Sermon 3010. Jacob's Model Prayer

(No. 3010)

A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, OCTOBER 18, 1906.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, JUNE 16, 1867.

And Jacob said, O God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, the LORD who said unto me, Return unto your country,and to your kindred, and I will deal well with you: I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truthwhich You have showed unto Your servant, for with my staff I passed over this Jordan, and now I am become two bands. Deliverme, I pray You, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau: for I fear him, lest he will come and smite me, and themother with the children. And You said, I will surely do you good, and make your seed as the sand of the sea, which cannotbe numbered for multitude."

Genesis 32:9-12.

You must have noticed, dear Friends, how very frequently God makes the life of a man to be the reflection of his character.There is an echo in the outward experience, to the inward character of the man.

Look at the life of Abraham. He trusted God in a very eminent degree-shall I be incorrect if I say that God also eminentlytrusted him? The Lord spoke with Abraham as a man speaks with his friend and when He was about to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah,He said, "Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do?" And as Abraham had trusted God in so notable a manner, the Lordentrusted his seed with the oracles of God and with the outward forms of religious worship, so that it was through the seedof Abraham that the Truth of God was handed on, from generation to generation, until the days of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Then, next, in contrast to the life of Abraham, take the case of Jacob. He begins life by cheating his brother and, howeverthat cheating may have been overruled so as to fulfill the purposes of God, it was altogether unjustifiable. Now, as he hadbegun with Esau in that fashion, so he had it returned into his own bosom. When he was with Laban, he was cheated again andagain-cheated even in the wife who was given or sold to him. He was a great bargainer-shrewd, crafty, not over scrupulous-thetypical father of the Jews, yet you know how he was continually being overreached by Laban who could also bargain on his ownaccount. What a bargaining life it was all through-and what a life of sorrow, although he was still favored of God. His outwardexperience was the echo of his inward character. As he had done to others, so was it done to him and in him was fulfilledour Lord's declaration which had not then been uttered, "With what measure you mete, it shall be measured to you again."

Also look at Moses, practically renouncing the throne of Egypt by refusing to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter becausehe esteemed the reproach of Christ to be greater riches than all the treasures in Egypt! Yet what did he afterwards become?Was he not king in Jeshurun, with a strange and marvelous power over the hosts of the Lord and with a greater Kingdom underhim, according to the judgment of all who are able to weigh things rightly, than he could ever have had if he had become theruler of Egypt and the son of Pharaoh's daughter?

I might give you other illustrations of this fact, but I want, rather, to attract your attention to the better side of Jacob'scharacter as we have it revealed in the prayer which I have selected for our meditation on this occasion.

The Chapter from which our text is taken informs us as to the circumstances of Jacob's case at the time that he offered thisprayer. He had just escaped from his trouble with Laban when he received the inexpressible honor of being met by "the angelsof God." But, lest he should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the Revelations which they made to him, a secondtrouble followed closely upon the heels of the first. He was soon to meet his brother, Esau, and then the great sin of hisearlier years would be brought home to him. He had deceived his old father, Isaac, andhad gained the birthright blessing by utterly unjustifiable subtlety-and he might reasonably expect that he was about to reapthe due reward of his evil deeds!

With true Oriental craft and also with a considerable amount of common sense, he has various plans for appeasing the wrathof his brother. And then, when he had done what he thought to be wise, he betook himself to prayer. Brothers and Sisters,let us learn from Jacob's experience to expect troubles, especially if we have so acted as to bring trouble upon ourselves-butlet us also learn from Jacob's action that while planning is right enough when kept within its proper bounds, prayer is muchmore important. We may easily go to excess in our planning. We may depend so much upon an arm of flesh and upon our own wisdomand prudence-and have such confidence in our own scheming that it may, after all, turn out to be utter folly! The staff onwhich we lean may turn out to be, at best, but a broken reed-perhaps even a spear which shall pierce and wound us. "It isbetter to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man"-or to have confidence in ourselves for, even if we had all thewisdom that it is possible for man to attain, it would be but created wisdom! Whereas, if we go at once to the Lord our God,we shall go to Infinite Wisdom and we may expect to be guided rightly through all the difficulties of the way!

Prayer, my Brothers and Sisters, must be our first resource. But if it is the last, let it be the first as well. Let us notmerely go to God's door because we have tried everybody else and failed. Let us not go to the Fountain simply because thecisterns are exhausted, but let us go to our God first and foremost! And let us say, "Even if earth's cisterns did containwater, we would not forsake our God for them. And if all the forces of our fellow creatures were as real and powerful as theyprofess to be, we would still lean upon the arm that bears up the whole universe-the unseen arm of thefaithful Creator."

I selected this subject for our meditation, on this occasion, because it appears to me to give us a sort of model of whatprayer should be. We shall view it first in that light and when we have done so, I shall have a little to say about Jacob'slast plea, for it is most suggestive. And then I shall close with a word or two upon the answer to this model prayer of thePatriarch

I. First, then, concerning JACOB'S MODEL PRAYER, which is one of the earliest that is recorded in Holy Scripture-at leastin such detail.

I commend it for your imitation, my dear Friends, first, because of the plainness of its matter Jacob does not come beforeGod with a long roundabout story, telling in general terms the fact that he was in some sort of trouble, out of which he wishedto be Divinely helped, but he distinctly mentions the perilous circumstances in which he found himself. He says, "O God...deliverme, I pray You, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau." Of course God knew that the name of Jacob's brother wasEsau, yet Jacob thought it was necessary to mention his brother's name in order that his prayer should be definite and clear.So he pleaded, "Deliver me, I pray you, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau: for I fear him, lest he will comeand smite me, and the mother with the children." He was probably then alluding to his dearly-beloved Rachel and her son Joseph,though he may also have referred to the other mothers in the company, for he was a tender father and cared for his childrenand he mentioned them as being very near his heart, and especially needing Divine protection. So you see that Jacob is veryclear as to what he asks of God-and I urge you, my Brothers and Sisters, to imitate him in this respect.

When we pray, we sometimes use very roundabout expressions. We do not come straight to the point.We seem to imagine that a kind of religious etiquette forbids us from speaking plainly at the Throne of Grace.I am persuaded that this notion is altogether wrong and, instead of God approving this mode of speaking to Him in prayer,He would much rather have us speak to Him as a child speaks to his earthly father-respectfully, reverently, rememberingthat He is in Heaven and we are on earth-yet simply and plainly, for our Heavenly Father needs no garnishing of our speechand the poor tawdry flowers of eloquence with which some of our Brothers at times adorn their prayers must be displeasingto God rather than acceptable to Him. Especially must you unconverted ones imitate Jacob in this matter of plainness ofspeech-when you pray, never mind about the mode of your expression, but come to the main point at once. Tell the Lordthat you have grievously offended Him and mention your sins by name to Him in private. If your great sin has beendrunkenness, call it by that name! If it has been uncleanness, call it by that name! Do not endeavor to dissemble beforethe Lord, or to cloak your sin before the all-seeing Jehovah! You need not reach for a Prayer Book to see how the bishopswould have you pray, nor borrow somebody's Morning Devotions to see how a certain eminent Divine prayed-but go

straight to God and say, "O Lord, You know what I need! I am a poor guilty sinner and I cannot expressmyself in such a way as to please my fellow creatures, but You know what I am and what I need. Will You graciously give methe pardon of my sin, O You who alone can forgive the guilty? Will You receive me to Your bosom, You blessed Savior of thelost?" Come to the point with God, dear Friends. Be explicit with Him. Let it be seen that you are not praying for the meresake of performing a certain religious ceremony, but that you have real business to transact with the Most High! You knowwhat your request is and you do not intend to leave the Mercy Seat until your request is granted. So I commend Jacob's prayerto you because of the plainness of its speech.

Next, it is to be commended for the humility of its spirit. Notice especially these words of the Patriarch, "I am not worthyof the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth which You have showed unto Your servant, for with my staff I passedover this Jordan, and now I am become two bands." If you even hint that there is any worthiness in yourself, the power ofyour prayer is at once destroyed! But if you plead your unworthiness, you will then be standing where the publican stood whenhe cried, "God be merciful to me, a sinner." And you know how "he went down to his house justified rather than the Pharisee,"who said that he fasted twice in the week, gave tithes of all he possessed, and was not like other men, especially that publican!In that way he destroyed any power that his prayer might otherwise have possessed. His self-conceit tore the chariot wheelsfrom his prayer so that it dragged heavily and soon could not move even an inch! On the other hand, a deep sense of sin, afull consciousness of utter unworthiness will enable you, like Jacob, to wrestle with the great Angel of the Covenant andto prevail over Him. Possibly you have not succeeded with God because you have not sunk low enough before Him. You unconvertedones, especially, if you put your mouths in the very dust, that will be the best attitude for you to assume. If you stillhave some relics of strength, you will not receive Divine Strength. If there are some remnants of the pristine idea of humanmerit tolerated in your heart, the robe of Christ's righteousness will not be wrapped around you! Ask the Lord to strip youof every rag of self-righteousness, to enable you to trust in Jesus, alone, and to have no confidence in the flesh-eitherin the feelings which you experience or in the works which you do! Your time of uplifting will follow close upon your timeof falling down flat upon your face. The dawn of day succeeds the darkest hour of the night, so ask God to bring you downto that dark hour in which the night covers every hope that is born of human confidence, for then will the Lord appear toyou in His brightness! So, imitate the prayer of Jacob in its humility of spirit.

The third point in which I would have you copy Jacob's model prayer is in the arguments to be used. The whole prayer is highlyargumentative. If some of the prayers I have heard at Prayer Meetings-though I must say that the fault is less in this placethan in most others with which I have become acquainted-if some of the prayers at certain Prayer Meetings were less doctrinal,less experimental and more argumentative with God, they would be more like true prayer should be, for true prayer is justpleading with the Most High, spreading our case before Him, and then pressing our suit with all the arguments we can muster!

In this short prayer of the Patriarch, no less than four arguments are used. The first is the argument from the Covenant-"OGod of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac." God had entered into Covenant relationship with Abraham and made solemnpromises to him and to his seed, so Jacob prays, "O Lord, You have pledged yourself to be the God of the seed of Abraham,whose grandson I am, and of the seed of Isaac, whose son I am-now, therefore, by Your faithfulness to Your Covenant promise,help me in this dark hour of my life!" Beloved Friends, this is the kind of plea that we can use with the Lord-"O God, haveYou not made a Covenant with the Lord Jesus by which You have promised that You will save all them that trust in Him? HaveYou not said, 'I have given Him for a witness to the people, a leader and commander to the people? Then, Lord, though guilty,I trust to the merits of Your dear Son and I ask to be absolved by virtue of His great atoning Sacrifice. Behold, as the earthenvessel hangs upon the nail, so hang I upon Him and upon Him alone. Now, by the Covenant of Your Grace, which is ordered inall things and sure, I beseech You to manifest Your love to me." If you use such gracious pleading as that with the Lord,you will surely prevail with Him. And I urge you, also, children of God, to do the same, for the Everlasting Covenant is amighty plea with God-

"In every dark distressful hour, When sin and Satan join their power."

Then we pass on to the next use which Jacob makes of the promise which God had given him-"You said unto me, Return unto yourcountry, and to your kindred, and I will deal well with you." If you and I know that we are walking in

the path of duty, if we are where the Lord has bid us go, we can always claim the Divine promise! The Lord is bound to protectHis servants when they are in the path of obedience to His commands. If you follow your own counsel, you must manage to takecare of yourselves. But if you go where the Bible and the clear indications of Divine Providence guide you, you may alwaysreckon that the Master who sent you will protect His obedient servants, let the dangers of the way be whatever they may. IfGod should command you to go to the utmost verge of this green earth, to rivers unknown to song, or if He should bid you travelthrough distant deserts, as Mungo Park journeyed through the midst of Africa, yet He could preserve your life there, as wellas here in England-and being there, sent by Him-you may rest assured that you shall hear the sound of your Master's feet behindyou, or have other unmistakable evidences of His Presence with you!

And, Sinner, this is a good plea for you to use. You can say, "Lord, You told me to believe in Jesus Christ, Your Son, thenwill You not accept me, for His sake, for I have done what You told me to do? You have said, 'Call upon Me in the day of trouble.'Lord, this is a day of trouble with me and I do call upon You, so will You not answer me?" If you argue with the Lord in sucha style as this, you will find that this kind of pleading is potent with Him who is Omnipotent.

Then, further, Jacob argued with God from his past history. He said that he was not worthy of the least of God's mercies,yet he had received many of them. Though he went over the river Jordan, when he left his home, a sad and solitary man withnothing but his walking staff in his hand, yet, he had come back with wives and children and so great a number of servants,cattle, camels, goats, sheep and asses that he had become like two bands. "Now, Lord," he said, "after all Your past merciesto me, I beseech You, do not leave me now! Have You blessed Your servant up to this moment and can You leave him now?" I cannottell you how often I have been comforted by the Truth of God implied in John Newton's words-

"Determined to save, He watched over my path

When Satan's blind slave, I sported with death!

And can He have taught me to trust in His name,

And thus far have brought me to put me to shame?

His love in time past forbade me to think

He'll leave me at last in trouble to sink.

Each sweet Ebenezer I have in review,

Confirms His good pleasure to help me quite through." So Jacob prayed, in effect, "Lord, You have often been my Helper inthe past, so now deliver me, I pray You, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau." You, my unconverted Friend,may ever adopt this form of pleading, for you can say, "Lord, You have saved my life many a time when I have provoked You.Let Your long-suffering, which now leads me to repentance, also move You to forgive my sin. I remember what You did on Calvaryfor sinners in ages long past. Did you give your well-beloved and only-begotten Son to die for sinners and will You not nowaccept every trembling sinner who seeks Your favor?" This also shall prove to be the kind of pleading that will cause thegates of God's Grace to open!

The fourth argument that Jacob used was perhaps the best of all-"You said, I will surely do you good," and so on. Ah, thatwas the masterstroke and, in like manner, if you would succeed at the Mercy Seat, you must bring down the hammer of the promiseupon the head of the nail of prayer and then clinch it, as Jacob did, by saying to the Lord, "You said," so-and-so and so-and-so.David once said to God in prayer, "Do as You have said." When a man has promised you something that you really need, you takehim by the button-hole and you say to him, "Now, you promised to give me that." And if he is an honest man, you can hold himto his own word-and shall the God of Truth ever fail to perform His promise? No, that is one of the things that God cannotdo-He cannot lie and yet cannot run back from His promise, nor does He want to do so. O Christian, if you would get anythingfrom God, find a promise of it in His Word, and then you may count the thing as good as received! When a man of means givesyou his check, you count it just as good as hard cash-and God's promises are even better than checks or bank notes! We haveonly to take them and plead them before Him, and we may rest assured that He will honor them!

II. Thus I have tried to place before you the points in which Jacob's prayer is worthy of both commendation and imitation.And now I want to say something concerning our LAST PLEA which seems to me to be very suggestive- "You said."

Believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, I need not say more to you upon this matter, for you know the value of the promises ofGod, and you know how to use them. But to those who are not converted, I may perhaps speak a few words suggested by Jacob'slast plea-"You said, I will surely do you good." Sinner, lay hold, as fast as you can, of the promise of God and then pleadit with Him. To this end, I would say to every unconverted one here who desires to obtain the priceless blessing of salvation-studythe Word of God very diligently and always read it with the view of finding a promise that may suit your special case. Andwhen you read it, study it with the firm conviction that it is God's Word and that, in each promise, God is as truly speakingto you as though He had sent an angel to apply that promise personally to you. Take a text which you find to be applicableto yourself and say, "This is what the Lord says to me as certainly as though He now spoke it in my ear."

Next, I beseech you to remember that God's Word is absolutely true. Fix that fact in your memory and then say to yourselfthat the promise, being true, must be fulfilled. Next to the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ, the great object of faith isthe promise of God-and if we were more familiar with His promises, we should more speedily get out of that Slough of Despondin which so many of us flounder so long! Bunyan says that "there are, by the direction of the Lawgiver, certain good and substantialsteps placed even through the very midst of this Slough...but these steps are hardly seen-or if they are, men, through thedizziness of their heads, step besides, and then they are stuck in the mud, notwithstanding the steps are there." Look forthese steps of promise, my Friend! There is, in the Bible, a promise just exactly suited to your case, so mind that you findit. Did you ever send for a locksmith to open a drawer because you had lost the key and could not open it? He comes with agreat bunch of rusty keys-very much like God's promises which you have allowed to get rusty through not using them-and firsthe tries one key and then another, and another till, at last, he gets the right one-and the treasures in your drawer are spreadopen before you! It is just so with the treasures of God's mercy. There is one special promise in Scripture which will fitthe words of the lock of your experience-and you must try promise after promise till, at last, you get the right one and thenyou can say to the Lord, as Jacob did, "You said." That is the main matter-what God has said. Never mind what I say-that doesnot mean a thing except so far as I say what God says! Never mind what anybody else has said, but let your one concern beto know what God says!

Good Mr. William Jay, of Bath, writing upon this passage, "You said, I will surely do you good," makes four observations whichI commend to both saints and sinners. The first is, God has the ability to do you good. Whatever good it is that you need,God can give it to you. Pardon of sin, help in trouble, comfort in distress, whatever it is that you really need, God hasthe ability to give it to you and so to do you good. In the second place, God has the inclination to do you good. You neednot speak to Him as if He were unwilling to bless you-it is according to His Nature to be gracious. Love is one of His chiefattributes and His loving kindness and tender mercies greatly abound. He as much delights to show kindness to the needy asa generous man delights to relieve the needs of the poor. In the next place, God is under an engagement to do you good. "Yousaid, Surely I will do you good." God has given a promise to seeking sinners that He will be found of them. To repentant sinners,that He will pardon them. To believing sinners, that they shall find eternal life. And then, the fourth thing is, God hasalready done good to you. This fact ought to strengthen your faith. The Lord has the ability, the inclination and He is underengagement to do you good-and He has already begun to do it!

I may say to you, my Hearers, that the Lord has done you some good in bringing you here to listen to the Gospel and in makingthat Gospel so sweet and so generous a Gospel as it is-a Gospel for those who labor and are heavy laden, and who can findno rest anywhere else-a Gospel for the very chief of sinners, as Paul wrote to Timothy, "This is a faithful saying, and worthyof all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief." I put into your hands thisplea of Jacob, "You said, I will surely do you good." Go and plead it and the Lord do unto you according to your faith!

III. My last words which must be very few-concern THE ANSWER WHICH JACOB'S PRAYER RECEIVED. His prayer was answered, but itwas not answered in the way he expected it would be. When he had done praying, he

found that all his plans had been knocked on the head-so you need not wonder if you find the same thing happen to you

when you have done praying! Do not be astonished, my dear Hearers, if, when you have gone to God in prayer, you should seemto feel worse than you did before. There is a young friend-I daresay he is here now-who told me that he came to hear me formany months-that he became outwardly reformed and was, as he thought, going on well, till there

came, one Lord's-Day morning, a sermon [Sermon Number 732, Volume 13-THE HEART-A DEN OF EVIL] about the corruption of thehuman heart which knocked all to pieces his pretty castle in the air, upset all his hopes and utterly destroyed his self-confidence!I am very glad it did, for his hopes and trust were all false! And, afterwards, by God's Grace, he began to build upon a farfirmer foundation. Sometimes, when you have been praying for salvation, God answers you by destroying all your hopes. Youask Him to save you, and you think he would do it in a way that would make you happy. But, instead of that, He plucks up allyour fine plants by the roots and turns your pretty garden into a desert because He knows that the flowers you were growingwere all poisonous and must be cleared away before He can plant those which will be the plants of His right hand planting!

When God answered Jacob, He met him, not as his Friend, but as his wrestling Opponent. Jacob had a fierce duel, which lastedall night long, by Jabbok's Brook. And if God really appears to you, I should not be surprised if He comes at first like anenemy and you will have to say to Him as Job did, "You hunt me as a fierce lion." God's choicest mercies often come to usunder the guise of adversities. God sends His love letters to us in black-edged envelopes and sometimes we are afraid to openthem. If we would but do so, we should soon know the loving kindness of the Lord. Jacob was to have an answer to his prayerbut, before the answer came, he had to wrestle-no, worse than that-before Jacob was fully delivered, he had to be made tolimp and all his life afterwards he went halting upon his thigh. You, poor Sinner, may be made to feel your sinfulness somuch that you will be driven almost to despair! And you, Believer, will possibly have to fight with Satan as long as you arein this body.

Although Jacob's own plans were put on one side, and God met him as though He were his enemy, and the poor Patriarch wenton limping when the sun rose over Peniel, yet, for all that, he did get his prayer answered!His brother "Esau ran to meethim, and embraced him, and fell on his neck, and kissed him." So, Beloved, trust in the Lord and wait patiently for Him, andyour enemies shall become your friends, your doubts shall end in joy, your tribulations shall melt away into glory and youshall prove that "all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose."

Brothers and Sisters, the pith of the whole matter is this, "Trust in the Lord forever, for in the Lord Jehovah is everlastingstrength." As for you who know Him not, I pray you to trust in the Sacrifice of His dear Son, Jesus Christ. As the doves hidethemselves in the clefts of the rock, hide yourselves in the wounds of Jesus by trusting in His atoning Sacrifice. And asfor you, the saints of the Lord, return unto your rest for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you, therefore, "rest in theLord and wait patiently for Him," remembering that "they who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mountup with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; they shall walk, and not faint." May the Lord graciously give allof us His blessing and benediction, for Jesus Christ's sake! Amen.

EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: GENESIS 32.

Jacob had just come out of a great trouble. God's gracious interposition had delivered him out of the hands of the angry Laban-Labanthe churl, who cared for Jacob only for what he could get out of him.

Verses 1, 2. 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 the name of that place Mahanaim. The angels of God are always around His people. It was well for Jacob to bereminded of that fact, for he was about to pass into another trouble. John Bunyan truly says-

"A Christian man is seldom long at ease When one trouble's gone, another does him seize." Certainly it was so with Jacob for,after he had escaped from Laban, he knew that he had to meet his brother Esau, whom he had so greatly wronged so many yearsbefore. Then it was that "the angels of God met him." Go on your way in peace and safety, beloved Believer, for God's hostsare all around you. You do not go unattended at any single moment of your

life. Better than squadrons of horses and regiments of foot soldiers are the ministering spirits who are "sent forth to ministerfor them who shall be heirs of salvation."

3-5. And Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau his brother unto the land of Seir, the country of Edom. And he commandedthem, saying, Thus shall you speak unto my lord Esau; Your servant Jacob says thus, I have sojourned with Laban, and stayedthere until now: and I have oxen, and asses, flocks, and men servants, and women servants: and I have sent to tell my lordthat I may find grace in your sight. This was a wise and proper action on the part of Jacob, for he had grossly wronged hisbrother and it was right for him to make advances toward a reconciliation. He prayed to God for help, but he also used suchmeans as he could-the means that ought always to be used when any of us realize that we have done an injury to others. Weshould even be willing to humiliate ourselves in order to make peace. I think that when Christians differ from one another,there should be a holy emulation between them as to which shall be the first to give way, and which will give way the moreto the other. How many quarrels might soon be ended if there were this spirit of conciliation among all professing Christians!I have heard of one who had offended a brother Christian during the day. Possibly the brother Christian had offended him quiteas much. But the first one saw that the sun was going down, so he turned to seek his friend, that he might say to him, "FriendSo-and-So, I was wrong in being angry today." Half-way between their two houses, they met, and each of them said, "I was justcoming to say that I was wrong." There is no need of any arbitrator when each of the disputants is willing to say, "I waswrong." And the trouble is soon over when that point is reached. In this case, it certainly was Jacob's duty to make somereparation to his brother, whether Esau accepted it or not.

6. And the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, We came to your brother Esau, and also he comes to meet you, and four hundredmen with him. He would not have minded Esau coming alone to meet him, but the thought of the four hundred rough men who hadgathered around this wild warrior of the desert made him wonder what they might do and what Esau might do with their help.

7, 8. Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed: and he divided the people that were with him, and the flocks, and herds,and the camels into two bands and said, If Esau comes to the one company, and smites it, then the other company which is leftshall escape. He used the means that he judged to be the best under the existing circumstances-and I believe that God intendsus always to use our best wits and judgment-and then to fall back upon Him in confiding prayer just as if we had done nothingat all! Do everything as if God were not about to help you and then trust in God as if you had done nothing. An Arab saidto Mohammed, "I let my camel run loose and trusted it to Providence," but Mohammed replied, "You should have tied it up, first,and then trusted it to Providence." And Jacob was very much of that mind and a very sensible mind it was, not at all inconsistentwith the very best of faith!

9-12. And Jacob said, O God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, the LORD which said unto me, Return unto yourcountry, and to your kindred, and I will deal well with you: I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all thetruth which You have showed unto Your servant; for with my staff I passed over this Jordan; and now I am become two bands.Deliver me, I pray You, 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. And You said. That is always the most powerful plea when we can quote God's own promise-"Yousaid."

12-19. I willsurely do yougood, and make your seed as the sand ofthe sea which cannot be numbered for multitude. And he lodgedthere that same night; and took of that which came to his hand a present for Esau his brother two hundred she goats, and twentyhe goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams thirty milch camels with their colts, forty kine, and ten bulls, twenty she assesand ten foals. 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 between drove and drove. And he commanded the foremost, saying, When Esau my brothermeets you, and asks you, saying, Whose are you? And where go you? And whose are these before you? Then you shall say, Theyare your servant Jacob's; it is a present sent unto my lord Esau: and, behold, also he is behind us. And so commanded he thesecond, and the third, and all that followed the drove, saying, In this manner shall you speak unto Esau, when you find him.That was a very anxious night for Jacob. He was to have another night of still sterner work, but in doing as he did he actedwisely and rightly.

20. And say you moreover, Behold, your servant Jacob is behind us. For he said, I will appease him with the present that goesbefore me and afterward I will see his face; perhaps he will accept of me. Depend upon it, our sins will come home to us sooneror later! Jacob must have bitterly regretted that he had ever wronged Esau. There was a long interval between Jacob goingaway and his coming back, but his sin came home to him! And if you are a child of God and you do wrong, it is more certainto come home to you, in this life, than if you were one of the ungodly! As for them, they are often left to be punished inanother world, but if you are a child of God, you will be chastened here for your iniquity. Remember how earnestly David,too, prayed about the sins of his youth and his later transgressions. And Jacob, in deep humility, must have most vividlyremembered his sin against his brother.

21-24. So went the present over before him: and himself lodged that night in the company. And he rose up that night, and tookhis two wives, and his two women servants, and his eleven sons, and passed over the ford'/abbot And he took them, and sentthem over the brook, and sent over that he had. And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a Man with him until the breakingof the day. We know who that Divine Man was-the God who afterwards actually became Man, of whom it might even then be saidthat "His delights were with the sons of men."

25. And when He saw that He prevailed not against him, He touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob's thighwas out of joint, as he wrestled with Him. For even with a dislocated hip, Jacob would not give up wrestling! He meant tohold this wondrous Man until he got a blessing from Him.

26-29. And He said, Let Me go, for the day breaks. And Jacob said, I will not let You go, except You bless me! And He saidunto him, What is your name? And he said, Jacob. And He said, Your name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for asa prince have you power with God and with men, and have prevailed. And Jacob asked Him, and said, Tell me, I pray You, Yourname. And He said, why is it that you ask after My name? And he blessed him there. He would not gratify Jacob's curiosityconcerning His name, but He gave him the blessing that he craved. This was just as our Divine Master acted when His disciplesenquired of Him concerning the times and seasons-He told them it was not for them to know what the Father had retained inHis own power. But Christ added what was much better for them, "You shall receive power, after that the Holy Spirit is comeupon you." He will not tell us all we want to know, but He will give us all we need to have. What a wise and prudent Lordis ours!

30, 31. And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved. And ashe passed over Peniel the sun rose upon him, and he halted upon his thigh. He was lame and probably remained lame for life.

32. Therefore the children of Israel eat not of the sinew which shrank which is upon the hollow of the thigh unto this day:because He touched the hollow of Jacob's thigh in the sinew that shrank. Some touch of human weakness must always accompanythe Divine Strength that God may give us. If we are allowed the high honor of carrying the untold treasure of the Gospel,we must be reminded that "we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and notof us." Yet who would not be content to limp for life if he might but win such a victory as Jacob won on that memorable nightby the Brook Jabbok?

HYMNS FROM "OUR OWN HYMN BOOK"- 229, 734, 326.

-Adapted from The C. H. Spurgeon Collection, Version 1.0, Ages Software, 1.800.297.4307

PRAY THE HOLY SPIRIT WILL USE THIS SERMON TO BRING MANY TO A SAVING KNOWLEDGE OF JESUS CHRIST.