Our sincere apologies. Unfortunately Audio recording for this week sermon is not available. However, Ray Wilson has kindly provided the full transcript here:

People in Perth live as if this horizontal life of here and now is all there is. This society believes in the natural world and either denies or discounts the supernatural. We focus on our natural world. There’s an almost complete commitment to the concept of uniform natural causes in a closed system. It’s as if we’re reduced to the type of science that biologists do in a petri dish. The biologist puts a culture in a petri dish with the organisms which are to be studied. When the culture in the petri dish is used up the organism dies. So much of the catastrophism of our elites has been informed by biological thought processes with this petri dish mentality about the world and humanity. If we remove the supernaturalness of the universe all we have left is Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World in which religion is just a sociological tool – something nice which people seem to do better having, but it doesn’t really matter what it looks like. It’s a soothing fairy tale.

But God is sovereign above all and He intervenes in our world, in life. In Genesis 32 God reveals the vertical dimension to earth-bound sinners living in the horizontal realm. The crunch for us is that if we truly believe the Bible we’ll live knowing this is a supernatural universe where the God of the Bible rules on high and this makes all the difference. When vertical life breaks into horizontal life we begin to see the whole of life.

But we get so engrossed in the natural world that we live mostly as if there’s no supernatural realm except for pie in the sky when we die, by and by. And we’re in a spiritual battle which isn’t against flesh and blood but is in the heavenlies (to use the Apostle Paul’s terms). If I live only on this horizontal level then I can’t join in the battle. In times of war big brothers are away in the real battle while the little boys at home play soldiers. I may act like a soldier but have no contact with or any influence on the real battle being fought. When I only pay attention to the horizontal world I kid myself that I’m a Christian and I’m just playing at spiritual life and warfare. I’m not in the real battle. This may lead us to wonder if the spiritual battle is a long way off and irrelevant. But Genesis 32 shows the supernatural is near. God enters into His creation, despite our sin, in His loving grace and perfect justice.

Jacob is an independent, self-sufficient bloke grabbing opportunities. At birth, he grabs his twin brother’s heel so he’s called Jacob, “heel-grabber.” He buys Esau’s birthright with a bowl of stew. He deceives his blind dad by pretending to be Esau and grabs the firstborn’s blessing. Jacob is a heel-grabber, a deceiver, a self-made man.

Jacob flees for his life from vengeful Esau. But before he leaves God’s Promised Land, the LORD meets him in a dream at Bethel. Jacob sees a ladder with its top in the heavens and angels of God ascending and descending. God promises him, “I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” (28:15).

Jacob goes to live with his uncle Laban. They’re both greedy deceivers – well matched. When Jacob falls in love with Laban’s beautiful daughter Rachel, Laban works him seven years for her. On the wedding night, Laban switches daughters and gives Jacob plain Leah instead of beautiful Rachel. Then Laban extorts another seven years of labour from Jacob for the hand of Rachel.

After working 14 years for Rachel and Leah, Jacob agrees with Laban to continue working for him. His wages will be the speckled sheep and goats. Immediately Laban removes the speckled animals and puts them far away (30:35–36). But Jacob still gets the better of Laban. Moses writes this all down for us and says that Jacob “increased greatly and had large flocks, female servants and male servants, and camels and donkeys.” (30:43). Last week we saw how Jacob tells his wives, “God has taken away the livestock of your father and given them to me” (31:9). The independent, self-sufficient Jacob has become rich at Laban’s expense and is beginning to recognise God’s hand in his life. He’s growing in faith.

So Jacob decides to take his wealth back to the Promised Land. After a long journey, he nears the Promised Land and is met by “the angels of God” in 32:1. When he’d left the Promised Land, he saw “the angels of God” at Bethel (28:12), and now he’s met again by “the angels of God.” The Promised Land is guarded at its borders by angels just like the garden of Eden had been for Adam and Eve. “Mahanaim” means two hosts or two camps. Each is as real as the other. There’s Jacob’s family, servants and herds and the second one, angels who’re right there too. The vertical realm breaks in on the horizontal of family, servants and flocks.

Jacob doesn’t fear the angels, but Esau, who threatened to kill him. So he sends messengers to tell Esau that Jacob wants to be reconciled. He’d deceived Esau for the blessing of the firstborn, but now he calls himself, “your servant Jacob,” and he calls Esau, “my lord.” He tells Esau that he’s now rich so he won’t need any of their father Isaac’s estate. Surely a humble tone and generous assurance will soothe Esau.

Jacob travels south and reaches the river Jabbok, which borders the Promised Land when the messengers bring alarming news, “Esau… is coming to meet you, and there are 400 men with him.” So “Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed.” Obviously, Esau still aims to kill him. Why else would he come with 400 men? Feverishly he searches for a way to avoid disaster. He’s good at this; he’s Jacob: a master at turning problems into profits. He splits into two camps, thinking, “If Esau comes to one camp and attacks it, then the camp that is left will escape.”

Then Jacob prays. For the first time in his recorded life Jacob prays for deliverance! This is the longest prayer in Genesis. See v9, “O LORD who said to me, ‘Return to your country and to your kindred, that I may do you good,’ I am not worthy of the least of all the steadfast love and all the faithfulness that you have shown to your servant, for with only my staff I crossed this Jordan; and now I have become two camps.” Finally, Jacob the deceiver admits that he isn’t worthy of God’s love that’s kept him safe and made him rich despite his deceptions. See v11, “Please deliver me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear him, that he may come and attack me, the mothers with the children.” Jacob realizes he can’t fix this problem. He needs the LORD to deliver him. And Jacob is now also concerned for the mums and children. He’s growing in faith. He’s no longer self-sufficient. He confesses he isn’t worthy of God’s steadfast love. And he’s concerned for others.

But he remains a schemer. Maybe he can buy off Esau’s anger. In vv13-15 he gets a present which totals 550 animals. A gift fit for a king! This gift is larger than towns pay in tribute to foreign kings. But Jacob shrewdly decides not to give the animals in one go. He separates them in droves with space between each flock. And he instructs the drivers, verse 17, “When Esau my brother meets you and asks you, ‘To whom do you belong? Where are you going? And whose are these ahead of you?’ 18 then you shall say, ‘They belong to your servant Jacob. They are a present sent to my lord Esau. And moreover, he is behind us.’” All the servants are to say the same thing. Jacob is still playing the humble-servant card. With his humility and wave after wave of royal gifts he tries to appease Esau. Verse 21, “So the present passed on ahead of him; and he himself stayed that night in the camp.” See the repetition of the word camp. It seems he’s forgotten about the camp of angels for now and is simply operating in his default mode of the horizontal level of his own camp, which is split up now.

Esau’s presents are safely across the river but Jacob still can’t sleep. How can he escape that small army? Has he done everything he can? Suppose Esau catches him just as he is fording this river with all these women, children, and herds? Esau will decimate them. So, in v22, “The same night he arose and took his two wives, his two female servants, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. 23 He took them and sent them across the stream, and everything else that he had.” He sends everything across. He lets go of family, servants and wealth. Suddenly, in the darkness what appears to be a man attacks him. Is it Esau trying to kill him? Is a bandit trying to rob him? Jacob fights with all his might. Try wrestling for a modern bout of 3 rounds of 2 minutes each round and you’ll be exhausted. This bout continued through the night!

See v25, “When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched his hip socket, and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him.” A mere touch on the hip, and Jacob’s crippled, showing how the man actually has toyed with him. Jacob must be beginning to realise this is no ordinary man. He’s supernatural. Jacob is crippled but he hangs on. Suddenly the man says, “Let me go.” But Jacob responds, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” Jacob realises that the man is actually God-in-the-flesh, and he seeks his true Lord’s blessing.

But the stranger isn’t yet ready to bless Jacob. Or rather, Jacob isn’t yet ready for God’s blessing. The man asks Jacob, in v27, “What is your name?” It’s an embarrassing question because his name reveals his character. But he admits he’s Jacob, heel-grabber. He’s always grabbed and deceived. Jacob confesses his sins in one word: “Jacob.” The climax is v28. The man says, “You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.” God changes his name from Jacob, deceiver, to Israel and gives this reason for the name change, “for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.”

Jacob had always battled, with Esau, his father Isaac and Laban and is now rich. But here at the Jabbok, Jacob strives with God who has condescended to come down to his level. and gives him a new name: Israel to reorient Jacob’s character from striving deceitfully in his own strength to striving for God’s blessing. God has turned Jacob around from deceptive ways. As a deceiver, Jacob isn’t allowed to enter the Promised Land; as Israel he may enter the land and receive it as a gift, an inheritance, from God’s hand.

Jacob knows that the stranger is God, for only one in authority can give a person a new name. And, the man says, “You have striven with God.” Jacob asks, in v29, “Please tell me your name.” But the man refuses and instead blesses Jacob. Israel now has the blessing which he deceived for earlier. So, in v30, Jacob calls the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is preserved.” “Peniel” means “face of God.” He isn’t saying he saw God’s face, but rather that in the darkness he had a personal encounter with God and lived. Encountering God in His perfection usually means a just and certain death due to our sin. God is too pure and holy for a sinner to be in His presence without being destroyed. But this encounter, combined with God’s blessing, means that Israel’s life is saved. Now he can face Esau without fear. Earlier, when Jacob heard that Esau was on the way with 400 men, he was terrified and begged God: “Deliver me, please, from the hand of my brother” (v11). Now Israel uses the same verb, “My life has been delivered.” He knows that because he has seen God face to face he will also see his brother Esau properly, face to face, unafraid, and that he has been delivered already. It’s now clear to Jacob and to us, reflecting on his life, that worldly deception leads to loneliness with trouble but godly desperation leads to a new life with a changed heart.

At Bethel when he left the Promised Land in Gen 28:11, “the sun had set” when God met Jacob in the night and gave him his blessing. At Peniel God meets Jacob in the night, blesses him, and “the sun rose upon him.” A new day begins. He’s now Israel, with a new deformity. The new name forever reminds him of God’s covenant promise. The limp always reminds him that the mighty-covenant-promise-keeping God is Lord over him. God strips away his self-sufficiency.

Jacob learns that the covenant must be achieved by God rather than by human effort and initiative. He’s now ready to receive the Promised Land as God’s gift to him and his offspring. Before Peniel he always seized the promise and blessing for himself, now he knows God must fulfil the promise. The meeting with Esau in chapter 33 will be a test of Israel’s growing faith. We’ll see how much he’s changed next Sunday.

This account ends at verse 32. Each time the Israelites butcher an animal, they’re reminded of God crippling their father Israel before he can enter the Promised Land. This was first written and read out to the nation of Israel entering the Promised Land under Moses. Like their father, Israel they too can’t enter the Promised Land in their own strength. They must rely on God alone and receive the land as a gift from God.

The same is true for us. We receive God’s kingdom not by our hard work but by God’s grace. It’s a gift. Jesus broke into our world, bringing the supernatural reality of God to flesh and blood to save His people. He warns, “Truly, I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven. 24 Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”” (Mat 19:23–24). Self-made, self-sufficient people can’t inherit God’s kingdom. Yet Jesus urges us, “Strive to enter through the narrow door” (Lk 13:24). Do we have to work hard after all to enter the kingdom? Yes and no. Jesus Himself is the narrow door; He is “the way, and the truth, and the life” in John 14:6; and “the gate” in John 10:7. So just as Jacob strove with God for God’s blessing, we are to strive for God’s blessing, which is Jesus.

When the Philippian jailor asks Paul, “What must I do to be saved?” he gets a simple answer, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” (Ac 16:30–31) It seems so simple, and yet it’s so difficult for us self-sufficient people to rely on Jesus alone. But there it is: If you wish to enter the kingdom of God, you must cling to Jesus. Submit to Him now.