Here, God's word, as you find it, in the 33rd chapter of Genesis, reading verse 1 and through verse 20.
Now Jacob lifted his eyes and looked, and there, Esau was coming, and with him were 400 men. So he divided the children among Leah, Rachel, and the two made servants. And he put the made servants and their children in front, Leah and her children behind and Rachel and Joseph last. Then he crossed over before them and bowed himself to the ground seven times until he came near to his brother. But Esau ran to meet him and embraced him and fell on his neck and kissed him and they wept. And he lifted his eyes and saw the women and children and said, who are these with you? So he said, the children whom God has graciously given your servant. And then the made servants came near, they and their children and bowed down. And Leah also came near with her children and they bowed down and afterward Joseph and Rachel came near and they bowed down. Then Esau said, what do you mean by all this company which I met? And he said, these are to find favor in the sight of my Lord. But I have enough, my brother, keep what you have for yourself. And Jacob said, no, please, if I have now found favor in your sight, then receive my present from my hand in as much as I have seen your face as though I had seen the face of God and you were pleased with me. Please take my blessing that is brought to you because God is dealt graciously with me and because I have enough. So he urged him and he took it. Then Esau said, let us take our journey, let us go and I will go before you. But Jacob said to him, my Lord knows that the children are weak and the flocks and herds which are nursing are with me. If the men should drive them hard one day, all the flock will die. Please let my Lord go on ahead before his servant. I will lead on slowly at a pace which the livestock that go before me and the children are able to endure until I come to my Lord and see her. And Esau said, now let me leave you with some of the people who are with me. But he said, what need is there? Let me find favor in the sight of my Lord. So Esau returned that day on his way to Seyir and Jacob journeyed to Saka. Bill Bavudes for his livestock. Therefore the name of the place is called Saka. And then Jacob came safely to the city of Shechem which is in the land of Canaan. When he came from Padain Iran and he pitched his tent before the city and he bought the parcel of land where he had pitched his tent from the children of Heymor, Shechem's father. For 100 pieces of money. And then he erected an altar there and called it L-L-O-H-Israim. The word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Let's pray together.
Lord Jesus, we come before you, some of us with great expectations, some of us with no expectations, all of us with needs. Some of those needs we know, many of those needs we don't know. We come before you. The God who is really there. And we ask you, oh God, that you would send your spirit again and that by your word and spirit our needs would be addressed. And we would be molded and formed and shaped and fashioned a bit more into the image of Christ who is in himself. The expression of the fullness of your glory. Lord what a staggering thing it is that you would take rough, un-cune material like us. And by your word and spirit bring us into conformity with that image, the image of the glory bearing Christ. But we pray that by this time together that would happen. So come by your spirit, cause these words to live for us and to have their effect in our lives, the effect that you intend for them to have. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. You may be seated.
People with artistic ability amaze me. People who can take rough materials and can create things of beauty out of those rough materials amaze me. I don't want to, I mean there are a number of people in this congregation of whom that is true. I don't want to embarrass Tom Pat and he's not here so he can't be embarrassed but Tom is one of those guys. He's an artist. He can take nails and wood and paint and beautiful things out of that stuff. Artists amaze me that they're able to conceive in their heads things of beauty and then use their hands and their imagination and the skills that they've developed and produce things of extraordinary beauty. Mozart was an artist. I'm not suggesting for a moment that Tom and Mozart are at the same place but they're artists. Mozart could take notes, 13 notes if I count the keys on the piano right, 13 notes in a full octave. The white keys and the black keys. To take 13 notes over a range of octaves and all of the diversity of the instruments. Oboes and percussion instruments and violins and brass instruments. To take all of the diversity of the instruments of a symphony orchestra and could work them together and fashion them together. To produce a thing of extraordinary beauty. I'm told that when Mozart wrote symphonic pieces unlike other composers who would sketch out a melody line working sort of from left to right on the page, Mozart had the whole thing in his mind and he would work from top to bottom. Just start up here and make his way down and then go back up and make his way down, not working around a melody line but putting the whole thing on a sheet of paper. Amazing. Beethoven is amazing. I'm told that Michelangelo, or I understand that Michelangelo, when he would look at a piece of stone, understood that there was something of beauty in that piece. And his design and intent was to chip away the rough edges to chip away at all of the extraneous stuff and find in that piece of stone the thing of beauty that is already there to be smoothed over and shaped and formed and fashioned and brought into its condition of beauty. Artists are amazing, amazing people. God is an artist. God is an artist. He's a sculptor. He's a composer. He's a potter. And in his very powerful, very firm, but very tender hands. And with all of the imagination and the wisdom and skill of an artist, he takes you and he forms and fashion and shapes you personally, individually, into a thing of beauty. I want you to hear me when I say this. I want you to listen to me, all of you. I don't care if you've been a Christian for five minutes or five decades. I don't care how much you think you know or how little you think you know. I don't care whether you feel that you've not made it far enough down the path and you're laboring under expectation and aughtness. I don't care if you think you're a whole lot farther down the path than you might be. I don't care if you're not a Christian. You're still wrestling with these things, with Jesus and with the church and with Christianity. I don't care where you are, but I care is that you understand this. If you want to understand Christianity, if you want to understand what it means to be a Christian, you must understand that God is an artist. You must sculpt a composer and you are his materials. You are the raw materials he's working with, with your discordant, dissonant sounds, with your rough, jagged edges, with your unshaked and lumpy features. You are the raw materials upon which this artist is working and he is working to change you. He is working to transform you and these strong, firm, wise, but gentle hands are affecting change in your life. The ugly duckling is becoming a beautiful swan. The liar is becoming, the cheat is becoming honest. The lustful is becoming pure. Cinderella is becoming the queen of the ball. The pauper is becoming a prince. Simon is becoming Peter. Sarah is becoming Sarah. Jacob, the usurper, is becoming Israel. The one who wrestles and struggles and clings to God. He said this in the announcements before the service. In all the world's religions, the emphasis is upon what I do, what I know, how I act, how I must perform, what I must pursue, but in Christianity, the attention isn't what God does. It's upon what God does and God, this great and wise artist, works his wonders of change and transformation. He's doing that in you. He did it in Jacob. God had more in mind for Jacob than simply bringing Jacob into relationship with himself and blessing Jacob. He had more in mind than that. To use new testament images and language, God had more in mind for Jacob than that he should be reconciled to God, have his sins forgiven. You heard me say this before. It is an overwhelmingly great thing to be forgiven and to know that you are forgiven. How we can sing these hymns, half-heartedly, without as the psalmist that monished us in Psalm 47, without shouting, how we can sing them half-heartedly, amazes me how I can sing these things. And sleepwalk through them is simply astounding. I am a forgiven sinner accepted by God, made as son of the God of glory. Anything that is entered into the mind of man being more overwhelmingly great than that. But that's not all that God wants. That's not all that God intends for you. He wants for you to be different. He wants for you to change. And he is determined to change you. Remember a couple of important things as you think about Jacob. And as you see, as Dr. Walke reminded us last week, as you see yourself in Jacob, you see one in whom God is working. When you come to chapter 33, you see a different person, not a finished product, not a finished product, but a work changing, a work being changed, a work in progress. And you remember a couple of things briefly about that. You remember in the first place that God takes his time with Jacob. And God is taking his time with you. You wise, I know you wish your husbands would be changed in an instant. You husbands, I know you wish your wives would be changed in an instant. You children, I know you wish your parents would be changed in an instant. You parents, I know you wish your kids could be changed in an instant, but we're not changed in an instant. And Jacob wasn't changed in an instant. And when you come to chapter 33, the work is not finished yet, but he is a different man from the man he was five chapters ago. Remember that God works over time. Jacob has been gone 20 years, it's only five chapters. You can read the five chapters in 15 minutes, but he's been gone 20 years. It takes time for people to change. Remember that Abraham, the narrative of his life which covers a century, a hundred years, all compressed into about 13 chapters which you can read in about 30 minutes. Remember that Abraham was changed over the course of a century. It takes time. Remember the days of the creation, I've suggested this to you. I want to press this into your minds. Somebody told me I said something about the frontal lobes a couple of weeks ago and the frontal lobes aren't the lobes where memories are stored where images are stored. So forget that image, forget that it breaks down. Wherever it is that those images are supposed to go, I want to press that image into your brain, wherever in your brain it's supposed to go. That God and the creation created the worlds through a sequence of moments. And what God did in the creation he's doing in recreation. He is recreating through a series, a succession of moments, changes sometimes slow. God is relentless. God is relentless, folks. The potter never gets off the wheel. His hands never let go of the clay. Years ago when I was first a Christian I saw somebody wearing a button, it had nothing but letters on it. And the letters were PBPWMGINFWNY. A whole bunch of letters on a button about that bigger end. That's interesting. I asked the person, what does that mean? What are those letters all of that? Please be patient with me. God is not finished with me yet. Change takes place over time, beloved. And you see it in Jacob's life. And here's the second thing to remember. We're still at the remembering place. This is Roman numeral one, remembering some things. Remember that the sculptor chips away at the extraneous. Remember that the potter presses and squeezes the clay. Remember that God breaks Jacob's hip. And that breaking of his hip is a reminder of the fact that God must break sometimes. Sometimes the willful and the resistant. And when he does that, there is discomfort. There is discomfort in change, folks. Peter in writing to the Christians of his day, those new believers, writing to encourage them, says, grace to you and come out to apply. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, according to his abundant mercy, has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. He has begotten us again to an inheritance that is incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away. Everything that you possess, everything that you have, everything that you are, will rot and rust, it is corruptible, it will pass away, it will fade away, your bodies will do it, your houses will do it, your cars will do it, everything will be affected by corruption. But Peter says God has borne us again, begotten us to something that is incorruptible and that does not fade away, that will never disappear. And he says it is reserved for us in heaven, for us who are being kept by the power of God through faith for salvation, a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. Verse 6, he says, in this you greatly rejoice. That is that salvation stuff again, forgiveness and acceptance and being a son, a coer with Jesus, possessing with Jesus, everything that Jesus possesses. He says you rejoice greatly in that, though now for a little while. If need be, you have been grieved by various trials, why so that the genuineness of your faith being more precious than gold that does perish while tested by fire may be found to praise and honor and glory at the day of Jesus Christ. Just fire, there is discomfort in this process by which God is changing us, it takes time. And there is discomfort, fire that purifies, that burns away impurities, that draws so that what remains is perfect. Change comes slowly, and change does not come easily, but change, folks, does occur. Metamorphosis does happen and you see the evidence of it in chapter 33. And this is Roman numeral tomb, after the remembering, now you see the evidence of change, you see proof that Jacob is blessed of God. What do you see? You see four things among others. First of all, you see that the coward has become a leader. In the early chapters of the narrative of Jacob's life, you see Jacob scheming together with his mother to usurp the blessing that was due Esau, the birthright, that was due Esau hiding behind his mother's skirts. You see earlier in chapter 32, when Jacob contemplates a reunion with Esau, Esau, who is coming against him with an army of 400 men. As Jacob contemplates, Esau coming toward him, he divides up all of his possessions, his family, and all of his possessions. He separates them into two camps, and he puts one ahead of the other, and he sends one across the river first. And he keeps the other separate, and he thinks, well, if Esau falls upon the first, at least this will survive. And he sends messengers to Esau, and he says, I'm sending my flocks and my herds as a gift ahead of me. And the phrase in chapter 32, verse 18, is this, tell Esau that all of these are crossing over before me, and I am coming behind after everything else, putting everything that he owns in front of himself, not in a self-sacrificing way but in a self-protecting way. But in verse 3 of chapter 33, after Jacob has lined up all of his possessions and divided his wives, the maid servants first, and then Leah and her children, he then verse 3 crosses over ahead of them, the coward has become a leader. He's different. He's changed. The second thing, the arrogant deceiver has become a humble servant, arrogant deceiver, who rested in his own strength, relied upon his own strength. As you remember the scene at the well, when Jacob has first come into the land of Laban, Jacob is there at the well, and there is all of this reference to the mouth of the well, and the stone that is upon the well that needs to be removed, so that Rachel can water her flocks. Jacob, instead of three or four or five shepherds moving the stone, Jacob with his great strength, moves the stone by himself, that's a metaphor of his self-reliance and his strength and his independence, but he's become a humble servant. Again, verse 3, as Jacob approaches Esau seven times, he prostrates himself before Esau, his nose and forehead in the dust, seven times bowing, going on bowing, going on bowing, going on bowing before Esau humbling himself before Esau. You may remember, I've used this illustration before, you may remember the David Frost interviews with Richard Nixon years and years and years ago, when David Frost asked Richard Nixon about his involvement in the Watergate scandal, and when confronted with guilt or innocence, Nixon acknowledged, yes, I've done some things wrong, yes, I made some mistakes. But Grovel in the dust never, never. Jacob has changed man, the big, willful, self-reliant, arrogant deceiver. He's a broken, humble servant who prostrates himself, who Grovels before the face of Esau. Third, the dishonest schemer has become honest, verses 6 and 7 and 8. Why? Why, Esau asks, why do you send all of this company ahead of you? Why do you offer me these favors? Why do you give me these gifts? The last part of verse 8, Jacob says, to find favor in the sight of my Lord, no more manipulations, no more misrepresentations of truth, no more scheming and deceiving. The dishonest schemer is finished with his schemes and his tricks and he is forthright about his intentions. Humbly before Esau, though he knows that he is guilty, though he understands unpersuaded to this, from what you see in this text, the language that's used, the progress of the narrative, though Jacob understands that Esau has every right to attack him, assault him, put him to death for his previous deceptions and misdeeds. Jacob comes before him and begs his favor, asks him for mercy. No longer a dishonest schemer, but an honest man seeking the favor of his brother. Then the estranged enemy has become the restored and reconciled brother. In verse 10, Jacob as he responds to the question from Esau, why are you giving me all of these things, doing all of these things? Begs Esau to receive a present from his hand, a gift from his hand, the same word that is used back in chapter 32 in verse 13, as Jacob sends drove after drove out in front of himself. He thinks, maybe if I give him a gift, I will win his favor. But when Jacob interacts with Esau in verse 11, he changes the word and says, please take my blessing. Take my blessing because God has dealt graciously with me and because I have enough very subtly. What Jacob is doing is acknowledging his wrongdoing. He stole the blessing. Now he is seeking to make restitution. He is seeking to restore to Esau what he Jacob had stolen from Esau. Receive my blessing. Take back what is rightfully yours. The coward has become a leader. The arrogant deceiver has become a humble servant. The dishonest schemer has become honest and the alienated and estranged enemy has become a restored and reconciled. And how do you account for it? How do you account for it? You can only account for it in these kinds of terms that the potter has laid hold of this lump of clay, nondescript lumpy lump of clay. And over the course of these 20 years through all of these circumstances, his interaction with Laban and the deceit that he experienced at Laban's hands, the long years of hard toil, raising flocks, securing for himself wealth, the long years of wrestling with God. The wrestling didn't just start at the jabbeck. It was going on for years as God tried to penetrate the Jacob, tried to humble him, tried to rest from his hands the blessing box that he clutched to himself with all of his might. But then at the jabbeck, when God finally in power, in an instant broke his fingers and rested that blessing box with all of its corruptible and fading blessings contained within it. He broke it out of his hands by breaking his hands. He broke his hip, fractured his hip, made him limp, humbled him, humbled him so as to bless him, so as to make him whole. How do you account for the change in Jacob? You account for the change in Jacob because the hands have not let go of the lump of clay. Chisel and the hammer have been relentless at chipping away what is extraneous, what obscures the thing of beauty hidden within the piece of rock. The rough jagged edges have been smoothed over by friction, by heat, and there is something of beauty that is beginning to emerge. That's what God is about. That's what God is about with you. That's what God was about in Genesis 1 in the days of creation taking something unsightly and forming it and fashioning it by his word and spirit into a thing of beauty. That is the purpose of Jesus in his coming to be sure Jesus by his life of perfect obedience has secured a righteousness for his people in which they are clothed. The perfect, the infinite righteousness of God himself, a clothing for naked Adam and Eve, naked in their guilt and shame. And Jesus by his death has taken away their nakedness and their sin by his death as a substitute the wrath of God being visited upon him. He has taken away the penalty that is due them for their sin but by his resurrection he has secured life and it is that life that he seeks to impart and that he will impart. And all of the miracles of Jesus, all of the things you see Jesus doing with people who are broken, who are blind, who are lame, who are leprous. All of those miracles that you see Jesus performing are snapshots, metaphors, pictures of the transforming work that he seeks to accomplish in your souls, in your lives. Mark 822-26 is one of my favorite snapshots. A blind man whom Jesus takes by the hand leads out of town into a private place where Jesus without the noise of the crowd presumably while there certainly had to be people following him outside of the town. Still Jesus in a quiet place can deal personally individually with a man who cannot see and he spits in his eyes. And he asks him if he can see and he says I see men as trees walking, he'd never seen anything before. And now he sees men and women and children like trees with limbs walking about still, disfigured, still confused, still in this thing that he's never seen before. Yet the work is not done and Jesus touches him again and perfects his sight so that he sees everything clearly. That's what Jesus does. Paul says, as a pastor, Galatians 4.19, that he is struggling in the pains of childbirth, longing to give birth to this thing. What is this thing? He struggles in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you. Until Christ is sheeped in you, until you are brought into conformity with Christ's image so that you are glory bearers along with Jesus. Writers of the Westminster Confession of Faith, the larger and shorter catechisms, you probably think of them as these anonymous Brainiacs who sat around for a couple of years and drafted some theological statements because they had nothing better to do. They were all pastors. They were not ivory tower theologians coistered away from the world. They were pastors. And they cared about their people. And when they asked these questions and conceived these answers, they have their people in view. And when they asked the question, question 154, what are the principal means by which Christ imparts to us the benefits of his mediation? They understand something very specific and very important. The question asks, what are the means by which Christ imparts these benefits? And they understood Christ to be the active agent to give his people all of the benefits of his mediation, his redemption, his salvation, all of those benefits Christ possesses. He is the potter who sits at the wheel with his clay and he brings all of those benefits to there. And by the word of God and by prayer and by the sacraments in the context of the church, those firm and forceful but gentle hands do their molding and forming and transforming work. They understood you're not the active agent. It's not about what you know. It's not about what you do. It's not about what you pursue. The ultimate issue, the ultimate question is about what Jesus knows and what Jesus does and what Jesus pursues and Jesus is pursuing life for you. And he's relentless in it. He will not let you go until you possess all of it. He won't. And when the fires are turned up and when the hammer and chisel chip away at you and when God by His gracious spirit confronts you in those areas of your life where you are foolish and unwise and where you are walking away from him when he confronts you, he does it because he loves you. There is no other reason. He loves you his people and he is the agent. It's not about me. It's not about what I know. It's not about what I do. It's not about you. It's about Jesus. And so when the fires get hot and Jesus confronts you through a brother, through a sister, through a sermon. By the reading of the word in your times of prayer, it's perfect when you hear that voice, silence, the voice. It is Jesus speaking to you out of His infinite love for you in such a way that Jesus must break your fingers. Let go, let go. And what Jesus do is forming and shaping work.
Father, thank you. Thank you that you are an artist. Thank you that you are a potter. Thank you that you are a composer, a painter. Oh, how we wish, sometimes, that we were inanimate material so that you could have your way with us without all of the discomfort we feel. But we are like Jacob's stubborn willful, resistant, blind foolish, be patient, O Lord. Be patient with us, your people. But be relentless. Don't give up. David pleaded with you, Father, that you would not withdraw your Holy Spirit from him. He knew that if you were to withdraw your Spirit, he would be abandoned, desolate. Do not withdraw your Holy Spirit from us no matter what it takes. Be relentless, work, and effect the change in our lives. That is for our good. I plead with you from my friends, my brothers and sisters, that you would give them grace. Not the silence, the voice of Jesus, your beloved son, when he speaks to them. O Lord, have mercy upon us. For your name's sake. Jesus name we pray. Amen.