Faith in Brokenness

Excerpt from Sermon:

Jacob wrestling with a ‘man’ at the Jabbok River is one of the most well-known stories of the Bible. I do not plan on giving some of the same old information that you already know, but what I do plan on doing is giving you a more comprehensive study in these verses and hopefully leave you with a greater understanding of God’s Word. Most are divided on whether up to this point in Jacob’s life if he is a true child of God or if the patriarch was converted after his encounter with this ‘man’. Before I started this in-depth study of this piece of scripture, I have always leaned towards Jacob not being a true child of God before his encounter with the Angel of the Lord or the Pre-incarnate Christ. After countless hours of studying, prayer, and meditating on this piece scripture, I propose that God left a lack of conciseness in there for a reason and that is to teach us. The turning point in all of Jacob’s life was when he met God face to face and all agree on that as anyone should rightly so.

You can argue from a Biblical stance that Jacob was a true child of God the whole time and on the other hand you can Biblically justify Jacob was not a true child of God because of his scheming and conniving until God violently grabbed ahold of Jacob. There is a lack of conciseness in scripture to come to the final and correct answer, but after much prayer, meditation on scripture, and study, I feel very comfortable in saying that when the Holy Spirit wrote Genesis through Moses, that lack of conciseness is there for a reason. I say this because when Jesus taught through parables, there was a main point He was teaching but you could glean other truths and principles and even scripture or a verse can do the same thing. I believe there is more than one thing God is trying to teach us here so to teach Unbelievers, Believers, and even those that are self-deceived a great lesson because these verses apply to all!

Jacob was chosen by God’s sovereign election and not according to man’s customs while he was in the womb of Rebekah and God told her that “The older will serve the younger” and in the first chapter of Malachi, God states, “Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated.” Jacob was a child of the promise that God gave Abraham just as his father Isaac was. Even though Jacob was God’s chosen of the promise and the Messiah would come from his lineage, Jacob was not what you would call ‘righteous’. Jacob’s name meant ‘heel grabber’ or ‘supplanter’ for he was a deceiver and conniving in the way he dealt with those he wanted to get over. With his mother’s direction and help, Jacob was such a deceiver that he deceived even his own blind father Isaac into giving him the blessing that he was going to give Esau.

To give some background and context to our message here, Esau had already sold his birthright to Jacob for a bowl of stew, God had already told Rebekah that ‘the older shall serve the younger’, and Esau had married a pagan Hittite woman which ignored Abraham’s standard for Isaac’s marriage. This family had some issues going on behind the tent doors. Isaac more than likely knew what God had told Rebekah, but still ignored it and still wanted to give Esau the undeserved blessing because Esau was the eldest and Isaac’s favorite. This was according to tradition and man’s way with dealing with family mechanics. Jacob was Rebekah’s favorite, so when she overheard Isaac’s conversation, she was going to take matters into her own hands instead of trusting in what God had told her.

Jacob deceiving his father angered Esau so much to the point that he said, “The days of mourning for my father are at hand; then I will kill my brother Jacob.” Once again, Rebekah not trusting in the Lord, was told what Esau said and told Jacob to go stay with her brother Laban till Esau’s ‘anger turns away from’ him. Rebekah easily convinced Isaac to send Jacob away in search for a wife back in her homeland as once Isaac did, so that Jacob would not take a local Hittite woman for a wife as Esau did.

There was no reason for Jacob to deceive and scam as he did to get what he wanted. All he had to do was trust in the Lord and His timing. More than likely Rebekah had told Jacob what God had told her about the older serving the younger and is why she devised a plan for Jacob to receive the blessing when Isaac was set on giving the blessing to Esau. When Jacob spent the night under the stars while traveling to Haran, the Lord came to him in a dream and said, “Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you.”

Jacob was given a promise by God, but he continued to take matters into his own hands instead of putting his whole life into the hands of God. Jacob did obey God when He told him in Genesis 31:3, “Return to the land of your fathers and to your family and I will be with you”, but Jacob did not remember or take to heart that God said, “I will be with you.” After Jacob cut a covenant with Laban to not harm each other again, Jacob made his way back home as the Lord instructed.

Now we come to where today’s scripture begins and that is at the Jabbok River. Jacob was afraid of Laban or he would not have secretly slipped away, but he was also afraid of Esau. Jacob remembered what Esau had said 20 years ago and Rebekah had never sent for him, so Jacob is more than likely thinking that Esau’s anger still burned against him. Jacob’s conscience and his sin made him a coward, which brought anxiety and fear and he forgot all that the Lord had told him. God had even sent a host of angels to meet Jacob to strengthen him and Jacob said of the place, “This is God’s camp” and named it Mahanaim, meaning ‘double camp’. Jacob’s camp and God’s camp. Instead of Jacob being strengthened and emboldened, only fear and anxiety overcame him.

All of God’s promises were forgotten by Jacob. The camp of angels that God sent were forgotten. All Jacob could think about was Esau and the 400 men that accompanied him. It must have been a sleepless night because “Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two maidservants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions” (Gen 32:22). This could have been disastrous for Jacob because in the desert at night it is pitch black when there is no illumination from the moon, and I have experienced this multiple times from my deployments to Afghanistan. Sometimes you cannot see your hand in front of your face. Fear and anxiety led Jacob to do what he did. At some point, though it does not say explicitly, Jacob crossed back across the Jabbok. So, Jacob was left alone.

All Jacob could do was think about Esau and the fear that accompanied those thoughts. Jacob at this point was reduced to groveling by calling Esau ‘Lord’ and his ‘servant’. Jacob was to be Esau’s lord and Esau was to be Jacob’s servant as God had foretold. Even Isaac told Esau in Chapter 27, verse 40, “And you shall serve your brother.” Just imagine as he laid there in the dark of the night and someone suddenly and violently grabs a hold of him. Jacob surely thought it was Esau or one of the 400 men that was traveling with him. Jacob thought that Esau was his adversary when in reality it was God! God was not going to let Jacob into the Promised Land without making him the man according to His will!