Title Blessed Jacob (Genesis 32:21-32)
A young couple went shopping with their baby. They parked a stroller with a newborn baby next to other strollers lined up in front of the store. After I finished shopping, my husband was pushing the stroller and went out that far, so my wife screamed in surprise. "Oh you! This is not our baby." “Be quiet,” the husband reproached his wife. And Handan said, "This stroller is better."
Saints! We must come to church and listen to God's Word and take the Word of God that we really need to take. Today, I am going to tell you what you must bring with you. Please do not exchange for the wrong one today.
If we look at the Bible verses we read today, we can see the story of Jacob returning to his hometown after finishing his hometown in Paddan Aram, where his maternal uncle was. Jacob returns to his hometown after 20 years of leaving home. Many thoughts must have gone through his head. 20 years ago, he tricked his father Isaac into intercepting the prayer of the eldest son who would go back to his brother Esau. When his older brother Esau learned about this, he tried to kill him, so he fled to a place called Paddan Aram where his mother's brother, that is, his maternal uncle, lived for 20 years. Now returning home, he had a large herd of cattle, four wives and many children.
Saints! I think you heard the news that Hyundai Chairman Ju-Young Chung gave 500 cows to starving North Korea. Hyundai Chairman Ju-Young Chung, who crossed Panmunjom with 500 Korean cattle in a car, first stole his father's cattle stake and came to Seoul to establish a company and succeed. Like Jacob, he also sinned against his parents in his hometown, and now he has achieved great success and dedicated 500 cows to North Korea.
Jacob also left home alone and is now returning home with great success in 20 years, herding a large herd of livestock. But he had worries. It was news that his brother Esau was coming to him with 400 men to kill him. So he divided the herds into several groups and sent them first to give his brother Esau a gift offensive. He also sent his wives and children first by night, and Jacob was left alone. And it is said that he was alone and wrestled with God and was blessed.
Saints! In today's text, what is God really trying to tell us? I looked at three words that God wants to hear from us.
First, when we pray, God always answers us.
Saints! I am surprised to see God answer the prayers of people who sometimes live a religious life. It means that God answers the prayers of those who say that the test comes in or does not come out because of people in the religious life, and who lives a religious life according to their feelings.
It means that God answers the prayers of people like Jacob. Jacob was a man who had no brotherly friendship since he was young, selling red bean porridge to his brother Esau, who returned from hunting. Brother's love is that the younger brother goes out after eating at home and tells him to eat first if he is hungry when he comes back. He told the older brother to sell his birthright. Then he deceived his old father, who had poor eyesight, and dressed up as his older brother Esau to receive blessings from his eldest son. And he ran away and went to his maternal uncle's house, and he was the one who worked so hard to get his sheep to grow. And now he was the one who divided his possessions into groups and sent first to his brother Esau, who might kill his wives and children as soon as they met. According to the Bible, he got up at night and led his two wives, two female servants, and eleven sons to cross the Jabbok Ferry first. He was the kind of person who sent his wife and children to a dangerous place first because he wanted to live, even though his family had to die together or live together.
But Jacob remains alone and prays to God. The Bible records in verse 24, “Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled until daybreak.” As if wrestling, Jacob held onto God and prayed. In a situation where he did not know that his brother Esau might take away much material, possessions, and wives, or even his life, Jacob clinged to God and prayed. He did not receive the gift that his brother Esau had sent first, that is, he killed his servants, or if he had to do something to his wife who sent him earlier, he was watching from afar and trying to escape on a fast horse. He was unable to ride, so Jacob clinged to God and prayed.
God is a God who is not speedy, but rich in grace. It is saying that if you do more harm than do more harm than you do, do what you want, commit sins, and then turn away from God and pray, return to God and pray. When he returns to God, repents, and prays again about how he lived and what sins he committed, God answered the prayer like putting on gold rings and sandals on the second son who returned. The Bible says that God answered Jacob's prayer and gave him a new name, Israel, and blessed him there.
Saints! Let's thank God for calling us today to bless us. Instead of looking at our ugly and disgusting past lives, let us thank God for answering our prayers before God today.
Second, we see the amazing love of God.
Everyone! When I read the Bible verses here, I always question the saying that Jacob wrestled and won with God. Verse 28 says, "The man said to him, "Your name will no longer be called Jacob, but Israel." We do not know whether Jacob wrestled and wrestled with God or wrestled and won with the angel sent by God.
In verse 30, it is written, “I saw God face to face,” indicating that he was a man who struggled with God and overcame. How can man overcome the omnipotent God who created the heavens and the earth and all things? And as you read, "Let the day begin, let me go" and "I will not let you go unless you bless me" (verse 26). It reminds me of Dracula. It gives the impression that Jacob is holding on to God or holding on to an angel and threatening them, who must return at dawn. So you can think of it as a blessing to get you back quickly.
However, the word God is saying here is that there is an electric light now, but at that time, in the dark and dark night in the wilderness, Jacob was alive because he did not see the face of God who was holding onto him and wrestling. But when the dawn comes and the day dawns, Jacob will see God wrestling with him and he will die. However, we can see the amazing love of God that God gave up on Jacob's prayer, which clinged to death. Everyone knows that when a father and his three-year-old son wrestle, the father wins. But when the father thinks he will lose, the son wins.
Jacob said that when the day dawns, God will see His face, and as it is written in the Bible, everyone who sees the face of God will die. How does God kill you when you pray like that? He gave it to Jacob. God gives grace to us whenever we pray. God does not ask for our dirty sins and takes them away.
Third, what we want to tell us here is that we should pray by relying on promises when we pray.
When Jacob left his hometown and wandered toward his maternal uncle's house, he built an altar with stones he had been cutting down in the field on a dark night and prayed to God. God blessed him when he built the altar. He then prayed, relying on the promises of God. When Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt, the Israelites made golden calves and worshiped them. At that time, God said that he would annihilate all the Israelites and make Moses' family the new people of God. At that time, when Moses saw the people of Israel who did not listen to God and only complained and dissatisfied with him, he did not pray, "If you have decided, do as you will." Instead of praying for the people, he prayed for the people. His prayer depended on God's covenant, God's promise. Didn't God say that He would bring these people out of Egypt and lead them to the land of Canaan, which was promised to our ancestor Abraham long ago? Didn't God tell us that? That's how we pray, relying on God's promises.
Didn't you say that God answers your prayers? “Whatever you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive it” (Matthew 21:22)
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you; for everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened” (Matthew 7:7-8).
“Until now you have asked for nothing in my name; ask, and you will receive, so that your joy may be full” (John 16:24).
It is holding on to the word of promise and praying. Didn't he say that we are justified before God not by keeping the law, but only through faith in Jesus? Didn't he say that whenever a sinner repents, God rejoices when a sinner returns to the Father? He tells us to hold on to the Word and hold on to the Word of promise and pray.
When Jacob built an altar with stones he had cut and slept before, he prayed, relying on the very promise that God had blessed him with. God is a faithful God who keeps His promises. God keeps his promises. So, when Jacob, who had many faults, prayed that it would be okay to risk his life and die to receive the grace to have his transgressions covered, he received God's love and prayed by relying on God's promise to receive blessings.
Saints! I pray in the name of Jesus that you all receive God's grace, love, and blessings that cover your sins and transgressions.