God's Gracious Dealing

Well this morning we begin chapter 33, we're not going to complete Chapter 33 will take what remains into next week as we work through chapter 34

The long night of chapter 32 has now broken into dawn Last week, we saw

Esau closing in with his 400 man militia Intent it seemed to destroy

Jacob and his family as far as Jacob knew This encounter that was screaming toward him might be his last costing him his wives

His children his flocks his servants even himself but as we saw things have come full circle

Jacob was on the banks of the Jabbok and As he had been running from Esau 20 years before alone vulnerable in the fearful night at Bethel We left him last week

Alone and vulnerable in the fearful night at Mahanaim And once again, he was left utterly alone.

And yet as we saw Jacob has never been alone Through this mysterious encounter of the man in verse 24.

We find a demonstration of God's faithfulness to Jacob He had promised at Bethel 20 years

Before that he would be with Jacob and indeed Jacob though He felt alone on the brooks of that night with Esau raging toward him in his own imagination

He was not alone We saw Jacob in his fight of faith the angel of Hosea 12 for Wrestling grappling with Jacob through the night until daybreak and when that fight of faith was over Jacob understood that his very life had been delivered verse 30 and Jacob strived for the real blessing the true gain in the hours that rolled by our

Condescending Savior was wearing Jacob down Untwisting the twister stripping away his self -reliance and his self -sufficiency and the result of this night

Leading into chapter 33 is that Jacob had learned how to prevail with God in utter dependence upon God Not as some unflinching

Titan, but rather as a limping crippled Dependent Jacob knew from this moment forward that he was being pursued by the grace of God It was as we left last week the hound of heaven

Breathing down in that steady pace upon Jacob. I Have seen

God he said in verse 30 of the last chapter face to face and my life is preserved

He recognized that God had spared him and now he's boldly prepared to approach

Esau Knowing that the Lord has delivered him and therefore will preserve him

And so we left last week with the very end of the last chapter just as he crossed over The place meaning the face of God the

Sun rose on him and he limped on his hips So we're through that long arduous night the fight of Jacob's faith

His soul has been delivered and now the Sun is is shining its radiant beams upon him as he limps past the brook toward his brother

Esau Well, we have four parts in the 17 verses of our time this morning.

No fancy alliteration here first We'll look at the family reunion second the gift exchange third the patient pace

That keeps Jacob delayed and then lastly suck off sucker at suck off First we see this family reunion and it's coming right off the heels of the morning

Jacob lifted his eyes verse 1 and looked and there Esau was coming So he literally goes from receiving the blessing of the

Lord Naming the place Penuel to looking and Esau and these 400 men have finally arrived and so he divided the children among Leia Rachel and the two maidservants and he put the maidservants and their children in front

Leia and her children behind in Rachel and Joseph last we're reminded that at this point

Rachel's only child is Joseph something that will be changing shortly picture the scene

Jacob lifts his eyes just coming out of this encounter through the night

Completely exhausted and spent probably could barely lift his eyelids and he looks over and here's

Esau and this spread of 400 men and yet what does he do? I don't think this is fearful tactical Jacob saying oh no

You know you you go ahead of me This is actually an arrangement and as we'll see a very formal procession a formal display to his brother

So he arranges his family first Bilhah and Zilpah and their children then Leia and her children

And then Rachel with their son Joseph, but he goes forward He passes in front

Now we have to remember what Esau would have been receiving From the end of the previous day through the night perhaps if there was a stumbling servant

He would have been receiving wave after wave of this very elaborate gifts Cattle and servants cattle and servants flocks of all kinds always with this message

These are gifts from my lord my master Jacob and he is coming to meet you

Well when Jacob finally approaches Esau you can picture Esau's mind these elaborate gifts this incredible abundance and Jacob's behind this and Jacob's behind this and Jacob's behind this you think with more and more

Costly and elaborate gifts that when he finally sees Jacob It's gonna be a whole train of servants with much more cattle and he's gonna be lifted on this bronze bed with you know

Ostrich feather fans and Jacob's eating grapes brother nice to finally see you But how does

Esau actually experience Jacob limping? exhausted Barely able to pick himself up Here's Esau after all these elaborate gifts limping

Exhausted torn torn clothing limping toward his brother. No wonder

Esau takes pity upon Jacob He crossed over before them. We read in verse 3 bowed himself to the ground seven times

Until he came near to his brother So Esau is watching this spectacle unfold.

He sees some people behind Jacob but here's the limping Jacob making his way toward Esau and stopping at Designated times to bow himself to the ground.

So we see again this humbling of the Lord that is now Demonstrated physically by Jacob.

He has been humbled by the Lord humbled in the situation with his brother Esau And he wants to demonstrate that humility to Esau not by bowing merely as a courtesy or something polite to do

But bowing sevenfold bowing seven times on his way to actually stand before his brother

It may have been the first time in his whole life that he willingly bowed to Esau And so we see the effect of God's grace in his life over these past 20 years

He doesn't just bow once a sevenfold bow was something fitting for royalty

If you approached a Pharaoh if you approached a king You would take these kinds of pains to demonstrate your your humility and your gratefulness for being received in court a vassal

Meaning a subject to a suzerain a great or mighty ruler would come in with this kind of ceremony as a sort of Servant or a dependent upon that great rulers patronage

He would come in with an elaborate display of gifts and and bowing seven times this number of completion

These constant addresses of let it please your servant if I found favor in my Lord's sight

All of this is part of this elaborate ceremony Esau's being treated like a king more importantly

Jacob is treating himself as a subject a servant to Esau and we can't help but see here an ironic reversal of all that God had prophesied about Jacob back in chapter 27 verse 29

Let people serve you nations bow down to you be master over your brethren be a lord over your brother let your mother's sons bow down to you and Yet here we find the recipient of that promise bowing down to his brother naming himself

Identifying himself as a servant to his brother So God had promised the nations would bow down to him that will be true

That covenant will be fulfilled and yet the way to that glory the way to that cross is through humility

Through a humbling a sevenfold obeisance to his brother Esau and so again

We see the effect here God desired to break Jacob in order to bless him and this leads to the covenantal heir lying

Prostrate before his wronged brother. This is the fruit of God's discipline God's blessing

God's trial in the life of Jacob and he needed this divine Humbling so that he could receive the fulfillment of those promises so that the

Lord in due time would exalt him He needed to be brought low in this very way

After the seven bowings He finally stands before his brother and then comes

The fateful moment of verse 4 what we've been chasing now for several months

Esau we read ran to meet him embraced him

Fell on his neck kissed him and they wept What a scene the sequence of verbs is so elaborate every little motion

Matters it's all sort of in slow -mo. Nothing's missed and they reconciled.

That's not what we have We don't have a summary statement. We have every action of this encounter

Esau running to meet his brother embracing him Falling upon his neck kissing him and only then does

Jacob enter into this description. They together wept We remember

Esau Raising his voice in a roar Weeping when

Jacob stole his blessing we read in 27 that he left it. He lifted his voice and wept but now

Esau weeps again with his brother Jacob and this weeping doesn't just contain the joy of their present reconciliation

Really? It contains the pain of the past 20 years as often Moments of reconciliation like this do not just the joy of the present the prospect of moving forward but the memory of what's being left behind and so I say not only with the pain of their past because there's 20 years worth of resentment and guilt and shame and frustration and resentment embedded into this very moment

And it's all bursting out of the seams as they embrace and they weep and weeping is something you do when words fail

It's beyond language and so they don't even know what to say What fitting words are there?

All they can do is weep and embrace and hold each other close Gil points out

John Gil points out Esau ran to meet him Ran to meet him

Most likely he would have been on some sort of animal maybe one of the camels that he received from Jacob But as soon as he actually saw his brother limping toward him and by the time that fourth fifth or sixth bow was taking place

He was already galloping toward him He wanted to express express the fact that he had already received him

He had already been willing to reconcile with him. He wanted to show something of his affection for him

And all of this is enigmatic of the father running to meet the prodigal you remember in Luke 15 this perhaps most famous of parables the parable of the prodigal son when the younger son had gathered together all journey to the far country wasted everything in a prodigal lifestyle and Then when finally a famine came and he was reduced to to even desiring the pods that the swine were dining upon He came to the end of himself and he said

I've had enough better to be a servant in the house of my father than to perish here with hunger And so he had his plan.

I'll go to him and I'll say father I've sinned against heaven before you no longer fit to be called your son rather let me be as one of your slaves make me a hired servant and so he arose and carried out this plan and we read so Powerfully in verse 20 when he was still a great way off.

His father saw him had compassion He probably looked a lot like Jacob beleaguered Exhausted torn clothing maybe limping his way back toward his father

And what does the father do like he saw he sees him from afar. He runs

He falls upon his neck. He kisses him Where's Jesus getting this language?

It's right out of Genesis 33 It's the same sequence of verbs the running the falling upon the neck the kissing

And then the son says father he begins this rehearsed speech and the father cuts him off He's not even listening bring out the best robe kill the fatted calf put my golden ring upon him.

I thought my son was dead and So Jesus is taking this language from this encounter between Esau and Jacob in Genesis 33

And he's he's as it were pasting it over the encounter between the father and the prodigal son

Why does Jesus do that? What is he emphasizing here? I Think one of the thing that comes across is

Jesus saying listen when it comes to being reconciled with the father When you recognize like Jacob the twister that you've been a far way off and yet and yet you've been

Compelled to come and be reconciled to the father. You don't need endless trains of gifts

You don't need to send servants and camels and have a demonstration Wave after wave of all the reasons that you're actually worthy to be received.

You don't need to have a cunning speech You don't even need to necessarily have this confession of guilt as if that's what's coercing the father to show mercy

You know really plead your case really balance it out. I've tried really hard Lord, you know I know

I did wrong but I'm owning up to it and look at the good things I have here if that's waves of gifts if that's coercive speech

Jesus is saying the father needs none of that He's already running He's already ready to reconcile

He's not looking for a speech. He's not looking for camels and flocks He's not looking for the good things that you've done with your life all the things that would make you worthy of receiving this kind of forgiveness of being

Reconciled with the father does not need these things. He's not look for these things This is something that Jesus is showing in the contrast when you come to be reconciled to the father

You come as you are because you can't do anything else and coming as you are you find this one

Jesus seems to say that you fear will never received you will never never offer forgiveness to you

But coming in that humility in that repentant self -acknowledgement

Jesus is saying you'll find the father running to you in mercy Esau Is magnanimous in this passage beginning in verse 5, you know, you almost get the sense that he's gonna be a really good uncle

He lifted his eyes Saw the women and the children who are these with you?

And so Jacob said the children whom God has graciously given your servant and the maidservants came near They and their children and they bowed down like father like sons.

They bowed down They see their father's humility before Esau. Is this the guy that dad was always talking about?

I guess we're supposed to bow now Leah comes near with her children.

They bowed down Joseph and Rachel come near they bowed down the whole household of Jacob honors

Esau They lie down before him Esau doesn't seem to desire this at all.

He just wants to be introduced and Then there's this gift exchange very significant beginning in verse 8

Esau said what do you mean by all this company which I met? Not just speaking of what stands before him but everything he's received over the previous day

And he said these are to find favor in the sight of my Lord pay attention to that phrase

But Esau said I have enough my brother keep what you have for yourself keep in mind

Jacob's whole presentation was coming to Esau as to a royal as to one who was truly the heir worthy of this kind of recognition

But Esau doesn't play into that Esau does not receive Jacob as though he were a dependent a servant a vassal

He says I have enough brother Doesn't say yes, my servant this pleases me.

He doesn't play into the way that Jacob is showing this kind of honor It's as if Esau's picking

Jacob up to stand as an equal alongside him. It's enough brother And so we begin to appreciate the way that not only has

Jacob changed over these past 20 years but in many ways this wild man intent on murder has changed as well and Let's not attribute that change to well

I guess you don't really need to be in this in this covenantal dealing with God, you know working under Laban 20 years of trial

I guess you can go and just you know Kick pants and in Edom and take possession and I guess that'll work just as well.

No, we cannot say that We have to give credit where credit is due. I love what Arthur pink has to say about this had

Esau been left to himself This reception with Jacob would have been very different, but he was not left to himself

Jacob had prayed earnestly to God and this was God answering that prayer

He in whose hands the king hearts the king's heart turns after his will

Inclined this fierce and envious man to deal kindly with Jacob. I think that's exactly right

The same grace that was working in Jacob's life over 20 years patiently

Untwisting and breaking him down so that he could be blessed and lifted up was also at work as a result of Intercession as a result of Jacob's prayer

God's hands were in the heart of Esau turning it after his will

All the credit goes to God I don't want Esau coming out that profane man as scripture calls him

I don't want him coming out looking better than he ought All the credit here of his reception goes to God It reminds us doesn't it as Christians that we meet people often who are unbelievers that that have some character of grace in their lives patient wise loving devoted loyal and When we meet people like that, we don't say oh,

I guess there are these things outside of God's work Outside of a relationship with God.

No, we rather give credit to God Even though you do not know him, even though your ways are far from him yet He has been so good to you to give you these characteristics these

Capacities in your life and in your relationships We give all the credit of grace to God and people's lives including

Esau And we also recognize that God in his common grace in his kindness toward all has actually blessed

Esau Esau is a profane man who from the beginning despised the blessings of God Even when he had opportunity to repent and and receive the inheritance at the household of Isaac because Jacob was on the run

He had no interest in that. He left his father's household. He moved down toward Edom to take possession

But we recognize that nonetheless Esau has been blessed We see again a demonstration of God's common grace to all that he has made.

I Love what Spurgeon says about this Esau received a great blessing of a temporal kind an earthly blessing

Which Isaac did pronounce on him with all the love of a father Esau received what he most wanted.

He cared very little for the spiritual blessing He was not a spiritual man. And when he obtained the temporal blessing that satisfied his heart

No wonder he can say it is enough brother He got what he was sought in life. This is all

I ever wanted I wanted to be at this place with these possessions at this point in my life.

It's enough brother Don't you know Jake? I have never interested in the whole church stuff like you.

It's just not my bag I've got what I want. I'm a go -getter. It's enough. What what could you offer me that I need?

I don't need any of this. So first recognize God's blessing upon Esau, but then I say this strikingly, please be warned by the fact that God's blessing upon Esau is inevitably a curse upon We see

God's grace in the life of Esau such that he will be reconciled to Jacob We see God's grace in the life of Esau in these wonderful ways that he shows

Humility and even sympathy and pity upon his brother We see God's grace in the life of Esau and that he is blessed

God gives him a household gives him wives and children gives him possession gives him progeny and a heritage

We see God's grace in all of that But Esau was not a spiritual man.

He was profane Esau never sought after the face of God It's what distinguished him from Jacob from the very beginning of their lives

Jacob was a man after the earth Jacob was a man after God's own heart

Esau was a man after the earth Esau was a profane man when he obtained what he wanted in this life.

It was enough That's the worst thing that could be said about someone They got what they wanted in life and it's enough

God has so designed his relationship with us that we should always have a yearning for him and That this life and all that could be obtained in this life is never enough

Like Jacob we strive until we receive the blessing and all the things that seem to be a part of that have clearly

Paled in Jacob's eyes. I won't let you go until you bless me. What's your name?

And that's when the angel is surprised Wow, what what is this? Why are you asking my name?

He recognized the pearl of great price Esau was too busy expanding the field.

He wasn't willing to lose it It is a fearful thing. I say this especially to young men and young women here.

It is a fearful thing When you pursue things in life and you receive the things in life that you pursue and it's enough for you

That's a fearful thing Contentment is a virtue in the

Christians life Godliness with contentment is great gain first Timothy 6 says

But if you're unspiritual if you're not spiritually minded if you're profane and your life is bound up with the things of the earth contentment is

God's curse upon you. I know People in my life not not here

Who are? Fatally content Fatally content their contentment is their ruin

It is good for Jacob to strive after the blessing To throw off every weight that so easily entangles and press forward

Notice as we get back to the gift exchange that Jacob insists and this is really important This is not the kind of gift that can be turned down because it's more than just a gift

Beginning in verse 10 Jacob said no, please if I've now found favor in your sight

Receive my present from my hand and as much as I've seen your face as though I've seen the face of God And you were pleased with me

So Jacob's now looking sort of back over their past in this encounter the pain of what he had done the guilt

That he's now trying to rectify and he's saying no. No. No, this is not saying I know you're being polite and and very gracious and I'm so thankful, but you cannot turn this down.

You don't understand I need to make restitution I need to make amends and for for Esau to turn this down is to almost say it's not forgiven

I don't accept your attempt to reconcile and so in this place of Gratitude toward God we've already seen it.

God has blessed them Blessed me with these children. God has given them to me

We see this this God centered gratitude this radical self -awareness in Jacob's life, but then this attempt to find favor

No, no, no, you have to receive it. I need to find favor in your sight and then

To find favor. He says to Esau is like seeing the face of God What is going on here in verse 10

We remember God had blessed him at Peniel the face of God and that is saying

Jacob saw God face to face and remember even leading up to that back in chapter 31 that Jacob has been seeking the face of Esau so 31

Jacob seeking the face of Esau verse 2 verse 5 This is verse 20 from 31 if I see his face

That's Esau if I see Esau's face, perhaps he will accept me. Perhaps he'll show me favor

That was the only plan Jacob had I'm seeking Esau's face. Perhaps he will accept me

Perhaps I will find favor in his sight. Perhaps I will be reconciled to my long -lost brother

Esau I'm seeking his face and as he prepared to do that He gets ambushed by God and he spends the night wrestling with God until the point that he sees

God face -to -face And he receives the blessing of God. He finds favor in God's sight

He's reconciled to God and now he goes forward with the original plan

Seeking the face of Esau and he says if I am reconciled to you if I find favor in your sight

It's like I've seen the face of God in other words. These two events are the same

Derek Kidner points this out Jacob saw these two encounters as one The encounter with the

Lord and the encounter with his brother two levels of a single event. It's almost like Jacob is saying

You've received me like this because because God has received me You're able to show me this kind of favor because God has favored me

You want to reconcile with me because I've been reconciled to God So to see your face like this upon me is like seeing the face of God And Jacob knows

I no longer need to twist and wrestle and manipulate. I Just need to limp by faith not by sight

It was Jacob's faith Jacob's experience of this mercy

That allowed him to see it was God at work in Esau's life This is almost Jacob's testimony to Esau and that's why he continues to make

God the forefront of everything He says look at the next verse Please take my blessing

That is brought to you because God has dealt graciously with me because I have enough

I'm not giving these things to you Esau because you have I'm giving back the blessing because I I've seen the face of God and he's delivered me.

I Have enough Take my blessing no longer my gift no longer the present

But the blessing the very word the very thing that Jacob had taken from Esau.

He says take the blessing back God has dealt graciously with me

And so he urged him you have to take this if not for your sake then for mine.

I need to physically Demonstrate that God has dealt graciously with me and I have a contentment in him.

I have enough I need to physically demonstrate That my desire now is to be at peace with you because I'm at peace with my

God I need to physically demonstrate that this reconciliation between us is something that God has brought not something that I've manipulated

Gil points out the the language here is stronger. I have enough.

It's actually emphatic in Hebrew He says the expression is stronger than Esau. Indeed. Jacob shares a much larger share not of temporal blessings, but of Spiritual ones

God is a covenant God to him Christ his Redeemer the Spirit his sanctifier

He had every grace bestowed on him and was an heir of glory. Jacob says I have enough

It's very deliberate that Esau receives the gift and it's very important that Esau offers nothing in return

That's Esau's way of saying you are the one that had wronged me I accept your restitution for that wrong and Now we can be at peace

He doesn't say oh since we're giving gifts. Let me give you something in return. That's not what this is about This is about restitution and reconciliation

So Esau as it were receives the blessing back from Jacob Now, of course that blessing will rest upon Jacob as his father said indeed

He shall be blessed, but we see in Jacob this gracious willingness to lose

Everything that he had spent so much of his life pursuing because now he found what in fact he always wanted whether he knew it or not

He found what he had been made for He found who had made him He found the one that had pursued him the one that he would say at the end of his life had been his shepherd his whole life and That leads us thirdly to this patient pace speaking of shepherds

Esau says in verse 12. Let us take our journey. Let us go. I'll go before you and Jacob said to him my lord knows that the children are weak the flocks and the herds which are nursing are with me

Not to mention my hip really hurts and I haven't slept If the men should drive hard one day the whole flock will die.

Please let my lord go on ahead before his servant I will lead on slowly at a pace which the livestock that go before me and the children are able to endure

Until I come to my lord and seer This is a lot of detail

We actually don't need verses 12 through 14 in my opinion unless there's something that we're meant to see in them

I don't think there's any problem in terms of setting up the next location for chapter 34

If we go from verse 11, he urged him and he took it right down to verse 15

And and so Esau says let me leave with you some people who are with me Let me find favor in the sight of my lord

Esau returned that day on his way to seer Jacob journey to suck off That's really all we need.

Where do they go after this encounter, but we don't have that We actually have a lengthy description of Jacob saying my children are weak my flocks and my herds

They're at a tender age If they're driven the hard they're gonna perish. I'm gonna lead them slowly

I'm gonna go at such a pace that they'll be able to endure Why is all this language here?

We don't need this description just to get to seer and suck off. I Think it's here

Because it's echoing the way that God has dealt with Jacob and in these very words

Jacob is as Israel saying this is how

Israel needs to be led Israel needs to be led carefully because they're weak and If I drive them hard, they're gonna perish

I'm going to lead but it's gonna be slow and it's gonna be at a pace that Accounts for their weakness and I'm gonna lead in a way it won't always be easy, but they'll be able to endure it and all of a sudden now

Jacob is Resonating with the way that God has dealt with him Not driving him hard fix this now this year you're gonna perish

But still driving him not leading him ruthlessly so that he's exasperated and and tumbles into a pit for ten years

But still leading him Leading him not always in an easy way not without anxiety or trial or even trouble

But always in a way that causes him to endure even when he makes mistakes along the way

God is leading him slowly, but at a pace That will cause him to prevail

We'll come back to that as an application. You can't you can't get on to that now, but I just Am struck by this description and what it means for Jacob's life

We come lastly and briefly to the fourth and last part of our verses beginning in verse 15

Let me leave with you some of the people who are with me Esau says but Jacob says what need is there? Let me find favor. This is now the third time that Jacob has said let me find favor

Do you do you see what I'm all about Esau all about finding favor in your sight being reconciled to you so Esau returned that day on his way to seer verse 17 and This is a disjunctive clause you could easily be translated, but it's adversative

But Jacob journey to suck off built himself a home made booths for his livestock

Therefore the name of that place is called suck off which just means booths Now I say sucker at suck off sucker meaning relief or comfort

I think there's this great relief of what he has just done

He's been reconciled to God and to man he's he's encountered the Living God his life has been delivered and the thing

He's been fearful of for 20 years has finally come to pass. It's just like oh, that's like You know gold medal at the

Olympics, and now what do you do with yourself? And so I think when he goes to suck off He's in a place of relief

He begins to show that he has a desire to settle in the land at least a desire for settled life a

Lot of commentaries point out God had called him to go to Bethel and he never went to Bethel I don't know that God ever called him to go to Bethel so much as God said

I am the God who called you at Bethel. I'm you know the God who revealed myself to you at Bethel He said return to the land of your father

Now arguably he should have gone to the home of his father why he settles here

It's hard to say and a lot of interpreters want to set this up toward Shechem and the disaster that follows in 34 that this

Is the beginning of backsliding or compromise in the life of Jacob that may be true I don't read at least up to verse 17 in that way.

It's a minority position a Lot of commentators, you know good good trustworthy men would disagree.

I just don't think the narrative is framed in that way I don't think it's framed to show the beginning of backsliding and then conclude with him building this altar to the

God of Israel, I don't think this is setting up some fearful distrust of God as he sets up a life in Shechem and now he's still afraid of Esau and he's still afraid to go

Back home or further into the land that to me seems incontinent with the way the narrative flows.

I've at least found John Gill Expressing the way that I'm looking at this Whether no doubt he intended to come when he parted with Esau But for reasons which after appeared to him declined it or this is

Gil more probably he actually did go to seer It's not recorded for us

But he did go he kind of kept his family got them situated there at Succoth and he went at least for a short time

To seer or quickly after though the scripture makes no mention of it. We don't have a record of this He might have gone with his servants directly

Sent his family flocks and herds under the care of other servants forward on their journey and then returned to them at Succoth And this is what

Gil says that he should tell a lie here seems unlikely and he seems to have no temptation to do it

I think Gil is understanding the flow of the narrative rightly the rabbis would line up very well

It's a lot of more recent preachers and commentaries come in and they go Oh Jacob back to his old self

Oh Jacob losing his trust in God just when you think he's got it together. He blows it

I think that's a horrible misreading of the way the narrative is flowing here But I won't disagree that once he sets up a life and check him

The influence of that area has a disastrous effect upon his family as we'll see so Two possibilities with how things and I take it as he's relieved

He's recovering and he's preparing in further obedience to settle within the land.

That's what God had asked him to do I don't think we can say more or less than that three applications first consider

God's gracious countenance and Reconciliation God's gracious countenance and Reconciliation looking at verse 10 if I've now found favor in your sight receive my present from my hand and as much as I've seen your face as Though I'd seen the face of God and you were pleased with me.

So we see this Desire again Upon Jacob to be reconciled to his brother

What he did not know was that he needed first to be reconciled to God as we said last week and having been

Reconciled to God he has all urgency and all motivation to be reconciled to his brother and for him

These two events are one to see the gracious countenance of Esau is like seeing the gracious Countenance of God and he sees in Esau the grace of God So he doesn't at all give credit to Esau but rather gives glory to God For us consider

God's gracious countenance toward us should have the same effect It should motivate us compel us to be reconciled to those around us if someone says

I love God I Just love God there goes the minivan with the

I heart God bumper sticker You know deep beat, you know playing Michael W Smith or something on the tape cassette.

That's how I grew up. But then hates his brother

He's a liar Someone says I love God and then it hates his brother.

He's a liar He does not love his brother whom he's seen.

How can he love God whom he's not seen? We behold the glory of the

Father in the face in the gracious countenance of Jesus Christ If we claim to have beheld him who's full of grace and truth

We cannot hate our brother. We can't hate our enemy We can't hate our neighbor the law and the prophets depend upon these things

At Peniel when Israel and Jacob saw God's face and his life was spared He was still having this dread of Esau.

He had a dread of what Esau's countenance would be But when he saw the gracious countenance of God he had every motivation he needed to be reconciled to Esau he no longer feared the face of his brother and Christians need no longer fear the face of our neighbor our brother our enemy even if we've been

Reconciled to God if we have a gracious countenance with him we can seek to be reconciled if it's at all possible with us upon all those that surround us

Reconciliation is something we've received One of the great themes of the New Testament, isn't it reconciliation?

Romans 5 When we were still without strength in due time

Christ died for the ungodly scarcely a righteous man will one die yet Perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die

But God demonstrates his own love toward us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us

Much more than having now been justified by his blood We shall be saved from wrath through him for if when we were enemies

We were reconciled to God through the death of his son much more having been reconciled

We shall be saved by his life and not only that but we also rejoice in God through our

Lord Jesus Christ Through whom now we have received this reconciliation We've received

The reconciliation Paul says and notice how Paul says it we received it when we were without strength

We received it when we were ungodly. We received it while we were yet enemies. We were reconciled

Which means for the Christian week we approach reconciliation with those who are without strength ungodly and still enemies

That's how we seek to reconcile as those who have been reconciled We have received it.

Therefore we participate in God's work of reconciliation and this takes us from the reception

Romans 5 to the participation 2nd Corinthians 5

If anyone's in Christ, he's a new creation old things have passed away behold All things have become new now all things are of God who's reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ And he's given us the ministry of reconciliation

Reconciliation Clearly in the context Paul is talking about himself in his capacity as an apostle and he's speaking of Apostle ship

This is a ministry in a unique way entrusted to the Apostles but by extension

Every Christian has received the ministry of reconciliation Because God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself not imputing trespasses to them

He's committed to us the word of reconciliation And so we're ambassadors for Christ as though God were pleading through us we implore you be reconciled to God so you go from receiving reconciliation as a

Christian to Participating as an ambassador in God's work of reconciliation you implore

People to be reconciled to God you employ yourself to be reconciled to people now here

We need to make a distinction a very important distinction between forgiveness Reconciliation and restoration when we have relational sins these three

Categories are at play forgiveness Reconciliation and restoration

Now I think I can say biblically God requires of all of his people forgiveness

It is singularly unchristian to harbor and Nurture unforgiveness in your heart

God required doesn't make it easy and it doesn't mean it's instant It just means this is the bare minimum of God's work of reconciliation forgiveness

Forgiveness is something that can be extended whether or not someone is present Forgiveness is something that can be truly accomplished even if someone's no longer living

Forgiveness is something that God requires of his people Reconciliation builds upon forgiveness without forgiveness.

There can be no true reconciliation, but reconciliation may not always happen It would have been possible for Esau to have forgiven

Jacob or for Jacob to have forgiven Laban and that may have been possible and true in God's sight without there ever having been a reconciliation like we see between Jacob and Esau as Christians we forgive that's what's required of us.

We aim we hope to reconcile now a third restoration as a

Channel, I love watching he posts every few months and it's just a guy who finds some old antique and he meticulously

Restores it and I wouldn't even say just to its original condition But better if there's any part that's loose or wobbling

He actually machines new bolts new washers new everything until it's perfect It's literally restored perfectly and I think that is the image of restoration that we always hoped for But we often can forgive and even be reconciled and Yet the nature of what has been forgiven and even the difficulty of reconciliation means that it won't ever really be restored

It'll be different. I mean, I think Jacob and Esau have gone through forgiveness Reconciliation restoration,

I don't even know if that's possible Have they really been restored to what they were meant to be as brothers?

It doesn't seem that way They don't live the rest of their lives that way Those Christians we want to pursue forgiveness reconciliation and even restoration

What can be and ought to be restored we pray and we labor to bring that about but we recognize that restoration

After some wrong that needs to be forgiven may not be possible It may not look the same and so we have to be open be willing to pursue restoration

But also be realistic about the fact that things will be different. That's what sin does it makes everything different in horrible ways

But nevertheless we ought to pursue reconciliation so far as it depends upon us and then at the bare minimum

We must forgive now I think the issue for most Christians is that it's easy to say

I forgive and let up on reconciliation It's easy to say yeah in my heart

I've forgiven and maybe even because it's a little too easy to say we don't even recognize that Deeper underneath that layer in our hearts.

We actually have not forgiven There's actually resentments that like a tar pit under the

Pacific Ocean lets out a little bit and it bubbles toward the surface So reconciliation is already off the table

It's already outside of our interest or desire because it well, it's already forgiven. Have you reckless?

No. No, no, I forgive them It's all good That's sub Christian. So I asked the question

How far are we willing to go? Do we just say

I know I'm supposed to forgive and I think I've forgiven and it's all good and that's all we ever aimed and intended for Or do we prayerfully in time actually aim for restoration and Until God in his providence and in time makes it clear that restoration is not possible.

We just are fighting for reconciliation Robert Smith jr.

Is a pastor who's Whose son was killed He was working a late shift at a restaurant and there was an attempted robbery and his son was shot

He said a phone came just before midnight A Explanation that our son had been shot was in the hospital

They were trying to resuscitate him and he wasn't doing well And so he got on his knees this minister and he he prayed and he prayed that God would spare his son's life and that he would be spared in such a way that he would be able to serve

God for the rest of his life and Then an hour later. They got another phone call that he had died and they found the murderer of his son and He sat there during the trial and he

Robert Smith jr. Says during the trial. I saw the back of my son's murderers head

He was only 18 years old I was sitting across from his family his mother other family members who were weeping when the judge sentenced him to a long time in prison and From that point forward.

I prayed about my feelings toward him For 44 years to this point. I had preached about forgiveness

But it came crashing down on me in this moment that I really believe what I had always preached He wrote forgiveness takes the sting out of memory.

I confess that the ache of memory is still there But the paralysis of the sting has been swallowed up by God's love.

That's very insightful Forgiveness and reconciliation does not erase the memory

Forgiveness and reconciliation that comes after the gracious countenance of God Takes the sting out of the memory takes the paralysis out of the memory

Allows you to actually understand God's love and God's purpose in time Now this is interesting to me.

He mailed a letter to his son's murderer in prison But look at the time frame two years later.

He mailed a letter To you he's a preacher. He's been preaching forgiveness for 44 years.

He stares at the murderer of his son and For two years he wrestles in prayer and asks other people to pray with him before he can get to a place to send a

Letter, I think I don't think that's un -christian at all. I Think for two years he was fighting tooth and nail

Between this desire not to do that feeling everything he felt toward this man who killed his son

But then also knowing what he had received From the grace of the Lord and and it took two years for that wrestling to go

Before he actually could see the gracious countenance of God compelling him to be reconciled

And then it was another two years before this young man allowed him to be on the visitors list

You can imagine like Jacob the shame and the guilt this young man the last thing on earth I'm gonna do is sit across from the father of the victim

And so there's a four -year process of this struggle and he finally this would have been a few years ago

Made it on the visitors list and visited him the story that I had read doesn't include anything after that, but I was actually told by a professor who knew him the young man has been converted still in prison and Robert Smith is a spiritual father

Spiritual father To the son who killed his blood son That's reconciliation, that's

Restoration, that's Christianity and all of this is from God who through Christ reconciled to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation and Robert Smith it wasn't instant and it wasn't easy and for four years

He had to wrestle with the fact that he had been given a ministry of reconciliation

But he looked at the gracious countenance of God and he understood what he had received from God And he got to the place not just in his own home miles away from this murderer

Could he say yeah in my heart, I think I've forgiven him. That wasn't enough. He has a ministry

He needs to be reconciled. And so he sought it. And so I'm asking the question. How far are we willing to go?

Do we recognize the ministry that we've been given? We're Christians Forgiveness may only ever be what we can attain

But we ought to always have the heart attitude that forgiveness is never enough We have a ministry of reconciliation

Secondly, that was a really long first point secondly God's gracious dealing and contentment

God's gracious dealing in contentment Looking at verse 11 please take my blessing that is brought to you because God has dealt graciously with me and because I have enough

We see Jacob has been humbled not only by the the touch of the Lord on the banks of Jabbok But but he's also been humbled by the recognition of all that's been given to him and even the fact that God was delivering him

Not only in that direct divine encounter, but also now from the brother his brother's hand

Gratitude leads to humility Something I've been thinking about this week. I think

I mentioned it on Thursday night If your only source of humility in the Christian life is the woe to use

Then you're missing out on I think a very powerful motive for humility That as much as our conviction and our repentance is a source of humility in the

Christians life So also is our Thanksgiving and our gratitude when we recognize what God has given us.

This becomes a source of humility God has dealt graciously with me. I have enough

Therefore take please don't give it back. I'm leaving it here whether you take it or not It's not coming back with me

When we recognize that we are not nor can we ever be self -sufficient. We ought not to be self -reliant

We become grateful because we no longer live our lives as those who have to take and obtain and grasp and twist we live our lives as recipients and When you live your life as a recipient you can live your life in gratitude.

You're humbled by gratitude You know, it's a humbling thing to be a recipient, isn't it? No wonder

Jesus could say one of the few direct quotations of Jesus from Paul in Acts 20 as our Lord said it is more blessed to give than to receive

So the first thing is we ought to be givers. Look at Jacob's wife. He's a giver Well, why is it so easy for him to give why does he so desire to give

Because at heart he's a receiver he's a recipient and The more you recognize how blessed you are to receive

The more blessed you are as a giver And it's a humbling thing to receive when someone gives you a gift out of the blue.

You're like, you know What do you do with that? It's just humbling. There's nothing you didn't earn it. It's a gift. That's what makes a gift a gift

Remember in Luke 18 when the Pharisee stood and said God, I thank you. Is that true gratitude?

He's thanking God, you know Good job Pharisee Thankfulness in your prayers you're thanking

God. Look at this brothers and sisters an example of gratitude God. I thank you that I'm not like the other men

Extortioners unjust this is good Pauline viceless material extortioners unjust adulterers even like this tax collector.

I Fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I possess and and then what does Jesus introduces the contrast of that?

Luke 18 13 the tax collector standing far off He probably felt a little too unworthy to be near this.

Holy man. I wish I could say that about myself, but I can't he's far -off And as far as the

Pharisees concerned, he really is far off. I'm so glad I'm not like you You're so far from what I've attained You're so far away from the uprightness.

I have in my life. You really are far off. I'm so glad I'm not like you He wouldn't even raise his eyes to heaven that's humility

But he beat his breast saying God be merciful to me a sinner Now there's one way of reading this text

I was really helped by Mark Mark McMinn a book He wrote and I had a chapter on gratitude and he highlighted this and it's just something

I'd never considered before I think it's right there in the text. There's one way of reading this solely as Conviction of sin and repentance

God be merciful to me a sinner so he can't raise his eyes to heaven He's feeling all the weight of conviction and he's been humbled by his conviction and that's it

But as we've said that's not the only source or motivation of humility Another way, you don't raise your eyes to heaven and you say

God be merciful to me is out of gratitude and I think there's something of gratitude in this sinner's prayer and If if we can follow the text, it's first of all the recognition that he he is unworthy

There's a sameness and I would even argue he probably knows something About God's grace

God's mercy and sinfulness to recognize that in a lot of ways He's no different from this

Pharisee. They both actually need God's mercy What humility does when you recognize that you're a recipient is

It strips away this ability to say I hate all these things that you hate Lord and look at all these good things in My life it strips all that away.

What you see is this radical sameness this radical sameness and You anticipate that God is willing to forgive

God be merciful to me I'm no different than those Pharisee. I'm no different than anyone

Lord. Show me mercy It's that radical sameness that Robert Smith jr.

Saw with his son's murderer At the end of the day, I'm really no different Be merciful to me

I'm a sinner. And so when the Pharisee said

I Thank you. I'm not like other men the humility of conviction and the humility of gratitude says

I thank you that I'm just like every other man and Yet you show me mercy

I'm just like the rest. I am Romans 3 And yet I'm on my knees and I'm saying forgive me and I know that you're running toward me in compassion the sinner prays with not just the humility of conviction, but the humility of gratitude because it recognizes and Anticipates that God will forgive you when you pray that God will forgive you.

Are you not anticipating his forgiveness? Do you think it's an open question whether or not he will it's the worst thing in our lives

Is that we expect it all to flippantly don't we I'm sorry for this But though that's a casualty of our own fallen flesh scripture never takes that bold confidence away

If you confess you were forgiven, that's what the scriptures declared to the Christian And so there's this boldness, but also it's it's it's a humble confidence and it's the humility of Anticipating God will still be merciful to me still

Though I'm just like the rest Gratitude doesn't just lead to Humility it also leads to contentment

That's why I say God's gracious dealing in contentment. Remember Jacob. God has dealt gracious with me and I have enough

It's that recognition and that gratitude for the way God has dealt with you that brings you to this place of contentment

I have everything I need in him and I trust him for what what I will need yet You think of Zacchaeus in Luke 19 and how he hid from Jesus and How when the

Lord finally made himself a guest at Zacchaeus his house I'm dining with you tonight you despised tax collector right off the heels of Luke 18

Like Jacob Zacchaeus Was moved by God's gracious dealing with him. The Lord had dealt so graciously with him

He didn't ridicule him like the others. He didn't mock and expose him He didn't say, you know, let's incite some mob violence against this crook

He dealt graciously with him. He honored him and And in that moment just like Jacob Zacchaeus could almost say

I have enough If I have this I have enough look Lord. I give back

Everything that I've taken I'll give back fourfold if I've defrauded, you know, bring to me your your complaints

I'm gonna restore fourfold to you. That's radical contentment I have enough and it came from this gracious dealing of the

Lord in the life of Zacchaeus. Listen to what Spurgeon says We're never right until God's will becomes our will and we can honestly say the will of the

Lord be done. Ooh Ooh easy to say hard to live by Easy to say but hard to live by Therefore it's a sad thing when a

Christian man cannot say I have enough All right. We said it's a curse when an unbeliever says

I have enough Really? It's it's a curse when a Christian can't say that It's a very sweet thing when he can truthfully say

I have enough and he really does actually enjoy life Listen to this when he thanks

God for what he is and what he is not There's a lot of a lot of talk and kind of theological literature lately about Post -human

Civilization, you know transhumanism This is not necessarily talking about gender or sexuality, but just actually what it what it means to be human with the prospects of technology

Christians ought to approach life as recipients and In that place of gratitude recognizing even your body as a gift

This is a huge part of this I think testimony we're meant to have as Christians in our culture recognizing body embodiment as a gift

And when we think about that we take with that the limitations of the body I Don't think

Spurgeon would have meant this in the 19th century But I I think it's profound we ought to be thankful for what we are and what we are not

We have to be thankful not only for our creaturely capacities, but our creaturely inabilities

When you recognize your limitations you will be framing your life in a place of gratitude You're recognizing all of the myriad of ways that you're a recipient

When he thanks God for what he is and for what he's not when he thanks God for health, but also for sickness When he thanks

God for gains, but also for losses When he sings a song in the night like a nightingale, but also a song of the day like a lark

When he does these things he proves that he does not follow God for what he gets out of God Like a stray dog following a man in the street who feeds him

He follows God out of a sincere love for him. I think that describes

Jacob's life perfectly Moving from someone who followed

God I'll let you be my God if you'll do this this and this for me like a stray dog just because he's being fed

So at this encounter at Penuel saying I have enough

I Follow you now because I love you. I Thank you for the way that you've graciously dealt with me

This is the beginning of Colossians 3 15 letting the peace of God rule in your hearts

To which you were called in one body and be thankful Be thankful We're born as recipients

Gratitude receiving this life and all of its limitations for what it is

But at the same time we do so as Christians. There's lots of people out there who receive this life as it is

We're Christians. So we not only receive this life as recipients filled with thankfulness as it is

But we also see what it will be in hope And that's what makes us Christian just like a

Christian mourns not as those who mourn without hope But as those with hope we receive life and we demonstrate gratitude for all that is with hope

This is a really important point. Some people in this world. They have an upbeat optimistic personality

That is not the same thing as Christian gratitude Christian gratitude is not just let's appreciate the good things in life and not focus on the bad

Let's just take life as it comes take it as it is and always look for that silver lining Let's always find something to be thankful about that can be as select secular a philosophy as any that's not

Christian gratitude some people have a sentimental view of Gratitude of receiving life as a gift

Christian gratitude is not sentimentalism. It's not just well, I love Hikes and you know,

I love to notice the changing of the leaves in the autumn and I'm just thankful. Okay, that's good That's Christian But you don't just take this life as it is.

You also take this life for what it's not and therefore what it will be There's some people who say on the other side they're far from sentimental

They're not upbeat or optimistic and they're not trying to foster a worldly thankfulness. They're actually cynical.

Oh, yeah I see this life as it is. I see right through it all everyone's a dog

It's a dog -eat -dog world. I don't trust anybody. I trust people as far as I can throw them.

You know, I'm not naive. I See life as it is You see it's not a cynical realism nor is it a naive optimism

Christian gratitude is actually saying I'm a recipient of this life and this good world that God has caused so much

Fruitfulness and beauty and abundance and all of these good things and no matter how deprived

I am I'm thankful because I've been given this gift of of life in this world and the knowledge of my maker and his plan of Redemption and what prevents me from being cynical is

I have this attitude of humility. I'm a recipient. I'm not owed anything I'm given everything what prevents me from sentimentalism is saying as beautiful as this world is it's broken and There's great horror and tragedy and despair there's evil in this world and Therefore when

I'm grateful for what is I also have a hope for what God has promised Those two poles form

Christian gratitude Not cynicism not sentimentality, but Christian gratitude thankfulness with hope lastly last point briefly

God's gracious leading and endurance and This is just highlighting verse 14

I will lead on slowly at a pace which the livestock that go before me and the children are able to endure

Jacob was weakened by his encounter with God and and in this place of weakness Jacob looks to his weak children the boys that you know were rushed across the brook in the middle of the night and they're hungry and They're tired and their lives have been

Upturned and he cares for them, and so he says

I'm gonna lead them slowly I'm gonna lead them in a way that they can actually endure Jacob's weakness

Gave him this profound sympathy for the weak among him for the The impact that his leading would have upon them that is so Christological we think of our

Savior who Who left that realm of blessing and humbled himself for the point of a slave talk about lying prostrate

And in this place of weakness in this life. He lived among us. He now sympathizes with our weakness and because he himself has experienced temptation and distress trial and Difficulty at every level levels beyond what we could even imagine

He now leads us at a slow pace in such a way that we will be able to endure

He's a shepherd Just like Jacob was a shepherd Just like Moses was a shepherd and David was a shepherd.

This is how God leads his people Like a shepherd he will tend his flock

Isaiah says in chapter 40 in his arms He will gather the lambs carry them in his bosom. He will gently lead the nursing youth.

He's talking about his people gently leading them Bearing them up carrying them in his bosom moving at such a pace that he's sensitive to their weakness

But still leading them because you can't just let people atrophy and be weak and just waste away I know it's hard, but you need to keep going

But he always has an eye on what we're able to endure so he won't introduce a temptation that will overthrow us

And when we are tempted he provides a way of escape. This is part of his faithful shepherding in our lives

Do you recognize God's gentle pace the way he has graciously dealt with you?

Do you see his gracious countenance the favor that has accepted you that from that place you can say

I have enough and participate in this ministry of reconciliation with those around you have you like Robert Smith jr.

Fought hard to not settle at forgiveness, but pursue this ministry of reconciliation as painful as it could be

Have you recognized? God's dealing with you. It's been gracious And he's been dealing with you in a way that you will be able to endure that that you can have contentment

Have you recognized that he's leading you so that you will prevail like Jacob We close with these words from Psalm 18 verse 35.

You've given me the shield of your salvation your right hand supported me Jacob could say that Your gentleness has made me great

Let's pray father.

We thank you for your word. We thank you for Your precious promises we thank you for your gentle leading your gracious favor

We thank you for the ministry of reconciliation Through which we've been saved reconciled and brought near through the blood of our

Savior I Pray that we would strive with him wrestle with him Lord in those

Relationships that are difficult that we wouldn't settle for something less than what Christ would bring about And pray that we would be like him in every respect

That you would encourage our hearts Lord and help us to persevere help us to look on each other with the same sympathy

Pity and gentleness and charity that Jacob looked upon the weak These things we ask in your son's name

Now is our time for interaction Well, hey, thank you, thank you very much you know,

I thought it was interesting when you gave us the forgiveness reconciliation and restoration and Never really thought about restoration a whole lot, but you're right.

We kind of missed that and then you focus a lot on on Forgiveness and it's it kind of strikes me as odd.

In fact, I was talking to my wife It was either today or yesterday about it. Um You know, um, if you look at the problems that plague families and that plague churches

It's a lack of forgiveness, you know, we don't show each other grace or mercy We have higher expectations and you know

I try to pray on that a lot and try to focus on it because I mean I got a family of 11 people living At home. Yeah, and I've had some problems in the past where believe it or not.

I was only forgiving but it is it is so I mean

Church is relational. I mean obviously we have a relation with the Lord, but we have a relation with each other And I just think unfortunately in today's times.

I don't know why I can speculate but we just have a really hard time forgiving

And that can destroy a family as it did with this family that we're speaking about today in Genesis it can destroy our families and it can destroy a church and I just think that You know

Thank you for bringing that up because I wouldn't have I didn't really focus on that when I was reading it But the the part of forgiveness,

I think that's a strong message. We need to take it So important and then to bring back, you know restoration and that that picture that you

Said with the pastor, I mean obviously that was very pointed to it I appreciate you for bringing that up because sometimes those word pictures, you know

They just they add so much more in words and you know I have a hard time forgiving sometimes over something stupid right and and that person forgave over something that was you know

Substantial. Yeah, so but thank you for that. Amen. Yeah. Amen. Thank you for the emphasis there.

I think you're right Being in a busy household. It is a ministry of reconciliation I think you

Ross was a very rich sermon. There's a lot there. I kind of wanted to emphasize one of the points you made

Where in my own words essentially it sounded like you were saying that in this

Situation with Esau it's as if Jacob gives back the blessing The the covenantal blessing to him obviously recognizing that it's it's his

By by God's will but it's it's something that he wasn't holding on to yes, and It reminded me of Philippians chapter 2.

Yes in particular the ESV translation of it, which I think does it The most justice we were he

Christ did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped Yeah, something to be held on to and this is really a remarkable

Development of sanctification in Jacob because it's exactly that Which I think was his problem in Which led to his exile in Syria?

Because he was trying to hold on in his own strength to that which God had given him. He almost certainly knew that it had been

Told to Rebecca that he was the one who had received the promise, but somehow he thinks he has to Do whatever it takes to hold on to that promise when

And then here later we see he's he's willing to he's not holding on to it.

Yeah, he recognizes that It's in God's hands. Yeah It's it's just along the same lines of the you know

What Christ was saying and in Matthew all three got Gospels really the synoptics were he?

Who seeks to save his life will lose it and he loses it for my sake will find it. Yeah He who huh, you know

Humbles himself will be exalted this principle through the scriptures that we it's not by grasping and holding on to something

Even if it is a good thing that we actually gain it But by trusting in God and being willing to let it go in a sense

Not in the sense that he wasn't willing to wrestle for it But in a sense in the sense that we we think we have to pragmatically keep

Yeah through shady means what God has promised is if we're somehow helping God with our sin

Yeah, and we're missing the point altogether It's not that we we devalue it like Esau did that that would be the wrong lesson to take from all you know,

I just It either way it's fine with me. No, it's it's not that Jacob didn't value this.

He wrestled all night for it But he wasn't willing to just hold on to it in a selfish way that and it would be detrimental to his brother

Amen. Yeah, and what? What profound simplicity when when Esau says, you know, what what is all this that you've met me with my brother

Jacob doesn't say I worked my tail off for 20 years. You wouldn't you know, you know our uncle.

Let me tell you Yeah, sit down. This is gonna take off. He doesn't He just says God has dealt graciously with me.

That doesn't mean he wasn't sweating frustrated Pressed, you know the breaking point for 20 years.

It's just he can look back and say God has dealt graciously with me You know that that again is just the triumph of what

God has been doing in his life to hear it confessed from his lips To the man that he was so afraid of Thank you

Ross. That was a real blessing this I feel like there's really nothing to add to that When we were reading it, we're doing the public reading of the word

You know, I think I was at my home I would have done this but I really wanted to read

Jacob's I have enough louder Because because certainly that you know

Esau's I have enough Yeah, really resounded in my heart last night. And then as I read it this morning,

I couldn't help I missed I Missed Jacob's I have enough and the words before that.

He's graciously dealt with me. Yeah, I have enough All right, and those are great words

I think the theme continues it continues for Israel as they become a nation and it continues for the truth you know true

Israel for True Israel and part of the remnant I'll read just a section in Deuteronomy Here that I think it's follows that same theme and we should remember and again we need to remember the alt before God's eyes the ultimate difference before I'm between Jacob and Esau right if if any worldly man looks at them both if any

Politician right if anyone in this world looks at them both who doesn't know the Lord they say like these both men have gained a lot

They're both very very successful. Look at their wealth Look at their wealth right, but only the

Christian Should know the difference and it should be grave was you said it should be a grave warning in our hearts

You need to ask yourself. You really do. I'm amazed often when

I read stories about missionaries from a young age and They have enough they have enough to give up Wealth -wise what they never ever ever worked for it like they didn't learn it like Esau learned it

They learned it. It was a spiritual discernment and God gave it to him as a gift graciously and they could say it

They could say before they have her gained anything and their own strength. They have enough I'm going to serve the

Lord my whole life and I may not receive anything I may be poor my whole life wealth wise

But I'll be rich in him and I can do this and I can be content in it those stories always amazed me because You know,

I don't know they always amazed me I think we could say the starting point for that really is this do you approach your whole life as a recipient?

Because that's the big difference Absolutely, Jake Jacob went from being a striver to being a recipient and that makes the difference between you know gratitude and willingness to kind of lose all in the pursuit of God to You know trying to pretend that you can somehow straddle both

It says here and this is for Israel in this section in Deuteronomy 8 it says, um

You know Moses gives him the warning beware that you do not forget the Lord your God By not keeping his commandments his judgments and his statutes as I command you this day lest when you have eaten in our full and have built beautiful houses and dwelt in them and When your herds and your flocks multiply your silver and your gold are multiplied and all that you have is multiplied

When your heart is lifted up and you forget the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt From the house of bondage and he goes on to give this list of what he did

Who led you through the great and terrible wilderness in which there were fiery fire be fiery serpents and scorpions and?

Thirsty land where there was no water who brought water for you out of the flinty rock

Who fed you in the wilderness with manna? Which your fathers did not know that he might write he goes on and gives this list that God did all this

God did all this and Israel knew that he said don't forget You know and then he says this and you shall remember the

Lord your God for it is he who gives you power to get wealth Remember the

Lord your God because it's he who gives you power to get wealth like Right that he might do what that he might establish his covenant which he swore to your fathers, right?

The purpose of that is that he would establish his covenant that he swore to fathers

The person that says I have enough and that's a Christian It is it desires more this covenant that he's established and anything he's ever gained with his hands

And he can say I have enough and be with God He saw never eat saw as you said as we've read he saw never decide desired that covenant with God He never did and he never did and I think one of the reasons why like you said one of the reasons why he could go

But I understand it's God's grace in his life But one of the reasons he could go back to Jacob and not kill him is

As you said and as we all know if you read it rightly he got what he wanted He got what he wanted if he does he got what he wanted

Yeah, right. It was given to him and Jacob and him were the same when they start up They were exactly the same like any man or woman who's who's born

They were the same and the difference was that God dealt graciously With Jacob and Jacob desired it he desired because I think

God dealt graciously with Esau as well Salvific Lee, but he dealt with him graciously, but he saw wanted nothing to do with it, right?

So let us not forget as you work right as you gain wealth if you use your skills in this world

Whatever you do do not forget the re it's in God's power that he's given you the ability to do that And it's not for the purpose of caning that wealth.

It's for the purpose of Understanding the covenant that he's made with you if you're his and that you would hold on to that covenant

Tighter than you would hold on to anything else. Let us not forget it remind each other I easily forget this as I'm working all day long.

I easily forget it We need to in this church. We need to come together and remind each other of that Amen.