Jacob's encounter with God at Peniel reveals the transformative power of being left alone with the divine. After years of scheming and fear, Jacob is forced into a solitary wrestling match with God, who cripples him but ultimately blesses him, changing his name to Israel. This profound experience, where Jacob confesses his unworthiness and clings to God's promise, leads to his eventual reconciliation with Esau and a fundamentally altered walk of faith. The sermon emphasizes that true transformation occurs when we are stripped of our own plans and left alone with God to receive His blessing and surrender to His command.
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My dad, if you have never read that book, don't just pass that off. What her brother has said, get one, read it and then pass it on. I can put a stamp of approval upon every page of that book. There could be another fifty pages added to it that's not there. I remember the day that Dan's father was killed. He lost his dad in an accident. The sad day. My own father took the funeral. Dan was fourteen years in age.
Two years later, I lost my father. Quarter through twelve at night. You know, people come around and they say things. They say, oh, words are cheap. And I saw Dan in the morning about between half past eight and nine o'clock. He never said anything. He just took my hand and he just looked. He shook his head. He says, Bill, I understand. So he did. We grew up together.
The number of us grew up together. Some of you remember Bill Patterson, Bill and Dan and myself and a group of others. We all grew up together. When my father died, it was like taking the foundation away from all of us. But you know we had to get our roots down. And we got our shoulders together and we stood together and we helped each other during those years of depression. And the day he went away to the army He was in R.A.M.C. He went away with my brother. The two that went away together. Jim went to the Middle East. Dan went to the Far East. And you read the book.
You'll get the rest of the story. But there's a lot that's not in there. A lot that's not in there. But what's in here will interest you. To show you what God can do for you and do with you. Get two books. Read one and give the other one away. Now let us continue our study tonight in the life of Jacob. Last night we dealt with the twenty years that he spent in Padanaram. Tonight we're going into chapter thirty-two, but before we get there there's just a little incident in chapter thirty-one I want to draw your attention to. Chapter thirty-one and verse forty-five.
Now this takes place when his uncle Laban has come pursuing after him. There's been a real heated argument between the two of them. challenge and counter-challenge. But look at verse forty-five. Do you remember I said to you on our first study about Jacob, he was a man that was always raising pillars. Now here's another pillar he raises here, verse forty-five. And Jacob took a stone and set it up for a pillar. There's another memorial pillar he's raised. Look at verse fifty-four. Then Jacob offered sacrifice upon the mount and called his brethren to eat bread, and they did eat bread, and tarried all night on the mount.
And early in the morning Laban rose up and kissed his sons and his daughters and blessed them. And Laban departed and returned unto his own place. And they never saw him again. Now my reason for reading these verses, before we go into chapter thirty-two, is this. A number of years ago, sitting in my own home, we were discussing the life of Jacob with a gentleman that most of you would know, if I mentioned his name, at least you would know him by name. He said to me, Willie, I've been giving a fresh study to the life of Jacob. He says, have you ever studied the life of Jacob? I said, have you ever known a cat that didn't take milk?
I said, I've delighted my soul in the life of Jacob and every time I go back to it, I get something fresh. Well, he says, he, I've been looking for someone like you. He said, I've been giving a fresh study to the life of Jacob. Now he said, which incident in the life of Jacob do you think corresponds with conversion? Now I knew that he was pegging for something. He must have been writing an article at the time and he wanted to get his mind clear on something. I said, the incident at Bethel that night when he had the vision. I said, it was at Peniel.
On his way back, I said, I disagree. Well, he said, why do you think it was at Bethel? I said, why do you think it was at Peniel? You tell me that first. So he did. When I said, I'll ask you a simple question. I said, you have been studying the Bible many more years than me. Tell me this. Is it possible for an unconverted man to offer acceptable worship to God? He says, I don't think so, but he said, where did Jacob ever offer worship to God? On two occasions, First of all, at Bethel, when he awoke from his dream that night, didn't he set up a pillar and pour his oil on the pillar as an act of worship and made his vow to God?
Wasn't the pouring of the oil an act of worship? He says, I suppose it was. Then I said, what about this incident in chapter thirty-one? Uncle Laban was the senior of the two. But he did not give place to Uncle Laban. He had to submit to Uncle Laban when he was in Uncle Laban's house. But he's not going to submit to Uncle Laban when it comes to worship. For the simple reason, Uncle Laban was a heathen man. And he worshipped his false gods and his idols. Now if two men in that part of the world were entering into a covenant, the covenant was sealed by some kind of act of worship.
But Jacob here was not going to allow his uncle Laban to carry through some heathen act of worship and offer some prayer to some idol. So Jacob has raised the pillar. And it's Jacob here who offered sacrifice upon the mountain called his brethren to eat bread. And there was the sign that they were entering into their covenant. But it was Jacob who conducted that act of worship. Now I submit that to you people here tonight as I submitted it to that gentleman. And I must say, I have never yet come across his article that he was preparing at that time, in which he was going to state that Peniel was that which corresponded to conversion.
You have to be the judge. And I'll put the same poser to you. Can an unconverted man offer acceptable worship to God? From there now he's going to leave Uncle Laban and he's going to come into chapter thirty-two. Now the important part of chapter thirty-two that we are going to look at tonight is the last section. But we cannot take the last section out of its context. So we shall require to run rapidly through the whole chapter in order to get the setting of the final portion. Now I submit to you tonight that the first eight verses of this chapter set before us the problems that Jacob had to face.
Let us read those eight verses very rapidly and we'll see what his problems were. And Jacob went on his way and the angels of God met him. And when Jacob saw them he said, This is God's host. And he called the name of that place Mahaneum. And Jacob set messengers before him to Esau, his brother, unto the land of Seir, the country of Edom. And he commanded them, saying, Thus shall you speak, unto my Lord Esau. Thy servant Jacob says thus, I have sojourned with Laban, and stayed there until now. And I have oxen and asses, flocks, and men's servants, and women's servants.
And I have said to tell my Lord, that I may find grace in thy sight. And the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, We came to thy brother Esau, and also he cometh to meet thee, and four hundred men with him. Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed, and he divided the people that was with him, and the flocks and herds, and the camels, into two bands, and said, If Esau come to the one company and smite it, then the other company which is left shall escape. Now we'll pause here a moment. Let us try and gather the meaning of these eight verses for a little while. Jacob has been away from home for twenty years. But you will recall our study in the previous evening, the circumstances under which he fled from home with his brother Esau vowing vengeance on him.
Just wait till the days of mourning for our father is past, and I'll take your life. And if I can get rid of you, then all the blessings will be mine. I'll get everything. His mother says, you better go away, Jacob. Stay away for a few days till he calms off a little. Well, those few days have passed on to twenty years. And at last, God says to him, Jacob, get back. Remember, I am with thee. I'm going to look after thee. I'll keep thee. I'll preserve thee. He's on the way back. But let me draw your attention to this. The problem that existed twenty years before this still existed.
He still had to face brother Esau. In spite of the twenty years that had elapsed, the feud was still there. The fear was still in Jacob's heart. If he's coming back, he still had Esau to meet. You now have got to learn this lesson that it's no use trying to run away from a problem when it should be faced. It's so easy to turn our back on it and run from it. Sooner or later we'll be faced with that problem again.
You know, you mothers, if the little one came in and had done a scratch in the finger or on the leg, it was bad enough if you were trying to climb over a bad wire fence and it just tore your pants, bad enough to go home and admit it. But if it went further than your pants and tore something else, that had to be attended to. And sometimes it was very sore. To have a sore treat it. No matter where it was. It was no use putting a patch over and pretending it wasn't there. And sometimes if you had something wrong with your finger, and that was treated, it could nip and be very sore, but it had to be cleaned out.
It was no use putting a clean bandage on a dirty sore. Even the doctor, you know, or the nurse, had to clean out the sore or your mother had to do it. My mother just turned on the cold water and said, hold it there. Well, I get something to put on it and I tell you it could nip when it was under that cold water. But it had to be cleaned out. Then she put something else on and that would nip. But wasn't it better for all the dirt that was in it to be cleaned out and then patched up? The trouble with us today, we tried to put the clean bandage around without cleaning it out. And it becomes like a festering sore and it bursts out again. Jacob, you may have been away for twenty years, but you're coming back now and you've got to face brother Esau face to face.
You've got a problem. Far better you'd stayed at home and faced the problem then and squared it off. So time does not do away with these problems. They've got to be settled. So I suggest to you, here's the background to chapter chapter two, Jacob's coming back. God has told him to get back. He's got the desire to come back, but he's got to face the problem. Now, what would you do if you were faced with a problem like that and you didn't have the answer to it? If we don't have the answer to a problem, may I suggest something?
The place to go is into the private room. and shut the door. And down on your knees perhaps will you have the Bible open and ready. Spend time and prayer before God, asking God to lead you and guide you and show you the answer. Wouldn't that be the proper thing to do? Some folks today, when they have a problem, they think the best thing to do is send a letter to the editor of some magazine and suggest to you what the answer should be and see if he agrees with it. Or send to dear Abbey she might know. Or wait to see what the horoscope says tomorrow.
Now that's not the answer to the problem. You find the answer in the presence of God. That's exactly what Jacob did here. Now let us look at the little section that deals with Jacob's prayer. And this is not the section we're dealing with tonight, but let us read his prayer now. From verse nine. And Jacob said, O God of my Father Abraham, and God of my Father Isaac, the law of which said unto me, Return unto thy country and to thy kindred, and I will deal well with thee. I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies and of all the truth which thou assured unto thy servant.
For with my staff I passed over this Jordan, and now I am become too banned. Deliver me, I pray thee, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau. For I fear him, lest he will come and smite me and the mother with the children. And thou saidst, I will surely do thee good. Make thy seed of the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude. What a prayer. What a prayer. I would love to have been there in that company that night sitting somewhere at Jacob's back listening to that prayer. I think I would have said Amen.
Now you'll notice it's not a long prayer. He doesn't wander you. You know exactly what he's praying about and he knew what he was praying about. He didn't pray about everything and anything that didn't relate to the problem. He got right to grips with it. Notice he presents his prayer to God and he presents his prayer to the God of the covenant. He knew something of the blessing he had received. He knew that God had entered into covenant with Father Abraham and Father Isaac and now Jacob. And so as he begins to plead before God in his prayer, he's pleading God as being the God of the covenant.
Oh God, the God of my Father Abraham and the God of my Father Isaac. You see, he's claiming what God has promised to Abraham and that promise was confirmed to Isaac and then to Jacob himself. He's laying hold here upon his relationship to God and what God has promised. You know, I sometimes wonder... If you and I have really come to grips with this, I like, you know, what the Lord said to his disciples. When they came to him, they said, Lord, will you teach us to pray?
You know, John taught his disciples how to pray. Will you teach us to pray? He says, when you pray, say, our Father. That's simple, isn't it? Our Father. Now it may be you've been brought up in circles where you were told that it wasn't right to pray that prayer. Some folk teach that. You're not supposed to pray that prayer. Well, they may be right and they may be wrong, but I tell you something, the school I went to, we had to pray that every morning. That was the first thing in the school. You had to stand and recite that prayer. Well, you might say, but there was nothing to it.
Well, it may not be much to some folk, but it gets there lodged in your mind. And it's better teaching them that than teaching them evolution. So in the school I went to, that's what we had to do in these days. The first fifteen minutes every morning was Bible lesson. And we had a teacher there who didn't believe the Bible, so he couldn't teach it. But what he used to say was, Learn Isaiah fifty-three for next week. You have to be able to recite Isaiah fifty-three.Learn first Corinthians thirteen for next week. He just made you learn portions of the Bible. That was the best thing he could do.
Better doing that than anything else. But when you come back to this prayer, our Father, some years ago I was in an assembly. Not down south, by the way, up north. And on the Sunday at the breaking of bread service, when I took part, that's how I started. I said, our Father. So when we were in the home later on in the afternoon, this dear old man says to me, oh Bill, he said, when you're going to pray, you pray to the Father. But when you worship, you worship God.
I said, is that so? I said, I never knew that. He said, you're never too old to learn. I said, that's right. Well, I said, explain this to me in John chapter four, where it says the Father seek as such to worship him. Well, he said, I'd never thought of that. I said, you're never too old to learn. He's older than me. Now why make a man wrong for a word? I wouldn't do that. But I still think it's nice to approach God in that relationship. Jacob, when he went to pray, he knew his relationship to God.
He knew he was in the line of the covenant. He prayed to God as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac. And now he's claiming to come into that life, for he says... Thou art the Lord which said some to me, return to my country, to my kindred, and I will deal well with thee. So in plain words, you promised it to Abraham. You confirmed it to Isaac and to me. So I'm claiming that. Claiming my relationship to the Lord. May I suggest this, that when we're faced with the problem, and you go into the presence of God, you know him as a father. What better person could you go to with a problem?
He has the answer. And I suggest this was Jacob's prayer. But then he takes a very humble place here. He said, I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies and of all the truth that thou shalt unto thy servant. He said, when I came this way, I had only my staff. That's all I had. I was just a pilgrim. All I possessed was a staff. Now he said, see what I've got in twenty years. You've prospered me. I am two bands now. And all these possessions. I wasn't worthy of the least of thy mercies.
You've lavished upon me the very best. You know, some folks when they get on, they don't want to remember what they were. They don't want to remember what they were. They want to forget the whole of the pit. out of which they were dug. And they don't like being reminded at times of what things used to be like. They're kind of insulted if you remind them of things that used to be. Now we shouldn't be like that. If God has lavished his blessings upon us, let us be like Jacob.
Let us remember what we were when we were only the staff. That was all. And now see what he's done for us. Now he's still praying. Now he's saying, not only have you been the covenant keeping God, not only have you blessed me, but now I'm making a petition. Will you deliver me? I pray thee from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau. For I fear him. He's putting the whole case before God is his prayer. But now, coming to the end of that prayer, you would almost have thought that Jacob would have said this. Now look, I've presented the whole matter to God.
He'll undertake for us, so we'll just leave it there now. And we'll leave God to work it out according to his will. Now we'll all agree that's what should have been. But unfortunately, we're still viewing old Jacob. What did he do? He got up off his knees and he said, now what will I do about it? He's still the same scheming, planning, conniving fellow that he was twenty years before. Oh, he's learned how to pray. That's true. And he's presented his petition to God and a better presentation I don't think you could find.
A beautiful prayer. The way he outlines it. Now he gets up and he says, now what am I going to do about it? Watch how he schemes and plans as to how he is going to work it out. Let's read these verses now from verse thirteen. And he lodged there that same night and took of that which came to his hand a present for he saw his brother. Two hundred she goats and twenty he goats, two hundred Jews and twenty rams, sester milch camels with their coats, forty kine and ten bulls, twenty she yases and tenfold. Any farmers in the audience? You know something more. This would cost them.
What a present. What a present. And he delivered them into the hand of his servants, every drove by themselves, and said unto his servants, pass over before me, and put a space betwixt drove and drove. And he commanded the form of saying, When he saw my brother meeteth thee, And asketh thee saying, Who's that thou? And whither goest thou? And whose are these before thee? Then thou shalt say, They be thy servant Jacob. Now let's stop here a moment. This question of service has come up again. Thy servant Jacob? Who said that Jacob was to be Esau's servant?
Isn't this the very opposite from what was to be? Wasn't Esau to serve Jacob? What's he cringing about? Why is he saying, My Lord Esau, thy servant Jacob? It should be thy Lord Jacob is coming to meet my servant Esau. You see how Jacob schemes and plans and turns the whole thing around here to make it easy for himself. Hasn't he presented his case to God? Then why is he taking it into his own hand now? Couldn't he have led God to work this out? That's what you would have thought with the prayer. But no. Let's watch what happens.
Then thou shalt say, They be thy servant, Jacob. It is a present sent unto my Lord Esau. And behold, also he is behind us. And so commanded he the second and the third and all that followed the drove, saying, On this manner shall you speak unto Esau when you find him. And say he moreover, Behold, thy servant Jacob is behind us. For he said, I will appease him with the present that goeth before me, and afterward I will see his face. Peradventure he will accept of me. So went the present over before him, and himself lodged that night in the company. Now you'd have thought he's schemed, he's planned. That's sufficient now.
There's nothing else he can do. But remember, he still has that fear in his heart of Esau. It's Esau he's afraid of. So he can't sleep. And he rose up that night. Have you ever had to rise up in the night? What's the things making it up in the night? sickness, pain and so on. But this was something else. This was a bad conscience. He couldn't sleep. Afraid of Esau. And he rose up that night and he took his two wives and his two women servants and his eleven sons and passed over the ford Jabir.
And he took them and sent them over the brook and sent over that he had. And Jacob was left alone. Now watch. He's done everything within his power now. He's even taking Leah and Rachel and the sons and the one daughter and the servant. They said, now, on in front. If he's going to get at anybody, he'll have to get through every one of them to get to me. I'll be last in the line. And he puts them all over the brook and he goes to the other side. And he's left alone. That's where he was at Bethel, wasn't it, on the way out. You remember?
First night out, lay down with his head on the stones. He hasn't been alone since, coming back now in his two mighty troops. Something has happened. God brings them into the circumstances once more where he's left alone. It has been well said. that it's when we're left alone with God that we are able to arrive at a true estimate of ourselves. When we're left alone with God we can arrive at a true estimate of ourselves. That's exactly where we find Jacob. Oh yes, he had a problem.
He presents his prayer. He has his plan. But now we're going to see him in those closing verses. Here is Jacob now the man who prevails. The reason I drew your attention to the whole chapter is this. That little section there that deals with them praying. That's a real prayer. I have heard it said often regarding this closing section of the chapter that this is a picture of the Christian praying and getting the answer. Now I'm going to suggest to you that this is not a picture of us wrestling with God at all.
This is a picture of God wrestling with the believer, which is a different matter. And often this is put over as how you've got to wrestle with God in prayer. But I find here that God wrestles with his child. Let us come first of all and read these verses and see. And Jacob was left alone and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. So let me pause at that verse for a moment. If you had been in Jacob's place and you'd just gone to sleep and somebody laid hold upon you and put a wrestling grip on you, who would you have thought it was?
It's obvious, isn't it? He thought Esau had got to him. He thought Esau had got, it was Esau he was afraid of. And he was at least going to put up a fight for it. It was Esau he was afraid of. And when someone laid hold upon him, he thought it was Esau. But it wasn't. He had to learn who it was. He didn't know who it was, but he says, tell me your name. It seems in the wrestle that he discovered, of course, that it wasn't Esau, but at first he thought. It was Esau. And they wrestled together until the breaking of the day.
Now, may I suggest it would have been better for Jacob to have given in right away and said, I surrender. He didn't. Jacob, you see, is still the contending man. He contended with his brother for the birthright and he won. He contended again for the blessing and he won. He contended even against his father and deceived and defeated his father. He contended with Uncle Laban and came out on top. But he's faced with a different proposition now when God puts his finger on him. God has laid hold upon Jacob here.
They can't defeat God, but he's still the same contending Jacob. He wants to fight it through instead of giving in. And might I suggest that even as Christians, sometimes it takes a long time, it may take years for us, to reach the point where we're prepared to say, Lord, I surrender, let it be according to thy will. See, we want our own way, even if we are Christian, even if we are saved. We still want to have it our own way. And God is often to put his hand on us before we'll give it.
But after seeing him as the contending man, I want you to notice something else. Look at verse twenty-five. When he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh, and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint. As he wrestled with him, he's a crippled man. God just touches him in the right place. He's crippled him. Physically crippled him. Sometimes God has got to cripple us. If not physically, then he's got to cripple us in other ways. Sometimes, you know, young fellows set great targets for themselves.
They're going to make a great name for themselves in life. They're going to pursue this profession or they're going to pursue this kind of business and the sky's the limit and they see themselves making tremendous fortunes. And they don't go very far until the whole thing collapses. And they wonder what it's all about. But God knows it wouldn't have been good for that young man if he had prospered. See, God knows exactly how much we can carry either one way or the other. He knows how much we can carry so far as the burdens are concerned, and he knows how much we can carry so far as the blessings are concerned.
You know, it takes a very steady hand to carry a full cup. And if God has filled your cup, brother or sister, if God has given you a full cup, you'll need a steady, steady hand to carry it. And others who have just got a little in their cup, you know, they can carry it a lot easier. They haven't so much worry, for when the cup's full you have a lot of worry, and you've got to be very, very steady. Jacob crippled. God put his finger right on the sore point, and it's when he's crippled that God's going to get the mastery over him, and Jacob from there will prevail. See what happens, verse twenty-six. And he said, let me go for the daybreakers.
They said, I will not let thee go except thou bless me. Now I want you to notice right here because this will come up again perhaps on Friday night from another angle. Jacob is a man who's always been thinking of blessing. Do you remember how he contended back in chapter twenty-seven what was the blessing? When he went down to Uncle Laban, he was looking for blessing. Now right here in the prayer he's talking about the blessing. And still he's saying, I'll not let thee go except thou bless me. What's this? Verse twenty seven, he said unto him, What is thy name?
And he said, Jacob, he's not going to be blessed now until he makes confession of something. He is the confessing man. Now this is not the first time he was asked this question. You remember he was asked this question in chapter twenty seven when he stood at the bedside of his old father who was now blind and couldn't see right. And he said, aren't thou my very son Esau? He said, yes, I am thy son Esau. He may deceive his own father, but he can't deceive God. And when God says to you, what's your name? I'm Jacob.
I'm Jacob. He is the man who confesses. May I suggest that right here. When he was asked this question now at this time, I believe his mind flashed back for twenty years. You see, he's learned by this point here when his thigh was knocked out of giant. He's learned here that it's not Esau that's wrestling with him at all. He's in the grip of God. The man of God that's got it. I believe, of course, this is one of the Christophages. That's what I believe this is. Now he learns that he's in the hand of the Lord. And he said, I am Jacob.
That's all I am. Plain words, I'm not entitled to your blessing. The confessing man. And you know, sometimes I think the reason why some of us don't get on too well, it comes to the things of the Lord. We've never reached that point. I've listened to men praying, and when you listen to them praying, you would almost think that God was obliged to bless them. Men got up and prayed once at a prayer meeting. He says, Lord, you know he said that it's cost a lot of money for this mission. We've printed so many thousands of handbills and they've been handed out all over the town. He told the Lord how much it cost, as if the Lord didn't know.
And he says it's costing a lot to bring this preacher here. He told the Lord how much the preacher was getting too. And he added it all up to the Lord. He said, you know, Lord, that's a lot of money. He says, you just have to bless us. Because we spent all this money, did all this. You just have to bless us. How ridiculous can a man be? The Lord's not under obligation, is he? Of course not. Let us get down to it. We're not worthy of the least of his blessings. And God perhaps is saying to us, what's your name? What about it? He says, I'm Jacob. I'm just Jacob.
Now he comes around and he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob but Israel. Now there's a play on the word here, Israel. It may mean a prince of God. You'll be called a prince of God. But a prince is one who commands, and it could also carry the thought, from now on, Jacob, if you're called Israel, remember, God will command. Your very name will remind you that you're no longer in charge of this affair. God will command from now on. If you submit to me, I'll command. I'll take charge. Jacob's still clinging.
It's the only thing he can do because he's so crippled he can't wrestle or contend with God anymore. There's only one thing to do and that's cling to God. And he's clinging here. Trusting Jesus, that is all we sing in our present day language. He's clinging. But he realizes there's something else here. Verse twenty nine says, and Jacob asked him and said, Tell me, I pray thee thy name. He said, Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name, and he blessed him there? Where? A place where he gave in and surrendered. The place where he submitted and admitted he was Jacob.
The place where all he did was cling to the Lord. He blessed him there. And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel. That is the face of God. See, his name was changed to Israel, a prince of God. It was at the place called Peniel, which means the face of God. He said, For I have seen God face to face and my life is preserved. And he passed over Peniel. The sun rose upon him and he halted upon his thigh. Therefore the children of Israel eat not of the sinew which shrank, which is upon the hollow of the thigh until this day because he touched the hollow of Jacob's thigh in the sinew that shrank.
Jacob was a changed man that night. He got a new name. Not only a new name, but he began to walk in a different way. He never walked the same after that experience at Peniel. It affected his walk. And you see him go out from there as a changed man. And when you come into the next chapter, we're brought face to face with the fact he lifts up his eyes and he sees Esau coming. You know, God had undertaken for the whole affair. There was no need for him to send all those presents. There was no need for him to cringe. God had the whole thing.
Under control. Just read with me one verse please from chapter thirty three. Verse four. And Esau ran to meet him and embraced him and fell on his neck and kissed him and they whacked. Jacob thought that Esau was coming to kill him. Esau came and kissed him. What a difference. See, God had everything under control. And Jacob learned it that night at Piniel. What an experience to be left alone with God. It was there he arrived at a true estimate of himself.
Have we ever been at Piniel? Shall we pray? Our Father, we thank thee for another evening spent together, and we've looked again in another episode in the life of thy servant of old. I know how we've got to admit that we just limp along the same as Jacob. We make the same blunders. We make the same mistakes. And yet our God, as thou did show mercy and grace to him, we would say, the God of Jacob is our refuge. The Lord of hosts is with us. Take our thanks tonight and bless each one of us for the Lord Jesus' sake.