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 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 the
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, why,
he 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
it's 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 work for
it.
And the requirements, old Laban changed them ten
times.
That means every two years while 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 32nd 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.