Thru the Bible

Host: How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith in His excellent word.

The stories in Genesis, well, they read like a novel. One family line traced through ambition, love, danger and deception. Brothers turn against one another, parents rush to help one child while another is left to suffer alone. It's human nature on full display.

I'm Steve Schwetz, and I'm glad that you're here as we look at God's word in a fresh way on through the Bible. Now, this time on the Bible bus, we're surveying the life of Jacob. And we've already seen how his actions came back to haunt him, how he deceived only to be deceived himself. He hurt his brother, and now after 20 years of running, he's about to face him again.

So, open your Bible to Genesis 33 and find a good seat for more of the story. And while you do, let's hear from a couple of our fellow passengers this time writing from India. First, we hear from Darwat who shares, "In order to get relief from my family problems, I became addicted to alcohol. During this difficult time, I came across your program. The council I received through the audience relations team has been a blessing to my wife and me.

I was able to share my problems and express my feelings and my doubts were resolved. We started listening to the program as a family and we pray every day. God has brought peace into our family and I have gradually reduced my drinking. I'm thankful this program came into my life at the right time. Please pray that I will stay connected to God and for the unity in my family as we continue walking with the Lord."

And then Eshwar tells us this, "I am a farmer and I have three daughters. There were family issues every day and misunderstandings between my wife and me. One day, I received a flyer on my way home from the farm. When I reached home, I called the number and shared my problems. The counseling I received helped me and I began listening every day. At that time, we didn't know how to stand together as a family. But after listening to the messages, my wife and I decided to be strong together and see things in a positive way.

We began praying to God every day as a family. God is blessing our family with what we need. Recently, we built a new house. We were once almost broken, but now we are building a home together. I can see this is a blessing from God."

Well, these are powerful letters from India, aren't they? And I echo their gratitude and say thank you to those who pray and financially support the Thru the Bible program and the in-country teams who faithfully serve our listeners like these. You know, your prayers and gifts are making a real difference in lives and communities around the world, so thank you.

Let's pray. Father, we ask that many more would find eternal life in your son as they hear your word taught on Thru the Bible. May this study be a turning point in the hearts and homes as we take your word to heart. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Turn now to Genesis 33 as we continue Thru the Bible with Dr. J. Vernon McGee.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: How are you today, friends, as we come to this 33rd chapter of the book of Genesis. We are following along in the life of this man Jacob.

Now, last time we saw what we call the high point in his life. And that high point was that he met God. God went after him. That night, we're told a man wrestled with him, and the man did the wrestling, not Jacob. He's not looking for another fight. He's got enough trouble on his hands. He has Uncle Laban back of him and brother Esau ahead of him. And the last time he saw both of them, they were breathing out threatenings against him. And this man Jacob is not in a position to take on someone else.

And therefore, the man took the initiative. He was the aggressor. And as we said, it was the pre-incarnate Christ. Now, if you'll notice how God dealt with him, how the Lord dealt with him. This man Jacob refused to give in at first. That's typical of him. And he knew a few holds. He thought that after a while he'd be able to overcome. He found out he couldn't overcome, but he would not surrender.

And so what did God do? Well, absolutely God in a moment with his superior strength could have pinned his shoulders down. But, may I say to you, he wouldn't have pinned his will down. It's like the little boy I told you about, his mama made him sit in the corner in his room. And after a while she heard a noise in there and she said to him, "Willie, are you sitting down?" And he said, "Yes, I'm sitting down, but I'm standing up on the inside of me." And old Jacob would have been standing up on the inside of him. He wasn't ready to yield.

And notice how God did it. He touched the hollow of his thigh. Just a touch of the finger of God. And this man becomes helpless, but you see God's not pinning his shoulders down. This man keeps on with him, and Jacob holds on to him. The man says, "Let me go." And Jacob said, "No, I want your blessing." He's now clinging to God. The struggling and striving is over.

And from here on, I think you're going to find a man not in a moment's notice changed because psychologists tell you today that these habits we form, they set up certain synaptical connections in our nervous system, and we do things by habit. We are creatures of habit, and this man will lapse back in his ways many times. But I want to tell you, we begin to see something in the man now, and before we're through with him, why we find that he is a real man of God.

Actually, we see him at home and in the land of Haran. He's a man of the flesh. And then here at Peniel, at the Brook Jabbok, he's fighting. And now after this, and on down into Egypt, especially, he's a man of faith. First a man of the flesh, a man that's fighting, struggling, and then a man of the faith.

Now, that's the Apostle Paul. There were three periods in his life. He was converted and then he thought he could live the Christian life. And that's where I made my mistake. When I became a Christian, I frankly thought I could live the Christian life. After all, J. Vernon McGee didn't need any help. I could do it. It was easy, but I didn't do it. That was the hard part.

And that is the part where you will recall that Paul had his problem. What I would not do, I continued to do, and he found out that there was not only no good in the old nature, but there was no strength or power in the new nature. And finally, we hear him crying out in Romans 7, verse 24, "O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?"

And then something happened. I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord, then it's through Him that you'll have to do all your thanking, because that's where your help is going to come through Him. "So then, with the mind, I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh, the law of sin." And that's the way that it is with all of us. We have that old nature, and it can't do anything that'll please God.

In fact, Paul went on to say that it was an enmity against God. They that are in the flesh, Paul said, cannot please God. Romans 8:8. You cannot please God in the flesh. And it's not until you and I yield to Him, and yield means it's an act of the will of a regenerated person yielding to God. What a picture that we have here, and all of these things happened under these for examples, under us.

Now, we are going to follow Jacob from here on, and something happens in the 33rd chapter. Almost think we've met a new man. To tell the truth, we have met a new man. Now let me read chapter 33, verse one. "And Jacob lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold Esau came, and with him 400 man. And he divided the children unto Leah, and unto Rachel, and unto the two handmaids." He wanted to spare his family, you see, so he separated them.

"And he put the handmaids and their children foremost, and Leah and her children after, and Rachel and Joseph hindermost. And he passed over before them, bowed himself to the ground seven times, until he came near to his brother." You know, I'd love to have had a picture of Jacob meeting his brother Esau. I suppose he was a mile from him and he started bowing. He came with his hat in his hand, because this man Esau has 400 men with him, and this man Jacob doesn't know how he's coming, whether it's as a friend or foe.

Now notice though, verse four. "And Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck, and kissed him, and they wept." Well, they're twins, they're brothers. And let bygones be bygones. I think Esau, God had certainly touched him because he had sworn vengeance that he'd kill his brother.

Now, will you notice, "And he lifted up his eyes and saw the women and the children and said, 'Who are those with thee?' And he said, 'The children, which God hath graciously given thy servant.'" "Then the handmaidens came near, they and their children. They bowed themselves. And Leah also with her children came near and bowed themselves. And after came Joseph near and Rachel, and they bowed themselves." "And he said, 'What meanest thou by all this drove which I met?' And he said, 'These are to find grace in the sight of my Lord.'"

Jacob, I think, believes for a moment that his strategy of approaching his brother had work, but notice, it wasn't necessary. And listen now to Esau, and what a change. "And Esau said, 'I have enough, my brother, keep that thou hast under thyself. I have enough, my brother.'" That's what Esau said. "You didn't need to send that to me. After all, Esau had plenty."

"And Jacob said, 'Nay, I pray thee, if now I have found grace in thy sight, then receive my present at my hand. For therefore I have seen thy face, as though I'd seen the face of God, and thou was pleased with me. Take, I pray thee, my blessing that is brought to thee, because God hath dealt graciously with me, and because I have enough.' And he urged him, and he took it."

You know, this is almost a humorous scene. When up to the time that Jacob left home, these two fellows were after each other in the flesh. Each one trying to get something from the other. And especially Jacob. And now we find Jacob in a new office altogether. Here he is insisting that his brother take a gift. And his brother insists, "Why, Jacob, I have plenty. I don't need it. You don't need to give it to me. It's not essential." And Jacob insisted.

And believe me, friends, something's happened to the boy. He's like Zacchaeus up the tree, you know, when our Lord got him down and went into his home, something happened to Zacchaeus. When he came out, he said, "I'm no longer the tax collector that's been stealing from people and being dishonest. I now want to return, not only anything I've taken in a wrong way," and you can be sure he had, "but I want to restore it fourfold."

What a difference! What a change had taken place! And you certainly knew which house Jesus had visited. And certainly, here's a man that's a little different than the man that we met before. What a change! Before, he traded a bowl of soup to get a birthright. Now he's willing to give flocks and herds to his brother for nothing. And his brother doesn't want to take it, and he insists. Now, his brother finally took it. He urged him and he took it. Why? Because in that land in that day, to have refused the gift that was urged upon you like this would have been an insult. And so Esau takes it.

"And he said, 'Let us take our journey and let us go and I will go before thee.'" Esau said, "You return back to the land." "Now let me go before you and show the way. I'll be protection for you also." Verse 13 now of chapter 33 of Genesis I'm reading. "He said unto him, 'My Lord knoweth that the children are tender, and the flocks and the herds with young are with me. And if man should over drive them one day, all the flock will die.'"

Jacob said, "I'm moving with my family. I have flocks here and herds and they have little ones, and I can't go very fast now. You, of course, with that army of 400 will probably want to move much faster, so you go ahead." "Now he says, verse 14, 'Let my Lord, I pray thee, pass over before his servant, and I will lead on softly according as the cattle that goeth before me and the children be able to endure until I come unto my Lord unto Seir.'"

You see what he wants to do now. He said, "I can't keep up with you, brother Esau, but if you let me go ahead, then we'll set the pace that we can keep, but you probably should go ahead." Verse 15, "And Esau said, 'Let me now leave with thee some of the folk that are with me.'" "And he said, 'What needeth it? Let me find grace in the sight of my Lord.'"

"So Esau returned that day on his way unto Seir." That's where he lived down in the land of Edom. "And so Esau returns back to his land to his home. And he leaves though a guard to go along to assist Jacob." "Now verse 17, 'And Jacob journeyed to Succoth and built him an house and made booths for his cattle.'" That is, he put up barns for them. "Therefore the name of the place is called Succoth."

Now, here is something that you can just pass by so quickly and easily without paying too much attention to this at all. The great change has come in this boy now. That is, this man Jacob. All of Jacob's clever scheming, you see, to present a gift to his brother Esau, it just comes to naught. And God had prepared the heart of Laban not to harm Jacob, so God prepared the heart of Esau to receive Jacob. And now he has peace on both fronts.

And Esau did not want the gift of Jacob as he had an abundance, but Jacob insisted that he take it, which he did. And both of these brothers seem to be generous and genuine in their reconciliation. We have no reason to doubt it. And since Esau was now prosperous and attached no particular value to the birthright anyway, there's no reason why he should not be reconciled to his twin brother.

Now, the sunshine is beginning to fall on Jacob's life now. Laban is appeased and Esau is reconciled. God arranged all this for him. Now had Jacob been left to his own cupidity and his own cleverness, he would have come to his death in a violent manner. Jacob is going to look back over his life before too long.

And when he does, he's going to see the hand of God in his life and he's going to give God the glory. However, the evil he has sown, it's going to bring forth a full harvest. Trouble is the offing for this man. It's there waiting for him. Esau returned that day on his way unto Seir. And we find here that we can write over that verse, "There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death." So we bid goodbye to Esau for the time being. He'll be back however for the funeral of his father Isaac when he dies.

Now, Jacob is sometimes criticized because he stopped here at Succoth and did not proceed on to Bethel. We actually ought not to expect too much of Jacob at this time. He's been crippled and he's just learning to walk with his spiritual legs. Jacob builds an altar here, as his grandfather Abraham was accustomed to do, and the fine features that Jacob identifies his new name with the name of God, El Elohe Israel, God, the God of Israel.

Now, this is real growth in a man who's just learning to walk. Let's put it like this. He's on the way to Bethel, but he hadn't arrived there yet. And so we find him journeying here to Succoth. And now I read verse 18. "And Jacob came to Shalem, a city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, when he came from Padanaram. And he pitched his tent before the city. And he bought a parcel of field, where he had spread his tent, at the hand of the children of Hamor, Shechem's father, for a hundred pieces of money."

"And notice this, 'And he erected there an altar. And he called it El Elohe Israel.'" Up to this time, you'll find that this boy has not erected many altars to the Lord God of his fathers. He just hasn't done that. But now he becomes a testimony for God.

Now, we are going to see, when we get to the next chapter here, that he made a mistake in stopping in this place. We're going to see that there's a scandal in the family of Jacob, that Dinah, the daughter of Jacob, by Leah, is defiled by Shechem, the son of Hamor, the Hivite. And Simeon and Levi, her brothers, her full brothers, they avenge this act by slaying all the inhabitants of the city of Hamor.

And you can't justify that. And this is a dark blot on the family of Jacob, and it reveals the fact that he didn't get away too soon when he left his uncle down in the land of Haran. We need to see that, that God was right in getting him away from that environment. The two things that God in Genesis spends a great deal of time doing, and I must pause to call attention to it.

I think I have mentioned it once or twice. I've mentioned these things separately, but now let me mention them together. First of all, is the heredity. God is very much concerned that a believer marry a believer, and that a believer not marry an unbeliever. That's important for the sake of heredity. Now, the second thing is the environment of the individual, and you see that especially in the life of Jacob.

He has a big family. Not only were there 12 sons, there were daughters. We are only given the record of this one because she features in this chapter here, and it's a sad one. It's a very sad one. Now, therefore, there's something else for us to note here as we come to it, because this is important to the understanding of Genesis. And that is that there's trouble in the families. Have you noticed that?

There was strife and trouble in the family of Abraham. There was strife and trouble in the family of Isaac. We saw there that here was Isaac having a favorite, Esau was his favorite. And Rebecca, well, her favorite was her son, Jacob. And that caused trouble in the family, a great deal.

Now, we see there's a great deal of trouble in the family of Jacob. Well, he has quite a few offspring about. Now, he did stop here in Shechem. And he stayed here for a while, and it's going to cause a great deal of sorrow that'll come to him. And very frankly, chapter 34, and we may not spend too much time with it next time. But it's a sad and sorted chapter here in the book of Genesis.

We have another one coming up, but this is a sad and sorted chapter. And it must have been a heartbreak to old Jacob at this time. And probably we ought to call him Israel, because that is his new name. And he's built an altar, and there's one thing that's for sure. He's giving now a testimony to the living and true God. There is a change in his life, and it's a growth, it's a development. And again, I want to make this statement because this is a lesson for us today.

Don't expect that as a Christian, that you're going to become full-grown overnight. Now, God adopts you into the family as a full-grown son where you're able to understand divine truth, because the Holy Spirit is your teacher. But your growth and my growth is slow. Progress is very slow, because we may learn truths in the Bible, but we will find that in our lives that you and I go through very much like Simon Peter, stumbling here and falling down there. And thank God Simon Peter kept getting up and brushing himself off. And there came the day when he had a very close walk with the Lord. In fact, he walked to the cross even as our Lord did.

But you and I need to recognize that in our own lives, the growth is slow, and therefore, the growth in others. Don't expect too much. I know sometimes parents of children that are converted, they expect too much of them. Let's not expect too much of other folk, but let's also expect a great deal of ourselves. And so until next time, may the Lord richly bless you, my beloved.

Host: You know, it's true. None of us grow quickly. So we shouldn't expect perfection from each other. Progress, that's what we're after.

It's our hope that Jacob's experience helps you to better understand yourself and those around you. If you know someone, maybe who would benefit from this study, well, why don't you point them over to download our app or hop aboard the Bible bus with us. I also highly recommend our Bible companion for Genesis. It's the perfect way to study for the first time or go into a deeper review of what you're learning. And our Bible companions are available for free download in our app or at ttb.org. Or just call us at 1-800-65 Bible, if we can help you find them.

And of course, we're always eager to hear from you and how God's using our studies together to deepen your walk with Him. So get in contact with us and let us know. Just find us on social media if you want. You can drop us a note in our app, you can email us at biblebus@ttb.org or you can always write to us. Box 7100, Pasadena, California, 91109. In Canada, Box 25325, London, Ontario, N6C, 6B1. And you can also call and leave a message anytime at 1-800-65 Bible.

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Host: Jesus paid it all. All to Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. Today's study is always available, free to stream or download, thanks to the generous and faithful investments from your fellow Bible bus travelers. Just go to ttb.org or download our app to listen again anytime. As always, we'd love to know what's God teaching you.