Word of Salvation – Vol. 28 No. 09 – May 1983

 

Encounter With God

 

Sermon by Rev. B. G. Aldridge, v.d.m. on Genesis 32:22-32

Scripture Reading: Genesis 32

Songs: BoW 9: Ps.H 337; 414; 452; BoW 703

 

Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Jacob could feel well pleased with himself.  He paused for a moment before crossing the brook.  He had taken every precaution and at last he was returning to his inheritance: the land of Canaan which God had promised to Abraham.  The only fly in the ointment was Esau but he had taken precautions to deal with that problem.  Esau had been bought off in the past.  It might work again.  Of course, if he had not tried to deceive his father twenty years before it would not now be necessary.  Still, the last twenty years had not been too bad.  He had learned a lot and shown old Laban a thing or two.

Besides, God could not be too unhappy with him.  True, He had not appeared all the years that He was in Haran but now He had appeared again.  He had told him to return to Canaan.  The long exile was over.

At last the birthright would be his,
He would possess the land,
He would come into his inheritance,
The promises of God would be fulfilled –
Yes, he had little to worry about.

Encounter with God.

He attempted to cross the brook.  All his household had already crossed.  He alone remained.  Suddenly he was held fast.  The grip was formidable; vs.24: “A man wrestled with him.”  Why was Jacob held up?  It was clearly against his will.  Jacob did not initiate this.  The man wrestled Jacob.  Why?

Jacob was the chosen of God.
Jacob had been told to return to Canaan.
The inheritance was his…
but God would not let him go forward.

Why?

Because God could not and would not let him possess his inheritance as Jacob.

His state of mind was obvious.  He thought that the only thing that stood in his way was Esau.  And Esau could be won over by Jacob’s cleverness, (with a little help from God, of course.) He thought that the inheritance was automatically his because he had been chosen, because he was Jacob; because he was a child of the covenant.

Certainly God would help him but he was firmly convinced that he had the ability to secure the promise of God for himself.

God would not let this happen.  Jacob was an exile, banished for fraud.  True, God had confirmed the covenant to him but Jacob
  had never come to any real sense of his own unworthiness;
  had never ceased to rely on his own ability;
  had always been sufficient to meet any challenge;
  had been successful on his own.

True, God had elected Jacob rather than Esau but the blessing of the birthright was a gift from God.  God would not let Jacob think that it was his automatically.  God would give it to Jacob; but Jacob,
  could not buy it,
  could not win it,
  could not gain it by his own ability.

This Jacob did not understand.

In the past twenty years God had taught Jacob many things.

To some extent Jacob had come to acknowledge God.  But:
  his subtle scheming nature was still active,
  his reliance upon his own ability was unbroken,
  his self-confidence was unimpaired,
  he was still Jacob: the supplanter.

Jacob sought to inherit the promise of God as Jacob and that could not be, for “that which is born of flesh is flesh” (John 3:6).  Jacob tried to obtain the birthright by his own efforts but this could never be, for he would obtain it by God’s appointment “for though the twins were not yet born, and had not yet done anything good or bad, in order that God’s purpose according to his choice might stand, not because of works, but of Him who calls, it was said to her: ‘The elder shall serve the Younger’.” (Romans 9:11-12)  Jacob would inherit the land but it must be upon God’s terms and conditions.  “The gifts and calling of God are irrevocable.” (Romans 11:29) but they are gifts: to be given,
  not bought,
  not earned,
  not won.

But in holding Jacob up, God had another purpose which was inter- woven with this first.  Jacob was the one chosen by God to carry on the royal line of the covenant.  That line, God decreed should descend through Isaac not Ishmael, though Ishmael was the first born.  Again, God chose Jacob rather than Esau even though Esau was the first born.  In the fulfilling of his purposes God chooses whom He will.  “It does not depend upon the man who wills or the man who runs but on God who has mercy,” (Romans 9:16).  In stopping Jacob from crossing the brook God wanted to work such a change.  Jacob that God’s purposes in the covenant would be fulfilled.  Not only for his own benefit was he stopped but that God’s purposes according to election might stand.

In the lives of the “children of the promise” (Romans 9:8) these twin purposes are always intertwined.  The promises are indeed “to you and to your children” (Acts 2:39) but they must be received as a gift.  They cannot be purchased, earned or obtained by his own efforts.  By His life and death Jesus secured an inheritance for his people: an “inheritance incorruptible and undefiled” (1Peter 1:4) for all of God’s elect, for all who truly put their trust in Him.  This inheritance is ours when God works to bring us to faith and repentance.  And so marvellous is the working of God that while we are so blessed, the purpose of God according to His choice stands.

Struggle with God.

Because God wanted to work this out in Jacob’s life God took the initiative.  He has always done this in His dealings with men:
  Adam in Eden,
  Cain after the murder of Abel,
  Saul on the Damascus road.

It was the Lord who laid hold upon Jacob.  Jacob did not know who it was.  Perhaps he thought that it was an agent of Esau sent to prevent him.  Whatever he thought at this stage, the struggle was a real one.  It was not actually or symbolically prayer.  Esau had not been able to prevent him securing the birthright; Laban had not succeeded in holding him back from the Promised Land; and neither would this one.

But Jacob would learn that in the fulfilling of his purposes God was not to be resisted.  So when Jacob refused to give in, “when he saw that he had not prevailed against him” vs.25, while Jacob continued to fight and wrestle and tried this trick and that,
  God touched him and wounded him v 25.
  God touched that sinew upon which the wrestler depends.

And in a moment:
  Jacob realised who it was
  Jacob saw the folly of his ways.
  Jacob knew the foolishness of further resistance.

As the stiff, hard corded muscle shrivelled at the divine touch, so the proud self-sufficient, self-confident Jacob shrivelled as he realised that he was face to face with the Lord!

Then the dawn came, “Let me go” said the divine One.  Jacob must have felt that God was now abandoning him.  He saw all possibility of inheriting the land slipping from his grasp.  Foolishly he must have thought that God would now not fulfil His promise so he cried:
“I will not let you go unless you bless me.”
At that moment Jacob saw the impossibility of fulfilling God’s purposes and obtaining the blessing by his own strength; that God had wounded him, not in order to take the blessing from him but in order that he might now receive it.

As he now:
  owned his own utter helplessness to advance one step,
  admitted that he had come to the end of his resources,
  saw that he could accomplish nothing of himself,
  he clings to the Lord and demands that he be blessed.
Finding himself helpless he now demanded a blessing from God.

He was not presumptuous.  He was simply demanding that God be true to His covenant promises.  As at Bethel, God had renewed with Jacob the covenant made with Abraham, now God was bringing Jacob to the position of submission and acceptance of the terms and conditions.  As Jacob submitted himself to God’s terms and accepted God’s conditions for entering the land so he had a right to demand that God fulfil His promise and bless him.  Of course, he was foolish to think that God would not.  And so in weakness and humility he held on and received as a gift what twenty years of scheming could not give him.

How marvellously God works to bring His rebellious child to Himself and fulfils His purposes.  By His Holy Spirit He comes to His stubborn, self-willed, self-sufficient, independent and rebellious child.  He seeks to show us the folly of our ways, He touches our strength, He brings us low and exposes our independence and rebellion.  He does this in order that we might cast ourselves on His grace and mercy.  Jacob dwells within each one of us: self-righteously seeking to achieve our inheritance by our own efforts and service.  We battle with God and seek to resist His efforts to subdue our rebellion.

We seek acceptance with God by our own efforts, and try to gain the inheritance by devious devices.  We assume that the Lord will automatically bless our efforts no matter what we do.  Are we secretly like those who say in their heart: “Lord, Lord have we not…?” (Mat.7:20f).  But God will have His way.  In grace and mercy He works so that His purposes for us and our desires become one.  As the hymn-writer says:

            “Hast thou not seen,
             How thy desires have been
             granted in what He ordaineth?”

In working out His purpose God did not violate Jacob’s will but graciously brought Jacob to the position where the purposes of the Lord in fulfilment of His covenant… the necessity of remaining true to His own ways in dispersing of His gifts and Jacob’s desire to gain the inheritance are one.

Blessing of God.

God heard his cry. Vs.27-28.  Jacob became Israel.  The supplanter became a prince with God.  This new name interpreted this crisis in his life.  He crossed the brook, not as Jacob but as Israel.  The man who now went forward was not the same who cheated Esau, who outsmarted Laban and who wrestled with God.  He was Israel: entering his inheritance as a gift from God.

  He had met with God.
  He had prevailed with God.
  He had wrestled with God until God weakened him.
  He had clung to God until God brought him low enough to receive the blessing.

God blessed him.  Vs.29-30.  Jacob was as curious as we are.  He wanted to know who the person was, “What is your name?”  Was it an angel?  Was it a theophany: an appearance of God in human form?  The divine One does not pander to Jacob’s curiosity.  Was it not enough to know that He had the authority to give the blessing of God?  Do we need to know all about this One before we can receive the riches of His grace?  NO!  Be like Jacob.  When He received the blessing of God then he knew who it was.  It was the Lord God.  He named the place, Peniel – the Face of God.
  It was God who had stopped him,
  it was God who wrestled with him,
  it was God who brought him low and
  it was God who blessed him.

God allowed him to go to his inheritance. Vs.31-32.  The birthright was his, the land was his but forever he would walk with a limp.  He carried with him the reminder that whatever he had he had as a gift from God.  This ‘thorn in the flesh’ was a reminder that, not only did he receive the blessing as a gift from God, but his continued occupation also depended upon God’s grace.  Just as he did not obtain the inheritance by his own ability so he would learn that his continued possession was not by his own strength.

It is a most serious perversion of the Gospel that teaches that it is possible to be accepted by God as a gift of His grace but then to think that our continued enjoyment of that acceptance depends on our own efforts.  We are accepted with God by the Gospel of His grace and our continued possession depends upon that same Gospel.  Of this, Jacob had a constant reminder.  He did not become a saint overnight.  There was still Esau to face the next day.  Other battles and trials would come but he carried with him this reminder of the constant need to rely upon the Lord.

Conclusion.

Finally he crossed the brook.  It had been the longest night in Jacob’s life but the most blessed.  God had fulfilled His purposes.  For Jacob, a life of deceit, scheming and exile were over.  The covenant child had come home.

And I will speak briefly to those covenant children who are roaming in exile.  The sign and seal of the covenant is upon you, the promise of God is to you but…
  still you seek your own way,
  still you rebel against the Lord,
  still you stubbornly refuse to accept the inheritance as a gift,
  still you try to gain acceptance with God by your service or giving.

Christ has died and risen from the dead.  He has paid the penalty for sin.  He has secured the inheritance as a gift.  Today, do you feel the Spirit through the Word struggling with you?
  Abandon your independence and self-reliance;
  Cling to the Lord that He might bless;
  Receive the gift of salvation from His hand.

Amen.