Explore the Bible Lesson Preview January 6, 2019 Transformed Background: Genesis 32: 1-31 Lesson: Genesis 32: 24-32

Transcription

1 Explore the Bible Lesson Preview January 6, 2019 Transformed Background: Genesis 32: 1-31 Lesson: Genesis 32: Motivation: Donald Gee once wrote: All Word and no Spirit = Dry Up; All Spirit and no Word = Blow Up; but a proper balance of the Word and Spirit = Grow Up. Living things grow. God wants His children to grow spiritually. Examination: I. Practical Preparation (32:1-23) A. God Wants to Grow Us Up (1-11) Remember the arrogant headstrong young man that fled from Esau? Look at his change in attitude: 1. Maturity Involves Recognizing God s Presence This is God s Camp. (32:1) In the recent past, Jacob wanted to control everything and own everything. Now he was willing to admit that the important things were in God s hands. HCSB, p.63, 32:1-2 For the second time while on a journey, Jacob saw God s angels (cp. 28:12). As before, he named the place where he encountered them. In this case he called it Mahanaim, Two Camps, probably in recognition of the fact that both people and angels were at the same location. 1 / 7

2 2. Maturity Involves the Reality of Humility my Lord Esau your servant Jacob (32:4) What a change in attitude! When Jacob began to recognize God as Lord, he also began to understand humility. HCSB, p. 63, 32:3-12 Remembering Esau s death threats from 20 years earlier (27:41-42), Jacob now made a special effort to gain Esau s favor with the assistance of messengers. The first prong of his strategy was verbal: Jacob had the messengers call Esau lord and himself your servant, thus honoring Esau s position as firstborn-even though he had previously taken Esau s birthright and blessing. Jacob also made sure he was the first to initiate contact between the brothers, in order to seek Esau s favor. To prepare for the coming confrontation with his brother Jacob did two things: first, he divided his group in two so at least some of his people could escape if necessary; second, he offered a prayer with three elements: an admission that he was unworthy of the many blessings God had given him, a prayer for rescue, and a reminder of God s promises to prosper and multiply Jacob. 3. Maturity Involves Repentance I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness You have shown Your servant (32:10) J. Vernon McGee felt that this was the first time for Jacob to confess sin and unworthiness. 4. Maturity Involves Reliance Please rescue me (32:11) Ultimately, we grow in the Lord as we learn our inability and His ability. Trust and Obey is the hallmark of the mature 2 / 7

3 believer. B. God uses Crises to Grow Us Up (12-23) 1. Fear Can Be a Motivator to Increase Our Dependence Upon God from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid of him (11). Jacob left his homeland under a death threat from his brother (27:4). His present fear twenty years later is a stark reminder that time doesn t heal all wounds. However, our fears can take us away from God s presence or drive us into His arms. 2. God s Promises are More Precious During a Crisis You have said, I will cause you to prosper, and I will make your offspring like the sand of the sea (12) Jacob s growth during his absence is marked by his dependence upon God s Word. 3. Faith in God Does Not Eliminate Personal Preparation (13-23) Jacob implemented an elaborate scheme to appease (20) Esau. Yet, his own preparation was vitally linked to faith in God s blessing (12, 26). HCSB, p.63, 32:13-21 : Jacob, who had been so adept at taking from others in the past, now arranged to give a generous gift to his brother Esau. Only after Esau had received all the gifts would Jacob meet him. HCSB, p.63, : As a final measure of self-protection that night, Jacob put one more barrier between himself and Esau, moving his family and possessions across the Jabbock, a westward-flowing tributary emptying into the Jordan River 15 miles north of the Dead Sea. Perhaps Jacob believed that Esau would have compassion on his wives and children, and so end his pursuit. 3 / 7

4 II. The Match Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. 25 When the man saw that He could not defeat him, He struck Jacob s hip socket as they wrestled and dislocated his hip. 26 Then He said to Jacob, Let Me go, for it is daybreak. But Jacob said, I will not let You go unless You bless me. (24-26) The entire wrestling match presented in these verses makes little sense unless we see it in a spiritual context. A Christian does not struggle with God as much as he struggles to understand God s will and purpose. We struggle inside ourselves to obey in faith. The Christian life often contains such struggles and takes a prolonged concerted effort on our part to prevail. A. Divine Wrestling Requires Preparation. Jacob was left alone (24) Jacob sent his family ahead in order to be alone with God. He realized that his life hung in the balance according to the meeting tomorrow with Esau; at this great crisis moment, he needed spiritual preparation. Hosea 12:4 refers to the Angel; I believe this is another Christophany (30). B. Divine Wrestling Requires Perseverance a man wrestled with him until daybreak. (25) Some struggles will not be finished without a prolonged effort. The issue is not to conform God to our will but to be conformed to His. Sometimes the struggle is to understand; at other times it is to be content not to understand. C. Divine Wrestling Requires Perspective I will not let You go unless you bless me (26) Jacob finally came to the end of his ability. No amount of deception, trickery, deceit or clever planning would win this fight! The fact that the Angel ended the struggle with one strike, helps us to realize that He had the power to end it anytime. The Divine wrestling match was not about who would win; it was about Jacob s reaction to adversity, and about his character. Satisfied that Jacob was going to accept the outcome, the Angel ended the struggle. III. The Title 4 / 7

5 What is your name? the man asked. Jacob, he replied. 28 Your name will no longer be Jacob, He said. It will be Israel because you have struggled with God and with men and have prevailed. 29 Then Jacob asked Him, Please tell me Your name. (27-29) Jacob s name was changed from supplanter to contender. HCSB, p. 64, 32:24-30 Now Jacob experienced his third and final encounter with God while on a journey (cp. V. 1; 27:12-15). A man, understood by later Israelites to be God or an angel possessing the authority of God (Hs 12:3-4), wrestled with the elderly patriarch until daybreak. The fight ended when the divine being dislocated Jacob s hip. Jacob, injured but still unwilling to release his grip on the being, demanded that He bless him. Asserting His authority over Jacob (see Gn 1:5), the man changed Jacob s name to Israel (Hb yisra`el ) linking the name with the fact that the patriarch had struggled (Hb sarah ) with God (hb `el ), as well as with men, and had prevailed. Jacob was the third person to be renamed by God, joining Abraham and Sarah (17:5, 15). The patriarch s inferior status if reflected in the fact that, unlike the divine being, who asked for Jacob s name and got it, Jacob was unable to learn the being s name. The renamed man now 5 / 7

6 renamed the place Peniel or Penuel lit the face of God, because he had seen God face to face and yet was spared from death. IV. The Venue But He answered, Why do you ask My name? And He blessed him there. 30 Jacob then named the place Peniel, For I have seen God face to face, he said, and I have been delivered. 31 The sun shone on him as he passed by Penuel limping because of his hip. 32 That is why, to this day, the Israelites don t eat the thigh muscle that is at the hip socket: because He struck Jacob s hip socket at the thigh muscle. (30-32) J. Vernon McGee, Thru the Bible, vol. 1, p. 134 First, we saw him at his home and then in the land of Haran where he was a man of the flesh. Here at Peniel, at the brook Jabbok, we find him fighting. After this, and all the way through down into Egypt, we see him as a man of faith. First a man of the flesh, then a man who is fighting and struggling, and finally a man of the faith. Application: 1. Fear can drive us toward God or away from Him. 2. In times of crises, we must depend upon God and His promises. 3. Spiritual struggle can build spiritual muscle. Leader Pack Item 11: Handout: Renamed by God 6 / 7

7 No Biblical Illustrator article Notes: **You may access David s Lesson Preview in MP3 format at: g ; Dates: 1/1 New Year s Day offices closed; 1/7-10 Daniel Fast; 1/16 Midlink Preview night; 1/19 Men:S erve Oasis; 1/22 PORCHlive every Tuesday; 1/23-5/8 Midlink on Wednesdays; 1/25 Midnight Madness in WC & Gyms; 1/27 - FBA HFBC; 1/29 - Staff CYP Campus; 2/8 - Night to Shine/Tim Tebow Foundation; 2/8-9 - Superstart (Preteen) WC; 2/ LIFT weekend (AFC); 2/10 MIYCO; 2/ Summit trip to Israel Don Munton (TL); 2/15 - Marriage Matters; 2/24 - Parent Commitment; 2/ Next Gen Hunt. 7 / 7