Prayers Before the Jordan

So grateful for this blessed time of worship the Lord has given to us. We have a lot of guests worshipping with us this morning, we welcome you to our church. Servants of God who have been ministering here for this weekend, so grateful that they are also worshipping with us. My friend pastor is here. So grateful for this wonderful time the Lord has given to us. And as we enter into God’s word and we are in Genesis 32:1-21 this morning, as we continue with our series, Jacob going from a life of deception to dependence, we are coming to a very important period in the life of Jacob. One that would actually change the complete trajectory of his life for the rest of his life. If you were to kind of divide up the life of Jacob into two different sections, you would end one at the end of chapter 31. What happens in chapter 32 and chapter 33 would actually define his life for the rest of his life here on earth. And God would start the phenomenal work that he would do as he would continue the transformative work in the life of Jacob.

We ended last week by seeing the amazing provision of God, the protection of God. As Laban, as I mentioned last week, would have surely harmed Jacob or at least brought him back definitely with all the things that he had, the wives and the children, but God would appear to Laban in a dream and would prohibit Laban from doing anything good or bad to prevent Jacob from continuing on his journey that he was making back to his homeland. In the context of that, we come to Genesis 32:1. God’s word reads like this, Jacob also went on his way. Laban went in the opposite direction and the Bible says to us, and the angels of God met him. This is a second time in God’s word where we have Jacob having an encounter with angelic beings. The first one was in a dream 20 years before. As he is traveling to an unknown land, God would appear to him in the middle of the night. There’ll be the ladder that reaches up to the heavens and angels going up and down on that ladder, but that was in a dream. This is not a dream. Verse 1, we don’t know how this happened. Jacob would meet angels on that day.

In fact, the original translation says there was a camp of angels, a cluster of angels, a group of angels who would come to meet with Jacob on that day. These are obviously angelic beings that have taken on human form that are coming to meet with Jacob on that day. Verse 2, when Jacob saw them, he said, this is the camp of God. So he named that place Mahanaim. He named that place Mahanaim, which literally means two camps. So why did he name it two camps? There are different ways to look at that name that he gave to it. Either it meant the angels that appeared to him on that day were so many in number that there were two camps of them. Some people believe that the two camps refer to his own camp and the camp of angels that came to meet him. Others believe that the two camps refer to one angels, group of angels on one side, protecting him from Laban, another group of angels standing other side, protecting him from his brother Esau that he’s about to face. Whatever the meaning might be, two camps, he names that place because of the provision of God.

I think we are living our lives on earth today completely oblivious and unaware of thousands of angels all around us. God’s word makes it very clear to us that we are not alone in this world, that there are angelic beings all around us, even when our earthly eyes cannot see them. Look at Psalm 34:7. The Bible says to us, the Angel of the Lord encamps around those who fears them and delivers them. There’s a reason why you will be worshiping your God for all eternity when you get over to heaven because then you will be able to finally realize the hundreds and thousands of ways in which God sent his angels to protect you even when you were not aware of angelic beings all around us. There are God has millions and millions of angels at his bidding and he sends them to deliver his people and even in the psalm that we read this morning, we saw that in Psalm 91:9-10. If you say the Lord is my refuge and you make the most high, you are dwelling, no harm will overtake you, no disaster will come near your tent, Psalm 91:11-12. For why? He will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. They will lift you up in their hands. How many of you ever been lifted up by angels? You have been, you just didn’t know it. The Bible says, they will lift you up in their hands so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.

There have been many a times when you could have struck your foot against a stone, but because of angelic beings that lifted you up in their mighty hands, God’s protection was all around them. We are living in a world where sometimes it’s difficult to understand verses like this. Even this week, we saw the tragic event that happened in Minnesota where children who were in the midst of prayer were killed by a deranged individual. How do you reconcile passages such as Psalm 91:9-10, 11-12 with what happened in that school? Why were angels not protecting these precious children as they were in the middle of their prayer? See, God’s security that is promised to us is not one of temporal nature. Ultimately, it is one of eternal nature. You need to understand passages Psalm 91 as not just talking about God delivering you in this life here on earth. There’s an eternal plan that God has for us. Our eyes only see what happens to us here on earth, but God’s plans and God’s ways and God’s eyes see from eternity to eternity. Those children are not lost. Those children are in the precious hands of a loving God who had a different plan for them than to continue living on the face of the earth. My God does not go back on his promises. So if God’s angels do not protect you in a certain instance, you have to believe that as a child of God, that is the will of God for your life, that your life on earth has come to an end. But until that moment, there is nothing the enemy can do against you. There’s nothing the world can do against you. No accidents will happen unless and until it is ordained and allowed by God to happen. Why? He has his angels watching over you and protecting you.

Job will tell you, to Satan would come to the presence of the Lord in the book of Job and say, you have put a hedge of protection around them. What is that? Angelic beings of the Lord that are guarding over the things that God has given to us and our lives on earth as well. We need to live our lives with this knowledge of this security and awareness in our life, knowing that nothing will happen in my life unless and until it is allowed and ordained by my loving Heavenly Father. If I have an accident tomorrow and I die, that is the will of God for my life. I need to believe my God knows what he’s doing with my life here on earth. I don’t live my life in an uncertain way. I live my life secure in the hands of a loving God who allows things to happen at the same time, prohibits things from happening because his angels are watching over me. Elijah’s servant eyes were open. Elijah would say to him, greater are the number that is with them than with them. Why? With us, greater ones are always with us because of God’s protection around us. Hebrew 1:14, the writer of the book of Hebrew reminds us who are angels. Are not all angels, ministering spirits send to serve those who will inherit salvation. Human beings are made a little lower than angels. The Bible says that. Yet God would choose these beings that are exalted above us in their creative order and in the way they are today to serve us in our life. You know why? We were chosen to inherit salvation and we are precious in the sight of the Lord.

This is not true of all the people in the world. It is only true of those who will inherit salvation. Who are that? The redeemed of the Lord who are saved by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you know this morning that you’re precious in the eyes of the Lord? Because you know why? You are a child of God. You’re redeemed by the blood of the lamb. You belong to the family of God and guess what? God will send his angels to minister to you in your deepest moments of need. Why? Because you are meant to inherit salvation and God’s eyes are always over you. You’re not a lost cause. You are not forgotten people. You are important people in the eyes of the Lord and God sends his mighty angels to minister to us in our need. Why? Because of the great privilege that we have in the Lord as children of God inheriting salvation. What a wonderful privilege we have. What wonderful promises that we have. Angels appeared to him encouraging Jacob probably ministering to him because about what he’s about to face. What he’s about to face is verse 3. Jacob sent messengers ahead of him to his brother Esau. Remember this guy from about 20 years ago? Last time we saw him, Jacob and Esau were not shaking hands and saying goodbye. Jacob was running away from Esau. 20 years gone by.

If you thought that Esau had forgotten, Esau hasn’t. You know why? Remember what Rebecca said to Jacob before he sent him on his way. When the anger of your brother subsides, I will send for you. You know what has happened in 20 years? No sending has happened. Probably because the anger of the brother has not subsided. He hasn’t forgotten all the things maybe not in a spiritual way but at least in a material way that he lost because his brother cheered him on that day. So he finds out from certain messengers that his brother Esau was in the land of Seir in the country of Edom. Named after him, Edomites. The man who was red occupying the country. Esau is ruling over that country named after himself and he sends messengers ahead of him. Wise thing to do. Verse 4. He instructed them, this is what you are to say to my lord Esau. Oh don’t you love that word? So much humility. My lord Esau. He’s his own brother but he calls him the lord and gives him that great recognition as the oldest one in the home even though his birthright is gone. Brother Jacob does not want to remind him of the fact that his birthright is gone and calls him the lord. Your servant Jacob says, I have been staying with Laban and I have remained there till now. There’s one other detail about my life you need to know. Verse 5. I have cattle and donkeys, sheep and goats, male and female servants. Why does he say this?

I’m not coming to take anything that belongs to you. I don’t want any of father’s riches anymore. I already have more than what I need in my life. See the only thing that really matters to Esau is material wealth. Jacob coming back could be a threat to all the wealth that Esau has possibly or at least the wealth of Isaac because now he owns the birthright and being the firstborn he has double the inheritance that he’s supposed to get from his father’s household. So here’s the word of Jacob. You don’t need to worry about me. I have more than enough cattle, donkeys, sheep and goats, male and female servants to take care of them. I’m incredibly wealthy. I don’t need anything of the father or anything that belongs to you. Now I am sending this message to my lord that I may find favor in your eyes. Verse 6. The messengers went. We don’t know how long that took. Probably a few weeks. They reach Esau. They come back. The word that came back is not a good one. Verse 6. When the messengers returned to Jacob they said, we went to your brother Esau and now he is coming to meet you. That part would have been okay. The next part is not okay. And 400 men are with him. Brother, if you are coming to meet me, just come. One on one. 400 men. What is the purpose of 400 men?

10 I can understand. Carry your supplies. Take care of your donkeys. Carry the things that you need. Why do you need 400 men? If it wasn’t for the fact that there’s a huge army that is coming towards Jacob. Esau was always greater physically than Jacob. Esau was a mighty warrior more than Jacob. Now to make matters worse, the 20 years have gone by where Esau has a small army at his behest and those 400 men are now coming with him. Then we come to verses 7 and 8. The first time Jacob ever recorded prayer in God’s word. In great fear and distress. Because of what he just heard, Esau coming with 400 men. The message was, let me find favor in your eyes. But there’s no word of reconciliation that came back to Jacob. There’s no word that said, you know, old things are old. Let’s bury the old hatchet. 20 years have gone by. Let’s forget about it and start over again. No word like that. Only thing that is said, Esau is coming. 400 men are coming with him. That’s all Jacob needed to hear. Great fear and distress. Jacob divided the people who are with him into two groups. And the flocks and herds and camels as well. He thought, if Esau comes and attacks one group, the group that is left may escape.

Very strategically, Jacob looks at his mass amount of wealth and all the servants and all the wives and the children and he thinks to himself, let me allow at least half of them to escape. So let me divide up my group into two, allow one group to go further ahead. The second group will trail behind. If Esau attacks the first group, at least the second group can escape. Then the first scheming that he did on his own, then Jacob did something. Verse 9, then Jacob prayed. Many people say that this is the most beautiful prayer in the entire book of Genesis. It is not prayed by Abraham. It is not prayed by Noah. It is not prayed by Joseph. It is prayed by a man just like you and me. A man given to a fickle way of turning and trusting in the Lord, prays one of the most beautiful prayers recorded in the book of Genesis. As I mentioned to you before, this is the only time in God’s word where it says that Jacob prayed, at least until now. And maybe, obviously he made a lot of vows and covenants before the Lord, but finally he prays unto the Lord as recorded in Scriptures. And here’s what his prayer is. Oh God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac. And then he stops there. He doesn’t say God of myself, but then he reminds God of the promise that he made. Lord, who said to me, go back to your country and your relatives and I will make you prosper.

God, as I come to you, I want to remind you that you are the God of my father, Abraham. You are the God of my father, Isaac. The question might come, what is the fact that he’s the God of your father and grandfather have to do with you? Well, what is he doing? He’s reminding God as if God needs a reminder of the covenant that he made with Abraham many, many years ago, that his offspring will be prosperous in the land and that God will bless them and God will make them multiply. Jacob is now recounting the promises back to God. You often heard me say this and I’ll repeat this again. In your prayer, throw the promises of God back to God. In your prayer, pray God’s word back to the Lord. In your prayer, repeat God’s word back to him. I love the prayer that Job prayed this morning. It was filled with God’s word. In your prayer, let God’s word be the words that you speak as you come into the presence of God. Because our standing before God, knowing that God will work on our behalf is based upon the promises that God has made to us through his word. More than any word that any man has ever spoken to you, the promises of the word as the sure word of your life. And as you come to him in prayer, repeat those promises back to him and say, God you are a promise keeping God. You said this to me, now do this for me.

My God is a wonderful God who he loves to hear his children repeat his promises back to him. For that to happen, you need to memorize verses in God’s word. You need to memorize Scriptures. You need to hide it in your heart so that those words of Scriptures come out from your lips as you come into the presence of God. How many of you repeat psalms to God? How many of you repeat the promise of the new testament back to God? Let our prayers be filled with God’s word in the days to come. Let me encourage you to memorize the promises of God. Memorize the holy word of God, deeply planted in your heart so that in your deepest need, when you are in the presence of God, the words that come out of your lips are not your words, but the very words of God that you repeat back to him. There’s power in that. Every time he was attacked by the enemy, our Lord repeated God’s word back to him. And then he comes to verse 10. Tremendous humility. He says, I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness you have shown your servant. I had only my staff when I crossed this Jordan, but now I have become two camps.

When I look back upon my life, I don’t deserve the faithfulness of God. That’s true of my life. That is true of your life as well. Don’t ever think that you’re blessed in your life because you’re worthy. Don’t ever think that you’re blessed in your life because you prayed. Don’t ever think that you’re blessed in your life because you lived a holy life. Those are all good things to do in life, but God has blessed us immensely more than what we deserve in our life. We are unworthy recipients of a loving God who has blessed us beyond measure, not according to our faithfulness. If God blessed me in proportion to my faithfulness, my blessings would be very minute. But God has opened the storehouses of heaven and blessed me abundantly, even beyond the proportion of my faithfulness to him. So every one of us can say, I am unworthy to receive all the faithfulness and the love and the mercy and the grace and the provision and the protection that you have given to me in my life. I crossed this river Jordan with one staff. I have become two camps today. Look at your life. Look at my life. Fill in the blanks, those sentence with your own life as well. Rewind your life to 20, 30 years ago.

Look at the situation, condition your life was in. If you’re old enough to remember that and remember where you were and remember where you are today, and all that we can say is that a loving, faithful, wonderful, merciful, gracious, great God has been my shepherd all the days of my life and he has given me more than I deserve in my life. And so he comes and in humility. God loves humble. Look at Isaiah 57:15. For this is what the high and exalted one says. Who is that? Our Lord. He who lives forever, whose name is holy. Prophet Isaiah tells us that this God that you worship is a great God. He’s a holy God. He’s an eternal God. And God says, I live in a high and holy place. You know why God lives in a high and holy place? Because he is high and holy and worthy to live there. But then God lives somewhere else as well. Also with the one who is contrite and lowly in spirit. Wow! The Bible says there are two places where God dwells. One is in a high and exalted place. That’s his home called heaven. Second place where he dwells. God is omnipresent. He dwells in a special way in the hearts of those who are lowly and contrite in spirit. Why? To revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite.

When last night we heard very beautifully from Stephen about the need to have humility in our lives. You know what God is saying? God loves to dwell with the humble. God loves to make his presence known in the hearts of the lowly. He hates the proud. He opposes the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. Why? If you want your heart to be revived, humble yourself before the Lord. If you want your spirit to be lifted up and renewed, humble yourself before the Lord. That’s what Jacob did in his prayer. And so then he cries out in light of that. Verse 11 and 12. Save me I pray from the hand of my brother Esau, for I’m afraid that he will come and attack me and also the mothers with their children. But you have said I will surely make you prosper and will make your descendants like the sand of the sea which cannot be counted. The prayer starts recounting the promise of a promise-keeping God. Ends again by recounting the promises of a loving God who has promised these things. Three things that we see in the prayer of Jacob. It is this. It is a prayer that recognizes the faithfulness of God. It is a prayer that is saturated with humility and repentance. It is a prayer that is honest and trust in the saving power of the Lord.

There was a survey that was done a few years ago looking into the content of the prayer of the modern generation. Specifically Gen Z people who were born mainly after the 1990s. You know what was absent from the prayer of many of the modern generation? Repentance, humility, contriteness. When asked about what they pray for, it was a laundry list of things that they wanted God to do for them. Make me successful, give me good grades, give me a good job, give me health. As you have heard me preach so many times, God is not your ATM machine. God is not your vending machine. God is not one that you go to and ask and he will do everything for you. That’s not the way it works. You need to go in humility, contriteness, repentance before a holy God. God does not owe anything to any one of us. Anything that we receive in this life here on earth is only because of his grace and mercy. Do not demand the things of God. Go to him in humility and utter humility before him. Contriteness. Let your prayer life be filled with words of repentance in the days to come. In fact, I will acknowledge, tell you, don’t pray for any material things. Only pray for spiritual blessings in your life. Those who seek him earnestly with a sincere heart, God will make sure that all your material things are taken care of.

Those things need not to be prayed for. Pray for spiritual renewal, revival, reconciliation in your life. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added unto you. Let my prayer life change in the days to come. Let our prayer life change in the days to come. Let it be saturated with words of humility before the Lord. Verse 13, he spent the night there and from what he had with him, he selected a gift for his brother Esau. When you read the following verses, we see that there were 550 animals that he chose. That’s a lot and that’s only a portion of what he had to send to his brother Esau. 550 consisting of donkeys, camels, sheeps, goats, all outnumbering to 550 he sent to his brother Esau. He put them, verse 16, he put them in the care of his servants, each herd by itself and said to his servants, go ahead of me and keep some space between the herds. He’s very cunning. He’s very smart. There’s nothing wrong with any of this part. You pray but then you also do the things that you need to do. That’s exactly what he’s doing. So he would spend about 150 of them ahead and say, and Esau is looking at them and saying, hey, who do these belong to? And the answer would come, they belong to our servant, our Lord Jacob, but guess what?

They’re gifts to you. And Esau gets a little bit happy. He walks a little bit and there’s a second group that’s coming. Who does this group belong to? Oh, it belongs to our Lord Jacob and guess what? These are all gifts to him. Here’s what Jacob is counting on. By the time you come to the third group, he has seen all these precious gifts ahead of you. I remember growing up, one of the challenges that we had was bringing the grades back from our school. Back in India, we didn’t have online systems. You had to bring all the papers back to your parents. They had to sign off on it before you took it back to school. So there is different strategies that we would kind of think about as we brought the grades back home. Do you start with the lowest grade first and then go to the highest grade? Or do you make your dad happy first and then show him the lowest grade? I’m sure all of you have done many of these things growing up in India. So I had different ways. I would think, okay, what do I do? Do I start with the 90s first, then put the 80s and then, by the way, 80s and 70s are really good grades back in India. Not over here. But so there’s different things that you would do to appease your father before he sees the bad grade. I always started with the good grades and worked my way until he saw the last piece of paper that was the lowest grade because I didn’t want him to be too mad by the time he got to the last grade.

But this is exactly what he’s doing. He’s sending the herds ahead of him to somehow pacify him. Look at verse 20, second part. For he thought, I will pacify him with these gifts I’m sending on ahead. Later when I see him, perhaps he will receive me. Verse 21, Jacob’s gifts went on ahead of him, but he himself spent the night in the camp. In the midst of the prayer that he prayed so powerfully, he did two things. First, he sent his messengers. Second thing, he sent the gifts in various orders, in groups of three, so somehow pacify his brother. Some people say that Jacob was not trusting in the Lord, even in the aftermath of this powerful prayer that he prayed. I think it’s okay to be practical in our lives, even after prayer. Matthew Henry once said, when we have prayed to God for any mercy, we must second our prayers with our endeavors. Else, instead of trusting God, we tempt him. He says, when we have prayed to God for mercy, you know what else we have to do? We also have to trust God by doing the work of the Lord. Because if we don’t do that, instead of trusting God, what we are doing is we are tempting him.

Let me put this in one perspective. You pray to the Lord, you repent and cry out to the Lord for help on your test, but you don’t study for the test. You know what you’re doing? You are tempting the Lord. You are tempting the Lord. You go for a job interview, you pray to the Lord to help you, but you don’t prepare for the interview. You know what you’re doing? You are tempting the Lord. You want a promotion at your job, but you’re lazy and you’re not working. You’re clocking in and out. You’re taking more lunch than you’re supposed to. You’re not doing the work you’re called to do. You know what you’re doing? You are tempting the Lord. Your Lord is not in the business of taking responsibility away. We have to be responsible and practical, even in the midst of trusting in the Lord. Prayer is so powerful. Prayer is done so beautifully here and it changes things. It was George Patton, the great American general, who said, you know what courage is? Courage is when fear has been met with prayer. This man was fearful, but now he has courage in his life. Not fully yet, but it will get there. Why? Because he went to the Lord in prayer. You know what prayer does? Prayer transforms fear into courage. Prayer is able to do greater things for us than just the things that we are praying for. Prayer changes things.

In the movie, Shadowlands tells the story of C.S. Lewis battling with the terminal cancer diagnosis of his wife. She went through the diagnosis and after a while, she got a little bit of healing. They continued to pray for her and they asked the question. One of the Anglican priests said, Lewis, your prayers are being answered. That’s why you pray, isn’t it? Then in that movie, Lewis answers like this. That’s not why I pray. I pray, he says, because I cannot help myself. I pray because I am helpless. I pray because the need flows out of me all the time, waking and sleeping. It does not change God. It changes me. That’s what prayer does. Prayer does not change the love and compassion of God. Whether you pray today or not, God is still a loving and compassionate God. But you know what prayer does? It changes me. Even if the answer to your prayers do not come the way you asked, you know what prayer does? Prayer sanctifies you. Prayer changes your heart. Prayer makes the Word of God real in your heart. Prayer does wonders to the soul. Prayer brings you closer to God. Prayer brings you nearer to God than anything else God has given to us this side of eternity. The time spent in prayer are moments when we come to the very throne of God. We gaze upon the beauty of God and we are changed from glory to glory when we spend time in the presence of God in prayer. Remember these words of St. Louis. I pray for my wife, not only for her deliverance. I pray because prayer changes me. Prayer makes me more humble. Prayer makes me more contrite. Prayer makes me the person that God wants me to be. As we went through this section on the prayer of Jacob, it’s a question to ask all of us. How is our prayer life? How is our time spent with the Lord? Do we realize the value of prayer? Do we realize what prayer can do in our lives? Do you know that God can do amazing things when God’s people pray? Not only by moving things that cannot be moved, by working things that cannot be worked, but also in transforming our lives and making it to be what God wants it to be. Let’s stand in the presence of God.