Trusting God Amidst Fear and Prudence

Genesis 1 to 21. I thought that I'd worked it just right that I could speak on these verses this evening and leave it to Peter next week to deal with what are some of the hardest verses in the Bible. But he's not going to deal with those verses next week.

He's very kindly said that I can deal with them the week after when I come back. So my plans haven't worked out at all.

I was wondering whether I should deal with chapters 32 and 33 as a whole. In some ways I think it would be good to do that, but there's just too much to cover in such a short space of time. And I really would like to try, I emphasise the word try, and tackle verses 22 to 32 on their own. But this evening we're going to look at the first 21 verses and Andrew's going to come now and read those to us.

Thank you, Andrew. So as you just heard, Genesis chapter 32, which is on page 35.

And over on the next page for the church Bibles. Jacob also went on his way and the angels of God met him. When Jacob saw them, he said, this is the camp of God. So he named that place Mahanaim.

Jacob sent messengers ahead of him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom. He instructed them, this is what you are to say to my Lord Esau. Your servant Jacob says, I have been staying with Laban and have remained there till now. I have cattle and donkeys, sheep and goats, male and female servants. Now I'm sending this message to my Lord that I may find favour in your eyes.

When the messengers returned to Jacob, they said, we went to your brother Esau and now he's coming to meet you and 400 men are with him. In great fear and distress, Jacob divided the people who were with him into two groups, the flocks and herds and camels as well. He thought, if Esau comes and attacks one group, the group that is left may escape. Then Jacob prayed, O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, Lord, you who said to me, go back to your country and your relatives and I will make you prosper. I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness you have shown your servant. I had only my staff when I crossed this Jordan, but now I have become two camps. Save me, I pray, from the hand of my brother Esau, for I'm afraid he will come and attack me and also the mothers with their children. But you have said, I will surely make you prosper and will make your descendants like the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted.

He spent the night there and from what he had with him, he selected a gift for his brother Esau, 200 female goats and 20 male goats, 200 ewes and 20 rams, 30 female camels with their young, 40 cows and 10 bulls and 20 female donkeys and 10 male donkeys. He put them in the care of his servants, each herd by itself and said to his servants, go ahead of me and keep some space between the herds. He instructed the one in the lead, when my brother Esau meets you and asks, who do you belong to and where are you going and who owns all these animals in front of you, then you are to say, they belong to your servant Jacob. They are a gift sent to my Lord Esau and he is coming behind us. He also instructed the second, the third and all the others who followed the herds, you are to say the same thing to Esau when you meet him and be sure to say, your servant Jacob is coming behind us. For he thought, I will pacify him with these gifts I'm sending on ahead. Later when I see him, perhaps he will receive me. So Jacob's gifts went on ahead of him, but he himself spent the night in the camp.

Quite a number of years ago now, I met a man, a Christian man, who told me about all the insurance policies that he had. And I was really quite amazed. I didn't know it was possible to have so many insurance policies. He seemed to have one to cover every possible eventuality. At that time, I only had one insurance policy, which was for my car. And it wasn't so I could have a new one if I smashed it up. It was so that I could pay for somebody else to have a nice new car if I smashed up their car. Frankly, in those days, I didn't have the money to buy lots of insurance policies.

I hadn't long been out of Bible college. The only way forward in life for me was to trust in God to protect and keep and provide. But I remember as I was talking to this man, thinking to myself, with all these insurance policies,. have the money to buy lots of insurance policies.

I haven't long been out of Bible college. The only way forward in life for me was to trust in God to protect and keep and provide. But I remember as I was talking to this man, thinking to myself, with all these insurance policies that you have, what room have you left to trust in God?

What room have you left to trust in God? Now, I don't want to say that this man acted wrongly, certainly not sinfully.

I don't think he did. Neither do I wish to big myself up, if I can put it that way, this evening. If I'd had the money at the time, I might well have considered it prudent myself to take out nearly as many, if not as many, insurance policies as he did. Why do I speak of all this? Well, because I want us to think this evening about how much we trust in God and how much we trust in our own resourcefulness or in our own resources.

Last week, we looked at verse 1 of chapter 32, and we spent some of our time thinking about how Jacob felt that he needed, before settling back home in the land of Canaan, to put things right with his brother. Things had not been right for many years. As we've seen, when Jacob left the land to which he belonged to go to Aran, he had done so for fear of his brother Esau. Esau believed that Jacob had stolen his birthright and his blessing and was full of anger towards him. Well, as Jacob thinks about going and meeting his brother Esau, he is concerned.

There is fear inside him because Esau may still feel a great deal of resentment towards him and may even want to kill him still. So as Jacob makes his way to see Esau, does he trust in God to protect him or does he trust in his own resourcefulness to protect himself?

What do you think? Shall we have a look at the text this evening to see if we can come up with an answer? Firstly then, looking at verses 3 to 5, we see that Jacob sends his servants ahead of him and this is really to see how the land lies.

Jacob, as we know, is seeking to find favour with his brother, but how will his brother receive him, if at all? What will his response be? Well, secondly, verses 6 to 7a, we see that Jacob is told by his servants that Esau is coming towards him with 400 men.

What is effectively a small army. And we see Jacob's response is one of fear and distress because, understandably, he thinks that Esau is out to kill him. After all these years, his anger, his wrath has clearly not subsided. So, thirdly, the latter part of verse 7 and verse 8, Jacob seeks to do all he can to protect all that belongs to him.

He divides his people and his animals into two groups and verse 8 spells out his thinking. If Esau comes and attacks one group, the group that is left may escape. Now, we could argue, I suppose, that Jacob is being prudent, but I think we could also question whether he's really trusting in God to protect him.

You see, if we go back to verse 1 of chapter 32, God has sent his angels to him to reassure him that he's with him and will protect him. But Jacob, it seems to me, is kind of taking matters into his own hands.

He feels that he needs to do the best that he can to protect himself and his family and all that belongs to him. But then, interestingly, and fourthly, looking at verses 9 to 12, we see that Jacob prays to God and lays hold, or at least seeks to lay hold, of God's promise to him.

And here, he seems. own hands. He feels that he needs to do the best that he can to protect himself and his family and all that belongs to him. But then interestingly and fourthly looking at verses 9 to 12 we see that Jacob prays to God and lays hold or at least seeks to lay hold of God's promise to him.

And here he seems to exercise some trust in God. Look at verse 9 where he lays hold of God's promise to him.

Then Jacob prayed, O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, Lord, you who said to me, go back to your country and your relatives and I will make you prosper. He lays hold of God's promise again in verse 12. I'm going to pick things up from verse 11. Save me, I pray, he says, from the hand of my brother Esau for I am afraid he will come and attack me and also the mothers with their children. But you have said I will surely make you prosper and make your descendants like the sand of the sea which cannot be counted.

And as we look at these verses it does seem kind of encouraging, doesn't it? Here is Jacob and he's praying to God and he's reminding himself of the promise of God that he will be prospered, that things will go well for him. Well in the light of God's promise he should be able to trust God, shouldn't he?

But it seems to me as if Jacob is trying hard to trust God amid the difficulty and can't quite bring himself to entirely entrust himself to the care of God. You see what we see next, fifthly, looking at verses 13 to 15 is Jacob coming up with this plan to pacify or to sweet talk or to seek the favour of his brother. Now some might say that Jacob does trust in God and that what he does here in no way conflicts with his trust in God, that he just does the sensible or the prudent thing.

But I'm inclined to think that he still feels the need to trust in his own resourcefulness. What Jacob plans to do is to present gifts to his brother Esau. And when we look at these gifts, we might think to ourselves, well they're really fit for a king, they're certainly generous. Look at verses 13 to 15, he spent the night there and from what he had with him he selected a gift for his brother Esau, 200 female goats and 20 male goats, 200 ewes and 20 rams, 30 female camels with their young, 40 cows and 10 bulls and 20 female donkeys and 10 male donkeys, and he plans to space them out in front of him along the road so that Esau doesn't receive everything at the same time, but slowly, so that when he eventually meets Jacob he'll be nicely pacified and willing to give him a big brotherly hug.

At least that is the idea. Well I want to raise the questions that I raised a few moments ago again.

Does Jacob trust God to protect him or does he trust in his own resources or in his own resourcefulness to protect himself? As you read the passage, as you've listened to me work through the passage, I wonder what your answer to these questions is. I think it's a bit of both. I think he wavers between the two. Yes, he tries to trust God, to protect him. He feels the need to look to God to protect him, but he can't help feel the need to put his trust or his confidence in his own resourcefulness or in his own resources. Well let me ask a question.

Can we identify with Jacob? I'm guessing we probably can. I certainly can. In fact, I see myself in Jacob. Now what I want to do is to put some questions to us to help get us thinking.

Do we trust in God to provide for us? Or do we think we must do everything in our own power to accumulate as much as we can now so that we have enough and more when the time comes? What if we're short of work and a job comes up that requires us. To help get us thinking, do we trust in God to provide for us? Or do we think we must do everything in our own power to accumulate as much as we can now so that we have enough and more when the time comes? What if we're short of work and a job comes up that requires us to work pretty much every Lord's day? Can we? Will we trust in God to provide for us in some way so that we can honour his day or not?

What if God calls us onto the mission field and we have to say goodbye to the large salary and the large pension? Can we trust in God to provide for us? Do we trust in God to take care of us? Or must we have an insurance policy for every conceivable eventuality? Must we go home this evening and build a bomb shelter for ourselves just in case Mr. Putin decides to press the button sending a missile towards our capital city, London? What if we can't afford any of these things? Are we simply doomed to die?

Now I must be honest with you and say that I'm not entirely clear what the relationship should be between prudence and trusting in God. Joseph, I know, in the Old Testament, put lots of grain during the bumper years into stores, large stores, so that when the time of famine came, the seven years of famine, there was enough food for everyone to enjoy. If I'm honest, I do have some insurance policies. I've done my best to try to make sure that I've provided for Joanne. Should I have a heart attack or something like that in my late fifties? I've been putting money into a pension since I was 18, having been advised to do so by my wise and prudent father. But can I not trust in God to care for me and to provide for me if I go onto the mission field somewhere in the world and am only able to return to live off the tiniest of pensions?

One of my favorite stories in the Gospels is where Jesus is on the boat in the midst of the raging storm with his disciples. Some of these disciples are experienced fishermen.

The storm is particularly furious, and what do we find them doing? Everything they possibly can, with the resources that are available to them, to keep the boat afloat. And that's what they do until they come to an end of themselves and look to Jesus. What's Jesus doing throughout this time? He's lying in the back of the boat, resting his head on a cushion, asleep, trusting completely or unreservedly in his heavenly Father. What a contrast between the disciples and the Lord Jesus. Only recently, on a Sunday morning, we have seen Jesus committing his spirit into the hands of his heavenly Father as he dies on the cross. He's not in a panic.

He's not troubled or anxious or fearful about what will happen to him beyond the grave. No, he has confidence in his heavenly Father. He's trusting in him completely. He knows that in the hours to come, his Father will raise him from the dead. Oh, to be more like the Lord Jesus. Let's be encouraged to pray that we might learn to trust in God, in our heavenly Father, to provide for us and to keep us and to protect us. Yes, we must be prudent. Yes, we need to be wise as we think about making provision for ourselves in the future.

But we all know, don't we, that life is uncertain. I'm very conscious that if there is a war, that my pension pot could just do that overnight and then I'll have nothing. Yes, we must be prudent. Yes, we need to be wise as we think about making provision for ourselves in the future, but we all know, don't we, that life is uncertain. I'm very conscious that if there is a war, that my pension pot could just do that overnight, and then I'll have nothing. What then will I do? Can I trust in God to meet all of my needs? Can I trust him to watch over and protect my family?

Here is Jacob. I think he wants to trust in God. We can be encouraged at this point in his story that he's praying to God to protect him, to deliver him from his brother, but how he needs to learn to trust in God. I think we all do, don't we? Because whilst we have faith, our faith tends to wobble. It tends to waver. Oh Lord, increase our faith so that we might learn to trust in you more and more. Let's pray together.

Our loving God and Heavenly Father, we thank you that your word, that scripture, has been given to us for our instruction and our encouragement. We thank you, Lord, for your word to us this evening. If we look back at the early days of Jacob, he didn't seem to be a particularly godly young man. He seems to be full of deceit, and yet, Lord, he was your man to continue the line to Jesus. You determined that he would become one of your patriarchs. As we read his story, we see the way in which you dealt with him and caused him to grow in the things of yourself. We pray that we too, as you deal with us, might grow in the things of yourself. We particularly pray that you would help us to be a people, to hold on firmly to your promises and go through life trusting in you and in your word.

Lord, it's not always easy to trust you, particularly when difficulties arise, particularly when our livelihood seems to be put under threat, as Jacob's was all those years ago. Lord, mould us and make us into the people that you would have us be. We ask these things in Jesus' name and for his sake. Amen. Let's sing again. I've chosen.