Genesis 32:1-21 “Between Fear and Faith”

The struggle between faith and fear is a very real battle for Christians and even seasoned Christians. God however never intended us to set up camp in the middle of the two.

In   Genesis chapters 27&28 we had found Jacob fleeing from his brother Esau, who had threatened to kill him (Gen.27:41). 

In Chapter 28 on his way to his mother’s brother, Laban, Jacob met the LORD in a life changing way. Nobody encounters God and is not changed!  Jacob would later call the place of encounter “Bethel” (house of God), for he said, “Surely  the  LORD  is in this place… How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven” (Gen. 28:16,17).  God had become real to him, and in Genesis 28:20 -22 we find true words of commitment. He is a changed man.

Chapters 29 – 31  are the record  of Jacob serving  under his deceptive uncle  Laban, and here  he thoroughly  learns  that you will reap what you have sown. Their relationship becomes unbearable, and by God’s command (31:3) he prepares to return to his father, Isaac and  the place of covenant promise. He leaves with a large family, servants and large flocks of animals.

In Genesis 32 we find him nearing the land of his father (where his brother Esau also   lived). Two  things  dominated his thinking:  

(i) He greatly feared his brother Esau’s response (see 32:7,11). 

(ii)  He desperately wanted to appease his brother, for he knew that he had dealt deceitfully with him (see 32:20). 

So then, in Jacob we find a man who is possessed by great fears. He lies awake night after night as he tries to figure out the way forward.   Have you been there?  At  such times our God tends to be small and our enemy  tends to be  big.

Thankfully  the God of the covenant is always  one step ahead of His fearful servants. As we now  come to the 32^nd chapter we note that the God who had met with him at Bethel, and who had previously made great promises  to him  (see Gen. 28:13-15; 31:13)  is one step ahead of him.  

Let’s see  now how  Jacob’s life is lived  between  fear  and  faith.

1. Jacob’s protection (32:1-2):  “Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him. 2 And when Jacob saw them he said, “This is God's camp!” So he called the name of that place Mahanaim.” (Mahanaim means, ‘two camps’).

Here is a remarkable illustration of God’s wonderful, faith strengthening care for his chosen man ashe moves into the proverbial lion’s den. Jacob is fearful, but thankfully  the  God  of Jacob had  already anticipated  that  fear and had sent His angels (i.e. His ministering spirits cf. Hebr.1:14)  to meet him.  When Jacob saw the angels, he called this place  Mahanaim  (two camps)  -  i.e.  the angel’s camp  (The sense is given  in Ps.  34:7 - The angel of the Lord encamps  around those who fear Him and he delivers them)  and  his own camp.  Jacob, by divine grace was enabled to see something which Elisha’s fearful servant, Gehazi,   was enabled to see in 2 Kings 6:16-17. He was helped to see that the angels of God around them were more than the army of Syria.

So, being given the ability  to see these angels  on his way to a fearful destiny would have strengthened Jacob’s faith, and he would have  known that  that God was indeed with him in this journey back to the promised land.

2. Jacob’s plans (32:3-8): 3 And Jacob sent   messengers before him to Esau his brother in the land of Seir, the country of Edom, 4 instructing them, “Thus you shall say to my lord Esau: Thus says your servant Jacob, ‘I have sojourned with Laban and stayed until now. 5 I have oxen, donkeys, flocks, male servants, and female servants. I have sent to tell my lord, in order that I may find favor in your sight.’”6 And the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, “We came to your brother Esau, and he is coming to meet you, and there are four hundred men with him.” 7 Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed. He divided the people who were with him, and the flocks and herds and camels, into two camps, 8 thinking, “If Esau comes to the one camp and attacks it, then the camp that is left will escape”.

Jacob just had a wonderful faith strengthening  encounter with God, and yet  he returns   to  his own scheming in terms of how he should deal with his brother. While Jacob prepares the gift (appeasement) for Esau,  even while he knows that the angels of the LORD encamp around him,  one  can sense his fearful anticipation of this event.  In the message to Esau he  submits to his brother  Esau as his ‘lord’ (32:4- Hebr. “adonai”). And you say,  “Wait a minute!  Was Jacob not appointed by God to  be the ‘lord’ of this land?”   And the answer is, he is the lord of the land, but remember  that Jacob did violate  a biblical principle!  He cheated his brother. He took shortcuts  in getting the birthright and the promise of the firstborn.  Yes, God did appoint  him  to be the lord of the land, but he was to  get there not by wangling and by scheming. He was to do this trusting in God’s work and in God’s timing every step of the way.  

And so, because he has gone about this the wrong way he is now making some very foolish decisions  which are motivated  by  fear! That is what sin does. The essence of sin is self-reliance –not God reliance. Sinful anxiety  makes  Jacob  forget   his    heavenly  protection and inheritance, so that he now begins to cower  before the   intimidating  presence  of  Esau.  When  Jacob  hears that  Esau  comes  to meet  him with 400 men, as  we read  in 32:7, “… Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed”.

And now the  vivid  and real dream of the ladder to heaven  and  the promises of God and Bethel were forgotten. The camp of angels around him was forgotten.

Do we never learn?   Our faith so easily gives way to fear. The thought of 400 men coming to meet him shakes Jacob.  His confidence  in God is quickly diminished. Sin and fear cause us to loose heavenly perspective very quickly. Paul has to remind fearful  and timid Timothy  that  God has not given us a spirit of fear but of power and love and self- discipline ( 2 Tim 1:7)  

So,  in rationalizing his fear,  Jacob divides  his  group into two camps (Mahanaim) – but  note (!) the  camp of angels don’t feature  here now! 

In  32:2  Jacob had  two camps,  his little one  and God’s great one.  But now in  32:7  he only sees  his little camp,  which now, on account of fear,   he divides  into two camps!

This always happens when we trust in our own resources.  When we become fearful we become inwardly divided and we  become actually become weaker. The fear of man lays a snare,   but whoever trusts in the Lord is safe. (Prov. 29:25).   The fear of man becomes a great snare, for this fear becomes greater than the fear of the LORD.

Jacob recognizes his weakness relative to Esau, but he is not taking stock of his weakness before God!   The  fear of man makes him forget  the principle  of which the apostle Paul had also  had reminded the Corinthians, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness…. When I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Cor.  12:9,10)

And now, from  fear back to faith …

3. Jacob’s Prayer (32:9-12):  9 And Jacob said, “O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O Lord who said to me, ‘Return to your country and to your kindred, that I may do you good,’ 10 I am not worthy of the least of all the deeds of steadfast love and all the faithfulness that you have shown to your servant, for with only my staff I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two camps. 11 Please deliver me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear him, that he may come and attack me, the mothers with the children. 12 But you said, ‘I will surely do you good, and make your offspring as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.’”

This is Jacob’s prayer. Thank God for the gift of prayer  by which we may present  all our requests to God. It is the true believers  instinct. When the Christian is in trouble he prays. It is his native air. 

Here we see a biblical form of prayer  in which we find:

(i)    A reverent approach (32:9): O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O Lord who said to me … An appeal to the covenant keeping God , in whom alone can be our trust and hope.

(ii) A humble approach (32:10): I am not worthy of the least of all the deeds of steadfast love and all the faithfulness that you have shown to your servant.

(iii) A  direct request (32:11):  Please deliver me.  The Psalms are full of such cries. No long words are needed. God is not deaf.

(iv)  An appeal to God’s promise/ covenant (32:12): Standing on the promises … Showing God His own handwriting.  

Note the vacillation between fear and faith.  In this prayer, Jacob is filled with faith, and the content of his prayer is truly wonderful and instructive. The confidence of such a prayer lies in the fact that God is true and faithful to all His promises. Such prayer does not fail, and we shall see that it does not fail here!

4. Jacob’s present:  32 :13-21   13 So he stayed there that night, and from what he had with him he took a present for his brother Esau, 14 two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, 15 thirty milking camels and their calves, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys. 16 These he handed over to his servants, every drove by itself, and said to his servants, “Pass on ahead of me and put a space between drove and drove.” 17 He instructed the first, “When Esau my brother meets you and asks you, ‘To whom do you belong? Where are you going? And whose are these ahead of you?’ 18 then you shall say, ‘They belong to your servant Jacob. They are a present sent to my lord Esau. And moreover, he is behind us.’” 19 He likewise instructed the second and the third and all who followed the droves, “You shall say the same thing to Esau when you find him, 20 and you shall say, ‘Moreover, your servant Jacob is behind us.’” For he thought, “I may appease him  with the present that goes ahead of me, and afterward I shall see his face. Perhaps he will accept me.”  21 So the present passed on ahead of him, and he himself stayed that night in the camp.

Again, let me remind you, that  two thoughts dominate  Jacob’s mind:

(i)               He wants to right  the wrong that he has done  to Esau. 

(ii)             He is not sure that Esau will accept this .

Notice how again he moves from prayer back to his  scheming. George Mueller of Bristol was once asked what the most important part about prayer was. He said, ”The 15 minutes after I have said, “Amen” . How easy it is to come from prayer (faith) back to fear.  15 minutes after  we have prayed we must leave our  Esau’s to God  and not  return to  our plans to bribe our way out of  a difficult  position. 

The  camp of angels  around him must have   begun to wonder whether  he would have  any need of their protection  after all, since he was doing so well  scheming his way through this trial, and so we ask, was this the man who had just uttered this wonderful prayer of faith? Was this the man who had stood on the covenant promises?  Was this the man who had reminded God that he was acting under divine orders?

Next time we will consider 32:22-32 (Jacob wrestling with God). In preparation  for this portion  I remind you that,  where there is no faith there is little sleep – but thank God  that  Jacob is ultimately  in the  hands of a great God, and in our next portion God  will  continue to   shape  Jacob into  a man after His own heart. 

Conclusion and application:

(i)       We were reminded that the presence  of the God of Jacob behind and before   is  also our   guarantee to persevering in  our  trials of life.

(ii)     We have seen  that   our life is so often  a curious mixture  of  faith and fear.

(iii)   We have seen  that reverent, humble, direct  prayer, based on  our confidence in  a covenant  keeping  God strengthens our faith, not by removing all danger and pressure, but by sustaining us through  our trials.

(iv)   We  have seen  that  our best efforts  in trusting God entirely come  short. Faith alternating with fear. This is also typical of our spiritual experience. How thankful we must be then that we are being kept by the grace of God. He is the God of our Exodus from this world into the next. In that process God is indeed the God who is behind us and the God who goes before us. 

Next  time  we shall  see how in that  process,   through it all,  God systematically  conquers us.