Jacob's life story, particularly the pivotal moment of his wrestling with God and receiving the name Israel, illustrates how intense trials can lead to spiritual transformation and maturity. The sermon traces Jacob's journey from fleeing Esau, enduring Laban's deceit, and facing the imminent threat of Esau's army, culminating in a solitary encounter with God at the Jabbok River. This struggle, where Jacob refused to let go until blessed, signifies the breaking point where he surrendered his own strength and recognized his dependence on God, leading to his new identity as Israel. The core lesson, drawn from James 1:2, is to count trials as joy because they refine faith, produce endurance, and ultimately conform believers to the image of Christ, as God works through all circumstances to achieve His purposes.
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Thank you for choosing that hymn, Ernie. As I mentioned, I was, I could not sing that tonight. It was probably Ernie, I think it was, and Ernie Tatham as well, who spoke that evening. It would have been about Some place in there when Melzy and I were dating, serving on the Young People's Conference Committee. And that was a closing hymn of one of those meetings.
And only a few years ago when Ernie Tatham was called home to be with the Lord, Did that moment come back to me? Yet the moment of that hymn and that hour where I was sitting with the young lady who would be my future wife and companion in serving the Lord, that moment marked my life. That's why we have conferences. things do happen in a specific time in life.
And it may be at any place where the person is touched for the rest of his life. That's been a lot of years now. But together we made up our minds that we would have that kind of devotion as much as in us was to serve the Lord and love him with all our heart and mind and soul and strength. Now we owe the challenge of that moment to the generation ahead of us who brought us to points of decision to serve God.
And once again that's where we we'll see Jacob this evening at the critical moment in his life where he gets his name changed that's a great story let's turn in our Bibles to Genesis chapter thirty one there are four movements this story the movement with the fear of Laban, and then that anticipated fear of coming to meet Esau, and in between in the middle of this extreme pressure that God was bringing upon Jacob, we have that great confrontation with the living God.
in which Jacob becomes Israel. And then at the close of this segment of the life of Jacob, we see Jacob and Esau standing at the graveside of their father Isaac. This is crunch time for Jacob. This is his nineteen fifty-seven or whatever, when he was going to either choose God or go in another direction.
And he never got over this experience. It wasn't the end of Jacob in Jacob, but it marked a notable change. Nineteen fifty-seven was not the end of David in David either. but it marked a notable change that from here on we live for God flat out nothing held back as much as in us is pressure struggle the trials that God brings into our lives for our perfection, spiritual maturity are very good.
I want us to learn a verse of Scripture tonight. I do not say this without understanding somewhat the folk to whom I am saying it. I'd like you to turn over in your Bibles. Keep your finger in Genesis there. I know we haven't read there yet. Would you turn over to James chapter one, and we want to learn together just one little, simple verse. Simple to learn.
Verse two. My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials. I'll say that one again. Count it all joy when you fall into various trials. How many of you know that verse by heart already? I kind of wish it weren't in the Bible, don't you? But it's there. And like all the other verses, it's good for us and it's true. Let's read it together once.
Now I know that is a problem in the day of multiple translations, but whatever translation you have is going to be good. So let's read it together. Together, my brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials. Trials are good for us. I see you wanting to throw things at me. Here, have a trial. Have any of you had trials? The old preacher said, if I put my trials on the closed line and you put yours, I'd probably keep mine.
Every one of us are sitting here with trials. It's not... Just older folk who have trials, we all have trials. And the verse says, count it all joy. All joy count it. Make up your mind to count it joy. It's out of order in its original context and setting. All joy count it when you fall into any of the variety of trials that come our way in the course of life. And James will go on to explain it because the trial of our faith shows what part of our faith is genuine. It is the way we grow in grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
No pain, no gain. And I realize fully that I am talking to people in general who have had many more trials than I have had. And I do not... refer to this lately. I understand something of that. I've taught the book of James, the general epistle, since coming to a mass way back when in nineteen sixty-eight. And I taught that portion and analyzed it and exegeted it and explained it. But I understood it one day in a very clear way.
not in the classroom, but at a camp in Minnesota where I had just hit a very good softball line drive to the pitcher and it bounced off of his knee and rolled over to the third basement who scooped it up and threw it to the first basement just as I got there. And we had a powerful collision. I could run back in those days. And in a second of time I was on my back with a broken shoulder and a broken leg. And the God who had James write this brought this verse to my mind.
It came to my mind immediately. Has it come to your mind? In times of trial. All joy counteth when you fall. into the various trials of life because the trying of your faith works endurance. It shows what part of our faith is genuine. Faith is not faith which is driven away by a trial. Now the trial itself is not the benefit.
but that if we allow it to have its perfect work, if trials guaranteed maturity and guaranteed wisdom, we'd all be mature and we'd all be wise because we all have trials. But the author, James and the author of Hebrews likewise says, let it have its perfect work. And by and by, if not now, certainly then, we will understand the why. And if any of us lack wisdom, God gives us a wonderful imitation. Let him ask of God, who gives to all men liberally, who gives wisdom to all men liberally, and will not upbraide.
John Calvin says that that little phrase will not upbraide. is written so that we should not fear of coming too often to God to ask wisdom. We may not get it the first time or the second or the tenth or until after. But come to God. It is for our spiritual well-being, for our spiritual maturity. that what God directs or allows all part of His detailed plan for us brings us to that point of spiritual maturity that He desires in every one of us.
And we desire to glorify God in our time here below in this trial-filled world, whether by life or by death. Isn't that our goal? And God brings pressure on us and allows it. But He works behind the scene. And He has certain promises. There is no temptation, no testing that has come to any one of us, but such as is common to man. And God will with the temptation, with the trial, what? Provide a way of escape. He knows our frame.
He knows that we are dust. And He will not try us over our capability of endurance, taking advantage of all of the support systems that He has in place. Now, that's a very meaningful statement, isn't it? Because we don't always take advantage of all the support systems. that God has in place. The indwelling Holy Spirit, the Word of God, godly friends, prayer, family, the medical profession, all those things that are in place to help.
He will not load us with more than we can handle. But I want to tell you, and you know this better than I, he comes perilously close, doesn't he? Sometimes we're just hanging on by our fingernails. One more little straw. Have we all been there? We have been, and we will. It is then that we come to know who we are.
It is then that we come to know who God is. We come to know that in me, that is in my flesh, dwells no good thing. And we come to know that without Christ, we can do nothing. and we come to know that through Christ we can do all things. Aren't they big lessons to learn? Enormous lessons. Perhaps the most effective learning experience the disciples went through was at the end of the Lord's life when Jesus says to Peter, And to the rest, Satan has desired to have you.
And he will sift you. He will break you down. And you all will leave me. You all forsake me. But after that's all over, Peter, do the work. I've prayed for you. And later on, through all that trial and struggle, Peter comes to understand who he is and understand who the Lord is, and the Lord confronts him in John twenty-one with that wonderful interrogation. Peter, you were really strong on who you were and how you would stand.
Speak up now. No, Lord, my will is weak. He came to understand as did the other apostles. their weaknesses and the strength of the Lord Jesus Christ in their lives. Without me you can do nothing. With me you can do everything. We all need to learn that. Jacob needed to learn that. Jacob was coming to an end of himself. You remember Rebecca said, Jacob, they're going to kill you.
Esau's angry. Leave the country. Isaac agreed with that and restated the blessing of God to Jacob as he goes off to his relatives in a distant land. Twenty years later he will come back. Boy, that was some twenty years, wasn't it? Talk about Jacob being out-Jacobed. They were relatives, weren't they? He's dealing with a pro when he's dealing with Laban. I love Rachel. Well, wouldn't you like Rachel for your wife? Sure. Seven years. You got it. The seven years went by in a brief moment.
And he awakened after that first honeymoon night and tried to look into the eyes of his wife, but Leah had a problem with her eyes, you remember? Weak-eyed is the way it goes. Probably a brutal translation would be cross-eyed. Imagine that. Waking up in the morning and saying to you, well, look me in the eye. Please, look me in the eye. Please. Why can't you? It's a different lady. Well, another seven years. That seems, yeah, Rachel's a wonderful girl.
And Laban promises that. Now there's Rachel as well. Another period of time to work for flock and cattle so that there would be some value for the family and for twenty years. Lebanel, Jacob, Jacob. But God was behind the scene. And he's doing miraculous things. There comes family, large family, with all the sons that are born and a daughter. And in some mysterious way that zoology yet has to explain the flocks of Jacob are increased.
And it seems like Jacob's running away with everything there is. And he hears the murmuring of Laban's sons. And we pick that up in chapter thirty-one. Now Jacob heard the words of Laban's son saying, Jacob has taken away all that was our fathers. And from what our fathers he has acquired, all this wealth. And Jacob saw the countenance of laymen. And indeed it was not favorable toward him as before. Then the Lord said to Jacob, Return to the land of your fathers and to your family, and I will be with you. So Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah to the field to his flock and said to them, I see your father's countenance is not favorable to more me as before.
But the God of my Father has been with me, and they get together, and they get their flocks and their family. And God appears to Jacob in verse eleven. Then the angel of God spoke to me in a dream, saying, Jacob, and I said, Here I am, and he said, Lift your eyes now and see. All the rams which sleep, all the flocks are streaked, speckled, gray-spotted, for I have seen all that Laban is doing to you. I am the God of Bethel. where you anointed the pillar and where you made a vow to me. Now arise and get out of this land and return to the land of your family. And in a secret act, that entire family, multiplied family now, and all the herds and flocks are gathered together and they go on their way back toward the promised land, three days' journey before Laban hears about it.
Rachel unbeknownst to Jacob had stolen the pagan idol symbols. And when Laban hears about this, he is furious. And he sets out after them in pursuit. And Jacob is fearful. He's in the crunch. He's going back to the land. And as he recognizes that behind him is Laban and all of the antagonistic feeling and anger that he brings he likewise recognizes that he is going into a territory where the last time he had seen his brother his brother wanted to kill him militarily this would be called pincers movement and by and by jacob's men come and say esau is coming with hundreds of men laban behind Esau coming out of the promised land area in the conversion on Jacob.
And Jacob is at the end of himself. What is going to become of me? Now God is working behind the scenes. Verse twenty four, God had come to Laban, the Syrian, in a dream by night. and said to him, Be careful that you speak to Jacob neither good nor bad. So Laban overtook Jacob. You see, Jacob is being protected by God. Laban left to his devices, would have terrorized this group by now.
And God says, No. You be careful what you say. and they will meet and they will have confrontation and Jacob will be angry and say for all these years you've tricked me and you've changed the agreements and the wages you deceived me by trickery that's me I'm seeing and God is dealing with this Jacob and bringing him to conformity through this trial that is coming this way.
But notice the protection. Laban thus far, no further. And finally, after deep exchange, we have that wonderful agreement that they come to, the Mizpah benediction. Don't you love it? Have any of you had that That little symbol that you can wear, the Lord watch between thee and me while you are apart. A nice little romantic thing for students in a mass who have fallen into puppy love kind of thing. And the Lord watch between thee and me while we are apart. That's not a benediction at all.
This is the establishment of the Mason-Dixon line. You cross this, you get shot. Dan Smith calls it the Smith and Wesson line. That's probably better. Here's this pillar. And the Lord watched between me and thee while we're apart. And if you cross over this, the Lord judged you. And if I cross over this, the Lord judged me. Let's agree to that. And Laban and Jacob agree to that. And Jacob breathed a little bit of a sigh of relief because that one great element of fear by the protection of God had been taken care of.
But that's not the end. Chapter thirty-two, so Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him. Chapter thirty-two, verse two. And when Jacob saw them, he said, this is God's camp. Then Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau, his brother, in the land of Seir, the country of Eden. And he commanded them saying, Speak thus to my Lord Esau. And so on. And the messengers come back in verse six. They return to Jacob saying, We came to your brother Esau. And he also is coming to meet you. And four hundred men are with him. Jacob's at an end of himself.
What am I going to do? He's got four hundred men. I know what I'll do. At least I'll do this much. I'll divide all my family and my flocks and my herds into two groups. And I'll put the ladies out there first and their family, then my wives and their family, and have them aligned in two groups. And I'll go out, first of all, and if he attacks, at least half of us will be saved and delivered. That's what we'll do. And he arranges this march formation, anticipating that he is going to be destroyed.
He would be first in line. But at least the family, the close family, weighing back. Perhaps they could be spared. The plan wouldn't have worked. in between, Laban coming from the north, east, and the other side of the prince's movement from the southwest. Between those two great confrontations, there is a greater confrontation. He has lined up all his children and family and herds, and he sends them across the creek, across the brook, Jabbok.
verse twenty three of chapter thirty two he took them sent them over the brook and sent over what he had then Jacob was left alone this is the moment he had been under the pressure of God trials to the north of him trials to the south of him what was he going to do he would be overwhelmed and there appears to him not angels of the Lord as at the beginning of the chapter that's one thing but the angel of the Lord God himself second member of the Godhead a theophany An appearance of God in the Old Testament, eyeball to eyeball.
Happens a number of times where we're. And here's Jacob. And here's the second member of the Godhead. Jacob was left alone. And a man improperly capitalized. A man wrestled with him until the breaking of day. Can you imagine this? If we could see that angel of the Lord, the angel of the Lord, the second member of the Godhead, I have this imagined concept that it would match up with the Polaroid of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the way it would have looked, I think, because that's who we're dealing with, second member of the Godhead, the angel of the Lord.
Any of you ever wrestle in school? Anybody? Your children, grandchildren? It's a great sport. Can you picture this? Second member of the Godhead? Jacob? They lock necks? You know how they do it? And Jacob throws God down, didn't he? And God throws Jacob down. And they're groveling about in that dust and dirt all night long wrestling.
What's Jacob wrestling about? He says, I'm not going to let you go until you bless me. I want to do business with God tonight. This is the end of myself. As he saw, four hundred men coming. I just escaped here. There's no place to go. And I will not let go until I know I am your man and you bless me. Now, verse twenty-five is a hard verse.
Now, when he saw that he did not prevail against him, he touched the socket of his hip. Who is that he? When he saw that he did not prevail. Who is that? Hard to say, isn't it? It's capital H, when the angel of the Lord saw that he did not prevail. In other words, Jacob prevailed.
Touched his hip. and said, you're my man, Jacob. Let me go for the day breaks, but he said, I will not let you go unless you bless me. So he said to him, what is your name? He said, Jacob. And he said, your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have struggled with God and with men and have prevailed. Hear that? Now we all know that God is omnipotent. And when the angel of the Lord appears, God himself appears.
In a theophany, he is likewise omnipotent. He is not defeated except by permission. And he tested him and tested him and tested him until he saw that Jacob was his man now. wrestled in that trial until Jacob said, Bless me, I'll not let go of you until you bless me. And he says, New name for you, Prince with God, Israel, no longer supplant there, Israel, because you have prevailed with man and with God.
What a critical moment in his life. Never to be the same. Oh, give me Samuel's ear, that open ear, O Lord. alive and quick to hear each whisper of thy word, like him to answer at thy call and to obey thee first of all. O give me Samuel's heart, a lowly heart that waits where in thy house thou art or watches at thy gate, by day and night a heart that still moves at the breathing of thy will. O give me Samuel's mind, a sweet, un murmuring faith, obedient and resigned to thee in life and death.
that I may read with childlike eyes truths that are hidden from the wise. I won't let you go until you bless me. So Jacob called the name of the place Penel, for I have seen God face to face. and my life is preserved and he lifts up his eyes and here comes Esau now just as God had protected Laban or Jacob in in appearing to Laban and saying no harm For years he had been working in the life of Esau so that this moment would be no harm too.
He did a little different way. How do you make an existentialist happy? That's what Esau was. Well, when the two met, Jacob had all these gifts and Esau said, Hey, cool man. I got it all. I don't need it. We're happy. You know. And he didn't have any memories. Hey, existentialists don't have memory. They don't know what happened yesterday. We live for the moment. And the moment for Esau was a great moment. He had everything. He didn't. You know, Jacob couldn't give him anything he didn't have. And when they get over this first initial confrontation, hey, there's no memory of the past.
God's blessed you. Esau says, hey, bless me too. Isn't God wonderful? Happy little children, happy old days. I mean, they had a great time. It doesn't remain that way because existentialists don't stay the same way. But on this day, that's the way it was. And God had prepared that so that this second temptation and trial that was coming his way was taken care of as well. And they, in family harmony, agree to certain things, and Jacob is making his way back into the promised land.
Verse twenty-seven, at the end of chapter thirty-five, then Jacob came to his father Isaac at Mamre, at Kyrgyz Arba, that is Hebron, where Abraham and Isaac had dwelt. Now the days of Isaac were one hundred and eighty years. Forty-three more years than he thought he was going to live. When he was going to die was forty-three years ago. He really didn't need that special meal, did he? Lived all those years. But now his end had come. Old and full of days gathered to his people. And wonder of wonder, Esau and Jacob.
together buried their father. And there was for a slight moment in the history of these two brothers who were so at odds, harmony and peace. And in the process of all this trial, Jacob had become Israel. Count it all joy. when you fall into various trials that the trying of your faith bring about as we would say conformity to Jesus Christ that is God's goal in the lives of each one of us and he will protect and direct and allow and control so that we can come to that destined goal that he has for us and be like his dear son.
And I am more concerned in my own life and in the lives of our brothers and sisters in the Lord with conformity now than the automatic conformity that will take place at rapture time. Be conformed. Count it all joy because the trying of our faith works endurance brings us to spiritual maturity. Let's pray together. Our Father God, what a hard lesson this is for all of us. How difficult it was for this great man of the faith, the patriarch Jacob, who for years struggled and finally came to an end of himself with no potential for deliverance except from you.
And we are impressed how you poured out your blessing upon him and made of him a prophet and patriarch and worshiper of the true and living God.