June 1, 2025 • 26 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
This is Connect with skip Heidzig and we're so glad
you've joined us for today's program. Connect with skip Heidzig
is all about connecting you to the never changing truth
of God's Word through verse by verse teaching. That's why
we make messages like this one today available to you
and others. Before we get started with the program, we
want to invite you to check out connect with skip
(00:21):
dot com. There you'll find resources like full message series,
weekly devotionals, and more. While you're at it, be sure
to sign up for Skipp's weekly devotional emails and receive
teaching from God's Word write in your inbox each day.
Sign up today at connect with skip dot com. That's
connect with skip dot com. Now let's get started with
(00:42):
today's message from pastor skip Heidzig.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Many years ago, many many, many, many many years ago,
when I first came to know the Lord. Right afterwards,
I had a real desire for fellowship. I was living
in the Bay Area of northern California. All I had
was a motorcycle and a backpack all that I owned.
But I wanted to go back down back home, see
(01:08):
my family, see my friends, get involved in growing in
the Lord. So I took a long motorcycle trip from
the Bay Area back down to southern California. I especially
couldn't wait to see my brother. I wanted him to
hear this message. Now. I was very green, I was
very wet behind the ears. I needed to grow in
(01:30):
the Lord. I knew nothing except Jesus Christ and him crucified.
And that's a good thing. But it was a bad
thing in another sense, because I was there to give
him advice about his life, and I really didn't have
much advice to give. Without going into all of that,
(01:54):
the Lord was dealing with me early on about surrendering
to him. I, like so many other Christians that I
have met since then, sort of saw Christianity as adding
Jesus to my life. Here's my life, here's my plans,
It's all about my future. And in effect, Jesus Christ
(02:18):
had become a spoke in my wheel. I soon discovered
he didn't want to be as spoke in my wheel.
He wanted to be the very hub of the wheel
that my life was to revolve and rotate around him
his plan, his purpose, not to have him added to
(02:40):
my life and him revolving around my purpose. So after
that long journey, I was sitting at my parents' house
in my previous bedroom, and I was reading through the
Bible that I owned called Good News for Modern Man.
It was the New Testament in modern English. That's the translation.
And I was reading through Matthew. That's the first book.
(03:01):
I'm reading through Matthew. I come to chapter five. I'm
going through the Beatitudes of the Sermon on the Mount
and I remember distinctly that particular version of the New
Testament in the Beatitudes, and one of them put in
that Good News for Modern Man version went like this,
happy are those whose greatest desire is to do what
(03:25):
God requires? And I stopped. I stopped because I knew
I was busted. I was nailed to the wall. I
read that and I went, uh oh. Now, granted I
was only a week or two old in the Lord,
but that particular text reached out and grabbed me, and
(03:48):
I had to admit my greatest desire in life was
not to do what God requires, but now I wanted
it to be. And that was a turning point for me.
That was one of those threshold moments, and there would
be many more after that where God was trying to
deal with me. Skip, I don't want to be a
spoke in your wheel. I want to be the very hub.
(04:11):
Are you willing to pray for and make your greatest
desire to be what I require? And I remember that afternoon,
that summer afternoon in July, very very very prominently in
my mind. After that moment, I found this book I
(04:32):
still have it by Andrew Murray called Absolute Surrender. It's
exactly what I needed to read. It's exactly what the
Lord was dealing with me on and in particular, something
that jumped out at me and I'll read it for
you is in that book by Andrew Murray where he
writes this God wants us to be separate from the world.
(04:54):
We are called to come out from the world that
hates God. Come out for God and say Lord, anything
for thee. If you say that with prayer and speak
that into God's ear, he will accept it and he
will teach you what it means. I say again, God
will bless you. You've been praying for blessing. But do
(05:16):
remember there must be absolute surrender. Every tea table shows
you that why is tea poured into that cup because
it's empty and it's given up for the tea, But
put ink or vinegar or wine into it? And will
they pour tea into that vessel? And can God fill you?
(05:39):
Can God bless you? If you are not absolutely surrendered
to him? He cannot let us believe that God has
wonderful blessings for us if he will. But stand up
for God and say, even with a trembling will yet
with a believing heart, Oh God, I accept Thy demands.
(05:59):
I am and all that I have an absolute surrender,
is what my soul yields to thee by divine grace.
Many people who have become Christians are Christians. They're saved
by God's grace, and yet they're still mastered by their
(06:21):
own flesh. They're not mastered by God. They're still resisting
God's will. They're still living as though God exists to
please them, rather than vice versa. I share all of
that as an introduction to chapter thirty two because we
find that God will be, has been, and will be
(06:42):
dealing with Jacob on this very issue. Chapter thirty two
is a turning point for a con man named Jacob.
There's already been one turning point, and that was that Bethel,
Remember Bethel, where he had that dream of God's twenty
years earlier of the angels of God ascending and descending
(07:03):
upon that ladder, and he woke up the next day
and said, God's here. I didn't even know it. Well,
now he's coming back. And the second turning point isn't
Bethel but Penny l Penniel, which means the face of God,
because of an incident that we're going to read in
(07:25):
chapter thirty two where God gets a hold of Jacob,
in fact wrestles him, in fact cripples him, so that
after that incident he walks with a limp, and we'll
see why. It's one of the best things that ever
happened to Jacob. Do you know that the Bible says,
(07:46):
whom the Lord loves he chastens, he scourges or spanks
every son, every child that comes to him. And you
know what, I've learned to thank God for all of
the spankings that my gracious, wonderful, loving, heavenly Dad dishes out.
I've needed every one of them, and I've learned from
(08:10):
every one of them, as Jacob will learn here, whom
the Lord loves he chastens, And tonight I think we're
going to see that in chapter thirty two. Now for
twenty years, Jacob has been outside the Land of Promise.
The land of Promise is Canaan. He's going to give
it to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and their progeny, the Twelve
(08:33):
Tribes and that nation. He's been outside of the Land
of Promise for twenty years. But mark this, he's been
outside of the Land of Promise, but not outside of
the hand of Promise. God has been with him, as
he said when he was leaving at Bethel, and now
he is coming back into the land. Let me just
(08:56):
remind you where he's at. He's up in a place
called Gilead, and he's going to come down and cross
over the Jabbek River, a tributary of the Jordan, and
come back into the land that he left. He is
between Laban, his uncle, and Esau, his brother, none of
which he has a good relationship with. He's between Padan
(09:18):
Iram or what is ancient Iraq, that would be called
Iraqan modern terms, Padan Aram and ancient terms. And he's
coming on very difficult territory into the land of Canaan
to meet his brother, whom he believes is out to
kill him, because after all twenty years before this, his brother.
(09:40):
Esau said, as soon as the days of mourning from
my father are over, I'm going to kill that brother
of mine. That's what's in his mind. So that's why
I said, you can name this chapter between Iraq and
a hard place. Iraq and a hard place, between two
very very difficult places. Now he's in between two difficult places.
(10:03):
He just left Laban. He's going to meet Esau. He's,
as you'll see, very very scared, frightened, like a little child.
He's between these two difficult places. And God has allowed
him to be mark that as well. God has allowed
him to be between two difficult places because he has
(10:24):
some things to deal with. When I was a kid,
at Christmas time, we'd always have I remember my parents
would bring out nuts. It was a Christmas tradition, but
not like shell nuts. They were nuts in the shells
and a little nutcracker next to him. You had to
crack him yourself. Well, I love that because it gave
me something to do. I was like to be busy,
(10:45):
so I'd cracked the nuts. I discovered that some nuts
were harder to crack than others. Some shells are just tough,
and the way the construction of them is and the
symmetry and the roundness. It takes more pressure to crack them.
People like those nuts require more pressure. You know, some
(11:05):
people learn easily, some people do not. And I've discovered
God has a class for each type of person, a
special classroom. You think that padan Aram was the school
of hard knocks. What he's going to get here is
also a very difficult situation for him. But he's going
to discover that God goes before him.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
You're listening to connect with skip Heitzig before we get
back to skips teaching. The nineteen sixties promised us an
explosion of love and brotherhood, but instead they delivered a
nation in turmoil, confusion, and moral decline. Fortunately, God has
the solution for our damaged families and in Beyond the
Summer of Love relationships in the real world. Pastor skip
(11:48):
Heitzig gives a Biblical guide for marriage and families that
can help restore relationships which have been damaged by sin.
Beyond the Summer of Love is our thanks for your
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(12:10):
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connect with Skip Heitzig. Let's continue with today's teaching with
pastor Skip.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
Chapter thirty two, verse one. So Jacob went on his way,
that's after the Laben incident, after saying goodbye to him,
and the angels of God met him. When Jacob saw them,
he said, this is God's camp. And he called the
(12:44):
name of that place Mahan na'im, which means double camp.
In other words, there's others in this campground. Boys, we're
not the only ones camping out here. The angels are. Now. Well,
it just says it as a matter of fact. You know,
he passed from there, and he went to there, and
the angels of God were there to meet him. Hey, Jacob,
(13:05):
how you doing today? Good angels, great to see you. Now.
We discovered back in chapter twenty eight that angels were
there on Jacob's way out of the land, and now
Jacob's way into the land they show up again. Why
I don't exactly know. It could be that it's showing
(13:25):
us that this is a very special land, that the
borders are guarded by God's angels, as God even said
in Deuteronomy, the eyes, my eyes are on this land,
the land of Canaan Israel, from the beginning of the
year to the very end of it. Or it could
be simply God's way of saying, I've been watching over
you and directing and guiding you all of this time.
(13:47):
You're going out, and now you're coming in. It was
a signed to him. Psalm thirty four says the Angel
of the Lord in camps, love that in camps around
those who fear him and delivers him. So here's the
angels of God that are encamping around him as he's
coming back in. In our modern era, angels have been popularized.
(14:14):
They've become very popular in the last decade or two,
but almost over popularized. They've gotten to the schmultzy stage,
were people to see them as little decorations. Oh do
you like my angel collection? If you have an angel collection,
please don't write me an email about this. My mom
(14:36):
used to collect angels. I read an article of some
woman who had collected like one hundred and four thousand angels.
She had to move doors and windows, and she didn't
have enough cabinet, so she added an extra room just
for her dumb angel collection. Whatever you're into, and there's
(15:03):
angel sightings. I've heard people say, yeah, the so and
so is out in the freeway the other day, and
you and they tell you this fanciful story. And angel
sightings have got about as popular nowadays as Elvis sightings.
I don't know if there's like an Elvis angel out
there to combine the two. I don't know about that.
But one woman who claims to be an angel ologist
said her guardian angel I read this in an article
(15:26):
helped her to lose one hundred and fifty pounds. So
new diet plan, the angel plan. I guess you eat
angel food cake for the No, you couldn't do that. Now,
I want you to think about something. It says, angels
met him. Do you know that perhaps you've met an
(15:46):
angel before? I know what you're thinking and thinking. Oh no, no,
if I met an angel, I would definitely have realized it.
You know that the wings and the white robe, the
halo would have given it away. It says the Book
of Hebrews, be careful how you entertain strangers, or how
you show hospitality to strangers, and that you should do
(16:09):
that because in so doing, the writer of Hebrews says,
some have entertained angels unaware or without knowing, without realizing it.
The person that you met, that one that you thought
was a person, could have perhaps been an angel. Could
it be? It says, be careful to show hospitality, some
(16:30):
have entertained angels unaware. Now Here it plainly says that
the angels met him, and so we called the name
double camp mah na'im. Billy Graham calls them secret agents.
The angels are God's secret agents. They do a few things,
(16:50):
and I'll just sum it up for you. By the way,
they're mentioning thirty four books of the Bible, seventeen in
the Old seventeen and the New. If you look up
the word angel in the Old Testament, I believe it's
found one hundred and three times. In the New Testament,
I believe it's one hundred and sixty five times. Thirty
four books of the Bible altogether talk about angels. So
they're very real. They are. If I were to give
(17:12):
you a definition non corporeal, that is non physical spiritual being.
They're spiritual beings without physical form. However, it would seem
that from time to time God clothes them with some
ability to share human form so as to interact with humans. Now,
(17:33):
whenever they have a physical form and a human concede them,
they're still magnificent because typically the first thing an angel
says when they meet a human is don't be afraid.
Fear not because I'm sure a person goes even at
the amazing, dazzling appearance. So oftentimes of these beings they're
(17:54):
God's secret agents. What do they do? Well? Number one,
they stand in his presence. They stand in His presence
just like kings, queens, presidents have their own troops and
entourage around them. There are angels like in Isaiah six
or in Revelation four and five, that are angels of
God's presence that render worship praise to God incessantly, So
(18:20):
they stand in his presence. Second, they serve God's people.
Hebrews Once says, they are ministering spirits sent by God
to minister to those of us who inherit salvation. Angels
play an active role in your life. I believe you
have guardian angels. They minister. The Bible says, to those
(18:40):
who inherit salvation. Now, some of us by some of
the things we do, the activities we do, be it skateboarding,
or maybe you do some radical skiing or snowboarding or
mountain bike jumping. You know, maybe you have like doubled
up angels on you, or you know, some kind of
massively strong, very attentive angels. But the truth is all
(19:04):
of us have interacted with them. We aren't aware of it.
But God us dispatched them to minister to us, who
are heirs of salvation. Okay, so they met him. He
called that name Mahanaim double Camp. Then Jacob sent messengers
before him to Esau, his brother, in the land of Sir.
(19:27):
Now Sarah's down. If you go east of the Jordan
River and you go down in the deserts of Jordan,
south of what is ancient Edom, towards Saudi Arabia, you're
going to discover Sir. Mount syr Is where Esau went.
And he evidently had conquered the inhabitants of that land
called the Wrights and another group called the Hurrians, and
(19:51):
he had become very successful. God had blessed him, and
he has noticed the entourage he has coming sent messengers
before him to Esau, his brother in the land of Seir,
the country of Edom, and he commanded them, saying, speak
thus to my lord. Interesting choice of words, my Lord Esau,
(20:14):
thus your servant against interesting choice of words, your servant,
Jacob says, I have dwelt with Laban and stayed there
until now. I have oxen donkeys, flocks, male and female servants. Hint, hint, hint,
And I have sent to tell my lord that I
might find favor in your sight. Now Jacob is the
(20:38):
one who initiates contact with his brother. Why, well, remember
how they had that falling out when Jacob stole his
brother's blessing. Jacob knows there's going to be no peace
between he and his brother unless he resolves the issue
that he has left unresolved twenty years before, when he
(20:59):
had to flee because he stole his brother's blessing. Now,
I do find it interesting that he calls his brother
my lord, he saw, because that's not how he thought
about him twenty years before this. Where did he learn
this buttering up approach? Where'd he learn this kind of
(21:21):
flattery from Uncle Laban? Twenty years of being with laban
Labe and knew how to pour it on the first
time he saw Jacob, he goes, oh my, you're my
own flesh and blood, sent to me by God. And
all the time he's figuring out a way to connive
and get him to work for him, and he does successfully.
(21:42):
And then when he's about to leave, he says, oh,
you can't leave, don't you know God, your God, our
God has blessed me because of you. I'll give you
anything you want. He just knew how to butter up Jacob.
Jacob learned quite well, was watching this quite aively, and
I think he's employing the same kind of characteristics to
(22:05):
flatter his brother because he doesn't want his brother to
kill him. Then verse six, the messengers returned to Jacob saying,
we came to your brother Esau and he is also
coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him.
That's not what Jacob wanted to hear. He's thinking, Oh, man,
(22:30):
am I toast It's curtains for me. So Jacob was
greatly afraid and distressed, and he divided the people that
were with him, and the flocks and the herds and
the camels into two companies, and he said, if Esau
comes to the one company and attacks it, then the
(22:52):
other company, which is left, will escape. Now watch how
Jacob operates. He's going to divide his his people into
two camps and then more camps, four camps later on.
And he's anticipating that his brother's going to attack and
kill the first camp. Guess which camp he's going to
be in. Personally, I think would be in the first one.
(23:14):
Oh No, he's gonna be way in the back, using
his children and wives as buffers for him. A little wiss.
That's his approach. He's figuring it all out, he's anticipating
it all in his mind. Verse nine. Watch this. Then
(23:35):
Jacob said, now he's gonna pray. This is the first
recorded or written. This is the first time we get
to hear Jacob prays. I'm not saying it's the first
time he prayed. He did pray before, but now it's
recorded for us. So let's read through it and then
we'll make commentent Jacob said, Oh, God of my father Abraham,
and God of my father Isaac, the Lord who said
(23:56):
to me, return to your country and to your family,
and I will deal well with you. I am not
worthy of the least of all the mercies and of
all the truth which you have shown, your servant. For
I have crossed over this Jordan with my staff, and
now I have become two companies. Deliver me. I pray
from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau,
(24:16):
for I fear him lest he come and attack me
and the mother with the children. For you have said,
I will surely treat you well and make your descendants
as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered
for the multitude.
Speaker 1 (24:34):
Thanks for listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. We hope
you've been strengthened in your walk with Jesus by today's program.
Before we let you go, we want to remind you
about this month's resources that will help you understand and
follow God's plan for your relationships beyond the Summer of love.
Relationships in the real world by pastor Skip Heitzig is
our Thanks for your support of Connect with Skip Heitzig today.
(24:57):
Request your copy when you give twenty five more call
eight hundred nine two two eighteen eighty eight. That's eight
hundred nine two two eighteen eighty eight, or visit connect
with Skip dot com slash donate and did you know
that you can get a weekly devotional and other resources
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(25:18):
visit connect with Skip dot com and sign up for
emails from Skip. Come back next time for more verse
by verse teaching of God's Word. Here Unconnect with skip Heidzig, Make.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
It Connects, Make a connects. The cross chat song song
Speaker 1 (25:42):
Makes Next connect with skip Heidzig is a presentation of
connection communications connecting you to God's never changing truth in
ever changing times.
This is Connect with skip Heidzig and we're so glad
you've joined us for today's program. Connect with skip Heidzig
is all about connecting you to the never changing truth
of God's Word through verse by verse teaching. That's why
we make messages like this one today available to you
and others. Before we get started with the program, we
want to invite you to check out connect with skip
(00:21):
dot com. There you'll find resources like full message series,
weekly devotionals, and more. While you're at it, be sure
to sign up for Skipp's weekly devotional emails and receive
teaching from God's Word write in your inbox each day.
Sign up today at connect with skip dot com. That's
connect with skip dot com. Now let's get started with
(00:42):
today's message from pastor skip Heidzig.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Many years ago, many many, many, many many years ago,
when I first came to know the Lord. Right afterwards,
I had a real desire for fellowship. I was living
in the Bay Area of northern California. All I had
was a motorcycle and a backpack all that I owned.
But I wanted to go back down back home, see
(01:08):
my family, see my friends, get involved in growing in
the Lord. So I took a long motorcycle trip from
the Bay Area back down to southern California. I especially
couldn't wait to see my brother. I wanted him to
hear this message. Now. I was very green, I was
very wet behind the ears. I needed to grow in
(01:30):
the Lord. I knew nothing except Jesus Christ and him crucified.
And that's a good thing. But it was a bad
thing in another sense, because I was there to give
him advice about his life, and I really didn't have
much advice to give. Without going into all of that,
(01:54):
the Lord was dealing with me early on about surrendering
to him. I, like so many other Christians that I
have met since then, sort of saw Christianity as adding
Jesus to my life. Here's my life, here's my plans,
It's all about my future. And in effect, Jesus Christ
(02:18):
had become a spoke in my wheel. I soon discovered
he didn't want to be as spoke in my wheel.
He wanted to be the very hub of the wheel
that my life was to revolve and rotate around him
his plan, his purpose, not to have him added to
(02:40):
my life and him revolving around my purpose. So after
that long journey, I was sitting at my parents' house
in my previous bedroom, and I was reading through the
Bible that I owned called Good News for Modern Man.
It was the New Testament in modern English. That's the translation.
And I was reading through Matthew. That's the first book.
(03:01):
I'm reading through Matthew. I come to chapter five. I'm
going through the Beatitudes of the Sermon on the Mount
and I remember distinctly that particular version of the New
Testament in the Beatitudes, and one of them put in
that Good News for Modern Man version went like this,
happy are those whose greatest desire is to do what
(03:25):
God requires? And I stopped. I stopped because I knew
I was busted. I was nailed to the wall. I
read that and I went, uh oh. Now, granted I
was only a week or two old in the Lord,
but that particular text reached out and grabbed me, and
(03:48):
I had to admit my greatest desire in life was
not to do what God requires, but now I wanted
it to be. And that was a turning point for me.
That was one of those threshold moments, and there would
be many more after that where God was trying to
deal with me. Skip, I don't want to be a
spoke in your wheel. I want to be the very hub.
(04:11):
Are you willing to pray for and make your greatest
desire to be what I require? And I remember that afternoon,
that summer afternoon in July, very very very prominently in
my mind. After that moment, I found this book I
(04:32):
still have it by Andrew Murray called Absolute Surrender. It's
exactly what I needed to read. It's exactly what the
Lord was dealing with me on and in particular, something
that jumped out at me and I'll read it for
you is in that book by Andrew Murray where he
writes this God wants us to be separate from the world.
(04:54):
We are called to come out from the world that
hates God. Come out for God and say Lord, anything
for thee. If you say that with prayer and speak
that into God's ear, he will accept it and he
will teach you what it means. I say again, God
will bless you. You've been praying for blessing. But do
(05:16):
remember there must be absolute surrender. Every tea table shows
you that why is tea poured into that cup because
it's empty and it's given up for the tea, But
put ink or vinegar or wine into it? And will
they pour tea into that vessel? And can God fill you?
(05:39):
Can God bless you? If you are not absolutely surrendered
to him? He cannot let us believe that God has
wonderful blessings for us if he will. But stand up
for God and say, even with a trembling will yet
with a believing heart, Oh God, I accept Thy demands.
(05:59):
I am and all that I have an absolute surrender,
is what my soul yields to thee by divine grace.
Many people who have become Christians are Christians. They're saved
by God's grace, and yet they're still mastered by their
(06:21):
own flesh. They're not mastered by God. They're still resisting
God's will. They're still living as though God exists to
please them, rather than vice versa. I share all of
that as an introduction to chapter thirty two because we
find that God will be, has been, and will be
(06:42):
dealing with Jacob on this very issue. Chapter thirty two
is a turning point for a con man named Jacob.
There's already been one turning point, and that was that Bethel,
Remember Bethel, where he had that dream of God's twenty
years earlier of the angels of God ascending and descending
(07:03):
upon that ladder, and he woke up the next day
and said, God's here. I didn't even know it. Well,
now he's coming back. And the second turning point isn't
Bethel but Penny l Penniel, which means the face of God,
because of an incident that we're going to read in
(07:25):
chapter thirty two where God gets a hold of Jacob,
in fact wrestles him, in fact cripples him, so that
after that incident he walks with a limp, and we'll
see why. It's one of the best things that ever
happened to Jacob. Do you know that the Bible says,
(07:46):
whom the Lord loves he chastens, he scourges or spanks
every son, every child that comes to him. And you
know what, I've learned to thank God for all of
the spankings that my gracious, wonderful, loving, heavenly Dad dishes out.
I've needed every one of them, and I've learned from
(08:10):
every one of them, as Jacob will learn here, whom
the Lord loves he chastens, And tonight I think we're
going to see that in chapter thirty two. Now for
twenty years, Jacob has been outside the Land of Promise.
The land of Promise is Canaan. He's going to give
it to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and their progeny, the Twelve
(08:33):
Tribes and that nation. He's been outside of the Land
of Promise for twenty years. But mark this, he's been
outside of the Land of Promise, but not outside of
the hand of Promise. God has been with him, as
he said when he was leaving at Bethel, and now
he is coming back into the land. Let me just
(08:56):
remind you where he's at. He's up in a place
called Gilead, and he's going to come down and cross
over the Jabbek River, a tributary of the Jordan, and
come back into the land that he left. He is
between Laban, his uncle, and Esau, his brother, none of
which he has a good relationship with. He's between Padan
(09:18):
Iram or what is ancient Iraq, that would be called
Iraqan modern terms, Padan Aram and ancient terms. And he's
coming on very difficult territory into the land of Canaan
to meet his brother, whom he believes is out to
kill him, because after all twenty years before this, his brother.
(09:40):
Esau said, as soon as the days of mourning from
my father are over, I'm going to kill that brother
of mine. That's what's in his mind. So that's why
I said, you can name this chapter between Iraq and
a hard place. Iraq and a hard place, between two
very very difficult places. Now he's in between two difficult places.
(10:03):
He just left Laban. He's going to meet Esau. He's,
as you'll see, very very scared, frightened, like a little child.
He's between these two difficult places. And God has allowed
him to be mark that as well. God has allowed
him to be between two difficult places because he has
(10:24):
some things to deal with. When I was a kid,
at Christmas time, we'd always have I remember my parents
would bring out nuts. It was a Christmas tradition, but
not like shell nuts. They were nuts in the shells
and a little nutcracker next to him. You had to
crack him yourself. Well, I love that because it gave
me something to do. I was like to be busy,
(10:45):
so I'd cracked the nuts. I discovered that some nuts
were harder to crack than others. Some shells are just tough,
and the way the construction of them is and the
symmetry and the roundness. It takes more pressure to crack them.
People like those nuts require more pressure. You know, some
(11:05):
people learn easily, some people do not. And I've discovered
God has a class for each type of person, a
special classroom. You think that padan Aram was the school
of hard knocks. What he's going to get here is
also a very difficult situation for him. But he's going
to discover that God goes before him.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
You're listening to connect with skip Heitzig before we get
back to skips teaching. The nineteen sixties promised us an
explosion of love and brotherhood, but instead they delivered a
nation in turmoil, confusion, and moral decline. Fortunately, God has
the solution for our damaged families and in Beyond the
Summer of Love relationships in the real world. Pastor skip
(11:48):
Heitzig gives a Biblical guide for marriage and families that
can help restore relationships which have been damaged by sin.
Beyond the Summer of Love is our thanks for your
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(12:10):
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connect with Skip Heitzig. Let's continue with today's teaching with
pastor Skip.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
Chapter thirty two, verse one. So Jacob went on his way,
that's after the Laben incident, after saying goodbye to him,
and the angels of God met him. When Jacob saw them,
he said, this is God's camp. And he called the
(12:44):
name of that place Mahan na'im, which means double camp.
In other words, there's others in this campground. Boys, we're
not the only ones camping out here. The angels are. Now. Well,
it just says it as a matter of fact. You know,
he passed from there, and he went to there, and
the angels of God were there to meet him. Hey, Jacob,
(13:05):
how you doing today? Good angels, great to see you. Now.
We discovered back in chapter twenty eight that angels were
there on Jacob's way out of the land, and now
Jacob's way into the land they show up again. Why
I don't exactly know. It could be that it's showing
(13:25):
us that this is a very special land, that the
borders are guarded by God's angels, as God even said
in Deuteronomy, the eyes, my eyes are on this land,
the land of Canaan Israel, from the beginning of the
year to the very end of it. Or it could
be simply God's way of saying, I've been watching over
you and directing and guiding you all of this time.
(13:47):
You're going out, and now you're coming in. It was
a signed to him. Psalm thirty four says the Angel
of the Lord in camps, love that in camps around
those who fear him and delivers him. So here's the
angels of God that are encamping around him as he's
coming back in. In our modern era, angels have been popularized.
(14:14):
They've become very popular in the last decade or two,
but almost over popularized. They've gotten to the schmultzy stage,
were people to see them as little decorations. Oh do
you like my angel collection? If you have an angel collection,
please don't write me an email about this. My mom
(14:36):
used to collect angels. I read an article of some
woman who had collected like one hundred and four thousand angels.
She had to move doors and windows, and she didn't
have enough cabinet, so she added an extra room just
for her dumb angel collection. Whatever you're into, and there's
(15:03):
angel sightings. I've heard people say, yeah, the so and
so is out in the freeway the other day, and
you and they tell you this fanciful story. And angel
sightings have got about as popular nowadays as Elvis sightings.
I don't know if there's like an Elvis angel out
there to combine the two. I don't know about that.
But one woman who claims to be an angel ologist
said her guardian angel I read this in an article
(15:26):
helped her to lose one hundred and fifty pounds. So
new diet plan, the angel plan. I guess you eat
angel food cake for the No, you couldn't do that. Now,
I want you to think about something. It says, angels
met him. Do you know that perhaps you've met an
(15:46):
angel before? I know what you're thinking and thinking. Oh no, no,
if I met an angel, I would definitely have realized it.
You know that the wings and the white robe, the
halo would have given it away. It says the Book
of Hebrews, be careful how you entertain strangers, or how
you show hospitality to strangers, and that you should do
(16:09):
that because in so doing, the writer of Hebrews says,
some have entertained angels unaware or without knowing, without realizing it.
The person that you met, that one that you thought
was a person, could have perhaps been an angel. Could
it be? It says, be careful to show hospitality, some
(16:30):
have entertained angels unaware. Now Here it plainly says that
the angels met him, and so we called the name
double camp mah na'im. Billy Graham calls them secret agents.
The angels are God's secret agents. They do a few things,
(16:50):
and I'll just sum it up for you. By the way,
they're mentioning thirty four books of the Bible, seventeen in
the Old seventeen and the New. If you look up
the word angel in the Old Testament, I believe it's
found one hundred and three times. In the New Testament,
I believe it's one hundred and sixty five times. Thirty
four books of the Bible altogether talk about angels. So
they're very real. They are. If I were to give
(17:12):
you a definition non corporeal, that is non physical spiritual being.
They're spiritual beings without physical form. However, it would seem
that from time to time God clothes them with some
ability to share human form so as to interact with humans. Now,
(17:33):
whenever they have a physical form and a human concede them,
they're still magnificent because typically the first thing an angel
says when they meet a human is don't be afraid.
Fear not because I'm sure a person goes even at
the amazing, dazzling appearance. So oftentimes of these beings they're
(17:54):
God's secret agents. What do they do? Well? Number one,
they stand in his presence. They stand in His presence
just like kings, queens, presidents have their own troops and
entourage around them. There are angels like in Isaiah six
or in Revelation four and five, that are angels of
God's presence that render worship praise to God incessantly, So
(18:20):
they stand in his presence. Second, they serve God's people.
Hebrews Once says, they are ministering spirits sent by God
to minister to those of us who inherit salvation. Angels
play an active role in your life. I believe you
have guardian angels. They minister. The Bible says, to those
(18:40):
who inherit salvation. Now, some of us by some of
the things we do, the activities we do, be it skateboarding,
or maybe you do some radical skiing or snowboarding or
mountain bike jumping. You know, maybe you have like doubled
up angels on you, or you know, some kind of
massively strong, very attentive angels. But the truth is all
(19:04):
of us have interacted with them. We aren't aware of it.
But God us dispatched them to minister to us, who
are heirs of salvation. Okay, so they met him. He
called that name Mahanaim double Camp. Then Jacob sent messengers
before him to Esau, his brother, in the land of Sir.
(19:27):
Now Sarah's down. If you go east of the Jordan
River and you go down in the deserts of Jordan,
south of what is ancient Edom, towards Saudi Arabia, you're
going to discover Sir. Mount syr Is where Esau went.
And he evidently had conquered the inhabitants of that land
called the Wrights and another group called the Hurrians, and
(19:51):
he had become very successful. God had blessed him, and
he has noticed the entourage he has coming sent messengers
before him to Esau, his brother in the land of Seir,
the country of Edom, and he commanded them, saying, speak
thus to my lord. Interesting choice of words, my Lord Esau,
(20:14):
thus your servant against interesting choice of words, your servant,
Jacob says, I have dwelt with Laban and stayed there
until now. I have oxen donkeys, flocks, male and female servants. Hint, hint, hint,
And I have sent to tell my lord that I
might find favor in your sight. Now Jacob is the
(20:38):
one who initiates contact with his brother. Why, well, remember
how they had that falling out when Jacob stole his
brother's blessing. Jacob knows there's going to be no peace
between he and his brother unless he resolves the issue
that he has left unresolved twenty years before, when he
(20:59):
had to flee because he stole his brother's blessing. Now,
I do find it interesting that he calls his brother
my lord, he saw, because that's not how he thought
about him twenty years before this. Where did he learn
this buttering up approach? Where'd he learn this kind of
(21:21):
flattery from Uncle Laban? Twenty years of being with laban
Labe and knew how to pour it on the first
time he saw Jacob, he goes, oh my, you're my
own flesh and blood, sent to me by God. And
all the time he's figuring out a way to connive
and get him to work for him, and he does successfully.
(21:42):
And then when he's about to leave, he says, oh,
you can't leave, don't you know God, your God, our
God has blessed me because of you. I'll give you
anything you want. He just knew how to butter up Jacob.
Jacob learned quite well, was watching this quite aively, and
I think he's employing the same kind of characteristics to
(22:05):
flatter his brother because he doesn't want his brother to
kill him. Then verse six, the messengers returned to Jacob saying,
we came to your brother Esau and he is also
coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him.
That's not what Jacob wanted to hear. He's thinking, Oh, man,
(22:30):
am I toast It's curtains for me. So Jacob was
greatly afraid and distressed, and he divided the people that
were with him, and the flocks and the herds and
the camels into two companies, and he said, if Esau
comes to the one company and attacks it, then the
(22:52):
other company, which is left, will escape. Now watch how
Jacob operates. He's going to divide his his people into
two camps and then more camps, four camps later on.
And he's anticipating that his brother's going to attack and
kill the first camp. Guess which camp he's going to
be in. Personally, I think would be in the first one.
(23:14):
Oh No, he's gonna be way in the back, using
his children and wives as buffers for him. A little wiss.
That's his approach. He's figuring it all out, he's anticipating
it all in his mind. Verse nine. Watch this. Then
(23:35):
Jacob said, now he's gonna pray. This is the first
recorded or written. This is the first time we get
to hear Jacob prays. I'm not saying it's the first
time he prayed. He did pray before, but now it's
recorded for us. So let's read through it and then
we'll make commentent Jacob said, Oh, God of my father Abraham,
and God of my father Isaac, the Lord who said
(23:56):
to me, return to your country and to your family,
and I will deal well with you. I am not
worthy of the least of all the mercies and of
all the truth which you have shown, your servant. For
I have crossed over this Jordan with my staff, and
now I have become two companies. Deliver me. I pray
from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau,
(24:16):
for I fear him lest he come and attack me
and the mother with the children. For you have said,
I will surely treat you well and make your descendants
as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered
for the multitude.
Speaker 1 (24:34):
Thanks for listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. We hope
you've been strengthened in your walk with Jesus by today's program.
Before we let you go, we want to remind you
about this month's resources that will help you understand and
follow God's plan for your relationships beyond the Summer of love.
Relationships in the real world by pastor Skip Heitzig is
our Thanks for your support of Connect with Skip Heitzig today.
(24:57):
Request your copy when you give twenty five more call
eight hundred nine two two eighteen eighty eight. That's eight
hundred nine two two eighteen eighty eight, or visit connect
with Skip dot com slash donate and did you know
that you can get a weekly devotional and other resources
from pastor Skip sent right to your email inbox. Simply
(25:18):
visit connect with Skip dot com and sign up for
emails from Skip. Come back next time for more verse
by verse teaching of God's Word. Here Unconnect with skip Heidzig, Make.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
It Connects, Make a connects. The cross chat song song
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Makes Next connect with skip Heidzig is a presentation of
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