[Text: Gen. 32) “Faith Directed and Redirected”

Scripture Intro: The further Jacob walked away from Laban, the closer he was getting to Esau, his brother who was looking to kill Jacob twenty years prior. Jacob was coming to the end of his journey, but he was afraid that the end of his journey…would mean the end of him.

[Read and Pray]

Jacob has grown up a lot since we first met him and realized that his name, which means “he cheats,” was perfectly suited to him. Since then he’s suffered fear, hunger, danger from exposure, danger from men and all sorts of trials in life. But he has learned that in the midst of all those trials the promise of God, of Yahweh’s very presence with him, had not failed. But in his return from exile, his return to the Promised Land itself, his trials are not over. In fact, the most agonizing trials he will endure are still to come. But he is learning something about the purpose of trials, or at least the best effect they have, which is to bring him to the end of himself so that he can run in faith to his God and Rescuer.

In this passage we see Jacob facing two trials and two powerful adversaries. But in each of them we see faith at work in Jacob’s heart – not perfect faith and, at some points, not even a lot of faith – but nevertheless it was faith that pointed in the right direction, toward Yahweh.

Throughout the Scriptures, the direction of our faith is always the issue. Some people say that they don’t have any faith, but I don’t believe that is true. We all put our hope in something to solve our problems or fix “the system” or make us feel good or make us secure. The only question is; What or Whom is powerful enough? Where you direct your faith when trials come, that is your god. For some, it’s the right economic strategy, the right federal tax rate that is going to turn this world around. For others it isn’t the system as much as it is the leaders of the system. They say, “If only [insert political candidate here] makes it into office, then this city/state/nation/world will be right and whole again.” For some it is empirical science. Still others hold on to hope in the right spouse or the perfect family or the power-track job or a good reputation from work thinking, “As long as I get/keep/never lose __________, then I can make it.”

Don’t misunderstand! These things can be good and useful things, but they are not the ultimate Source of hope! If these things become that ultimate hope for you, then I’m afraid I bear bad news (or rather, some good news). The Scriptures speak to every potential solution humans have run after when trials come, and its testimony is that they are all empty apart from the work of Yahweh. No system, mere human leader, husband, child or level of affluence will be able to carry you through every trial of life. There is only one who can and that is Yahweh come in the flesh, Jesus of Nazareth. To him our faith must be directed.

So let’s look at this part of the Story to see something of how, in love, Yahweh actually uses trials (and sends trials) in the lives of His people to bring them to the end of their plans, indeed, the end of themselves so that they can find their all in Him.

As Genesis 32 opens, Jacob is leaving Laban in peace after a deeply trying twenty years of service. But Yahweh has been with him as He promised and as Jacob walks toward Esau, Yahweh sends His angels, literally his “messengers,” to meet Jacob to remind him, very tangibly, of that promise. It’s a remarkable display of grace, too. There is not just one, but so many angels, Jacob calls it a whole camp of them. We’ve already seen the power God has given His angels when it took only two of them to overthrow the entire valley of Sodom and Gomorrah. Now Jacob sees an army of them as he comes home to remind him that Yahweh is his God and Defender.

And Jacob might need them. His mind is obviously on Esau, wondering if the anger Esau had toward him – anger that Jacob brought on himself so many years before – wondering if that anger still burned hotly. So Jacob sends messengers with a message seeped in humility. God had promised before Jacob and Esau were born that “the older will serve the younger.” But here is Jacob calling Esau “lord” and himself “your servant” in v. 4. Jacob isn’t negating the word of God here. He knows that he and not Esau enjoys the promises of the Covenant. But Jacob also knows how wrong he was twenty years before this and comes to Esau, seeking forgiveness with humble words. And if Esau might feel threatened still at Jacob’s return, thinking he has come back to displace him, Jacob says, “I’m coming back, but I have all the flocks and servants I need. Don’t worry about me trying to take what is yours! I only want to be reconciled.”

Jacob’s servants go to Esau and return with no message, but with frightening news. “Esau is coming,” they say, “and he has 400 men with him.” Abraham had defeated 4 powerful armies with fewer men than that. So, Jacob does what any man would naturally do; he panics and divides his camp, hoping that if attacked, at least one group will survive to enter into the Land.

Like Jacob, we don’t know Esau’s intentions as he first moves toward his brother, but we find out in chapter 33 that Jacob never really had need for fear because God was at work changing Esau’s heart. Some commentators say that it was unbelief that drove Jacob’s fearful actions of dividing his camp, giving hope to one through the slaughter of the other. Others say his faith did not presume upon how Yahweh might keep his promises and that Jacob’s faith considered the promises kept even if only half of the people made it home, since Yahweh could rebuild His people even from the remnant of the survivors.

The truth is I don’t know whether he was fully believing or fully unbelieving in his actions. If his heart was like mine, then sin had sunk in so deeply that even his best actions were corrupted by unbelief. No, I can’t say what was fully in his heart, but I do know that even after Jacob divided the camp, he knew that whatever he did wasn’t enough to spare himself or his family from this dangerous trial. So, he directs his faith, weak and small though it might have been, toward Yahweh and prays.

He prays the first true prayer that we have heard from his lips. And it is a good one. We could spend a whole day on this prayer, but I want us to see why, in the midst of his most severe trial so far, Jacob is able to direct his faith toward Yahweh. He directs his faith and hope toward his God because (1) Yahweh has given him a promise and (2) Yahweh has given him a command.

First, consider the promises of God that support Jacob. He directs his prayer not to an unknown deity or generic god, but to the God of Abraham and Isaac, to Yahweh who promised to do him good. And in the close of the prayer in v. 12, even after he makes his request and tells Yahweh of his fear for his life and the life of his family, he contrasts his fear with the promises made to him. He says, “I fear him…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.’”

And as these promises support him, it’s clear that he isn’t trusting in his own worthiness, thinking he has some right or claim to these promises. He says so as he confesses just the opposite in v. 10 saying, “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.” But within the confession of his unworthiness is a celebration of the promises of God he has seen already fulfilled toward him! He has seen steadfast love and faithfulness with promises of more to come. So in this dark trial he will direct his faith toward this Yahweh who makes and keeps promises.

But Yahweh has not only made promises to Jacob. As his God, Yahweh has also given Jacob a command that Jacob should return to his country and family. And Yahweh does not command unless He intends to support and empower and protect. So, Jacob directs his faith toward Yahweh and walks in obedience.

So, Jacob prays…and then Jacob works. What we see next is not a return to self-preservation or Jacob directing his faith back toward his own ability to protect his family during this trial. What we see is Jacob directing his faith toward Yahweh and then doing what is in his power to do. Jacob makes use of his vast wealth and sends gift after gift after gift after gift to Esau, to turn his worldly enemy (because that is what Esau was) into his worldly friend. We have to underscore, however, that Jacob is using his wealth to make a friend, but his faith is not in his wealth. He is simply using his means and then directing his faith toward the God who can change human hearts, like Yahweh is doing with Jacob’s own heart.

And then Jacob has to do what might be the hardest thing of all. He has to wait. Having entrusted himself to Yahweh and done what was within his power to do, Jacob must wait to see how Yahweh would carry him and his family through this trial. The picture we see at the end of v. 21 and through v. 24 is of a man at the end of himself. Jacob can’t sleep after he sends the gifts forward, so anxious is his heart, he sends everyone over the river ahead of him, not to send them into danger ahead of him, but simply because he wants to be alone.

But suddenly, Jacob wasn’t alone. Twenty years earlier on the borders of the Promised Land, Yahweh had met him as his faithful God, Defender and Comforter. Now, in v. 24, his faithful God again appears to Jacob, this time as a powerful adversary, to teach Jacob a lesson Yahweh would always teach His people. He fights for us in our trials, always, so that no threat can snatch us from His hand. AND He also fights against us in our trials to teach us that we are not to direct our faith toward anything other than Him.

So, Yahweh in the form of a man appears in the dark of the desert night and Jacob faces another trial in the middle of a trial. This wrestling match lasts until the breaking of the day. And in the dawn twilight, the unknown man makes himself known to Jacob in this display of power that will mark Jacob for the rest of his life. The man simply touches Jacob’s hip and Jacob’s hip was put out of its socket.

I wrestled in high school and I can tell you that the longest match lasts 6 minutes. If you go the full distance, your body will be in agony. So imagine Jacob’s realization as he has wrestled for hours with a man, only to experience in a touch the reserve of strength in this adversary. This is no mere man.

But still Jacob won’t let go. He is wounded but he knows the One whom his hands hold. Jacob says to his God, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”

And then something remarkable happens; Jacob the cheater, Jacob the usurper gets a new name. God names him “Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.” Did you hear that declaration? Jacob has prevailed in all the trials he has endured. God himself said so! But do you see the state in which he finds himself? His body is broken and as the victor he can only plead for the blessing of Yahweh. Hosea writes of this moment in 12:4,

“He strove with the angel and prevailed;

he wept and sought his favor…”

Even in this moment of agony and victory, Jacob has come to the end of himself and can only direct his faith and hope toward His faithful God.

If you have heard this story before, perhaps you’ve thought it strange that God would come down and wrestle with Jacob. But God’s promise to be with Jacob was not a promise of a life of ease for Jacob. Too often we hear the promises of God’s blessing on our lives – even promises of forgiveness and peace with God – and assume we know what that should look like. But God knows that the promise of His faithful presence with us will often mean he comes to us appearing as an adversary. But he is a loving and faithful adversary who only means to bring us to the end of ourselves so that, like Jacob, we can only cry out that our body is out of joint, that we are helpless without His blessing on our lives. And when we cry out, you see what He does…He blesses us.

Though God would not give Jacob everything he wanted (like the revelation of his name), Yahweh gave Jacob everything he needed as he blessed Jacob. And Jacob left a testimony to his children and his children’s children as he named that place Peniel, “the face of God,” remembering the time he saw his God and lived. Through this he testified that in the midst of trials, even when God Himself seems to be against you, the only hope you have is to direct your faith toward Yahweh and plead for his blessing. Jacob received that blessing, and afterward, he limped away toward a meeting with Esau.

The question in Israel’s history would always be “Where is our faith directed; is it toward Yahweh or toward something else? As we see our sin and need of cleansing, are we directing our faith toward Yahweh and his mercy or toward a system of rules? When life is good, is our faith directed toward Yahweh or toward our comfortable life in the Promised Land? When foreign powers rise against us, is our faith directed toward Yahweh or toward the chariots of our allies in Egypt as our source of strength? Are we going to rest in Yahweh and His word and promises or are we going to try to rest in something else when trials come?”

As you answer that same question in the midst of the trials of life, you may not consciously answer it, but you will answer it nonetheless by looking somewhere for hope, directing your faith toward something or someone to either rescue you or help you escape. I see it most clearly in where I put my trust for cleansing and forgiveness of sin. Either I’m directing my faith toward myself thinking, “If only my repentance is heartfelt enough or tearful enough, if only I stop sinning and ‘do better next time,’ then God will forgive me.” or I’m looking toward Jesus and resting in the reality that his blood has paid for all my sins and he gives me a righteousness in the sight of God that makes me so secure, so loved, that nothing, including me, can now separate me from the love of my Father through Jesus, my Lord. So where are you directing your faith, both for forgiveness (as Jacob needed) and for help in the trials of life?

The writers of the Scriptures would help you in that search for rescue. One of them urges,

“…let us … lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to (that is, directing our faith toward) Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?

     ‘My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,

          nor be weary when reproved by him.

     For the Lord disciplines the one he loves,

          and chastises every son whom he receives.’”

(Hebrews 12:1-6 ESV)

He goes on, “For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” (Hebrews 12:11 ESV)

What were Jacob’s trials if not loving discipline from Yahweh, meant to lead Jacob to the end of himself only to find himself secure in the arms of his God who gives righteousness to those undeserving sinners who look to Him in faith?

And what are your trials today if not faithful displays of Yahweh’s affection and love for you in Christ. He means to make you His and will do so by rooting out sin where there is sin or by bringing you to the end of yourself so that Jesus might become your all in all! If our Father was not willing to spare Jesus from the cross, but sent him to the darkest trial a man has ever faced, then will He spare us? But if God carried Jesus through that darkness and raised him up even from the dead, will he not, when your faith is directed toward Jesus, carry you through your trials (even to death) and raise you up as well?

So as you face the trials your Father has allowed you to face, let your fear and anxiety do their work and send you, like Jacob, to your knees in prayer, directing your words and faith toward Jesus, your faithful God. Listen to his promises to you and pray them back to Him. And listen to his commands to you and, by his grace, seek to walk in obedience to Christ by the power He gives you through His Spirit. There is clarity in obedience. I believe Jacob’s clarity and wisdom in his sending gifts to Esau were, in part, due to his obedience. But disobedience always produces a fog in our minds that nothing but the grace of God can penetrate. But do not despair, fellow strugglers! God’s faithfulness does not depend on our obedience.

I should point out that coming to the end of us isn’t just a one-time thing. I think there can certainly be a first time of coming to the end of ourselves and then directing our faith toward Jesus (we call that conversion), but that coming to an end of “me,” of what I can do, and then turning toward Jesus once again is the life-long pattern of any believer. That’s what we call “repentance and faith.”

And it is in that pattern that we discover more of the grace of Jesus toward us. Like with Jacob in this story, as we come to the end of ourselves we understand that the blessing he gives to us is not a one-time blessing, but a life-long blessing of a new identity, one that is rooted in Jesus and not in our old self. The old you died on the cross with Jesus, your Savior. You are new in him and you have new names, like “Forgiven” and “Saint.”

For all His people, Yahweh means to direct our faith toward him alone and so he brings us, like Jacob, to the end of ourselves and He does it over and over and over again. Sometimes he himself even appears to be our adversary. He tears down our faith in what we can see or do for ourselves but replaces it with faith in His Son, Jesus. And in the end it will be shown that in every trial his intention is only to bless us by leading us back to him.

[Prayer] Father, you are the Almighty God who appeared to Abraham, you are Yahweh, the covenant God of your people. Like Jacob, we do not deserve the least of the works of steadfast love you have done for us. We do not deserve the full and gracious cleansing Jesus’ blood accomplishes for us. But you have given us the gift of faith to direct our hope toward him and so we will praise your faithfulness that has been from generation to generation. Never, Father, has your steadfast love departed from your people. We are in the midst of trials that feel like deep water over our heads and our disobedience and fear has left us confused and fearful. But you have made promises to us, to do us good because of Jesus. For his sake, because of His righteousness, we ask you, O God, to carry us through these trials, even to the end of ourselves, so that we might see and praise your glory both now and forever more. Amen