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Rev. J. Overduin – Genesis 32: 26-28

Rev. J. Overduin – Received from Mary Overduin

JACOB AT PENIEL

Genesis 32

Text; vs. 26-28

Psalter 140: 1-4

Psalter 363: 1-3

Psalter 389: 1, 4

Psalter 317: 1, 4

Psalter 362: 3

Doxology Psalter 5: 5
Beloved Congregation:

After twenty years in Paddan-Aram, Jacob is finally on the way back to the land of promise. But Jacob goes back under different circumstances than when he had first come to Paddan-Aram. For, as he himself said, “with my staff I passed over this Jordan; and now I am become two bands (or: two companies).” The Lord has blessed him through oppression and under oppression.

But how does Jacob leave Laban? That is, of course, not as it should be! When his father-in-law has gone to shear his sheep – possibly to the feast of sheep shearing, which usually lasted a few weeks – Jacob goes away, hastily and secretly, and, without his knowledge, Rachel stole her father’s household gods.

No wonder Laban felt greatly offended! Although, strictly speaking, Laban wanted Jacob to stay with him as his servant. But God did not permit Laban to harm Jacob. Now it is God’s time. God, the God of Bethel, had said to Jacob: “Now arise, get thee out from this land, and return unto the land of thy kindred.”

“But, Jacob, do you not think, “Now it is done with me?” It may be a long time ago that you deceived your old father and stole from your brother the blessing of the birthright … but that account has not yet been settled.

Jacob however, thinks that he can just put that right. He sends messengers to Esau, his brother, with a princely gift, to win Esau’s goodwill, and they have to tell Esau that Jacob is also coming. But what do the messengers tell Jacob when they return to him? “Thy brother Esau comes to meet thee, and four hundred men with him.” That makes Jacob afraid. If his brother wants to fight, how must he defend himself? A caravan with so much livestock, and so many wives and children!

No, Jacob certainly could not enter the Promised Land straight away. On the contrary, the nearer he comes home, the more the old guilt begins to weigh heavily on his mind. In that last night he sends everything to pass over the border; but he himself is left alone. Now he does not want anyone to stay with him. Has his need also become his guilt? Sometimes the Lord leads us into a condition of great need and distress, in order that we might see our guilt. Jacob is left alone, and suddenly there is that Stranger, who unexpectedly falls upon him.

We see here: Jacob at Peniel

  1. As a wrestler
  2. As a debtor
  3. As a conqueror

1.As a wrestler

A man wrestled with him. Who is that man? We do not have to make a guess at that. It is the Lord Himself. God has become Jacob’s adversary. He has come to settle with Jacob. Can you imagine how fierce this wrestling must have been? A life and death struggle! The wrestlers cling one to another; the one tries to get the other one under – neither of them gives up the fight. That is how it goes on during the whole night.

We ask: “How is that possible, that Jacob, when he finds himself wrestling with the Almighty One, does not immediately give up? He certainly knows, does he not, that he must lose that unequal fight? Now, that is grace; that is faith! Jacob shrinks, when he thinks of it that Esau comes to meet him. But now the Lord wrestles with him, and he cannot let Him go! He has not won, and he has not lost; but he will keep up the fight till the end.

Do you know what is a still greater wonder? That God cannot overcome Jacob. God Almighty is powerless! Of course, the Lord is able to overcome Jacob. He makes him feel that by touching the hollow of his thigh. Jacob will also know it: presently he will walk on earth as one who is handicapped for life. The Lord could have done much more to Jacob. He could have taken his life. Then He would have been the great Conqueror, and Jacob would have been defeated forever. That could have happened, and yet, it could not have happened. For the Lord wrestles with Jacob as the Immanuel, God with us, God in Christ! He, the Lord Jesus Christ, will at the end of His life here on earth be alone, in the night of Gethsemane, in the night of Golgotha. He will be bound, that Jacob might be freed. He will become completely powerless, in order to save the powerless Jacob. That is the secret of the night at Peniel. The Almighty One is powerless, because it is a judgment of love! The Lord has not come to condemn Jacob, but to save him.

But at this moment Jacob does not yet know that. He only knows: I have to keep on wrestling, or it is my death. Up to now not a word has been said. But, early in the morning, then his great Adversary says: “Let Me go, for the day breaketh!” Then it is Jacob who answers: “I will not let Thee go, except Thou bless me.” The Lord has touched Jacob on a tender spot physically, and that will remain with him; all his life long he will be a cripple. But Jacob has also touched the Lord on His tender spot! He clings to the Word of His Grace! For has He not promised: “Let him take hold of My strength, that he may make peace with Me; and he shall make peace with Me.” It is true: these are words of God in Isaiah 27:5. This is what Jacob experienced at Peniel; “Let him take hold of My strength, that he may make peace with Me; and he shall make peace with Me.”

The sword of God’s justice cannot strike whoever flees to the cross. The Lord Himself shows that way to the sinner, namely: to cling to the Word of His grace: When you take hold of Me there; when you take hold of My strength, you will conquer!” In this way Jacob, the sinner, the deceiver, is able to conquer the strong and Almighty God, because he will not let Him go, because he takes hold of Him on His tender spot. Jacob knows that he has nothing to lose anymore, but that the Lord can still lose out to him! For if Jacob should die here, then the Lord loses the honour of His name. For had He not promised him: “And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of? (Gen.28: 15). Well then, the Lord can never get out of that anymore.

Beloved, is there something of that wrestling with God in your life? The question is not whether you at some time have been at Peniel. But the question is whether you cannot let God go, except He blesses you. There may be much need in our life; need of sickness; need of old age; need in our family; everything may be against us. The enemies say: “One day you will perish.” Can you do without the Lord in that need? - Or is it also living in your heart: “I will not let Thee go”? “Lord, I have forfeited it; but I know that Thou art a gracious and merciful God, and that Thou hast laid help upon One Who is mighty to save.” Then we have no rights any more, but then, nevertheless, we cannot let the Lord go. Then we pray with the psalmist: “Hide not Thy face far from me; put not Thy servant away in anger: Thou hast been my help; leave me not, neither forsake me, O God of my salvation.” (Ps. 27:9) Then we will experience it: The Almighty One has become powerless to save those who are powerless.

  1. As a debtor

We see Jacob at Peniel, in the second place, as a debtor. The Lord said to him: “What is thy name?” Did the Lord not know then, that his name was Jacob? O yes, but Jacob himself must say that! The Lord means: if you so cling to me; if you are so much longing to receive my blessing, do you really know then who you are? Here Jacob loses all his rights. He has to confess: “I have not deserved that blessing; I have forfeited that blessing in every possible way.” So the answer comes from his lips: “Jacob.” Only that one word, that one name. With that he has said everything: “Lord, Thou art perfectly right. I am Jacob: a supplanter, a deceiver. I have no right at all to Thy blessing!”

The Lord enters into judgment with Jacob, and now he has nothing to hide anymore. He does not say: “Yes, Lord, I am Jacob, but my brother Esau was so reckless; he has willfully bargained away that blessing. And I have indeed committed lots of sins, but yet Thou knowest, that from a child I have served and feared Thee!” No, Jacob does not talk like that. He has nothing to hide anymore. “My name is Jacob. My life is a string of sin and iniquity, and I have always tried to cover up my guilt and my wrongdoings. Lord, I am wholly incapable of doing any good, and inclined to all wickedness; for I am Jacob; out of me can never come forth any good thing.” So he signs his sentence. So he has left no ground under his feet. “If Thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?”

When we must mention our name, what do we say then? Yes, we must mention our name. For whenever His Word comes to us, the Lord asks us: “Whom say ye that I am?” But then He also asks us: “And who are you now for Me, really? Can we say then: “Lord, I have been baptized; and I have made public confession of faith; and every Sunday I go to Church; and I understand the truth very well?” Or do we say then: “Yes, Lord, of course I have committed many, many sins; but all men are sinners, are they not?” Or can we just only say, with a deep sense of shame: “My name is Jacob, Lord; nothing else: deceiver, supplanter. I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.”

Then the Lord speaks to ‘Jacob’ that wonderful word: “Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel; for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.” Wonderful secret of God’s grace! Where a man bows before the Lord and says: “O God, I am Jacob” – there the Lord says: “To Me you are ‘Israel’, a mighty prince. You are indeed Jacob, for your sins are as scarlet, and red like crimson, and yet you are Israel, for I make them as white as snow and as wool.”

That is the wonder of the forgiveness of sins. Where the Lord enters into judgment with us and says: “Who are you now, really?” and where a sinful, guilty man says: “O God, I am Jacob; I have never been anything else but Jacob.” There the Lord says: “I have cast all your sin behind my back into a sea of everlasting forgetfulness. I will never think of it anymore; I will never mention it anymore.”

Must all of us know such a Peniel? Or, must we again and again come to that point where we say: “Lord, I am so corrupt, that I am wholly incapable of doing any good, and inclined to all wickedness?” For also after Peniel Jacob is not yet finished. He has lost out to the Lord, and in faith he has conquered the Lord. But many a time he will still have to lose it. There is but one way, every day again: “Whoso confesses and forsakes his sins, shall have mercy.” (Proverbs 28:13). There are no sins too great for the forgiving love of God in Christ. For He – to speak with our form for the administration of the Lord’s Supper – He, the Lord Jesus Christ, was innocently condemned to death, that we might be acquitted at the judgment-seat of God. He suffered His blessed body to be nailed on the cross – that He might fix thereon the handwriting of our sins; and has also taken upon Himself the curse due to us, that He might fill us with His blessings!

  1. As a conqueror

Jacob at Peniel – we see him, in the third place, as a conqueror. “Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.” Is that princely, that he deceived his father Isaac, and his brother Esau? Is that princely, that he favored Rachel above Leah? And is that princely: that secret departure from Laban, and that gift, to win the good will of his brother? Strictly speaking, it is one trick after another, and one handiness after another. And yet, it is princely, for the Lord does not look on Jacob any more in what he himself is, but the Lord looks on him in what he is in Christ. Jacob, the deceiver, the supplanter, is in God’s eyes so pure, so clean, as if he had never committed any sin. No, that princeliness is not from Jacob. That princeliness is from Christ, Who will be born out of Jacob.

The light of the forgiveness of sins, the nobility of the heavenly birth, the power of the new life has come upon Jacob. “The sun rose upon him,” so we read in verse 31 of our text-chapter. Is that only an indication of time? It was at that time that Jacob departed from Peniel? No, it says, “the sun rose upon him.” As the sun now rises, it has never risen before. The sun rose upon him. That shining sun is for Jacob the symbol of God’s reconciled countenance. Jacob has done everything possible to reconcile Esau’s face, but now he has seen God’s reconciled face.

In the light of that face there is life. Then the flowers are blooming differently. Then the birds are singing differently. Then you look at people with different eyes. So Jacob continued his way, joyfully going to meet Esau. Joyfully? Yes, for it was also true of Jacob what we sing in Psalm 118:

“Salvation’s joyful song is heard

Where’er the righteous dwell;

For them God’s hand is strong to save

And doeth all things well.

I shall not die, but live and tell

The wonders of the Lord;

He hath not giv’n my soul to death,

But chastened and restored.”

Maybe Jacob has thought that after Peniel he would never sin anymore; that he would always live unto the Lord. But you know what has come of that! How often he has still done wrong after Peniel. Think, for instance, of his favoritism shown to Joseph, to Benjamin. Sometimes he did not agree with the Lord. Once he said, in despondency: “All these things are against me.” (Gen. 42:36). However, this is still comforting for all those who cannot overcome sin in their life; who so often do not agree with the Lord. Then they ask: “Has the Lord ever begun a good work in me; a work in truth?” We only have such a small beginning of the perfect obedience. We sometimes talk about “converted” people and “justified” people. Certainly, the Bible speaks about conversion and justification. But the Bible has much to say about miserable and guilty sinners, who will remain sinners to their dying day, but who have learned to wrestle with the Lord and to bow before the Lord, and who have taken a dislike, an aversion to sin; who say every day: “Lord, I am good for nothing, but I cannot live without having seen Thy reconciled face!”

Therefore you may come as you are. “Let the wicked forsake their way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let them return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.” (Isaiah 55:7). Are you afraid of Esau? (I am speaking figuratively). Are you trembling with fear because of the power of sin? Go into your most private room. Just stay behind, alone, like Jacob. Wrestle with the Lord. Say to Him: “O Lord, I am Jacob, but Thou are a God full of grace and mercy.” Although we forfeit it again and again – and that is shameful indeed – He remains faithful. For He has said: “I am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.” (Malachi 3:6).

AMEN