Please turn with me in the written word of God to Genesis chapter 32. It happens to me so often I thought I would get through the entirety of the chapter. But God's Word is like a gold mine, and as you begin digging into it, you find precious gold, and there's so much to think about and chew on that you have to divide it up into a few smaller fragments. And so we'll only be getting through verse 21, but I'm not sorry about that. We'll get the balance of it, God willing, next week. But to consider the things going on in Jacob's life in the text before us is worth our contemplation. Here in Genesis 32, beginning in verse 1, So Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him. When Jacob saw them, he said, This is God's camp. And he called the name of that place Mahanaim. Then Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau his brother in the land of Seir, the country of Edom. And he commanded them, saying, Speak thus to my lord Esau. Thus your servant Jacob says, I have dwelt with Laban and stayed there until now. I have oxen, donkeys, flocks, and male and female servants, and I have sent to tell my lord that I may find favor in your sight. Then the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, We came to your brother Esau, and he also is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him. So Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed, and he divided the people that were with him, and the flocks and herds and camels, into two companies. And he said, if Esau comes to the one company and attacks it, then the other company which is left will escape. Then Jacob said, O God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, the Lord who said to me, return to your country and to your family, and I will deal well with you. I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies and of all the truth which you have shown your servant. For I crossed over this Jordan with my staff, And now I have become two companies. Deliver me, I pray, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear him, lest he come and attack me and the mother with the children. For you said, I will surely treat you well and make your descendants as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude. So he lodged there that same night and took what came to his hand as a present for Esau, his brother, 200 female goats and 20 male goats, 200 ewes and 20 rams, 30 milk camels with their colts, 40 cows and 10 bulls, 20 female donkeys and 10 foals. Then he delivered him to the hand of his servants, every drove by itself, and said to the servants, Pass over before me, and put some distance between successive droves. And he commanded the first one, saying, When he saw my brother meet you, and asked you, saying, To whom do you belong, and where are you going? Who are these in front of you? Then you shall say, They are your servant Jacob's. It is a present sent to my lord Esau. And behold, he also is behind us. So he commanded the second, the third, and all who followed the drove, saying, In this manner you shall speak to Esau when you find him, and also say, Behold, your servant Jacob is behind us. For he said, I will appease him with the present that goes before me. and afterward I will see his face. Perhaps he will accept me." So the present went on over before him, but he himself lodged that night in the camp. Let's pray for God's blessing upon the preaching and the hearing of his word. Father, we recognize that all is vain if the Holy Spirit of God does not come and give light and heat to the reading and preaching of the Scriptures. Father, not only anoint my lips, but anoint the ears of your people. Anoint our hearts. Speak to us. Convict us. Comfort us. Encourage us. Lord, you know what each person needs. The needs of every soul here is laid bare before you. So minister to us as only you can, in ways beyond what we could ever expect or imagine, and do it for your glory we ask, in Jesus' name. Amen. When he last left Jacob a couple weeks ago, he and his family were camping out in the mountains of Gilead. God had given him a commandment to depart from Haran, where Laban was, after he'd been there for 20 years, and to return to the land of Canaan. But because Laban had proven himself not to be a trustworthy man, Jacob left by stealth without telling Laban what his intentions were. And you know what happened. Laban pursued Jacob and his family for seven days, intent upon hurting both him and apparently even his own daughters and his own grandchildren. So once again, in the narrative of Genesis, haven't we seen it over and over again? Once again, the promise of the Messianic seed was put in jeopardy. If Jacob is slaughtered, then the line of Messiah is going to be killed. But as we've also seen every time that it's in jeopardy, God Himself intervened. God meets with Laban as he's on his way with murderous intent and tells him not only don't hurt Jacob, He says to him, be careful what you even say to Jacob. In other words, my eyes are in every place, and I'm watching what you're doing. My ears are in every place, and I'm listening intently and carefully to what you say to him. And so God keeps him from doing harm, and instead, Jacob and Laban enter a covenant, which means that there's security now. He knows for the rest of his life his father-in-law Laban will not do anything to hurt him, nor will he do anything to hurt Laban. Well, in our text this morning, no sooner is one crisis averted than there's another one right in front of him. Laban may be behind him, but Esau's ahead of him. Isn't that so much what the Christian life is like? You're either in a difficulty, you're coming out of a difficulty, or you're about to go into one. This is how life is. Our lives are full of tribulations and difficulties. More than 20 years earlier, Jacob had purchased the birthright from Esau, but then he had stolen the firstborn's blessing from him by deceit. Now certainly, because Esau had given up his firstborn birthright, The blessing did belong to Jacob anyway, but that does not justify the lying and the scheming that Rebekah and Jacob had done. You remember the story? Esau was so provoked that he wanted to kill his brother as soon as his father Isaac was dead. It's interesting, you keep running into a lot of people who want to kill Jacob, don't you? But he flees for his life and goes to Laban, and now he's coming back. Now he's returning back because God himself had commanded him to return to the land of Canaan. But as we see it, there's this peril ahead of him. Does Esau still harbor ill will towards him? Is he still intent upon killing him? But there's something else going on in our text. Something we've been seeing for the last several chapters. And that is that Jacob is changing. Or to put it more accurately, Jacob is being changed as God continually draws him to himself. I've shared with you many times through the preaching that I don't believe Jacob was fully converted until we get to the end of the chapter we're in, where he wrestles all night with God. And there's various reasons I have for saying that. But we are beginning to see the changes in him, aren't we? We're beginning to see this man whose work ethic has changed in the last 20 years. You get the impression that he was an almost effeminate, tent-dwelling mama's boy. And when I say effeminate, I don't mean that he was a homosexual. I just mean he wasn't very manly. He wasn't very manly, and we don't get the impression that he had a real good work ethic, but now he's endured the elements. He's become a hard-working outdoorsman who has worked hard to provide for his family. His deplorable treatment of Leah, whom he neglected by not giving her his time, is now graciously invited and appealed to by Jacob to return to Canaan with him. Most of all, the proud, scheming Jacob is becoming a man of integrity and a man of humility who acknowledges God's blessings upon his life. And we're going to see him continuing to change here in chapter 32, even in the verses that I've just read. There's some extraordinary things that stand out about him. But then, the next day, or the next night, you might say, He would wrestle with God in the form of a man. Now, who could that be? God in the form of a man. And He's going to walk away with a limp. He's going to walk away with a new name. And I believe He's going to walk away with a new heart. because I believe he's going to be transformed forever in that night of wrestling with God. But that's the burden of next week. So I'm going to go ahead and give you both headings for the entire chapter. We're only going to focus on the first heading today. What we see in the text before us is angels, plans, and a prayer. And what we see next week is God, wrestling, and a new heart. But for this morning, angels, plans, and a prayer. We need to give the geographical context of what's going on here. He's been in the mountains of Gilead, but now where we find him in this chapter is about halfway between the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea. He's going to wind up in a city called Penuel, And that place was situated about six miles east of the Jordan River. It's by the brook Jabbok, which flows from east to west and empties into the mighty Jordan. And it's here that he will wrestle all night with God in prayer. Well, as he's traveling in verse 1, It says he encountered a vision of angels that were apparently divided into two companies. The reason I say that is he names the place Mahanim, which means double camp. So apparently there were two groups of them. And the text doesn't tell us why this vision of angels appeared, but it's not hard to figure out. He's just left turmoil with Laban. He's about to enter into turmoil with Esau. And it's as if God is saying to him by this vision of two companies of angels, I've been with you in your past, and I'm going to be with you again in your future. I am surrounding you, I am protecting you, I am with you as you go into the land of Canaan. So don't be afraid. Psalm 34 tells us in verse 19, Many are the afflictions of the righteous. And all God's people could say amen to that, couldn't we? that it's not we have some affliction, many are the afflictions of the righteous. But here's the good news. The Lord delivers him out of every one of them. Either in this present age or in the age to come. Earlier in that same passage, in verse 7, it says, "...the angel of the Lord encamps all around those who fear him, and delivers him." What do we see in Jacob? But this very thing literally fleshed out that the angels are encamping around him in two camps to protect him wherever he goes. Matthew Henry says this about it, And that's what's going on here in the text. Is it not so with you and I? God doesn't give us a vision of angels, and He certainly doesn't speak to us in an audible voice. Nonetheless, though, He gives us the grace necessary for the trials that we're going through, doesn't He? He surrounds us with that grace, and He doesn't give you that grace before you need it, He gives you that grace when you need it. In other words, He's not going to give me the grace I need for the trials of Monday week, today. When Monday week gets here, then the grace will be ready for me and available on that time. All I need to focus on is today because sufficient for the day are its own troubles, as Jesus himself said. So don't worry about tomorrow and what's going to come the next day. Focus upon today. But that being said, aren't you glad that God in the midst of your trials so often brings comfort? And one of the things I've noticed over the years is the way He often brings comfort is by sending the right person, the right man, the right woman, the right brother or sister in Christ at just the right time with just the right word to comfort you. It's like apples of gold in settings of silver, a word fitly spoken in due season, what my friend Kurt Smith calls roses over the wall when you're going through difficulties. How often God uses His people to comfort us and lift our burden in the midst of our trials. And the point I want to drive home to you is this. We love the public means of grace, don't we? We absolutely love them. But as much as we love the public means of grace, and we should, never forget the people of God themselves are a means of grace. You are a means of grace to other people. And so God uses people. He uses His people to comfort us and encourage us, who come to us almost like angels, in one sense, to lift our burdens at just the right time. In verses 3-8, we find Jacob preparing to meet Esau, and he does something very, very noble here. This man who is prone to run, a man who is prone to hide, doesn't come in by stealth to the land of Canaan. Rather, he deliberately sends messengers to tell men he's there. He wants Esau to know he's in the town and not hear about it from somebody else. That takes a lot of courage when you think about it, because the last time he had met Esau, Esau wanted to kill him. And so he sends messengers to tell them about this. And he says, I've lived with Laban for the past 20 years, and God has blessed me with cattle and servants. I want you to know that I've returned, and I want to have peace with you. He's sending a very clear message to him. And I admire Jacob's bravery here and how forthright he is. Again, it's all so un-Jacob-like, isn't it? This isn't the man we met 20 years earlier. He's changing. God is changing him and making him the man he wants him to be. Well, in verses 6-8, the messengers go down to Edom, which, by the way, was south of the Dead Sea. That's the region where it was. They come back and they have some very ominous news. We've met Esau. And just so you know, he knows you're here and he's sending a welcoming party. It's 400 men. They're packing heat and they've got their carry licenses. And they're coming to meet you. And it's very obvious that the intention here is not a good one. This isn't to throw you a welcoming party. This is to kill you. He's come to slaughter you. He's had 20 years to think about what you did to him. And all that's done is made him fester and the wound grow worse. His bitterness and his hatred for you are there. And how does Jacob respond? Notice what it says in verse 7. So Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed, and who wouldn't be? Who wouldn't be? But again, there's something to admire here. Think about this. He had plenty of opportunity to flee back to Laban. After all, he made a covenant with Laban. He could have left the land of Canaan and gone and fled for refuge, but that is not what he does. He stays put. He stays in the land of Canaan and turns to face to meet Esau. We're going to see that as we go through the text even more, that he never runs away. He runs towards Esau, not away from him. The question is, why? Why did he stay? And the answer is simple. God commanded him to stay. He commanded him to go into the land of Canaan. And so he had to stay, even if it meant harm for himself. We've talked about this several times in Jacob's life, but in the Christian pilgrimage, trust and obey are two things that go together. You can't have one without the other. They're the two legs of the Christian pilgrimage. You trust the Lord's promises and therefore you obey His commandments. And so here is Jacob trusting the Lord. Brothers and sisters, do you realize that obedience to God's commandments is costly? Holding fast to God's truth is costly. It will cost you your friends. It will arouse the ire of the world. Sometimes it will make you part from professing Christians. It will stir up animosity and hardship and difficulty. It will arouse the devil's ire, which is never fun, because the devil's cruel and he knows how to get to us. He knows all the chinks in the armor. And so he brings his demonic oppression to us. I've told some of you before, my wife and I are convinced there really are a whole fleet of demons called night demons. Night demons that torment you in the middle of the night and you wake up in the middle of the night tormented and anxious about something and you can't go back to sleep but you're not completely awake and so you don't have the mental energy to fight what's going on. I've told people that and they come back to me and say, you're right, there are night demons. The devil knows how to oppress us and obeying the Lord, seeking to follow the Lord, holding on to his truth will arouse the ire of the enemy. And yet we have to stay at our post nonetheless because we consider him who called us faithful. Here's Jacob recognizing that there's a very real possibility he's going to die soon at his brother's hand. And yet, God has given him a commandment to stay there. In Hebrews chapter 11, we read of the great exploits of those who've gone before. Who by faith did all these great things. By faith they quenched the violence of fire. By faith they shut the mouth of lions. By faith they turned to flight the armies of the enemy. And all those kinds of things. But if you keep on reading Hebrews 11, it goes on to say, By faith some were sawn in two. By faith, some were tortured and did not accept deliverance. You see, faith may enable you, like Daniel, to close the mouth of lions, but the truth is, sometimes faith may get your head lopped off. Faith may get you drawn and quartered. Faith may make it so that you don't die pretty. As many of the martyrs, many of our brothers and sisters throughout history, have given their very lives for the sake of the gospel. And yet, by faith, you must hold on to the Lord, and you must be convinced in your heart that He's worth it. That He's worth losing everything for. That if you're going to know the Lord, yes, you can know something of the power of the resurrection, but you also have to enter into the fellowship of His sufferings. It's a part of knowing the Lord. And not a part that we find pleasant. But what could Paul say? This is what I used to be, and these are all the accolades I had in Israel. But I count it all as dung and rubbish for the excellency of knowing Christ our Lord. It's worth losing all of that just to know Him, just to know the Lord. Here is Jacob. He's been given a commandment to stay at his post, and he can't retreat even if it means it causes bodily harm to him. And so he stands fast by faith. Even so, you and I must stand by faith and must hold on and obey the Lord because He's given us His commandment because we trust Him. And we trust his promises. Well, notice what he does. He divides his numbers into two different companies. And it's interesting, this word two companies is very similar to the word Mahanein. The idea that he saw two companies of angels, and it seems that he's seeing this as a divine direction to say, let me divide my my family into two companies, my servants and my cattle and my wives and my children. Let's divide them into two companies, knowing God is going to protect them. One company of angels will be with one, the other company of angels will be with the other. And if Esau attacks one, the other can escape, and if he attacks the other, the other can escape. So it's plotting and thinking in a very wise way. Well, then notice verses 9-12, and we're going to pitch a tent here and camp out for a little bit. Because what we find Jacob doing, He's turning to the God of his fathers in prayer. And it's a beautiful prayer. It's a model prayer for all of us. It's full of so many wonderful things. And again, we see something in this, in the prayer of how much God is changing Jacob. Let me just kind of give you an overview of why it's so wonderful, and then let's go through it phrase by phrase. First of all, it shows Jacob's dependence upon God. He's facing a very difficult situation, and he understands, I'm not strong enough to get myself out of my own predicament. Isn't that so often what motivates us to prayer, is our sense of insufficiency? I'm not sufficient for this, but my God is. And therefore, I'm going to cry out to Him, and look to Him, and trust Him for this. Furthermore, it's full of candor. Jacob is very transparent with the Lord about what's going on in his heart. Third thing, and very unexpected when we're dealing with Jacob, it's full of humility. He prostrates himself before the Lord. And fourth, as all good prayers are, it's saturated with God's Word. He's telling God what God had already said to him. And that's a big key to knowing how to pray. So let's look at this in detail. First of all, notice in verse 9, that Jacob clearly identifies which God he's praying to. Jacob said, O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, the Lord who said to me, that specific one, return to your country and to your family and I will dwell with you. He's identifying which God he's praying to. I find in prayer this very helpful. O God and Father of Martin Luther, God and Father of Spurgeon and of all the ones who've gone before, the God of my fathers. You're the God I'm coming to. I'm not coming to Bel. I'm not coming to Muhammad. I'm not coming to Allah. I'm coming to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, to identify which God we're talking to. And then notice, he says to God what God has already said to him. You know, the God who gave me a precept, go into the land, and who also gave me a promise, you're going to be with me in the land. He's reminding God, you promised to be with me when I came here, and now I'm here and I'm in trouble. And so I need you to be true to your promise. Well, then notice what he goes on to say in verse 10. He humbles himself. Verse 10 is so great. I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies and of all the truth which you have shown your servant. Not only have you not dealt with me according to my iniquities and sins, I'm not worthy even of the smallest mercy you've ever shown me. That is a posture that is always right in prayer. A posture to come before God humbling ourselves and recognizing things are hard, but as bad as things are, if you gave me what I deserve, they'd be an awful lot worse. And that's what he's saying here. I'm facing a trial. Esau is in front of me. He's intent on killing me along with his 400 men. And yet, Lord, I'm not worthy of the least of your mercies. And you've shown me so much mercy and you've shown me so much truth. And I don't deserve any of it. Here's Jacob realizing the man he is, realizing the fallen sinner that he is, who has transgressed the law of the Holy God, and acknowledging that before him. It's a beautiful thing to see. As a matter of fact, to quote Matthew Henry again, and by the way, I'm going to quote him about four times before the morning's over, but he says this, "...the best and greatest of men are utterly unworthy of the least favors from God." and must be ready to own it upon all occasions. Those are best prepared for the greatest mercies that see themselves unworthy of the least." He's absolutely right. There's no such a thing as being too humble. And to humble ourselves before an Almighty God is the most fitting thing we can do. Well, then in verse 11, he gets to the point. Notice what he says. I'm afraid. My heart is full of anxiety. This is absorbing my attention. Do you see how transparent he is being before God? Brothers and sisters, you and I need to always be transparent before God. Because you know what? He already knows what's in your heart anyway. So don't put on airs and try to tell Him something you're not. Whenever you approach God, you must always approach reverently and you must approach humbly. But that being said, always be yourself. Be yourself before Him. Speak to Him like Moses spoke to Him, as a man speaks to his friend, and lay bare what's in your heart. He already knows what's there, but it's helpful for you to lay those things bare before Him. Are you anxious? Tell Him about your anxiety. Are you angry? Tell Him about it. Bring it before Him. I cannot tell you how many times I've had to go out and take a walk and just say to the Lord, Lord, this thing is coming up. There's a situation ahead of me in my future. And I know what Your Word says about it. And I know what I've got to do if I'm going to obey You. But it's going to be costly. And it's not going to be pleasant. And I confess to you, I'm terrified. And I would rather not do this. I'd rather you provide some new way for me to get out of this because this is not fun. But Father, I need You to help me to obey You, no matter what the cost, and to do so with grace. Or have you ever been so angry someone has wronged you? Someone has treated you very unjustly? Maybe several somebodies have treated you very unjustly, and you feel this anger inside of yourself, and you go outside to talk to the Lord about it, and to share with Him how angry you feel. And you say, Lord, my cause is just, but I have murderous thoughts in my head. and the most vile, angry, bitter things coming out of my heart. And while my cause may be just, this attitude of my heart is not pleasing to you. And I want you to change me." I want you to make me less like myself and more like you, so that the words of my mouth, the meditation of my heart will be pleasing in your sight." Do you ever look at your heart and go, I don't even have a willing heart to do what God wants me to do? And to come to Him and say, Lord, my heart's not willing, but make me willing. Subdue me. Help me to do what's right rather than what I want to do. Help me to do what I ought to do. To be transparent before God, I believe, honors Him. because He knows what's there anyway. And if God can't help me in my weakest, then can He help me at all? We need to be transparent before the Lord, knowing He can change us, and we bring those things to Him by faith, knowing He can make me something different than what I am. Make me less like Jerry, make me more like Jesus, because I'm so little like Him. And so here's Jacob being very transparent, very honest. I'm not going to hide my anxious thoughts. I love what David says. He says, Lord, search me and know me and know my anxious thoughts. You know they're there anyway. And they're a failure to trust you. I confess that. But lead me in the way everlasting. Take my anxieties away. And that's what we find Jacob doing here. Then notice what he goes on to say again. We see him changing. I fear him, verse 11, but notice he's not just thinking about himself. He says, I fear him lest he come and attack me and the mother with the children. Now remember, this is Jacob, the neglectful husband. And yet here he is, anxious before God for the safety of his wives and of his children. Not just thinking about himself, But thinking about his extended family, do you see how much God is changing this man? In the early chapters about Jacob's life, I don't like him much, but he grows on me as I see God's grace change him and make him into a different person. Aren't you glad God doesn't leave us to be the people we were, but transforms us and makes us into the people that we need to be? Then he says this, verse 12, For you said, I will surely treat you well, and make your descendants as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude." You hear what he's saying here. He's telling God his word back to him. He's filling his prayers with God's word. He began by reminding God what he said. You're the one that commanded me to come and promised you'd be with me. He ends it. The word of God in the book ends of his prayer. He's filling, saturating his prayer with the word of God and saying, remember the covenant you made. And this is not going to reflect well on you if Esau comes and slaughters me because you promised you would multiply us, not that you would decimate us. Would you, for the honor of your name, intervene and work and deliver me from the intention, the harm that Esau intends to do to me?" Something I've noticed in the last several years of just personal Bible reading, particularly in the Old Testament, is how many times the saints, when they're in a crisis, will come before God and they'll appeal to Him on the basis of the honor of His name. For example, remember when the Rabshakeh came to King Hezekiah? We're going to destroy Jerusalem and raze it and destroy your temple. And there's other nations who cried out to their gods for us to stop, and we plundered them and destroyed their gods and burned them with fire. What makes you think your god's going to be any different? You remember what King Hezekiah did. He took that letter. He took it into the temple. And he lays it out before the Lord. I love that. He spreads it out. And cries and says, Look upon their threats, O Lord. Here you've heard what they've said, but you've heard what they've said about you. Will you rise up for the honor of your name, and deliver us from this threat, so that all nations may know you are the Lord? How about Daniel, in Daniel chapter 9? The people have been in captivity in Babylon. He studies the prophet Jeremiah. He knows how many more years they have left, because they're going to have 70 years of enslavement there in Babylon. He knows how many years, but he also recognizes that despite the fact that God's judgments have fallen, Israel has not changed. They have not repented of their sins. And so he kneels down to confess his own sins and the sins of his people. But if you look carefully at the prayer, He doesn't say, deliver us for our sakes, O Lord. What He says is, to us belongs shame of face, but to you belongs glory. But your name is on your people, and your name is on your temple. And so Lord, for your name's sake, for the honor of your name, will you act, and work, and transform us, and bring us to repentance. In other words, it's not just for us, ourselves, but for God's glory would you do this. I see Jacob doing the same thing. When we invoke God's name and say it's for your namesake, for the glory of your name, for the advancement of your kingdom, that others may know you are God, I'm convinced God is always pleased to answer those kind of prayers. Because he's always concerned about his glory and his honor among the peoples. Well, here's Jacob saying this thing to God. And again, notice he saturates it with God's Word. Be honest. How many of you feel intimidated in your prayer life? Because you just don't think you're very good at it. Well, I'm raising my hand and not just because you're supposed to. I feel the same way. We just don't think we're very good at it. But I have good news for you. You're in good company because the Apostle Paul said the same thing. We do not know how to pray as we ought, he said in Romans 8. And whenever there's a we, there's a me in there somewhere. He's including himself, not just you, me. I don't know how to pray as I ought. I pray for things, but don't really know. Thank God the Spirit prays for us and fills in all the holes and gaps in our prayers. But nonetheless, we all feel that way. But I will tell you one secret to learning how to pray. It's to saturate your prayers with God's Word. to repeat to God the things He has said to us in Holy Scripture. Again, third time I'm quoting Matthew Henry this morning. Quote, The best we can say to God in prayer is what He has said to us. God's promises, as they are the surest guide of our desires in prayer, and furnish us with the best petitions, so they are the firmest ground for our best petitions, and furnish us with the best pleas. Lord, thou hast said thus and thus, and wilt thou not be as good as thy word, the word upon which thou hast caused me to hope?" Even in worship, do you know what we're doing this morning? We're reading the Scriptures, preaching the Scriptures, hearing the Scriptures, we're praying the Scriptures, we're singing the Scriptures, and then we're going to see the Word. in the visible sign, which is the Lord's table. But it's all Word-oriented, Word-centered, Word-saturated. The raw tender of God's Word is here for the Holy Spirit to fall upon it and own it to our souls. That's what we're doing. Even in prayer, pray God's Word back to Him. That's always a safe guide, isn't it? To pray His Word back. And that's what we find Jacob doing here. So it's very much a model prayer. Well, notice what happens then in verse 13. He goes from praying to planning. And if we're not careful, we might assume Jacob's doing something wrong here. Here's this great prayer of faith, he's just prayed and now he falls back upon his plans. Has he ceased trusting the Lord and now he's leaning upon his own understanding and figuring out how to manipulate this thing? I would submit to you, he isn't. That what he does next is completely consistent with the prayer he's just prayed. Why do I say that? I say it because the God of the ends is also the God of the means. You know, it's good to pray for something, but after you've prayed, get off your knees and do something. Employ the means God Himself has given you and do them. Turn with me, if you will, to Nehemiah chapter 4. As you know, Nehemiah had gone back after the captivity, was rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem, and they had lots of opposition as they tried to build those walls. There were people who wanted to tear the walls down and not see Jerusalem restored. Nehemiah 4, verses 7-9. Now it happened when Samballot, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites, and the Ashtodites heard that the walls of Jerusalem were being restored and the gaps were beginning to be closed, that they became very angry. And all of them conspired together to come and attack Jerusalem and create confusion. Let's go and scatter them. We have a conspiracy going on here, so we'll scatter them and stop the work from going forth. Notice how Nehemiah responds, verse 9. Nevertheless, we made our prayer to God. They cry out to God, Lord protect us. Notice the next thing they say, and because of them we set a watch against them day and night. We did two things, we prayed and we posted a guard. Well, did he not trust God to protect him, so he had to go post a guard? No. God uses means to accomplish his ends, but what he realizes is if we post guards and we don't give our prayers to God, setting the guard is going to be in vain. It's the Lord who gives us protection, but He uses means to protect us. Even so, here is Jacob. He says, I've prayed to God, and now I've got a strategy. I've got a plan. I'm going to proceed forward and take action, knowing that God has to be the one protecting me ultimately. So back in Genesis 32. What does he do? He lodges there the same night, and he took and made a present for Esau. And it's quite the present. If you add up the totals in verses 14 and 15, he gives them 580 animals. They consist of goats, rams, camels, cows, bulls, and donkeys. 580! Now, I have no idea, if you went out and bought those animals today, 580 of them, how much would it cost you? I don't know, but suffice it to say, as my dad used to say, that's more than I make a year. This is a very generous present. Here's a man who stole the firstborn blessing from Esau, but now he's giving him a very generous and gracious present. Why? To encourage him to be at peace with him, but also to increase his holdings. If suddenly you're 580 cattle more than you had before, your stock holdings have been increased significantly. This is a very generous and gracious gift. And then he divides his company into three different successive waves, with each wave taking the presence before them. One wave, a second wave, and then a third wave. The idea of being each wave, as they come with their presence for Esau, will cool down his temper. And by the time I get to him, maybe his temper will be completely gone. In other words, he's doing something very scriptural. Proverbs chapter 18 verse 16 says this, a man's gift makes room for him and brings him before great men. Proverbs 21 verse 14, a gift in secret pacifies anger. A gift in secret pacifies anger. And a bride behind the back, strong wrath. Again, to quote Matthew Henry for the fourth and final time this morning, the man's throwing down in his commentary. But he says this, he says, Jacob, having piously made God his friend by prayer, is here prudently endeavoring to make Esau his friend by a present. And so by this present he's trying to abate the wrath. Commits them to the hands of his servants and sends them ahead of them. But as we get to the end of our passage, don't miss a vital point because it's given special emphasis in the text. It's all throughout verses 17-21. And that is, Jacob may be sending presents ahead of him to cool Esau's wrath, but he's not running away. He fully intends to meet Esau face to face. And He tells His servants to make Esau aware of that. Notice it. Verse 18. You shall say, These are your servant Jacob's. It is a present sent to my lord Esau. And behold, he is also behind us. Tell Esau I am coming. Then, verse 19, he commands a second and a third ways, and gives them, says, in this manner, you shall speak to Esau when you find him. Verse 20, also say, Behold, your servant Jacob is behind us. And then a third emphasis in the latter part of verse 20, for he said, I will appease him with the present that goes before me, and afterward I will see his face. Perhaps he will accept me. Again, he's obeying God's voice. God gave me a commandment. And even though Esau intends my harm, God promised to be with me. He attached a promise with a precept. And I'm going to trust him. And I'm going to face this thing, face to face, and look eye to eyeball with my brother Esau, trusting that the Lord will protect me. Verse 21 ends with him camping near the brook Jabbok, listening to its rippling waters beside him. Great way to camp. Although I suspect, knowing what was coming the next day, he didn't sleep very well, and of course you know his sleep would be interrupted very soon. What's amazing is that as fearful as he may have been of Esau, he had no way of knowing he was about to encounter someone far more terrifying, someone far more scary. And after he met that person, nothing would ever be the same again. But that's the balance of next week. Let's look at some applications for this week. Three applications I have. First of all, Jacob's prayer is an excellent template for your private prayers. Consider again the composition of his prayer. He clearly identifies which God he was addressing. Second, he approached the Lord in a posture of humility. I'm not asking you to give me what I deserve, I'm asking you to be merciful to me because I'm not worthy of the least of your mercies. Third, he was transparent and painfully honest about his own mental state before the Lord. And fourth, he began and ended his prayer by repeating God's word back to him. So I would just simply say to you, consider Jacob's prayer and go and do likewise. Secondly, after you've prayed, do something. After you've prayed, do something." Jacob prayed, then prepared a gift for Esau and sent his servants in three successive ways to bring that gift to him. Nehemiah prayed for protection and then posted a guard. J. Adams likes to say that when people come to him for counsel, they'll describe the problem they're going through and ask for his help, and he'll say, what have you done about the problem? And usually they'll say, we've prayed. He said, that's wonderful. What did you do next? And they look at him with blank stares. He says, it's good to pray, but do something. Has God given you something that you need to do? Has He commanded you something in His Word? Is there some duty you need to fulfill? That as much as is possible with you, you're going to fulfill your responsibility. We think about things like this. Paul said, I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. And we rejoice that God alone gives the increase. Did that mean that Paul and Apollos could stop planting and watering the gospel seed? Of course not. We pray for the conversion of lost friends and loved ones and people that we encounter. And that's a good thing to do. We should pray evangelistically for the lost. But is that all you should do? If you pray for the lost, but they never hear the gospel, are they going to be saved? The answer is no. In other words, you need to talk to God about sinners, but you've got to talk to sinners about God. It doesn't mean that you stop using the means that God has given us. It's just that you know that there's going to be success to those means. God Himself is going to have to do the work. But it doesn't relieve us of the responsibility of doing what God has commanded. I can't tell you, over the years, how many times, in 17 years of ministry, how many times I have prayed the words of Psalm 127.1, Lord, unless you build the house, They labor in vain who build it. And unless you guard the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. But does that allow me as an elder to stop seeking to build the church? Does it allow me as an elder to stop being watchful and protecting the church? Of course not. He's not saying, well, unless the Lord builds the city, the laborers labor in vain. So let's just stop working on building the city. No, you keep on laboring to build, but recognizing that if you're going to have success, it's God Himself who's going to give that to you. You post the guard and the watchman, but you know if God himself isn't protecting us, we're open. In other words, it's not getting rid of the means, it's praying God bless the means. So pray, that's a good thing. But then do something. Do what God has called you to do and commanded you to do in a particular thing. In other words, pray fervently and work diligently, trusting God to give the increase. That brings me to my third and final application, which is this. Never forget. how it is that you and I have access to the throne of heaven in the first place. Do you realize that if it was your own righteousness, your own obedience, your own holiness, your own good works that commended you before the throne of God, heaven would be completely shut up to you and it would be shut up to me too. we would have no right, on the basis of our own righteousness, to come before God. I don't care. Think about your five best minutes you've ever lived in your entire life, where you thought you were your holiest, and the most full of the Spirit, and the most holy, the most sanctified you've ever been. Do you realize that if your admittance into heaven was based upon those five best minutes of yours, it would sink you to the lowest hell? Because we have sin remaining in us, the people who desire to do good, and there's sin mixed with everything I do, nothing I've ever done, never thought I've ever thought, is completely pure and holy and right. As C.S. Lewis once said, if an angel were to think our highest thoughts, it would cause them to stumble. Because we're sinners. The only reason that we would have access to God, the only reason we can pray to Him 24-7, is because Jesus died for us. And because His righteousness has been given to us. Now, I don't think a Lord's Day goes by where I don't say something to this effect to you. That your only basis of approaching God is the blood and righteousness of Christ. I hope a Lord's Day never goes by where I don't say it. Because we never hear enough of the gospel. The gospel is not a goalpost you pass by when you're converted and then go on to bigger and better things. Rather, the Gospel that saves you and converts you is the Gospel that sanctifies you, and someday it's the same Gospel that will glorify you. We never get over the Gospel. We continue our whole lives to unpack the Gospel and what it means and its implications for the way we live and the way we think. Even so, our approach to God is always based upon the name of Christ. It's not just a conversion that Jesus is the only way to God. Even our worship. You know, everything we offer to God this morning, starting from the call to worship to the ending benediction, we should be able to look back on all of it, the singing of praise, the prayers, the reading of Scripture, the hearing of Scripture, the preaching of Scripture, the observance of the Lord's Table. We should be able to look back on all of it and say, in Jesus' name, Amen. Because if we don't offer it through the mediation of Christ, it will not be accepted by God. Why could Jacob approach the throne of God, because Jesus would one day shed his blood for him. That's why. And so never ever forget that the reason we have boldness and access is because of the gospel. And we are so prone to forget that. Aren't we? We fall on our performance, oh God doesn't like me today because I haven't been as good as I should be. Well, that's basing your approach to God on a work's righteousness. If you don't believe me when I say we forget the gospel, ask yourself why these elements are on this table in front of us, underneath the pulpit. Paul didn't say, as infrequently as you take of this cup and this bread and this cup. No, as often. We need it often. Why? Because we need to be reminded that the basis of our approach to God is what Jesus has done for us and not what we have done. Not what my hands have done, but what Jesus has accomplished for me and for you is the basis of our approach before God. May God help us to remember these things and never ever to forget them. Let's pray. Father, we would pray the Spirit of God would help us as we take to the Lord's table now. that your grace would be poured out upon us, that you would help us, O Lord, to approach your throne, to bring before you our petitions and be honest with you and be transparent with you about the things that are troubling us, knowing that you have the power and the sufficiency to solve our problems. As one person said it, you have a solution planned before we even know we have a problem. And we thank you that we have such a God in heaven as this. And we thank you for your Son, Jesus Christ. who has made our approach to you possible. In Jesus' name, amen.