Now, those of us, those of you that are
new, that are visiting with us, what we
do each semester is we take a phrase
from our mission statement and we have
that be the theme that guides us. And
so, the phrase, do you remember this
semester is equipping God's people? And
we've been looking at that through the
lens of the penitute. All the messages
that have come have been through the
first five books of the Old Testament.
And that so today we're going to be
actually in Genesis chapter 32. Genesis
chapter 32 uh verses 22-32 is our text.
If you were with us last week, we heard
a powerful message from Dr. Goldstein on
Genesis 28. Thank you, brother. As he
brought us the word about Jacob's dream
and Jacob leaving home and going away.
And now what we come to is Jacob
returning
just about 20 years later. And here just
to set the context a little bit before I
read the passage, Jacob ran away. You
remember Doc told us last week because
his brother, his twin brother, wanted to
kill him, but God has told him to
return. And so now he's on his way back
with all that God has blessed him with.
And he sends word to his twin brother to
let him know that he's coming. and his
twin brother sends message back after
Jacob sends not just word but all of
these extravagant gifts Esau sends word
or they get word back that Esau is
coming with 400 people 400 men and so
you could understand Jacob being
understandably afraid and that's where
we meet him here in the passage here in
verse 22 the night before he meets his
brother here now A reading of God's word
beginning with verse 22.
The same night he arose and took his two
wives, his two female servants, and his
11 children, and crossed the fort of the
Jabbach. 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 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?" And he said, "Jacob."
Then he said, "Your name shall no longer
be called Jacob,
but Israel,
for you have striven with God and with
men and have prevailed." 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. So
Jacob called the name of the place
Pineel saying,"For I have seen God face
to face and yet my life has been
delivered." The sun rose upon him as he
passed Pineuel limping because of his
hip. Therefore to this day the people of
Israel do not eat the sinnu of the thigh
that is on the hip socket because he
touched the socket of Jacob's hip on the
sinnu of the thigh. This is God's word.
>> Thanks be to God.
>> Let's go to prayer, people of God.
Father, we just thank you for your word.
We thank you for how it testifies about
itself that it's living and active. It's
sharper than a double-edged sword. And
Lord, that's really good news because
that means that you can get beneath the
surface with us. You can get to our
thoughts, our minds, our attitudes, even
our very hearts. And so we pray that you
would do so this morning. Holy Spirit,
we thank you for your presence in this
place. continue to move, continue to
have your way among us so that we leave
different people than the people that
walked in here. We pray you would do
that for the glory of God. All this we
ask in Jesus' name. And all God's people
said,
>> "Amen." Amen. A little over 20 years
ago, I was one of a group of 30 pastors
from all around the country that got to
participate in something called the
Pastors Summit. And much of our
experience is chronicled in this book.
Anybody have this resilient ministry by
Bob Burns and Tasha Chapman and and
Donald Guthrie? I commend it to you.
Much of what we talked about and learned
is is contained in this book and it came
at an incredibly critical time in my
life and ministry. Nathan, if you could
put up that picture, I want to describe
what my life felt like.
like that vehicle speeding on a
dangerous mountain road with no guard
rails that could fly off at any moment.
Maybe some of you come feeling even that
way this morning. But that's what I felt
like. I was in my first pastor. It was
about the fifth year. We were pastoring
a church in inner city Baltimore and uh
just going through all kinds of things.
My wife Ebie, you can give her a shout
out right here as she's in the front.
Amen.
And we had four kids at the time. They
were between the ages of eight and two
years old. And and I I think I can be
transparent and say that we were going
through a a difficult season in our
marriage. Church was just churching as
it as it does.
And in our neighborhood, we're going
through an incredibly violent time.
Probably the most that I'd ever seen in
my 13 years that we were there. where
for six consecutive weeks there was a
murder within the 16 square blocks of
our neighborhood. Every week the
struggle was real there and that was the
time that I was invited to be part of
the pastor summit. And what I've said
and I don't believe this is an
exaggeration is that may have saved me
in the ministry.
In fact, I could go as far as to say
that it may have saved my life.
We learned together, these pastors, as
we gathered in groups of 10, 10 at
Covenant, 10 at RTS, 10 at Westminster
in Philadelphia, we learned about the
importance of things like soul care
and spiritual formation and emotional
intelligence and the importance of our
marriages and families and leadership
and management. So grateful that you
guys now at Covenant, you get poured
into along the lines of these things.
Now
don't take that for granted, y'all.
>> And keep on with those things after you
leave this place.
It felt like a first for me, learning
these things for the first time
together.
And the thing that I remember is not
only that we learned all of these things
together about all of these different
topics, but in the midst of all of that,
in the midst of all that was going on in
our lives and our ministries, God met us
and God was with us in the midst of the
struggle. The struggle was real. And
certainly that's true for Jacob, right?
We could hear it as we were reading this
passage. The struggle is real for our
brother. And I want you to imagine being
an Israelite and you're reading this
story and you're like, "Oh my goodness,
this where we got our name from.
This is how it came about." But that's
not all that they were supposed to see.
They also are meant to see that the same
God who's with Jacob in all of his
struggles is the same God who is going
to be with them in the midst of all of
their struggles.
>> Amen.
>> And I have good news for you this
morning watching online or here in this
room. The struggle is real for us. No
matter how you've come, no matter where
God is going to take you from here,
whether it be a pastor, a counselor, a
campus minister, ministry leader, a
faculty here on staff, lay person,
whatever your call, the struggle is
real. But the good news is that the same
God who is with Jacob in the midst of
his struggle,
>> the same God who was with the Israelites
in the midst of their struggles is the
same God
who is with us in the midst of ours.
So what do we learn about that from this
passage? That's what we want to look at
in our time together. What do we take
away? How do we live in light of this?
And again, we're thinking about our call
to equip God's people. How do we help
God's people with what we learn here?
And we're going to look at three things
under three headings. And that is we're
going to look at Jacob's struggle.
We're going to look at Jacob's naming.
And we're going to look at Jacob's
blessing. Jacob's struggling, Jacob's
naming, and Jacob's blessing. And I know
what you're thinking already. You're
like, "They don't all start with the
same letter." Well, you can't force it
all the time. It doesn't always work
like that. But you have to preach the
word as it is. So let's start with
Jacob's struggling.
So earlier the writer told us in verses
22 and 23 that Jacob sent all that he
had and all the people that were with
him ahead. So we come to verse 24 and it
begins it says and Jacob was left alone.
So he's going to face this struggle all
by himself. And then this strange thing
happens. It says a man wrestled with him
until the breaking of the day. And it
doesn't tell us here exactly who this
man is, but we can deduce, we can guess
that this is a theophony. This is an
appearance of God in the Old Testament
that comes and is wrestling with Jacob.
And it says here he's wrestling to the
break of day. Do we have any wrestlers
in this room? Like wrestling for three
minutes is hard, right, brother?
>> Yeah. Can you imagine hours all night
long?
But here he is. And then look at verse
25. This is very two two things here. It
says first here the man saw. This is a
theophony. But the man saw that he did
not prevail against Jacob.
How can that be?
But then here's the other thing it says.
It says he touched
his hip socket and Jacob's hip was put
out a joint as he wrestled with him. And
y'all know that Hebrew word that that or
the word that's translated touch here,
you know what that means?
It means touch.
That's it.
So on the one hand, it tells us that he
can't prevail against this man. But then
on the other hand, he simply
touches him
and his hip is dislocated.
So what's going on? Well, we keep
reading verse 26.
Then he said, or excuse me, verse 26.
When the man saw,
where am I? Verse 26, I'm sorry. Then he
said, "Let me go." Wait, I'm messing
myself up. Hold on.
Yes, verse 26. Let me go, for the day is
broken. But Jacob said, "I will not let
you go until you bless me." What's going
on here, y'all? Jacob realizes that he's
with someone greater than he is,
>> someone that's great enough to bless
him. And so even though his hip is
dislocated, even though he needs to let
go of this man before daybreak, or it
could mean his life, he says, "I will
not let you go until you bless me." Now,
you follow the Jacob story and you know
this brother has been struggling for the
blessing literally his whole life,
right? Even in the womb,
he's grasping at the heel of his
brother, his twin brother, trying to get
out first.
And then later, as they grow up, you see
him tricking his his brother who's
hungry and not all that bright to be
able to get the birthight.
And then he deceives their blind father
to get the blessing that the father
meant to give to the older brother. And
then you keep on reading the story, you
see his father-in-law, they're
struggling and wrestling their whole
lives. But what is the narrator, what is
the writer showing us here? That yes,
Jacob had struggles with all those
different people, but he's what he's
showing us here in this wrestling scene
is that there's a struggle underneath
the struggle.
>> That Jacob's ultimate struggle is not
with his brother. His ultimate struggle
is not with his father or with his
father-in-law. His ultimate struggle all
along has been with God.
This is Jacob's struggling.
Now, what can we take away? On the one
hand, we we know th this is a unique
struggling, right? He's going to get the
blessing of Abraham, right? The blessing
that is going to extend throughout all
of the world by the grace of God. But
there is something we can identify with.
We all know what it feels like to desire
the favor
>> of someone that we look up to. Maybe
it's your professor,
maybe it's a parent,
maybe it's your friend, maybe it's your
spouse, your classmate, your pastor,
whatever leader that you look up to and
you long to have the blessing of that
person. Let me ask you this morning,
where are you struggling
besides it being the end of the
semester?
Where are you struggling?
Who are you struggling with?
What are you struggling with?
And what is the struggle underneath the
struggle?
Where are you fighting with God?
And you say, "How do I figure that out?"
Well, you got to get along with God.
It's super Yeah. Yeah. That's right.
It's super important to be in community
with God's people. And
we also need to be alone with God.
>> And maybe some maybe God is wrestling
some of y'all down just to get some time
with you
>> so you can listen to him.
This is the struggle. The struggle is
real. Now, let's keep moving. We've seen
his struggling. What about Jacob's
naming? Let's go down to verse 27.
And and he said, Jacob said to him, or
excuse me, I'm sorry, the the wrestling
man said to Jacob, "What is your name?"
And he said, "Jacob." And we know from
our study, right? Names are very
important in that culture, right? They
signify your character and your destiny.
What does the name Jacob mean? Do you
remember? Why did they call him Jacob?
No offense to you, Jacob.
Why do they call him that? Because he's
grasping
at his brother's heel, even as he's
being born. In chapter 27 of Genesis,
just a few chapters earlier, after he
steals the blessing from his brother,
Esau says, "Isn't he rightly named Jacob
because he jacobed me?
He cheated me
these two times. Can you imagine?
You go through all of your life
and your name is cheater.
Somebody passes you. What up, cheater?
But here in verse 28, we come this
person, this wrestler has authority to
be able to give Jacob a new name. What
does he say? He said, "Your name shall
no longer be called Jacob, but Israel."
Why? For you have striven with God and
with men, and you have prevailed. This
is Jacob's naming from cheater to
prevailor.
One of the cool things is this is the
very first time this name Israel is here
in the Bible.
And if you read a little bit later in
the passage, it says the people of
Israel. Some translations there, it's
the Israelites for the very first time.
But what about our name, people of God.
Who are we? What's our name? What are
we? We're the what?
We're the church, right? We're the
church. Who do people say that we are?
What do they say about us?
You say there's a lot of things they're
saying that aren't that good.
And if we're really honest, some of that
is deserved, right? We bring that on
ourselves by the way we treat each other
and other people.
But who does God say that you are,
people of God? Who does God say that the
church is? One place we have is in First
Peter chapter 2 where he says, "And
listen to this. You are a chosen people.
a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a
people belonging to God that you might
declare the praises of him who called
you out of darkness into his marvelous
light. Do you hear me this morning?
That's who you are.
>> That's who you're called to equip people
of God. Whatever whatever everybody else
might SAY ABOUT US, THAT'S WHAT God says
about who we are.
What about you individually?
What's your name?
What have been people? What have people
been saying about you? What are the
tapes that you hear playing in your head
about what people have called you?
Maybe it's your worst sin or your
greatest area of weakness.
But who does God say that you are?
You know, when Satan comes and whispers
in your ear about your past to try to
discourage you from the ministry that
God has called you to, you know what you
need to do is take him to Bible study
>> and say, "Hold on, Satan. Why don't you
turn with me to second Corinthians
chapter 5?" Because there what God says
about who I am is I'm a I'm a new
creation. Because anyone that's in
Christ is a new creation. The old is
gone and the new is coming.
when he's trying to tell you you ain't
nothing,
you ain't nobody.
You can say, "Hold on, S. Why don't you
turn back with me to Luke chapter 3 and
and I'll show you this passage where the
father speaks about the son at his
baptism." But I want you to know that
through faith in Jesus Christ, those
very same words apply to me
>> when he says, "You're my beloved son.
You're my beloved daughter. With you I
am well pleased." Amen.
>> And when you're tempted
to rejoice in your own works
and take pride in what you've done
or your own brilliance, your own
excellence, you can remember those words
in Luke 10.
When the disciples come back to Jesus
and say, "The demons submit to our to us
in your name." And he says, "Don't
rejoice that the demons submit to you,
>> but rejoice in what? That your
names
are written in the book of life.
This is his naming, but this is also our
naming. Remind the people of God of
this. Lastly, let's end. We've looked at
Jacob's struggling. We've looked at
Jacob's naming. Let's look at Jacob's
blessing.
Here we come to verse 29. And Jacob says
to the man, "Please tell me your name."
But he said, "Why is it that to you ask
my name?" And there
he blessed him.
And we can tell in verse 30 that Jacob
grasps the significance
of what's taking place because he says,
"So Jacob called the name of the place
Pineel, which means the face of God,
saying, for I have seen God face to
face, and yet my life has been
delivered."
Now, can I nerd out for a second? Do we
have a little bit of time for that? Now,
I didn't read verse 20, but I want to
look at that really quickly as we think
about him coming face to face with God.
You can can you put that up there? Verse
20, the second part of verse 20 says,
and this is the narrator is giving us a
great privilege. He's taking us inside
the mind of Jacob
before he goes to meet his brother. And
he says, "Moreover, your servant Jacob
is behind us. For he thought, and here's
the thoughts, I may appease him with the
present that goes ahead of me, and
afterward I shall see his face. Perhaps
he will accept me. How many times do you
see the word face in that verse?
How many times?
It's not a trick question. Come on. One
time, right, in the English, but
actually in the Hebrew, it's in there
four times.
Do you see that? For he thought I may
appease him. Do you know what that means
literally? It means that I may cover his
face to turn away the wrath. In other
words, the theologians call that a
propitiation.
And then he says that I may appease him
with the present that goes before my
face.
And afterward I shall see his face. And
then it that perhaps he will accept me.
Do you know what that means? Perhaps he
will lift up my face. In other words,
he's saying, I'm coming bowing before
him in shame and sorrow. And his
acceptance means he will come to me
and lift up my face.
That's what he was praying back in verse
20. But by the time we get to verse 30,
now he's seen the face of God.
And so that means he's ready to face his
brother and anything else that comes
along. because now he's seeing God face
to face.
Verse 31,
the sun rose upon him. What a beautiful
phrase.
The sun rose upon him. It doesn't just
mean that it was Tuesday night. Now it's
Wednesday.
What he's saying there is there's a new
day. There's a new era in the life of
Jacob. The sun rose upon him as he
passed Pine Well,
limping
because of his hip.
All his life, Jacob has been trying to
get the blessing. And now he does, but
not through his conniving, not through
his scheming. He receives it by the
grace of God.
But how else does that blessing come,
y'all?
That blessing also comes through
weakness
because what does it say there? The sun
rose upon him as he passed limping
because of his hip.
And when he would have that limp for the
rest of his life,
but I think if you would ask Jacob, he'd
say, "Well, that's all right.
I'll take it. Cuz if that means I get
the blessing of God,
>> then I'm all right. I'll take the limp
and everything else he wants to give me.
This is Jacob's blessing. Now, what can
we take away before we end? Two things.
One,
embrace your weakness.
Embrace
your weakness. I don't know about you,
but I don't like that one.
But that's what it shows us. Again, the
way he gets the blessing is not through
his scheming and and his own plan. The
way he gets it is he receives it by the
grace of God. And it comes through
weakness. The Apostle Paul writes so
well about that when he's talking about
his thorn in the flesh. And he pleads
with God three times for God to take it
away. And God says, "No,
I'm not going to take it away."
Why not?
can put up verse nine
because my grace is sufficient for you.
Meaning it's enough. It's all that you
need. My grace is sufficient for you.
For my power is made perfect. It's seen
in not in your giftedness, but in your
weakness. And so, how did Paul respond
to that? He said, "Well, guess what? But
I'm going to boast all the more gladly
of my weaknesses so that the power of
Christ may rest. And that word means
tabernacle
upon me.
Embrace your weakness.
Embrace
your weakness.
But more important than that,
embrace his weakness.
Don't just embrace your weakness, but
embrace his. Embrace the weakness of
God. What do I mean by that? Remember
back in verse 25 that strange verse
where you have this theophony
who's wrestling with Jacob and can't
prevail against him, but then yet
touches him and dislocates his hip. What
in the world is going on there? Surely
he has power to prevail over him.
But the way
that God chooses to save Jacob, the way
that God chooses to transform Jacob is
by making himself weak.
When our four kids were small,
one of their favorite things to do when
I would come home from work is they
would, you're laughing already, they
would hear me putting the key in the
door and they would run and and hide
outside the door and they'd be giggling
and getting ready and I'd be like,
"What's that noise? What's going on?"
And I OPEN THE DOOR, BLAH, AND THEY JUMP
ON ME, ALL FOUR of them. And y'all know
what? Back then, I could take all four
of them at the same time.
In fact, I would have to hold back my
strength
>> in order to not hurt them.
Do you get what I'm saying? That in
order for my kids to have life,
I had to make myself weak.
Where am I going this morning? Where do
we most of all see our Lord making
himself weak so that we might have life?
>> Where do we see it most of all? We see
it not just in this Jacob, but we see it
in the greater Jacob,
>> the true Israel,
>> our Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, what is it
that makes him the greater Jacob?
Well, let's think about his struggling.
Not just on the cross, but his whole
life. He chooses to be born in the
struggle.
>> Think about him struggling in prayer,
pleading with God three times to take it
away. And God said, "No."
Think about his struggling. Think about
his naming. His name tells us who he is.
You shall call his name Emmanuel because
he's what? He's God with us.
>> And his name tells us what he came to
do. You're going to call him Jesus. Why?
because he's going to save his people
from their sins.
And what about the blessing
on the cross? Jesus Christ did not just
receive the touch of God's finger.
He received the full wrath of God upon
himself because he's the propitiation
for our sins so that we might receive
the blessing.
The struggle is real. Oh, but thanks be
to God, so is the Savior this morning.
Yeah.
>> The writer of Hebrews says that for the
joy set before him, he endured the
cross, scorning it shame, and now he's
seated at the right hand of the throne
OF GOD, WHERE GUESS WHAT HE DOES? He
interceds for you and I in the midst of
our struggle.
>> I don't know how you came in this
morning, but you are not in that
struggle alone. You have the greatest
prayer warrior ever, the Lord Jesus
Christ, seated at the right hand of God
who is interceding for you right now,
who's crying tears right along with you.
One day, he's going to wipe every tear
from our eyes. And I suspect he's going
to be wiping some of his own
>> because that's how closely he relates to
you. take heart today and let your
people know that the struggle is real.
But thanks be to God, so is the Savior.
Let's pray.
Father, we give you thanks today for not
only this Jacob,
but for the greater Jacob.
And Lord, we look to him. We look to you
to guide us in whatever we brought.
Lord, help us to be able to embrace
the weakness rather than hide it and
cover it up. Let us embrace it. But more
than that, let us embrace yours. We give
you glory and honor and praise for it.
All this we ask in Jesus name. And all
God's people said, "Amen.