Lesson 11: Jacob Returns to Canaan

Auto Transcript

Note: This rough transcript was automatically generated by YouTube’s AI algorithm. We provide it here for your convenience, but know it will surely contain errors as it has not been proofread or edited by a human.

Well, good morning everybody.

Welcome to Sunday school. Today we have lesson 11. The title of the lesson is Jacob Returns to Canaan and it is based on Genesis chapters 32 and 33. Let me pray in order to start. So heavenly father, we thank you for um this time that we can spend studying your word. We thank you for our Sunday school. Um I ask that you bless this lesson, that you bless my words and that um what we study this morning is a blessing for for all of us, for the ones here and the ones uh listening online. In Jesus name we pray.

Amen. Amen. So let me start now with a introduction. As I mentioned the introduction is based on Genesis 30 and 31.

So um last week we were studying with Ian about Jacob going to to Haran and um once in Haran uh Jacob um went to the house of his uncle Lean and um he worked for seven years because he wanted to marry Rachel but we saw that he ended up having two wives. He married also Leah and a result of as a result of that he had to work for seven more years. So in total he spent uh 14 years. Now after the first seven years when he had married Leah and then Rachel we see that um the babies are coming up.

he starts to have several babies and most of the babies are coming from Leah.

So Leah unlike uh Sarah and Rebecca who were barren, Leah is the opposite. She has a lot of babies. She has uh six babies, six sons plus one daughter, although it’s not totally clear if the daughter was born during those seven years or later on, but the Bible mentioned uh six sons and one daughter.

And that um causes uh her sister Rachel to be very jealous of her. And in order to have children, Rachel keeps her servant Bilha to Jacob with the idea that if uh Jacob had children with Bilha, the children would be Rachel’s. This is the same thing that uh Sarah did with Abraham and with Hagar. So they repeat the same process and this uh works in that sense because Bilha gives birth to um two two children, two sons. Let me now uh put here the correct slide. Okay. So we are going through Jacob’s family multiplies. So, as I said, children start to come. Um, and then, um, once Rachel gives her servant to to Jacob, Leah counters and does the same thing, she gives her servant also to Jacob. She gives Sila. And Sila has two more children, two more sons. And then at the end of this seven-year period, the god uh god remembers Rachel and Rachel gives Laura to a son and the name of that son is Joseph. So during this short time frame of seven years, we see that there are 11 sons and probably one daughter. So we see here the opposite of what happened in the prior generations that there was just one child or one or a two children but only one was going to be the the son of the promise. Now we see here the explosion of of children, the multiplication and um what’s happening here is God starts to fulfill that promise that he made to Abraham and Isaac in the sense that their descendants would be huge in number. And this is very similar to what we see in Exodus uh chapter 1 verse 7. That’s the beginning of the book of Exodus. We see here that there was this same process of multiplication. It says, “But the sons of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly and multiplied and became exceedingly mighty so that the land was filled with them.” So this is a similar situation. Now this was the beginning of that multiplication appears here in this in this moment with Jacob and and all the the children. And now we’ll continue in Exus. So this is uh Jacob’s uh family multiplication. Um now the second point here on this introduction is Jacob’s uh first attempt to return to Canaan. At the end of those seven years, he tells Lean um I want now to go back to to Canaan. I fulfilled my commitment to you to work seven years first for the first wife and seven more years for the second wife. So I want to go back.

But Lean tells Jacob, “Hey, I want you to stay with me. Don’t go.” Um, and uh, you tell me, “What do you want, and I’ll give it to you.” And um, to this moment, we have to remember Jacob really didn’t have anything. He left his home um, without anything. And he has been working there with uh, Lean for 14 years. But all that work had been to pay for the wives. So he really didn’t have anything by himself. So when he hears this this um proposal from Lean, I I think probably was a big temptation because I don’t know if you have ever received this proposal that someone tells you, hey, work for me and tell me how much you want to win. No, it’s it’s a big temptation. No, I haven’t haven’t received that offer, but definitely would be something that I could say, “Oh, okay. Maybe maybe I I want to do this.” No. So then um Jacob decides to stay and he makes an agreement with Lean and Lean is going to pay him in form of animals. That’s the way that people acquire um possessions at that time. and they made an agreement and uh the agreement is that if the animals that are born with certain characteristics um are going to be for Jacob and the animals that are not born with those certain characteristics are going to remain with Lean. The agreement seems favorable to to Lean because it’s not very likely that the animals born with those characteristics. But here we see that surprisingly most of the animals started to born with those characteristics. So Jacob now accumulates wealth. That’s the third point. Jacob’s accumulates wealth.

Surprisingly in those six years now Jacob has big family and also becomes rich. He’s now a rich man. That uh lead us to the next point. Jacob’s conflict with Lean. Lean and and his sons are now jealous very jealous about Jacob because he has acquired a lot of animals and they accuse him of stealing their their possessions. So the situation becomes very very tense, very difficult between them. There is a lot of family conflict and at that moment the Lord steps in and communicates directly with Jacob and tells Jacob, Jacob, now it’s time for you to go back to to Canaan. So Jacob obeys that and he leaves, but he lives secretly for Canaan. He doesn’t tell Lean that he’s going to go. He uses a moment where Levan is not around. And then at that moment, he’s run runs away with his family with all his animals, which is kind of a naive decision because it was obvious that Lean was going to learn about that. And it was also kind of obvious that Lean was going to go after him. He was not going to let him go just like that. And that’s what happens. Lean goes after him and he gets to him shortly. But what happens there?

The Lord steps in again and communicates to Lean and tells Lean, “Hey, be careful to not do any harm to to to Jacob.” Um, so they get together and they have an argument. Uh, but at the end they come to an agreement. They make a covenant and uh Levan says bye to to Jacob and uh his daughters and the grandchildren and they they go in peace.

So in all these in all these points we see the hand of God going with um Jacob. Uh first God multiplied Jacob’s family.

Then we see that uh God multiplied Jacob’s wealth. Both of these actions the family took place in a laps of seven years and the the wealth took um place in a time frame of about six years. So definitely the hand of God was behind those um those facts. Um God instructs Jacob to go back to Canaan and then finally that’s how Jacob decides to go to go back to Canaan and finally God protects Jacob’s uh from from Lean. Lean was upset that Jacob left and was upset with him even before but in the end Jacob protected I mean the Lord protected Jacob and uh they came to good terms with with Laban.

So we see again the the hand of God um protecting Jacob in all this and and blessing Jacob as well.

Now after all this Jacob is finally on his way to Canaan but there is a problem going back to Canaan. And the problem the big problem for for Jacob is his brother Esau.

Because let’s remember what was the reason why Jacob left his house and went to Haran. It was because Esau wanted to kill him. Iso was very mad that Jacob had stolen the blessing and Jacob wanted to kill him. So now we will see what happens once Jacob approaches the land of Canaan.

So let’s now go to the to our passages.

Let’s um um analyze our first passage in Genesis 32 verses 1 to 21. So I’m going to read uh to read this. Now as Jacob went on his way, the angels of God met him. Jacob said when he saw them, “This is God’s camp.” So he named that place me. Then Jacob sent messengers before him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom. He also commanded them, saying, “This you shall say to my lord Esau. Thus says your servant Jacob, I have to with lean and stay until now. I have oxen and donkeys and flocks and male and female servants and I have sent to tell my lord that they might fain favor in your sight. The messengers returned to Jacob saying we came to your brother Esau and furthermore he’s coming to meet you and 400 men are with him.

Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed. And he divided the people who were with him and the flocks and the herds and the camels into companies. For he said, “If Isue comes to one company and attacks it, then the company which is left will escape.” Jacob said, “Oh God, my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, oh Lord, who says to me, return to your country and you to your relatives and I will prosper you. I am unworthy of all the loving kindness and all the faithfulness which you have shown to your servant. For with my staff only I crossed the Jordan, and now I have become to companies.

Deliver me, I pray, from the hand of my brother and from the hand of Isu. For I fear him, and he will come and attack and and attack me and the mothers with the children. For you said, I will surely prosper you and make your descendants as the sand of the sea, which is too great to be numbered. So he spent the night there. Then he selected from what he had with him a present for his brother Esau.

200 female goats, 20 male goats, 200 use and 20 rams, 30 m milking camels and their calls, 40 cows, 10 balls, 20 female donkeys and 10 male donkeys.

He delivered them into the hand of his servants, every drove by itself, and said to his servants, “Pass on before me, and put a space between droves.” He commanded the one in front, saying, “When my brother Esau meets you and asks you, saying, to whom do you belong and where are you and where are you going? And to whom do these animals in front of you belong?” Then you shall say, “This belonged to your servant Jacob. It is a present sent to me by to is a present sent to my lord Esau. And behold, he also is behind us.” Then he commanded also to the second and third and all those who follow the drop, saying, “After this manner, you shall speak to Esau when you find him.

And you shall say, “Behold, your servant Jacob is behind us.” For he said, “I will appease him with your with the present that goes before me. Then afterward I will see his face. Perhaps he will accept me.” So he saw the present pass on before him while he himself spent that night in the camp.

Now he arose the same night and took his two wives and his two maids and his 11 children and crossed the fort of Jacob. Okay. So this is the first uh the first reading. Now let’s do the process of observation and interpretation that we have been doing throughout this series.

So we have uh here um the passage starts with angels meeting Jacob. We see that on verses one and two. He went on his way and the angels of God met him. So this is pretty straightforward.

Angels are meeting Jacob. And a question for interpretation is what does it mean for for Jacob? What does it mean that angels are are meeting Jacob here?

Well, angels have appeared before Jacob.

Also, we uh remember last lesson uh he had that dream with when he saw angels coming up and down through the ladder and now he sees angels again here. Now, this is not a dream is live angel angels.

So we can say that this is a form that the Lord is um assuring him that uh he will be protected during this um difficult situation that he will face when he meets his brother his brother Esau.

Next point, Jacob sends messengers. From verses 3 to to five, we see here that um Jacob sends messengers to meet to meet Esau. And um it is interesting here that um um Jacob is is telling um in in this passage that um he’s calling himself as a servant. In verse four, he tells the the messengers um you shall say to my lord Esau this thus says your servant Jacob. So he’s telling the messengers to tell Esau that he is Esau’s servant. So he’s humbling himself. He’s calling himself a servant and he’s putting his brother Esau as his lord. So he’s in this process of humiliating himself towards his brother in order to trying to try to gain favor on the eyes of his brother.

Right? Then the next point, the messengers report. So the messengers go and come back and the report is very intriguing because the report doesn’t really say much about Iso’s reaction.

The report of the messenger only says that um hey um your brother Esau is coming to meet you. So your brother Iso is coming. So that’s possibly good news. But he’s coming with 400 men. So what does that mean? Why is he coming with 400 men? I mean Esau has now a reason to be really concerned because coming with 400 men that’s likely that he wants to attack him because otherwise other otherwise why is he coming with 400 men, right?

And at that point it’s worth to to remember as we go to interpretation of this. I mean why why there is not more information about this. I mean the the the tension in the passage we can see it’s growing up. No the way that Moses is writing this really take us to this moment and really we can really feel the tension. No I mean there is no indication whether Esso is coming in good faith or not. It’s just that yeah, he’s coming, but he’s coming with 400 men. So, let’s remember what happened in Genesis 27 43 and 45. Let’s see what happened when Esau left um um his his house. Genesis 27. Now this is Rebecca is talking to to Jacob and it says now therefore my son obey my voice and arise. Flee to Haran to my brother Lean. Stay with him a few days until your brother’s fury subsides until your brother’s anger against you subsides and he forgets what you did to him. Then I will send and get you from there. Why should I be ber of you both in one day? So this is this was the original plan that Rebecca told Jacob. Go for a few days. And how long has he been there? 20 years. Those few days turn out to be 20 years. And did he ever receive a word from his mother, from Rebecca? We never see that he get anything from Rebecca.

So he doesn’t know anything. the plan that they had in the beginning obviously didn’t didn’t work.

Um so it is very understandable that Jacob is very concerned during those 20 years that he spent um at um with his father-in-law. He didn’t get any war from from his brother and now he’s coming after him with 400 men. It’s understandable that he’s concerned about that.

Now let’s go to the next point. Point number four, Jacob is afraid and divides his camp. So the first action that he does here is kind of a logistic action. He says, “Okay, well I’m going to divide my camp and if ifo attacks one, at least the other can run away. So kind of a logical decision.” Um but um still very very if you know I mean it’s not a guarantee of anything.

And then we go to the next point. Jacob prays. Now we see here Jacob praying on verses 9 to to 11. Jacob finally prays.

And how does he pray? Well, it’s basically he prays in in three in three points. He remembers God’s promises.

That’s what we see at the beginning of the of the prayer. It says, “Oh, God, my father Abraham, a God of my father Isaac, oh Lord, who says to me, remember your country and your relatives and I will prosper you.” So, he’s remembering, he’s telling God, you promised this, Lord.

So, please don’t forget about that. And then he is um recognizing that he’s unworthy.

verse uh 10 he says I am worthy of all the loving kindness and the faithfulness which you have shown to your servant. So now he’s humbling before the Lord. He has humbled himself before his brother Esau on on the way that uh he um told the messengers to to meet Esau. Now he’s humbling himself before the Lord and then he’s asking for deliverance. In verse 9 it says deliver me I pray from the hand of my brother um from the hand of Isu. So that’s basically what he’s praying. So now how do we interpret this prayer point for interpretation when he’s and especially on the second point when he’s saying I am unworthy what is what does it mean? So basically we can read this as finally recognizing that he has to repent.

Throughout this time the Lord has appeared to him several times and somehow he has worshiped the Lord. Every time that the Lord appears to him he worships the Lord but he has not recognized his condition. He has not recognized that he’s unworthy. And now in this in this in this time he finally recognizes I am unworthy. I have to repent. I have to turn back from my old ways and get in in new ways. So this is this is the prayer of of in in some way a prayer of of repentance and recognizing that he is a sinner.

The next point, Jacob prepares gifts for Esau. Verses 13 to to 21. He prepares uh a lot of animals. In total, there are animals. Um I don’t know how we can quantify that in our present terms, but that seems to be a pretty generous uh present for for ISO. 550 like okay.

Yeah, that seems to seems to be good. Um, and now here, how do we interpret this? What question for interpretation? Um, after Jacob has prayed and asked God for deliverance, is this act of preparing this generous gift for for for Esau, is this is this a good thing? Is does it uh shows a a lack of faith that uh the Lord will deliver him or is this a good thing that he’s doing because um he says okay well the Lord will provide but um if I can do something I will I will do it. Um what do you think about this? Is Jacob uh showing lack of faith or is is it okay for him to do this? Yeah, Glend. It seems as though he was so you got to go back to Canaan. Mhm.

But he seemed to God is telling him, “You have to go back to Canaan.” But it seems as though he’s finding all things to do for himself by saying, “My brother is coming and I’m going to split up the camp. So if he catch one, the others will get away.” But it seems as though he was l to me he was lacking faith there because God told him to go back. But I don’t the Bible didn’t say anything about Esau. But Jacob like he was wondering about what condition my brother’s going to be in. I know what I did to my brother but God is telling me to go back. So I believe that prayer he’s praying. He’s praying the prayer but yet still he’s trying to work it out for himself.

Yeah, he’s showing signs of faith and he’s showing the signs of repentance when he says that he’s unworthy, but still he has a long way to grow in his faith, right? Um and we will see that um later on and many more situations that Jacob will face. His his faith is is still not very strong. Now the fact of preparing this presents um yeah we may say shows a lack of faith but we also can say that okay if I can do something that is sound that it is reasonable okay I will do it you know we put our faith in in God but if we can do something uh that is in our hands okay I mean it’s it’s okay that we do it no we don’t know how the lord will uh work and probably this uh presence will have a favorable effect on on ESO or or probably not because when you offer this type of gifts to presents to someone it may have the opposite effect.

I mean people may may feel offended. Why are you giving me all this to me? Do you think I’m needed? Do you think I’m needed? I don’t want it. No. So it can go both ways. But on any case, I think if uh u we can give the benefit of the doubt to Jacob. I mean he does this um probably not because of lack of faith because he’s thinking that well maybe the Lord will operate through this to gain favor um with Esau. So that um concludes the first the first um section of um of our study. Um any any question on this? I mean there’s no question can ask him now. I mean if you have comments you can leave them to the end of the of the lesson and we’ll try to make a few minutes for comments but okay then we’ll continue to the next uh section. The next session is Genesis 32 22 to 32.

So now he arose that same night and took his two wives and his two maids and his 11 children and cross the fort of Jacob.

He took them and sent them across the stream and he sent across whatever he has. Then Jacob was left alone and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. When he saw that he had not prevailed against him, he touched the socket of his thigh.

So the socket of Jacob’s thigh was dislocated when he wrestled with him. Then he said, “Let me go, for the dawn is breaking.” But he said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” So he said to him, “What is your name?” He said, “Jacob.” He said, “Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel, for you, for you have striven with God and with men and have prevailed.” Then Jacob asked him and said, “Please tell me your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” And he blessed him there. So Jacob named that place Pineal, for he said, “I have seen God face to face, yet my life has been preserved.” Now the sun rose upon him just as he crossed over Pineuel and he was limping on his side. Therefore on this day the sons therefore to this day the sons of Israel do not eat the senior of the hip which is on the socket of the thigh because he touched the socket of Jacob’s thigh in the senue of his hip. Wow. What a an intriguing passion, right? It’s very similar to the the passes we saw last week with about the the ladder. No, this is another very very intriguing and very mysterious passage. So, let’s see what we can uh what we can um analyze uh observe and interpret on this mysterious passage. So, we start the passage um with Jacob being being alone. No, he is very distressed.

He’s very um afraid that Jacob is going to go after him. So he sends his family um to one side and he goes away by himself. It’s obviously he cannot sleep that night. He’s sleepless. And uh maybe you have gone through some of these nights where you cannot sleep and you are very nervous, very anxious. This is what Jacob is going through. And in the middle of this anxious uh night uh we have this strange and intriguing event. Erh he wrestles with a man. Now um we don’t know how where this mind came from. It just suddenly appears there.

Um and who is this man? Who is this man?

The passage doesn’t explicitly tell us who this man is. However, there are some clues in this passage that can give us an idea. Um, first um, Jacob asked to be blessed by that man. No, we we see that he asked the blessing and um in the end towards the end on verse 30, Jacob says, “I have seen God face to face yet my life has been preserved.” So it appears that this man is a man from the Lord. He’s some sort of um um Lord presence in there.

And this passage in Hosea um 12:4 that it’s it’s there in the screen it also give us more information about this it says this passage he I’m referring to Jacob he str with the angel and prevailed he wept and sought his favor he met God at Bethl and their god spoke with us so now is he giving this passage is giving us more information that this mysterious man is definitely The Lord is is is some some form of a divine um being that came to to Jacob. And we can think this as um type of Christ appearing in the Old Testament similar to Moses experience in the burning bush when when he also received that divine presence. This is similar. This is the the Lord himself appearing to God in a type of of Christ in the Old Testament. Now, why do they wrestle? Why do they start to wrestle? Huh? The Pure doesn’t say so. We don’t know. And interesting uh wrestling is um is a sport where you don’t really uh aim to knock out your opponent. In wrestling, what you are looking for is to dominate your opponent. Now in wrestling nowadays you win when you put your opponent with his um back on the ground. That’s how you win. And that’s means that you have dominated and the opponent is on on the ground. Uh uh so he can he can no longer wrestle with you. I mean you have dominated him. So you are not uh looking to to anniate or to knock out your opponent. You’re just looking to dominate your opponent. And this is what we can see. It is like a an activity where one is looking to dominate the other one and who is winning who is winning this this um wrestling. Um in verse 25 it says that the man that mysterious man that um type of Christ had not prevailed uh until he does this move of touching his Jacob’s side.

So apparently maybe a a move that probably would be a foul nowadays in in wrestling. So until he does this that move, then Jacob is is uh um put sort of um out of um um contest in in the match.

Um but um why are they uh wrestling? Um we don’t know. And uh and how come Jacob seems to be winning the match? No, Jacob seems to be prevailing until that moment that uh this man touches his thigh. So now we have a question for interpretation here. How is it possible that Jacob is winning the match? Can anybody win against God? Well, the answer I think is pretty obvious. No, I mean no, we we obviously we cannot win against God. However, here we see Jacob is kind of winning against God. How is that possible?

Well, one way to explain this is um for example, when you have a if you’re a father, if you’re a mother, and you have a a children, you’re playing with your children, you’re wrestling with your children, and your children wins is because you let him win, right?

Otherwise, your child will not be able to to to defeat you in in resting. So I think we somehow the Lord is letting Jacob um prevailing in this in this match and um Jacob doesn’t give up. No, even though he has been injured, he still keeps resting and still keeps telling uh this man uh bless me. I will not let you go until you bless me. And finally this man blesses blesses Jacob and the Mandy um and and that’s where where the resting h finishes. Let’s continue with what happened on this on this um on this passage. After that um this this man changes the name of Jacob and uh now he tells you are no longer going to be Jacob but Israel and what’s the name the meaning of Jacob is a suppler is a hill catcher and the meaning of Israel is he who struggles with God he who strives with God right so what’s happening here what does this mean that uh the Lord is changing the name well I think First uh the Lord is showing his authority. We see that um when you name someone else it’s because you have authority over that person. For example, when we have uh our children, we name our children because we as a parents have authority over our children. H when Daniel and his friends were taken captive captive to to Babylon, they were renamed because the Babylonians now had authority over them. So they changed their names. And interestingly we see that uh the Lord um through these three patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the Lord somehow named these three characters. For example, to Abraham uh he he was originally Abraham and the Lord changed his name to Abraham. To Isaac, the Lord didn’t change his name, but he assigned his name before he was he was born. We can see that in Genesis 17 17:19.

Um so but God said no but uh Sarah your wife will bear a son and you shall name and you shall call his name Isaac and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him. So we see him the Lord indicating the name for Isaac and now he’s changing the name for Jacob to Israel. So these three characters have been given the names directly their names directly by by the Lord. And in the New Testament we see similar situations. Uh Simon was not and Peter was originally Simon and Paul was originally Saul. So the Lord changed the the names and the names have a meaning.

In this case we see Jacob was a suppler and now he will be the one who struggles or the one who strives with God. But interestingly, how did God change the name to to Jacob? He not only told Jacob, now you your name is Jacob and now you will be named Israel. He start this by asking Jacob, what is your name?

And Jacob replies, I am Jacob. So by doing that, Jacob is saying I am a suppler.

And that’s what he has been throughout his life. A suppler, a deceiver. He deceived his brother, his father, his father-in-law. That’s uh that’s been his life. And the Lord now is telling him, okay, this is what you have been, but now you will be the one who strives with God, the one who struggles with God. And and that’s now Israel. Um now, it’s interesting that as from this moment, the Bible will refer to Jacob uh sometimes as Israel and sometimes as Jacob. This is different in the case of Abraham because when Abraham was um named as Abraham, the Bible kepts keep um referring to him as Abra Abraham. So with a new name, not the old name. But with Jacob, the Bible will refer to him as sometimes Jacob or or Israel. And this is interesting. And uh some commentators say that that reflects the nature of Jacob that even though he has a new name, he still goes back to his old name.

He is still wrestling in that sense. And this is same case for us. No, we have a new identity in Christ, but we still sometimes fall back to our old identity. We have this constant wrestling uh between the new and the old. And um as a Christians, of course, we are called to um make the new name, the new identity grow. That’s the process. No, the new the new name has to grow. The old name has to diminish to decrease.

That’s what we are called to to to be.

And um finally, one more point on this renaming. uh when the Lord um renames um Jacob as Israel, he’s not only changing the name to this character in particular, he’s also giving the name to that nation that God is creating through these characters because that will be the na the name of the nation of Israel, the nation that will eventually take possession of the land in Exodus and the nation that still exists nowadays.

Now this nation is not only a a physical and earthly nation. This nation is also a spiritual nation. It’s a nation that uh where you and I are also members of that nation of that spiritual Israel.

And we can see that in Galatians Galatians 3 7-9. Here Paul talks about that. Therefore be sure that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham. The scripture for seeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith preach the gospel beforehand to Abraham saying all the nation will be blessed in you. So then those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham the believer. So in an spiritual sense, we are are also um descendants of of Abraham, we are also part of that spiritual nation, the spiritual Israel. So this new nation has a name and the name is is Israel and we are also part of that. Finally, the last point, Jacob is now limping and he names that place pineal. So this encounter of Jacob with the Lord has left marks in him. A physical mark is now limping and a new identity identity given by God. And that is what happens when you have an encounter with God of of this nature.

When you are have this so close encounter with God, you are not the same anymore. You you are a different person.

and and that’s what what we can see here in in the case of Jacob. Now we have gone through this passage analyzing different details but I would like to also put a general context of what this mysterious passage means and I think um we can see that in two different ways. Uh first one is God is reassuring Jacob that he will prevail on the encounter with Esau that is just going to happen and we can see that um in verse 28 where the Lord is renaming Jacob. He says your uh name shall no longer be Jacob but Israel for you have striven with God and with men and have prevailed. And that was literally true. Jacob uh was has been striven with his family all the time. He has been um deceiving them and now he had literally been striven with God with this mysterious man. So that uh was literally done and now if he had prevailed in in those events now he should give Jacob confidence that he will prevail when he meets Esau. Right?

So that’s a way of assuring them, assuring Jacob that that uh that he will prevail. But there is also another important interpretation that we can take of this and uh pastor Dave um commented about this in the in when he gave a Sunday school some years ago about this same the same topic is that God in through this uh mysterious appearance and through this wrestling process he is inviting somehow Jacob to try with him to wrestle with him and he’s in fact command comm commending Jacob because of this action we he we can feel this in this passage that God is pleased with Jacob the way that Jacob Jacob is asking the blessing the Jacob that is the way that Jacob is persisting with God the way that Jacob is telling God do not leave me until you bless me is something that is pleasing God and that’s what the Lord wants from from us no that That’s what the Lord want us to to do to persist on his ways to ask his blessing to um keep asking him day and night um in our difficult moments and our not so difficult moments all the time. Persist and seek the Lord. No. And uh pastor that illustrate this is Matthew 7 7 and 8. Ask and uh it will be given to you.

Seek and you will find. Knock it. Knock and you will and it will be open to you.

For everyone who asks receives and the one who seeks finds and the one who knocks it will be open. So that’s what uh Jacob was doing and that’s how the Lord sees that and and he’s pleased with with this Jacob’s um actions.

Um so any question about this this passage? Okay then let’s go to the last um the last section that’s Genesis 33 1-20. Um I’m not going to read this because we are uh running uh short of time but uh the full passage is when Jacob meets um meets Esau. Now after all what’s happened this uh this long night for for Jacob. Now the finally the expected moment is is coming. Jacob is now going to meet Esau. And this passage starts with um Jacob dividing his family on verses one to to three.

Here we see Jacob um probably acting like the old Jacob. He makes a decision that um probably was not the best was maybe a bit uh reckless because he’s dividing his family and he puts the mace in the front then puts Leah then puts Rachel.

So it seems like uh Jacob is putting his family in the order uh in the priority that they they have for him. So okay, for me the less important are the maze then Leah and the Rachel. Oh, because the ones at the front are the most likely to be heard or to be killed in case wants to to do harm to them.

Um so that speaks about uh how God uh how Jacob sees his his own family and that’s reflects also a deep problem uh when you have multiple wives. Oh, you assign priorities to them and then ones are more important than the others. And we don’t know the reaction of the wives and the and the children. But um I guess that given the stress that Jacob Jacob was going through and the situation, they most likely they perceive also this stressful situation, they perceive the danger that they were in. And I can imagine those children that were at the front if uh at some point they asked Jacob, “Hey, dad, you put me in front of the line. Why did you put me in front? Was I less important than the others?” Tough situation. Tough situation for Jacob. Then the next point, Jacob and Isue are reconciled. Finally, the moment comes here on verses 4-7, that expected moment. Esau gets to Jacob. And here we have an amazing situation. Esau goes in love to to Jacob.

Uh Jacob receives more than what he expected because Jacob remember he only pray for deliverance, right?

But uh the Lord is giving him more than deliverance from Esau. He’s giving a reconciliation to both for others. And it’s so beautiful to see to read these passes where they go and hug each other and kiss each other. It’s is so nice.

And um how does this how does this happen?

We don’t know. I mean, did Esau change his heart since long ago at some point?

Or did Esau change his heart when he was on his way to meet Jacob with the 400 men? I mean, we don’t know. We don’t know how the Lord operated, but the answer from the Lord is is is fantastic.

And um I would like to point out here that um when we think about miracles, we usually think about supernatural things like uh Jesus healing sick people, Jesus walking on water, um Jesus um bringing the death to to life like Lazarus. But uh if you think about the how difficult it is to restore family relationships, I think this is no nothing short than a miracle because in our day-today lives, we see families broken. We see brothers that don’t talk to each other for for for years or sons that um do not talk to their parents, parents that do not talk to their children. And it’s very very difficult to restore those relationships and it’s very sad and sometimes even people die and they never restored the relationship. So what we see here I I would like to say is nothing short for a miracle uh of the Lord.

Um, if you are looking for a a reconciliation with a with a within your family, um, this this uh passage is is very interesting, but probably it’s not very comprehensive. Uh, because here the restoration came just like that, just like a miracle. I would say probably the situation of Joseph and his brother may offer you a better example of how a family restoration can be taken can can can be done because in that in that um um in that event we see how the process work. We see how the sins are confronted and we see how it takes time. No, usually takes time. Doesn’t usually happen like that. Of course, the Lord can operate a miracle and produce this, but um most often nowadays the restoration of the families require a process and we’ll see that in a future lesson about Joseph and and and his brothers. So finally then Esau accepts the gifts uh the gifts that um um Jacob had prepared. They are received by by Esau. And then we see um Jacob declines Esau’s offer. No, we see that Esau um offer invited Jacob to to go with him.

And Jacob said, “No, I I can’t because the children, all the animals, I’m going through a slower pace than you, so you go.” Then Isu offers um Jacob some of his men to be with him. And and Jacob says, “No, thank you. I mean, it’s not necessary.” So he politely declines. So even though the relationship was restored, but it was not going to be a close relationship anymore. It’s not like uh they were going to spend Thanksgiving together. That didn’t happen. Uh the next time that we see them together is when um Isaac, their father, dies and they are together. But other than that, we don’t see them together anymore. And that uh I think has to do with the thing that uh Jacob was going to be the son of the promise and Esau wasn’t. So a separation was somehow necessary unavoidable and that’s what we see what we see here. And u finally point number five Jacob returns to to Canaan. Uh that’s where he should have been. That’s what uh God had determined for him to be. And even though he went away and even though we saw the drama that happened with Esau and all that, now the Lord is bringing him back to Canaan where is the land of the promise and we see in all these situation how the Lord worked through uh Jacob and through all the events that happened to bring him back to to the promised land.

So God is now fulfilling his promise that this will be the land the land for them. Uh he spend 20 years in in Haron and he’s coming back to to Canaan at the age of uh around 97 years old. Seems pretty old. Uh he left uh his house when he was 77. Now the the the way to calculate the age is a little bit uh complicated. There’s a lot of mathematics that we have to do and these are related to also to Joseph’s age. Uh but yeah, I mean according to those calculations, he left his house when he was 77 and he’s coming back now that he’s 97 and that’s remember at that time people live longer than than us nowadays but he’s he’s now back in the promised land. And finally points for our application. Having uh gone through all this fantastic story and events of Jacob, what can we take for us? Well, I have here three points. Do you trust God in times of trial or your own plans and efforts? Here we can relate to Proverbs.

Proverbs 35-6. This well-known passage.

Trust the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding.

In all your ways acknowledge him and he will make a stray your plans. How much are we striving for God?

Yeah, remember Jacob was really persistent when he was wrestling with with that man. So how are we doing in that sense? We can refer to the parable of the persistent widow in Luke 18 1-8.

And um interesting if we just read the first verse when Jesus is going to tell this parable to the disciples he tells the disciples from verse one. Now he was telling them a parable to show that at all times they ought to pray and not become discouraged. So that was the reason why he is telling them this this parable that at all times they off to pray and not to become discouraged. And that’s what we see when when Jacob uh was wrestling and persisting to get the blessing of of God. No. And finally, do we strive for God in a righteous or unrighteous way? This is also um a topic I didn’t mention um before, but uh that um persisting with God can be done in a righteous way as we saw through these passages with Jacob, but uh can be also done sometimes in an unrighteous way.

Sometimes we can demand that God does something for us um instead of going in a humble attitude and ask him. In this case, for example, going back to Jacob, he could have said what you need to deliver me because I mean you put me into this situation. It was your fault that I am going through this trial. That’s not the right attitude. He could have also put the blame on others.

He could have said the Lord. I mean I am here and it was not my fault. It was my mother’s fault. He was the one that she was the one that did all his plan that ended up in me having to go away and now my brother hated me and wanted to kill me because of my mother or he could have blamed his father. No, it was because my father never loved me. He loved more iso than me. And uh sometimes we fall into that. We fall into those situations blaming the circumstances, blaming others. We don’t see that here. We see Jacob acknowledging his own sin, saying, “I’m not I’m not worthy, but please God, please uh deliver me and uh bless me.” So, Ecclesiastes Ecclesiastes 5:2, it says, “Do not be quick with your mouth or impulsive in thought to bring up a mother in the presence of God, for God is in heaven and you on the earth.

Therefore, let your words be few.” So, that concludes uh the class of today. I mean, it’s been a lot is time basically, but um if anybody would like to have a final quick comment on this. Yes. One of the things that struck me as I was reading it, Jason, Jacob, oh, sorry, Jacob was left alone. And that is a picture of salvation. And not only salvation, but throughout life, when we encounter something, we have to get alone with God. We can run to all kinds of people.

I can run to my husband. He’s different than me. We process things different. We stand alone before the Lord. So we wrestle and you’re pressing into God.

And then when you see his way is faithful. It’s building a history that you can look back and see how faithful he was. And it reminded me of the prodigal coming to the end of himself.

We have to do that over and over and over. It says a righteous man falls down seven times but he gets back up. So we’re building this history and God allows us to sin and he uses that and then he when he touched them he humbled them because in that culture that was a shame. You couldn’t bring a blemished lamb and sacrifice it. It was a shame to have that but it was it was humbling. It would always remind him of that time with the Lord. It’s necessary. And I think of Jesus in the garden. His friends disappointed him. He said, “Take this cup from me.” It’s that alone time with the Lord when we wrestle with him and we do see him. We we build an intimacy with him. And so the whole thing just sees like salvation over and over and over and we’re going to have that a lot of times when we go into him.

Yeah. Yeah. Very right. Time alone with the Lord is is very necessary. Yeah.

People are it’s good for us to have the company of the people, but it’s also very important for us to have our time alone with the Lord. That’s that’s where we meet God personally. Oh, Arthur.

Um, yeah, this is kind of a geek comment for those of you who are geeks, but if we go back to Genesis after um when God is um dishing out the punishment for man’s rebellion and uh he he finally gets to Satan And um we have that prophecy about the heel and bruising the head and the or what is it? Yeah. Bruising the head and um well, you know what I mean? The head and the heel prophecy. And we relate that to um one of the first prophecies regarding um Christ and and the struggle um with sa Satan. Um so the word heal is used.

We come to um Jacob and his name the name given to him Jacob means grasping you know we understand grasping the heel whose heel was he grasping his brother Esau’s heel.

Um, and then we find Jacob receiving another name, Israel. His name is changed to Israel.

Um, and I’m not going to take away um the brethren’s opportunity to think about this, but here’s the second time the word heal is being used. Mhm. Um how all that relates to uh Christ, the struggle uh between good and evil, how God’s sovereignty um uh appears in all of this is is really important. And I just say that oh let me be quick. I I just say that because we as readers, we as um being blessed because we have God’s word, we have these thoughts. Well, you know, you know, why was uh Jacob behaving the way he was? Why wasn’t he recognizing right from the beginning that um you know God was working in his life um intending to carry out his plan because there always seems to be doubt behavior on Jacob’s part that is an indicator of doubt doubt that not full faith not full faith and um I I think we need to understand that because we can do the same thing.

Yeah. That resting resting will continue with Jacob. Yeah. Okay. Thank you very much for your attention. Let me close in uh prayer and God. Thank you for the time that we could spend studying your word. Thank you for this lesson. We ask that you bless us through through the um worship service and the other activities. And uh thank you again for the time that we could spend doing your words in Jesus name.