Genesis 32 Jacob's Struggles

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Pastor John and Pastor Jeff teach the book of Genesis

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Amen. Heavenly Father, thank you so much that we can open the book of Genesis, this book of beginnings,
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Lord. It sets the foundation for our entire lives. Help us to hear your word and learn from the example of those about whom you've written.
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Give us wisdom and we pray for John as he brings the word to us, in Jesus' name, amen. What do we know about Jacob?
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Deceiver. Ah, the deceiver, yes he was. What else do we know? Not a hairy guy.
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Unless he puts a toupee on his hands, he's not a hairy guy, yeah. Yes, it is, and we're gonna get to that tonight.
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His name was changed to Isaac. He has an older brother named Esau. Yeah.
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His father was near blind, but he had good sense of smell. His father, yeah.
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Justification versus sanctification. It kind of is under the surface on this chapter 30, 32, if you would.
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Give me a definition of justification. Justice. Somebody didn't finish it.
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Just as if. I'd never have sinned. Just as if I'd never sinned. All right, that's a cool one. Give me a definition of justification.
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Legal forensic declaration of righteousness. That's exactly, yeah. All of these are right.
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Just as if I'd never sinned in a legal declaration. The reality, however, is that in God's sovereignty, he did not relieve us of all the sinful tendencies that we had before we were saved.
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That was his sovereign will, that that did not occur. In fact, we know Paul, that which
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I don't want to do, that's what I do. And as he expresses, even
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Paul, even Paul says, I struggle against the flesh because of this. And so at the moment of justification, we are forensically declared, we are forensically declared innocent, but we still sin, and we know that too.
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John, 1 John, he says he has no sin to seize himself. We do this stuff.
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And so we are looking eventually at a scenario, the golden chain of redemption ends up in glorification,
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I believe, where we who were, as in Ephesians 2, we were dead in our trespasses and sins.
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We are called, we are redeemed, we are justified. And then over here, we are glorified, but the difference of who
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I am here in experiential life is so much different than who
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I eventually will become in glorification, and that's this problem of the flesh that we still battle with.
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Jacob is no different at the end than us. I think that if we take a look at a couple of passages as we get into Genesis 32,
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I think scripture would give indication that he is, in fact, a believer at this point in time.
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Rick, I'm gonna ask if you would get Genesis 28, 16, and 17, and Sandy, these are not a sheet, and Sandy, go to Genesis 32 and give me nine and 10.
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There would have been a point in Jacob's life, early in his life, where he was not a follower of Yahweh.
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That is true of every person born. They are not born followers of Yahweh, and there are, for some people, a very memorable moment when, by the grace of God, our hearts were opened and we perceived, we understood, and we surrendered our lives into the lordship of God.
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And that had to be true for Jacob as well. Give me, if you would, 28, 16, and 17.
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Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, surely the lord is in this place, and I did not know it.
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And he was afraid and said, how awesome is this place. This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.
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So this is the episode after his dream. He sees the ladder, he sees angels ascending and descending, and at the top is the lord, and that,
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I believe, is that aha moment for Jacob when there was no doubt in his mind that Yahweh is
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God and that that would have been it for him. And I kind of take my authority for the fact that he is a believer out of today's chapter.
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Give me nine and 10. Sandy? Jacob said, oh God of my father Abraham and God of my father
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Isaac, oh Lord, you said to me, return to your country and to your relatives, and I will prosper you.
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I am unworthy of all the loving kindness and of all the faithfulness which you have shown me to your servant.
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For with my staff, only I cross this Jordan. Okay, that's good. In that passage, he speaks about Yahweh as the
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God of his father, his forefathers, but then he also mentions him as the lord, as the lord.
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And then he even goes on to confess, I am unworthy. And I see the reality of positionally, he says,
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I must call on God, I'm not worthy of it. And seeing that I don't earn this,
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I don't buy my way into this, it is God who is God.
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Within our lives, there may or may not be that event where you saw, where you did see
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Christ more clearly. And this is even after salvation.
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We're at the point of salvation, our heart is softened by the grace of God, we see, we perceive, we surrender.
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But we don't really, I don't think, not everybody knows everything at the same time. And there are moments where our vision of who
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God is, it's like the curtain is peeled back, and it's like, I know
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I've been a child of God, but this is absolutely awesome. For me, that was
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January of 1972. I accepted the Lord in April of 1970. But I had nobody disciple me for the next almost two years.
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And I know I was a child of God, because going back to my old life, I found no pleasure in it anymore.
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And I believe that that's the Holy Spirit convicting me in a way that he didn't convict me before I was saved.
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But in January of 1972, I heard John Bishop as the speaker at a
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Christian retreat. And I, for the very, very first time, understood what it meant to have not only
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God as my savior, but as the Lord of my life. It's like the curtain was open, and everything changes.
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I'm sure that if you think about it in your life, there are those moments, it could be a time in prayer, it could be a time hearing a pastor speak, but those moments where everything changes.
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Jacob is gonna have one of those amazing moments here in chapter 32.
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Now, what we have seen of Jacob so far has been, he has gone from guidance in chapter 28.
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His father says, I don't want you to marry a woman, a Canaanite woman, go back to the land of your fathers, and he goes back there.
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And in 29, he starts to have this vision, and he starts to have this experiences.
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And then as he goes on, he goes to the well, and well, by accident,
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Rebecca just happens to be there. And then he spends time struggling to earn the right to marry, and he ends up with Leah, who, by the way,
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Jeff, I think we would agree, this is God's chosen wife, because the promise, the seed promise comes through Leah, not through Rachel.
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But through all of this, we get into chapter 31. I enjoyed watching it on video.
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It was not here, but what struggles life gave us.
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Barb, I'm gonna ask if you would get in Genesis 31. This was last week.
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Give me verse 13. And Kanye, I'm gonna ask if you would get verse 42.
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This is out of last week. See, Jacob is gonna be getting into a period of struggle, but he has gone through this amazing journey where he's been given a charge of what he should do.
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He has this vision. He receives all these blessings. Then he experiences conflict, and eventually now, he's going to experience two types of struggles.
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Ultimately, he's going to have a deliverance, which is amazing. Give me, if you would, chapter verse 13 out of 31.
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I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar and where you made a vow to me.
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Now leave this land at once and go back to your native land. He was given direction that what you've accomplished here in Badam Ram has been accomplished.
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I sent you here for a reason, and right now, you have your wife. Now, by the way, you have another wife, and you have two other women, but you have children.
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And by the way, at this point in time, he actually has 12 children. One of them is a daughter, but he has gained wealth, the spotted lambs, all of this kind of stuff.
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And it is now time, God said, it is time to go back to your land. And this is a
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God that has been with him all, all along. And then in verse 42, yeah, verse 42.
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If the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac had not been on my side, surely now he would have sent me away and be banished.
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God saw my affliction and the labor of my hands and redeemed you last night.
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It is so, it's so telling that as we close out verse 31, and I think these chapters are chronological in his life, that he sees the hand of God, even on his life.
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And so he confesses as he's getting ready to, surely the God, the hand of God has been with me.
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Jeff, you're gonna be the Genesis person. Give me the first two verses, please. Jacob went on his way and the angels of God met him.
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And when Jacob saw them, he said, this is God's camp. So he called the name of that place
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Mahanaim. Then we have the presence of God, and God has been ever, ever present with him.
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If you go into Genesis 28, you're gonna hear things like, I am, and I'm with you, and I will be with you.
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You get all of these realities of promises that God has given. And then we get into, we get into Padam Haram, and Genesis 29, we start to read about Rachel and how by accident he was there,
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God was, orchestrating everything. And even as he goes to the house, and Laban, he's already prepared.
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God has already prepared Laban's heart to know that this is going to be the one.
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This is gonna be Jacob who is going to be there. But then we start to see, he's married to Leah.
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He wants to work more. He wants to get married to Rachel. And these women are barren.
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So God remembered, and he came upon Leah, and Leah conceived.
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As we get into chapter 30 and chapter 31, we start to see how it is
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God's provision for all the children that would be. And at the very end, even
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Laban professes, I have seen that God has blessed you. The experience of God has been part of Jacob's heritage.
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Chapter 32, what Jeff just read, is now God -confirmed. Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him.
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When Jacob saw them, he said, this is God's camp. So within Jacob's heart at this moment is this,
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I believe that there is this additional realization. Not only is he now
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God, not only is he the one of my father and my grandfather, but where I am right now, this is
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God's camp. He is going to call that place Mahanaim.
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Anybody know what Mahanaim means? The double camp. It's two camps.
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Now, a couple of things are going to happen in this chapter. There's a lot of play on words. There's a lot of play on expectations, because Jacob is going to experience two types of struggle, and one is gonna be a struggle of the flesh, and the other is gonna be a struggle of the spirits.
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And as we move into this chapter, we start to see, and in between these two, God is going to continue to work in the preparation of Jacob, so that when he gets into the last half of the chapter,
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Jacob is now ready for what God is about to give to him. So Jeff, give me verses three to 21, the struggle of the flesh.
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Now remember, all of the things that we know about Jacob. All right, he is the deceiver, we know that.
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He's not a hairy guy, we know that. All right, fine. But he is a believer in God, and he has seen
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God do some amazing things, the speckled sheep and the goats and all. He has seen him do amazing things in his life already.
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But one of the things that he has realized was that he really got on the bad side of his brother
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Esau. And so there's a lot of fear about his brother Esau. And so on one side is this promise,
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I'm gonna be with you, I will give you, I will make you, all of these promises. But on the other side, my big bad brother, my big bad hairy brother.
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Go ahead and give me if you would. And Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau, his brother, in the land of Seir, the country of Edom, instructing them, you shall say to my lord
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Esau, thus says your servant Jacob, I have sojourned with Laban and stayed until now.
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I have oxen, donkeys, flocks, male servants and female servants. I have sent to tell my lord in order that I may find favor in your sight.
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And the messengers returned to Jacob saying, we came to your brother Esau and he is coming to meet you.
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And there are 400 men with him. Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed.
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He divided the people who were with him and the flocks and herds of camels into two camps, thinking if Esau comes to the one camp and attacks it, then the camp that is left will escape.
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And Jacob said, oh God of my father Abraham and God of my father
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Isaac, oh Lord who said to me, return to your country and to your kindred that I may do you good.
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I am not worthy of the least of all the deeds of steadfast love and all the faithfulness that you have shown to your servant.
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For with only my staff I crossed this Jordan and now I have become two camps. Please deliver me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau for I fear him that he may come and attack me, the mothers with the children.
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But you said, I will surely do you good and make your offspring as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.
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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. 200 female goats and 20 male goats, 200 ewes and 20 rams, 30 milking camels and their calves, 40 cows and 10 bulls, 20 female donkeys and 10 male donkeys.
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These he handed over to his servants, every drove by itself and said to his servants, pass on ahead of me and put a space between drove and drove.
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He instructed the first, when Esau my brother meets you and asks you to whom do you belong?
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Where are you going? And whose are these ahead of you? Then you shall say, they belong to your servant
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Jacob. They are a present sent to my Lord Esau and moreover, he is behind us.
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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.
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And you shall say moreover, your servant Jacob is behind us. For he thought I may appease him with the present that goes ahead of me and afterward,
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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.
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Jacob is a believer in Yahweh. Jacob has seen and experienced him and as he's in the camp, he's recognized this is the camp of the
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Lord. But here is Jacob, perhaps that is an awareness of what he is.
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But I don't think Jacob has yet had that big aha moment where the curtain is passed, opened in front of him and he actually sees the reality of God's power and just totally surrenders to the fact that God is going to protect him, care for him.
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If we look at verses three to five, look at the use of phrases like I am,
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I may, I am. Jacob sent messengers before Esau's brother in the land of Sir.
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Jacob sent them, instructing them, thus you shall say to my Lord Esau, thus says your servant.
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I have sojourned with Laban and stayed until now. I have oxen, donkeys, flocks, male servants and female servants.
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I have sent to tell my Lord in order that I may find favor in your sight.
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There's far too much use of the first person singular in that passage.
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It is still Jacob figuring out that dependence is on him to get through this situation.
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He's faced in a danger. I think it's a real danger. Esau would have a reason to be against him.
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He has stolen his birthright. He has stolen his blessing. He has stolen the favor perhaps of his father and we saw how
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Esau took a wife that maybe would appease his father but there's a reason for him to be afraid but isn't there a reason for him to be confident at the same time?
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But what we have right here is Esau, Jacob saying I have sojourned.
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I have donkeys and I have sent my Lord. There is a reality that Jacob is still self -dependent.
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He's gonna get through this issue by himself. So how does Jacob respond to the fact that he has to take care of business and protect himself?
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How does he respond to that? What's his plan?
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Send gifts. He's gonna get there. That's plan B. Plan A, let's separate the camp.
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Let's divide it in two. Esau can't get us all so let's divide ourselves in two.
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So he comes up with a plan of escape. I don't see anywhere in here, oh
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Lord God, is this the way you want me to go? We're gonna see that in a moment. He still is taking control of matters in his own hands.
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So six through eight, the messengers returned to Jacob saying we've come to your brother
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Esau and he's coming out to meet you. I don't think the implication there is that he's coming out to have a reunion party.
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He's coming out to meet you. He is with 400 men coming out after you.
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So Esau would greatly outnumber his brother Jacob. There would be reason for Jacob to fear for his life.
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In fact, it says Jacob was greatly distressed and afraid. And he actually prays for God to deliver him but he fears him.
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He's about to do that and that's the amazing thing. That's why I think that Jacob is on this journey and God is preparing him for an amazing encounter.
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But at this time, he's afraid. He doesn't see this ending well so he comes up with a plan.
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He's not trusting in God for the deliverance. He comes up with a plan and he says, let's divide everybody into two, put the flocks and the camels and everything into two camps.
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If Esau attacks one, the other one will escape. And this is
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Jacob taking matters into his own hand. How can I get out of this?
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Which now Rick gets us to what you observed. Because what is Jacob after he's done this, what does he do?
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He's trying to play both sides in a sense. By being well supplied and also praying that he'll be delivered.
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You know what, I didn't look at it that way but on one side I can see what you're saying.
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He's gotten at it because we're gonna see that he's not done taking care of it in his own hand.
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But at least at this point in time, somewhere in his mind, somewhere in his heart, somewhere within him, he knows
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I need God. At this moment. There was a,
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I was sharing this with a small group last night. There was a moment in my
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Bible ministry, if you would, about 35 years ago, when leading a small group as we do here,
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I'd gotten to think too much about myself. And the group was flourishing and it seemed like things were going really good.
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And I started to think too much of myself. Until eventually it got down to Sandy and I and one other person.
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And it's the only time I've ever done this. I do pray, I find that this is, this is the only way
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I can get through the day is to be in prayer, it's word and everything else. But on this night, I went into a closet, closed the door, and got down on my hands and knees and wept.
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Until God finally convinced me, this is not your group, this is my group.
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And I think that Jacob is starting to go into that closet. He still is gonna be holding on, but he,
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I think, he's starting to realize what is going on in my life is affecting me, it's affecting my family.
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But if I'm the one who's responsible and accountable for everything, I'm gonna make a mess of it.
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Jacob said, oh God of my father Abraham, and God of my father
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Isaac, oh Lord who said to me, return to your country and to your kindred that I may do you good.
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He is starting to, he's starting to remember these things. I was sent here by my father
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Jacob with a mission to find the wife for the seed blessing.
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I kind of overdid it, but I got that. And now I have
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God who is telling me it's time to go back. He said to me, return to your country and your kindred that I may do you good.
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There is a obstacle between Jacob and reaching this promise of God to go back to the country that I may do you good, and it's called
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Esau at this moment. For me, the obstacle was pride.
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It was my group and I was either, my value was proven by how big and flourishing my group was and what a mess
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I can make of things in that way. But he is saying, I am not worthy of the least of all these deeds of steadfast love and the faithfulness that you have shown to your servant.
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I came with a staff and I crossed Jordan and I've become two camps. To be able to sit back and take account of what
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God has given to him, what God has given to me, to you, and then to realize that this is what
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God has given to me. And if he said, I'm gonna take care of you, then there's hope, and there's hope.
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Now, he's gonna say this now. He's gonna say, please deliver me from the hand of my brother, the hand of Esau.
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I fear him that he may. This is reality setting in on two accounts.
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One is that there is a real reason to be afraid, but there is a real reason to be confident, and that's
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God, because you said to me, I will surely do you good and make your offspring as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.
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If there was a potential for Esau to end Jacob's life in this encounter, then
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God's promise would be void. It would be impotent. But God's promises are never void, and they are never impotent.
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If he has promised, he will accomplish. He knows what he has in store for him.
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And so Esau's prayer for deliverance, I see that there is, he has still got one foot in one camp and one foot in the other camp, but at least he's got one foot in this camp.
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When I was through those two years, almost two years after I became a believer before that retreat in January of 72,
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I had no realization that I could even put one foot in that camp.
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I didn't understand that I could put one foot in that camp. I'm confident that I was a believer because I was miserable doing the things, so miserable that I got ready to take my life because I was so miserable.
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But how sure it is when you get in one of those situations where life has gotten you very, very bad, recognize your foot is so firmly in the camp of the
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Lord. Yes, we still have our foot here on earth. Jesus didn't say, Lord, I pray that you would take them out of this world and take them out of harm's way.
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He said, no, I don't ask that you take them out of the world but that you keep them in the world.
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And so this is where Jacob is right now. But he's not done taking control.
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He still has got now the next plan B, okay? So he stayed there that night from where he had, with him took a present for his brother
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Esau and the list of stuff, that's a lot of stuff that he's about ready to give to his brother.
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And he's going to have servants take them drove by drove, wave by wave and going to him and say, when you meet
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Esau and he says, to whom do you belong? Where are you going? What is all this stuff?
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Say, they belong to my servant Jacob but they are a present for you, my Lord, Esau. And he's behind us.
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And the second and the third like it. Is this a plan B or is this responding to God's need?
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I've read commentaries that are either way. Either this was his continuing of the first plan
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A where he was going to two camps to now he says, I think the best way to do it is to appease him, to get on his good side.
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I've read that it's still him taking control. I've read that it's God influencing him to get on the good side.
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I don't know. Yeah, go ahead. It sounds like a bribe to me rather than a heartfelt apology or attempt to reestablish any relationship or establish any relationship.
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Sounds like Jacob of old, doesn't it? Yeah. The deceiver. Right. It really does.
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So maybe it's Jacob falling back on his old patterns. He's being a hairy one again.
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Yeah, maybe. And I would go along with that. But I will say this, that this is still
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Jacob working the problem. It's still Jacob working the problem.
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That's why this first section, it's back and forth. It's the flesh, it's
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God. It's the flesh. It's back and forth. But this struggle is real. And Jacob now,
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I think, is ready for what's about to happen to him, starting. I've just circled the letter
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I, capital I, first person pronoun. And in those six verses, there are 11 pronouncements of his self.
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Yes. I will, I will, I will. As opposed to the Lord did, the Lord has, and the Lord will. That's a very good observation.
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So now let's see what happens to him as he goes on the other side. Give us 22 to the end.
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The same night he arose and took his two wives, his two female servants and his 11 children, and crossed the ford of the
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Jabbok. He took them and sent them across the stream and everything else that he had.
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And Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day.
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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.
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Then he said, let me go for the day has broken. But Jacob said, I will not let you go unless you bless me.
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And he said to him, what is your name? And he said, Jacob. Then he said, your name shall no longer be called
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Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men and have prevailed.
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Then Jacob asked him, please tell me your name. But he said, why is it that you ask of my name?
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And there he blessed him. So Jacob called the name of that place Peniel, saying, for I have seen
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God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered. The sun rose upon him as he passed
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Penuel, limping because of his hip. Therefore to this day, the people of Israel do not eat the sinew of the thigh that is on the hip socket, because he touched the socket of Jacob's hip on the sinew of the thigh.
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Anybody ever wrestle with God in prayer, in realizing a lifestyle, just wrestling with God?
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This is a wrestling match. Now let's take a look at this first of all. He arose that night with his two wives, his two female servants, his 11 children, crossed 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.
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The river Jabbok would be the entry into the promised land. Oh, by the way, he's just about there.
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And what he is doing was, he is sending everything that he has, everything that has been his, and sending them away.
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Now this is just an oh, by the way, he sends his real wife, his second wife, the two maidservants, all the possessions, and I can't get an explanation for this.
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It said he sent his 11 children, he's got 12. Who's missing from that list, do you think?
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And I don't know why, but Diana's not in that list, because he clearly, at this point in time, has had 11 children.
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There's only one that he hasn't had. So the children are all set, there were really 12 children.
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But he is left alone, and God has, in his sovereignty, placed
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Jacob one -on -one. He's going one -on -one with Jacob, and Jacob is gonna have to go one -on -one with him.
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There are no more distractions, there are no more concerns about anything else around.
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Jacob is now going to be one -on -one with God. And I think that there is a pattern here.
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When you get that moment, I call it an aha moment, where the curtain is pulled back.
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You're already a believer, perhaps, but that curtain is pulled back and you start to see the power of God.
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That's a one -on -one thing. Now it could happen where you're sitting in church and Pastor Jeff is giving a message, and it's deep into your heart.
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But deep into your heart is one -on -one with God. It's not the family, it's not the church, it's not your bestie.
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Having this interaction with God has to be a one -on -one thing, or it doesn't matter.
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Jesus was on the shore talking to his followers, and he said, who do men say that I am?
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What was the response? Yeah, who say that I am?
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That's part two. Hearing all of these professions, some say you're John the Baptist, some say you're
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Elijah, some one of the prophets, and then I really, this is just my sanctified imagination, is
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Jesus walks up to Peter and he's stared at him right in the eyes. Look at the camera,
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John. What about you?
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Who do you say that I am? And that to me, that was a screensaver on my computer for a long time of work.
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What about you? Who do you say that I am? You can talk to friends, relatives.
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We have an amazing church. You can talk to friends, relatives. We have this Bible study.
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You can have all this kind of stuff, but it really comes down to the heart. It comes down to one question. Who do you say that I am? Christ, the
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Son of the living God. Blessed art thou, Simon Bar -Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my
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Father who is in heaven. See, you need to get one -on -one with God, not relying on the support or the encouragement or the responses that your posse is gonna give.
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He's going to be one -on -one. He sends them all away, and he's gonna have a wrestling match.
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Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until the breaking of day.
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And when the man saw he could not prevail against him, he touched his hips.
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This is an amazing event. I do believe that this is a manifestation of God in flesh at this point.
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I don't believe this is an angel. I believe this is a manifestation of God in flesh, and that God in his sovereignty, he could've taken
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Jacob down in a nanosecond, if you would. Yeah, who do you think would win that match?
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And there are wrestling moves attached to that, Jacob's hook and Jacob's ride and so forth, that are actually used in competition.
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I wonder how many of those Jacob used. But they wrestled for hours. They wrestled all night long.
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Jacob needed to be broken down. In a certain level, here you've got
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Jacob, and he has this pride and arrogance that he's all that. He's able to come up with strategic plans.
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It's like, let's divide the camp in two. He still can't get his both. Or let's send one gift after another gift after another gift, and let's make him think that we're really nice.
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He's got all of these plans. But God has gotten him, his foot was in one camp because he prayed, but his foot was still in the other.
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But God has got to get both feet out of the world and into him.
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And so God allows Jacob, all night long, to wrestle and for Jacob to perceive, whoever this dude is,
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I can hold him, I can get my, I can overcome him. And the answer at the end of it is, well, no, you're not.
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And the man said to Jacob, let me go, for the day is broken. And Jacob says, I won't let you go until you bless me.
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There's no indication at this point in time that Jacob knows that he is in the face of the almighty
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God. There's just a dude that he's been wrestling with. And the guy says, what's your name?
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Jacob. And the guy says, well, no more, but your name's going to be Israel. And I would love to see
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Jacob's expression at this next statement. Your name is no longer
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Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men and have prevailed.
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You have striven with God. Jacob says, who are you?
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Please tell me your name. My mind goes back to that burning bush that Moses, who shall
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I say I am that I am? And Jacob, he's starting to get it now because he says, he calls the place
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Peniel, for I have seen God face to face and yet my life has been delivered.
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Jacob's reality of what he has experienced right now I think is complete.
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God has enabled him to go through the stress.
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Are you the first son? Are you the second son? Do you get the blessing? Do you not get the blessing? Mom's saying, do this and fool your dad.
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Get the blessing. Having your brother say, I'm hungry. Sell me your birth.
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He's been gone through all of these things. And then he goes to Pidam, Aram, and he meets
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Rachel and then he meets Laban. But through God's provision and God's sovereignty, he marries
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Leah first. He's still weak in the flesh and he does all of these things and he has a second wife.
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And then he believes his wives when they say, you know, we're not giving you any more children so go into our handmaid.
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And he goes, he has all of these downfalls. And then there's Esau, there's the fear of Esau.
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And the reality that he needs to leave but Laban is irritated at him. So last week's lesson, he gets all of these things going on, but God just takes care.
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And Laban even says, surely God has been with me. So now it's time to leave.
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And he's got this fear of Esau. And now he goes one -on -one and he has a wrestling match.
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And I think the reality of this has been
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God. I have seen
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God face -to -face and yet my life has been delivered. I had no right to be delivered from this.
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But God is amazingly, amazingly compassionate. His life is gonna change.
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He's gonna change because now he's got a limp in the hip, but it's gonna change. Because I think he knows
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God in a way, just before this in chapter 31, I don't think he was ready for it.
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I think as we go through 32, he's ready for it. He prayed to God and submitted to God.
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And God said, I got news for you, dude. Tonight you're gonna have a wrestling match. And at the end of it, you're going to know that you have seen the face of God.
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Chapter 32. Is there another translation for the phrase face -to -face?
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I have the DSV, it says face -to -face. Anybody got something else in the middle of verse 30?
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Believe the implication there is that. It's a spiritual face -to -face. But actually this, whoever it was, whether it was
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Christ himself or a manifestation of God, it was always my understanding that God, he couldn't even look on Christ.
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There are examples of God in his sovereignty, placing the awesomeness of his majesty.
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And you think of Melchizedek. Abraham clearly spent time with Melchizedek face -to -face.
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And you gotta think that Jacob has heard those stories, but here he is now.
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I need you to understand something because it's true for all of us. Jacob went through two battles. He had to go through two battles.
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And the one is in the flesh, where he relies on himself, where we rely on ourselves. That battle is gonna go on as long as we're here on this earth, that's the process called sanctification.
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And it's knocking off those rust marks that have to be knocked off. But then in the spirit, he struggles with God until God get his full attention.
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If God hasn't gotten your full, if God is your Lord and Savior, amen, your name is in the book of life.
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That cannot be changed. Forensically, you are a child of God. But does he have your full attention?
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And maybe this passage helps you realize you need to stop and let him get his full attention.
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Matthew 28, 19 to 20 is the Great Commission. And we are told to go out into all of the world and give the message of God that they might believe and be saved, that's not what it says.
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Tim, what does it say? Go into all the world and? Preach the gospel.
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Preach the good news. Make disciples. Sorry, make disciples.
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You were going Mark 16, he's back. Make disciples. If you find an individual that is ripe and the fruit is coming off the tree and you give the word and they say, yeah,
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I get it. I want the Lord as my Savior. That is a great place, but make a disciple.
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Walk them through the process, the struggles. Let them get this aha moment where they struggle with God and they can pull the curtain back and say, surely
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I've struggled with God and yet my life has been spared. I am his, I'm all.
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Father, your word says, no one has ever seen God, but God, the one and only, has made him known.
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So Father, we recognize we've never seen you, but we thank you that you have sent Jesus to show us who you are.
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That although we haven't seen Jesus in the flesh, you've opened the eyes of our heart to see Christ and made his light shine in our hearts that we cry
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Abba, Father, and we believe the gospel. Lord, thank you that you wrestle with us in prayer.
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Help us, Lord, to wrestle as well and continue to call on you with perseverance. Lord, thank you so much for this word to us.
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Help us to be conformed to the image of Christ by it. In Jesus' name, amen. Thank you, folks.