Great Prayers of the Old Testament
Part 3: How to Call on God in a Crisis
Genesis 32:1-12
Sermon by Rick Crandall
(Prepared October 10, 2024)
BACKGROUND:
*Today we will study another great prayer from the Old Testament. But first, remember that the Holy Spirit put over 200 prayers in the Bible. God must have done this to show us that He wants us to pray, that prayer is important, and that prayer is powerful. God also uses these prayers to teach us how to pray. Another major reason why God put so many prayers in the Bible is because He wants our relationship with Him to grow closer and stronger every day. That's what salvation is: A close personal relationship with God the Father through faith in our crucified and risen Savior Jesus Christ, made personal through the presence of God's Holy Spirit in our life. And prayer helps us have a closer walk with God. (1)
*Last time in Genesis 18, God met face to face with Abraham and Sarah. The LORD came down to confirm His promise of a son to this very old couple. But God also came down to tell Abraham about His decision to destroy Sodom and her wicked sister-cities. When we last saw Abraham, he was praying for God to spare Sodom, if even 10 righteous men could be found in the city. And Abraham's prayer taught us a lot.
*Today in Genesis 32, we move forward about 150 years to Abraham’s grandson, Jacob. His parents, Isaac and Rebekah had been childless for 20 years when God gave them their twin sons. And Genesis 25:22-23 tells us that:
22. . . the children struggled together within her; and she said, "If all is well, why am I this way?'' So she went to inquire of the LORD.
23. And the LORD said to her: "Two nations are in your womb, two peoples shall be separated from your body; one people shall be stronger than the other, and the older shall serve the younger.''
*God said that Esau the older brother would serve Jacob the younger. But their father Isaac stubbornly rejected God's choice of the younger son. When it came to the crucial family blessing, Isaac wanted to give the blessing to his favorite son, Esau. But Rebekah led Jacob, her favorite, to use lies and tricks to deceive his blind, old father Isaac. And since the blessing usually went to the firstborn son, Esau was greatly offended. He hated his younger brother so much that he planned to murder Jacob just as soon as their father passed away.
*Mom desperately wanted her favorite to be out of harm's way, and she persuaded Isaac to send Jacob to her brother's home to search for a godly wife. Jacob was running for his life, and headed for the safety of his uncle's home, when God revealed Himself to him. Genesis 28:11-14 says:
11. So he came to a certain place and stayed there all night, because the sun had set. And he took one of the stones of that place and put it at his head, and he lay down in that place to sleep.
12. Then he dreamed, and behold, a ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven; and there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.
13. And behold, the LORD stood above it and said: "I am the LORD God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants.
14. Also your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth; you shall spread abroad to the west and the east, to the north and the south; and in you and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed."
*It's very important to skip forward about 17 centuries to the time when Jesus began choosing his disciples. John 1:43-51 says this:
43. The following day Jesus wanted to go to Galilee, and He found Philip and said to him, "Follow Me.''
44. Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter.
45. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, "We have found Him of whom Moses in the law, and also the prophets, wrote Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.''
46. And Nathanael said to him, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?'' Philip said to him, "Come and see.''
47. Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward Him, and said of him, "Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!''
48. Nathanael said to Him, "How do You know me?'' Jesus answered and said to him, "Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.''
49. Nathanael answered and said to Him, "Rabbi, You are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!''
50. Jesus answered and said to him, "Because I said to you, 'I saw you under the fig tree,' do you believe? You will see greater things than these.''
51. And He said to him, "Most assuredly, I say to you, hereafter you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.''
*Church: Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is the only way to Heaven! As He said in John 14:6, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." So in a symbolic way, Jesus is the ladder that Jacob saw in Genesis 28. Jesus is the only "ladder" to Heaven!
*The same Lord God, the pre-incarnate Jesus Christ, revealed Himself to Jacob that night. Then 20 years later in Genesis 31:3, Jacob had 4 wives and 11 children, when "the LORD said to Jacob, 'Return to the land of your fathers and to your family, and I will be with you.'" And today in Genesis 32, Jacob was seeking to obey the Lord. But obeying the Lord doesn't always put us in an easy place. Sometimes obeying the Lord puts us into the crisis of our lives. -- And that's what happened to Jacob.
*Please think about the danger Jacob was in, and how he responded, as we read Genesis 32:1-12.
1. So Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him.
2. When Jacob saw them, he said, "This is God's camp.'' And he called the name of that place Mahanaim (which means "two camps").
3. Then Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau his brother in the land of Seir, the country of Edom.
4. And he commanded them, saying, "Speak thus to my lord Esau, 'Thus your servant Jacob says: "I have dwelt with Laban and stayed there until now.
5. I have oxen, donkeys, flocks, and male and female servants; and I have sent to tell my lord, that I may find favor in your sight.'''''
6. Then the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, "We came to your brother Esau, and he also is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him.''
7. So Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed; and he divided the people that were with him, and the flocks and herds and camels, into two companies.
8. And he said, "If Esau comes to the one company and attacks it, then the other company which is left will escape.''
*Next, in response to this danger, Jacob did the best thing anyone could do: In vs. 9-12, He called on the LORD in prayer.
9. Then Jacob said, "O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, the Lord who said to me, 'Return to your country and to your family, and I will deal well with you':
10. I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies and of all the truth which You have shown Your servant; for I crossed over this Jordan with my staff, and now I have become two companies.
11. Deliver me, I pray, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau; for I fear him, lest he come and attack me and the mother with the children.
12. For You said, 'I will surely treat you well, and make your descendants as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.'''
MESSAGE:
*Have you ever been in a real crisis? Right now, most Christians are praying for the people who have been devastated by the damage from Hurricanes Helene and Milton. The loss of life and destruction was horrific, especially in North Carolina and Florida. Please keep praying for those people, and do anything else you can do to help them.
*But have you ever been in a terrible crisis? Jacob and his family certainly were, and someday you will be too. But in this crisis Jacob did the most important thing we can ever do. He called on the Lord God Almighty for help. And almost every word in Jacob's short prayer shows us how we should pray.
1. FIRST, LOOK BACK AT THE LORD'S FAITHFULNESS.
*The foundation of Jacob's prayer was the faithfulness of Almighty God. Our God is always faithful, and He will be forever! And Jacob rested on this foundation by looking back at what the Lord had already done. In vs. 9 Jacob called on the Lord and said, "O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac."
*Jacob had heard the life stories of his grandfather Abraham and his father Isaac. He knew how God had miraculously revealed Himself to them both, and how the Lord had blessed them greatly. I am also sure that Isaac had told his sons about the time when God tested Abraham's faith in an extreme way. The Lord told Abraham to sacrifice his young son, Isaac. In Hebrews 11:17, God's Word says that Isaac was Abraham's "only begotten son." That's because Isaac was the only son that the LORD ever promised to this couple, and because Isaac's birth was a miracle God gave to these parents who way too old to have children.
*All of Abraham's hopes and dreams for the future were wrapped up in his only begotten son, Isaac. All of the hopes of the world were wrapped up in God's promise that the Messiah would come as a descendant of Isaac. Now those hopes seemed dashed as Abraham was about to kill his only son. But Abraham put it all in the Hand of God. He trusted God! And he knew that somehow God would make a way for Isaac to make it back home.
*We see Abraham's faith in Genesis 22:6-8, where:
6. . . Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife, and the two of them went together.
7. Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, "My father!'' And he said, "Here I am, my son.'' And he said, "Look, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?''
8. And Abraham said, "My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering"
*Then Genesis 22:10-13 says:
10. And Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son.
11. But the Angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, "Abraham, Abraham!'' And he said, "Here I am.''
12. And He said, "Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.''
13. Then Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and there behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram, and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son.
*God provided a Lamb! -- A ram in a thicket, caught by its horns. I wonder if those bushes had the same kind of thorns used in the crown of thorns that Jesus wore 1,900 years later. God provided a ram to take Isaac's place. And God provided His Son Jesus Christ to take our place of death. Jesus is the perfect Lamb of God who died for our sins. He willingly suffered and died on the cross to take the awful punishment for all of our sins. Then three days later, Jesus rose again from the dead in everlasting victory over sin and death.
*Jacob had surely heard all about the LORD God of his grandfather Abraham and God of his father Isaac. And Jacob could not understand it the way we do today. But that's how much the Lord loved Jacob, and that's how much the Lord loves us! So even when we have a crisis we can still rejoice in the Lord. We can still look back on the great things that God has done.
*The Lord's love for us is ever faithful and true, and this sure truth shows up many times in God's Word. For example, Psalm 89:1-2 says, "I will sing of the mercies of the LORD forever; With my mouth will I make known Your faithfulness to all generations. For I have said, 'Mercy shall be built up forever; Your faithfulness You shall establish in the very heavens.'''
*Lamentations 3:22-23 says, "Through the LORD'S mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness." And in Revelation 19:11, the Lord is named "Faithful and True." So whenever we are in a crisis, we should look back at the Lord's faithfulness.
2. BUT WE SHOULD ALSO ADMIT OUR SINFUL SHORTCOMINGS.
*We see this great truth at the beginning of vs. 10 where Jacob told the Lord, "I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies. . . which You have shown Your servant." Jacob admitted his sinfulness by saying, "I am not worthy."
*Well, neither am I, and neither are you. We were all born with the deadly spiritual sickness called sin. That's why we never have to teach our children how to be selfish or how to lie. They all get it naturally, and Jacob had a lot of practice in lying. John Phillips wrote that when Jacob tricked his blind father into giving him the blessing, Jacob told five lies in two breaths. (2)
*But now Jacob told the Lord, "I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies which You have shown Your servant." He needed forgiveness from God, but we all need forgiveness from God. And the only way to get it is by God's grace through faith in the Lord.
*Genesis 48:15-16 talks about how old Jacob blessed his two grandsons from his son Joseph. And here's part of what Jacob said that day: "God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has fed me all my life long to this day, the Angel who has redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads.''
*The "Angel" Jacob was talking about there was Angel with a capital "A," and that was the preincarnate Son of God, Jesus Christ. Jacob was telling his son, "The Lord God has redeemed me from all evil." By faith, Jacob had found the forgiveness we all need, and it came from God's redemption.
*Redemption is one of the greatest themes of the Bible. One place to see it is Romans 3:21-24. There Paul said:
21. But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets,
22. even the righteousness of God which is through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference;
23. for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
24. being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
*Why do we need redemption? Because we "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." Some people are a whole lot better than others, but none of us is perfect. No matter how hard we may try, -- it seems like we just can't get there. And even if we could be sinless from this day on, we would still bear the guilt for all of our past sins. So we all need redemption.
*That word is talking about the payment of a ransom to set us free. And God paid the highest price to set us free from sin and death. 1 Peter 1:18-19 tells Christians: "You were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot." God paid the highest ransom to set us free from sin and death!
*All Old Testament believers were saved by God's grace through faith in the promise of the coming Messiah. New Testament believers are saved by grace through faith in the Messiah Jesus Christ who already came, died on the cross for our sins, and rose again forever from the dead. But Christians, we are not perfect yet, so even when we are in a crisis, we should admit our sinful shortcomings to God.
*We are still not completely worthy. Only one person has ever been truly worthy, and his name is Jesus Christ. God's Word shows us this truth in Revelation 5:1-6. There the Apostle John wrote:
1. . . I saw in the right hand of Him who sat on the throne a scroll written inside and on the back, sealed with seven seals.
2. Then I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, "Who is worthy to open the scroll and to loose its seals?''
3. And no one in heaven or on the earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll, or to look at it.
4. So I wept much, because no one was found worthy to open and read the scroll, or to look at it.
5. But one of the elders said to me, "Do not weep. Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll and to loose its seven seals.''
6. And I looked, and behold, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as though it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent out into all the earth."
*Only Jesus Christ is completely worthy. That's why he was able to die on the cross for our sins! Jesus had no sins of his own. Thank the Lord for this great truth!
3. AND KEEP TRUSTING IN GOD'S TRUTH.
*This is another wise thing Jacob did during his terrible crisis. He kept trusting in God's truth! He kept standing on God's Word. We see this in verse 10, where again Jacob prayed, "I am not worthy of the least . . . of all the truth which You have shown Your servant..."
*Jacob was certainly trusting in God's truth. But he did not mind "reminding" the LORD of the promises He had made. In vs.9 Jacob said, "O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, the LORD who said to me, 'Return to your country and to your family, and I will deal well with you.'" Then in vs.12 Jacob told the LORD, "You said, 'I will surely treat you well, and make your descendants as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.'"
*Church: We live in a tragic age when many people believe the lie that there is no absolute truth. That is a fatal mistake for all eternity. I say this because again, Jesus Christ is the only way to Heaven! As He said in John 14:6, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me."
*And on the night before he died on the cross for our sins, in John 17:17 Jesus asked our Heavenly Father to sanctify His followers "by Your truth. Your word is truth." In Matthew 24:35 Jesus said, "Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away." And Psalm 119:89 says "Forever, O LORD, Your word is settled in heaven." That's why we can always keep trusting in God's Word, even in the middle of a terrible crisis.
*God has never broken one of his promises, and he never will! So, we can always stand on the Word of God! Mitchell Gonzalez gave this great testimony: "I saw my two-year-old daughter Natalie carry my Bible by the case's handle. She dragged it in front of a tall table we have. And as I was about to take it away from her, she took the Bible, and laid it on the floor. Then she stood on it, and reached up to take something from the tall table."
*In that moment, Mitchell said it was as if the Lord spoke to him and said: "If you would take My Word, bring it where you need, and stand on it. You'll reach things you couldn't reach before." Christians: The same thing is true for us! And we can always stand on the truth of God's Word! That's for sure. (3)
4. BUT CHRISTIANS: ALSO KEEP SERVING OUR SAVIOR.
*Jacob was happy to serve the LORD God of his grandfather Abraham and his father Isaac. Again in vs. 10 Jacob prayed, "I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies and of all the truth which You have shown Your servant. . ."
*In the early 2000s, Martin & Gracia Burnham were American missionaries serving in the Philippines. On May 27, 2001, Martin & Gracia were kidnapped by Islamic terrorists. At the time, they were visiting a resort, celebrating their 18th wedding anniversary. The couple was held for ransom for more than a year. On June 7, 2002, a Philippine army unit moved in to rescue the hostages. Martin was killed by a stray bullet and Gracia was wounded.
*At Martin’s memorial service, someone said that the last thing the couple did before the raid was to pray together. Martin told his wife, “We might not leave this jungle alive, but at least we can leave this world serving the Lord with gladness. We can serve Him right here, where we are, and with gladness.” (4)
*Surely we too can serve the Lord with gladness right here, where we are. So keep serving our Savior, even in the middle of your crisis.
5. BUT ALSO GIVE GOD THE GLORY FOR THE GOOD THINGS IN YOUR LIFE.
*We see Jacob giving glory to God in vs. 10, where he said, "I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies and of all the truth which You have shown Your servant; for I crossed over this Jordan with my staff, and now I have become two companies."
*Jacob looked back and saw the Hand of God at work in his life. God had brought Jacob from sleeping with his head on a rock to great riches. From Genesis 31:6-9 listen to Jacob's testimony to his cousins, Uncle Laban's sons:
6. You know that with all my might I have served your father.
7. Yet your father has deceived me and changed my wages ten times, but God did not allow him to hurt me.
8. If he said thus: 'The speckled shall be your wages,' then all the flocks bore speckled. And if he said thus: 'The streaked shall be your wages,' then all the flocks bore streaked.
9. So God has taken away the livestock of your father and given them to me.
*Then in Genesis 31:41-42, Jacob spoke to his Uncle Laban and said:
41. Thus I have been in your house twenty years; I served you fourteen years for your two daughters, and six years for your flock, and you have changed my wages 10 times.
42. Unless the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had been with me, surely now you would have sent me away empty-handed. God has seen my affliction and the labor of my hands, and rebuked you last night."
*Be like Jacob. When you pray, be sure to give God the glory for the good things in your life, even when you are in the middle of a crisis.
6. AND TELL GOD ABOUT YOUR TROUBLES.
*That's what Jacob did in verse 11, where he made this plea to the Lord: "Deliver me, I pray, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau; for I fear him, lest he come and attack me and the mother with the children."
*It could be easy for us to miss the passion as we read this short prayer. But this was not like the half-hearted prayers we sometimes pray. Jacob's prayer was the passionate cry of a man who thought his wife and children were about to die! It was as if an 18-wheeler was coming right at them. Some of us have been there, and all of us can imagine how our hearts would cry out to God in that kind of situation.
*Church: We live in a day that cries out for passionate prayer. But how can we get the right kind of passion in our prayers? -- God Himself will give us this kind of holy passion, if we will just seek it. We know this is true, because Romans 5:5 tells us that "the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us." And 2 Corinthians 5:14 in the NIV tells us that the love of Christ "compels us." Romans 12:15 also tells us to "Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep."
*We just have to ask God to give us the right kind of passion in our prayers: Passion that sees the lost and hurting people around us the same way that Jesus sees them now. Then we will pray the kind of passionate prayer that Jacob prayed in this Scripture.
*May God help us to pray passionate prayers, because then we will see amazing answers to our prayers. So, tell God about all your troubles.
CONCLUSION:
*This is how we should pray in crisis.
*Now on a personal note: You may have read about this stroke I had on August 3rd. If you have prayed for me, I want to thank you again, and tell you that my therapy is still progressing.
*Sadly, we are now on the front end have a much worse crisis in our lives. My wife Mary has been feeling bad for about 6 weeks, and we thought that she might need her esophagus stretched. The shocking bad news is that she has cancer with a 4-centimeter tumor in her esophagus.
*As I type this, Mary is in the emergency room at the MD Anderson having some tests, and maybe coming home as soon as tomorrow. But she will go back there and given a protocol to help her as much as possible. Let me ask you please pray for Mary, and we will be eternally grateful.
*But if you have never received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior call on the Lord to save you first. This is the most important thing we can ever do in life. Jesus knows all about every single one of us, but He still loves us so much that he died on the cross for our sins. Three days later, Jesus rose again forever from the dead. He is the only way to eternal life in Heaven, so please put your trust in our living Lord today. You can do that right now as we go back to God in prayer.
(1) DAKE ANNOTATED REFERENCE BIBLE - Dake Publishing - https://www.hopefaithprayer.com/prayernew/222-prayers-of-the-bible/
(2) EXPLORING GENESIS by John Phillips, Kregal Publications, Grand Rapids - "Jacob’s Suspicious Behavior" - Genesis 27:11-27 - Downloaded to "Bible Study 6" from Olive Tree Bible Software, Inc.
(3) SermonCentral illustration contributed by Mitchell Gonzalez
(4) KERUX ILLUSTRATION COLLECTION - ID Number: 22397 - SOURCE: A Word With You By Ron Hutchcraft #4116 - TITLE: Joy In the Jungle - AUTHOR: Ron Hutchcraft - DATE: 10/21/02
