Israel's First Showdown

  • Matt Marino
  • Feb 7, 2010
  • Series: Genesis
  • Passage: Genesis 32-33

 2-7-10

Israel’s First Showdown

GENESIS 32-33

 

 

INTRODUCTION

 

Abram’s name was changed to Abraham. Do you remember why? Abram meant “exalted father,” while Abraham meant “father of a multitude,” shifting the focus from one man’s experience to the mission of God to all the people groups of the world.  Now Jacob’s name is changed. And that is just as significant. In fact, I would go so far as to say that understanding these two name changes prevents us from two extreme errors in our definition of the Christian faith. 

 

The one name change reminds us that the light is not to be kept under a bucket, while the other reminds us that that light is only as good as its heat, so that the same prophet Isaiah who says that the “nations shall come to your light” [60:3], begins his prophecy by calling, “O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the LORD.” [2:5]: two modern extremes corrected by two profound name changes way back in Genesis. 

 

JACOB FEARS MAN

JACOB WRESTLES WITH GOD

ISRAEL MEETS MAN 

 

The Big Idea is that Israel’s first showdown (and yours) is not with the world, but with God.

 

DOCTRINE

 

JACOB FEARS MAN

Fearing Man Ignores the Presence of God

Angels—for a third time—visited Jacob and revealed God to him.

Mananaim means “second camp” given to strengthen Jacob.

[Ps. 34:7] “The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them.”

 

If the believer has all in Christ, then the armies of heaven are never absent

[Mat. 26:53] “Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels?”

 

Jacob’s own division into two camps was meant as an exit strategy (8)

 

Unhealthy fear breeds the “paralysis of analysis”

[Is. 8:12-13] “Do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy, and do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread. But the LORD of hosts, him you shall honor as holy. Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.”

 

Fearing Man Ignores the Promise of God

Jacob fights to recall the promise and remind God.

 

“The fear of man is the sinful exaggeration of a normal experience…At times, however, this alarm is not regulated by faith. It becomes fear that is consumed with itself and for a time forgets God. It becomes a fear that, when activated, rules your life. In such a state, we trust for salvation in others.”

EDWARD T. WELCH, When People are Big and God is Small

 

God’s promises are about more certain, lasting things; things which triumph over and bring to non-existence the alternative fears.

 

[Ps. 27:1] “The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?”

 

Fearing Man Ignores the Propitiation of God

Jacob’s plan and presents were meant to appease (propitiate) the one who he took to be his judge.

This all starts with our fears of bullies, peers, abuse, failure…or does it?

 

Speculating anxiety – What will happen if…X?

Nothing you don’t deserve worse than!

[Mat. 10:28] “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.”

 

Nothing with eternally bad effects that Christ has not removed!

[Rom. 8:1] “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

 

JACOB WRESTLES WITH GOD

This Was a Man, but More than a Man

True, guys like to wrestle, but it’s not the first thing with a perfect stranger!

This reinforces the fact that this wrestler begins as his adversary.

 

[Amos 3:13] “Hear, and testify against the house of Jacob,’ declares the Lord GOD, the God of hosts.”

 

Every ancient people had a deity—a force they could pull off their shelf when times got tough—just like every modern person has a personal, friendly self-affirming deity. Jacob knew enemies: Laban, Esau—but God?

 

[Ps. 51:4] “Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight.”

 

Naturally, a divine wrestler would have no trouble “pinning” a human opponent—this is symbolic. 

God was sending him the message: I’m the one you’re striving with! I’m the one whose fear is beating in your heart when you fear death or sink into despair. I am driving the hounds of heaven that are hot on your trail.

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One of the recurring ideas in the Genesis commentaries has been speculation over when/how each man becomes truly born again. Some say that happens here with Jacob; others say he is simply awakened to it.

 

Victory and Limping

 

 

[Is. 45:4] “For the sake of my servant Jacob, and Israel my chosen, I call you by your name, I name you, though you do not know me.”

 

 

ISRAEL MEETS WITH MAN

Jacob’s Reconciliation with Esau was Free

Esau settled far enough to the south that this was no geographical necessity (Bethel was a straight shot west—why did Jacob go here?)

Hence, something in Jacob’s heart could not rest without reconciliation.

[Mat. 5:23-25] “So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison.”

 

This doesn’t contradict last week’s lesson on gaining your freedom: we didn’t say, “dusting off your hands,” saying “good riddance!” This is about a clear conscience.

[Rom. 12:14-21, TURN] Note the context of ethical maturity here; note also that this is not restricted to behavior toward other believers.

 

Jacob’s Interaction with Esau was Theologically Informed

He was now conscience of unmerited favor: thus he likens Esau’s appearance to the appearance of God—since they had this in common.

He still separates from Esau—perhaps out of lingering mistrust, perhaps solely out of a sense of purpose to get back to Canaan. 

 

Wrestling with God himself doesn’t mean that we won’t face the world and it doesn’t mean that we won’t be any good in the world or that we don’t care about the world. What is does mean is that when we face the world, we do so with a renewed sense of perspective, an eternal perspective. Fear of man, vengeance, setting up the kingdom on our own strength: all of that goes out the window once we have gazed upon the face of God and seen our struggle with him first. 

 

APPLICATION

 

To the Culture Warrior – Let me clearly re-state our big idea and plead with you to consider what has gone wrong with the twentieth century Evangelical parachurch approach to fighting a culture war: Israel’s first showdown (and yours) is not with the world, but with God. Now this may have multiple applications for you personally, but even if it doesn’t, there has been a basic shift in what we mean by ‘worldview’ and ‘cultural engagement.’ Let me explain…

 

The essential doctrines of the Christian faith are about the biggest things in reality—God, Christ, Scripture, Salvation—and what parachurch organizations that are disconnected from God’s mission in the local church have to do in order to exist is boil the essentials down to the lowest common denominator or marginalize them altogether. The irony never occurs to anyone. The whole reason that these ministries exist is to do something the local church isn’t doing, supposedly something tough-minded, something culturally daring—something worldview-ish. Problem 1: In order to exist, you’ve convinced yourself that the most central things that make the worldview what it is have to go. A culture war without a worldview! A worldview without a center! These ministries lose their grasp on orthodoxy in a matter of a decade. Problem 2: The parachurch, as valuable as it could be if it had a doctrinal center, is not the church, and so its tendency is to take the best and brightest disenfranchised young believers out of the church into lone lantern ministries. Everyone is feeding, no one needs to be fed, no one needs each other. “But we’re equipping the church!” they delude themselves. They forget that the whole reason they left the church is to finally do all the stuff the church wouldn’t allow. So who is it equipping? Only your fans who are also disenfranchised from the church. That’s why I call it the “parachurch pyramid scheme.” The result is a multitude of unaccountable, unhealthy megalomaniacs with paypal.  

 

To the ‘Missional’ Church – Missional theology and missional church planting is all the rage: “If we’re not united on essential doctrine, at least we’re united on mission,” they say. Now how does that work? Our mission is preaching and spreading the gospel, and that gospel has content. When a church sends the message to come with us while we do X, Y, Z out in the world before you get right with God, there is a false gospel. The missional crowd could learn a lesson from Jacob: his first showdown (and the church’s) is not with the world, but with God. 

 

To the Fear-Driven Saint –

 

To the Sinner – You’ve been wrestling with many things, but really you’ve been wrestling with one. You’ve been afraid of many things (or people), but really you have only One to fear. You’ve been despairing over many things, but all of those are symptoms of the eternal despair. You’re problem (just like Jacob’s) is that you do not know God as you ought.