This week, we continued the “Grace Foundation” series. We
looked at how Jacob prepared to enter Canaan and be rejoined with Isaac and how
it is a picture of how we, by grace, enter Canaan
or the Promised Land.
We looked at Genesis 32. Jacob has set out to return to Canaan . Before he does, he chooses to meet with Esau, the
brother from whom he’s been estranged from for 20 years after “robbing him” of
his blessing. I say chooses to meet him because, when you view a map of where
Jacob was traveling from and traveling to, along with where Esau lived, Jacob
could have easily got home without interacting with Esau. He chooses to do so
anyway. This is illustrative of the
choice we must make as well. Remember from previous parts in this series that
Esau represented the lack of self-control and the placing of gratifying flesh
above obedience to God. Esau is in the “grace” branch of Abraham’s family tree,
but he forfeited the blessing that was rightfully his because of his decision
to gratify the flesh.
If we are going to enter Canaan ,
or the promises of God, we must deal with that part of us. We must defeat the
tendency for the flesh to get what it wants without regard for God’s ways, and
ultimately His blessing. I am not just talking about egregious flesh sins like
lust, sexual immorality, etc… The flesh gets its desires in much more subtle
ways. Anywhere that we shrink back from God’s ways because the flesh is afraid
or unwilling to change is also in this category of sin.
If we do not get the flesh’s desires under control, when
we enter the Promised Land, we will be defeated and destroyed. How often do we
hear stories about lottery winners who, just a short time after their windfall,
are broken destroyed and worse off than before they won? If you are not
prepared to live in the blessing lifestyle, the blessing will destroy you. You
won’t truly experience the blessing. It is still yours, but it becomes a curse
to you rather than goodness.
So, what does Jacob do? Well, after sending word to Esau
that he was coming, Jacob gets word back that Esau is coming to meet him… along
with 400 men! Jacob does what we naturally would do in this situation. He
becomes worried and distressed. We men, with our design by God to be providers
and protectors of our families, can allow fear and worry about our inability to
do those things to drive us to make poor decisions. You see, just before this happens, angels
appeared to Jacob, in a way reminding him that God was with him, but Jacob
still feared. This is not a knock on Jacob, but a reminder that, as humans, we
can all easily do the same; and probably have done so many times.
Now, in the previous chapter, Jacob had an encounter with
Laban (his uncle). In that situation, Jacob knew he was not in the wrong.
Therefore, there was no fear in him. This time, he knows he was wrong. He has a
guilty conscience regarding his past wrongs. 1 John 4:18 tells us that perfect
love (Jesus) casts out fear and that fear comes from the fear of punishment.
Hebrews 9:14 and 10:22 talk to us about how the blood of Jesus not only
cleansed us of sin, but perhaps more importantly, of a guilty conscience. With
a guilty conscience, we will continue to make fear-driven bad decisions instead
of boldly approaching the throne of grace for direction and supply to overcome
any situation.
After this, Jacob prays and reminds himself of the
promises of God and what God had already done for him. This is what we should
do when fear hits – remind ourselves of the goodness and greatness of God. Jacob then decides to put together a gift to appease
Esau. The word, in Hebrew, used to describe this gift was the same word used
elsewhere to mean atonement or covering. Jacob intended to pay for how he had
wronged Esau. I did a little research and found that the estimated value of the
gift was close to $100,000. One of the
gifts, the camels, was a sign of wealth and source of a great highly wanted
delicacy (the milk these camels produced) in that time.
Jacob needed to make things right for what he had done
before he could enter Canaan . There are two
angles on this we need to see. First, when it comes to the things we’ve done
that directly hurt someone, we ought to find ways to try and repay. The second
is a bigger picture. There was a debt to be paid in order to enter Canaan . For us, Jesus paid that debt. We do not have to
find a way to satisfy the debt for our wrongs. Jesus did that for us. Receive
the gift of that payment, and confidently enter Canaan .
To listen to the entire sermon go to http://ahwatukeechurch.com/media.php. To learn more about Living Word Ahwatukee,
visit http://ahwatukeechurch.com/.
To listen to the entire sermon go to http://ahwatukeechurch.com/media.php. To learn more about Living Word Ahwatukee,
visit http://ahwatukeechurch.com/.
