Genesis 32:1-33:20 | Hit the Ground

Go and grab it and open it to the book of Genesis. The book of Genesis. Continuing our walk through the book of Genesis. One thing that you may notice is that as we are getting deeper into the book, the sections, or the way that these stories get broken up, also get longer. Rather than just looking at particular paragraphs this morning, we're going to be looking at two whole chapters: chapter 32 and 33. I won't be reading the entirety of it; I'll just be reading from verse 24 of chapter 32 to the end of that chapter, but we'll be looking at all two chapters. If you don't have a Bible, you can use a pew Bible that's in front of you. You can turn to the first book in your Bible and look at chapter 32 and 33. If you don't have a Bible, we would love for you to just keep that book. Consider that a gift from us to you. We would love for you to have a copy of God's Word. Again, we'll be looking at Genesis chapter 32. Let me read from verse 24.

Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. When the man saw that he could not defeat him, he struck Jacob’s hip socket as they wrestled and dislocated his hip. Then he said to Jacob, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” “What is your name?” the man asked. “Jacob,” he replied. “Your name will no longer be Jacob,” he said. “It will be Israel because you have struggled with God and with men and have prevailed.” Then Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.” But he answered, “Why do you ask my name?” And he blessed him there. Jacob then named the place Peniel, “For I have seen God face to face,” he said, “yet my life has been spared.” The sun shone on him as he passed by Penuel—limping because of his hip. That is why, still today, the Israelites don’t eat the thigh muscle that is at the hip socket: because he struck Jacob’s hip socket at the thigh muscle. — Genesis 32:24-32 (CSB)

Let's pray. Lord, we pray that as we see the example of Jacob now, towards the end of his story, seeking to be faithful, that you would help encourage us to pay attention to our lives and to be able to seek the right things as well as we seek to follow you. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Jacob's Lifelong Struggle and Impending Confrontation

Jacob has lived a lot of life. We've been following him for the past several months, and along the way, he's had to craft schemes to outmaneuver and slither by his opponents. Yet now, as we get into chapter 32, after this great match that he had with his uncle Laban, he finds his initial conflict coming back to confront him. His brother Esau advances towards him with 400 men.

As he faces down his biggest fear, there is no turning away. He can't save face. But his familial tension that he has with his brother points to a deeper tension that Jacob has had his entire life: which is that Jacob doesn't trust the Lord. He sets up in Ebenezer, he sets up a stone, he ascribes victory and provision to his God, but every single time in his life up until this point, when he finds his back against the wall, he turns towards his own abilities, his own strategies, even his own superstitions.

Yet now he finds himself at the very end of himself. And for the first time in his life, he turns towards the only God who can save him. And it's when he encounters this God that Jacob finds that his face will be saved in ways that he never expected. So what does Jacob do to save face in these two chapters? He does four things. And we'll use those four things that he does to follow through this story. First, Jacob panics. Second, he prevails. Third, he prostrates—that's just a fancy word to describe bowing. And number four, he persists.

Jacob Panics and Prays

So we start with point number one: he panics. Look at verse 1 of chapter 32.

Jacob went on his way, and God’s angels met him. — Genesis 32:1 (CSB)

Jacob's journey back to his homeland begins similar to the trek out of his homeland. Earlier in chapter 28, we saw Jacob's encounter with angels at Bethel. And now on his way back into the homeland, God's angels meet him. But rather than occupying a giant portion in the text, it just stays in just one verse. He stays in God's camp. But unlike the comfort that he found at Bethel, his mind is fixated elsewhere. You can see where his mind goes in verse 3.

Jacob sent messengers ahead of him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the territory of Edom. He commanded them, “You are to say to my lord Esau, ‘This is what your servant Jacob says. I have been staying with Laban and have been delayed until now. I have oxen, donkeys, flocks, and male and female slaves. I have sent this message to inform my lord, in order to seek your favor.’” When the messengers returned to Jacob, they said, “We went to your brother Esau; he is coming to meet you—and he has four hundred men with him.” Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed; he divided the people with him into two camps, along with the flocks, herds, and camels. He thought, “If Esau comes to one camp and attacks it, the remaining one can escape.” — Genesis 32:3-8 (CSB)

Jacob isn't so much focused on the angels of his present, but on the demons of his past. For decades of Jacob's life, he was able to get away without ever having to confront the reality of what he did to his brother: cheating him out of his birthright, deceiving his father, and then fleeing for his life. And he managed to avoid things for decades. He lived a long life, he married two wives, he had many children, he amassed himself a great fortune. And now, nearly four decades after that inciting incident, he returns home, and the reality of what he's done is unavoidable.

The same is true for all of us. I don't know if you're here this morning and trying to avoid something, trying your best not to think about some conflict, some problem that continues to hang over your head. You cannot run away from judgment; it is unavoidable. And so Jacob does what any of us would do after running away and after knowing that he would have to confront the inevitable: which is he tries to figure out how mad the person is. He tries to assess the damage. He tiptoes around the house after breaking the cookie jar. And his messengers come back and let him know that Esau is advancing on him with 400 men. Does that sound like he's a happy guy? No, it sounds like Esau is pretty mad.

In fact, the very last time that Jacob saw Esau or talked about Esau, it was because Esau swore that he would kill Jacob. And so Jacob does what any reasonable man would do: he freaks out. He panics, he's afraid, and he is distressed. He divides his people into literally two camps. And by splitting them in two, he is hedging his bets. He understands that if Esau really intends to obliterate his existence, then half of his people would survive. And most likely he could slip away with that other camp and continue to live. Jacob is doing what he has always done: he's scheming. He's just trying to figure out the most practical solution to get away with it one more time.

And it's after all of this plotting and this fear that Jacob finally prays to the Lord. You can see that in verse 9.

Then Jacob said, “God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, the Lord who said to me, ‘Go back to your land and to your family, and I will cause you to prosper,’ I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness you have shown your servant. Indeed, I crossed over the Jordan with my staff, and now I have become two camps. Please rescue me from my brother Esau, for I am afraid of him; otherwise, he may come and attack me, the mothers, and their children. You have said, ‘I will cause you to prosper, and I will make your offspring like the sand of the sea, too numerous to be counted.’” — Genesis 32:9-12 (CSB)

This is the first time Jacob ever prays in the book of Genesis. He has come to the end of himself, and it's unsurprising that he would do this. He's afraid of his opponent, he's afraid of his brother, he's afraid of everything that he would lose. And so he goes to the only person left that he thinks can save him. He goes to God. He prays. The ironic thing about his prayer is that he prays to the only one who has provided all of what he has and has protected him from all of the things that have threatened him up until this point, whether it was his brother or his uncle or even his selfish father. God provided all of these things for him. He's protected him all the way up until this point, and yet he prays.

He appeals to God's character and his promises because even though he's known everything that the Lord has done for him, everything that God has promised him, he still doesn't feel safe. He hasn't felt safe at any of these impasses that he's approached in any period of his life. And I just want to say that God loves these kinds of prayers. He loves these kinds of prayers, the prayers that exist in the tension between what we believe and what we fear, between what we know and what we're afraid of. Jacob comes to the end of himself, and he has no choice but to go to God. And what we'll see as the story progresses is that God answers this prayer with an enthusiastic yes.

I wonder if you're here this morning and you feel that pressure on your chest, whether you have called on the Lord to rescue you. Whether you have taken the time to call on him, to rescue you in light of what you fear. Has the time that you spent worrying or strategizing or mulling things over in your head compared to the time that you have spent going to the God who is in control of all things, who knows your heart? Are you willing to turn to him before your own abilities or your own strategies? There is nothing more effective that Jacob could have done. His prayers were more important than his arrangements of his people. His prayer was more effective than any of his strategies because he turned to the God who can actually hear him. Jacob turns to God because there's nowhere left to turn.

Well, there is like one more thing that Jacob can do, which he does in the next passage, in verse 13 through 17.

He spent the night there and took part of what he had brought with him as a gift for his brother Esau: two hundred female goats, twenty male goats, two hundred ewes, twenty rams, thirty milk camels with their young, forty cows, ten bulls, twenty female donkeys, and ten male donkeys. He entrusted them to his slaves as separate herds and said to them, “Go on ahead of me, and leave some distance between the herds.” And he told the first one, “When my brother Esau meets you and asks, ‘Who do you belong to? Where are you going? And whose animals are these ahead of you?’ then tell him, ‘They belong to your servant Jacob. They are a gift sent to my lord Esau. And look, he is behind us.’” He also told the second one, the third, and everyone who was walking behind the animals, “Say the same thing to Esau when you find him. You are also to say, ‘Look, your servant Jacob is right behind us.’” For he thought, “I want to appease Esau with the gift that is going ahead of me. After that, I can face him, and perhaps he will forgive me.” So the gift was sent on ahead of him while he remained in the camp that night. — Genesis 32:13-21 (CSB)

Jacob's last act in the midst of his panic is to bribe his brother. He sends three gifts ahead to appease Esau. The word used for these gifts are for offerings. He is literally trying to make atonement for his wrongdoing. He is at one level trying to communicate to Esau an apology, and it's his here one. He's trying to explain that he's sorry for what he's done and trying to show it. You ever do that? Like my parents never apologized, but sometimes I would get an extra good meal along with a sympathetic face. Jacob is sending in lines of animals to try to appease his brother and cool his temper.

But more than that, he is trying to appease him. He is giving literal offerings that by offering Esau these riches, he would please Esau the way that you would please an idol. Because that's exactly what Esau is; he's an idol. Not because Jacob loves Esau—I think if anything Jacob wants Esau off his back or out of his life. Esau's an idol to Jacob because Jacob fears him. Esau is a god to Jacob. You see, you don't need to love something in order to idolize it. You just need to fear it. It needs to captivate your attention.

Our opponents can cast a shadow and tower over our lives in such a way that occupies all of your space, all of your attention, even your affections. You don't even have to love the thing itself. You can just love not having that thing in your life, or avoiding that thing, captivating our devotion out of fear, trying to navigate around them, trying to see how we could possibly secure our own desires from them. Jacob views Esau as the decider of his destiny, which is why he worships him. He's trying to appease him because he's afraid of him. Is there something that you've been afraid of in your life that's occupying your mind? Something that lives in your head rent-free? That might be worth having a conversation with a fellow church member over lunch.

Jacob lines up all his wives, his slave women, his sons, and all his possessions, crosses the Jabbok, the stream, and he places himself last. Do you see the picture of all that he's done? He puts all his stuff, all his wives, all his slave wives, all his kids, all in front of him, all so that he could protect himself. Last to die because Jacob has always put Jacob first. And when Jacob's alone, that God finally answers his prayer.

Wrestling and Prevailing Through Weakness

You see that in point two: Jacob prevails. Look at verse 24.

Jacob is finally alone. He has no defenses left, and suddenly he finds himself wrestling with a man. And now later he's going to say that he saw God face to face and he lived (Genesis 32:30). He wrestled this man, and this man appears to be God. And I just want to be careful in light of some other sermons that we had, if you listen to our series in Genesis, you can see this dynamic between the angel of the Lord and people that appear like God. This is not Jesus incarnate. The reason why we know it's not Jesus incarnate in that sense is because Jesus gets incarnated in the world in one specific moment in time; that happens in the first century. It's not like Jesus after incarnating and taking on flesh jumps into some divine time machine back in time to then go wrestle Jacob. But at the same time, the angel of the Lord legitimately represents God in such a way that Jacob is able to say, "I have seen God face to face" (Genesis 32:30). And at the same time, Hosea 12, which we read earlier this morning, is able to say that Jacob wrestled with an angel (Hosea 12:4). So you have an angel of the Lord, and you have Jacob wrestling with God, and both are true at the same time. In the New Testament, Jesus will even pick up this image and talk about how this 'angel of the Lord' is referring to himself, but what he means is that it's pointing forward. Are we understanding that kind of theological dynamic here?

Jacob wrestles this angel. In any case, he wrestles this man all through the night. This is at least eight hours of just nonstop tussle, hitting the ground, hitting the mat, continuing to wrestle this man. And the man, I think, recognizing that he needs to end this wrestling, finally does something that he probably was able to do the whole time: he just pops Jacob's hip. He pops his hip so that he's unable to continue to fight. And yet Jacob will not let it go. You can see it in verse 26.

Jacob won't let this situation go. He demands this man's name, but God is not concerned with his name but Jacob's name. He renames him Israel, "the one who struggled with God and men and have prevailed" (Genesis 32:28). And Jacob names the place Peniel for seeing God face to face and being spared (Genesis 32:30). This moment here in the middle of these two halves about Esau's life—this moment where Jacob encounters God—is the pivotal moment of Jacob's life, and a literal name-defining moment for the entire nation of Israel. That they would be known for the rest of their existence as a people who wrestles with God, that struggles with him. That for the rest of their history, they will take God to the mat and wrestle with him.

And yet God tells Jacob that he struggled with God and prevailed. He won. I find that so interesting that he says that he prevailed, because there's only one guy in this interchange who's walking away limping. It's not God. Jacob is going to limp for the rest of his life, waddling away, and yet God is willing to say that Jacob has prevailed. Why use that word 'prevail' when he's just been humbled? Because that is how you prevail in the Christian life. Up until this point in Jacob's life, anytime he succeeded, Jacob could verifiably credit his own schemes, his craftiness, his sheer force of will. Even when God would provide sheep, he could still point to his tree branch strategy for how he managed to get everything himself. But now Jacob will have to literally lean on God for the rest of his days. And that is exactly how God loves to use his people: not by making them great, but by making them reliant.

In 2 Corinthians 12, Paul talks about how he was given a vision of the third heaven, and so that he wouldn't boast, God gives him a thorn in the flesh to torment him. And he pleaded, and he prayed, and he wrestled with God, begging God to take the thorn away. And God tells him:

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is perfected in weakness.” Therefore, I will most gladly boast all the more about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may reside in me. — 2 Corinthians 12:9 (CSB)

Why would God's power be made known through Paul's weakness? Because if Paul continued to be powerful, then between Paul's power and God's power, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference. Jacob is willing to ascribe all these things to God, but when he's pushed to his limits, he ultimately relied on himself. And so God, in his kindness, in his love, gives him a tangible everyday reminder of his daily dependence on the Lord. He receives a limp.

Are you able to tell the difference between your abilities and God's provision? I'm not talking about lip service, where you say it's all God's. DJ Khaled's able to do that. I'm asking whether or not you're actually able to credit the Lord with all that you have in your life. Whether you have a disposition of dependence on God. Because if you don't, you will carry a load on your shoulders that you weren't designed to carry. If God didn't pop Jacob's hip, he wouldn't have been able to see that he was wrestling with God. He would have just thought that he's another great man, submitting another man that he had been spared of God's judgment. And it was God who has been sustaining him this entire time. And so out of God's mercy, he gives him a limp. Not so that he can power through the pain every single day of his life, but so that he can finally let go of the weight that he had been carrying his entire life.

And just a side note, this limp isn't something that you should seek to inflict on others in the name of God. But it won't take long until the Lord gives you a limp. There are many of us who waddled our way into church this morning, not just physically, but emotionally, spiritually. You can come in, we just feel weak, depressed, powerless. And if you feel that way this morning, thank God. Because that means that the Lord loves you too much to leave you in delusions of self-reliance. Now, you might be here and feel like every single joint that you have is dislocated. And that's precisely where the Lord loves to work. God wrestles Jacob because Jacob has been wrestling his entire life, trying to save face. And it's only once he comes face to face with God that he's able to understand that his life isn't about saving face or about being safe, but seeing the Lord's face and knowing that he's been spared, that he's safe. Jacob wrestles, he's humbled, and it's then that he's able to see. The Lord meets Jacob in his greatest need to show him what he lacked. And yet his greatest fear still approaches.

Reconciliation Through Grace

So let's continue in point three: He prostrates. Verse 1 of chapter 33.

Now Jacob looked up and saw Esau coming toward him with four hundred men. So he divided the children among Leah, Rachel, and the two slave women. He put the slaves and their children first, Leah and her children next, and Rachel and Joseph last. He himself went on ahead and bowed to the ground seven times until he approached his brother. — Genesis 33:1-3 (CSB)

I just want you to notice that Jacob switched his position. In chapter 32, he's in the very back as he sees Esau approaching him. In chapter 33, he doesn't initiate his initial strategy. He doesn't put himself last. Instead, he puts himself first. Because for the first time in his life, he's acting like a proper leader. He's the first to sacrifice, first to embrace this discomfort and risk. But his brother's response is not what he expects. You can see that in verse 4.

But Esau ran to meet him, hugged him, threw his arms around him, and kissed him. Then they wept. When Esau looked up and saw the women and children, he asked, “Who are these with you?” He answered, “The children God has graciously given your servant.” Then the slaves and their children approached him and bowed down. Leah and her children also approached and bowed down, and then Joseph and Rachel approached and bowed down. — Genesis 33:4-7 (CSB)

Esau runs up to hug his brother. 20 years have led to this, and they both break down in tears. There's no fight. There's no conflict. There's not even a long conversation of everything that's happened in order to bury the hatchet. There are only tears, hugs, and kisses. How is something like this possible? How can you have a real reconciliation between these two guys where nothing has to come up? That only happens if you recognize all that the Lord has done for you. You see that in Jacob's response in verse 8.

So Esau said, “What do you mean by this whole procession I met?” “To find favor with you, my lord,” he answered. “I have enough, my brother,” Esau replied. “Keep what you have.” But Jacob said, “No, please! If I have found favor with you, take this gift from me. For indeed, I have seen your face, and it is like seeing God’s face, since you have accepted me. Please take my present that was brought to you, because God has been gracious to me and I have everything I need.” So Jacob urged him until he accepted. — Genesis 33:8-11 (CSB)

Jacob doesn't attribute any of this to himself. He gives credit to the Lord. It's precisely because of God that he's able to forgive his brother and have this gracious disposition towards him. Do you see the way that he describes Esau here? He describes Esau's graciousness towards him like seeing God's face. Because he's been accepted. And on the flip side, the reason why Jacob is able to give so much to Esau is because he recognizes that what he has wasn't anything that he earned but was given to him by a gracious God. Jacob understands now that when he gives to his brother, he is doing exactly what the Lord has done for him, by giving him something that he doesn't deserve. But he's only able to do that because he's giving out of the abundance of what he himself has been given.

This is exactly what the gospel is about. Isn't this exactly what Jesus has done for us? That despite our sin and the debt that we owe, our Savior graciously paid the penalty of sin in our place, forgiving us our debt and making us new. That the good news of the gospel isn't that you have to earn your way to save face anymore, but that God comes to you. It's no wonder that Jesus, when talking about the grace that comes through Christ, uses the example of a father running out to meet a son who spurned him. Instead of judging him, greeting him with hugs and kisses. I think Jesus knows exactly what Esau did to Jacob in this story. That because of the grace that's found in Jesus Christ, you can stand before a holy God based on God's grace.

If you're too busy keeping score, you will never be made right with God. If you labor your whole life to live in such a way that you could be respectable enough to stand up on judgment day, be prepared to run for the rest of your days in this life. You will be just as terrified as Jacob was to meet his Maker. It's not that the gospel gets rid of that injustice. It's that Christ with his blood completely satisfies it. Completely covers it. That Christ's sacrifice on the cross doesn't just cover the injustice that we have with God. It also enables us to cover the injustice that others have caused us. It's precisely this that Jesus is getting at in his parable about the debtor who owed many debts. A guy who gets forgiven a gazillion bajillion dollars from the king and then walks down the street and sees a guy who owes him 20 grand, which is no small amount of money—you can buy a used car with that. And yet he's so spiteful that he grabs the man by the collar and throws him into prison until he can repay the debt. The king, when finding out, rebukes him and then throws him into prison. The reason isn't because $20,000 isn't a significant amount of money. It's not because the injustices aren't real. It's because when you're given the perspective of eternity, what the Lord has given you is so great that it enables you to be able to forgive the debts of anyone else that owes you anything.

If you understand what the Lord has done for you in paying that penalty, you're able to have the perspective that you need to be able to forgive anyone else for anything that they have done towards you. That's what enables you to be able to take the log out of your own eye and recognize the wrongdoing that you have done first, even if you think it's smaller. That's what enables you to be able to initiate the process of reconciliation towards those who have wounded us. The gospel enables us to cross barriers that otherwise would estrange families for life. I wonder if you have an Esau in your life. I wonder if you've taken the time to consider what the gospel may demand of you.

As Tim Keller says, reconciliation begins with internal forgiveness. And that isn't dependent on what the other person does. Recognizing the work that God has done for you, and making the effort to apply the grace of Christ to any wounds that you may be experiencing in your own heart. To labor to apply the divine forgiveness on them by recognizing that you are just as sinful as they are. And that if Christ has been gracious to you, that you by extension can be just as gracious to them. That internal forgiveness then empowers us to attempt external reconciliation. To be able to offer repentance, to offer even forgiveness, and to put aside any effort to get even. This isn't about recognizing wrongs. This is about applying grace.

I love the story of Fleetwood Mac and their long decades-long drama and beef as they broke up as a band. And now, just decades later, coming together and being able to play together again. And I remember a journalist asking them in the middle of an interview, "We all knew about the drama. It was all over the news. Did you guys sit down and talk about it?" One of the bandmates just smiled and looked at the interviewer and said, "It just doesn't matter." It just doesn't matter. Because when you've been given the perspective of eternity, what on this earth could possibly matter? What could possibly be so significant to make it sound as though there is a chasm that Jesus himself cannot cross? What division is so significant that would be worth minimizing the effectiveness of forgiveness and grace? This is why the word atonement means to literally cover. To cover wrongdoing, to cover pain, to cover wounds. In fact, the labor, the work that we do, changes from calculating what we need to do in order for us to survive to then giving freely for the sake of what's best for the other person. But that external reconciliation isn't guaranteed. It requires two willing parties. In fact, even in the example of Esau and Jacob, it results in a partial reconciliation.

Obedience and Secure Identity

You can see that in point four: He persists. Look at verse 12.

Then Esau said, “Let’s move on, and I’ll go ahead of you.” Jacob replied, “My lord knows that the children are weak, and I have nursing flocks and herds. If they are driven hard for one day, the whole herd will die. Let my lord go ahead of his servant. I will continue on slowly, at a pace suited to the livestock and the children, until I come to my lord at Seir.” Esau said, “Let me leave some of my people with you.” But he replied, “Why do that? Please indulge me, my lord.” That day Esau started on his way back to Seir, but Jacob went to Succoth. He built a house for himself and shelters for his livestock; that is why the place was called Succoth. After Jacob came from Paddan-aram, he arrived safely at Shechem in the land of Canaan and camped in front of the city. He purchased a section of the field where he had pitched his tent from the sons of Hamor, Shechem’s father, for a hundred pieces of silver. And he set up an altar there and called it God, the God of Israel. — Genesis 33:12-20 (CSB)

Esau, in light of all this reconciliation, invites his brother to come back to his land and essentially join the family. And Jacob, on the other hand, doesn't intend to do that. He goes to Succoth. And for the first time in any of these patriarchs' stories, when they've been invited to go on and join a comfortable life somewhere other than the land that God promised, Jacob says, "No." He says, "No, thank you." He doesn't go to Seir. He goes to Succoth and there he purchases a field and sets up an altar. Because for the first time in his entire life, he is able to call on the God of Israel—his new name.

You see, even if Esau and Jacob were reconciled in terms of their inciting conflict, they are not the same people. They're still separate people. And this is more than just a casual rejection. This is Jacob passing the test that God has laid out in front of him. There are tons of examples of reconciliation exactly like that, where you are able to truly forgive and yet trust is not fully applied. Where you extend forgiveness and yet it's not reciprocated from the other end. Where still riffs exist as a result of the difficulty of living in a broken world. And on one hand, Jacob is able to honor his brother and recognizes that he represents the graciousness of God in his own life in light of his forgiveness. He sees Esau's face like he sees God's face. That's real.

And at the same time, he recognizes that Esau doesn't have the promise that he has. And that the land doesn't belong to Jacob or to his father Isaac, because forgiveness and trust are not the same thing. He knows that to really return home to his father's land, to really follow the graciousness that God has provided him, is for him to follow what the Lord had told him to do: which is to continue going west to Canaan. And in doing so, Jacob passes the test. He finally saves face because whether it was his forgiveness or his separation from his brother, he did both out of submission to his Lord and God. His stubborn schemes have been chiseled away to become conviction and courage. He's able to be gracious and yet obedient. He's humble, yet clear. He's reconciling, but he's unwilling to compromise. Not in order to earn grace, but because he has it. Because he's finally secure. And because God has assuaged him of all the fears that he could possibly have in his life, all that's left for Jacob to do is to fear his God and obey him.

This is the story of how Israel became Israel, how Jacob became Israel. It's also meant to serve as a story of how the nation of Israel would become Israel. Think about it: crossing through the waters to emerge in the face of a foe that's seeking to destroy you, praying for the Lord's salvation and trusting him despite the difficulties of life, and the limp that you have, and then going to settle in a city that's called Succoth, which means a tent or booths, which is where you've been staying in as you've been wandering through the wilderness before you go into the promised land. Jacob is more than just a man. He represents the nation of Israel. And he is giving a lesson on what redemptive obedience is supposed to look like.

And the same is true for us today, if we as a church want to be a God-honoring church. If we want to be a holy priesthood or a holy nation, then that will look like us simultaneously dependent on the Lord of grace while being consistent in the application of his grace in our care for others and standing in our convictions. That looks like being willing to give up your own control, if it means that you can apply the grace of Christ in someone else's life. That looks like not having to resort to your own selfish strategies for the sake of feeling safe. That looks like being the first to be willing to repent or to reach out and offering forgiveness and reconciliation. And it looks like standing up for the truth and being willing to even separate from those who teach a false gospel or are walking in unrepentant sin. And it looks like relying on our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who did all things perfectly. On one hand, Jacob is able to say that he has seen God face to face. On the other hand, he never learned his name. Jesus stands up before the people of Israel and says, "Whoever has seen me has seen the Father." The reason why Jacob is able to encounter God without being smitten to death is because of the grace that was found in his Savior, who wrestled him into obedience, who submitted him into grace. And by his perfect life and love, is capable of softening even the hardest of hearts and enabling us to obey him. What Jacob needed wasn't to save face but to be given a new name. A new life that doesn't wrestle to gain but is able to finally rest in what he has. Have you rested in this Savior today? Let's pray. Lord, we pray that if anyone here is wrestling in light of their own circumstances in life, that you would give them peace that can only come through your spirit and the work of Christ on the cross. We pray Lord that if there are any conversations that need to happen as a result of what you demand of us, that you would empower us to be godly, humble, and willing to submit, recognizing that your way is always the best way. We do pray, Lord, for those of us who continue to be wounded, whether from pain in this life or whether from even limps that you yourself have inflicted. That you would help us to walk in a way that's dependent on you, and that you would carry us safely home. We pray all these things in Jesus' name. Amen. The good news of the gospel is that when we have trusted in Christ, when we've placed our faith in him, we are able to see simultaneously that we are not our own, that we don't belong to ourselves. And that we belong to a heavenly Father who loves us. Let's stand and sing together.