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 32nd 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.
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