7/31/22 Genesis 32:21-32 “Come Out Your Sewer!”

29 Jul 7/31/22 Genesis 32:21-32 “Come Out Your Sewer!”

7/31/22     Genesis 32:21-32         “Come Out Your Sewer!”

I always will remember when I would be gone for my two-week school sessions and I finally ended up home again.  It was great.  One of the bad things about being gone like this, or maybe it is a good thing, is that I didn’t get to read newspapers or watch the news on TV.  There were lots of things that happened when I was gone that I knew nothing about.  That is a rather strange feeling for someone like me who kind of likes to know what is going on in the world.  But there was one thing that I couldn’t help but notice.  We cannot stand to be losers.  I think that we would almost do anything rather than lose.  Look at how the Democrats and the Republicans have all but shut down the federal government by not doing anything worthwhile.  This whole situation is embarrassing to everyone in the country except Congress and the President who were too busy blaming each other.  No one can stand to be a loser in this situation.  Our local governments aren’t any better.  As I wrote this they were still fighting about a so-called insurrection on Jan. 6.  Once again, neither side can be wrong because everyone is so totally right.  This is a witch hunt by the Democrats but the Republicans aren’t any better.  Unless you are a card-carrying Democrat or Republican, the average American can see all of this for what it is, a power struggle in which no one can be wrong.  I could talk for hours on this but let us take a look at what Scripture tells us.  Hopefully we can find that there is only one way to be right and that is through God and Jesus Christ.

Scott Carmer tells the story of coaching his son’s 9-10 year old baseball team.  It seems that the town had an incredible reputation for good baseball teams.  Scott’s team played a 10 game schedule and going into the 10^th game they were 0-9.  This reminds me of some of my high school basketball teams.  Anyway, they are in the bottom of the ninth and are only behind 1-0.  They have people on base and the bottom of the batting order up.  Jimmy came up to bat.  Now Jimmy was a bookworm and not a baseball player.  He had thick, thick glasses and there was a good reason why he was at the bottom of the batting order.

Jimmy is up to bat and coach Scott still feels that they can still win this game and salvage their season.  But first there is ‘strike one.’  This is followed by ‘strike two.’  Coach doesn’t give up and hollers encouragement to Jimmy.  The 3^rd pitch comes and Coach hears the crack of the bat and the balls sails over the pitchers head into center field.  Jimmy takes off for first.  No one had noticed that his shoe was untied.  Yes, he tripped on his shoelace and went sprawling and his glasses went flying.  As he tried to gather himself up, he was thrown out at 1^st base.  The season was over and they had not won a game.  Losers, right?  Coach Scott just sat in the dugout staring as everyone gathered up the stuff.  Jimmy came walking off the field with a big grin on his face and walked over to the coach and put his arm around him.  “Coach,” he said.  “You told us that the most important thing was to go out and have fun.  Well, I just had the greatest fun ever!”  I think we can learn a lot from kids like this.  Our job isn’t to have fun but to serve God.  When you do this, then great things will happen, that is a guarantee!

Let’s begin today by looking at the Scripture reading.  This is part of the continuing story of Jacob.  Jacob was the second son of Isaac and when he was born, he hung on to the foot of his twin brother, Esau who was born first.  He was hanging on, taking the easy way.  His name means the deceiver.  This set the tone for his whole life.  Later he cheats his brother out of his birthright.  Then he cheats his brother out of his blessing from their father for being the 1^st born.  His mother helped him do this.  It is not too hard to see that he wasn’t the only scoundrel in all of this.

The result of all this was that Esau was going to kill Jacob so Jacob ran away with the help of his mother once again.  Jacob was not a nice man.  So he ran away to his relative Laban.  There he met his match as Laban cheated him out of the wife he wanted and many other things.  It seems that life was giving Jacob what Jacob had given out.  It was payback time.

Now we have Jacob returning to his homeland where Esau has been very successful.  Jacob has also been successful as he brings all of his huge herds and his family with him.  But he doesn’t know what Esau will do.  Will his brother still be out to kill him after 20 years?  Will he forgive Jacob?  He doesn’t know so he decides to send all his herds on ahead with the message to give Esau large gifts from these herds.  I think that one of the most telling aspects about the character of Jacob is that he sends his family on across the river.  He sends them on ahead.  This is the kind of guy that Jacob is still.  He will send his family into danger and he will hide on the other side of the river.

This guy was really a piece of work.  I’m sure that we don’t know anyone like this.  I think that one of the biggest problems we have in today’s world is that we are always lying to each other.  It is probably one of the most rampant sins there is today.  People lie.  Our government lies all the time!  We are even so bad that we teach our children to lie at an early age.  Go to any grade school and check it out if you don’t believe me.  If we could just curb this one little problem then many of our bigger problems would disappear.  Anyway, Jacob was a liar and a scoundrel and he sends his family away.  He is alone.

This is an area where we have lots of difficulty.  We live in a world where there is something like 7-8 billion people.  If you ask me it seems that we have to try to visit every one of them through some of our instant communication devices.  Most of the time these devices are great things but some people do get a little carried away.  One of the down side results that happen when we use these devices is that we have less time for God.

Here is what I mean.  You are called to go to God in prayer.  You are called to read the Bible and worship.  You are called to be in the presence of God all the time.  It gets to be pretty hard to be in the presence of God when you are texting all the time.  You can’t get in touch with God if you are hanging on to your cell phones.  Our phones and computers become our lives.  The result is that we don’t have time for God.

The good thing that Jacob was doing was that he was clearing everything away from himself so that he could spend some time alone with God, even if he didn’t know he was going to be alone with God.  Let me repeat that.  He was alone with God.  This is how you come to God.  Prayer time is a time when it is just you and God.  There is no one else.  Turn your phone and computer off and talk to God.  I can’t tell you how to pray but I can say what not to do.  God loves you so much that He only wants a little time with you alone.  When you do this, once again, great things will happen for you.  Be obedient and let God fulfill your life.

The next thing I would like us to notice here is that a man wrestles with Jacob until dawn.  It doesn’t tell us who this is until later.  Jacob is probably thinking that it might be Esau out to get him.  Or maybe it is Laban who has caught up with him again.  Jacob had lots of enemies so he really doesn’t know who he is wrestling with all night.

How many times have you wrestled with God?  I think that we have all done this to some degree or other.  I struggle with this all the time as do others.  I remember one time when there was a terrible wind storm that went through Fargo.  I praise the Lord that our daughter wasn’t home when it hit because it tore the roof off her apartment right over her bedroom.  Then the rain poured in and ruined everything in her bedroom.  Luckily, the rest of the apartment seemed to be ok.  Unfortunately for us, our car was in the parking lot at the time and it had to be considered to be a total loss.  There was a 2 x 4 sticking out the side of it.  After she got home she asked me a question that any of us might ask.  “Is God trying to tell me something through all of this?”  I don’t have answers for this but if He is trying to talk to you, then you had better be in a listening mode.  We all wrestle with God.

I also remember when I was about half done with my schooling to be a pastor when I realized that this was so hard that I didn’t think that I could do it.  I wrestled with God if I should even stay and finish.  I’m sure that you have your own stories where you have wrestled with God.

Then I would like you to notice what God does with this wrestling match.  They wrestle all night.  Jacob is such a rascal that he actually thinks that he is winning.  I don’t care how you want to read this; Jacob does not win the wrestling match.  It is impossible.  Anyway, God allows this to go on all night.

This is no different than when you wrestle with God.  God loves you beyond your comprehension.  He loves you so much that He allows you to really come to terms with whatever the problem may be.  Then He allows you to come to your own conclusion.  He allows you to wrestle long enough so that you will know the right and the wrong answer to the problem.  Then it is up to you to do what is right.  Have you ever made the wrong decision on something and you know that it is wrong and you have gone ahead anyway?  How do you feel?  You feel terrible and you know that it is your fault because you made the wrong decision.  So even if it doesn’t seem quite right to you, make the right decision according to God and feel better and do better.

Jacob has been wrestling all night and finally God has had enough of this so He touches Jacobs’s hip and Jacob becomes lame.  This experience with God will change Jacob forever.  Jacob, the liar and cheat, cannot beat God.  All Jacob can do is hang on for dear life.  This man is far greater than he and far more powerful.  So he hangs on in the hopes that he will be spared.  He has finally come face to face with himself and he doesn’t like it.

Many people like me can identify with Jacob at this point.  I came to a point in my life where I was wrestling with God and I didn’t even know it.  Life had beaten me and beaten me good.  There was no place to turn.  I had nowhere to go.  All I could do was grab onto God and hang on for dear life.  Many people come to know Christ in ways similar to this.

But there are also many Christians who get really badly beaten by life.  I could just as well come out and say that Satan beats us.  We have death, we have calamity, we have our car wrecked and the roof torn off our house and we don’t know what to do next.  Even as Christians we need to be reminded to hang onto God.  Grab a hold of Jesus and don’t let go.  You will come out of your trial a changed person just like Jacob.  Try to remember that we can live with a limp like Jacob had.  You can live with a limp but you can’t live without Jesus.

One of the great parts of this story is that God knows everything.  The name Jacob means exactly what Jacob was.  God knows that there has been a change in Jacob and He wants Jacob to start out new.  What better way to start out new than with a new name?  God changes Jacob’s name to Israel, which means “he struggles with God” according to some experts.  What a great name for a nation!  What a great name for any of us.

You see, Jesus wants you to be with Him at all times.  He also knows that you will struggle to be able to do this.  Remember how He was tempted by the devil.  He knows it will be the same for us.  So, He wants you to grab onto Him and not let go.  He will help us through all the bad times of life and the good times also.  If we just dedicate your life to Him, He will bless you and bless you and bless you.  I don’t know about you but I think that this is a pretty good offer from the strongest person in the universe; God.

But the decision is up to each one of us.  Steven Dow tells the story of a man in South America who worked with children who lived in the sewers.  He would go into the sewers himself to try to get these kids to come out.  I want you to think about this for a minute.  This is poverty.  These kids not only lived in the foulest of conditions but there was also no light so that they would be nearly blind when they came out.

Anyway, this man would help lead children out of this mess.  He would slowly lead them back to the light.  The problem came when the children realized the filth they were living in and were ashamed.  Many of the children embraced the new life above ground and tried to leave all the filth behind.  Others were just too ashamed of themselves and went back into the sewer.  It was their choice.  You know people who live in this same filth.  I challenge you to take Jesus to someone this week and help them to move out of their sewer.

There are many more things we could talk about in this passage.  This is one of those stories that really tell it all.  It tells us that we have to leave ourselves behind and embrace Jesus.  We are not generally right about things unless we first take them to Jesus.  Develop your prayer life to the fullest and go to Jesus with even the small things.  It will not be long before you notice the tremendous difference Jesus makes in your life.  Go to Him continually and thank Him for first loving us.  Let’s pray.