We turn to the book of Genesis, Genesis 32. We will read from verse 22.
And Jacob rose up that night, and took his two wives, and his two handmaids, and his eleven children, and passed over the ford of Jabbok.
And he took them, and sent them over the stream, and sent over that which he had.
And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day.
And when He saw that He prevailed not against him, He touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob’s thigh was strained as he wrestled with Him.
And He said, “Let Me go, for the day breaketh.” And he said, “I will not let Thee go, except Thou bless me.”
And He said unto him, “What is thy name?” And he said, “Jacob.”
And He said, “Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for thou hast striven with God and with men, and hast prevailed.”
And Jacob asked Him, and said, “Tell me, I pray Thee, Thy name.” And He said, “Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after My name?” And He blessed him there.
And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for, said he, “I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.”
And the sun rose upon him as he passed over Penuel, and he limped upon his thigh.
Therefore the children of Israel eat not the sinew of the hip which is upon the hollow of the thigh unto this day, because He touched the hollow of Jacob’s thigh in the sinew of the hip.
Shall we bow together in prayer?
Father, we just want to thank Thee that we are found here in Thy presence this evening. We thank Thee for the fellowship we have already enjoyed. As we have worshipped Thee, and as we have received from Thee in song and praise, Lord, we now commit to Thee Thy Word.
We pray, Lord, that Thou wilt grant that the ministry of Thy Word may be under the anointing of Thy Holy Spirit. Into that anointing we stand, Lord, both speaker and hearer alike. We pray, Lord, that my speaking and our hearing shall not be by natural resource, talent, or gift, but that it may come through the divine enabling of Thy Holy Spirit.
For then, Lord, we know that Thou wilt fulfil Thy purpose in this time, glorify the Lord Jesus, and cause His Word to dwell in us richly. Dear Lord, we commit ourselves to Thee, that there may be consequence and result which will be eternal from this time this evening.
Bring a spirit of quietness, especially upon the little ones, Lord, we pray. Grant that we, being shut in with Thyself, shall see Thee with the eye of our heart. This we ask in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
The times that I have been responsible for, I have been considering the life of Jacob. Of course, I have said repeatedly that there is no biblical character or personality who has had a greater influence upon all that has followed than Jacob.
We read throughout Scripture of the God of Jacob, the Mighty One of Jacob, and the house of Jacob. His very name, Jacob, and the name which God gave him when He changed him—Israel—have become the name of the people of God from that time to this, and forever.
God calls us His redeemed people: Jacob, whom He formed, and Israel, whom He created. It is an amazing thing. I cannot go over all that we have said about Jacob this evening, but I am glad it has been taped for those who want to follow the previous studies: the love of God and Jacob, the glorious election of God, and the purpose of God in Jacob.
I want this evening to speak about the face of God and Jacob.
God’s purpose for Jacob was glorious and significant. It was fivefold:
What a purpose—a glorious purpose for this man, Jacob, and a significant purpose. It was not some small diversionary side matter, but something which lies at the very heart of human history and, above all, divine history.
The problem in the realization and fulfilment of this purpose of God for Jacob was Jacob himself.
It was not that Jacob did not have an understanding of spiritual things. He understood them much more than his twin brother Esau. Esau may have been a very fine man, but he had no time, no understanding, and no appreciation of the things of God.
From the very beginning, Jacob had an appreciation for the things of God. He put a value on the birthright which Esau never put upon it. He put a value on the blessing which Esau never really put upon it. He put a value upon the purpose of God that was altogether alien to Esau’s attitude and character.
The problem was not a matter of understanding. Many Christians seem to think that the great problem among the people of God is ignorance as to the purpose of God, the things of God, and the ways of God. Now, that may be true to a certain extent, but frankly, that is not the problem.
Nor was the problem a matter of zeal. If a man had a kind of zeal, Jacob had that zeal. He looked for every opportunity to get the birthright out of Esau’s hands and into his own.
He put such a value upon it, and was so zealous over the matter, that when his brother came in one day nearly dying of hunger, literally fainting at Jacob’s feet, he would not give him as much as a ladle of the soup he had prepared until he saw him signed on the dotted line. Jacob got the birthright. It may not have been zeal according to knowledge, but it was zeal.
Many Christians tell me that the problem is that there is not enough zeal among people. People are half alive; they are apathetic and indifferent. Americans have got it too good, I am told, and so have Canadians. But, as far as that goes, so have we on our side of the Atlantic.
I am told that if only the people of God had zeal, if only they were eaten up with determination and strength of will concerning the things of God, everything would change. I want to tell you a secret: you can have understanding of the things of God and of the purpose of God. You can put a value upon the purpose of God and the things of God. You may have determination and strength of will concerning those things, but the problem still remains.
The problem is not ignorance. The problem is not recognition. The problem is not strength of will or determination. The problem is Jacob. That is the problem.
Of course, it is God’s problem, because God chose Jacob. He chose him. And He chose a bundle of difficulties. He knew all about it when He set His love upon him, elected him, and called him.
The problem was Jacob, and the problem was the strength of Jacob’s own natural man. Jacob was no weakling. He was highly intelligent, highly talented, highly gifted, resourceful, and a shrewd manipulator.
He was not the kind of person who strikes horror into you. I think Jacob was a highly attractive person. But the problem was that Jacob was too gifted, too strong in personality, and had too great a gift in intelligence.
You can have an understanding of all that our brother Manfred has been talking about concerning the church, and yet be the greatest hindrance to its expression and fulfilment. This is uncomfortable hearing. We do not really like to hear this kind of thing.
We can be very nice people, but we are still a great problem. The stronger the personality we have, the greater the strength of natural character, talent, gift, and capacity for frustrating the purpose of God.
Woe betide any gifted, strong-souled person with a great personality who sees church principles. God preserve us. Such people get it off the ground within weeks. They get their hands on it, collect a few people together, and say, “We will get this thing off the ground. The Lord’s Table this coming Sunday.”
Within weeks we have elders. Within a few more weeks, we have deacons. We have the whole church pattern. It is not a question of ignorance. It is not that we despise the things of God or lack appreciation. It is not that we have no determination or strength of will. There is plenty of it.
The problem is us. We are going to do it.
And so, instead of Isaac, we produce an Ishmael—something half God and half man, something which is the product of the flesh. Ishmael may have looked more like Abraham than Isaac ever did. People get this muddled up. They think anybody could spot Ishmael, but he might have been the very image of his father Abraham.
And Isaac? You might have said, “Who is that lad running around?” They would say, “That is Isaac.” “Isaac? He does not look at all like his father.” No, he may look like his great-grandmother on the maternal side, but he is still the son of promise.
So, dear people, the problem with Jacob was the strength of his own natural man—his uncontrollable and powerful self-will. It was the spontaneous strength of his self-life that spawned all the deceit, scheming, and supplanting.
Jacob did not see himself in this light. When he stole the birthright from Esau, he did not see it in terms of deceit or supplanting. He felt it was something coming to him. I have no doubt that his mother Rebekah told him about the prophecy that, before the boys were born, the elder would serve the younger.
Therefore, he felt, “Well, it was coming to me. How else does something come? Are we meant to be mystical and wait? My twin brother came in nearly dead. It was a glorious, God-given opportunity. God arranged it, and I took it.”
When he deceived his aged and blind father Isaac, perhaps he was a little more aware that he was deceiving. He did say to his mother, “Will not Father find out by hearing my voice, or perhaps touching me? I am smooth-skinned. Will he not think I am a deceiver?”
But he did not say, “Will he not find out that I am a deceiver?” He said, “Will he not think that I am a deceiver?” Jacob was unaware of himself.
When he went to Uncle Laban for twenty years, Jacob was totally unaware that there was a great deal of manipulating power within his own nature. He thought he was helping the Lord. There was a lot of Jacob in the thing.
So what I am trying to say is this: we—you and I—are the problem in the realization and fulfilment of the purpose of God.
I am speaking to many people here this evening who have an understanding of the things of God. You would give glory to God for that. You would say, “It is the grace of God that I understand a little about His purpose, a little about the things of God, a little about the church of God, and the house of God.”
But we have to face the fact that the problem is not the others who do not see. We so often say, “Oh, the problem is all these other Christians: they do not see.” No, the problem is not the people who do not see. The problem is the people who do see.
Here is the uncomfortable truth: you are the problem. I am the problem. We recognize the purpose of God, and we frustrate the purpose of God. We appreciate the things of God, and at the same time we undo the things of God. We compromise the things of God. We have a zeal for the Lord’s house, and we stop it building.
It is the Jacob. It is not that you and I are by nature manipulators, swindlers, or supplanters, but we have natural strength. The more gifted we are, and the greater the personality we have, the greater danger we are to the things of God.
It is interesting to me that when Jacob later described this greatest encounter with God in his whole life, at the ford of Jabbok, he did not call it brokenness. He could have said, “I shall call this place Brokenness.” Or perhaps, “Lameness,” because from that day he limped with a dislocated hip.
He could have called it transformation. There would have been lovely Hebrew words for these ideas. But Jacob called it Peniel: the face of God.
I think that is wonderful. It is almost as if Jacob does not come into it. This self-interested man, this self-centred man, this unconsciously egoistic man, as a result of this experience, does not even bring himself into the picture. He calls it Peniel, the face of God.
For he said, “I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.”
In Hebrew, this word for face, panim, means presence or countenance. You know the beautiful Aaronic blessing:
The Lord bless thee, and keep thee:
The Lord make His face to shine upon thee,
And be gracious unto thee:
The Lord lift up His countenance upon thee,
And give thee peace.
When Moses said to the Lord, “If Thy presence go not with us, carry us not up hence,” he used the word panim. “If Thy face go not with us, carry us not up hence.” The Lord said, “My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.”
We could translate it, though it would sound awkward in English: “My face will go with thee, and I will give thee rest. My countenance will go with thee, and I will give thee rest.”
What a wonderful description of this life-transforming encounter with God: the presence of God, the countenance of God, the face of God.
I said the last time I spoke that vision and revelation are relative. There are times when we see something that thrills, excites, and touches us, and in one sense gives direction to our life; but it may not get down to the root of the matter.
I believe that to every servant of the Lord—and I would say, to every child of God—sooner or later there must come the kind of revelation which pulverizes us.
Whether it always comes in a dramatic moment, I question. For myself, I have had such an experience, and I know others who have had such experiences. Others have had a gradual experience, but it is still the same principle.
God comes to us, and by the grace of God we take hold of Him. Then He takes hold of us, and we learn the words of the apostle Paul: “I lay hold on that for which also I am laid hold of.” This is a necessity in every believer’s life.
I want to speak on the necessity of Jabbok. Jabbok, of course, is the name of the ford, the little stream over which Jacob had to pass. Did you notice Genesis 32:24? “And Jacob was left alone.”
There is about this necessary experience a divine aloneness. Not even your wife can be with you. Not even your husband can be with you. Not even the dearest friend can be with you. This is an experience of the Lord which, by its very nature, has to be alone with Him.
Jabbok is a necessity in any life. There is no alternative. People are always looking for shortcuts, my dear friends. You can go to a theological seminary for ten years, but it will not do for you what one night at Jabbok will do.
You can spend your whole time studying various prophetic schemes of the Bible, or other forms of study. I am not against study; I think you all know that. The more we study the Word, the more material there is for the Holy Spirit to work upon.
But let us never think that study is in itself something spiritual. The collection of knowledge, the gathering of knowledge, memorizing the Word, and recognizing spiritual principles are not in themselves transforming.
Jabbok is a necessity. In principle, every believer must know it. There is no other way for Jacob to become Israel.
If you want to have power with God, if you want to be an overcomer, if you want to be a prince with God and with men, if you want to be one who has seen the Lord and whose life bears a permanent mark, there is no other way than Jabbok.
The schemer, the manipulator, the one who cannot control the spontaneous strength of his own will and character, cannot become the prince with God—Israel—unless he comes to Jabbok.
God’s timing of your personal Jabbok, as with Jacob, is always perfect. So do not get into a great tizzy about this matter, saying, “Oh dear, how can I get to Jabbok?” Dear friend, do not bother your dear little head. This is all part of election.
I am not saying that you can be lazy. But if you will go on with God—with all your weaknesses, faults, strength of will, and the rest of it—there will come a Jabbok in your life as surely as I stand here.
At first, you will not recognize it to be God. You will think it is all to do with Uncle Laban behind you and Brother Esau in front of you. You will think it is simply a matter of all the deceit finally catching up with you.
But God’s timing of Jabbok in every believer’s life is perfect. Even though we rarely recognize that He is behind it and that it is His ordering, later we discover that it is the Lord.
It is never too early and never too late. That is why you cannot arrange it. If you arrange it, you would be in a Jabbok tonight and make a mess of it.
God works ceaselessly, silently, hiddenly in the background, manipulating circumstances, situations, difficulties, problems, and relationships. At the exact moment when you have come to true self-knowledge and true self-despair, God times His Jabbok.
Jabbok, the ford, comes to all who will go on with God. Jacob could not pass that river anywhere. It was one of the ravine, steep-gorge rivers of the east bank of Jordan. There were only one or two crossing places, and this was one of the fords over the river Jabbok.
He could not go anywhere else. He had to come to it, and he had to go over it. Behind him was Laban; ahead of him was Esau.
Jacob was terrified. Here was this strong, intelligent, shrewd business manipulator, and when it came to it, he was terrified. Jacob was cornered.
He was not even comforted by two companies of angels. Genesis 32:1 says, “And Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him.” Jacob saw the angelic beings and said, “This is God’s host.” He called the place Mahanaim—two groups, two companies, two tribes.
But Jacob had deceived his twin brother Esau, and history was finally catching up with him. Perhaps he thought, “Are these angels of God here to watch retribution? Are they here to see that when I sowed, I reap?”
Jacob divided the whole group that was with him into two companies. Perhaps he thought that if he lost his life, at least the little ones and their families might be preserved. He was trapped.
Then he received word that Esau was coming. God could have arranged for Esau to send a message saying, “Brother Jacob, all is forgiven. I am on my way to meet you. I cannot wait to see you face to face.” But Esau said nothing. The message was simply, “I am on my way.”
That could mean anything. It struck terror into Jacob’s heart. “How is he coming?” “Four hundred men are with him.” Four hundred men! Then it must mean the worst. He is going to take it out on me and upon my family.
Jacob was trapped—not, as he thought, by circumstances or history, but by God.
All of us long to become Israel. I do not suppose there is a Christian here who does not long that God would transform him or her, make you a blessing, make you fruitful, multiply you, enable you to possess the land in all its fullness, and make you a builder of the house of God.
But the way God does it is not always recognized by us. We think of some marvellous ecstatic experience, where we are caught up to the third heaven and see wonderful colours and sights, filled with marvellous sugary visions. God does not change people that way.
Surely it is the face of God, surely it is the Person of His Son, who wrestles with us. But it is the very human circumstances and relationships that God uses finally to trap us, so that we cannot go back and we cannot go forward. We are trapped, and when it finally comes, we are left alone.
Do not blame anyone in that moment when you feel totally alone. It is by divine appointment.
The second thing is this: not only is Jabbok a necessity in every believer’s life, in principle; we cannot escape from it if we would go on with God.
If we are ready to settle for something less and stay with Uncle Laban for the rest of our lives, we will not have a Jabbok. But if we are on the way back to the land, if we want to be involved essentially and substantially with the purpose of God and its realization, then Jabbok is a necessity. We have to face it alone.
But we must have a true self-knowledge. In Genesis 32:27, the angel said unto him, “What is thy name?” And he said, “Jacob.”
One of the things I find in the work of the Lord is that true knowledge of oneself is very rare. I am amazed at what people tell me about themselves.
I remember a man writing to me and complaining bitterly about another brother. At the end of the letter he wrote, “You know that I am one of the most humble men in this world.” This brother was gifted, born again, and prominent in Christian work. But there was one thing we all knew about him: he was not humble.
I remember reproaching another brother for being big-headed. He said, “I am ten times less big-headed this year than I was last year.” It is incredible how we do not know ourselves.
There was a sister in a Baptist church of which I was once a member. She used to say, “Now tell me, you know one thing I can do: I can keep a confidence.” We all knew that if you wanted the whole of the Richmond area to know a matter, you told Auntie Mac—and added, “This is in confidence.”
It is incredible. People say, “My strong point is patience,” and we all know that they are very impatient people. Some people say, “I do not suffer from long-windedness,” and they are the most long-winded people. Well, at least I can tell you that I am long-winded.
We do not know ourselves. Even servants of the Lord do not know themselves. Because we do not know ourselves, we cannot serve the Lord purely.
We do not get to know ourselves by looking inward. Jacob did not spend hours in introspection, studying himself with a spiritual microscope, magnifying glass, and all the rest of it. No, it did not come that way.
How did he get to know himself? Through others. This is the divinely appointed way by which we really come to know ourselves.
When the angel of the Lord took hold of Jacob, and they began to wrestle, Jacob would not let Him go. The angel said, “What is thy name?” Jacob had come a long way by then. He was sick of himself, sick of his natural strength, and sick of what it had led him into.
He could have said, “Me? I am Isaac’s son.” Isaac was such a godly old man. Or he could have said, “Me? I am Abraham’s grandson.” But he owned up. He said, “Jacob. Yaakov. The supplanter. The twister. The deceiver.”
Only God can give true self-knowledge. Do not misunderstand me and rush out to have a period of introspection, which will only do the enemy’s work. The only way you will ever come to know yourself is through God.
When God does it, it is truth which liberates you. When you begin to see yourself, you find that you are free. Suddenly you begin to understand what motivates you, what the real soul-force in your personality is, why you react as you do, and why you try to manipulate things.
God does it through relationships. I have no doubt that God used all the relationships in Jacob’s life to bring him to the place where he saw himself.
First of all, there was Uncle Laban. Laban was very generous at the beginning. Jacob had fallen in love with Rachel, his youngest daughter. Laban said, “I am not going to have you living in my home and working with my flocks for nothing. I think it is right that you should have wages.”
Jacob said, “I will work for you seven years without wages if I can marry Rachel.” “Done,” said Uncle Laban. “That is excellent.” I suppose he thought to himself, “That is easier than letting cash flow out. Keep the boy in the family. Gifted boy, intelligent boy, seems to have a good head.”
Now, you must not think that Laban was merely a swindler. In Eastern and Oriental custom, especially in the Middle East, one could not marry off the younger daughter before the eldest. If you did, the eldest daughter would be left on the shelf.
So Laban devised his scheme. He would marry Leah off to Jacob. It was not only Laban who was involved in the deception; Leah must have been involved as well. “Learn how to walk like your beloved younger sister Rachel,” he might have said. “We will veil you so heavily that he will not be able to tell.”
You know the story. After the wedding celebrations, Jacob went in to Leah. Only when the veil was removed did he find—not his beloved Rachel—but Leah.
I can imagine Jacob saying, “Can you believe it? Could anyone do such a thing? My own flesh and blood, my uncle, my mother’s brother! He swindled me. Seven years I have slaved; I have not received a penny.”
Yet he never thought that he had swindled Esau out of the birthright, or swindled his blind and aged father over the blessing. It never entered his head. First, he came face to face with himself, like a mirror, in Uncle Laban.
Then he looked at Leah. Leah was in the swindle too. Perhaps he was angry to begin with, but then he saw Jacob in Leah.
And there was Rachel. Jacob never thought that his beloved Rachel would swindle anybody, but she did too. When they fled from Laban, Rachel stole the household gods. In those days, the household gods were like title deeds to property.
Laban searched every tent and every piece of baggage. Rachel sat on the saddlebag of the camel, beneath which the household gods were hidden. She said, “I am not feeling too well, Papa. I do not want to get up.” And Laban left her there.
Jacob had said to Laban, “If the household gods are found with anybody in my company, let him or her die.” Those were terrible words—prophetic words—for Rachel died a few months later, giving birth to Benjamin.
Jacob saw himself first in Laban, then in Leah, and then in Rachel.
What about you? How do you come to true self-knowledge? By those God leads to be beside you. Sometimes it is your husband, sometimes your wife, sometimes your parents, sometimes your children. Certainly it may be your employer or your colleagues at work.
Those people you find so irritating, the people about whom you get so steamed up—“I cannot spend another moment with so-and-so”—actually, they are a mirror. You are seeing yourself.
God has ordained them so that you will come to self-despair, so that you will come to the place where you know yourself. You do not get to know yourself on some wonderful mountaintop, shut away from everybody, with beautiful sunsets, sunrises, and twittering birds.
It does not happen through some spiritual, Christian, transcendental meditation in which you suddenly see yourself as you really are. It never happens that way. It is a deception.
But when, in your circumstances, someone is put beside you who rubs you up the wrong way all the time, who brings out the worst in you, with whom you cannot work, worship, or walk, you may say, “If only God would remove that person out of my circle, I could be a Christian.”
You do not understand that they are there by divine appointment. They are predestined to be there because God has chosen you, and God is bringing you to your Jabbok.
So do not try to run away. If you do, you will run away from God. Do not try to escape, because if you do, you will escape from God’s dealings.
Allow God to do in your life what He is doing—whether it is at work, in the home, in friendships, in circumstances, or in church life. It is in these things that God really deals with us.
Do not think that the matter of finding out about himself stopped with Jacob’s experience at Jabbok. It went on. Jacob suffered through his sons and daughter, even after he became Israel. There was still much Jacob in them.
Do not ever think that because you become an Israel, you will have no more revelation of yourself. It will be different, but you will have plenty. And it will all be in the matter of relationships with those nearest to you.
When the angel of the Lord finally took hold of Jacob, Jacob said, “I will not let You go unless You bless me.” The angel asked, “What is your name?” Did the angel know who Jacob was? Of course He did. Was this not predestined and timed by God? Of course it was.
Why then did God say, “What is your name?” Because He wanted to establish, once and for all, that Jacob knew himself.
Jacob did not give a great essay. He did not beat around the bush, talking about Abraham, Isaac, and how God had appeared to them. He just said one word: “Jacob.”
Perhaps in that moment Jacob thought, “That is the end. There will be no blessing.” But then the angel of the Lord said, “Thou shalt no more be called Jacob—supplanter, twister, deceiver. Thou shalt be called Israel.”
God persists. And thou hast had power with God.
That brings me to the last thing I want to say this evening: the desperation of true faith.
Self-despair because of self-knowledge is not enough. That will bring you to the change—to faith, which is the gift of God, which enables you not to let the Lord go until He does it.
Once God gets a purchase hold on you, do not let Him go.
Listen to Jacob. “Jacob was left alone, and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day.” When the angel saw that He prevailed not against him, He touched the hollow of Jacob’s thigh. In Hebrew, it is quite clear that this was a dislocation of his hip.
The angel said, “Let Me go, for the day breaketh.” Jacob said, “I will not let Thee go unless Thou bless me.” That is the desperation of true faith.
It is not a passive despair that says, “Oh, I am no good. God will never do anything in me. I begin to see myself now. It is hopeless.” No. Here is the gift of true faith: “I will not let You go unless You bless me.”
Only God can give that kind of faith to a man or to a woman. Jacob’s natural strength was broken.
Charles Wesley wrote one of the most magnificent hymns he ever wrote. Sadly, you do not often see it today in all its verses, because there are ten of them. Charles Wesley had an experience like Jacob. He was absolutely at an end of himself.
He went into his room, shut the door, and said, “This night I will stay here with God until He touches me.” He wrote a poem through the night, and when God touched and transformed him, he completed it.
Come, O Thou Traveller unknown,
Whom still I hold, but cannot see;
My company before is gone,
And I am left alone with Thee.
With Thee all night I mean to stay,
And wrestle till the break of day.I need not tell Thee who I am,
My sin and misery declare;
Thyself hast called me by my name,
Look on Thy hands, and read it there.
But who, I ask Thee, who art Thou?
Tell me Thy name, and tell me now.In vain Thou strugglest to get free,
I never will unloose my hold;
Art Thou the Man that died for me?
The secret of Thy love unfold.
Wrestling, I will not let Thee go
Till I Thy name, Thy nature know.For I am weak, but confident
In self-despair;
Speak to my heart, in blessing speak;
Be conquered by my instant prayer.
Speak, or Thou never hence shalt move,
And tell me if Thy name be Love.’Tis Love! ’Tis Love! Thou diedst for me;
I hear Thy whisper in my heart;
The morning breaks, the shadows flee,
Pure universal Love Thou art.
To me, to all, Thy mercies move;
Thy nature and Thy name is Love.Lame as I am, I take the prey;
Hell, earth, and sin, with ease o’ercome;
I leap for joy, pursue my way,
And, as a bounding hart, I run,
Through all eternity to prove
Thy nature and Thy name is Love.
I think that embodies a kind of experience which is all too rare today. It was not some mystic experience; it was an encounter with God.
Margaret Barber had a tremendous influence upon Watchman Nee’s life. She too had such an experience. Falsely accused by the missionary community, she had to leave China. She lost her reputation and her fellowship with the mission.
Under the guidance of a godly bishop, she was asked, “Do you believe God has called you to China?” “Yes,” she said. “Then you shall go back on your own and trust Him—mission or no mission.” And she did.
This is how she wrote of her experience:
Wrecked outright on Jesus’ breast,
Only wrecked souls thus can sing;
Little boats that hug the shore,
Fearing what the storm may bring,
Never find on Jesus’ breast
All that wrecked souls mean by rest.Wrecked outright! So we lament;
But when storms have done their worst,
Then the soul, surviving all,
In eternal arms is nursed;
There to find that nought can move
One embosomed in such love.Wrecked outright! No more to own
E’en a craft to sail the sea;
Still a voyager, yet now
Anchored to infinity;
Nothing left to do but fling
Care aside and simply cling.Wrecked outright! ’Twas purest gain;
Henceforth other craft can see
That the storm may be a boon,
That, however rough the scene,
God Himself doth watchful stand,
For the wreck is in His hand.
That may be very foreign to some people whose gospel is a prosperity gospel. But if there were no other phrase in that marvellous poem of Margaret Barber’s, this one would be enough: “Still a voyager, yet now anchored to infinity.”
This was Jacob’s experience. Still a pilgrim, still a voyager—yet he had lost his own ship. Now he could do nothing. He was wrecked. His hip was dislocated, and he could only limp for the rest of his life.
But he was a wreck in the hand of God. From then on, Jacob became the prince with God and with men. He became a blessing to Pharaoh, to his sons, to his grandsons, and to the people of God forever.
The deceiver had become a worshipper.
We live in a day of cheapness. Samuel Brotherhood once said, while in prison for his faith and love of the Lord Jesus, “Men want Christ cheap. They want Him without the cross. But the price will not come down.”
Dear friends, we live in a day when men want Christ cheap. I am all for charismatic experience, all for gifts of the Spirit, all for the fullness of the Spirit, and all for the anointing. But alongside it must come a deep, costly transformation from Jacob to Israel.
Otherwise, the church means nothing. The church is not just a pattern. It is not simply a matter of position, function, or gift. It is not merely an evangelistic agency. It is a testimony to the transforming grace and power of God: Jacob into Israel.
If the members of the body of our Lord Jesus are not being transformed into the image of God’s own Son, what hope is there? If the world sees only our knowledge of the church, hears us only talking about church principles and the things of God, and sees no change in our lives whereby the beauty of God is seen upon us, what is its real significance?
Jacob called it the face of God.
The apostle Paul said, “The light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ has shone into our hearts.”
Dear people of God, the Holy Spirit never works substantially without the cross. And the work of the cross is meaningless without the Person of the Holy Spirit.
When we know the work of the cross without the Person of the Holy Spirit, it becomes a thing. We become dark, heavy, sorrowful, bound people under some dark and heavy storm cloud all the time.
It is the Holy Spirit who translates the work of the cross into something which can only be described as the face of God. It is no longer merely brokenness, lameness, the paralysis of our self-life, or even transformation. It is nothing less than the face of God.
Jacob into Israel.
Dear friends, dear people of God, do you not think this is half the problem in many of our companies? For too long, we have talked about truth and not experience—the power.
For too long, we have paid lip service to church matters, only to see the whole thing disappear. The problem is not what we see. It is ourselves.
Only God can bring us from Jacob to Israel.
I will close with another poem tonight, this time by another lady. She also had such an experience in her life that could be called Jabbok. She wrote this amazing little poem, and I leave it with you.
Have you seen the face of God? Have you come to your Jabbok? Are you ready?
This is Amy Carmichael’s poem:
Hast thou no scar?
No hidden scar on foot, or side, or hand?
I hear thee sung as mighty in the land,
I hear them hail thy bright ascendant star.
Hast thou no scar?Hast thou no wound?
Yet I was wounded by the archers, spent,
Leaned Me against a tree to die; and rent
By ravening beasts that compassed Me, I swooned.
Hast thou no wound?No wound? No scar?
Yet, as the Master shall the servant be,
And pierced are the feet that follow Me;
But thine are whole. Can he have followed far
Who has no wound nor scar?
Shall we pray?
Father, we ask Thee that Thou wilt preserve this Word this evening from misinterpretation or misconstruction. For Thou dost ask of us a question this night: “Hast thou no wound? No scar?”
O Lord, we pray that Thou wilt help every one of us to say, by Thy grace, “Lord, Thou knowest me altogether. Thou knowest I am Jacob. But, O Lord, I will follow Thee by Thy grace.”
I will follow Thee through all the circumstances of my life: marriage, home, family, business, church. I will follow Thee, O Lord, till I come to Jabbok, until Thy love touches me and makes me the Israel Thou wouldst have me be.
O Lord, we do not want to be sentimental. But we do pray: let the mark of Thy work, let the mark of Thy cross, come upon us. Let it be seen upon us for the rest of our lives.
May the Holy Spirit swallow us up in glory. May we possess a land in all its fullness, become that fruitful people we should be, be a blessing to all, be princes with Thee and with men, and build Thy house.
O God, hear us. We ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus.