God's revelation includes?

Descriptions of angels and angelic activity.

So why didn't you address it?

And I realized it's because they have no function in my worldview.

That's a problem because they have a function in God's worldview.

They have a function in the world that God has made in the lives of his people.

Are they not ministering spirits that God sends forth to minister to us?

Yes, they are.

Angels are present even now to minister to us and notice this is in the plural.

This is angels.

This is not a you get one angel.

Well, I want a different angel.

No, this is the angel you get.

No, this is angels.

We read of the the routing of the Assyrians by night when?

185 ,000 soldiers are killed by the passing shadow of one of these angels.

He really only does need one angel.

But God is so generous.

So.

Omnipotent.

Give him more than one.

Give him a whole host.

If you go back to the Targums of the rabbis They say well a host that which dwells within the

Shekinah glory is never less than 60 ,000.

How they arrive at that number who knows.

So they say here at two camps.

This is a doubling.

This must be upwards of 120 ,000.

I Don't know if we can go by that.

We'll just say it was more than one.

Angels of God.

But knowing even the power of one of these messengers sent on Task by the Lord ought to say

something of what God is trying to help Jacob understand.

Those that are with you those that you cannot see Jacob are far more than those that you think will come

to get you.

Angels are present to minister to God's people in Less than evident ways, but no less real

ways.

We may not see them as as they meet with Jacob.

But nevertheless God has so ordered his world and ordered his people's lives that they are ministering spirits.

Which he sends forth to minister to us.

Significantly when we approach Genesis 32 We realize just like Jesus wilderness

trial when he endured the temptations of the enemy.

At the very end of that trial after 40 days of deprivation 40 nights of weariness.

We read that the angels of God ministered to him and.

So even as these angels ministered to Jesus after his trial in the wilderness

We see these same angels ministering to Jacob as he's about to approach his trial and we can take

this as a theological Pointer.

Angels are not sent to prevent God's trials.

Not for Jacob not for Jesus not for us.

Angels are not sent to prevent God's trials, but rather to minister to those that

God is trying.

Though we cannot see the activity.

Being so weak in the flesh so slow of heart to believe so stubborn so imperceptive.

The reality is the same in the life of the Christian.

Angels for Jacob are like a chapter division quite literally they mark out this great episode.

That's about to unravel in chapter 32.

God wants Jacob to know how much he cares for him.

It's it's psalm 91 embedded within Genesis 32.

He has so commanded his angels that harm will not come to you Jacob.

So take up faith take up courage gird yourself like a man.

God is with you.

The God of Bethel is with you.

You're in God's camp.

And that's what Jacob confesses, isn't it in verse 2 this is God's camp.

Maha, Nayeem, that's a Hebrew noun.

Hebrew is interesting.

You don't just have singular or plural nouns like in English.

You also have a dual form and this is a dual form.

So it's it's a double camp and he says this is not just my camp.

This is God's camp.

And so the angels are marking out for Jacob that he's in the right place at the right time.

He's where God intends for him to be as painful and as fear -inducing as it may be.

Jacob is on the right path.

This is God's camp indeed.

And as David could report in psalm 34 It's what Jacob could say this poor man cried out the

Lord heard him.

Saved him out of all of his troubles the angel of the Lord and camps all around those who fear

him.

The term camp here is not camp manad knock.

Right.

It's not summer camp.

It's not Recreational in the Hebrew here.

It's it's often used to be the staging area the encampment for some military

Endeavor and so the forces assemble and they camp before some battle before

some Engagement.

This is the staging area.

It's also used as a as you would expect it even here a staging area for the next leg of a

long journey.

But significantly as we'll see not only this week.

But next week.

Maha Naim is also God's staging area in the life of Jacob.

God's staging area for the culmination of the deep work.

He's been doing for 20 years God's Military encampment for

the Battle of Faith that's about to unfold.

Now in God's camp for Jacob and for us in God's camp.

There's a lot of unknowns.

There's a lot of unanswered questions, there's a lot of unresolved issues there's attention.

There's a lot of heartache.

There's a lot of concern, but it's still God's camp.

You you may not have Angelic visitors telling you that you're in the right place at the right time.

But don't take your circumstances of the adversity or the trial you're facing to somehow mean that you're

outside of God's will.

The trial in fact shows that you are in God's camp you are in the staging area for the work

that God is doing in your life and.

For Jacob though, it's been in the back of his mind.

Perhaps deep down in the layers of his conscience.

He knows that there's a 20 year old debt that remains unpaid and he's about to pay it in

full.

Genesis 32 beginning in verse 3 Jacob sends messengers before him to Esau his

brother in the land of seer the country of Edom and He commanded them saying speak thus to my lord Esau.

That's your servant.

Jacob says I have dwelt with Laban and stayed there until now.

I have oxen donkeys flocks male female servants.

I've sent to tell my lord so that I may find favor in your sight.

So.

We have Jacob approaching the land and now he's sending messengers to deal with this

unpaid debt.

This unresolved issue with Esau and we find Esau in the mountains of seer.

John Gill 17th century Commentator.

He reminds us that the land of seer Takes its name from seer of the whole right.

Esau married into that family.

And so he's sort of taking his possession that which belongs to him now by marital right and

He gives it the name Edom.

That is Moses gives it the name Edom.

I don't know that it was called Edom initially until after Esau had taken possession of it.

So we read for instance in Deuteronomy 2 verse 12 the Horites.

All right.

These would be the the people that descend from seer the Horite.

The Horites formerly dwelt in seer but the descendants of Esau Dispossessed them

and destroyed them and dwelt in their place.

So this is what Esau has been doing for 20 years.

You know, he's been taken domain.

He's been dispossessing the sons of seer.

He's been kicking them out and setting up his own inheritance in the land that becomes Edom.

Edom.

Being a play on his name Esau.

And we asked the question why Why didn't Esau just stay in Canaan for 20 years?

He could have basically recovered his inheritance in Canaan.

He could have stayed under the influence of his father Isaac but as Calvin says

In order to pass his life free from authority Esau chose to live in a state of separation from

Isaac.

He disregarded the inheritance still and.

He left it by God's will.

For his brother.

So in God's providence Esau has no interest in Canaan no interest in his father Isaac's

household.

Even though he could somehow fight for that and grapple for that.

He's already abandoned it.

He has still no concern no interest for that spiritual lineage of Abraham.

He's off in the mountains of seer Dispossessing the whore rights and this is part of God's providence.

Calvin says Jacob's coming to an empty homestead he can claim it now much more readily and

Clearly we see God's providence in this.

Not only do we see God Invisibly as it were Guiding Esau away from

Canaan away from the inheritance of Jacob we also see God guiding Jacob toward

Canaan and Significantly Jacob does not take the easiest path back

to Canaan.

Geographically if you're returning from Haran and you're taking this long journey Southward and where we're

going after Penuel is Bethel.

Well, then you just need to stop kind of in the northern part of the promised land, but he's going far

south out toward Edom.

He's taking a much longer route around the promised land well beyond Bethel in order to

address his brother Esau.

And so you can see there's no reason that Jacob would go past the promised land Southward towards seer

unless he was attempting to deal with Esau his greatest fear the biggest threat out of hand and

Derek Kidner points out this very sequence is in fulfillment of Matthew 5.

Remember what the Lord Jesus said there that you cannot go to bring your offerings to the altar of God when you

remember that your Brother has something against you leave the offerings go address your brother and having

reconciled with him.

Then go bring your offering to God.

Well Jacob as it were is being led by God into Canaan when he gets to

Canaan.

He's gonna build altars and he's gonna worship God.

He's gonna bring gifts of sacrifice to his God.

But on the way there he remembers my brother has something against me and so he does not enter.

He does not build the altar.

He goes to reconcile with his brother Before he comes to worship the Lord in Canaan.

This is kingdom ethics in the life of Jacob.

Something we have not seen very often 20 years before

this when he was fleeing with nothing but a staff in his hand Esau had sworn to murder

him.

But look at Jacob now.

Not only is it go well beyond Bethel to reach out to Esau.

He doesn't reach out to Esau in a belligerent way.

Doesn't say hey, it's me.

The one that dad said would inherit everything.

I just want you to know how much I have going for me and I'm sorry if that means any no, what does he say?

Your servant Jacob.

My Lord.

Esau.

This is not the twister we saw 20 years ago before

Jacob had fled.

He was Lording it over Esau doing whatever he could to pinch and squeeze the birthright

and the blessing into his own hands.

But now.

The one who it was prophesied that his elder would call him Lord is saying no.

No, no, my elder brother is my Lord and I'm his servant.

Once more there's kingdom ethics here.

Remember in Matthew 20 the sons of thunder the sons of Zebedee.

It doesn't say in the text, but it has to be this way.

They put their poor old mom up to going to Jesus and saying can you please give my boys the best of the

best in The kingdom.

Can't they sit on your right in your left?

You know, hey mom, come on, you know do us a solid go up to Jesus and ask this for us.

And of course when this comes out of the hat Jesus addresses that it almost shows the fact that he knew it was

from them and not from their poor old mother.

Are you able to drink the cup that I'm to drink?

Yeah, we're able.

You don't even know what you're talking about.

And then it all opens up to the other ten and now there's this division in the group.

And so Jesus calls them all over to himself.

He says you know that the rulers of the Gentiles Lord it over them and Those who are great

exercise authority over them not so among you.

Whoever desires to become great among you.

Let him be your servant.

Let him be your slave.

Whoever desires to be first among you.

Let him be your slave.

This is what Jacob's essentially doing.

He will become greater than Esau.

He will become Lord over his elder brother.

But as a result of 20 years of God's patient work of grace in his life.

He comes to his brother not lording it over him, but saying.

I'm your slave You're my Lord.

Command as you will.

That God's Word may be true in my life.

That I might be first and preeminent over you.

I will be your servant and.

More than this you remember.

It's a reversal of what Isaac's blessing was though.

He thought at the time he was giving it to Esau.

Truly indeed Jacob shall be blessed and the blessing was that the elder would serve the younger.

But as a result of God's grace the younger seeks to serve the older and so as a result of

God's work in Jacob's life He's he's preparing to give the blessing back to Esau.

Now that's not really up to him indeed.

He shall be blessed.

Isaac says God's Word will stand true.

But as far as Jacob is concerned whatever I can give whatever I can do to undo the

damage and manipulation that I've done I'm willing to do it.

You're my Lord and I'm your servant.

Let's get back to how it was meant to be.

As much as that depends upon me.

If it's not obvious here that he's seeking as it were to give back the blessing.

We'll see it later on.

I'll make mention of how Jacob refers to his president.

Chapter 33.

Jacob is now subservient.

Not manipulating for the edge.

There's no spirit of Laban within him.

Jacob has been humbled.

God has untwisted him.

I.

Jacob lists the abundance that God has given him his flocks his cattle his servants, but he doesn't do it to boast.

He says I want you to know while I was so journeying under Laban.

I want you to know that I've been blessed and I want to find favor in your sight.

He's like I want to pay reparations.

I want to give you tribute.

I Want to say I'm sorry that I've wronged you.

I want to bless you.

I want there to be peace between us.

I've sent to tell my Lord so that I can find favor in your sight.

This is not the Jacob we knew 20 years ago.

Well, the messengers go out beginning in verse 6.

And when they return to Jacob, they say we came to your brother Esau.

You can imagine Jacob hanging on every syllable that's coming out of their mouths.

What did he say?

They can't get it out fast enough.

He's coming to meet you.

This is good.

This is good and 400 men are with him.

Not good.

We read verse 7.

Jacob was greatly afraid.

This is soul fear.

He was distressed.

And he takes immediate action.

Evasive action.

He divides his people divides his whole possession into two he

sets up as it were a Subterfuge a sacrificial

camp.

Hopefully, they'll only attack one and the rest of us can escape while they're in the middle of hacking apart this other

false camp.

And he says verse 8 if Esau comes to the one company and attacks it the other company which is left will escape.

Which company do you think Jacob's gonna be in when that report comes back.

Esau's coming for you?

400 men are coming for you.

Esau's imagination goes to the worst.

You don't assemble 400 men unless you usually have less than noble purposes.

This is Esau's militia for all.

For all we can understand their intent is to destroy him and and Esau's not just content to deal

with Jacob.

He's raised up 400 men to destroy everything that belongs to Jacob.

Remember in Genesis 14 how when that battle between the five kings and the four kings began to

rage and then lot was Taken as part of the captive train of Keter lay Omer how

Abraham raised up 318 men.

318 that then Defeated the king.

Keter lay Omer's armies for armies.

He completely gutted them out.

They were exhausted from all the battle.

And so with 318 men, he decimated their forces and rescued lot.

Well Esau has even more than that.

What kind of damage could he do?

400 men.

And so what does Jacob do he panics.

This is the panic of Jacob.

When Laban confronted Jacob and he had a force that was up to no good

God so intervened that Jacob had courage and he rebuked Laban to his face.

And I think he had that courage because he knew not only that God was intervening that God was protecting but also

that he was in the right and.

So there was a courage that came from that conviction that righteousness he could rebuke forthrightly

Laban to his face, but He's not on the right with Esau.

Part of Jacob's panic is isn't this is what I deserve.

Isn't this justice.

The fact that he didn't have this righteousness toward his brother.

It took away his courage and even the angels of God that met him at Mahana.

He they they didn't take away this panic.

Esau is coming to kill him.

He's convinced of it.

Remember how Rebecca when she sent Jacob away.

She said it will just last a few days and when your brother's rage is subsided.

I will send for you to return.

And that was 20 years ago Rebecca never sent.

As far as Jacob knows his brother's been plotting his murder for 20 years.

And now the time has come.

It's the reckoning.

This is the showdown.

Esau is about to exact his revenge.

It's unavoidable.

I was watching a video.

This was some time ago of Of a state trooper and it showed the whole dash cam.

There were calls coming in.

It was I forget what part of the country it was in.

That a a driver presumably drunk was going in excess of 80 miles an hour the wrong way

on a four -lane highway.

And so without hesitation the state trooper pulled off on the exit got on to the highway ahead of

where this driver was coming and Parked as best as he could in the middle of those lanes trying to take up as much as

possible.

And he knew at any moment as these lights beamed across the horizon at 80 miles an hour.

He was about to get slammed.

It was unavoidable.

There was no dodging it there was no time to get out of the door.

There was no time to do anything but park and wait for about three seconds.

How do you prepare for something like that?

Jacob is Bracing for impact.

The headlights of Esau's rage are screaming toward him 400 men behind him.

How do you brace for something like that?

Well Jacob gives into that panic.

He's filled with fear of the prospect of what Esau will do not only to him.

But to the mother to the children to everything that he has he's gonna be decimated.

Now that fear in and of itself that fear is not the problem.

You're not human if you don't have fear in this circumstance, right?

Fear is not the problem.

So many Commentators and preachers fault Jacob for being fearful.

He shouldn't have been afraid.

Did he not see the angels?

He shouldn't have been afraid.

It's like are you kidding me?

Yes, he should have been afraid.

Who would it be afraid?

Jesus greatly feared in the garden of Gethsemane.

He sweat drops of blood.

Fear is not a lack of faith.

Fear in itself is not sinful.

The problem is what the fear led him to do.

I love what Calvin says on this.

They who fancy that faith is exempt from all fear.

You know pure faith has no fear within it.

Have never experienced the true nature of faith.

Faith in the midst of fear.

That's true faith.

Calvin is saying God does not promise that he'll be present with us in order to

remove us from danger.

He promises that he'll be present with us in the midst of danger that he'll preserve our faith.

So that despair and terror will not overwhelm us.

That doesn't mean it won't feel like you're treading water.

Doesn't mean you'll have some sense that it's all gonna work out splendidly.

And again the fear in and of itself is not the problem here.

It's what the fear causes Jacob to do.

We sense that he loses that trust he loses that faith in God's protection as soon as his first reaction

is to say, okay.

What can we do about this situation?

Let's split up the camp.

This camps gonna have to be the camp that everyone gets killed.

But at least if that's starting to happen, we can all run for it.

You just get the sense.

No.

No Jacob.

This is not the way you should be thinking.

This should not be your first Jacob.

You're going back to your old ways.

Fearing the worst he splits his whole group in half and when he divided his camp

in half He was prepared to lose half of his livelihood.

He was prepared to lose half of his God -given abundance.

He was prepared to lose half of the loving relationships that he enjoyed.

And when he made that decision, he lost half of his trust in God's protection.

I think we can say Jacob should have trusted God to protect all that he had.

It would have been a fearful thing no matter what.

But he could have said here we stand we can do no other.

You know, so help us God.

This is my camp.

This is my abundance from God and I I had to trust that God will protect it.

And that God will protect us.

I think we have a misstep here genuinely a Stumble a backslide into old ways, and I

feel more confirmed in that because of what remains in the chapter.

Apparently Jacob's gonna need even more of an encounter not just with God's angels, but with

God himself.

There's more contending and untwisting that God is going to have to do before Jacob goes over

the yabbak.

But in the meantime, we can say this God's patient work has not been wasted.

And in what happens beginning in verse 9, it's as if that weak trembling fearful foot

recollects.

And cautiously goes out and and takes another step forward.

He sort of recovers his balance.

He he's like Peter sinking in the Galilean waters.

He prays.

Panic gave itself over to the old paths, but but then there's a recovery and this is the fruit of

God's grace, too.

He almost catches himself.

And he prays.

Jacob said Oh God of my father Abraham God of my father Isaac the Lord who said to me

Return to your country and to your family.

I will deal well with you.

I'm not worthy of the least of all the mercies and of all the truth, which you have shown your servant.

I crossed over this Jordan with my staff and now I've become two companies.

Deliver me.

I pray from the hand of my brother from the hand of Esau.

I fear him lest he come and attack me.

And the mother with the children for you said I Will surely treat you.

Well I'll make your descendants like the sand of the sea which cannot be numbered for

multitude.

Jacob's panic gives way to Jacob's prayer and just look at the anatomy of this prayer.

He begins by invoking God.

Oh.

God and Notice it's not just with the name God.

It's not just with who God is but he invokes God also on the basis of what God has

done.

Oh God of my father Abraham the God of my father Isaac in other words

the God who has been faithful to his covenant a Covenant of which I am standing in

and then he brings that covenantal faithfulness from his grandfather to his father.

Right down to himself the Lord who said to me.

Return to your country and to your family.

Well, here I am.

I'm back in the country.

Here I am.

I'm back with my family.

And you said you'd deal well with me.

So he's recounting God's promises to him here.

The reference returned to your country into your family.

I will deal well with you here.

This is the promise that we just read in chapter 31 the promise at the end of the 20

years.

But when he recounts God's faithfulness, it's not done in this attitude of merit.

It's not done as though God coldly is obligated to Jacob.

As he begins to recount the promise that God had given him the promise that he's been shakily.

But genuinely walking after by faith.

Begins to melt his heart into humility.

Verse 10.

I'm not worthy.

I love that.

It's not this blame.

Oh God of my father and my grandfather and you said to me return to your country.

How could you let this happen?

400 men are after me now.

This is ridiculous.

I should have met.

No, what does he do?

He recounts the promises and he says.

That's like taking a huge step out of the situation and just saying Everything that has happened to me up to this

point.

I have not been worthy of I Have been worthy of the least of your mercies.

He's like that incessant widow that keeps begging the judge.

And now that Jacob has addressed God's account God's faithfulness God's goodness.

He begins to recount his own journey.

We begin as it were going from the end the promise of 31 and now we're gonna end up kind of

retrograding all the way back toward Bethel.

I Crossed over this Jordan with my staff When I

fled From my brother 20 years ago.

All I had was a walking stick and Here I am again 20 years later and look at

I have four wives.

I Have sons and daughters.

I have flocks and cattle.

You have blessed me.

I ran away with nothing you brought me back with everything.

And then we find that thankfulness Turns over to the

plea how interesting that he first addresses God.

Then he addresses God not just in terms of who God is.

But what God has done then he recounts the faithfulness of God and as he recounts that

he humbles himself and confesses Where he has been and what God has done in his life and it's not until he

gets that Thankfulness up toward the Lord in his prayer that he turns to the plea brothers and sisters.

How often do we just go?

Oh God plea.

Oh God plea.

Rather than taking the time to say The God of my father's

The God who has blessed me the God who's been patient with me a servant who deserves nothing and has

been given everything.

Until we tune our hearts by his grace to be thankful.

We should not enter into the plea even though he's panicked.

He's cognizant of the fact that he must praise God and thank God before he asked God to intervene.

And when he asked God to intervene look at his heart deliver me.

I pray From the hand of my brother from the hand of Esau and now he becomes boldly honest.

He's not hiding his genuine feelings toward toward God.

Even though God knows him knows his frame knows his heart knows how he feels.

He he just puts it out there.

I'm afraid I.

Fear him.

Yeah, I know I was big stuff when I dragged that wellstone off to impress the ladies, but I'm afraid

of my brother.

He's to put me in a headlock and never let me go until I cried uncle.

He's a wild hunter of a man.

I'm afraid of him.

Lest he come and attack me not just me lest he kills My

wives and my children.

And then how does he end his prayer at the conclusion of this?

He once more returns to the very promise of God.

Which shows that he will not allow his mind to circle over this dilemma.

He will not let his thoughts which they naturally want to do Go round and round in orbit

around the crisis and around the fear.

He forces his mind in his heart to put his thoughts in orbit around God's promises.

So he's not recounting his fears so much as confessing them.

But what he is recounting Continuously are the promises of God you said

I will surely treat you.

Well and make your descendants like the sand of the sea which cannot be numbered for their multitude.

He's in this precarious vulnerable position and yet by grasping on even by feeble

fingers the promises of God he's given peace and.

So though his prayer is filled with this genuine expression of fear.

Even when he recounts the promises this is meant to bring a salve to assuage his fear.

He's essentially saying don't let my descendants be killed.

Don't let my infant sons be dashed by my vengeful brother.

I'm afraid Lord.

I can't stand against him.

I can't withstand his anger.

Don't let my seed be cut off from the earth.

In fact, you promised that my seed would go on to bless the earth.

Remember Lord what you promised and he's essentially saying remember.

Oh my soul what the Lord has promised.

And so when he says the promise of the seed he's now Recounting the promise of chapter

28.

He began his prayer at the end of 20 years.

But in the midst of the prayer, he went all the way back to 20 years before.

Between verses 9 and 12 Jacob is encompassing two decades of God's work in his life.

The grace of God's work between Bethel and Haran and here he is on his way back to Bethel.

And in his prayers this echo of God's promise at Bethel reinforcing the weak man of faith.

The rehearsal of God's promises in orbit in his mind helping this feeble disciple who at this very

moment is saying Lord I believe but help my unbelief.

And we have not only the echo of Bethel's promise but here in the language of the seed the echo of

Abraham's promise and therefore the echo of God's Unchanging

unfailing covenantal faithfulness.

You can fear Jacob.

You can fear Isaac.

You can fear Abraham.

But God is faithful and what more could grip us

in the panic of our trials brothers and sisters.

Then rehearsing the promises of God laying hold of them even by feeble hands.

Letting them orbit in our minds until we're recounting more the promises of God than we are our own fears.

What more could steal your resolve to plant that next trembling foot to make sure that you will not

run away.

You will not leave Mahana.

I mean you will not go back to the pile of Gilead, but you will stay.

You will face by faith.

Whatever is coming your way 400 men in all and so we have here a

paradigm for Faithful prayer in the midst of trial.

We'll come back to that at the very end of the message we go from prayer now

to Jacob's present.

We read beginning in verse 13.

He launched there that same night took what came to his hand as a present for Esau his brother.

200 female goats.

20 male goats.

200 ewes and 20 rams.

30 milk camels.

With their colts.

40 cows and 10 bulls.

20 female donkeys and 10 foals.

I don't know if one of those foals was a Tennessee Walker, but might have been.

Then he delivered them to the hand of his servants every drove by itself and said to his servants

Passover before me put some distance between these successive droves.

And he commanded the first servant saying when Esau my brother meets you and asked you saying to whom do you belong?

Where are you going?

Whose are these in front of you then you shall say they are your servant Jacob's.

It is a present Sent to my Lord Esau and behold.

He also is behind us the present here in Hebrew.

Later in chapter 43.

It's translated as tribute.

Earlier all the way back in chapter 4.

It's translated as offering.

It's that which is brought to the Lord as tribute as a present on the altar.

But Jacob in His own recounting not in Moses words, but in his own

recounting in chapter 33 Jacob calls it the blessing the

blessing.

And this is why again, I say Jacob is prepared to restore the blessing to Esau.

Now that's not God's will.

Indeed Jacob shall be blessed, but he's so humbled by the grace of God.

He's as it were found the true inheritance of Abraham that he's prepared to

return.

Whatever physical gain there has been to Esau Esau.

Is this the blessing you expected you can have it so he commanded the second

and the third and all who follow the drove saying in this manner you shall speak to Esau when you Find him and also

say behold.

Your servant Jacob is behind us.

For he said I will appease him with the present that goes before me and afterward I will see his face perhaps he will accept me.

Again, we see this humility of Jacob's language the way he regards himself as a servant the way he regards Esau

as Lord.

The droves of this elaborate gift that wave after wave are meant to break down any

remnant hostility between Esau and him and Then as the cherry on the top of this great

elaborate gift is Jacob himself.

Just when he's admiring the milk camels here comes another gift.

It's just like one of those Russian dolls.

There's just more and more and more but the servant also says Jacob is behind all this you like this there's more coming and

Jacob's at the very end of this and hopefully he whatever bitterness and Resentment and murderous intent

by the time all these cattle's and servants keep coming.

It's just been worn down and he says oh, this is more than I could ever want.

How can I hold this against you Jacob?

That's the plan?

Jacob will be at the end of this train.

I Love what one said it might have been our Kent Hughes for the first time in his life.

Jacob wanted to be last.

So life he wanted to be first now.

He's at the end of the train for good reason wouldn't want to be first on this occasion.

There's all this wordplay.

Which is so easy to miss between verses 20 and 21.

The Hebrew idiom of face is used in many different ways and there's sort of a poetic usage here.

We're gonna see it again next week in the remnant of chapter 32 if we were to read verses 20 and

21.

Literally not translating the idioms, but reading it literally it would go something like this.

I will see his face with the present that goes before me and afterward I will see his

face.

Perhaps he will lift up my face and so the gift passed over upon his face.

That would be a literal rendering and you get already this Little key that this word

face is going to be very significant intent for next week.

Afterward I will see his face.

Perhaps he will accept me.

Perhaps he will lift up my face.

Perhaps he will forgive me.

That's Jacob's heart.

From the thieving manipulator who could care less about his relationship with Esau.

What damage could be done to it.

He just wanted the blessing whatever Esau had.

That's what Jacob wanted.

Whatever damage that would cause who cares.

He has no regard for Esau, but now look at him.

Esau could have everything.

I Just want him to forgive me.

I.

Want us to have peace.

I Want to atone for the wrong that I've done.

That's the result of 20 years of God untwisting the twister

and it it leads not only to Jacob's present Jacob's prayer, but Lastly

Jacob's peace Doesn't say he has peace.

In fact, I'm quite sure he didn't have much peace that night.

But I digress verse 21.

So the present went on over before him, but he himself lodged that night in the camp.

This is going to be a long night.

The narrative all along has been building the tension of this encounter.

Part of our problem when we read the Bible is it's a little too familiar to us and we forget what it's like to read the story for the first

time.

If We could forget how the story ends. We would start to feel some of the tension that

Jacob is feeling now.

As far as Jacob knows this night could be his last.

He's in this camp.

And he's not leaving and it could cost him everything.

He could wake up the next day to 400 men brutally tearing apart everything that God had given him over these

20 years.

And then even himself he could watch his sons dashed his wives torn his cattle slaughtered.

It's gonna be a long night.

He's praying and we get the sense that it wasn't a one -time prayer.

You can imagine he's recounting these promises pleading with God confessing his fear.

This camp could cost him everything.

It could ruin him.

But he stayed he stays.

He.

Lodges himself we read he lodges himself in God's

camp.

Because even though it's a place of great terror, even though it's a place of great pain, even though he's filled with anxiety.

He knows that it's God's place.

And if it's God's place Then he'll stay by faith and he'll wait on the Lord.

It's God's camp.

And so we leave our passage here.

We leave Jacob at verse 21.

Looking through the flapping door of his tenant perhaps staring restlessly up in the swirling stars of the night sky.

Knowing what God had promised and wondering how are you gonna fulfill it?

Like Abraham all those years before was looking up at the night sky looking at the starlight and saying God I know what

you promised.

Pondering yet trusting fearful.

Sweaty forehead a lot of rolling around on the pillow and yet he stays.

Three applications as we close first.

Redemption involves relationships.

Redemption involves relationships.

We see that so clearly in The life cycle of Jacob redemption involves

relationships.

God will not let Jacob go.

Until he's dealt with the wrong between him and Esau.

According to Titus 2 14 one of the reasons that Christ gave himself for us who

believe is to redeem us from Lawlessness, that is we're to be redeemed

from a state of lawlessness.

By Christ's death into a state of lawfulness.

We're to come to the law of liberty and the law is not only concerned with a

redeemed reconciled love toward God.

But also a redeemed and reconciled love toward neighbor.

We remember the first and greatest commandment, of course is to love God and Christ's

death.

So affects us that we're reconciled to God's love.

We're reconciled by God's love.

We're able to make peace with God because God has made peace with us through Christ.

But do not forget that the second commandment is also like it.

And that is to love neighbor and Therefore Jacob must be reconciled to Esau.

In so far as it depends upon him.

And I say that as a caveat only here because I don't want to lose the significance of the point.

I realize Sometimes reconciliation is not up to us.

Reconciliation is a two -way street Loving neighbor is a two -way street in so far as it

depends upon us.

We are accountable to God.

And if I can speak frankly brothers and sisters.

It's usually a little bit farther than we want it to be when we say in so far as it depends

upon us.

I've done what I can.

Have you really?

Have you really?

The law is not only concerned with a redeemed and reconciled love for God, but also a redeemed and

reconciled love for neighbor.

Jacob must be reconciled to Esau.

Paul must be reconciled to Mark.

Euodia must be reconciled to Syntyche.

This is God's will.

This is God's will for the neighbor.

This is God's will for the neighbor.

Why?

God wants to show to despisers and blasphemers and enemies Something of his

forgiveness through our forgiveness.

Those who are blind and at enmity against God Rarely see anything of God's blessing or

patience or forgiveness in their lives but we become a tangible signpost a tangible

deposit some Semblance of what the patience and forgiveness of God looks like

and so this is God's will for our neighbor.

This is the kindness that God would have them experience.

Something of his patience his long -suffering his unfailing compassion.

Christians are commanded not to let the Sun set on their anger.

It's a sad thing when Christians let years set on their anger.

It's unchristian.

It's not only God's will for the neighbor.

It's also God's will for us.

Redemption involves relationships because God is doing this untwisting work in our lives, too.

And this untwisting work of sanctification does not occur in a vacuum.

We need relationships to grow in holiness and.

And.

Often God will use both positive and negative relationships to grow us in holiness.

We need both.

We don't just need the sweet.

We need the sour.

Imagine if Jacob had stolen the blessing deceived his father manipulated and rested his way and

got everything he want and.

Then everything 20 years ago after that moment with Esau fuming and his his father

deceived.

And everything after that went swimmingly well.

What you know as the English thing went perfect?

Jacob never had to leave at all.

Esau was fuming but then he just said I'm out of here and he went down to eat him.

He got over it.

Maybe who cares.

Jacob had everything he wanted.

His flocks began to overflow.

Wives came along somehow and here he is sitting for 20 years.

He lied and stole and cheated.

Yeah, but hey at least in the end I made it if God let him

Function in that way how little Jacob would know about God.

How little Jacob would know about himself.

How paper -thin if at all would Jacob sense of God's blessing and presence become how

shallow and immature?

Would Jacob's life be filled with unchecked sins?

Unreconciled relationships.

But as Hardest Ron may be as unnerving as Mahana II may be

God Appoints labans and Esau's as much as Leia's and Rachel's.

In other words bad and good relationships difficult and blessed relationships.

For the growth of his people so that they will know him and knowing him they will know something of themselves.

And they will see his presence and his blessings and they will begin to live a life by faith and a life of

righteousness.

And like Jacob they'll begin to undo the damage.

And find redemption not only in themselves towards God but redemption in their relationships.

Redemption involves relationships.

Secondly.

We see here in this chapter that molds require pressure.

Molds require pressure.

I used to work at a plastic factory as some of you know for about seven years and it was

a Several machine rooms with these giant hydraulic pluses plastic injection molding

machines.

You'd have these massive steel plates.

But these machines hydraulically would pull apart usually five six or seven different plates and they would under

Tremendous pressure tens of thousands of pounds of pressure.

They would be pressed together while hot plastic was hydraulically injected into the mold and that pressure Got that

plastic to fully encompass the mold and when those plates opened and the piece dropped out you had a fully

formed plastic mold that had conformed fully to the mold that was set in if

You somehow lost pressure from the injection.

What you would pull out of the machine was a mist formed Misshapen and therefore

useless product the corners would look like melting jello.

It wasn't anything you could sell or even salvage we ground it up and threw it away.

I'm sorry for you environmentalist.

That's how it was done it where I worked.

Mahanaim is God's camp and it's a place of tremendous pressure for Jacob.

There's the pressure of an unknown future in the promised land.

He had something going from for 20 years, but this is a whole new direction in his life.

And he doesn't know what will come of it.

There's the pressure of an unknown threat from a vengeful brother who's steaming toward him with 400 men.

There's pressure in Mahanaim, but this is God's camp and he's staying.

And so it is with the work of grace in a believer's life.

The Lord brings us to these places to his camps and.

There's pressure and.

The overwhelming steel plates of trials and Relationships and

troubles and heartaches they press on our lives and

Then God gives us this pressure.

So that will be molded and fully formed by his grace.

And without that pressure without that tension without that trial We would be left

misformed misshapen useless.

But when God presses these things into our lives and there's this pressure it causes us to fill out

every contour of the life of Christ who is our example.

We become molded in to conformity to Christ by pressure.

Molds require pressure.

Third and last application.

Prayer brings peace when you're being pressed by those plates of trial.

When you're being panicked like Jacob was panicked we need to take a lesson from Jacob's playbook.

Prayer brings peace.

When you're facing the pressure of God's camp in your life.

You remember what Jacob does between verses 9 and 12 as I said.

We have a paradigm for faithful prayer in the midst of trial and really I see four major

movements here first confession of God second confession of self.

Third Thanksgiving and fourth a plea.

Now in each of these four points you also want to include the fact that God's

promises are being orbited around.

In behind before around every one of these four movements confession of God.

Not only who he is but what he has done.

So there's a rehearsal of God's promises of God's past.

Second confession of self.

Letting those promises begin to frame your humility you you take stock of where was I where am I now?

How did I get here?

What has God been to me?

What has God done for me?

So you're rehearsing not only what God has done but more specifically what God has done for you how God has

dealt with you.

Third that leads to Thanksgiving and Thanksgiving you're talking about your walk

before this current place this current camp in Thanksgiving.

You say this is what you have been have done have promised everything before this

point.

Taking mind to God's faithfulness.

That's Thanksgiving.

But then comes the plea and now you're praying about this point this camp and you're being boldly honest

about your fears.

Devastatingly honest about your needs.

This is how I feel.

This is what I need.

I don't know if this is coming across pies.

This is just how I feel.

Lord help me.

But even there.

You don't allow that plea to take over the prayer.

You quickly let that plea give way to another rehearsal of God's promises.

And so you move from confessing God and yourself Thanksgiving and pleading but interwoven between these movements

is a rehearsal of God's faithfulness.

When you pray like this, you will have peace.

It may be a long night.

But you'll be staying in God's camp you're not going anywhere.

Beloved Spurgeon said I say to you one and all study much the promises of God

have them at your fingers ends.

Remember what God has said.

It's kind of the beauty of Jacob's prayers and he's like remember Lord what you said.

Remember Lord what you said.

And he's really speaking to himself.

Remember Jacob what God said.

Remember Jacob what God said and that's how it is with the Christian.

We're pleading the promises of God not as though God has forgotten them.

But as though we are quick to forget them and so we're stealing up our faith in the promises of God.

Be anxious for nothing.

When you're in God's camp in everything by prayer and supplication make your request known to God with Thanksgiving.

This piece of God which surpasses all Understanding it will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

In our passage one thing that stands out to me is this repetition between verse 13 and 21.

It comes right off the heels of prayer.

Jacob's resolve.

He doesn't run.

He doesn't hide.

He doesn't scheme.

He just waits.

He's just waiting on the Lord.

He's not moving.

He's not doing anything else.

He's not digging ditches and sharpening spears like William Wallace.

He's just waiting and so we have it doubled for emphasis verse 13.

He lodged there that same night.

Verse 21 he himself lodged that night in.

He's in the camp.

He's gonna face Esau head -on.

Perhaps there's anxiety that's pressing out prayers in your life this morning.

Forehead sweat rolling on the pillows by night.

But I think as a Christian you have access to the same persevering piece of Jacob.

It's not a comfortable piece.

It's not a piece that makes you feel like you're on a bed of daisies and there's nothing but blissful sunshine ahead of you.

But it is a piece from God That transcends surpasses your understanding of the

present crisis the pressure of the trial.

It's a piece that causes you to stay not easy it's a hard

-fought hard -won peace, but the peace causes you to persevere and that

prayer brings peace and.

So when we're like Jacob considering what is unknown about the trial that's yet to face us our uncertain

future the difficulties that we're beginning.

To experience the difficulties that are rushing toward us on this narrow and thorny way.

We're like Jacob in God's camp and in God's camp.

We rehearse like Jacob God's faithfulness.

God's goodness, even when we're bringing our fears and our pleas before him because in

prayer.

We ascend that staircase of Bethel.

We come to the throne room of the infinite one infinite and wisdom infinite and goodness infinite

and That's how prayer brings peace.

With that let's pray and I'll read as our prayer.

The words from Isaiah 26 beginning in verse 3.

Oh Lord, you keep him in perfect.

Peace whose mind is stayed on you because he trusts in you.

Trust in the Lord forever.

The Lord God is an everlasting rock.

He has humbled the inhabitants of the height the lofty city.

He lays it low.

He lays it to the ground.

He casts it to the dust the foot tramples it the feet of the poor the

steps of the needy.

The path of the righteous is level you make level the way of the righteous in

The path of your judgment.

So Lord we wait for you.

We wait for you your name.

Your remembrance is the desire of our soul.

Now is our time for interaction.

I.

Thank the Lord man, thank you for your encouragement brother.

It's good to be back.

I Enjoy Burke Parsons very much, but would rather be here.

It seems they're given such short thrift to the angels.

Jacob comes upon the angels and says oh hi and then just moves on with an area.

Yeah, it seems that way.

Yeah.

Like does this happen often.

Take.

Or just what was the purpose of the The camp of the angels.

Were it was there something else going on?

Or was it just to minister to Jacob and encourage him on his way like a halfway point in a

marathon.

Yeah, I think that I think that's exactly right.

The significance of the phrase only throughout the whole entire Old Testament.

Not just Genesis.

Only 28 and Here in 32.

Do we find that exact phrase?

Of course, we see angels all over the place, but this phrase is unique and so I think that's a way Moses

is signaling the significance of Jacob's exile and Return being marked by angelic

presence if we take that all the way back to the Garden of Eden Adams exile being marked

by angelic presence and So now we have the promised land as it were and think of Israel's

history Moses writing through the Exodus the promised land being bordered

as it were by the angels the promised land now taking on the Mantle of

Eden God's Edenic presence and the temple that will be built built within it.

So I think there's a ton of significance about the travel of Jacob and these cross points.

When he encounters the angels of God

and I too would like to know what they said.

Probably something like fear not you worm Jacob.

Just curious that Jacob arranged this elaborate parade of all of his

possessions to you know sort of humble himself before Esau, but I

Think you know, he probably did that out of fear.

Yes, but you wonder how the Lord would have handled it.

Had he not done that, you know, yeah, he saw hot -blooded and everything.

Like I just wondered it would have been interesting to see how the Lord would have made it work.

Yes on that.

Yeah, I think you're exactly right.

You know, he's he's fearful and he's trying to assuage his brother the way he speaks of it.

He's trying to return or make reparations for what he's done, which shows his humility and his desire for there to be

reconciliation.

But it's also he's trying to break down any hostility and here I don't necessarily fault him for that.

You know.

There's Solomonic wisdom in a gift pacifying anger.

A secret gifts pacifying anger.

So I think there's something to be said about perhaps the cleverness of Jacob not just in saying I'll just give him a ton of

cattle but sort of sending these waves like that first wave might not do much.

And by the time he gets through it those memories gonna come flooding back.

And so send a second wave.

Even that probably won't send a third.

It's like he's really stretching that out and then at the end like coming out of the cake.

Is it for good or ill that you're glaring at me.

And to appreciate I think the fact that he stays should be the biggest takeaway.

Jacob 20 years ago.

He would have he would have been a fugitive again.

Jacob stays in God's camp and I think that more than anything tells us about the growth of grace in his life.

But we're not done the chapter yet, and there's more work to do before Jacob is

named Israel.

And also I think you know As rough as Esau was maybe he actually saw that

okay, you know my brother realized he screwed up and You know and he's older now.

They're both older.

So, you know, you know how it is when you're younger.

You're a lot more hot -blooded you get older.

Maybe you you mellow out a little bit and yeah, he probably realized, you know okay, Jake knows he screwed

up, but Maybe he's changed and he might have been amused a little bit by the whole thing too.

I think.

Yeah, amen.

Just to add to that what was just said I think that's a good point that we can take from this or at least

Keep in mind and apply in how we look at the passages that When we pray to the Lord and trust in him that doesn't

manifest itself and sitting on our hands, right?

You know, I think we see that all through the scriptures that that Someone who is actually trusting in the Lord

will take action in faith.

Yes, there's just a huge difference between taking action trusting in your own owns smartness

or strength and Taking action trusting in the Lord, but trusting in the Lord is not defined as doing nothing

and waiting for.

You're just waiting for the angels to come and deliver you.

Amen, that's an important point.

So I and and I so I agree with you I would not fault Jacob for for doing what he he he

feasibly could to assuage his His brother's anger I as long as he's doing that with

trust in the Lord, amen.

And he doesn't run and put goat hair on his wives.

Pretend you're foreigners.

So that's growth there.

I think we like you're saying brother.

We need to follow Cromwell's dictum Pray to the Lord and keep the powder dry.

Do what you can while you're trusting in the Lord.

Because God uses means.

The Instruction or the encouragement to just memorize God's promises and how

you know that's such a that'd be such a great source of comfort to be able to meditate on.

And and I was thinking of the Psalms when you were talking about how Jacob kind of kept going back to God's promises because you see that

pattern in the Psalms too, you know when I believe David is crying out to the Lord and

Asking for help and everything but he continues he always closes it with you know.

Just kind of a recollection of what God has done and you know who God is and his promises and things like that.

So you can tell it was a source of comfort to him as well, you know, so when you kind of see that pattern again, it's.

It's not just like that was David's style of writing.

Yeah, you know, there's something there, right?

Yeah.

You know when you're in the camp so to speak when you're in trial.

Something's gonna be orbiting in your mind.

And you know.

If you're not thinking wisely and spiritually what's going to be orbiting around your mind and thoughts and saturating your

prayers is your fear and.

And I so I think the one of the big takeaways from how Jacob's praying is that he doesn't allow that to happen.

He forcefully puts in orbit God's promises and lets that saturate his prayer.

So he has more to say about God and God's faithfulness and God's promises than he does to say about his fear.

When he reports his fear, it's very simple and it's almost just to kind of get that out there and then go back to the promise.

That's so instructive for us.

When we think about prayer and then as Paul says with Thanksgiving.

That's how we need to make that request.

Jacob does that.

Jacob has kingdom ethics shining through these verses and it's it's not a

coincidence, right?

This is what God's grace looks like in the lives of his people in their prayers and their desires for

forgiveness and The steps they take to trust him when it's difficult.

I'll just say that as I as we've gone through these chapters in Genesis and looking at the life of

Jacob Ross I can see why you're looking so forward to getting to Jacob.

Just.

How he receives the counsel of God and his promises and and where he would.

Look, we're acting and we all do this but look we're acting on your own

experience with your flesh and your circumstances and

Situations that you're in whether at your at work or whatever just acting on that alone where that gets you.

And you see where Jacob's life was headed.

If it wasn't for the Lord intervening and and him him wanting his counsel and

wanting to know him.

Right, and you see it in the life of Esau.

I mean Esau conquered a land.

I mean, I'm sure Esau thought his life is going great.

From his experiences what he's doing learn to live by the flesh fight by the

flesh.

He has his own little promised land.

Yeah, he really does and I'm sure he thought things were great and

even has this experience with Jacob where this reconciliation he can walk back to see her and

Just feel good about himself.

And I'm not trying to say this.

There's not this he knows he's sinning in.

Doesn't know that he's sinning, but he certainly should feel conviction of the way he leaves.

But we can easily fool ourselves and the only difference is is is the Lord.

It is really the Lord and looking to his promises.

And what do we have?

We all make this mistake.

We revert back to our knowledge our experience, which is important and Oftentimes without going

to what are God's promises, which is his word.

Which is you know, I mean he he spoke his promises right to Jacob.

Jacob didn't have his his word written down.

I may have written them down, but he didn't have it.

You know, we have his scripture and oftentimes once we experience things and do well, it's so

easily to set it aside and Jacob did well in learning that no.

No his life was a life of he learned to believe in God's promises.

We and I need to do the same thing.

We need to do the same thing.

And so we won't live a life like He saw Grateful for as much as

he said his God's mercy and his truth and he doesn't deserve it his.

Not to take any of the either of those things for granted God's mercy and his truth.

Often I think Christians we look to take his mercy not for granted and we end up just this

unbridled kind of love and Whatever with no truth, right?

He speaks of his mercy and his truth.

Yeah.

Mercy without truth is let's just go to Bethel and save this for another day and that other day is

perpetual.

But mercy and truth is no, let's keep going south.

I've got to deal with this and then when the going gets hard and it doesn't go as he initially hoped he

stays and.

To your point with Esau Esau for 20 years has been dispossessing the Horites.

He hasn't been sending messengers to find Jacob.

He doesn't come and send, you know gets to Jay.

Jacob is the one who seeks out Esau.

I think that's saying something about the work of grace in Jacob's life.