Who Are You?

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If you knew that tomorrow, that you were going to die, would you do anything different today? That's an old question.
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It's an important question.
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It's a question that's been asked many times.
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And the reality is most of us, even though we understand on an intellectual level that we could die at any moment, most of us think we'll make it through tomorrow.
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I mean, honestly.
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We plan for tomorrow.
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We make plans for Tuesday and Wednesday because we figure we're going to make it through tomorrow.
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But what if you weren't so convinced? In fact, what if you were facing a militia of 400 men who were, this very moment, mounted upon their horses and thundering in your direction? And you had offended the leader of that militia into murderous rage.
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Would you not at least be a little fearful of what the day may bring? Well, that's where Jacob is today.
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And that's where we find ourselves in this story.
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When Jacob left his father's house, he left because his brother wanted to kill him.
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It wasn't as if he thought he wanted to kill him.
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He literally breathed out murderous words.
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When my father dies, I'm going to kill him.
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Well, now Jacob is headed home.
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He has left Laban, his father-in-law.
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He has left Haran.
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He is now moving back toward the promised land.
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And what we're going to see today is when his brother finds out he's coming, he takes 400 men and heads his way.
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And this brings great fear upon the heart of Jacob, as it would any of us.
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And we're going to see Jacob's response.
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And I want to say from the outset, I truly believe that what we're going to see in the text today.
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Is the moment in Jacob's life where he learns to trust in God.
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In fact, I would say in a sense, this is where he is converted.
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He has known God for years.
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But he has been the God of his father and the God of his grandfather.
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But today he will claim God as his own.
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And so this is what we're going to read.
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So with your Bibles open to Genesis 32, there's 32 verses in the 32nd chapter.
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So it's not too terribly long, but I do invite you to stand.
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If you're not able to stand, that's perfectly fine.
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But we try to stand when we read God's word to give honor and reverence to it.
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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.
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So he called the name of that place, Mahanaim.
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Jacob sent messengers before him, and he saw his brother in the land of Seir, the country of Edom, instructing them.
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Thus you shall say to my lord Esau.
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Thus says your servant, Jacob, I have sojourned with Laban and stayed until now.
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I have oxen and donkeys, flocks, male servants and female servants.
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I have sent to tell my lord in order that I may found 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.
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And Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed.
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He divided the people who were with him and the flocks and herds and 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, Isaac.
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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 cross this Jordan and now I have become two camps.
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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 Esau.
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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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Then 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? Where are you going? And where are these ahead of you? Then you shall say they shall.
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They belong to your servant Jacob and they are a present sent to my Lord Esau.
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And moreover, he is behind us.
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He is likewise instructed the second and the third and all who follow the droves.
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You shall say.
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The same thing to Esau when you find him.
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And you shall say, moreover, your servant Jacob is behind us.
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For he thought I may appease him with the present that goes ahead of me.
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And afterward I shall see his face.
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Perhaps he will accept me.
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So the present passed on ahead of him and he himself stayed that night in the camp.
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The same night he arose and took his two wives and his two female servants and 11 children and crossed the Ford of the Yabbuk or the Jabbuk.
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He took them and sent them across the stream and everything else that he had.
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And Jacob was left alone.
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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.
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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? He said, Jacob.
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Then he said, your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel.
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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.
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But he said, why is it that you ask my name? And there he blessed him.
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So Jacob called the name of that place Peniel saying, for I have seen God face to face and yet my life has been delivered.
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The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel limping because of his hip.
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Therefore, to this day, the people of Israel do not eat the sinew of the thigh that is on hip socket because he touched the socket of Jacob's hip on the sinew of the thigh.
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Father, I thank you for your word.
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And Lord, now, as we look at this important narrative in the life of.
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The patriarch, Jacob, God, I pray that you would first and foremost keep me from error.
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For Lord, I am a fallible man.
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I'm capable of preaching error, and I do not want to.
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And I pray that you would open the hearts of your people, Lord, for the believers in the room, that they would see this text and understand how it would apply to us as believers.
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But Lord, even so, for the unbeliever, Lord, for the one who is here today, may they be young or old.
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May they be man or woman.
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Lord, anyone here today who has not bowed the knee to Jesus Christ.
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Lord, that you would wrestle their soul to the ground.
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That you would, by your mercy, assault them with your grace and draw them to yourself in Jesus name.
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Amen.
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If you remember the end of chapter 31, if you were here last week, you'll remember that Jacob essentially ran away from his father in law's house, taking all of his property and his children and his wives with him.
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His father in law chased him down with great malice of intent.
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And God stopped him from hurting Jacob by coming to him and telling him, do not say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.
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So Laban goes to Jacob and they have an interaction.
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And Laban says, I could have killed you, but the God of your fathers came to me and said, do not say anything to him, good or bad.
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So Jacob has a moment in that time where he hears from his father in law that God has protected him.
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God has made a way that even though his father in law had maybe not a murderous, but at least a malice of intent that God intervened.
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But now, Jacob has to move forward.
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And as Jacob moves forward, he's moving forward into a very similar situation to the one he just got out of.
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The situation he got out of was his father in law was angry and wanted to do him harm.
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God intervened.
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Well, now he's faced with another situation.
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There's another man who wants to do him harm, and that's his brother.
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And so as he faces this situation with his brother.
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He must know in some sense that God is there.
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But he still faces it with a sense of trepidation.
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And so a very important moment happens in his life.
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If we look at verse one, and if you'll put the outline on the screen, I did put it in this week.
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This is the outline of what we're going to look at today.
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First, we're going to see the angelic meeting.
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That is in verses one and two.
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Then we're going to see the situational evaluation in verses three to eight.
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The protective plea, verses nine to twelve.
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The appeasing gift, verses thirteen to twenty-one.
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And then finally, what I call the gracious assault in verses twenty-two to thirty-two.
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Now, we're not going to spend a lot of time in every single verse.
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The two parts that I really want to focus on are the protective plea and the gracious assault.
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But for a moment, I do want to set the stage by looking at verse one.
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Because it says, Jacob went on his way and the angels of God met him.
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Now, the reason why we should consider why that is so important is because Jacob has left the promised land to go to Haran.
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He has now left Haran to go back to the promised land.
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And in both instances, he had an opportunity to interact with angels.
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When he left the promised land and he was on his way to Haran all by himself, he laid his head upon a rock to sleep.
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And God gave him a vision in the night of angels ascending and descending upon a stairwell.
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And he woke up and he says, this surely is the house of God.
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And he called it Bethel, which means God's house or the house of God.
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And so on his way to Laban's house, God intervenes in his life through a vision of angels.
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Well, now he is headed back home.
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Now he is headed back to Canaan.
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And as he goes, he is again met with a vision of angels.
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Well, I say a vision.
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He's met by a group of angels.
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Now what they look like, I do not know.
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I imagine in this sense, they probably look like men because oftentimes angels in the Bible do appear as human figures.
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I hope they didn't look like the angels in Ezekiel because that probably would have scared him half to death.
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And since we don't see that, that's probably not what they look like.
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If you don't get that, just look up Ezekiel's vision of the angels and it's quite a bit different than what we normally think.
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I always wanted to get one of those for the top of my Christmas tree.
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You know, everybody else has the beautiful angel.
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I want the, you know, the big circles and the big eyes and all that.
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Yeah, that'd be really great to have because, you know, angels don't always take the same form.
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But in this sense, we're fairly certain that these came to him as men.
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And verse two, it says, and when Jacob saw them, he said, this is God's camp.
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So he knows in some way that these are not mere men.
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He knows that these are God's messengers.
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The word Malik in Hebrew is the word for messenger, and it's where we get the word angel.
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In the same way in the Greek, the word Angelos means messenger or angel.
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The same way in Hebrew, the word Malik means messenger or angel.
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And so he sees these messengers of the Lord and he says, this place will be called Mahanaim.
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Now, what's interesting about that word is that word actually becomes a word play within this text because the word Mahanaim is actually is an odd word in Hebrew because normally the word would be camp singular.
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But Mahanaim putting the I am at the end makes it a plural.
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And thus it becomes the idea of two camps.
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Later, he's going to separate his family into what? Two camps.
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While here he is expressing the idea that God has a camp and God's camp has come to me.
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And now I get to share in this and I have my camp and God has his camps and they've come together as this dual.
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The idea of the Mahanaim is the dualness of the camp.
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It's God has come to join my camp.
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And God is with me.
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And so this is the picture that we see here.
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Jacob is recognizing God is active and he is joining, as it will, his camp.
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And so we see this.
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I want to I'm going to read from a quick a little commentary on this to maybe give a little a little a little greater picture.
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This is this is Kiel and Delitz.
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This is a kind of a technical commentary.
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But this is what it says.
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He called the place where they appeared Mahanaim double camp or double host because the host of God joined his host as a safeguard.
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This appearance of angels necessarily remind him reminded him of the vision of the latter on his flight to Canaan, just as the angels ascended and descended had represented to him the divine protection and assistance during his journey and sojourn in a foreign land.
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So now the angelic host was a signal of the help that God has given to him or is approaching is giving to him as the conflict with Esau is approaching on which he will be in great fear.
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God is giving him this this comfort.
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Here in these early verses, now we get to the situational evaluation because Jacob, again, he doesn't know what's about to happen.
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All he knows is he has met a group of angels and he calls this place Mahanaim, the dual camp.
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And he doesn't know what's about to happen.
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But he he decides to check the situation out a bit.
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In verse three, it says this.
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And Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau, his brother in the land of Seir.
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Now, the land of Seir was actually the land of Edom.
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This was the land that his brother would take control of and his brother would have.
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Interestingly enough, I believe Seir means hairy, which is similar to the idea of Jacob or Esau as a hairy man.
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And so there's sort of a connection there.
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But it says Jacob sent messengers before him.
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Now, the rabbis believed when they made their commentaries on this passage, the rabbis believed that Jacob sent the angels because the word messengers is the same word as the word angel in verse one.
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When it says in verse one, the angels met him.
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You get to verse three and it says, then Jacob sent messengers.
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Well, that's the word Malik.
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It's the exact same word.
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So some of the rabbis said what he's doing is he's sending the angels ahead of him to sort of spy out what's going on.
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However, many commentators say that that actually doesn't really fit the context.
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And we have to read every word, not just for its possible meaning, but for its likely meaning within the context.
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And it's not likely that Jacob was commanding angels.
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More than likely, he had his own messengers that he sent.
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And John Gill said this.
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He said, for these angels were not under the command of Jacob to send and to call back, nor would they have needed any instruction from him afterwards.
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But these were his own servants.
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And I think that that's the right way to understand it.
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So even though it's the same word as verse one, I don't think that he's sending the angels ahead.
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I think he's got his own messengers.
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But it's interesting.
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God sends messengers to him.
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He sends his messengers to Esau.
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And so we see in verse four, he says, thus you shall say to my Lord Esau, thus says your servant Jacob.
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Notice the language there.
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Notice what he says.
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All right, messengers, listen up.
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Now, he might not have said it like that, but that's how I said it.
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All right, guys, come on, huddle up.
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When you get to my master Esau, you say to him, your servant Jacob.
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Y'all picking up what I'm putting down.
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He's focusing on humility.
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Some people think that Jacob is trying to manipulate his brother.
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And there are those who say this entire chapter is an example of manipulation, because later we're going to see that Jacob sends a entire entourage of animals to Esau to try to appease him.
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And actually, the word there is actually the word for atonement.
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The word for making a propitiatory offering.
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He's trying to satisfy Esau's anger.
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But that's not the same as manipulation.
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He's not manipulating.
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I think it is a genuine act of repentance.
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It's a genuine act of love for his brother to say, I have done wrong, and here is what I give you in result of my wrongdoing.
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We're going to talk about that more next week, because Jacob is assuming that Esau wants to kill him.
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And I'm going to tell you something, and you may disagree, and that's okay, we can disagree.
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I actually think Esau may have wanted to kill him.
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But I think God may have changed his heart on the way.
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Maybe even the moment when he saw him.
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We're going to see this next week.
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The moment he sees him, he walks up to him.
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He's got 400 men with him, which actually, according to the way that the ancients worked, that was about a standard militia size.
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That's why I called it a militia earlier.
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Remember when Abraham went and fought the kings? He took 318 men, right? So this is about the standard militia size, and he's charging in.
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And then when he sees his brother, he says, I don't want to get into next week's sermon.
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But he breaks down, and they have this moment.
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And only God can bring about such reconciliation.
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But as I said, some people think that Jacob is attempting to manipulate Esau here.
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I don't think it's necessarily manipulation as much as it is an act of humility.
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And straight up, he is afraid.
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Guys, he's afraid.
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You ever been afraid? I mean, I thought about that this week.
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I really have.
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As I swim through the text, and I'm collecting thoughts, as I begin to put my notes together, I start thinking, I try to put my mind in sort of a...
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In a sense, I try to put myself in the mind of the person.
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And I think, what if I had somebody who wanted to kill me? How would I act? So he says, Thus you shall say to my lord Esau.
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And he tells them all about what he has.
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The messengers return, and they say he's coming, and he's coming with 400 men.
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So Jacob then becomes afraid.
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Verse 7 is a very important verse.
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It says, Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed.
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Wouldn't you be? Wouldn't you be greatly afraid and distressed? Well, he was.
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So he divided the people who were with him, and the flocks and the herds and the camels, into two camps.
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Thinking, if Esau comes to one and attacks it, then the camp of the other will be allowed to escape.
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In a sense, as Bruce Waltke says, he was trying to minimize his losses.
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He was between a rock and a hard place.
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Because guess what? He can't go backwards.
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You remember what happened last week with Laban? The last thing that happened with Laban? They erected a stone, and it was basically a boundary marker.
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Remember? May the Lord watch between me and thee while we are apart from one another.
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And the idea was, we got this line between us.
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You're going this way, and I'm going that way.
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So he can't go back to his father-in-law's house.
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He can't go home to his wife's father's house.
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He's already burned that bridge pretty hard.
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So he says, I tell you what I'll do.
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I'll separate the two camps out.
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I'll put my family in two different places.
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That way, if one of them gets destroyed, at least the other one maybe could flee.
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Maybe at that point, they could go somewhere for protection.
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And then we get to verse 9.
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And I want to say this.
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One, verse 9 is the longest prayer of Jacob up at this point in Genesis.
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This is the longest prayer we have of his.
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It's only a few verses, but for him, this is a long prayer.
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I think it's also a very sincere prayer.
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It's a landmark moment in Jacob's life.
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He addresses the God of his ancestors, but he also calls God his own God by calling him by the covenant name Yahweh.
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And this is the first time that he does that.
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And I want you to notice the elements of this prayer.
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One, and I want to tell you, this almost became the whole sermon.
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I almost preach just on these verses.
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And I'm tempted to just stop and camp out here, but I'm not going to.
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But I want to point out a few things because there is so much here.
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You know, we have so many wonderful models for prayer in Scripture.
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Obviously, the perfect model prayer that Jesus taught us, our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
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That's the perfect model prayer.
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But there are other examples of prayer that we see throughout the Scripture that give us pictures of like David in the Psalms who prayed in repentance for his sin with Bathsheba.
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What a wonderful prayer teaching us what it really looks like to have a broken and contrite heart before the Lord.
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Well, here's a man who is coming to God in absolute fear.
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Again, I want to go back to the first question I asked today.
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What was the first question I asked? If you knew you were going to die tomorrow, or at least if you knew that someone was after you and they were going to meet you tomorrow, and they were coming to your home tomorrow, they were coming with 400 men and guns and knives blazing.
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Do you think you'd pray today? I hope.
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You might say, well, I'd be getting my machine guns out too.
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Well, before we get there.
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I think you might stop and inquire of the Lord.
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I think you might stop and beg of the Lord.
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Oh, God.
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Of my father, Abraham.
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And God of my father, Isaac.
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Oh, Yahweh.
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Who said to me, return.
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To your country and to your kindred.
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That I may do you good.
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Notice what he says right away.
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You are the God who promised me.
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That you were going to do me good.
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He's speaking the promise of God back to him.
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Oh, Lord, who said to me, return to your country and your kindred, and I may do you good.
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And then he says in verse 10, I am not worthy of the least of all the deeds of steadfast love and 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.
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Notice again how that idea is coming in.
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God, I came to Haran with nothing.
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I walked across this wilderness with nothing, but my staff in my hand.
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And now I have returned, and I have returned with two camps worth of family and fortune.
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And it's all because of you.
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When you look at your life, beloved, do you look at your life and say to God, this is all because of you.
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Everything that I have, my wife, my children, everything that I have, my home, my beating heart within my chest.
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Is because of God almighty.
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That's what Jacob's saying.
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All that I have is because of you.
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And now he asks, please deliver me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear him.
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Honesty in prayer right there.
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That's an honest moment.
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I fear him.
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There's no gravitas.
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There's no machismo.
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There's no sense in which God give me the five smooth stones, so I may slay the giant.
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No.
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God, I am afraid.
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That he may come and attack me, the mothers with the children.
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Verse 12 is beautiful.
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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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Notice what Jacob is doing.
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He is repeating the promise of God back to him.
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I am afraid.
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I am threatened.
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I am fearful.
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But God, thou hast said unto me, that you will do me good, and I will be a multitude.
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And if I am wiped out, this has gone unsaid, but this is part of what he is saying.
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If I get wiped out right now by my brother, if my family and my fortune is destroyed, and I am laid waste here in the desert, and my bones rot and are picked clean by a carnivorous bird, then your promise will fail.
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And the promises of God do not fail.
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He is proclaiming faith in the promise of God.
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There is a lot of language.
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There is a lot of language that is used in hyper charismatic movements and churches that are given to things that I think are not helpful.
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And one of the languages that often gets overused, I think, is when they start talking about I'm going to claim this or I'm going to claim that.
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And we know that because there is a whole movement called the name it and claim it movement, which is a dangerous movement.
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But it is not wrong to say this.
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God has promised and I am going to trust in and claim the truth of that promise.
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Let me tell you something.
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And that's what we do when we say that we are saved.
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God has promised that whosoever repents of his sin and trusts in the Son will be saved.
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And therefore we can claim that promise.
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And we can say to God, God, have you not said that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord will be saved? So Jacob is here in this moment calling upon the good God who has made a good promise.
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And he's saying, have you not said there was a preacher? I don't know his name, but there was a preacher.
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But every time he would pray, he would say, and God, you said in your word that you would.
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And then he would say whatever it was.
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And he would just every time.
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And God, you have said in your word that you would.
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And then he would.
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And that was just his that was his style, if you will, of prayer or his method of prayer.
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But he was always reminding himself and his hearers of the promises of God.
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And Jacob is here.
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Reminding himself.
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He's not reminding God, God never forgets, but he's reminding himself.
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Of the promise.
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Of God.
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Now.
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Verses 13 to 21.
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He produces a gift for Esau.
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And in the ESV, it says the present.
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That means the gift that he's preparing.
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And it is a pretty substantial present.
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Five hundred fifty animals.
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Kelly, you guys just bought what? Four, seven.
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Yeah, four.
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Right.
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I think you said you wanted to get more.
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Right.
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Yeah.
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Right.
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Right.
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But can you imagine 550? Somebody just comes up with a truck and says, here you go.
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Or imagine they send them to you in groups.
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Sort of like the 12 days of Christmas.
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You get the partridge and the pear tree.
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Then you get the two, you know.
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Well, that's how he sets it up.
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If you read through the narrative, he sets it up.
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He goes, OK, here's what we're going to do.
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We got these 550 animals and we're going to send them in droves.
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Basically, the word droves, there's a word for flocks.
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He's going to send them according to their kind, essentially.
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He's going to send them to him in droves.
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So that basically as Esau's coming, he's going to get hit with wave after wave of gifts.
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And this is what he says.
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He says, every time you get there, you're going to say this.
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You're going to say.
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This year, excuse me, let me get back up here where it is.
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He says, when my brother meets you and asks you to whom do these belong, where are you going? And those who are ahead of you, verse 18, then you shall say they belong to your servant, Jacob.
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They are a present sent to my Lord Esau.
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And moreover, he is behind us.
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So basically, every time a drove would come up, they would say, these are my brother.
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These are my these are Jacob's.
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These are for you.
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And he's behind us.
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And this is going to happen over and over and over again.
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And some people, again, think this is Jacob being a manipulator.
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And some people even go as far as say this.
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Some people, some people say this and listen to this is very important.
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Some people say this is him not trusting God because he's prayed.
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But then he he doesn't just rest.
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He goes and does something.
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But could it be that this is not a sign of a lack of trust in God, but rather it is a sign of wisdom? As he considers this threat, because here this now, just because we trust in the Lord does not mean we do nothing.
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You ever heard the phrase, it's an old saying, don't lean on your shovel and pray for a hole.
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Proverbs 21, 31, the horse is made ready for the day of battle, but the victory belongs to the Lord.
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Think of what that proverb says, because it's two parts.
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It's a parallel.
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The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but the victory belongs to the Lord.
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The victory is ultimately God's right.
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But you don't leave the horse in the stable.
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You still prepare the horse for battle.
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You understand? So Jacob is doing what he thinks is right, and he says this, he says in verse 20, and he says, Moreover, your servant Jacob is behind us, for he thought I may appease him.
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And the word appease, as I said earlier, is the idea of atonement.
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It's the idea of propitiation.
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It's the idea of satisfaction.
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Perhaps if I send these waves of gifts, there will be a satisfaction.
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Jacob is not looking for a fight.
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Jacob is looking for reconciliation.
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You understand, brothers and sisters, that we are called to reconcile.
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We are called to reconciliation.
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And Jacob is doing everything he can to ensure that from his perspective, he wants to live at peace with Esau, not at war.
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What does the Bible say to us? As much as it depends upon you, do what? Live at peace with all men.
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Wise planning does not constitute a lack of faith.
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Well, now we get to verse 22.
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And again, this could be a sermon all its own, but I really think it fits together.
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So I'd like to finish the chapter because this is what it says.
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It says that same night, remember, this is the night before Esau is set to arrive.
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It says he arose.
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He took his two wives and his two female servants and his 11 children, which I find very interesting because that's leaving out his daughter in that, because if you count Dinah, he has 12 children, but essentially he's only naming the 11 sons because Benjamin's not born yet.
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So he says his 11 children, there's more than that, but the 11 boys.
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And it says, and they crossed the ford of the Jabbok.
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Now there's some wordplay here, because in a moment we're going to see a man come out of the darkness and wrestle with him.
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And the word wrestle in Hebrew is Ya'abech.
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And the word for Jacob is Ya'akob.
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And the word for the river is Ya'abak.
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And so it was the Ya'abek that happened to Ya'akob by the Ya'abak.
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And it's sort of this sort of wordplay in Hebrew, the idea of what's happening here.
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So he sent them across the Ya'abek or the Jabbok.
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And Jacob was alone.
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And by the way, verse 24 just comes out of nowhere.
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Because listen to it again.
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And Jacob was alone, and a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day.
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No context.
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Nothing.
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He's by himself.
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It's dark.
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And out of nowhere comes this man.
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And the text says it's a man, but understand this, and this is key.
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It doesn't tell us that it's just a man.
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Because if we think that this is just a man, then we have to qualify that by saying, when you go to the book of Hosea, chapter 12, verse 4, it says it's an angel.
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If you read Hosea 12, it says that he wrestled not with a man, but with an angel.
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And later in the story, he calls the place Penuel, which means the face of God.
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Why? Because he says, because I saw God face to face.
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And, not that I'm trying to build a case here, but I sort of am.
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And he says, your name is now Yisrael.
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Yisrael means wrestles with God.
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So all of that would combine to tell us that this is more than a mere man.
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And I would say more than even a regular angel.
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Now, I cannot prove beyond shadow of a doubt what I'm about to say.
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And among commentarians and commentators, there are various asundery opinions.
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But I have shown you many times throughout the book of Genesis so far, that there is a figure known as the angel of the Lord, and the angel of the Lord is a pre-incarnate representation of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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And so here's what we might think about that.
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Jesus was a wrestler.
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In fact, as much as I love Bob Utley, this is a place I disagree with him.
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Because in his commentary on this particular passage, he says, no, I don't think this is Jesus, because Jesus would have been a better wrestler.
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And I thought, oh, Bob, come on.
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Because it's obvious that the wrestler lets him win.
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And you say, well, what do you mean it's obvious? Well, when the wrestler gets tired, he just goes, and his hip pops out a joint.
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It ain't like it took him any, it ain't like he had to figure it out.
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He didn't have a good ground game, and he was pulling his guard and trying to get into a figure four or an Americana, and if you don't know what that is, good, it's a jiu-jitsu term.
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But he didn't do it, it ain't that.
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When God got tired of playing, he just, and it was done.
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And you'll remember that sound, I guess.
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That was it.
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And I thought of it like this.
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I thought of it like when I'm wrestling with my children.
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Sometimes I'll get down on the floor with J.J.
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It takes me a little while to get back up, but I do get down on the floor sometimes on that carpeted floor, and J.J.
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will just pounce on me.
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And he's grabbing my arm, and he's holding my arm down, and he's pushing my shoulders down, and he's putting his knees up on me.
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And though it can be a little uncomfortable, at any point I could just, and I could stand up.
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But I do allow him to have a moment of victory and a moment of success because there's a purpose behind that.
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I'm training and teaching him how to be a man, you know, and how to overcome and how to push through and how to work harder.
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And one day he's going to be like Cody, where I don't have to let him win anymore.
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Cody, we don't wrestle no more.
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We talk.
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So this miraculous figure comes out of the darkness, and he begins to wrestle with Jacob, and they wrestle all night long, which does say something for the character and the strength of Jacob because I did a little bit of wrestling for a while.
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I did jujitsu for a while.
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And I tell you this, a two-minute wrestling match, you think you're going to die.
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At the end of two minutes, you were sucking all the air out of Florida.
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You know, you got no air left.
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Jacob went all night with Jesus and wrestled.
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And even though we know Jesus was not attempting to win, He was allowing Jacob to wrestle and prevail.
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And I will say this.
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It is difficult to understand exactly why this happened.
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Because we're really not given a why in the text.
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We're really just given the situation.
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They are wrestling.
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Jacob seems to be overcoming in the match.
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At a certain point, his opponent, Jesus, I believe, touches his hip.
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His hip goes out of socket, and he's still holding on.
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He's not letting go.
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And Jesus says, son is coming up.
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You have to release me.
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And he says, I won't release you until you bless me.
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And for some reason, he knows that this is not a mere man because he's asking for the blessing.
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He has recognized through this battle through the night that this is not a mere man, and he's holding on.
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He says, I want you to bless me.
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And the man says, what is your name? What a strange question.
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What is your name? And he says, my name is Jacob.
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And he says, you shall no longer be called Jacob.
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Again, this is another.
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If you're wanting to know the identity of this, this master wrestler, if you wanted to know the identity of who this is, note the next portion as he says, you're right, or your name shall no longer be Jacob, but your name shall be Israel.
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It wrestles with God.
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God changes people's names.
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We saw him change the name of Abram to Abraham.
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He changed the name of Sarai to Sarah.
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This is an act of God demonstrating his authority and his love because he's changing their name.
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He's giving them a new identity before him.
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And Jacob says, well, what's your name? Please tell me your name.
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And he doesn't answer.
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But he instead answers with a question.
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Why do you ask my name? And there he blessed him.
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And Jacob then says, this is Peniel.
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I have seen the face of God.
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Peniel, of course, meaning the face of God.
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Now the man leaves.
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Jacob begins to limp.
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Because his hip is still out of socket.
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And as far as we know, this will continue in his life as a reminder of this moment.
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And it goes on to become a reminder to the people of Israel.
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Verse 32.
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It says, therefore, to this day.
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People of Israel do not eat the sinew of the thigh of the hip.
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That is called the Gid Hanashah.
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The Gid Hanashah in Hebrew is the word for the sciatic nerve.
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The Hebrew people will not eat the sciatic nerve of an animal.
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So they cut that piece away.
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As a tribute to this moment.
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In the life of Jacob.
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And by the way, just on a personal note.
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I don't know if any of you have sciatic nerve problems.
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But if that's what he did.
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Has caused him to have a perpetual sciatic nerve problem.
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That hurts.
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Because I've got that problem.
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And it feels like a knife is stuck in your leg all the time.
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Like a hot knife.
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But Jacob would carry that burden.
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As a reminder of this moment in his life.
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Where God not only changed his name.
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But I believe he changed his life.
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And that's where I want to conclude.
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Because here's the thing guys.
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I know this.
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When we read the Old Testament.
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It's not always clear.
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In the life of the Old Testament saints.
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When the people come to genuine faith.
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It's not always clear.
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When somebody goes from being an unbeliever to a believer.
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I mean think about even Abraham.
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God called him and he went.
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But it was two chapters later.
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Before it actually says he believed God.
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And it was counted him as righteousness.
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Then it was two chapters later.
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Before he got the sign of his righteousness.
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Which was circumcision.
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Then it was another couple of chapters.
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Before he got to demonstrate his faith.
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In the life of Isaac.
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And taking him up onto the mountain.
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So there's not always a clear picture.
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Of when does God change someone's life.
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But in this moment.
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I can tell you this.
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Whatever has happened to Jacob.
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Until now.
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Whatever has happened before.
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And he certainly has interacted with God.
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He has certainly faced God.
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He has certainly heard from God.
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But whatever has happened before.
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This is the moment.
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Where he becomes a new man.
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And though he will from now on walk with a limp.
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He will walk more upright.
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Than he has ever before.
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This is why it says in verse 28.
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He prevailed.
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Not because he out wrestled God.
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But because his prevailing was spiritual.
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Out of this struggle.
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He became a new man.
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And I believe in one sense.
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This chapter.
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Provides for us an analogy of conversion.
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Listen to this just for a moment.
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Jacob finds himself in a desperate situation.
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He cries out to God.
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As the only one who can save him.
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God comes to him.
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Not in comfort.
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But in struggle.
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And out of that struggle.
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A new identity emerges.
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Beloved.
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I think that is a wonderful picture.
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Of what happens in our life.
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Because in the same way.
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If you were a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ.
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There was once in your life.
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Where you were in a place of desperation.
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You found yourself lost in sin.
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And facing an unrelenting adversary called death.
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But God came.
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And he drew you in.
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And he wrestled out your pride.
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He wrestled out your self-reliance.
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And you didn't go searching for him.
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He came searching for you.
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And like the word draw in John 6.44.
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Means to drag.
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He drug you in.
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And he saved you by his grace.
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You were assaulted by the grace of God.
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And he won your soul.
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And out of that.
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A new identity.
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Emerged.
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He gave you a new name.
50:03
When you were born again.
50:07
You got a new name.
50:09
You say I don't know what it is.
50:10
Well here.
50:11
When you were born the first time.
50:12
You got your parents name.
50:14
I'm a Foskey.
50:15
You're a Smith.
50:15
You're a Bunting.
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But the Bible says this.
50:18
When you're born again.
50:20
You become a child of God.
50:24
Behold.
50:24
What manner of love.
50:27
The Father has bestowed upon us.
50:29
That we should be called.
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Called.
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Children.
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Of God.
50:38
One of the most famous books in Christian history.
50:40
Outside of the Bible.
50:42
Is a book called the Pilgrim's Progress.
50:46
And in the Pilgrim's Progress.
50:48
Everybody has a name that means something.
50:50
There's the good names like hopeful.
50:52
And faithful.
50:54
And of course Christian.
50:55
The main character of the book.
50:57
And there are the negative names.
50:59
Like pliable.
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Obstinate.
51:02
Talkative.
51:04
I always wondered which one of those.
51:06
Somebody might give me.
51:11
Boisterous.
51:19
But when you read that book.
51:20
You can't help but ask yourself.
51:21
What would my name be? What name do you have today? Are you a child of God? Do you know that your identification.
51:36
Is found in the Lord Jesus Christ.
51:41
Simply put.
51:43
Who are you? Today.
51:47
Some of you may be here.
51:48
And you may not yet be a child of God.
51:50
You may know God exists.
51:51
Like Jacob knew God existed.
51:53
But had yet to lay hold of him.
51:55
And God had yet to lay hold of his heart.
51:58
I want you to know your condition.
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You're going to face death one day.
52:02
It may not be tomorrow.
52:03
It may not be this year.
52:06
But one day.
52:06
You will face the greatest of enemies.
52:08
And if you face that enemy.
52:09
Apart from the Lord Jesus Christ.
52:11
You will find yourself in hell.
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So like Jacob.
52:17
Who cried out in desperation.
52:18
I encourage you today.
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To cry out to the living God.
52:21
And ask of him.
52:23
Change my heart.
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And plead the promise of God.
52:28
Which says.
52:28
Whosoever shall call.
52:30
Upon the name of the Lord.
52:32
Will be saved.
52:34
Repent of your sins.
52:36
Trust in Christ.
52:40
And know that in that.
52:43
You become a child of God.
52:45
Let us bow.
52:47
Father I thank you for your word.
52:49
Thank you for your.
52:51
Wonderful promises.
52:53
Most specifically Lord.
52:54
The promise of a new identity.
52:56
Which comes in Jesus Christ.
52:57
We are adopted.
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Into the family of God.
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And we are able to call you Abba.
53:03
Father.
53:05
So Lord today.
53:06
I pray for everyone in this room.
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That no one would wonder.
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What their identity is.
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But that their identity.
53:13
Would be truly and completely founded.
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On the person of Jesus Christ.
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And it's in his name we pray.
53:21
Amen.