I Will Make The Lame a Remnant #1

[00:00:00] Speaker A: I'm very glad to be able to be with you this morning. And I would like you to turn to the little prophecy of Micah. [00:00:11] Speaker B: In chapter four. [00:00:17] Speaker A: I'm going to read from verse one. But in the latter days it shall come to pass that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be astounded, established on the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills, and peoples shall flow unto it, and many nations shall go and say, come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord and to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will teach us his ways, and we will walk in his paths. For out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And he will judge between many peoples and will decide concerning strong nations afar off. They shall beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more, but they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig. [00:01:23] Speaker B: Tree, and none shall make them afraid. For the mouth of the Lord of. [00:01:29] Speaker A: Hosts hath spoken it. [00:01:32] Speaker B: For all the peoples walk, every one, in the name of his God. And we will walk in the name of the Lord our God, forever and ever. In that day, saith the Lord, will I assemble that which is lame, and I will gather that which is driven away and that which I have afflicted, and I will make that which was lame a remnant, and that which was cast far off a strong nation. And the Lord will reign over them in Mount Zion from henceforth, even forever. Just a word of prayer. We praise you, Lord, that you always provide anointing for the ministry of your word. We praise you this morning that into that anointing, grace and power we can stand by faith. It is our Lord Jesus, Father, who has won for us this anointing and the Holy Spirit that makes that anointing a glorious reality. Lord, we shall be careful to give you all the praise and all the thanksgiving of our hearts for doing this and answering our prayer this morning, for we ask it in the name of our messiah, the Lord Jesus. This marvelous little passage we have read together is, of course, also found in Isaiah and chapter two. I was always taught that if something is repeated in the word of God, it is very significant and very important. I was asked to speak to you on this little phrase. I will make the lame a remnant and those cast far off a strong nation. Of what time does the prophet Micah speak? I am continuously being told by so many christians and by so many christian Bible teachers and leaders that this is all fulfilled in the return from Babylon. I find that quite extraordinary. I cannot find any fulfillment of this first and second and third and fourth and fifth verse. In the return from Babylon, the word of the Lord shall go forth to the ends of the earth, the law from Jerusalem, the nations beating their swords into plowshares. And when has it ever happened? Weve known as the jewish people have never known anything but conflict, war, battle, persecution. Even in our greatest days, we have known only jealousy and hatred of, of the nations around us, the desire to liquidate Israel, the desire to destroy the jewish people. Yet the spirit of God, by Micah the prophet, speaks of a day when the nations shall learn war no more, when apparently the prince of peace will come. Till that day, the church and I speak of the true church, those born of God. And Israel in her unbelief, will be the focal point of war and conflict. It will never cease. Don't be bamboozled by the roadmap to peace. It is a lot of nonsense, absolute nonsense. It is a road map to the peace of the grave. It is a road map to israeli suicide, nothing less and nothing more. And it is being imposed upon us by nations who ought to know better. I will not say any more about this now. I shall say a good deal more this evening. But all I want to say now at this time is that here you have a prophecy given by the spirit of God through a faithful servant, servant of his, Micah, in which he tells us there will come a time when the truth will go to the ends of the earth and all will recognize it and obey it, and when there will be peace. Isaiah speaks of it in another way. He says that it the knowledge of the glory of God will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. What a day. Every bit of our being longs for that day to dawn. Therefore, if I am right and on this matter, I think I can be quite dogmatic. I think I am right. I don't understand Bible teachers who tell me all this was fulfilled. What is this kind of nonsense? Is it any wonder that so many christians have no time for their old Testament? Is it any wonder that people sort of cannot trust the word of the Lord in the 39 books of the old covenant? The fact is, I think I can be dogmatic on this. It refers to a time that is ahead, and we praise the Lord for that. Now, if I am right on this, I believe I am, then when you come to verse six and seven, we have something quite remarkable in that day, saith the Lord, will I assemble that which is lame, and I will gather that which is driven away and that which I have afflicted, and I will make that which was lame a remnant, and that which was cast far off. A strong nation. I would suggest that we are living in the fulfillment of those words. I believe that Israel has been created out of a people disabled by the Holocaust, made lame by the Holocaust. And it is incredible to me that Israel has become a strong nation. Of course, we never say that we have nuclear weapons. I think it is quite extraordinary that this little nation, so small, six and a half million strong, in a postage stamp of territory that you can bury in the state of New Jersey, or in Portugal, or the. You can bury it in Wales. [00:10:10] Speaker A: Or. [00:10:11] Speaker B: Hungary, or the North island of New Zealand, or Tasmania, or the national Kruger. [00:10:21] Speaker A: Game Park in South Africa. [00:10:25] Speaker B: I think it is quite amazing that this little tiny, insignificant, seemingly insignificant nation should be part of the nuclear club. A strong nation. Interesting. Lameness. Now, all you charismatics, don't kill me. Lameness is a principle with God. Let me say it again. I know we speak about health and healing, and I believe in it very strongly. Lameness is a principle with God. He never uses anything that he does not disable. It is one of the most extraordinary things in the whole history of gods word, that every time God is going to use somebody, he breaks them, he disables them, he makes them lame. Oh, you say, I dont think youre right on this. We believe in healing. We believe in power. We believe in wholeness, we believe in health. Of course we do. But you are most powerful when you are most weak, and you are most whole when you are most broken, and you are only fruitful when you have been made barren. It is a principle with God. In Isaiah, chapter 33, a most extraordinary chapter, I might say. It says, thine eyes shall see the king in his beauty and shall behold the land that is has no borders. I will put it that way. Way is far. I don't know how to put it. And then it goes on and speaks about the Lord our lawgiver, the Lord our king. [00:13:04] Speaker A: And then it speaks about broad waters and ships without oars, without galleys coming up. Extraordinary kind of prophecy. And then buried in it, it says, and then shall the spoil of a great prey be divided. And then, listen to this. The lame shall take the prey. It's almost. You feel. You have sympathy with liberal theologians who say this is a hotchpotch. Somehow a whole lot of sentences and phrases have fallen out of this. What in the world does it mean the lame shall take the prey? Here is the Lord speaking about the fulfillment of his purpose and the glory of God, finally touching this poor war torn earth. And it says, the lame shall take the prey. It is a principle with God. The church has suffered not from the lameness of its members, but their giftedness. You dont believe me, but its absolutely true. When we are intelligent, capable, we are the greatest danger to the fulfillment of the purpose of God, because we always get in his way. Ive often wondered why the Lord puts up with us. I think it would be so much easier for the Lord to do it without us. I mean, why not? We made a mess of it in the beginning with Adam. So why didnt the Lord just say, im going to finish with the lot of you, I'll start all over again with perfect people? If I had been the Lord, thank God, you might say, I am not. But if I had been the Lord, I would have created a whole great group of automatons. They could do no other and be no other than perfect. But instead, the Lord has created you and me, and we are the biggest problem he has. We are the ones who hinder his work, frustrate his purpose. Is it any wonder that the word of God speaks of abounding grace? There would be no other possibility if there was not such a bounding grace. The lame take the prey. So if I may put it this way, the Lord has a vested interest in making those who are going to be involved in the fulfillment of his purpose. Lame. If you don't like the word lame, let me use another word. Disabled. Oh, but you say that surely cannot be right. Is it not part of the work of the holy spirit to give us ability? Yes, when he has disabled you. It is so interesting to me. When God appeared to our forefather Abraham, he was an aristocrat, at least according to jewish tradition, a very successful businessman. He had the whole idol business in his hands. Very successful, lucrative business were household idols, idols on every street corner, idols in different rooms in the homes, idols in temples. Of course, he didn't have the whole idol business, but he had apparently a very successful business. And he was not some, forgive me, but some smelly, unhygienic Bedouin shepherd, as is so often he is described. He was a city dweller. That doesn't mean that city dwellers are not sometimes unhygienic and smelly. Sometimes they're worse than those who were nomads. But the fact still remains that when the God of glory appeared to Abraham. He disabled him. He took him out of his aristocratic background, out of his home, out of his settled, lucrative business, and made him a nomad. He never ever owned anything after that, except a little plot of Guam, in Maqbillah, in Hebron, which he bought to bury his beloved Sarah. He gave him a wife, having told him to look at the stars and that his seed would be as numerous as the stars. Told him to look at the sand at his feet and said, your seed will be more numerous if you can count the grains of sand beneath your feet. And he gave him a wife that was absolutely barren. If that is not disability, what is lameness? Before Abraham could become the father of all who believe, whether the circumcision or the uncircumcision, he disabled him. It was the same with Joseph. God revealed himself to Joseph in a dream. He saw everything bowing down to the Son, and he understood he was the son. He saw all the sheaves bowing down, understood he was the important person. God destined Joseph to be the savior of Egypt and the savior of the jewish people. But he disabled him. He was sold into slavery. He became a slave and then was imprisoned. And the word of God puts it simply and profoundly until the iron entered his soul. It says, the word of the Lord tried him. That word which God had given him about him, fulfilling an unbelievable ministry. The word of the Lord tried him, and the iron entered his soul. Oh, I think of Moses. You couldn't have been more capable than Moses. According to jewish tradition, he was the great hero of the egyptian masses, decorated, a popular hero because of the libyan campaign and the ethiopian campaign. Pharaoh's grandson brought up in the royal palace with a royal education. And God took him into the desert for 40 years to keep creatures, all of which I personally love, but all of which are incredibly smelly sheep, goats and camels. Can you imagine it? Do you know that the Egyptians, the egyptian pharaohs, there, they looked upon anybody who kept sheep and goats as the lowest of the low? Here was Pharaoh's grandson keeping all these creatures 40 years. Some people tell me that they have a bad time for a year. 40 years. I know time goes very fast, but 40 years, year after year after year after year, until the idea of being the savior of God's people died in his heart and he finally adjusted himself to living in the desert with sheep and goats and camels. I would have called that disability. I mean, we send people to theological seminars and bible schools, pour everything into them and then send them out like tape recorders pressing a button and it all pours out beautifully, exactly as taught. Would anyone ever think, this man is going to be one of the greatest servants of God in the history of the world? Will send him into the desert with sheep and goats and camels for 40 years? Not for one year, not for six months, 40 years. Anyone who did such a thing with somebody who seemed to have a special calling would be thought to be imbecilic. People would say, what kind of servant of God is this that sends this other poor young man out into the desert for 40 years to keep those unhygienic, smelly creatures? But so it is with God. It is a principle with God to disable. He only uses what he disables. Oh, you say, no doubt that this is too much for me. I'm a good charismatic. I don't believe in this kind of thing. Anyone's got a disability, we get rid of it, we'll put power into them so they tremble with power. We don't believe in this kind of thing, but God does. That's the problem. That is the problem. We have the way of the world. When David was to become the sweet singer of Israel and to become, as it were, the type of the messiah and to bring in that house of David which will never, never disappear with our Lord Jesus, he was the confidant of the king, the favourite of the king, the favorite of the kings son, the crown prince. And then he became a refugee, fleeing for his life for 20 years, backwards and forwards in the wilderness. Samuel had anointed him and anointed him as king, and David knew it. Where was the calling? Where was the fulfillment of the the calling? He was a refugee, fleeing from pillar to post all the time. Saul, King Saul's secret agents, trying to discover just where he was, that he might be liquidated. I would have called that disability. Of course, you all know the story of Gideon. I don't have to tell you. He started off with 32,000. God said, I can't do anything with 32,000. Theyre most of them self centred anyway. Tell everyone that wants to go back home. If they tremble, go home. And 22,000 went home. And then the Lord said to him, 10,000. Far too many. Far too many. Half of these think they can do it without me anyway. And then you remember the drinking of the water, 300. Would anybody ever conduct a military campaign with 300? It's ridiculous, isn't it? Lameness. Let me turn your attention another way for a few moments. Is it not extraordinary that every time God was going to bring someone very special into this world. He made the mother baron. Would you call such barrenness lameness? [00:28:43] Speaker B: I would. [00:28:48] Speaker A: As I have already said. God said to Abraham, look at the heavens. Can you number the stars? Look at the sand, can you number it? Thats how many your seed will be in you. Shall all the families of the earth be blessed. But he was 99 years of age and still didnt have a son. Well, he did have a son. I mean, dear old Sarah. And this is not to cause any trouble in families here. But Abraham should never have listened to her. But Sarah said to Abraham, look, let's use common sense. Common sense is the rarest commodity amongst believers. What most people call common sense is sheer unbelief. Thats all it is. Real common sense is to trust the Lord. If you know the Lord and hes all powerful creator of heaven and earth, common sense is he will do it. He can do it. He will do it. Thats common sense. But thats looked upon as mystical. So Sarah comes to Abraham and says, look, it is clear you're 99 years of age. A little bit past it, and I'm pretty old. I think the idea would be, take my handmaid and let's have a child. Thus came Ishmael. Thank God that everybody, every one of the seed of Ishmael can today be equal with us without any middle wall of petition, if they are saved by the grace of God. But the seed of Ishmael has been trouble all the way through history. Disability. When everything and God is so marvellous. What humor God has. He didn't leave Abraham till he was 50, till he was 60, till he was 70. He waited till he was near 100 years of age. And when the Lord came with those two angels and they gave him a non kosher meal, I might say in the tedium, and Sarah was preparing it. And suddenly the Lord said to Abraham, about this time next year, you will have a son. And Sarah heard through the tent flap and she burst out laughing and said, shall I have a son? It's ridiculous. I find it one of the most humorous things in the world. That God spoke to the 10th flap and said, did I hear you laugh, Sarah? And then Sarah said, well, no, no, no, no. And the Lord said, when this son comes, you shall call him Yitzhak. LAUGHTER Disability it's interesting that when the Lord wanted to bring a Jacob into this world. Who was to be the very name of the people of God, his mother was barren. Disability. Of course, you know the story of Hannah. She was barren and she produced one of the greatest servants of God in the history of the kingdom of God, Samuel. Well, you see, I could go on and on in my normal way talking about these things. All I want you to see is there's a principle here. Don't ever tell me that God is not in this business making lame. He is the past master. If I may say something else, I want to say it as reverently as I can. It is in our Lord Jesus we see this principle not only born of a woman in weakness, a little babe, not even a foot of flesh and blood, the savior of the world, the word made flesh dwelling among us. Oh, the weakness of it. Oh, in one sense, the disability of it. If Jesus could have stepped into this world with a fanfare of trumpets and stepped into it as a great warrior, that would have been so powerful. Just wait. Just wait. I have something else to say. When Jesus, if I may so say, was most disabled and most weak, he won our salvation. He was crucified, the book says, in weakness. And when the one who is called the word made flesh was nailed to the cross, and when a darkness came over the earth, there was no eclipse, for no eclipse can last 3 hours. When a darkness that was the essential energy of the universe for a little while was shocked as if a sword had gone through it. That essential energy, of course, in my estimation, is God. The whole universe shuddered. And in that moment, Jesus cried out, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken? And in that moment, the veil in the temple was torn in two from the top to the bottom. He had finished the work of our salvation not when he was most strong, but when he was most weak, if you could say, even the son of God, disabled. This is a principle wherever you turn. I find it quite amazing, at least for myself, and I hope as I speak, it will come to you in some kind of freshness. Do you not think it is remarkable that God never called his people Abraham and never called his people Isaac, but he called his people Jacob and Israel. I think that that is perhaps the most significant thing that one could say. It is almost as if God took a man who was so human and said, I'm going to call everyone I redeem from this time on, Jacob. And so you get it everywhere. Everywhere. God speaks in Isaiah, in so many of the other prophets. He speaks of Jacob, Jacob, Jacob. Oh, Jacob. And Jacob is a people. He speaks of Israel. It became the name of his own. Now, do you not think that's remarkable? Well, you obviously don't. I think it's absolutely remarkable. I mean. I mean, I would have thought it'd be much better for the Lord. You must be very glad that I'm not the Lord. I mean, I would have said, I will call them Abraham. He was basically noble. He had so much goodness in him, so much decency in him. I would have called the people of. [00:38:42] Speaker B: God. [00:38:45] Speaker A: Abraham or I would have called them Isaac. Oh, Isaac was nothing really like many christians. Bit colourless really. Well, I'm getting naughtier as I get older. But I mean really some of the Lord's people are so uninteresting, so boring. They really never do anything, do they? They only dig the wells their father dug. And I think he would have been a good name for the people of God. Isaac. Always living in the past. I mean, it's amazing to me how we do live in the past, but still I mustnt go down that road. Instead he took Jacob and he called his people from that time onward Jacob. It is amazing to me. And do you know an even more amazing thing? He links himself, his holiness, his purity, his almightiness, his power with the name of Jacob. He calls himself again and again and again the God of Jacob. Now, again, if I had been in this business I would have called him the God of Israel. I would say, you say, what is he not? I mean, Jacob. God doesn't want his name associated with Jacob, but Israel, that's the converted Jacob. But the Lord never, very rarely called himself the God of Israel. He called himself again and again and again the mighty one of Jacob, the mighty one of Jacob. And in the most extraordinary thing of all, when the Bible ends, at least your Old Testament, in its greek and christian arrangement, it ends with a little book called Malachi. And it starts like Jacob, I have loved Jacob would never have become Israel if God hadn't loved him. God loved Jacob into Israel. Now there are a lot of misapprehensions about Jacob. He is often described in pulpits as a weak kneed, round shouldered, anaemic home lover, a kind of person into interior design. Esau, on the other hand, was a rugby player, a man of the field, tough, able, gifted, strong. Jacob apparently was unbelievably pathetic. And added to that was a twisted mesh. My dear friends, this is not at the Jacob I understand or know. And I have to be careful because one day we're going to meet. But the Jacob I know is quite different. He was gifted, above average intelligence, capable, discerning, perceptive and unbelievably attractive. Or you say, how can you say that? Have you seen him? No. But I noticed that Rachel let him kiss her, which was unheard of in public. He must have been quite attractive. Do you think Rachel would have allowed. She would have pushed him away. Come and meet father, she would have said. But she succumbed almost immediately to him. And then I find it very interesting that when Leah was in on that terrible subterfuge and father said to her, Laban said to her, you keep your big mouth shut till the wedding is over. If you open your mouth once, he'll spot the whole ruche. You keep your big mouth shut. You're gonna tell me that Leah went that whole way to be married to some anemic, round shouldered little. No, no, no. She spots. She torture. She wanted Jacob. Now, perhaps I shouldn't be talking like this in a christian meeting, but what it means to me is that Jacob was no unattractive man. Added to that, he had zeal and devotion and a perception of spiritual things. He valued the birthright and he valued the blessing. The problem. The problem with Jacob was Jacob. Now, I dont know whether that comes home to you, but maybe you dont know that the problem with you is you. This is the whole thing. You see, we've got thousands of believers who don't think they are the problem. They believe everybody else is the problem. Circumstances are the problem. Parents are the problem. Children are the problem. Husband is the problem. Wife is the problem. Friends are the problem. The pastor's the problem. The elders are the problem. Everybody is the problem. But not me. I am just the sweetest kind of person in the world. No wonder the Lord saved me. I can understand why the Lord loves me. I am so desirable. Isn't it ridiculous? The problem with you is you. Jacob had incredible natural strength. Incredible. An incredibly strong will. A determination to do the Lord's work his way, not the Lord's way. His way. He would get the birthright. Whatever. When his brother came in from hunting, strong as he was, faint, as so often it is with physically strong people, he was cooking that lovely soup, that lentil soup. And poor old Esau said, I'm going to die if I don't get them. Do you know, Jacob stirred that soup, took it up in the ladle so the smell of it would fill the whole place, and dropped it back into the pottage and said, until you sign on the dotted line, you don't get one spoonful of this soup. Is it any wonder that when Jacob was born, his name was Jaakov, supplanter or twister his arms twisted round his twin brother. Yet the word says, jacob, I have loved. Can you explain the love of God? You cannot. When the Lord saved you, he didnt save you because youre so beautiful and pure and holy and sweet. He knew exactly what you were capable of. And the amazing thing about the love of God is that it is inexplicable. It's humanism that tries to explain it. Why does the Lord love you? I have no idea. Why does the Lord love me? I have no idea. I can only say this. The Lord loves you because he loves you. It's not that he wants to exploit you or use. He can do so much better without you. Oh, some people say yes, but you know, in the kingdom to come, in eternity to come, God wants us. He wants us to be in the government. No, no, no. He could do so much better without us. But he loves us. And it is this election based on love that is the most extraordinary thing about Jacob becoming Israel. Now you might wonder why I'm laboring along this line this morning when we've got a scripture that says, I will make the lame a remnant and those cast off a strong nation and the Lord will reign over them in Mount Zion. Well, you see, I should say more about that this evening. But what I want to just get hold of you is this jabbok is a necessity. It is a necessity in every servant of gods life. It may take years and years for you to come to that ordained, predestined point, but God will bring you there. In that moment, God made Jacob lame. He disabled him. This name that has been given to the people of God forever. God took him and disabled him. And Jacob called it not conversion, not transformation. He called it the face of God. He said, I have seen the face of God and I have lived. This word in Hebrew can mean the presence of God. The face of God. Your face is your presence. Think of that. So do cheer up, will you please? Your face is your presence. You got a grim face. You have a grim presence. You have a smiling face. You have a smiling presence. Your presence. It required a lot of the ranging of circumstances to bring Jacob to Jabbok. He wouldnt have come there of himself, believe you me. He would have found a better when God appeared to him when he was fleeing from his family home. And he said, this is none other than the house of God. This is the gate of heaven. It is quite amazing that the Lord said to him, I am the God of your father. And then Jacob said, okay, you look after me in the next few years, and I'll look after you. You bring me back here safely, and I'll build you a house here. Oh, how kind of. He's going to build the Lord a house? Isn't this amazing? This is Jacob. It's something within every. Well, it's something within the jewish people. Cannot you. It's impossible not to spot a bacon. He saw a bargain and he couldn't help himself. Instead of being on his face before the Lord, instead of being broken by the person, overcome by his deceitfulness, the way he stole his brother's birthright and stole his brother's blessing, instead, he's bargaining with the Lord. You do this, and you know the Lord is so wonderful. He smiled as I imagined it. The Lord smiled and said, oh, yes, jacob, thats okay. The bargain is struck. Ill look after you, youll look after me. But the Lord knew that he was going to get Jacob before he came back to that place. The lord knew that Jacob was going to be Israel. There was a jabbok. He never saw his mother again. Many a time he must have thought of his mother, for whom he had very great fondness. He never saw her again. I wonder if that was the beginning of his awakening to deceit, to what he really was himself. Certainly. Uncle Laban was the second biggest twister in the Middle east. These two twisted each other for 20 years. It's an amazing story. And although the lord actually sided with Jacob and said, I know what your uncle Laban has done, Jacob was also much into it. And Leah, you don't mean to tell me that when he woke up that morning after the wedding and found it was Leah, he didn't face a crisis? Can you imagine him saying to himself, oh, my uncle, my flesh and blood has deceived me. He never once said, well, I also have deceived people, Nerva. He said, uncle Laban, what a deceiver. What a twister. What a supplanter. He's put Leah in place of Rachel. So Leah was in on the. On the twist in. I mean, don't tell me that she managed to get married to him without being told. You. You must watch your sister. See how she walks. You walked exactly like her. You'll be veiled from hit to. Don't worry. We'll see he gets enough to drink. Don't worry. And then, of course, later on, it was Rachel, his beloved Rachel, who in his mind, never evil thought flitted through her mind. But you remember when Uncle Laban, with a posse of men, drove out after them and said, you have stolen the family gods. The household gods, by the way, were title deeds to property. Youve stolen the title deed. Youve stolen the household gods. Jacob was furious. He said, you have twisted me for 20 years, and now you tell me that ive taken you. I never want anything to do with your household God. Search everything. And Uncle Laban, who knew his nephew very well, searched everything he went to everything. It actually says he felt everything in the tents, he felt deceived. They were very small, the household gods. I came to Rachel, dear, sweet Rachel. She said, I don't feel very well, Papa. Please don't disturb me. And he left her on the sitting on the camel saddle. And in the camel saddle were all the household gods. Sweet, pure little Rachel. Beloved friends. It was only then that Jacob saw himself. I always call it a triple mirror. Laban, Leah and Rachel. That's how God brings you to an end of yourself. He brings you to see yourself in your boss, in your employees, in the people. You are in teamwork with the people in the church. He brings you into all kinds of situations where for the you bleed. That person is dreadful. Actually, you are seeing yourself. Oh, many a time I've heard it, many, many a time people have come to me and said, so and so can't stop talking. And this is the person who can't stop talking themselves. So and so, so mean. And I found that this person is incredibly mean. Jabbok. Poor Jacob. He was so afraid of Esau. And you know, when he saw those two hosts of angels, isn't it interesting? He divided them all into two companies. Don't you think that's interesting, Mahanaima? The two hosts, they were angels. It was as if the Lord said, well, send two hosts of angels to keep them safe. But when Jacob came to Jabbok, he was desperate. This wasn't the old Jacob, the twister. It wasnt the old Jacob with all his natural strength. In one sense, this time he was desperate, absolutely desperate. He couldnt go back, and he didnt feel he could go forward. And when the Lord came to him, he took hold of the Lord in desperation and said, I will not let you go unless you bless me. Do you remember what the Lord said? I must watch the time. We still got time. Do you remember what the Lord said? He said, what is your name? Now, I think thats one of the funniest things in the whole story. You mean the Lord didnt know his name? Why did the Lord say, what is your name? The Lord knew very well. Hed been planning all along. The Lord had ordered the circumstances, ordered the situations, ordered all the different relationships. The Lord was in this whole thing. And he says to him, what is your name? You know why? Because he was waiting to see if Jacob said, I'm Abraham's grandson, that would have got him out of it. I'm Isaac's son. He said, I am Jacob Yaakov. And the Lord said, you shall no more be called Jacob, but you shall be called Israel, for you are a prince with God and with men. Dear, dear. Jacob had finally arrived. By the grace of God, and through the love of God, he had arrived. Well, dear friends, isn't this an amazing thing? Jacob called it the face of God. And I think of a scripture in two corinthians, chapter four that goes like the light of the knowledge of the glory of God. In the face of Jesus, the messiah, something happened. He called it the face of God, the presence of God. When the face of God is manifested and the presence of God is manifested, the glory of God is manifested. Well, dear friends, lameness, could you believe with me that this might be a picture of the jewish people? Could you take that step with me and say, since God called this people, he chose because he loved them, because he called them Jacob, there will come a day when he will change them into a genuine Israel. I will talk about that more this evening. With our present situation and what is happening, I believe we are very, very near to that point of desperation in Israel. Nowhere else to turn. Even the one friend we think we have the United States imposing a solution upon us that could be our destruction and our liquidation. So, dear friends, that's, I believe, something for every one of us. If you're a child of God, here is a principle with God. It is lameness, disability. Once we come to the end of this wonderful story, the last picture we ever see of Jacob is twofold. He blesses and he worships. Jacob was not a worshipper. He was a manipulator, an exploiter. But at the end, he worshipped. Leaning on his staff, it had happened. He'd become a worshipper. And the man who was always getting, getting, acquiring, acquiring, acquiring, became a man who blessed. He blessed the two sons of Joseph. But more than that, he blessed the greatest potentate of the strongest superpower in the world at the time, the pharaoh of Egypt. It is an amazing picture we see at the end of Jacob. I imagine that old man, he called it the year of his life, the years of his sorrow. I see nothing but glory in him. I have only twice in my life as a servant of God, seen the glory of God in a person. One was Maria Monson of Norway. As she was dying, I saw that glory of God in her. It was a rage. For the first time I understood why halos are painted round saints. It was a light, not emotional. She was so weak she couldn't take a thing to her mouth. But it was glory, absolute glory. And the other was another lady, Dauma Svelmer of Denmark, who was a tough matron of one of the biggest hospitals. And she, when I last saw her, there was a radiant light in every part of her being. Glory. I imagine Jacob was like that at the end. The old twister, the old supplanter, the old acquirer, the bargain hunter. Full of glory. Is this not amazing? For it is the God of all grace who has called you and me to his eternal glory in the Messiah, Jesus. And not only you and me. He has called, I believe, the jewish people. How they will get there, I don't know. But one thing I do know, it will be through the finished work of the Messiah and the power of the Holy Spirit. Thank you.