GENESIS 32

Genesis 31:54-55                                           New King James Version

54   Then Jacob offered a sacrifice on the mountain, and called his brethren to eat bread. And they ate bread and stayed all night on the mountain. 

55   And early in the morning Laban arose, and kissed his sons and daughters and blessed them. Then Laban departed and returned to his place.

This is where we left off three weeks ago. 

• I’m going to recap the story up to this point. For our guests we have been going through the book of Genesis verse by verse. I’ll admit some of what we have read has been very difficult to talk about on a Sunday morning in Church. But if it’s in the Word, need to see it and hear it, and we need to ask God for understanding.

James 1:5                                                       New King James Version

5    If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.

• I’m not going to recap all the way back to the beginning of time,              Genesis 1:1, but what I will do is get you caught up with the story of Jacob and Esau which is where we are at. Abraham and Sarah finally have a son in their old age, Isaac. Isaac grows up and marries Rebekah, they have twin sons, Esau and Jacob, twins which were rivals from birth, embodying conflict between the hunter (Esau) and the quiet home dweller (Jacob).
• Jacob, tricked his hungry brother into selling his birthright for stew and later deceived their blind father, Isaac, with his mother’s help to steal the patriarch’s blessing, forcing Jacob to flee from Esau’s vengeance.
• As Isaac grew old and blind, he intended to bless Esau. Rebekah devised a plan for Jacob to disguise himself in Esau’s clothes and animal skin to trick Isaac, stealing the primary blessing. Esau threatened to kill Jacob, who fled to his Uncle Laban with the excuse to find a wife. Jacob immediately meets the women of his dreams, Laban’s younger daughter Rachel. Laban is no pic-nic he’s a deceiver himself. Jacob has no family money (dowery) to buy or to pay for Laban’s daughter, so Jacob makes a deal to work for Laban for seven years to marry Rachel. Seven years go by the wedding comes and Laban substitutes his older daughter Leah for Rachel late in the night, the next morning Jacob wakes up to Leah instead of Rachel.  Now Laban gets Jacob to work for him another seven years to have Rachel as his wife, now he has two wives. This causes significant conflict between sisters but God uses all of it in development of Jacob and building a family that will become the family of Israel. Jacob wants to leave Laban at this point he wants to return to his fathers land the land that God promised to Abraham and Isaac. But there’s a problem, he hasn’t developed any real wealth for himself and his growing family.
• Jacob makes another deal with Labon. If he stays all the sheep and goats that are born spotted, streaked or black would become his wadges. All the white ones are to be Labans. Laban thought it was a great deal because the spotted streaked or black ones were not as desirable anyway. God took this plan and ran with it. Jacob took tree limbs and stripped off half the bark to make stripes and put them in the watering holes where the sheep and goats would drink and breed. God made Jacob rich, his flocks grew and multiplied for the next six years.
• Now Jacob can see Laban’s sons are complaining, saying Jacob is stealing all of Laban’s (our fathers’) wealth. Jacob realizes it’s time to go. Instead of telling Laban he waited until Laban was away shearing his sheep and Jacob got his entire family, all his animals as well as camels and all he had, and was on the road for three days before Laban knew he was gone. 
• Laban was in hot pursuit after Jacob and his daughters and grandchildren. This is where we left off. 
• They had words and it could have been bad. It could have easily become a blood bath, but instead Laban chose to let them go (because of God speaking to him). They cut a covenant between them that they would never pursue each other to do harm. 

Genesis 31:51-55                                       New King James Version

51   Then Laban said to Jacob, “Here is this heap and here is this pillar, which I have placed between you and me. 

52   This heap is a witness, and this pillar is a witness, that I will not pass beyond this heap to you, and you will not pass beyond this heap and this pillar to me, for harm. 

53  The God of Abraham, the God of Nahor, and the God of their father judge between us.” And Jacob swore by the Fear of his father Isaac. 

54   Then Jacob offered a sacrifice on the mountain, and called his brethren to eat bread. And they ate bread and stayed all night on the mountain. 

55   And early in the morning Laban arose, and kissed his sons and daughters and blessed them. Then Laban departed and returned to his place.

• And now this man, Laban, is out of the scene. He’s no longer a thorn in Jacob’s flesh. God used Laban to chasten Jacob, but as we’ll see in the coming chapters, there’s still more work of sanctification that God is producing in Jacob’s life. He’s trying to bring Jacob to a place of surrender before God. And they make this covenant and Jacob concedes, “Yes, the God of Israel, the God of Abraham, the fear of Isaac, I will respect Him and therefore Laban will respect you.” But again, I remind you. All through this passage, for all we might learn of good morals or of good marriage or of good family, but because of the bad examples that are found in these chapters, we have to remember the ultimate story is that God is faithful in the midst of human chaos here in these chapters.

Genesis 32:1-9                                               New King James Version

1   So Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him. 

• We don’t exactly know what this means. In some way, angelic beings that are normally unseen were now made visible to Jacob, and they met him. Perhaps God wanted Jacob to know how great His care was for him and his family

2   When Jacob saw them, he said, “This is God’s camp.” And he called the name of that place Mahanaim.  Ma-ha-naim

• Mahanaim is a Hebrew word meaning “two camps” or “two hosts,” originating from here Genesis 32:2 when Jacob named the place where angels met him. It refers to the intersection of human and divine realms, specifically Jacob’s company and God’s army. 

3   Then Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau his brother in the land of Seir, the country of Edom. 

4   And he commanded them, saying, “Speak thus to my lord Esau, ‘Thus your servant Jacob says: “I have dwelt with Laban and stayed there until now. 

5   I have oxen, donkeys, flocks, and male and female servants; and I have sent to tell my lord, that I may find favor in your sight.” ’ ”

6   Then the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, “We came to your brother Esau, and he also is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him.” 

7   So Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed; and he divided the people that were with him, and the flocks and herds and camels, into two companies. 

8   And he said, “If Esau comes to the one company and attacks it, then the other company which is left will escape.”

Genesis 32:9-16       Jacob Prays

9   Then Jacob said, “O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, the Lord who said to me, ‘Return to your country and to your family, and I will deal well with you’: 

10   I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies and of all the truth which You have shown Your servant; for I crossed over this Jordan with my staff, and now I have become two companies. 

11   Deliver me, I pray, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau; for I fear him, lest he come and attack me and the mother with the children. 

12   For You said, ‘I will surely treat you well, and make your descendants as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.’ ”

13   So he lodged there that same night, and took what came to his hand as a present for Esau his brother: 

14   two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, 

15   thirty milk camels with their colts, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten foals. 

• 580 animals I want you to think of Jacobs wealth. They were travaling over 500 miles through rocky desert over mountains and dry valleys.  

16   Then he delivered them to the hand of his servants, every drove by itself, and said to his servants, “Pass over before me, and put some distance between successive droves.” 

Genesis 32:17-23

17   And he commanded the first one, saying, “When Esau my brother meets you and asks you, saying, ‘To whom do you belong, and where are you going? Whose are these in front of you?’ 

18   then you shall say, ‘They are your servant Jacob’s. It is a present sent to my lord Esau; and behold, he also is behind us.’ ” 

19   So he commanded the second, the third, and all who followed the droves, saying, “In this manner you shall speak to Esau when you find him;

20   and also say, ‘Behold, your servant Jacob is behind us.’ ” For he said, “I will appease him with the present that goes before me, and afterward I will see his face; perhaps he will accept me.” 

21   So the present went on over before him, but he himself lodged that night in the camp.

22   And he arose that night and took his two wives, his two female servants, and his eleven sons, and crossed over the ford of Jabbok. 

23   He took them, sent them over the brook, and sent over what he had. 

The Story Takes a Huge Turn Here!

24   Then Jacob was left alone; and a Man wrestled with him until the breaking of day. 

• Jacob didn’t wrestle with the Man. Instead, a Man wrestled with him. Jacob didn’t start out wanting anything from God; 
• God wanted something from him. God wanted all of Jacob’s proud self-reliance and fleshly scheming, and God came to take it, by force if necessary. As the following verses show, this was no mere man. This is another special appearance of Jesus in the Old Testament before His incarnation in Bethlehem. This was God in human form.
• “How did Jacob ever manage to keep up his struggle throughout the entire night? I do not know. But I do know that his determination to hang in there was no greater than our frequent determination to have our own way and eventually win out over God.”

25   Now when He saw that He did not prevail against him, He touched the socket of his hip; and the socket of Jacob’s hip was out of joint as He wrestled with him. 

• “It was brave of Jacob thus to wrestle, but there was too much of self about it all. It was his own sufficiency that was wrestling with the God-man, Christ Jesus”. As the fight progressed, it seemed Jacob was somewhat evenly matched against the Man, but the match was only evenly matched in appearance. The Man could have won easily at any time, using supernatural power.
• Sometimes we feel man really can contend with God. A man or woman in rebellion against God might seem to do pretty well. The match seems even in appearance only. God can turn the tide at any moment, and He allows the match to go on for His own purposes

26   And He said, “Let Me go, for the day breaks.”                                                   But he said, “I will not let You go unless You bless me!”

• The Man let Jacob know this would not last much longer. Even though Jacob clung to him desperately, Jacob had lost. A better, greater Man defeated Jacob. This is an invaluable place for everyone to come to: where God conquers us. 
• There is something to be said for every man doing his wrestling with God, and then acknowledging God’s greatness after having been defeated. We must know we serve a God who is greater than us, and we cannot conquer anything until He conquers us.
• This wasn’t Jacob dictating terms to God as he did on previous occasions. 
• God overcame Jacob here, and we know from Hosea 12:3-5 that Jacob sought this blessing with weeping. He knew he was defeated, yet desperately wanted a blessing from this Greater One.

Hosea 12:3-5                                                New King James Version

3   He took his brother by the heel in the womb,                                                                And in his strength he struggled with God.

4   Yes, he struggled with the Angel and prevailed;                                                                        He wept, and sought favor from Him.                                                                             He found Him in Bethel,                                                                                        And there He spoke to us—

5   That is, the Lord God of hosts.                                                                               The Lord is His memorable name.

Genesis 32:27-32

27 So He said to him, “What is your name?”                                                                he said, “Jacob.”

• Jacob must have felt a sense of shame, admitting his name was Jacob, with all its associations of deception and cheating. Yet this was who he was, and Jacob had to admit to it. We all want to name ourselves favorably. We say, “I am firm; you are stubborn; they are obstinate fools.” God wouldn’t allow Jacob to cover up his name, because in his case it reflected his true nature.

28   And He said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel; for you have struggled with God and with men, and have prevailed.”

29   Then Jacob asked, saying, “Tell me Your name, I pray.”                                        And He said, “Why is it that you ask about My name?” And He blessed him there.

30   So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: “For I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.” 

• Why did he say this : Exodus 33:20 But He said, “You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live.”

31   Just as he crossed over Penuel the sun rose on him, and he limped on his hip. 

32   Therefore to this day the children of Israel do not eat the muscle that shrank, which is on the hip socket, because He touched the socket of Jacob’s hip in the muscle that shrank.

• From this point on, this son of Isaac will be called Jacob twice as often as he is called Israel. Apparently, there was still plenty of the old man left in Jacob.
• “Dear friends, I am afraid that the lives of many of the Lord’s chosen people alternate between ‘Israel’ and ‘Jacob.’ Sometimes we are ‘strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might,’ and at another time we cry, ‘Who is sufficient for these things?’ Like princes we prevail with God, and are true Israelites; 

1. But perhaps when the sun has gone down we limp with Jacob, and though the spirit be willing, the flesh is weak. 
2. We are Jacob before we are Israel; and we are Jacob when we are Israel; 
3. But blessed be God, we are Israelites with God when we cease to be Jacobs among men.” (Spurgeon)