all were coming up to Esau and meeting him, they're all bowing down before him. That is, they're humbling themselves in Esau's presence. But there's more than just this, because we also see humility being expressed in the words that Jacob used. If you look at verse 5, Jacob referred to himself as being Esau's servant. In verse 8, Jacob referred to Esau as being his lord. And as we saw a couple of weeks ago, this was not the first time that Jacob had spoken to Esau this way. We saw it in chapter 32 as well. And the point in all of this is that Jacob was not coming in deceit here. Jacob was coming in repentance. And so remember, we saw two weeks ago, Jacob did not have to meet Esau. Esau at the time was living in Edom, which was not on the way going back to Canaan. So Jacob didn't have to go through Edom to get back to Canaan. He rather went out of his way to meet Esau. because he had come to be sorry for his sin. And this is also why Jacob insisted that Esau accept his gift. Look at verse 8. 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. Remember, Jacob had sent ahead a large group of animals, 550 animals to go ahead of all the people That was to be Jacob's gift to Esau. And if you look at verse 11 here, how does he refer to that great gift? He says it's his blessing. Which should make you think, what did Jacob steal from Esau 20 years ago? The blessing. And here's Jacob making restitution for what he had earlier stolen from his brother. Alan Ross describes it this way, he says, this one word, blessing, would be sufficient to recall the earlier tensions over the blessing. And it would indicate to Esau that Jacob was trying to make restitution for his wrongs. And so even though Esau initially declined to receive the gift, Jacob urged him to do so because it would be the proof of their reconciliation. Now look at verse 10. And Jacob said, No, please, if I have now found favor in your sight, then receive my present from my hand, inasmuch as I have seen your face as though I had seen the face of God, and you were pleased with me. And as we're told in the following verses that Esau did accept the gift. They were reconciled and Jacob was spared. And you see in all of this, the meeting with Esau, the bowing down before Esau, the giving of the gift to Esau, Jacob was humbly repenting of his sins against Esau. And here the Israel in Moses' day was learning that the redeemed people of God are not to live in sin. They are to be those who acknowledge their sin. They are to be those who turn away from their sin. To put it another way, those who are going to Canaan, as Jacob was, are to be a repenting people. And as the Israel of God today, repentance is to characterize our lives. We are also to be reconciled with the people that we've sinned against. We are also to acknowledge our wrongs. We are also to deal with our wrongs in a biblical manner. We are also to humble ourselves. before God and men to confess what we've done and turn away from it. Why? Because we're also the Israel of God and we're also going to Canaan. J. Adams has a great book called Christian Living in the Home. Some of you may have read it before. One of the things I like most about that book is he starts off by discussing what is the difference between a Christian home and a non-Christian home. And you might, I found myself when I first read this thinking, okay, I think I know what the difference is. How do most people think of the difference? Well, the Christian home must be the one where they have it all together. But J. Adams says, no, no, no, no, no. That's not the difference. The difference between a Christian home and a non-Christian home is that a Christian home is not free from sin, but it deals with its sin. That's the difference. A Christian home has sin. Think of your own home, there's plenty of sin. But you deal with your sin, and that is what distinguishes it from a non-Christian home, and that's what we see here. That is what distinguishes a believer from an unbeliever. There's still sin, but the Israel of God deals with their sin. So we have to ask ourselves tonight, is there anyone that I need to be reconciled to that I've sinned against? Are there sins in my life that I'm not dealing with? That I'm treasuring, that I'm ignoring and overlooking. In all honesty, am I repenting and forsaking of my sin? Does this characterize me? Is there a humble repentance of sin in my life? As the Israel of God, there should be. There should be in all of our lives. Repentance should characterize us now. And then thirdly, here we see that as the Israel of God, we should also cautiously separate ourselves from the wicked. And so, getting back to the text, after accepting the gift from Jacob, we see that Esau was now under the impression that they were going to start traveling together. So look with me at verse 12. Then Esau said, let us take our journey, let us go, and I will go before you. Now, we're not told where Esau thought they would go together. Perhaps he was thinking, Jacob, you're gonna come back home with me to Seir. Or maybe he thought, Jacob, I'm gonna go with you to Canaan and we'll visit our father. But what's interesting in all of this is that Jacob would have nothing to do with Esau's plan. Look at verses 13 and 14. But Jacob said to him, my Lord knows that the children are weak, and the flocks and herds which are nursing are with me. And 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 in Seir. And what we're to understand in all of that is here's Jacob trying to separate himself from his brother. Because yes, it's possible that the kids and the animals needed to have a break. They had just made a long journey from Laban's house, but I don't think that's likely the case. Instead, it seems that his words were an excuse to be apart from his brother. Now, if they were an excuse to be apart from his brother, what does that tell us about Jacob? I think it tells us that here Jacob had fallen back into one of his old sins, where now he's resorting to deceit. He should have just been honest with his brother, but he wasn't. He's resorting to deceit. But again, the point we're to see in this, despite Jacob's sin, is that Jacob didn't want to go with Esau. And even when Esau would not take no for an answer, which is what we see here in verse 15, Jacob wouldn't have it. Jacob wanted there to be complete separation between the two of them. And that becomes clear for us to see, especially in verses 16 and 17. So Esau returned that day on his way to Seir, and Jacob journeyed to Succoth, built himself a house, and made booths for his livestock. Therefore the name of the place is called Succoth." Now I should have given you a map like I've been giving you in the morning because this would have made things much clearer for us to see, but Succoth was in the opposite direction of Seir. In fact, it was actually a step backwards, farther away from Canaan. So if you remember, when Jacob wrestled with God last week, they had crossed over the Jabbok River, getting closer to Canaan. Well, now we're told Jacob went to Succoth, which was going back over the Jabbok River, farther away from Canaan. So this was not Jacob going one step closer to the promised land. Now Jacob's retracing his steps. He's going farther away from the promised land. And yes, maybe it's true this is to give the children and the flocks a break. We are told in verse 17 that he built himself a house and made stables for his livestock. But I think it was especially to keep Esau from knowing where he had gone. Because Esau would have assumed that Jacob was heading to Canaan, and so Jacob headed away from Canaan, at least for a period of time. So yes, Jacob wanted to be reconciled to his brother. But knowing that his brother was of the seed of the serpent, Jacob also wanted to be separate from his brother. And what we need to realize is that even though Jacob fell into some of his old ways and his old sins through this, this was both a good and wise decision on the part of Jacob. Because for one, God had called him to return to Canaan, not to go to Seir in Edom as Esau likely wanted him to do. To do that would be to disobey the Lord. But also because having close fellowship with Esau would have been detrimental to Jacob and to the covenant purposes of God. And if they would have traveled together and if they would have gone on to live together, which it seems Esau had in mind, godless Esau would have been a stumbling block to godly Jacob. He would not have helped him in his service to the Lord. What's more, their children would have undoubtedly intermarried which would have led the sons of Jacob away from the God of Jacob. And for Israel in Moses' day, what did they need to hear most as they were entering into the Promised Land? Don't intermingle with the Canaanites and don't intermarry with the Canaanites. Deuteronomy 7, verses 1-4, they were to be cautiously separate from the Canaanites. And as we see elsewhere in the Bible, that is to be our attitude as well. There is to be a cautious separation in our lives from the wicked around us. Paul puts it this way in 2 Corinthians 6, verses 14-17. He says, Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said, I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God and they shall be my people. Therefore, come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean and I will receive you. Now, we have to be careful in understanding that. That does not mean that we shouldn't be friends with unbelievers or have unbelievers in our life. Of course, Jesus was friends with tax collectors and sinners. But what it does mean is that we should be cautiously separate. For one, it means that our closest friends should not be unbelievers. It should be God's people we open our hearts to. It should be God's people we go to for counsel and allow to influence us. It should be God's people we spend the most amount of our time with. And G.C. Ryle puts it this way. He says, there is no telling the harm that is done by associating with godless companions and friends. The devil has few better helps in ruining a man's soul. Secondly, it means your spouse should never be an unbeliever. Again, having close fellowship with an unbeliever, especially when it's your spouse, is bound to affect you spiritually. Who is the preeminent example of this in the Word of God? Solomon. We're told that Solomon, when he started off, was a very faithful man. He could have asked God for anything, but instead of asking for riches, he asked for wisdom. He was a faithful man, a man who loved the Lord, And yet Solomon had a liking for unbelieving women. And so he compromised. He married many of those unbelieving women. And what happened to Solomon? Those women turned his heart away from the Lord. 1 Kings 11. Verses one to two in verse four. But King Solomon loved many foreign women from the nations of whom the Lord had said to the children of Israel, you shall not intermarry with them, nor they with you. For it was so when Solomon was old that his wives turned his heart after other gods. And his heart was not loyal to the Lord his God, as was the heart of his father David. Matthew Henry says of this, professors of religion in marrying both themselves and their children should make conscience of keeping within the bounds of profession. Because, he goes on to say, the bad will sooner debauch the good than the good reform the bad. So, boys and girls, you may fall in love with someone, but that person does not love Jesus Christ. Do not marry that person. You will regret it. It is a dangerous, dangerous thing. And this is why God warned Israel to be separate from the Canaanites. This is why God warns us to have this cautious separation. Because whether you think so or not, having close fellowship with the world does affect you. And it is hurting you. It's bound to lead you astray from the Lord in one way or another. And that's especially the case in an unbelieving marriage. To make it even worse, it often leads to apostasy in our children. So as the Israel of God, we need to remember we belong to God. We are His special treasure, and what does that mean? It means we are cautious, and we keep a healthy distance from the unbelieving world around us. Then I want you to see, fourthly, and finally here on the outline, that as the Israel of God, you should gratefully worship your Savior. So after spending some time in Succoth, we read in verse 18, then Jacob came safely to the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, when he came from Paddan Aram, and he pitched his tents before the city. So Jacob, he's finally back. It's been 20 long years, he's finally back in Canaan, and he goes directly to the city of Shechem, which was in the middle of the country. And some people would say, here Jacob was being unfaithful, because where Jacob should have gone first was the city of Bethel. After all, Jacob had been in Bethel before, Jacob had made a vow that he would return to Bethel, and so he didn't go back to Bethel initially, and so he actually was being unfaithful. But if you look at what God said to Jacob, nowhere does he say, go back to Bethel. And we will see in a couple of weeks that Jacob will eventually find himself back in Bethel and he will keep his vows. I don't think Jacob's being disobedient or half-hearted here by going to Shechem. On the contrary, I think Jacob was following in the footsteps of his grandfather, Abraham. Because when God first came to Abraham and told Abraham to leave his home and go to the land of Canaan, what was the first city Abraham went to? The city of Shechem. Genesis 12, verses 5 and 6. Then Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people whom they had acquired in Haran. And remember, Haran, that's where Jacob's coming from now as well. And they departed to go to the land of Canaan. So they came to the land of Canaan. Abram passed through the land to the place of Shechem, as far as the terebinth tree of Morah. And the Canaanites were then in the land. Now this is what Abraham did when he first came into Canaan. And notice, Jacob did many of the same things that Abraham also had done as well. So first we see Jacob purchased a piece of property in Canaan. Verse 19. And he bought the parcel of land where he had pitched his tent from the children of Hamor, Shechem's father, for 100 pieces of money. He believed that God was giving him this land, and so he expressed his faith by claiming a piece of it for himself. And if you remember, that's exactly what Abraham did when he got to the city of Shechem. He didn't do it immediately, but he eventually purchased the cave of Machpelah to bury his beloved wife, Sarah. And then second, we see that Jacob built an altar and worshiped God in Canaan. Genesis 12, verse 7, Then the Lord appeared to Abram, that is, in Shechem, and said, To your descendants I will give this land. And there he built an altar to the Lord who had appeared to him. And so too we read of Jacob, here in verse 20, that he erected an altar there and called it El Eloah Israel. So again, like his grandfather, Jacob also built an altar to God in Shechem, and if you look at the name he gave it, El Eloah Israel, meaning God the God of Israel, Jacob was building an altar to his God. And this again was an expression of his faith to the Lord who had promised to give him the land. You see, the reason he did this is because God had been gracious to him. And if you notice this, Jacob brought this out at least twice in the passage. When Esau asked him about the people with him in verse five, Jacob said in response, these are the children whom God has graciously given to me. And when Esau later refused to take the gift of animals, Jacob responded in verse 11 by saying, please take my blessing that is brought to you because God has dealt graciously with me and because I have enough. You see, Jacob had come to see the fulfillment, at least the partial fulfillment of God's promises to him. He left Canaan 20 years ago without a wife, let alone kids. And yet now he's returning with a family. He left Canaan 20 years ago without any animals. Now he's returning with more than he could ask for. Why? Because God had promised to give him these things and because God had kept those promises to him. And so when Jacob finally made it to the land of Canaan, it only made sense that he would worship the Lord for it in thankfulness, just as Abraham had done. Because it was yet another instance of God fulfilling his word to his servant. And as Jacob well knew, none of these promises, none of these fulfillments were deserved by him. As he made it clear, they had been graciously given to him. And when Israel in Moses' day would come to inherit the land of Canaan, it would also be because of the grace of God. just as it will be for you and me who trust in Jesus tonight. And so as Israel would enter the land, they would do so just as Abraham, just as Jacob had done. They were to worship God and gratitude for graciously keeping His promises to them. And brothers and sisters, that is what you will do in the heavenly Canaan for all eternity. Gratefully worship your God who kept His word to you. But it's also what you should be doing now as you await that great day. Because God is now keeping His Word to you. God is now fulfilling His promises to you. And you're seeing that come to fruition in your life. So what is to be the response? This is to be our response. The worship of God. You see, if you are the Israel of God, being in the worship of God should be a very high priority in your life. where you can express your gratitude for all that God has done to you. God has been faithful to you. And in doing that, Jesus Christ, the greater and perfect Israel, has done all of these things for you as well. When Jesus Christ was afraid of the cross, humanly speaking, and wanted a way out, he faced his fears and he went to the cross for your salvation. Even though Jesus didn't have any of His own sins to repent of, what did He do on earth? He humbled Himself so that He could deal with your sins and my sins. As He lived His life on earth, He ministered to tax collectors. He spent time with sinners, yes, but He also cautiously separated Himself from them, not letting them influence or affect Him in any way. Most of all, He spent the entirety of His life gratefully worshiping the Lord on your behalf. as he offered himself as sacrifice to God for you. And he did that so that instead of receiving the judgment you deserve, you could receive the grace you don't deserve. It was so that you could be the Israel of God. And what does it mean to be the Israel of God? It means you have the blessing of God. And so knowing what God has done for you, we have much to learn here, don't we? So we should be living as Israel lives. And just as my wife took on the name niece, that has affected what she does. You have taken on the name Israel. And that should affect what you do and what you do not do. So as you go into this week, face your fears with the confidence Christ gives you. Humbly repent of your sin and turn away from it. Cautiously separate from the wicked. and be a faithful worshiper of your God. May the Lord give us His grace to do that as we come to partake of the supper this evening. Let's pray. Lord, we look to you, we know that we fall short of all of these things in many ways. So we pray for your forgiveness as victors of our sins. We pray that your word would be used by you tonight to grow us in this way. Lord, help us to live in greater accordance with our name, the great name of Israel that you've given us in the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, we pray that as we come to the supper now, it would be truly a means of grace, not just something we go through the motions of doing, but Lord, help us to humbly seek you, and may you be found by us, and may we be fully satisfied by you as a result. So give us your blessing, we pray, in Jesus' name, amen. Now let's turn to Psalm 105, selection A.