Jacob's encounter with God

Turn, please, with me and your Bibles to Genesis chapter 32. Genesis chapter 32. Genesis chapter 32 and verse number 1. 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 Mahanaim. And Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau his brother unto the land of Seir, the country of Edom.

And he commanded them, saying, Thou shalt ye speak unto my lord Esau. Thy servant Jacob saith 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 sent 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. And Jacob said, O God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, the Lord 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 hast shown unto thy servant.

For with my staff I passed over this Jordan, and now I am become two bands. 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, and make thy seed as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.

And he lodged there that same night, and took of that which came to his hand, a present for Esau his brother, two hundred she-goats, and twenty he-goats, two hundred yews, and twenty rams, thirty milked camels, with their colts, forty kine, and ten bulls, twenty she-asses, and ten foals. And he delivered them into the hand of his servants, and every drove by themselves, and said to his servants, Pass over before me, and put a space betwixt drove and drove. And he commanded the foremost, saying, When Esau my brother meeteth thee, and asketh thee, saying, Whose art thou, and whither goest thou, and whose are these before thee? Then thou shalt say, They be thy servant Jacob's.

It is a present sent unto my lord Esau, and behold, also he is behind us. And so he commanded the second, and the third, and all that followed the drove, saying, On this manner shall ye speak unto Esau when ye find him, and say ye 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, and peradventure he will accept of me.

So went the present over before him, and himself lodged that night in the company. And he rose up that night, and took his two wives, and his two women servants, and his eleven sons, and passed over the four jabok. And he took them, and sent them over the brook, and sent over that he had.

And Jacob was left alone, and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. And 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. And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh.

And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me. And he said unto him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob. And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel.

For as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed. And Jacob asked him, and said, Tell me, I pray thee, thy name. And he said, Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name? And he blessed him there.

And Jacob called the name of the place Penuel, for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved. And as he passed over Penuel, the sun rose upon him, and he hauled it upon his thigh. Therefore the children of Israel, eaten out of the sinew which shrank, which is upon the hollow of the thigh, unto this day, because he touched the hollow of Jacob's thigh, and the sinew that shrank.

Well, I suppose you could say that the story of Jacob is how God turned an old fox into an honorable prince of God. I suppose in keeping with the verse that we heard already referenced in this day by our brother Colson, in the 113th Psalm where he raises up the poor out of the dust and lifted the needy out of the dunghill, that he may set him among princes, even the princes of his people, is an apt model for what we see in Jacob's life. Jacob, who was truly a beggar, and I don't think you would say he was the most ethical man in the world at the time, when he started out in his journey into the country where Laban was, as he says even here, he was so poor he passed over this brook with just his staff in his hand, penniless, and a man that was running for his life.

And I think that as we go through this story a little bit today in this chapter here, that we'll be able to identify with it. I think most of us will be able to identify with it. I think you have an overall theme here in how God has a strategy for creating a deeper dependence upon God in our lives, thus drawing us closer to himself.

And here is a particular critical juncture in Jacob's experience, at least if it was not for anyone else, it was certainly so for him. Here is a man that is coming back into the land and he's coming back into proximity of where his brother Esau is. And I suppose you could say that you've got Jacob and his worries, a crisis of fear.

And if ever there was a time when he needed faith, it was right at this particular time. There's been a lot of water come under the bridge, a lot of water has flowed through the brook Jabook since Jacob first went over it. The circumstances in which he found himself as he had under a dysfunctional family, I would say a dysfunctional mother if you'll allow that expression.

I mean, how many here have had a mother or a father that have coached them how to lie to their father or to their mother? Not many of us have had that kind of experience, not many of us have felt particularly deprived because we didn't have that experience, right? We're grateful for the contrary. And I suppose if there's any kids here today and you got your nose all bent out of shape over how mom or dad is treating you, then just remind yourself of this fact, at least they're not trying to coach you and they're not trying to convince you, they're not trying to persuade you to do what is wrong, they're actually committed with all of their blunders and all of their foibles and all of their failures. And however much you think they could be doing a better job, there's one thing you cannot doubt and you cannot question, is they have a purpose in their heart and that is to see you do what is right.

They are not your counselors to do what is wrong. Here's a man, Jacob, and he's got the handicap of a mother that's going to train him in how to lie and how to be successful and how to be greedy and how to be conniving and how to be manipulating. And it doesn't matter whether you show disrespect, it doesn't matter if you're dishonest, it doesn't matter if you put a trap there, it doesn't matter if you're complicit in some kind of an unethical, a completely unacceptable plot, it's all good as long as the goal is going to be for your own self-aggrandizement and your self-enrichment.

So poor Jacob, I think we can sympathize with him. And of course he didn't know that the problem that was in his mother's family, in his mother's person, in his mother's life, was also something that was in his mother's siblings. So he ran, I don't know, from the fire pot or I don't know how you want to call it, he runs away from home, he wasn't particularly running away from his mom, he had no problem with his mom, but he's running away from his brother who is, as you know the story, he's not exactly on the best of terms now with Jacob.

He's even let it slip out that he's actually looking forward to the day with a certain degree of relish when he's going to be able to terminate Jacob's life and teach him a big lesson in the process, that don't you mess with me and don't you try to ever trap me up again and trip me up again and I'll make sure that it'll never be able to happen again, I'm going to terminate your life. And so Jacob is in a situation where he has sown the wind and he's going to reap the whirlwind. And he doesn't realize, and neither does his mother, on that day when he says a final farewell, that it is a final farewell and that they will never see each other again.

That there are consequences to sin in the life of a child of God that will be irreversible and there is going to be a long sordid path of difficulty and of frustration that Jacob is now going to be plunged into as a result of the liberties and the license he took to do things that were wrong and to violate, as we were hearing this morning, his conscience and every code of conduct that God himself would ever have given to him. Jacob and his worries. His worries are well founded.

He's been over there and not only has he had his worries but he's had the results of his own wiles and the consequences of his own failings and God is not going to let him off the hook and God is not rushing to judgment in this case. But slowly and surely what goes around is going to come around and God is going to make Jacob face his sin in the process. It's not just that God is punitive but it's in the business of training Jacob.

As we've already mentioned, God is in the business of trying to turn an old fox, this wily conniving fox Jacob, into an honorable, respectable prince of God and a man with God, not only a man of God. And so what he's doing is he's going to make him face the consequences of his past and he's going to stretch it out over a long period of time and Jacob is going to eat his own words and he's going to prove the adage, which is actually a Bible verse, that be not deceived, God is not mocked, whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap. And while we will not reap the consequences of our sin and hail, God is interested in training us and if necessary to visit upon us what we have done wrong.

But even there I think we all can breathe a sigh of relief. To a great extent we'd have to all acknowledge today and confess it, albeit with shame, with humility, that God is not in the business of tit-for-tat. That God is not in the business of visiting upon me consequences for every single wrong and failure in my life since I got saved.

Where would we all be today if God did that? But at the same time, he's not just signing off and saying it doesn't really matter what you do and I'm not going to worry about it and you don't have to worry about it. It's just a free pass, straightforward, everything's cool. Listen, God is in the interest and the intention of trying to train us and to try to transform us so that we are no longer a Jacob, but now we are going to be an Israel.

20 years have come and gone and in those 20 years he's had his boss change his wages, deceive him 10 times. He's married his boss's daughters who weren't totally free from this business of treachery and dishonesty as well. And so it is just a plot that seems to thicken as he goes along.

And 20 years later he's coming back to meet his brother Esau and he's coming back into that territory. I should correct that he didn't come back to meet Esau. I don't think he would really look forward to seeing him ever again if he didn't have to.

But he was coming back into the territory and he's actually doing it in compliance with God's directive. And so here he is in the uncomfortable situation where on the one hand he's trying to please God and do what God wants and God on the other hand is going to say, I want you to talk to this guy that you pulled such a stunt on. Well, the fears are certainly getting to the best of them.

And so I noticed that God is a God of government, but he's a God of grace. So here he is 70 years old when he had fled from Esau. 20 years have passed.

He's now 90 years of age. And here he is coming back into the territory and he's having a heart attack and God says, well I think we need to cheer Jacob up. I think we need to encourage him a little bit.

He seems to be shaking in his boots. So how be I'm going to show him how big an army is really behind him. How much God is really for him.

God is not Jacob's opponent. God is not Jacob's antagonist. And so he comes to the angels of God.

The angels of God meet him on the journey. Jacob calls it God's army. Why, what a phenomenal amount of angels that are at God's beck and call.

God is surely on my side. God is surely here to protect me. And yet despite the encounter with such a God and such power as that, he like ourselves, despite how many times we're reminded about how great is our God, and we can have moments when in meetings we're moved by it.

And we go back to our homes like the charge of the light brigade and we're all ready to take on the world. And it seems that just a little bit later, what are we doing? We're right back to base one again. So here he is.

He's just had this fresh vision of God's great army and what's he turn around and do? Oh boys, oh boys, what in the world am I going to do with this guy Esau? So he's a great strategist and he sets up to divide the camp and all of the animals and to put them drove by drove. And he's going to make a nice little process and just to make sure that things are going to be all under control, he sends his boys on ahead down the line to check out and see what's happening. And he comes back with the heart-stopping news that, oh yeah, Esau's more than happy to come and see you.

And by the way, it's not going to be a family reunion. He's got 400 men with him. They're not all carrying picnic baskets.

They're likely carrying swords and they're coming to get you, Jacob. So, you know, whoa, I tell you, this is now causing Jacob, despite the fact that he's seen God's army, here comes 400. I don't know how many it was in God's army, but there's 400 with Esau and it seems now he's suddenly forgotten the past revelation, the present, the current revelation of God's power and God's commitment to him.

So here he comes. And he's got it all set up and he's got the plan all in place. And I don't know if you want to accuse him of selfishness or if that's stretching the story a little bit, but you can't help but see that basically the way he's got it all lined up, if Jacob is out to kill, if Jacob is out to get people, Jacob wants to make, if Esau's out to get all these people, Jacob wants to make sure that everybody else dies first, not him.

He's got himself like the last, I mean, he's got a huge protection there. Just drove after drove, bank after bank of animals, you know. Oh, honey, I love you too, but just you guys go on ahead first because, well, you know, Esau's coming for damage.

I want you guys to get killed first, not me. All right. So everybody just move on ahead.

Everybody's cool. And on they go ahead, they're all trucking down the path, walking straight into the, straight into the teeth of the enemy, straight into the face of these swords. You know, I don't know.

Anyways, how much you want to stretch that and say, Jacob, you're a pretty selfish boy, you know, pretty selfish lad here. But so what? Here he is. You've never been selfish either.

No, no, that's great. We're all clear on that. No problem.

We're all good. You know, we'd never put anybody else to lose out in front of us. We never sacrifice anybody else before ourselves.

No, we're very, we're very humble and very, you know. So here he comes and he thinks he's got it all set up and he's got it just right. And it's just at that point that God says, you know what I want to do to you, Jacob? You're getting ready for a big rabble rouser with Esau.

And you're coming in there and you're going to have a big fight with your brother. You can just see it coming. There's going to be blood on the ground and you're hoping it's his blood and not yours.

And so the big, big number one preoccupation, the big number one worry in your mind, as you settle down for a night that you're hardly going to be able to sleep in anyway. Well, why don't we just keep you up for the night? I got other plans for you. But just before we get to that, I just want you to remember something right now.

You're trying to set this whole thing up so that you win in this countdown, in this showdown that's coming with Esau. You're bound and determined that you're going to do whatever it takes. You're going to use every strategy, every cunning, every device possible, as well as your own physical strength.

And you're going to be ready for it. And you want to win. It's absolutely essential that you win and that Esau does not.

And so God says, I'm going to just do a little something to you. Would it be all right? Could I have your permission? I'm going to put your thigh out of joint. I'm going to cripple you now.

All right? And after I got you crippled, I'm going to send you on down the road to fight with your brother Esau. So what do we learn from that? I think that we learn that God is more than the idea of visiting our consequences on us, but he's got a higher goal in mind. He is going to try to teach Jacob a lesson here, that when it all comes down to it, when all is said and done, Jacob is not going to any bottle in the power of his own flesh.

Jacob is not going to win any strategy because of the brilliance of his own intelligence. And it would seem to me that God is in the business of putting us into circumstances one after the other, in which he causes us to pass through the frustrating experience of finding out that we don't know what to do, that we don't have an answer to the problem, that this problem is bigger than us, that this situation outsmarts us, that this enemy is out-thinking us, that we are outmaneuvered, that we are outmanned, that we are outpowered, that we are walking into this fray and everything about it points to one simple solitary outcome, and that is that we are going to flounder and we are going to fail. And God says, that's exactly where I want you, because so conceded is that human heart of yours and mine that if there's any way that we can claim some part of the victory that we want to obtain, then we will blow our own horn, then we will claim the fame, then we will take the honor and we will rob God of the glory.

And God says, I want to set your life up in a succession of steps in a series of experiences where you prove the utter futility of your own flesh and the complete reliability of God's force and of God's power to deliver you. So here he is and he's greatly afraid and distressed, he's got down on his bony two knees and he's prayed I think pretty intensely, pretty earnestly, and now here is this night when he's all alone. And so here is a man and I guess of his own making he's somewhat deserted, there's no one else to be with him.

And perhaps those are times when God can best teach us, is when we're all alone, stranded, high and dry, there's not a single thing left, there's not a single soul around, and it's you're all alone, you're desolate, you're desperate. And not only is he deserted, but he's also in the dark and there's something particularly depressing about being under trying circumstances and in the dark of the night when he should have been sleeping, sleep has long fled from his eyes. This is a life and death crisis that he has found in.

And not only is there the darkness, but there is now the difficulty, suddenly springing out of the darkness, out of the thick blackness, unannounced, unheard, unnoticed. There is this unknown individual that comes out and jumps onto him with some strangle hold and a furious, what Jacob thinks is a fight to the death, who I suppose at the start he must have thought it was Esau, and he must have had a double heart attack thinking, this guy really outsmarted me, he got here before I got to him, I thought it was way down the road, here he is right now, and what alarm must have filled his heart and how he is just now ferociously fighting for his life. But it's not Esau.

As he is later going to say, it's actually God that I've seen face to face. And now there is this difficulty, and now there is this conflict, and it is drawn out, it is for the whole night. You know, that would have been enough weakening, just to fight and wear him out, just to wear him down, just to bring him right to the end of all of his own strength and his might and mane.

He's never passed a night like this before in his life, and this is such a terrible night, he never ever wants to have another night like it. And God brings him to that place, and in this crucible of this conflict, God is in the business of breaking Jacob down. He is breaking that vessel as the master potter to mold it and make it anew.

He is going to break the power of the flesh so that it might infuse the power of the spirit. And there wrestles with him a man until the breaking of the day, Jacob and his wrestling, the contest of force, the futility of the flesh. You know what he's going to learn? He's going to learn, like it says in 2 Corinthians chapter 12, that my grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness.

Most gladly, says Paul, therefore will I glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then am I strong.

You might say that Jacob has never been brought to such brokenness, and he has never been brought to such an end of himself as he has at the brook Jabok, as he wrestles through the night with this angel of God, the pre-incarnate appearance of the Lord Jesus. And I'm not sure I understand the whole riddle and the whole enigma, the parable that is here. But as he's wrestling with God, who do you think is going to win? Well of course God is omnipotent.

Who is Jacob? Puny Jacob. But God is letting him win. God is letting him prevail, and he clings to him because the conflict seems to merge now to a point where it's going to come to a close.

And just as Jacob is thinking that he is getting the mastery over God, God just does a little touch to him. So little from God can cause such pain. So little from God can do so much to him.

And now here is Jacob, and he's a cripple, and he's trying to fight with God. And now all of a sudden the dynamic changes, and he's no longer fighting with God. But in his feeble and falling and faltering way, he's now using his every ounce of strength and energy that's left to cling to this man.

And he all of a sudden discovers that there is an identity here of a man that actually can bless me. And so the man says, let me go. The day breaks, and Jacob says, I will not let thee go except thou bless me.

The lesser is going to be blessed of the greater. And in this particular moment, Jacob begins now to plead with this man. And according to what we read in Hosea chapter 12 verse 3 and 4, Jacob is not only broken physically, but it would seem that Jacob is broken in his spirit.

And in Hosea chapter 12 and verses 3 and 4, it tells us about Jacob, and it says he took his brother by the heel in the womb, and by his strength he had power with God. Yea, he had power over the angel and prevailed. And then it throws in words that are strange.

It says he wept. Jacob in his weeping. And he made supplication unto him.

What is happening here? There's an earnestness now. This man is broken physically. This man is broken in his spirit.

This man is broken emotionally. And there is a flood of tears, and there's earnest supplication and entreaty, as Jacob would have this encounter with God, and as he would wrestle with him. If you like a picture of of supplicating and earnest prayer in the presence of God that presses on and presses in and refuses to give up until God pours out the blessing that is so desperately needed.

I don't know whether those tears were tears of repentance. In Hosea, the case seems to be put there in front of the children of Israel, at least the northern kingdom, to try to stress to them their need for repentance, their need for the tears of repentance. If these were tears of repentance, not only tears of entreaty and supplication, then they were tears that were a happy sadness in the life of Jacob.

When he is brought to this place where he himself is going to be transformed and changed, no longer is he going to be the supplanter. Well, I better not say that, because you know, you and I, just like I suppose the show the story showcases, is that your flesh and my flesh, like utter lump it is completely incorrigible. Like you would think after God has beat Jacob up like this, and sends him packing with his hobbling down the road.

He's got a major handicap now. This man is limping. He has a gait that is unseemly.

He's a walking demonstration of a man that's hobbled down and handicapped by weakness. What good is this man going to be? What kind of great exploits is this man going to be for? How is he going to ever win any kind of a battle? And in the process of all of this, we have a man that you would think would say, wow, did I ever learn a tall lesson from God last night? And we'd all love to have this to be the perfect storybook conclusion that Jacob lived happily ever after, never resorted to being a supplanter, never resorted to being a manipulator, never resorted to being a liar again. Do you know what? As far as I can tell, in less than 24 hours after this incident, you know what he's doing? He's telling his brother a bald face lie.

You say you're kidding. No, he did. Like he's just groveling on the ground in front of him, bows down seven times in front of him.

That's what they did before a king. You know, like he's, well, I'm not going to take any chances here. You think he's learned to trust God now? No, he's still like, whoa.

You know what Jacob is learning? Sin in the life of a believer is a great cause of a lack of not only self-confidence, but in a healthy way, but a lack of confidence in God. And after all of chapter 32 and chapter 33, he finally meets up with him and everything looks great. And here's this great, huge present that he's given to him, try to appease him, you know.

And then Esau says, this is a fantastic. Hey, you know what? We, we, you know, hey, we could all, we could all hang out together. We could live, we could live together.

Yeah. Jacob's sitting there suppressing the look on his face. No, I'm not going to be living near you.

No. I'm just glad to get out of here with my skin. I'll tell you what.

Oh, Jacob goes, you know, listen, you know, he's a really nice of you to offer like that. You know, that's really good. You know, and I think I'm going to take you up on that offer because, you know, I'm just getting back here.

I've been 20 years gone. I don't really have my, my household built yet. And, you know, yeah, but he, why don't you guys just go on ahead? Because, you know, you're, you're finding, you know, you've got your men all along, but I got the animals all over the place.

I got the wife and the kids, the little ones, the servants, everything else, you know, like we're just going to be moseying along here. So you guys just go on ahead and we'll catch up to you a little while. Just give us some time.

We'll be there. We'll see you a little down the road, you know? All right. It's all good.

Yeah, that's, I think that should be good. Yeah. All right.

Oh, another hug. Yeah, that was good. Esau, Jacob.

Oh yeah, we're good buddies. All right. All good.

Yeah, we'll see you in a bit. We'll see you in a few. Okay.

Yeah. You know what Jacob does? Turns around, like Esau's going, going south to seer. Verse 16.

Verse 17, and Jacob journeyed to Succoth. Opposite direction, straight north. You little liar, Jacob.

You know what? You bald-faced, like you don't even have any sense of shame. And how many of us here can identify with the patient correction of God in our lives and then the patient re-correction of God in our lives? And how many of us have walked out of a conference like this and God has stirred our heart? He's spoken to our conscience. And we sat here in the meeting and we made up our mind.

Yeah, I know what I'm going to do with that particular activity. That's it. Today, it's all done.

And we're not home a week. And we're right back to our own tricks. We're right back to our own track.

We're right back to the problem that God so clearly spoke to us and convicted us about in the conference. You know, you gotta be impressed with the patience of God. God is committed to every true child of God.

He is so patient. But I see Jacob as he goes out of this situation, and the name has changed. Verse number 28, the angel has asked him, what is your name? And he says, Jacob.

And he said, thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel. For as a prince has the power with God and with men and has prevailed. You know, God's in the business of changing names.

It seems to me, you know, whether we're talking about Abram, the father of many, to Abraham, the father of many nations, Sarai, my princess, to now beyond the family, to Sarah, princess, mother of a lineage that is going to be kingly. Whether it's changing from Simon to Peter, the stone, whether it's changing from Saul to Paul, meaning little, um, whether it's changing from liar to prince, what God is wanting to do to each of us today is he's wanting to change our identity. He's wanting us to no longer be the same.

He's wanting us to be another one. He wants us to be different. He wants us to be a new.

He wants the Lord Jesus to be formed in each one of us. And so I suppose, you know, the book of Proverbs talks about things that go well and they're going. And here is a man, and I suppose there was nothing attractive about now his gait, about his going.

But as far as God is concerned, under debilitating conditions, Jacob has never walked with such grace. Some of God's people suffer terrible infirmities, even physical debilitating conditions, impediments, scars, birth defects, situations that are great trials for them in their lives. But you see, God is using the physical oftentimes to mold and to make us, to affect us, to leave marks upon us.

And we should never judge by the outward appearance, because man look upon the outward appearance, but God is looking on the heart. And Christianity is about God changing us from the inside out. And here's what's going to happen to Jacob.

He's now got to change, and he will never be able to take another step in the rest of his life without being reminded of this tremendous encounter with God at the Ford Jabook. He is going to have the continuation of God's grace to mold him and make him into Israel. And as I come to the close of my message here today, I want you to notice the strange verse at the end of the chapter 32, where it says, the children of Israel eat not of the sinew which shrank, which is upon the hollow of the thigh unto this day.

Because he touched, the angel touched the hollow of Jacob's thigh in the sinew that shrank. I suppose you've likely heard the lesson that is there for us, correct? It's really that the diet of God's people should never include the weaknesses and the faults and the limps and the shortcomings and the defects of our fellow believers. This experience, as Hosea says, the children of God realize that God is speaking to all Israel through Jacob's experience, and there he speak with us, say the children of Israel and Hosea.

This whole experience with Jacob is now going to affect everybody else and the children of Israel for generations to come. And stretching across and leaping across the centuries down to us today is a lesson here that God wants to use our weaknesses, and God wants to further weaken us, and God wants to cripple us, and God wants to handicap us, and God wants to break us. Let us leave off to fight against the purposes of our divine master, of this one that is so patient and kind and tender, this one that understands us, this one that knows us, this one that loves us, is the one that wants to lead us, but in the leading he wants us to lean increasingly in our weakness upon the arm of his strength instead of on the arm of our own strength.

May God help us then today that we might be able to learn from these lessons, that we might be able to be willing to have our identities, our names changed, to allow the power of Christ to live within us, to make us something other than just an old fox, that we will no longer be Jacob's, the deceivers, but that we will be truly princes and warriors for God, that we'll be the true Israel of God, that we'll be able to serve and represent this best of masters until our time in this world is finished.