Dr. Manny Arango (0:00)

Hey, Bible nerds. This is Dr. Manny Arango and I'm your host for the Bible department podcast powered by Arma. This podcast follows a Bible reading plan we created to help you read the entire Bible in a year. You can head to the show notes or thebibledepartment.com to download our reading plan and join the journey. To all my fellow pastors, I've got a question for you. Does your city know that your church exists? Listen, I get it. You're preaching, you're leading, you're discipling, you're doing ministry. We are in the same boat. And let's be honest, social media and marketing, not your strong suit. Not mine either. And that's probably the last thing on your mind. And that's why we chose to partner with Church Candy Marketing for our church Plant the garden. We out here, y'all. They help churches get more actual guests walking through the doors on Sunday without your eye having to stress over ads or algorithms or trying to crack the social media code. Right now, Church Candy is helping nearly 400 churches reach their communities with simple invite ads. And it works. It's super effective. I can tell you from firsthand experience. So if you're tired of being your city's best kept secret, how about you do this? Go to churchcandy.com Manny and book a free consultation book a discovery call. Their team will break it all down and show you how to start seeing new faces at your church this Sunday. I'm in the trenches with you trying to grow the church. And how about we just start a whole campaign? No more empty churches. So let's partner with Church Candy and get our churches full. The glory of Jesus. Let's go. We're going to go through Genesis chapters 31, 32, and 33. Hey, if you haven't done the reading for today, that's a great place to stop the video. Stop the audio, go do the reading. We only got three short chapters for today's reading content. If you're on a streak, I'm proud of you. If you're not on a streak, today's a good day to start one. We got another action packed three chapters. Jacob is going to leave Laban's household, which is going to be dramatic. I mean, you can imagine he has married two of this man's daughters. He is going to leave with those daughters and Laban's grandchildren and flocks. And Jacob has done some kind of voodoo magic to. To get all of the flocks to reproduce a certain way. Not only is he going to leave Laban's household. But then he's actually going to reunite with his brother. Now, as you can imagine, like 20 years has gone by, and if I'm Jacob, I'm. I'm scared, okay? And you can tell by Jacob's the way that he's acting that he is scared. He sends a bunch of flocks and a bunch of herds and a bunch of gifts to pacify his brother because he knows he's going to cross back over and meet his brother and attempt to reconcile with his brother. And if you were listening yesterday or watching yesterday, he's going to attempt to be a priest. He's going to. He's going to attempt to say this. Even if this means I sacrifice my life, it's worth it. Anyone who's a priest has to be willing to sacrifice. And so even if my brother in anger kills me, it's better to risk that than to have an estranged relationship with my brother forever. Now, in the middle of him leaving Laban and going to reunite with Esau, there's a face to face encounter with God. This would be the angel of the Lord or an Old Testament version of Jesus. Okay, this is. This is God in the flesh. We get a couple of these. There's a handful of these throughout the Old Testament. And we're gonna get one right here in this chunk. And so we got a lot to talk through. So let's first kind of just give context. I'll give you context clues, I'll give you nerdy nuggets. I'm gonna give you a timeless truth, like always. Let's jump into some context. We're actually going to spend the majority of our time talking through context so that we can really understand what's going on in Genesis chapter 31, 32 and 33. Here's the first piece of context. Genesis 3:15, okay? Most of Genesis can be understood by understanding Genesis chapter 3:15. Adam and Eve get deceived by the serpent, and then God gives Eve a punishment and a promise. Okay? They are one and one. Hey, you're gonna have pains in childbirth. Your desire is going to be for your husband. He's going to rule over you. Okay? Then we get to the. To the magic. We get to the promise, which says there's actually going to be enmity between you and the serpent. That part, duh. Okay, the serpent had just deceived her, of course, is going to be enmity. Okay, Enmity. Then he says, there's also going to be enmity between your offspring. So the serpent's offspring and the woman's offspring. So the woman's offspring is easy. This is Cain and Abel. If you are Eve, you're probably thinking to yourself, one of my sons is going to be the Messiah. That you're, you're thinking, awesome. This is, this is going to get resolved within one generation. Obviously the prophecy was about Jesus. It did not get resolved in one generation. We then have to ask, so who's the offspring of the serpent? Are we talking about baby snakes? We talking about demons? What are we talking about? What's the offspring of the serpent? So then the next story is actually going to help us to figure out the offspring of the serpent. The text is going to tell us that Cain takes Abel out to the field. Now for the first three chapters of the Bible, the Bible's been telling us that the field is where beasts live, that the field is where animals live. Literally that phrase, the beasts of the field is found over and over and over again in Genesis, chapter one, two, three, and then leading up to chapter four. And so what the Bible is actually doing is it's depicting Cain as an animal and Abel as a sacrifice or as a priest like character. So Abel then is the seed of the woman. He retains his humanity and Abel retains his humanity. He remains a human. He's a offspring of the woman. But then he's now pitted against or he's juxtaposed to his brother Esau, who is a son not of Eve, but of the son of the serpent. Because he acts more like an animal or a beast than he does a human. Then you're going to get the next generation. And this is like really, really indicative of how the Bible communicates. Ishmael is going to be called a wild donkey of a man, which means that Ishmael is going to be the son of who? The son of the beast. Because he's going to act like a beast. And his brother Isaac is going to get sacrificed, that Abraham is going to put him on the altar as a sacrifice. The next generation, we're going to get Jacob and Esau. Now they're both beasts. Now this is where the Bible throws a curveball because both these boys are sons of the serpent. And the process that God leads Jacob through is to actually redeem Jacob's humanity. So the reason that Jacob has to have a moment in Luz where he sees the ladder or the ziggurat and he gets a vision of who he can be and who his family can be. The reason that Laban is going to get placed into his life, the Reason that he has to wrestle with God is actually God's formation or discipleship to redeem this animalistic nature that Jacob has to deceive and trick. What's going to happen in this chunk of scripture is that Jacob is going to get renamed. He's going to go from being Jacob, heel grabber, supplanter, deceiver, liar, to being Israel. Now, here's what I love, is that the name that God now gives him is Israel. And here's the reason. You have wrestled with God and with man, and you've overcome. Now get this. It's wrestling that makes God name him Israel. Think about this. What was this man doing when he was in the womb of his mother Rebecca? He was wrestling. Which means his parents could have named him Israel from the very beginning. Now, this is where you see the grace of God and the shortcomings of humans. Because if the activity that makes God call him Israel is wrestling, then his parents could have picked that up and saw, we've got a wrestler on our hands. We're going to call him Israel. But they see the wrestling and they, instead of seeing the positive side or the positive attributes to him being a wrestler, they of course see the negative attributes to him being a wrestler. And instead of naming him Israel, which they had the power, the potential to do, they name him Jacob, which means supplanter, which means heel grabber. What do you do when you wrestle? You grab someone's heel. He gets named wrongly. And so I actually don't see this as a passage where God changes Jacob's name. I actually think he names him the original name that he should have had from day one. He doesn't rename Jacob. He actually. So. So I want to. This is. Maybe I'm getting ahead of myself. This is a timeless truth when I think about identity. Identity is not something you discover. Identity is not something that you go off and you find it. I gotta go find myself. No, identity is not something you discover. Identity is something you recover. Oh, the identity that God's always had for you has always been there. This is kind of. I know. This is a funny example. It's kind of like abs. I got abs. You know what I'm saying? I don't have to go discover abs. I have them. I have to recover them. The problem is that they are covered. They are covered in a whole lot of fat juice. Okay, they're covered then. And if I'm going to uncover my abs, it's not like I went to the gym and got abs. No, I didn't get any abs. I actually got rid of the thing that was making my abs invisible. The purpose, destiny, identity, those things don't get discovered when you come into a relationship with God. They get recovered. You finally learn what God would have called you from day one had the people who named you actually been listening to God. Bible nerds, I have an announcement. My brand new book, Crushing Chaos releases May of 2025 in pre orders are officially open. When I began to learn Genesis in its proper context, I learned that the creation account is not primarily about God creating something out of nothing, but rather God bringing divine order to the chaos of the cosmos. That one nugget was a game changer for me because I've been preaching to all the kids in my youth group that peace was a solution for their anxiety. But really God's solution to chaos is never peace, but rather order. Peace isn't something that you stumble into. It's something that you intentionally step into. And that starts with aligning your life with God's order. I think that this book is a game changer. It's nerdy, it's practical, it provides a very contextual understanding of the book of Genesis. And if you grab a copy, you'll learn why there's a huge dragon on the COVID Head to the link in the show notes to pre order or head to crushing chaos.com to see the really dope trailer that we made for this book. I think it's time for you to crush the chaos in your life. And that starts with grabbing a copy of this book. Now back to the podcast. There's a lot of other things that we got to unpack. Okay, let's keep moving. There's six elements here in Genesis chapter 32 that are all full circle elements, and we have to put them all in context. Okay, Genesis 32:1 starts and the angels are back. Okay, Genesis chapter 32, verse 1. Jacob also went on his way and the angels of God met him. This is immediately should make you go, whoa, Jacob's seen angels before. Where did he see angels before? In a vision. When he saw the vision of the ziggurat, angels were ascending and descending. So now angels are back, which should cue us to. There's a full circle moment coming. Genesis 32:10. And when did he have that vision of the ziggurat? 20 years prior. So now angels are cueing us to go, Whoa. 20 years ago, Jacob was on the run in the opposite direction. He was leaving his father's house to go to his father in law. Now he's doing the exact opposite. He's literally taking the opposite journey. He's going back home. And as he goes back home, there's going to be a backtracking that begins to happen. Some full circle moments. Next, verse 10 of chapter 32, I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness you have shown your servant. I had only my staff when I crossed this Jordan. What the Bible doesn't say is 20 years ago. When I crossed this Jordan 20 years ago, all I have was my staff. But now I have become two camps. So he's crossing over the exact same river. So, number one, the angels are back. Number two, Jacob is crossing back over the Jordan in the opposite direction. Next. Twenty years ago, when Jacob passed, okay, that Jordan, and he put a stone as his pillow. He was all alone. What Does Genesis chapter 32, verse 24 tell us? That Jacob sends everybody ahead of him and he what? He's all alone? So Jacob was left alone. And then what happens? A man wrestled with him till daybreak, well before there were angels in a vision. He crossed the Jordan. He was all alone. And then he encountered God. He actually says, I'm going to name this place Bethel because God was here. I didn't know it. This the house of God. This is a portal. This. This place right here, this is a thin place. This is a portal. God was here, and now God's back. And instead of God giving him a vision, God's here to wrestle with him. Next, in verse 26, what does Jacob want? It says this. Then the man said, let me go for this daybreak. But Jacob replied, I will not let you go unless you bless me. Now, this is fascinating, that Jacob wants to be blessed, because what did Jacob trick his dad into doing? Jacob put the fur on his arms, fur on his neck. To what? To get a blessing from his father. Which tells me this. When you get the right thing in the wrong way, it never satisfies you. So Jacob is already blessed and is still, what, lusting after blessing? Because although he was blessed by his father, he did not do it God's way. Now, I'm gonna get off my written notes and just say here, right here, this is a timeless truth. I want you to think about this. Rebecca, this is Jacob's mother, Jacob and Esau's mom. Rebecca heard from the Lord. What does she hear from God? She heard from the Lord. There are two nations wrestling within you. You don't just have two sons that you're pregnant with. You have two nations that you're pregnant with. They're wrestling within you. But the older will serve the younger. So Rebecca has a revelation that Esau, although he's older, is not going to get the birthright, is not going to get the blessing. And this is what a lot of Christians struggle with. Rebecca heard the right thing from God, but then did the wrong thing as a result of hearing the right thing. There's a lot of pastors, Christians who think that just because you got a vision from God, it allows you to do things in ways that aren't godly, as if the ends will justify the means. So you'll have a church with a toxic culture, but the pastor, instead of addressing the culture, will just say things like, oh, but look how many people got baptized. Look how many people got saved. We're accomplishing the vision. Just because you're accomplishing the vision, just because you heard God correctly, does not mean that you are applying what God said in the right way. If Rebecca had actually gotten her hands off, it just said, you know what, Lord, I know what you heard. And you're going to have to intervene like Abraham. God, I know you've given me this son. If you want me to sacrifice him to you, you'll revive him from the dead. I'm taking my hands off. I'm not gonna hear from you. But then also micromanage and try to control the situation. Jacob got blessed by his dad, but he's still not content because ill gotten gains don't bring contentment. You can get what God wants for you, but if you get it the wrong way, the journey matters just as much as the destination. And then last, what happens? We get a new name. We get what should have been Jacob's name from day one. And Jacob meets God. Now here's the irony of all this. If you're going to meet your brother who has threatened to kill you, who you are scared of, the last thing you want to do is to go to meet your brother limping. But this is how the kingdom works. God does not send Jacob to meet Esau full of strength. He sends Jacob to meet Esau from a place of weakness so that he will not be dependent on his self or his strength or his schemes, but will actually be dependent on God. And what does God do? God softens Esau's heart. And by the time Jacob does get to Esau, Esau doesn't see some big formidable threat. He sees a man who's limping. And to every Christian, to every leader out there, guess what? There's more people who will be attracted to us. As we limp towards them that then trying to approach people full of power. Paul says this to the Corinthians, I came to you, man, knowing nothing but Christ crucified. I came in weakness. I think so often we are so attracted to worldly strength, though we don't realize that there is a strength in limping towards people. And every good priest has to have a limp. I think this is God's process for turning Jacob from a snake back into a human. Humans show weakness. In the animal kingdom, if you show weakness, it means that a predator will take advantage of your weakness. But in the kingdom, our weakness is actually a place like Paul's thorn for God's grace to be sufficient. And so we're going to get this reunification between Jacob and Esau. And here's one of my favorite passages. I've given you tons of nerdy nuggets, actually. But one of my favorite nerdy nuggets is actually this little spot in the middle in chapter 31 where Rachel steals the household gods. Just know if she's stealing household gods, that means she's an idol worshiper. That's my nerdy nugget today. So if you're wondering, why does Jacob so adamant about being buried with Leah? Why does Leah kind of become his favorite, even though she was not his favorite in the beginning? Well, I think that the Bible actually paints a picture for us that Rachel is not only physically barren, but actually spiritually barren as well. And that her physical bareness is actually just a surface level symptom of bareness that goes much deeper. Bareness of the soul. Our timeless truth comes from Genesis, chapter 33, verse 8 and 9. Remember at the beginning of the story, Jacob and Esau are competing, vying with each other, wrestling each other, for what? A blessing. It's almost like they're playing musical chairs, right? Their father only has one blessing, but there's two boys, and they're competing for the blessing. I love Genesis, chapter 33, verse 8 and 9, because Jacob comes and. Actually, I'll just read it to you. Esau asks, what's the meaning of these flocks and herds I met? So Esau's like, what's up with the bribes that you sent? What's up with all the stuff you sent me? Jacob says this to find favor in your eyes, my Lord. He asked. I mean, he said, but Esau said, I already have plenty, my brother. Keep what you have for yourself. What is Esau saying? I'm blessed. We get to the end of the story, and guess what? Both brothers are blessed. And this idea that you are striving to compete with other people, that's not the truth. You're not playing musical chairs. That's our timeless truth for today. This. This idea that, man, there's only so many speaking engagements and there's only so many speakers who can get those speaking engagements. Or this idea that they took our jobs. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. There is no they an hour. God can give you anything at any season. He can bless you in the middle of a famine. He can open doors that nobody can shut. We create these frameworks, like, we frame things as if there's a whole lot of us and we're competing for limited resources. But that's a scarcity mindset. God actually wants to bring you in to an abundance mindset where you go, there's more than enough jobs, there's more than enough single people to get married to. Hello, church planners. You know, recently, I. I heard somebody who was like, man, I'm nervous about this person planting a church in my city. And I just went, what are you talk. Only 3% of the population even goes to church. Why are you focused on the 3%? As if we're all competing for what, this Little Christian Pool? 97% of people out here need the gospel. Why do. Why are you playing musical chairs? There's a world where Jacob can be blessed and Esau can be blessed, and the enemy wants to tell both of them that they're playing musical chairs for one blessing. But by the end of the story, they are both abundantly blessed because God owns the cattle on a thousand hills, and you are not in competition with anybody. All right? I gave you context clues. I gave you some dirty nuggets. I gave you a timeless truth. Hey, if you're on a streak, I'm so proud of you. Keep the streak going. If you're not on the streak, today's a good day to start. Okay, if you listened or watched today, how about you do this? Listen to watch tomorrow, because I'll be right here for day 92 as we keep going through the entire Bible together. I love you guys. Thanks so much for joining us on the Bible Department podcast. You can find us online and learn more about the show thebibledepartment.com and on Instagram hebible department. If you enjoyed this episode and want to dive deeper into the Bible, you can get free access to our library of courses@thebibledepartment.com we'll see you back here tomorrow.