2014년 2월 2일 주일 영어예배 설교
창세기 32:24-28

(Genesis 32:24-28)

     This is one of the better-known stories in the Bible, and is also a very important moment to Jacob and the redemptive history. Now, Jacob is in big trouble because his older brother Esau is fiercely chasing him. As the story is well known, Jacob deceived his father Isaac and his brother Esau by taking the blessing for the oldest son. And by the deceit, he took the blessing that was supposed to be given to Esau. After that, he fled away from his father and brother. Although it had been more than 20 years since then, the older brother is still chasing him and they have never met one another all the while. So Jacob, who is terrified as the older brother almost reaches him begged God like this, in verse 11, “Please deliver me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear him, that he may come and attack me, the mothers with the children.” So he ingeniously schemed and planned to avoid this crisis in his life. To appease his older brother, Esau, he divided all his possessions and people into two groups, and sent them drove by drove. He also sent his families ahead of him across the ford of Jabbok. Now he is left alone at the opposite side of the river. Today, through the event that happened to Jacob in today’s text, we are going to be appreciating what God did to him and what changes came to him.

     In verse 24, “And Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day.” Here, we find that God first visited Jacob unexpectedly and in person, and Jacob had some very crucial struggles with God. In the Old Testament, we can see that God sometimes appeared to his people in person in the visible form of human flesh. And in most of those cases, the appearance can be understood antitype of Jesus Christ who would come in the flesh in the future. Right after this struggling time, Jacob confesses this in verse 30, “I have seen God face to face.” The expression ‘wrestle with him’ is used here to emphasize the seriousness and importance of the situation, and we need to grasp that the situation was not just spiritual and metallic dimension, but something real, corporeal, and visible.

     To Jacob who was left alone there that night, a sudden and unexpected event happened. In fact, in verses 9-12, he already asked God very sincerely and honestly to save him from this crisis, a very dangerous situation in his life. When he begged God for this, he was even based on the great covenant of God, not based on any merits of his own. He even confessed his unworthiness and being undeserved. And then now he was left alone in hopes of some good messages from his servants who went ahead of him to appease his brother, Esau, and he was wondering how his ingenious scheme would work in assuaging Esau’s anger. Now there, Jacob stood alone, and said to himself, ‘Well now of course there is only one problem to solve and that is Esau, if only I could solve the problem of Esau all is going to be well.’ Esau is the one and only problem and so he schemed and planned how he would approach him.

     But all of a sudden God appeared to him. This is God’s forestalling visit and unexpected event that Jacob never thought or imagined would happen before. As always, this time again, God first acts with His ardent love, grace, and mercy. Why did God appear to Jacob in person and in the flesh? Jacob had to be shown that the problem of Esau was not the main problem. So then what is the primary problem for him? The real problem for him was his relationship with God. Actually, Jacob had spent so much of his time seriously worrying about the problem of Esau, and now here the main concern of his life was that problem. He was thinking that if the problem of Esau was resolved, and if he could remove the very problem, his life would be going very well. He was thinking like that if this problem before him right now was figured out, he would be able to get true happiness in his life. But he was wrong. Human beings’ fallen and depraved mind and reasoning consistently function apart from God, their creator, due to their sins. Apart from God, their Lord, they have tried to find the cause of their unhappiness and predicaments in this world. Still embracing and holding their sinful natures, they find the cause of unhappiness and troubles from money, environment, education, politics, people who are around them, personality, personal disposition, destiny, personal ability and so on. But we clearly need to know the fact that very cause of all problems is the relationship with God, and we should humbly and honestly acknowledge this fact before God. The first thing Jacob discovered there was that his real problem was not Esau, but God. We see this man’s primary error was, ‘How can I appease Esau?’ but what God said was ‘My dear Jacob, what you need is not to be reconciled to Esau, but to be reconciled to me’, and that is the essence of modern difficulty and modern trouble.

     Man is meant to be a living soul in communion with God. God has made man for himself and God has placed certain laws within the nature of being man and that man can only be happy in this world as long as he obeys those laws. The Bible tells us, in other words, that all personal problems and all general problems arise from that central source and that a man can search heaven and earth and do anything he likes but as long as he is in a wrong relationship to God, he will never find peace and happiness, he will never find rest to his soul, he will never find that for which he longs. The problem of man in the first instance is not Esau – it is and until man is right with God at the center, he cannot be right anywhere else, God not Esau.

     Now, Jacob who is experiencing the unexpected and irresistible visiting of God, is clinging to God. He is wrestling for the restoration of the right relationship with God. He forgot all about Esau now. He clings to God. This is because Jacob now knows that the real problem and real danger is not Esau, but the real problem and danger for him is the terribly broken and contaminated relationship between him and God. For this, God first visited him and had him wrestle. Even though Jacob was never able to be aware of his serious situation with respect to the relationship to God, and was just immersed in Esau that he thought as the most serious problem and the cause of his most worries in his life, God did not let him leave it at that. God acted for him because without God’s forestalling activity for him, there was no hope and possibility for himself. As a result of God’s act for him, he realized how he had a misunderstanding about the essence of his life, and how he was ruined with sin, and he was made to see himself as he truly was. God here called Jacob back to a realization of his true nature and of his true destiny. He became to realize that if God just passed him by without God’s calling, shaking, mercy, and blessing for his restoration to the right relationship with God, he was doomed, over. So he shouted this in verse 26, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” He is now clinging, begging, and crying to God. God revealed to him the real blessing that he had in store for him and Jacob said, ‘I will not let you go, I will not let you go and the blessing of God.’ He had met the God who was offering him pardon for his failure, who assured him that he would place his hand upon him, who gave him a vision of his own future as the father of a nation, the father ultimately of the Lord Jesus Christ who was to be the Savior of the world. And it is the blessing – the new name, no longer Jacob but ‘Israel’. In verse 28, “Then he said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.”

   And that is what the Christian gospel says to every man who hears it by the power of the Holy Spirit. It offers us pardon, forgiveness, assurance that God blots out our sins as a thick cloud and casts them behind him. It is to have your conscience cleansed, be able to face to face look at God and say, ‘I am guilty but Christ suffered for my sin and I am free, pardoned and forgiven.’ It does not mean just pulling yourself together and trying to be a better man, it is not taking up some general ideas about God and about religion, it is a personal encounter with God, Jesus Christ. It means a new start in life, a new nature – the nature of God himself, being made a child of God. It means a new identity, a new sense, and a new goal as a new creature. It means a change of your name from Jacob, the natural man, to Israel, the regenerated. Man finds a correct position as a man and a relationship with God as His creature. The arrow correctly hits the target, not missing target. All these desirable, amazing, and perfectly ideal things happen to Christians, believers, the chosen people who experience God’s visit in Christ, our Lord Jesus Christ.

   Everyone, don’t even try to find your unhappiness, trouble, and problems from the other factors in your life. Humbly and sincerely listen to the revelation of the Bible of God. Listen to the perfect direction of God – The problems and worries about which you spent so much of your time is not the real and vital problems, but the real problem of your life is God, you and God, the relationship between you and God. Before solving this problem, you never taste the real satisfaction and happiness in your life. This is because you are meant to live in the amazing graceful relationship with God, your Lord, your Creator. Do all these things come to you with reality? If not, cry out to Him – ‘I will not let you go unless you bless me.’ ‘I will not let you go unless you bless me’. If you say that to him honestly and sincerely, as he blessed Jacob then, he will bless you and you will be a new man and an heir of the wealth of God himself.