Book of Genesis - Ch. 32, Vs. 1-32 (03/11/2001)

Chapter 32, And Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him.

Probably in a vision, when we become knowledgeable of a saved condition in Christ, we come not so much into his presence as we become aware of a multitude of angelic hosts that surround us here on earth.

In Hebrews 1 .14 it says, And are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?

So we have their ministry even before we know we're saved. Two, And when

Jacob saw them, he said, This is God's host. And he called the name of that place

Mahanim, meaning two companies. Jacob sent messenger before him to Esau his brother unto the land of Seir, the country of Edom.

Now, what was the last words that we heard Esau say? Russell?

That's right. So, all of these years, that's what's been ringing in his head,

I'm going to kill you. And he commanded them saying,

Thus shall you speak unto my lord Esau. Thy servant

Jacob saith thus, I have sojourned with Laban, stayed there until now, and I have oxen, asses, flocks, men's servants, women's servants,

I have sent to tell my lord that I might find grace in his eyes.

What is it he's trying to do? Trying to what?

What? That's right. The first thing

Jacob wants Esau to know is that he's so rich he's not even going to demand his birthright.

But that was the normal greeting of that day, that was just little l, little l, not large.

That's like saying sir. And the messengers returned to Jacob saying,

We came to thy brother Esau, and also he cometh to meet thee with four hundred men.

Now, they didn't go all the way to Esau. They talked to arise some place and they saw him, and that he was coming with four hundred men.

Now, this just reinforces the idea that Jacob has, that he's going to come to kill me.

Now, you talk about being frightened, and Jacob's heart hit a rock bottom.

He knows that zero, Esau, is on his way to carry out his old threat.

Well, guilty conscience has no need of prodding. Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed and divided the people that was with him in flocks and herds and the camels and into two bands, and he said,

If Esau come to the one company and smite it, then the other company which is left shall escape.

Now, comes the first recorded prayer in the Bible, before we get to it, when, how many of you used an old pump that you had to work the handle?

Well, two or three of you. The water pours out at the first stroke, doesn't it?

Then you all lived with a dry well. If the well's full, it'll come out with the first stroke.

If it isn't full, you have to prime it. You can get water, but you have to prime the pump.

You ever primed a pump, Greg? Now, that's a lot like prayer.

Do you see the connection? If you're used to praying, it comes easy, quick.

But if you have to prime it and pump and pump and pump before you get to prayer, prayer is not eloquence, but earnestness.

Not the definition of helplessness, but the feeling of it. No figure of speech, but compunction of the soul.

And Jacob said, O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, the

Lord which hast done to me, return unto thy country and to thy kindred, and I will deal well with thee.

I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth which thou hast shown unto thy servant.

For with my staff I passed over this Jordan, and now I am become two bands.

Deliver me, I pray thee, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau. For I fear him, lest he will come and strike me and the mother with the children.

And thou saidest, I will surely do thee good and make thy seed as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for a multitude.

So he's reminding God of what he said. He's reminding God of what he has.

Relativity or adversity and prosperity comes to light as we walk with Jacob.

Prayer is the best resource of the heart, and that knoll, not merely of the lip, is what

God looks upon with favor. If you have never experienced the danger of being drowned, how do you know what it feels like to not be drowned?

The people in paradise would tell you that purgatory was an awful place.

The people in hell would say that purgatory was a beautiful place. And he lodged there that same night, and took of that which came to his hand a present, for Esau his brother.

Now we have a list. 200 she -goats, 20 he -goats, 200 ewes and 20 rams, 30 milk camels and their colts, 40 kine and 10 bulls, 20 she -asses and 10 foals.

And he delivered them into the hands of his servants, every drove by themselves.

They were divided up into sections, and said unto his servants,

Pass over before me, and put a space betwixt drove and drove.

So you can get the picture for sure. He has a drove going out, let's say 25 she -goats and a couple he -goats, and they go.

Then he put a space, and then the next group went. Then he put a space, and the next group went.

And it went like this until all of that amount had been given.

Now, they were stretched out by a quarter of a mile at least in between.

Thou shalt say, and he commanded the foremost, saying,

When Esau my brother meet thee, and ask thee, saying, Whose art thou, and where there goest thou, and whose are these before thee?

Thou shalt say, They be thy servant Jacob's. It is a present sent unto my lord

Esau, and, behold, also he is behind us. Each group, as they met him, would end by saying,

He is behind us, he is behind us, he is behind us. And so commanded he the second and the third, and all that followed the drove, saying,

On this matter shalt thou speak unto Esau, when you find him. And say ye moreover,

Behold, thy servant Jacob is behind us. For he saith,

I will appease him with the present that goeth before me, and afterward I will see his face.

Peradventure he will accept me. He has nothing on his mind except being accepted by Esau.

It's one thing to know how to give, but it's another thing to know how to keep.

To give to God is a fine thing, but to know how to give is just as important.

Let me give you an example. If I was to offer to you, sometime when you're hungry, not right now, but Virgil, if I was to bring in a steak and potatoes and gravy and hot rolls and top it all off with a fine dessert, that would be pretty good, wouldn't it?

What if I present that entire thing to you on a garbage can lid?

You said it. So it's just as important how we give as what we give.

So went the present over before him, and himself lodged that night in the company.

And he arose up that night, and took his two wives, two women servants, his eleven sons, and passed over the four jibok.

And he took them and sent them over the brook, and sent over that he had.

And Jacob was left alone, and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of day.

Jacob is all alone on the far side, or near side, of this little creek,

Jibok. There's two wrestling matches, physical and spiritual.

The reason for this was to reduce Jacob to a sense of nothingness. The Lord comes to us in the dark night of our life, and stays until the sun rises in the morning.

Prayer amongst most men, among most men, is designed to change the person to whom we pray.

But prayer to God does not change him. Rather, it fits us to receive that for which we have prayed.

Prayer is the work of God's Spirit in us, therefore it cannot be in vain. 25.

And when he, Jesus, saw that he, Jesus, prevailed not against him,

Jacob, he, Jesus, touched the hollow of his,

Jacob's, thigh, and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint as he wrestled with him.

And he, Jesus, said, Let me, Jesus, go, for the day breaketh.

And he, Jacob, said, I, Jacob, will not let thee,

Jesus, go, except thou, Jesus, bless me. Now I have put in the two names to help you keep it straight.

And he said unto him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob. And he said,

Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel. For as a prince hast thou powereth

God, and with men, and hast prevailed. And Jacob asked him and said,

Tell me, I pray thee, thy name. And he said,

Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name? And he blessed him there.

Jacob called the name of the place Penel, for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.

And as he passed over Penel, the sun rose upon him, and he halted upon his thigh.

Greg, what does halted mean? All right, he limped.

Therefore the children of Israel eat not of the sinew which shrank, which is upon the hollow of the thigh unto this day, because they touched the hollow of Jacob's thigh in the sinew that shrank.

It's one thing to be blessed of God, but quite another to live in the power of that blessing.

Any questions? Well, let's stand and we'll be just.

Yes. One question. The name changed, Israel. Is he called

Israel from then on? Yes. That's God's name. That's why he was going to be the father of the nation.

That's right. All right. Let's stand.