Facing Our Past: Genesis 32.3-23

 

It’s been twenty years since we’ve encountered Jacob. He was in a rocky place in life and now he has a home with Laban.  He’s built up vast wealth as he poured himself into his career.  He now has a large family.  He’s set aside the pain of the past.   Jacob is in a solid place in life.  Jacob’s name will later be changed to Israel.  In Genesis 32, as we look at these passages, Jacob is about to take a huge turn in his life.  He has all the wealth he left behind years ago when he fled form his family.  He still has the pain of his past.  Jacob cannot keep running from his past.  God said Jacob would be a blessing to all nations.  Jacob has been comfortable here but it’s not where God wants him to be.  We cannot continue to run from our past.  It’s difficult for us as we are conditioned to forget our past and downplay it.  We teach our children this.  For example, moms know we cannot get caught up in the setbacks of life.  When a child skins their knee mom might start singing.  The child gets caught up in the song and forgets about the scraped knee.  There’s also a sense in our lives that if we work hard and ignore things all will work out. 

Jacob is at a place where he has to face his past.  God will do a tremendous work in his life.  We can deal with what’s in our past.  Yes, we are going through a pandemic and we don’t want to downplay it but we need to still grow in our own faith.  We need to be asking, “God, what is there in me that I need to face?” 

Go.

The first thing Jacob does is he takes action.  He sends out his man and he prays.  He takes the first step.  Jacob calls together his men.  He tells them what to say.

                        ³And Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau his brother in the land of Seir, the country of Edom, 

He gives his brother Esau notice he is on the way.  This is a profound step he takes.  We too think about these things as we are successful.  Our past comes up.  Jacob takes the first bold step to do something about it.  We see Jacob’s heart.  As we look at people in the Bible we generally have to guess what’s in their hearts, but here we see it.  In Genesis 27 Esau says he will kill Jacob when his father dies.  Jacob knew Easu wants to kill him.  Jacob wants to make amends and takes the first step to do that.  We think about making amends too.  It’s most difficult to take the first step.  Have you ever had a cake so pretty you say it’s too pretty to cut?  We still want to eat it.  How do you eat a cake?  One slice at a time.  It’s hard to work through some things we’ve been through.  Jacob initiates this part of the promise. 

Pray.

In verse 22 Jacob is unique in what he does.  There’s a great depth to Jacob’s prayer.  This is a prayer we’ve heard prayed for thousands of years.  How do we face our past?  How do we get through difficult circumstances?  We know Abraham and Isaac prayed but this prayer Jacob prays is the most in depth prayer recorded so far.  It’s a lament before God.  It’s heavy on Jacob’s heart.  He has twenty years of a deep wound in his heart.  There’s been destruction in his family.  There’s great pain in his past.  He lays it all out before God.  Jacob is afraid.  We do not face our past because we are afraid of it.  There’s three things Jacob does in this prayer:

            Thanks.

                        ¹⁰I 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. 

Jacob says he is small, insignificant, not worthy.  He recounts what God has done in his life.  Jacob is having flashbacks.  He’s at the river, the same place where he was twenty years earlier when all he had was a staff and he prayed to just survive!  Maybe you’ve been there?  Where all you have is God?  Jacob remembers twenty years earlier when it was just he and God and his heart is welling up.  God has been faithful.  His heart wells up with thankfulness to God.  One of the benefits of moments like these is we know it has nothing to do with us.  That doesn’t discount Jacob’s hard work.  Now Jacob is in two camps.  We see his heart.  God has richly blessed him.  Jacob is thankful and there’s a shift that happens here.  This is exactly what we experience at the cross.  We realize we are nothing.  It’s completely the work of God who takes a broken person.  We recognize the smallness of ourselves and the vastness of God.  What do you have to be thankful for this morning?  Count your many blessings; God is faithful.  Jacob is thankful!

Help.

                        ¹¹Please 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.

 

This is a prayer for help.  Maybe the most honest part of our prayers is to cry out for help.  Jacob is asking God to help him.  He cries out to his shepherd to help him.  He’s asking God for deliverance.  This is the same word that used by David, “rescue.”  David uses this word when he goes to visit his brothers when they’re fighting the Philistines.  King Saul asks David how he can fight this giant and David says he’s been out at night and has defeated the lion and the bear with his bare hands.  I have “rescued” the sheep from that wild animal.  When David prays he uses this same word in his prayer.  God, will you rescue me?  Jacob is praying this kind of prayer.  Deliver me.  Rescue me.  It’s a heartfelt prayer.  “God, I need you.  Help me.  I don’t’ know what to do.”  It’s vulnerable to pray this kind of prayer.  God always answers the prayers of His children.  With all Jacob’s strength and wealth he still sees he is vulnerable.  COVID-19 has exposed that we are vulnerable.  Maybe you’ve prayed that you don’t know what to do.  Will you pray this prayer to God?

            Believe.

Jacob trusts God.  He will remind God of His promises.  Why?  Does God forget?  We need a reminder.  We need to voice God’s promises.  For twenty years Jacob has clinged to this promise.  Jacob remembers the faithfulness of God:

             ¹²But 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 the same promise God gave to Abraham.  Jacob can see God is faithful.  God has multiplied his family.  In our prayers we can pray back to God His promises over us.  God says He will never leave us or forsake us.  There’s nothing we can do to separate us from the love of God.  Do you believe what God says when he says He will be with you?  Children remember promises.  When we go to the store and your child approaches with an item saying, “You promised next time I can get this.”  Children don’t forget.  God is our Father.  He does not forget.  These are simple prayers asking God to deliver us, thanking God for what He has done.  This is what it means to face our past. 

Give.

                        ¹³So he stayed there that night, and from what he had with him he took a present for his brother Esau, 

Verse 13 shows a change in Jacob’s life.  Jacob looks all over and selects a gift for his brother Esau.  Here’s what this is significant:  for most of their lives Jacob was the taker.  Jacob has now become a giver.  We see a heart change in this gift.  Jacob wants Esau to see he comes in reconciliation, to be a blessing.  This is a part of God’s promise over Jacob’s life.  Jacob wants peace.  Jacob is demonstrating he is no longer the person he was before.  Walking with God makes us different people.  We aren’t the people we once were.  By the grace of God we grow more like Jesus every day.  Jacob still isn’t perfect.  He’s becoming more like Jesus.  We still have things in our past.  What is your first step?  What’s in your past?  Maybe you’ve been busy and you haven’t dealt with some things?  Would you lay it before God?  Maybe you haven’t dealt with your relationship with God?  Next week we’ll see Jacob wrestling with God.  Jacob had to reconcile with God.  You too can be reconciled to God. 

Sermon Notes are taken, transcribed and posted by Jeni Martin Johnson.