Presentation 48

Presentation 48

Can you think of something that improves in value if you break it? Not a Ming vase or a Sheraton chair! Usually, when something broken it loses its value. There are notable exceptions. A l wild stallion will have limited value unless broken. Otherwise no one would be able to ride him. But once he is broken his value is greatly increased. Our usefulness to God is hampered by an unbroken will and reluctance to give God the reigns of our lives.

Jacob was like that! Oh he had professed faith and acknowledged God's blessing as his provider and protector. And was he not returning to Canaan in obedience to God?

Yes! but there was still something that severely limited his usefulness to God - his stubborn self-will had never been broken.

Introduction

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Jacob was in an unenviable position. Each fresh step forward brought him nearer to his brother Esau and into danger. He knew that he had effectively cut off any possibility of retreat. The stone pillar that had been raised in 31v45ff was no ordinary cairn. It had set out the boundaries for the free movement of Jacob, Laban and their respective families. If either side were to cross beyond the boundary cairn it would be interpreted by the other side as an act of war.

Danger behind him! Danger ahead of him! Jacob was rapidly running out of places of safety. He could feel the walls pressing in upon him, threatening to turn him into a messy sandwich spread!

The Danger Before Him

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But is not the danger into which Jacob is walking not in response to his obedience to God. Yes! Unlike many Christians who walk into danger without the clear command of God. They go presumptuously, but Jacob went in response to the call of God. God knew the danger that lay ahead and could be trusted to deal with it! God's promise of protection given at Bethel and God's recent intervention on Jacob’s behalf restraining Laban should have strengthened Jacob’s faith! Instead Jacob is crippled by cowardly fear.

Fear cannot feed on God's promises or derive comfort from them. Fear also prevents us from benefiting from the providences of God designed for our protection and blessing.

The Danger Before Him

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It is worth noting the contrast between the way in which Jacob had met Laban and the way he prepared to meet his brother Esau. When Jacob had was confronted by Laban, he had met him boldly, and confidently. Now, as he prepares to meet Esau it is with a fearful and grovelling spirit. Why? The answer is found in a line from Shakespeare, 'Conscience doth make cowards of us all'. Do you see the point? Jacob was bold before Laban because he had lived an upright life before him. But he cowered before Esau because he remembered the wrong he had done him.

His conscience was successfully fishing in his past. And while he may have had assurance of God’s forgiveness, he hadno such assurance as far as Esau was concerned!

The Danger Before Him

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Just how troubled he was about encountering Esau becomes clear, when we see that the word ‘Esau’ is mentioned 9 times in v1-21. Each forward step seemed to echo the word ‘Esau’. Louder and louder it became like the noise of thunder in his ears. The voice of conscience had broken through to his conscious thought with renewed activity. Brunner says of the bad conscience

“The bad conscience is like a dog, which is shut up in the cellar on account of its tiresome habit of barking, but is continually on the watch to break into the house, which is barred against him, and is able to do so the moment the master's vigilance is relaxed. The bad conscience is always there, it is chronic."

The Danger Before Him

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God is neither insensitive to Jacob’s fears of nor to the dangers he faces. God's solution is not to send him to another land but to provide him with an angel escort! Jacob saw an army of angels and called the place ‘Mahanaim’ which means 'camp of God'. Jacob had seen Gods angels previously at Bethel they had encouraged a lonely, penniless pilgrim to believe that God in his grace was reaching down to him despite his grim past.

This second encounter is also tailor made to meet fresh fears. The invisible God was saying, 'Don't be afraid, I'm here to protect you'. Believers need to be reminded of the remarkable lengths God will go to, to protect them. We must guard against allowing the visible, physical dangers around us from obscuring the comfort of spiritual realities.

The Danger Before Him

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God opened Jacob's eyes to the spiritual world to transfer his attention from his conscience stricken fear of Esau, to the mighty power of God and to the legions of angels that had been assigned to his defence. Does God need to open our eyes in this way? Are we more conscious of the power of dangers that surround us and that are intent to do us harm, than we are of the power of God to keep us?

Elisha’s servant needed his eyes opened in this way in order that he might see that those that are for us are more than those who are against us! cf 2Kings 6.13-17

The Danger Before Him

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Jacob failed to benefit from all of God‘s provisions. He could have drawn encouragement from God’s Word or recent providences! But all Jacob could think of was his own past sin and his present inadequacy. Many people fail to benefit from the comforts of God because they allow their minds to drown in the anguish created by the memory past sin still clamouring for recognition.

They have experienced the forgiveness of God but they cannot forgive themselves or recognise that God has sent his angels as ‘ministering spirits to serve those who will inherit salvation’.

Scheming for Safety

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Jacob's messengers, who had been sent to Esau to gauge the temperature of his anger are soon riding back with the news that Esau along with 400 men are quickly making their way towards the camp. If Jacob had been frightened before, he is now terrified! Rather than trust God to deliver him, Jacob panics and relies instead upon his own scheming mind.

He divides his household into two camps thinking, ‘if one group is attacked at least the other might escape’.

Scheming for Safety

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Then as a last resort Jacob prayed. This is actually the first time that we read of Jacob praying. He had made profession of faith 20 years previously and though he surely prayed during that period – it is not recorded in scripture. Is there a hint of ‘when-all-else-fails-pray' behaviour in evidence here? Does this reveal the source of Jacob's spiritual weakness?

It certainly explains the weakness of many Christians. They will do anything in their power to advance the work of God except the one thing, which is most necessary. Pray! God often has to do with them what he did with Jacob, place them in desperate Situations, where they are obliged to give themselves to agonising prayer!

Scheming for Safety

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Once he did start praying Jacob first acknowledged that the God of his father's was his God v9, the God who had revealed himself at Bethel and more recently in Haran. Secondly, he recognises that he is the object of God's grace by confessing his own unworthiness. The sense of the Hebrew is, 'that I have been and still am unworthy'.

Sometimes Christians lose sight of this. At their conversion they are overwhelmed by a sense of unworthiness but after a period of Christian service they may begin to think that they have earned God’s blessings.

They behave more like the Pharisee than the publican in Jesus’ story Lk.18v10-12… Jacob sees himself still as unworthy.

Scheming for Safety

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Thirdly, Jacob acknowledges God's faithfulness and the many blessings that God had brought into his life. Fourthly, is the petition for deliverance from the hand of his brother. Finally, he grounds his whole prayer in God’s word of promise, 'Oh God you promised to prosper me and my descendants'.

There was one thing wrong with Jacob's prayer. He asked for protection but not for guidance. Why? Jacob had his own plans as v7-8 made clear. He paused long enough to pray and pick up an extra bit of insurance and then proceeded with his own plan for deliverance.

The theology of his prayer cannot be faulted but his theology wasn’t allowed to influence his behaviour. Jacob continued to trust in his own plans to get out of trouble.

Scheming for Safety

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During C19th Lord Acton when Prime Minister said on one occasion, 'Things have come to a pretty pass, when religion is allowed to invade the private life'. He thought that people ought to live two parallel lives, their religious life and their private life and the one should not be allowed to invade or influence the other. Like two train tracks that never converge!

But a religion, which does not invade our private life is utterly useless. People can give themselves to prayer, to Bible study and to worship but if the fruit of this activity is not seen in their day to day living then it is of no value to them. Our theology must influence our behaviour. Many of us behave like Jacob. We ask God for his help while we plan our own deliverance.

Scheming for Safety

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Jacob's scheme was simple he would attempt to buy his brother off. Jacob was prepared to let go of some of his hard earned possessions. He sent a string of gifts to Esau in an attempt, to appease him. If the first gift did not stop him in his tracks he hoped the second, or the third of the fourth might. And surely the fifth gift would do the trick.

The second stage of his stratagem was to send his family on ahead of him over the river Jabbok. Gen. 33 indicates that he sent his servants first - he valued them least, then he sent Leah his least favoured wife with her children and last of all Rachel with Joseph. All that he held dear was sent on ahead of him. Wave after wave of gifts were sent into the desert towards Esau.

Scheming for Safety

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Jacob was left by himself, alone and trembling. He had emptied his life of all which he held dear. He had given up almost everything. He clung to one important thing - himself. Are you familiar with the words of the hymn:All to Jesus I surrender, All to him I freely give; I will ever love and trust him, In his presence daily, live.Jacob sang a different hymn, 'I surrender all.... the goats, sheep.. all the cows’. We can give up money, family our dearest possessions but if do not give up ourselves, then we fail to give God what he requires. And God will come, and wrestle us into personal submission. The Moravian church recognised this when they chose a ploughing oxen as their seal – broken to serve!

Conclusion

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