Thru the Bible

Steve Shwetz: Welcome to Thru the Bible. We're in Genesis chapter 32, a chapter our teacher, Dr. J. Vernon McGee, calls one of the greats in the Bible. And we're finally at that high point, or really the turning point, in the life of Jacob. Before we get started, though, and while you grab your Bible, Greg Harris and I have an update on what God is doing through the global ministry of Thru the Bible. So, Greg, let's just dive in.

Greg Harris: Yeah, well, we want to take an opportunity to talk about something pretty amazing that God is doing. And it's something old, and it's something new, and it's our home groups.

Steve Shwetz: Yeah. Oh, man. What continent now? I mean, first this thing was birthed in India and it was like, wow, this thing is really taken off. And then, like a forest fire with perfect conditions, it's spreading over Africa.

Greg Harris: Yeah, that's right. Well, and we love telling the story of how we don't plan. I mean, it's not that we don't plan at all. We should qualify that and say, we let God present opportunities and then, when we believe He's leading us through an open door, then we plan and we execute the work.

But when it comes to, say, trying to spread home groups around the world, we just wanted to let God open those doors. And He did it in Ethiopia, and it was literally about two years ago that you went to Ethiopia and trained what, 75 pastors?

Steve Shwetz: Yeah, it was originally, I mean, this is like the story of home groups from the beginning. I think we were going to have 35 or 40 pastors at the most. We ended up having almost double that, and then they put this big audacious goal out there of having like 2,200 small groups or something everybody committed to.

And I'm thinking, you guys, you're not going to make it. And woe am I wrong, and I get shamed every time for my lack of faith because not only did they far surpass that within the first, I think, six or seven months.

Greg Harris: Yeah, I was there six months later and they were at 3,000.

Steve Shwetz: Yeah, so it's like, okay, Steve's wrong there. And now, how many participants? That's another metric that we look at. How many participants in Ethiopia alone?

Greg Harris: Over, I think they told us about 100,000 participants now.

Steve Shwetz: Okay, I thought it was 60,000. But that was yesterday. Yes.

Greg Harris: Well, it was, but the latter meeting I had said 100 because it's now close to 9,000 groups, about 8,651 if I remember correctly. And that's part of the old story. That, of course, happened in the last two years, which is stunning.

But just recently, just shortly before you and I got in the studio today, we had a team that went back to do some more training in Ethiopia, but also went to Kenya because the folks in Kenya said, "Hey, we want in on this. This is exciting." And Steve, they came up with a number that's so big, I almost don't want to say it because it's 10 times what the Ethiopians said.

Steve Shwetz: What, this is their goal? Over 20,000 groups? Okay, I'm going to join you in your skepticism.

Greg Harris: Well, it's over 20,000 groups. And this was not forced upon them, and George Philip, who is the human father of the Thru the Bible home group network, he said, "I didn't push them. I said, 'Be realistic,' and they said, 'We can do this.'" So, Steve, I'm going to join you in your skepticism and we will see, we will see.

Steve Shwetz: Yeah, it is truly amazing the way God continues to do a work in this portion of our ministry for this season. We don't know if it's going to go on for years and years, but right now the Lord certainly seems to be blessing and bringing a level of Bible engagement that was not there before.

Greg Harris: And I love the way you said that. That's also part of our philosophy of letting God grow this ministry. Maybe we do something for a season and then He moves us into a new way of flinging the seed.

And we don't have much time, but I want to highlight one other thing that came out of this trip to Ethiopia, which is up in the north, where I had a chance to go. The Orthodox Church isn't a Christian church. It's just like a cult, basically. And they told us that they have trained 100 Orthodox priests who, as I've shared before, they're actually called magicians by the locals. That gives you an indication of their skill set.

Steve Shwetz: Oh gosh.

Greg Harris: But there are, we just trained 100 believing Orthodox priests in the middle of this cultish environment, and God's word is going to go into northern Ethiopia. So, it's pretty amazing.

Steve Shwetz: That is wonderful, wonderful. Greg, we want to now focus on Genesis as we study. Would you pray for the ministry and for the teaching?

Greg Harris: Father, we just thank You and praise You for what You're doing. It's so obvious. You are moving. You're getting Your word to people in ways that we never dreamed, and we praise You for that. And we pray now that as we open Your word and study Genesis, that You would transform our hearts and our minds in Jesus' name, amen.

Steve Shwetz: Let's dive into Genesis 32 on Thru the Bible with Dr. J. Vernon McGee.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Now I trust that you have your Bible open to Genesis 32. This is one of the great chapters of the Bible. Have I said that before? Well, I think so. There are a great many great chapters of the Bible and this is one of them. This is actually the high point in the life of Jacob and can be called a turning point in his life. Now, this is not his conversion by any means. This man, in spite of the fact that he was living in the flesh, and believe me, he was living in the flesh, was still God's man.

That's the reason that you and I are told to be very careful today about judging folk about whether they're Christian or not. There are a lot of people that don't look like they're Christian, I'm sure that they are, or I'm almost sure that they are, but I don't know and that's in the hands of the Lord. They just don't act like it, that's all. And they give no evidence. And this man Jacob gave none at all, except these very faint instances of where God appeared to him and he did respond in a way.

But now this man who is God's representative and is God's witness in the world, and has been a bad witness, but he can't keep that up. And so, God's going to deal with him. To tell the truth, God is going to break his leg to get him. But God will break his leg in order to get him. And the Lord disciplines us. Whom the Lord loveth, He chasteneth. That's His method. He disciplines in that way.

And we have already seen that Lot didn't look like he was a child of God, but he was. Peter says he vexed his righteous soul. And I tell you, he certainly was put through the fire, only he escaped the fire of Sodom and Gomorrah, but the Lord put him through the fires of testing. And now that is Jacob's experience. He's got his college degree, the college of hard knocks. Uncle Laban was the president and dean of the school and he had graduation.

And this boy Jacob gave his valedictorian and it was a pitiful thing. Twenty years it took him to get his degree, and he says, "I certainly worked for it." And the requirements, old Laban changed them ten times. That means every two years he had a new contract with Uncle Laban, and it was always to his disadvantage. This is the experience of this man. Now we come to this test and God's going to have to deal with him because he's going to represent God and God will deal with him.

Now we come here to this thirty-second chapter and God will move in on him. I'd like to write over this chapter, as I've written verses of Scripture elsewhere over certain chapters we've come to, is this one. It is Isaiah 40:29: "He giveth power to the faint, and to them that have no might he increaseth strength." That's the experience now of this man. And Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him.

And when Jacob saw them, he said, "This is God's host," and he called a name of that place Mahanaim. God is beginning to deal with this man directly in order to bring him into the place of fruit-bearing and of real vital service and witness for Him. And Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau his brother unto the land of Seir, the country of Edom. And he commanded them saying, "Thus shall ye speak unto my lord Esau; Thy servant Jacob saith thus, I have sojourned with Laban and stayed there until now; and I have oxen and asses, flocks and men servants and women servants; and I have sent to tell my lord that I may find grace in thy sight."

This boy Jacob is still clever, isn't he? He just can't let go, even after his experience with Laban now, and he's returning back. And he remembers now the last time twenty years before that why Esau was breathing out threatenings against him. And notice now, he sends servants and he says to the servants, "When you get to Esau, my brother, you say to him, 'My lord Esau,' of all things." And then he says, "thy servant Jacob."

Well, that's not the way Jacob had done it. He'd stolen the birthright and he didn't steal the birthright, but he manipulated for it and he stole the blessing. He'd been a rascal, but now his talk is different. He'd learned a few things, I guess, from Uncle Laban. My lord Esau, thy servant Jacob. And so he sent the messengers, and the messengers returned to Jacob saying, "We came to thy brother Esau, and also he cometh to meet thee and four hundred men with him."

And that absolutely frightened poor Jacob because he didn't know what all that meant. And Esau didn't indicate to the servants at all. I suppose Jacob quizzed them rather thoroughly and said, "Did you detect any note of animosity or bitterness or hatred toward me?" And I think the servants said, "No, he seemed to be glad to get the information that you were coming to meet him. And now he's coming to meet you."

But the fact he was glad didn't mean anything to Jacob. It could mean he'd be glad for the opportunity of getting revenge. Well, anyway, poor Jacob's upset. Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed. And he divided the people that was with him, and the flocks and herds and the camels into two bands and said, "If Esau come to the one company and smite it, then the other company which is left shall escape."

He's in a bad way, he thinks. Here he is with this brother of his coming to him and so he divides up the group. He's being clever. And he says if this boy, my brother, if he strikes one, then the other one can escape. And now notice verse 9. What does he do now? He appeals to God in his distress. And Jacob said, "O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, the Lord which saidst unto me, Return unto thy country and to thy kindred, and I will deal well with thee; I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies and of all the truth which thou hast showed unto thy servant; for with my staff I passed over this Jordan and now I am become two bands."

This is Jacob. And this man now appeals to God, cries out to Him on the basis of that He's the God of his father Abraham and the God of his father Isaac. And I begin now to detect a little change in his life. This is the first time I've ever heard him say, "I'm not worthy of the least of thy mercies." Here he's for the first time is acknowledging that he might be a sinner in God's sight. You know, we've got a lot of fundamentalists that I don't think they've acknowledged they're sinners for years.

I had a man that wrote me quite a lengthy letter. He was incensed that I would indicate that he's a sinner. And he told me what all that he had done and that he'd been saved and he now was not a sinner. I bet he is. May I say to you, we're all sinners saved by grace. And as long as we're in this life, we've got that old nature that isn't even fit to go to heaven. And you know something else? It's not going to heaven. God's not going to let it go. Vernon McGee can't go there. That's the reason He had to give me a new nature. The old one wasn't even fit to repair.

And so this boy is beginning now to say he's not worthy. And when any man begins to move toward God on that basis, he'll find that God will communicate with him. And he makes this very interesting statement that he says, "I went over this Jordan here just with his walking stick, my staff." That's all he had. Now he's coming back and he's got two bands. This is Jacob for you. And now will you notice, listen to him, verse 11: "Deliver me, I pray thee, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau; for I fear him, lest he will come and smite me and the mother with the children."

I tell you, he really cried out to God. And that night was a very difficult night for him and he didn't have any aspirins to take that night. It was difficult. Verse 13, he lodged there that same night, took of that which came to his hand a present for Esau his brother; two hundred she goats, twenty he goats, two hundred ewes, twenty rams, thirty milch camels with their colts, forty kine and ten bulls, twenty she asses and ten foals.

You see, he's pretty generous with his stock now. And he delivered them into the hand of his servants every drove by themselves and said unto his servants, "Pass over before me and put a space betwixt drove and drove." Now you see, his tactic is this: he'll send out a drove, a very rich gift for his brother. And when that first drove would arrive, Esau would say, "Well, what is this?" He said, "Well, we're bringing you a gift from your brother Jacob."

And then he'd receive that, he'd ride on a little farther, meet another drove same size. And he'd ask them, "Where you going?" Well, they said, "We're going to meet Esau." Well, he said, "I'm Esau." Well, he said, "Here's a gift for you. It's from your brother Jacob." Believe me, by the time that he got down to where Jacob and the family were, he'd be softened by then. You see, he's prayed to God and he's reminded the Lord that you told me to return to my country, you said you'd protect me.

But does he believe God? No, he goes right ahead and makes these arrangements which reveal he wasn't trusting God at all. And that, I'm afraid, is our same position. Many of us take our burdens to the Lord in prayer; we just spread them out before Him. I do that. Then when we get through praying, we get right up and put each little burden right back on our back and start out again with it. We really don't believe Him, do we? We don't really trust Him as we should.

Now let me put in at verse 17: "And he commanded the foremost saying, 'When Esau my brother meeteth thee and asketh thee saying, Whose art thou and whither goest thou and whose are these before thee? Then thou shalt say, They be thy servant Jacob's, it's a present unto my lord Esau and behold also he is behind us, he's coming.'" And that would be one after another like that. This is the plan that he's working on.

And now we find, verse 20: "And say ye moreover, Behold thy servant Jacob is behind us." For he said, "I will appease him with the present that goeth before me and afterward I will see his face; peradventure he will accept me." So went the present over before him, and himself lodged that night in the company. And he rose up that night and took his two wives and his two women servants and his eleven sons and passed over the ford Jabbok.

And he took them and sent them over the brook and sent over that he had. Now this is the night. This is the great experience in his life that came to him. Now you'll notice that he came to this very desolate place, the brook Jabbok at the crossing. I've been there and I got away from the group purposely and I took a walk across the bridge that's there now. The United States has built a very lovely road through that area, did it for the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.

And it takes you into that area to see several things you wouldn't be able to see if you didn't have a good road, because that's quite a wilderness through there. And I took pictures of sheep that were drinking down at the brook Jabbok. It's a crossing there, but a very bleak place. It's right down between two we'd call them hills, they're not really mountains, but it's very mountainous country, it's very rugged country. And here is where this man came that night.

He's not a happy man and he's filled with fear and doubts. You see, chickens are coming home to roost. He'd mistreated Esau and God never told him to get it that way. God would have gotten it for him. And so that night he sent across the brook Jabbok all that he had, but he stayed on the other side. Because even if his brother came, it might be he'd spare the family and just maybe kill Jacob. So Jacob's left alone.

Now verse 24: "And Jacob was left alone, and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day." Now there's several things I'd like to get straight as we come to this wrestling match. I've heard it said that Jacob did the wrestling. Actually, Jacob did not do any wrestling at all. He didn't want to wrestle anybody. Let's be very frank. He has Uncle Laban back of him who doesn't mean good at all, and he has his brother Esau ahead of him, and actually Jacob is no match for either one.

And he's caught now between a rock and a hard place and he doesn't know which way to turn. Now do you think he wanted to take on a third one that night? I don't think so. Time magazine quite a few years ago, they put in the sporting section of the magazine concerning the votes for who was the greatest wrestler. Says not a vote went to the most famous athlete in history, wrestling Jacob. And lo and behold, they got a letter in the mail from someone who wrote in says, "Can you tell me something about this wrestler Jacob?"

They had never heard of him before and evidently they had never read their Bible at all. Well, he's no wrestler. Let's make that very clear here at the very beginning. That night he was alone because he wanted to be alone and he wasn't looking for a fight that night. Now this man who wrestled with him, that's the question. Who is this one that wrestled with him that night? Well, again, there's been a great deal of speculation about who it is.

But I think it's none other than the pre-incarnate Christ. And I have some evidence for it. Over in Hosea, the twelfth chapter, and I'd like to turn to that. Let me read this, chapter 12 of Hosea, verse 1: "Ephraim feedeth on wind and followeth after the east wind; he daily increaseth lies and desolation and they do make a covenant with the Assyrians and oil is carried into Egypt. The Lord hath also a controversy with Judah and will punish Jacob according to his ways, according to his doings will he recompense him.

He took his brother by the heel in the womb and by his strength he had power with God. Yea, he had power over the angel and prevailed, he wept and made supplication unto him; he found him in Bethel and there he spake with us. Even the Lord of hosts, the Lord is his memorial or the Lord is his name." May I say to you, it was none other than Jehovah, the pre-incarnate Christ, who wrestled with him that night. Now when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh, and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint as he wrestled with him.

Now old Jacob's not going to give up easy. He's not that kind of a man and he wrestled. And finally, this one who wrestled with him broke his leg and he said, "Let me go for the day breaket." And he said, "I will not let thee go except thou bless me." And what happened now? Jacob is just holding on. He's not wrestling. He's just holding on to this one. And he found out that you don't get anywhere with God by struggling and fighting.

The only way that you get anywhere with Him is by yielding and just holding on to Him. Abraham had learned that. That's what Abraham said 'amen' to God. He believed God; he counted it to him for righteousness. Abraham reached the end of his rope and put his arms around God. And friends, when you get in that condition, then you trust God. I've read several letters recently from folk, one a fellow that had been on dope, another one who lost a little boy, a precious little boy in the home and had to reach out for help somewhere.

Well, my friend, when you're willing to hold on, He's there ready to help you. And he said unto him, "What's thy name?" and he said, "Jacob." And he said, "Thy name shall be called no more Jacob." Not Jacob anymore, the one who is the usurper, the trickster, but Israel. Why Israel? For as a prince hast thou power with God and with men and hast prevailed. And now the new nature of Israel will be manifest in the life of this man.

And Jacob asked him and said, "Tell me, I pray thee, thy name." And he said, "Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name?" And he blessed him there. And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, "For I have seen God face to face and my life is preserved." He had seen the angel of the Lord, the pre-incarnate Christ. And as he passed over Penuel, the sun rose upon him and he halted upon his thigh.

You see, God had to cripple him to get him. God broke his leg, but He got him. And you're going to find out from here on, he's going to manifest a spiritual nature, dependence upon God. Another young man in the New Testament, a son of Jacob, by the name of Saul of Tarsus. He tells us his struggle in the seventh of Romans, that he couldn't win. And finally, he found out by yielding and letting the Spirit of God what the law could not do, the Spirit now is able to do in your life.

How does he do it? By an act of the will, by yielding to Him. And that's exactly what Jacob did. Jacob won, but he won, he got the victory, not by fighting and struggling, but by yielding. And that's the only way you and I will get anywhere with God today. We leave off right there. Until next time, my beloved, may God richly bless you.

Steve Shwetz: Join me this weekend for Dr. McGee's never-before-aired Sunday sermon, "To Tell the Truth." Listen on our app or at ttb.org, or call 1-800-65-BIBLE if we can help you find a radio station. I'm Steve Shwetz, and I'll save you a seat for next time as together we go Thru the Bible.