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Genesis 32
32:1 Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him. 2 And when Jacob saw them he said, “This is God’s camp!” So he called the name of that place Mahanaim.1
3 And Jacob sent2 messengers before him to Esau his brother in the land of Seir, the country of Edom, 4 instructing them, “Thus you shall say to my lord Esau: Thus says your servant Jacob, ‘I have sojourned with Laban and stayed until now. 5 I have oxen, donkeys, flocks, male servants, and female servants. I have sent to tell my lord, in order that I may find favor in your sight.’”
6 And the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, “We came to your brother Esau, and he is coming to meet you, and there are four hundred men with him.” 7 Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed. He divided the people who were with him, and the flocks and herds and camels, into two camps, 8 thinking, “If Esau comes to the one camp and attacks it, then the camp that is left will escape.”
9 And Jacob said, “O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O LORD who said to me, ‘Return to your country and to your kindred, that I may do you good,’ 10 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, for with only my staff I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two camps. 11 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. 12 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.’”
13 So he stayed there that night, and from what he had with him he took a present for his brother Esau, 14 two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, 15 thirty milking camels and their calves, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys. 16 These he handed over to his servants, every drove by itself, and said to his servants, “Pass on ahead of me and put a space between drove and drove.” 17 He instructed the first, “When Esau my brother meets you and asks you, ‘To whom do you belong? Where are you going? And whose are these ahead of you?’ 18 then you shall say, ‘They belong to your servant Jacob. They are a present sent to my lord Esau. And moreover, he is behind us.’” 19 He likewise instructed the second and the third and all who followed the droves, “You shall say the same thing to Esau when you find him, 20 and you shall say, ‘Moreover, your servant Jacob is behind us.’” For he thought, “I may appease him3 with the present that goes ahead of me, and afterward I shall see his face. Perhaps he will accept me.”4 21 So the present passed on ahead of him, and he himself stayed that night in the camp.
22 The same night he arose and took his two wives, his two female servants, and his eleven children,5 and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. 23 He took them and sent them across the stream, and everything else that he had. 24 And Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day. 25 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. 26 Then he said, “Let me go, for the day has broken.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” 27 And he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” 28 Then he said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel,6 for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.” 29 Then Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” And there he blessed him. 30 So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel,7 saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered.” 31 The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip. 32 Therefore to this day the people of Israel do not eat the sinew of the thigh that is on the hip socket, because he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip on the sinew of the thigh.
[1] 32:2
[2] 32:3
[3] 32:20
[4] 32:20
[5] 32:22
[6] 32:28
[7] 32:30
(ESV)
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
You would turn in your bibles to Genesis 32. This is a somewhat different service than we normally do at Redeemer, in which I'm gonna end a little early and then we're gonna take time to pray for the nations and then we're gonna have a fellowship meal together. And, but I wanna make sure we leave enough time to where we can pray. For those of you who are new, we've been working through Genesis. I don't know what week this is, 20 something.
Jeffrey Heine:And we've been going through the life of Jacob. And now we get to this familiar text, this puzzling text of Jacob wrestling with the Lord. Genesis 32. Jacob went on his way and the angels of God met him. And when Jacob saw them, he said, this is God's camp.
Jeffrey Heine:So we called the name of the place Mahanaim. And Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau, his brother, in the land of Sarai, the country of Edom, instructing them, thus, you shall say to my lord Esau, thus says your servant Jacob, I have sojourned with Laban and stayed until now. I have oxen, donkeys, flocks, male servants, and female servants. I have sent to tell my Lord in order that I may find favor in your sight. And the messengers returned to Jacob saying, we came to your brother Esau and he is coming to meet you.
Jeffrey Heine:And there are 400 men with him. Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed. He divided the people who were with him and the flocks and the herds and the camels into 2 camps thinking, if Esau comes to the one camp and attacks it, then the camp that is left will escape. And Jacob said, Oh God of my father, Abraham, and God of my father, Isaac, oh Lord, who said to me return to your country and to your kindred that I may do you good. 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.
Jeffrey Heine:For with only my staff I crossed this Jordan. And now I have become 2 camps. Please deliver me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear him that he may come and attack me, the mothers with the children. 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. So he stayed there that night.
Jeffrey Heine:And from what he had with him, he took a present for his brother Esau. 200 female goats and 20 male goats. 200 ewes and 20 rams. 30 milking camels and their calves. 40 cows and 10 bulls, 20 female donkeys and 10 male donkeys.
Jeffrey Heine:These he handed over to his servants, every drove by itself, and said to his servants, pass on ahead of me and put a space between drove and drove. He instructed the first, when he saw my brother meets you and ask you, to whom do you belong? Where are you going? And whose are these ahead of you? Then he shall say, they belong to your servant, Jacob.
Jeffrey Heine:They are present to my lord, Esau. And moreover, he is behind us. He likewise instructed the second and the third and all who followed the droves. You shall say the same thing to Esau when you find him And you shall say, moreover, your servant Jacob is behind us. For he thought, I may appease him with the present that goes ahead of me and afterward I shall see his face.
Jeffrey Heine:Perhaps he will accept me. So the present passed on ahead of him and he himself stayed that night in the camp. The same night he arose and took his 2 wives, his 2 female servants, and his 11 children and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. He took them and sent them across the stream and everything else that he had. And Jacob was left alone.
Jeffrey Heine:And a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day. 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. Then he said, let me go for the day has broken. But Jacob said, I will not let you go unless you bless me. And he said to him, what is your name?
Jeffrey Heine:And he said, Jacob. Then Jacob asked him, please tell me your name. But he said, why is it that you ask my name? And there he blessed him. And yet my life has been delivered.
Jeffrey Heine:The sun rose upon him as he passed. Penuel limping because of his hip. Therefore, to this day, the people of Israel do not eat the sinew of the thigh that is on the hip socket because he touched the socket of Jacob's hip on the sinew of the thigh. And Jacob lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, Esau was coming, in 400 men with me. Laura, we ask that you would honor the reading of your word.
Jeffrey Heine:Just as we heard those words, that even now they would begin working into our hearts, transforming our minds. Lord, I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore. But Lord, may your words remain,
Caleb Chancey:and may they change us.
Jeffrey Heine:Pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. Martin Luther called this one of the most obscure stories in all of the Bible. It is bizarre. Whenever I sit down to study a text, some of you know this, the first thing I do is I just write down questions.
Jeffrey Heine:I just read the text. I just write down questions. I had so many questions as I'm studying through this text. You know, why does, why does God attack Jacob? Why does God not prevail against Jacob?
Jeffrey Heine:Why does he strike him on the hip socket? Is there something special about the hip? Why is he so concerned about the sun rising? What is the meaning of the name Israel? Why doesn't God tell Jacob his own name?
Jeffrey Heine:How can Jacob say he saw God face to face when really he didn't see God face to face? What does this story teach us about Jesus? I mean, these are just some of the questions. And I mean, I just kept going on and on. And, and, there's actually more written and commentaries about this one patriarchal narrative than any of the others.
Jeffrey Heine:We'll see if we can answer a few of these questions. I believe this passage tells us the defining moment in Jacob's life. It is the defining moment. It's when he has his name changed. One of the ways the the narrator tries to bring this out is the word Jabbok and Jacob are almost identical in Hebrew.
Jeffrey Heine:And here, Jacob Jacobs, he wrestles, he grabs a heel. Jacob, Jacob's at the Jabbok. Jabbok. And it's just like all these Hebrew words together that showing like this is it. This is this is Jacob's defining moment.
Jeffrey Heine:It's the pinnacle of his life here. He's never gonna be the same after this. Jacob has spent the last 20 years of his life living with his uncle Laban, who he hasn't loved, but it's been pretty good for him. He's become very rich. God blessed him immensely.
Jeffrey Heine:When he first came to see Laban, all he had with him was his staff. He didn't even have an extra coat. He didn't have a pillow. That's why he had to use a rock for a pillow on his way over there. But now he is leaving with all of this wealth, all of these servants, wives.
Jeffrey Heine:God actually told Jacob that he needs to leave. He says it's time for you to go back. Go back to the promised land. And we can see faith actually beginning to grow in Jacob, because he obeys. I mean, he's got a pretty comfortable life here, but he actually decides, okay, Lord, I'm going to do that.
Jeffrey Heine:I'm going to leave this comfortable life behind and I'm gonna go back to the Promised Land, where the only thing I know is I have a brother there who has sworn to kill me, But I'll do it because you asked me to do it. And so he goes and he sends messengers to Esau. And I don't know if you noticed, but he instructs his messengers, be sure to call Esau my lord and be sure to call myself his servant. And so he is switching the things that he sought for so much. He is switching the actual blessing.
Jeffrey Heine:Instead of Esau serving him, he is saying, no. No, Esau. I am your servant. He's even trying to give him back his birthright that he swindled him out of by giving him all of these possessions, all of these gifts. He's he's essentially saying the birthright, it's it's yours again.
Jeffrey Heine:And and and the blessing, it's it's really yours. I'm your servant. And so he's reversing the things that he had so desperately sought for at this point. Well, when the messengers arrive, Jacob finds out his worst nightmare is true. They said, well, we we ran into Esau.
Jeffrey Heine:They don't mention a thing about what Esau said. They only said Esau's coming, not with his family, not with his children. Esau is coming with with 400 men, which means he's coming with an army. And here's the amazing thing that I find here is, Jacob doesn't flee. I mean, a few weeks ago, we looked at it when Esau, his brother says, I'm gonna kill him.
Jeffrey Heine:Jacob's off. He's running. He's running away scared for his life. Now Esau is coming with an army and he doesn't run away. Faith is beginning to grow.
Jeffrey Heine:It's taken time, but you see it gradually growing. And Jacob, he's beginning to trust God. And then he prays to God. This is the first time we ever see Jacob pray. So it has taken 20 something years.
Jeffrey Heine:It's taken many chapters in Genesis. But finally, for the first time, Jacob gets on his knees and he prays. And it's the longest prayer in all of Genesis. Look with me again, verse 9. It's a fantastic prayer too.
Jeffrey Heine:He says, Oh God of my father, Abraham, and God of my father, Isaac, oh Lord, who said to me, return to your country and your kindred that I may do you good. I am not worthy of the least of all the deeds of steadfast love and the faithfulness you have shown to your servant. Does that sound like Jacob up to this point? I'm not worthy of any of this. I'm your servant.
Jeffrey Heine:You've given me all of this. In verse 11, he's saying, you know, please deliver me. Then he reminds God of his promise. He says, God, you have promises. Keep your word.
Jeffrey Heine:And so in this prayer you have humility. You have a recognition of God's hand upon his life. A recognition of God's sovereignty. It's a really good prayer. Not bad for the first time.
Jeffrey Heine:And and then what happens after he finally prays, what happens next has got to shock you. I mean, I've read this this text so many times and it still shocks me because when Jacob finally shows signs of, I'm gonna trust you Lord. I'm gonna pray to you Lord. When he finally turns his life around and he does that, God attacks him in the night and he walks around maimed with a limp for the rest of his life, after he does this. God physically assaults him and leaves him crippled, after he finally praised him, finally trust him.
Jeffrey Heine:Does this sound like, you know, the God of liberal Christianity or you know, some God of any other religion? Does this sound like the kind of god you would make up? You know, if if you were, you know, I said, hey, I want you to create a religion right now. Are you gonna alright, this is the kind of religion I want. You know, the God that we pray to, the God that we decide to serve, that God's going to attack us when we do so.
Jeffrey Heine:You know, you're not have a religion of 1. It will be yourself. This is certainly not the American God. The God who blesses you with material possessions. God who gives you health and wealth and prosperity if you have your quiet time in the morning.
Jeffrey Heine:If you trust that God, of course he's gonna give you your spouse of your dreams. He's gonna give you the job you want and the house you want, of course. I grew up in a very traditional Baptist church, and I cannot imagine know, having an altar call like the 10th verse of Just as I Am, as it's going on for the pastor to say, you know, come forward. If you come forward, God will maim you. You know, God will attack.
Jeffrey Heine:He will hurt you. Come on down. But that's what happens. Now you could take from this, you know, you can, you can see one of his attributes here. You know, you have all these other attributes in the Bible on which you can call God just, you can call him loving, you can call him faithful, you can call him powerful, and and you can call Him all those things, but you can never call Him safe because God isn't safe.
Jeffrey Heine:He's not tame and He's not going to act according to your expectations. Jacob can't say, woah, woah, God, you're not acting how I want you to to act here. And God would say, You're right because I'm not a God of your imagination. I'm the one true God and I will do whatever I please. In verse 22.
Jeffrey Heine:The 24 says, the same night he arose, he took 2 wives, his 2 female servants, his 11 children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. He took them and sent them across the stream and everything else that he had. And Jacob was left alone and a man wrestled with him until the breaking of day. Jacob sends all of his family away from him, and he stays behind all alone. He understands that his whole life is leading up to this one moment.
Jeffrey Heine:He understands this. Tomorrow God's either going to protect him or he's gonna die. 1 of those 2. God's either gonna show himself strong and faithful or he's gonna die. And so he wants to be alone.
Jeffrey Heine:He wants to think. He wants to pray. And then God comes to him. And I think it's interesting. Whenever God has appeared to Jacob, it's always when he's broken and when he's alone, is when God appears to him.
Jeffrey Heine:And when he's alone, a man wrestles with him. And I love that the writer keeps it ambiguous. At first, we know it's the Lord later, but, but he wants us to realize like, who is this? Because Jacob doesn't know at this point. Who is this person attacking me in the night?
Jeffrey Heine:And notice, Jacob isn't the one who attacks this person. Jacob's on the defensive. Jacob's, you know, probably resting alone in the dark at night and this man just jumps him and begins attacking him. And so he's protecting himself, he's defending himself. He wrestles all night long and it's an even draw.
Jeffrey Heine:Neither man could overtake the other. And then when the day is about to break, when this man realizes I can't beat Jacob. It says that he touches his hip and dislocates his hip. Notice he doesn't hit his hip. He's not saying like, you know, does this big blow, this new move he hadn't thought of in the previous 10 hours.
Jeffrey Heine:It's it's he touches and the word is for the the faintest of touch. It's it's the slightest of grays. He just brushes the side of his hip and boom, power is released and the hip, this huge joint, it just comes out of socket. At this moment, Jacob obviously understands this is not a mere man. This is not a mere man.
Jeffrey Heine:I must be wrestling with an angel or with God himself. Now why would the Lord attack Jacob? I mean, does the Lord want to kill him? Is that is that the intent? I don't think so.
Jeffrey Heine:If the Lord wanted to kill Jacob, he could probably say, Jacob, you're dead. You know, Jacob dies. You know, it's the end of it. What's, what's all this drama? You know, this coming down, wrestling with them all the time.
Jeffrey Heine:He could kill him if he wanted to. He wants something more. I think the first thing that he wants from Jacob is to absolutely wear Jacob out. And to where Jacob has to wrestle all night, has absolutely no strength left before his biggest obstacle the next morning. I think he wants Jacob to realize that he cannot go back into the promised land on his own efforts and in his own strength.
Jeffrey Heine:And so he's going to wipe them off that. And this is a lesson that Jacob needs to learn because Jacob's whole life, as we have seen over the weeks, his whole life, he is that self reliant, self sufficient person. If he wants a birthright, he'll swindle and he'll buy it. If he wants a blessing, he'll work for it and deceive people for it. If he wants a wife, he'll pay an exorbitant price for it.
Jeffrey Heine:And so anything that Jacob has, he has fought for it. He has he has counted on his wits. He has counted on his money. And God says, not this time. You have wanted blessing your whole life and you've always fought for that kind of blessing.
Jeffrey Heine:But if you want to be blessed, I mean, if you really want to be blessed, you've got to lay down all your self sufficiency. And that's true for us. We have to quit being Jacob, the Jacob of old. We have to be worn out. We have to have all of our strengths gone.
Jeffrey Heine:We can only enter the promised land when every bit of self reliance is gone. We, we see here in this text that when necessary, God will give his children painful blows to discipline them. Painful blows. Much like a parent has to spank their children or a better analogy, I think, would be maybe a a doctor or a surgeon has to do a very precise surgery, painful surgery to remove the cancer. Very precise, very pointed, very painful, but it's the only way that we'll have life.
Jeffrey Heine:And God does this. And we're gonna see this so much greater in the life of Joseph, where God knows just the right amount of pain to bring in, to discipline us, but not to break us. I think this blow also reveals to Jacob that although Jacob has been fighting against men his whole life, I think he is realizing now in this this pinnacle of his life that really he hasn't been fighting with men. He's been fighting with God his whole life. I mean, in the past he thought he has been wrestling with his dad.
Jeffrey Heine:He's been wrestling with Esau. He's been wrestling him I've been fighting against Him all my life, never trusting in Him, never yielding to Him, always fighting Him. And He's always blamed others. He's always thought other people were responsible for his condition. I had a dad who didn't love me.
Jeffrey Heine:I have a brother who wants to kill me. I've got an uncle Laban who tries to deceive me. Nobody is for me. Everybody's out against me and he's bitter and he's angry and he wants to fight everyone. And God's saying, alright, you might think you're bitter against all these people, you're angry against all these people, but really it's against me.
Jeffrey Heine:You've resisted my parenting, my love, and my affection your whole life. You've got to yield to me. You got to quit fighting. Some of you might be so angry at certain people in your life. You might have such bitterness towards people in your life.
Jeffrey Heine:You know, maybe maybe your life hasn't turned out quite the way you've wanted, and so you you blame your parents, you blame that, you know, that one teacher who failed you, and you could trace your entire collegiate career just went down because of that one teacher. You could blame that one brother. You you can always blame somebody, the boss who overlooked you for that promotion when you really deserved it, and you have all this bitterness and you just want to lash out. Take a step back and realize, you know what, am I just resisting the Lord's sovereign hand? Am I really fighting against him?
Jeffrey Heine:Is that is that who I'm angry at? Some of you don't even know who you're angry at. You're just you're just angry and you're just bitter. It's like wrestling this unknown man. You don't even know why you are.
Jeffrey Heine:You're just wrestling. Yet it's God you've been wrestling with your whole life. Jacob quits fighting here. You might think, well actually, he doesn't really quit fighting. He's not letting go.
Jeffrey Heine:And that's true. He doesn't let go, but he's no longer fighting. Now he's just clinging. Now he's just holding on. Before Jacob was assaulted, he's trying to fend the man off, you know.
Jeffrey Heine:Now when the man wants to leave, he's like, uh-uh, you're not leaving. I'm not gonna let you go. It's only when Jacob is weak and he has all this pain that he finally decides he needs to cling to God and God alone. Verse 26 is a really interesting verse. A lot of questions on verse 26.
Jeffrey Heine:Then he said, let me go for the day is broken. But Jacob said, I will not let you go unless you bless me. Now, what does the sun about to rise have to do with, Jacob needing to let this person go? Why does God ask him to let him go at this point? You know, up to this point, you're fighting in the dark.
Jeffrey Heine:They can't see one another. So obviously, this person does not want to be seen. It's actually a tremendous act of grace, as we find out later that he has been wrestling with the Lord. And we know from Exodus 33 that nobody can see the face of the Lord and live. And he is saying, listen, you've got to let go.
Jeffrey Heine:You've got to let go. If you see my face, it'll be the end. Let me go before the sun goes up. And Jacob responds by saying, uh-uh. I'm not I'm not letting you go.
Jeffrey Heine:I'm either going, I'm either going to see your face and die or I'm not going to let you go until you bless me. So there's only 2 scenarios are going to happen here. Either I'm going to see your face or I'm going to be blessed, but that's the only two options. And he clings. He clings for dear life.
Jeffrey Heine:Verse 27, and he said to him, what is your name? And he said, Jacob. Now, I mean God knows the name of every single star. I don't know how many there are. There's a lot.
Jeffrey Heine:So he's not seeking information here. He's not. If you want to make sense of this, you got to go back a few weeks. Go back to Genesis 27 verses 18. Another story about seeking blessing.
Jeffrey Heine:Chapter 27 verse 18. So he went in to his father and said, my father, and he said, here I am. He said, who are you, my son? And Jacob said to his father, I am Esau, your firstborn. Last time Jacob sought the blessing and he was asked for his name, he lied.
Jeffrey Heine:He said, no no no, I'm Esau. I'm I'm the first born. I'm the one who deserves the blessing. He lied but but here God says, alright, what's your name? And what he's asking for is, what's your identity?
Jeffrey Heine:Who are you? Are you gonna pretend to be somebody else this time? And Jacob, for the first time, he admits it. He goes, I am Jacob. I'm the deceiver.
Jeffrey Heine:I'm the one who cheats. I'm the one who grabs by the heels. That's me. And when God looks at his here's the name, which is really a confession, God bless us. God bless us.
Jeffrey Heine:I don't know if you've ever done this before in your life. I have found for me, I bring far more excuses than sins before the Lord when I pray. And I do the same with my wife. You know, why are you so grumpy, Joel? Well excuses, because I'm tired, because you know, I was up 5 times with the kids last night.
Jeffrey Heine:How many times were you up with the kids? You know, I can give excuses instead of just giving sins. Because I'm a horrible person. Because there's evil in my heart. And what God here is saying is confess who you are.
Jeffrey Heine:You don't have to be scared. Confess who you are, if you want to receive my blessing. God will not reject you. In verse 28, we see God renaming Jacob Israel, striving or if Jacob is the one doing the striving. It's just everybody's divided over this.
Jeffrey Heine:So we're not really sure what the name means, but we do know that it's to remind him of this moment for all of his life. That's what it is. It's to remind him of the striving. It's for every time he hears the name Israel he is reminded of this moment in which he wrestled with God. After this in verse 28, go back to 28.
Jeffrey Heine:It says, then he said, your name shall no longer be called Jacob to Israel for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed. Now, lots of questions there. Exactly how did Jacob prevail? How did Jacob win this? I mean, for 1, he's walking around with a limp for the rest of his life.
Jeffrey Heine:But how can you say that Jacob won? How can anybody fight with God and win? I heard an illustration by a pastor one time that I think communicates this really well. And I'll tell it from a personal point because I do this every night. I play with my kids.
Jeffrey Heine:I play with my kids every night right before they go to bed. I try to wear them out, you know, pick them up, throw them on the beds, you know, throw them against furniture, try not to hurt them too bad. You know, and I'm I'm usually on my back and, you know, I let them get me, and and so they're always really excited. Like, we got daddy, we got him pinned down. And you're playing with them.
Jeffrey Heine:And the only reason, you know, that they're not hurt is because I'm not using my full strength. Strength. Otherwise I could pick them up and I could throw them through a wall if I wanted to. But instead, in in playing with my children because I love them, I make myself weak before them. This is what I do because I want to interact with them.
Jeffrey Heine:And so I lay down, I make myself weak, sometimes too weak, and they might jump off the couch and just land on your rib. And children have hurt me far more than anybody else. But you make yourself weak because the reality is, if I were to throw my full weight against them, I would hurt them. That's what we see going on here. That's how Jacob is allowed to prevail.
Jeffrey Heine:It's because God is not throwing his full weight against him. It's interesting that the Hebrew word for weight is glory. Glory and weight are the same thing. Glory means heavy. And what it's saying is God is not using his weight.
Jeffrey Heine:God is not using his glory against Jacob. Because if if he were to show Jacob all of his glory, it would never say, and Jacob prevailed. But we see God making himself weak in order that he might bless Jacob. And that answers the question of how do you see Jesus here? How does this communicate?
Jeffrey Heine:How does this show us Jesus? How does this point to Him? And I think you see this in Philippians 2 when you when you read this. Jesus was in the form of God, but he did not count equality with God as a thing to hold on to, but made himself nothing. Made himself weak.
Jeffrey Heine:He had he had glory, but he he decided not to hold on to it. He had the weight, but he didn't hold on to it. Instead, he made himself nothing. He made himself light and weak and he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross, that we might be blessed. So we see that the son of God came and he shed his weightiness and he came and he lived in in our midst.
Jeffrey Heine:And he wrestled not with us, but he wrestled with his father and he lost. In which the full wrath and the full weight of his father was unleashed against him. Jesus received blow after blow from the full weight of God. And he lost and he died in order that we might receive that blessing. How can we be sinners and yet reconcile to God?
Jeffrey Heine:It's because Jesus left behind his glory and he became one of us and he received our blows so that we might be blessed. I don't know if you this puzzled you, but we we open the service with Psalm 24. Yeah. You wanna turn to Psalm 24? We we open the service with this.
Jeffrey Heine:We're gonna sing a song about this. This is it's an ascension song. It's also a song, you know, it's all it's it's centered on Genesis 32. Look at verse we'll read 3 through 6. Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord and who shall stand in his holy place?
Jeffrey Heine:He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false, who does not swear deceitfully. He will receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation. Such is a generation of those who seek him, who seek the face of God of Jacob. So this is about seeking the face of God of Jacob. It's about this story in Genesis 32 here.
Jeffrey Heine:But look how it describes the people who get to see God, who has clean hands. Does Jacob have clean hands? No. Does he have a pure heart? Have you seen how horrible he is up to this point?
Jeffrey Heine:Does he lift up his soul to what is false? Who do and does not swear deceitfully? Jacob's name means deception. All he's done is deceive people. So he doesn't have clean heart, clean hands.
Jeffrey Heine:He doesn't have a pure heart. He has sworn deceitfully over and over, and yet it says, such is the generations of those who seek him, who seek the face of the God of Jacob. This this whole psalm is a puzzle actually. Why would he throw in Jacob there? Maybe throw in Abraham.
Jeffrey Heine:Throw in somebody else, but the God of Jacob? But it's all alluding to this story here. And which is a story when Jacob finally confesses who he is. And he finally trusts not in his own righteousness, but in God's. He doesn't trust in his own resourcefulness, his own faithfulness.
Jeffrey Heine:He would trust in God's faithfulness and in God's strength. And therefore, he is now pure. He is now clean. He is now righteous, and he can seek the face of God and be blessed. What a psalm.
Jeffrey Heine:What a God. Pray with me. Lord, Psalm 24 says, we will receive blessing, blessing from the lord and righteousness from the God of our salvation. We receive righteousness. We don't produce it.
Jeffrey Heine:We don't merit it. Your righteousness is given to us
Caleb Chancey:through Jesus.
Jeffrey Heine:We thank you that because of you, Jesus, the true firstborn, who gave up your blessing of the firstborn and took the curse instead. We thank you that you did that in order that we might receive the richest of all blessings. We might receive God himself. Thank you.
Caleb Chancey:We pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.