Mitigation Strategy

 Read Genesis 32

Jacob was nearing the place where Esau lived.  It was time for action.  Jacob put together some very substantial gifts—flocks and herds.  They were enough to appease almost anyone’s anger, hopefully, that included that of his brother, Esau.

The servants who delivered these gifts were given specific instructions as how to present them. Think of your most humble words and then be 10 times humbler.  Jacob would accept Esau’s seniority.

Maybe between the gifts and humble speech, Esau’s anger would be appeased. The gifts were delivered as prescribed.

A servant informed Jacob that Esau was coming to meet him.  That part was encouraging, except he was accompanied by 400 men.  That part was probably a little disturbing.  Who needs to travel with 400 men. 

Maybe, Esau just said road trip and everybody jumped on board.  Not likely.

God had told Jacob to come to this land.  He said he would be with him.

Go and I will be with you.

Jacob had received God’s promise of prospering and having many descendants.

Jacob could not envision how that would play out if Esau wiped out him and his family, and that’s what it looked like was about to happen. So, Jacob devised a mitigation strategy. 

He divided his entire estate—which was mobile at this time—into 2 camps.  Wives, servants, children, flocks, and everything else were divided.  If Esau attacked one camp, maybe the other would escape.

That sounds reasonable on the surface, but you don’t escape with herds and flocks.  A group of 400 men would overtake them in no time, but that was Jacob’s plan nonetheless. It was his mitigation strategy. It was how he would reduce the effects of an attack by Esau.

So, Jacob and everything that belonged to Jacob began moving toward Esau.  Jacob was not expecting a joyous reunion.  He has planned for exactly the opposite.  He was moving forward but all the time thinking about how to escape.

So as people and flocks are crossing a river and moving in their assigned corridors, Jacob finds himself alone—or almost alone.

So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.”

But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”

The man asked him, “What is your name?”

“Jacob,” he answered.

Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.”

Jacob said, “Please tell me your name.”

But he replied, “Why do you ask my name?” Then he blessed him there.

So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.”

So we see the tension building.  Esau and 400 men were moving toward Jacob.  Jacob had implemented his 2-camp mitigation strategy.  Both groups were moving towards each other and we get this interlude of a wrestling match between Jacob and a man or an angel or God himself.

I’m a little skeptical about this being God himself.  My money would have been on God for a takedown and a pin in about half a second.  God could have spoken a victory into existence.

So, was it an angel?  Was it a man?  Jacob—the deceiver—might have had some slick wrestling moves and taken down an angel.  Maybe?

Why is this story here?

First, Jacob gets a new name from someone who remains unnamed.  That new name was Israel. It means God strives.  It can just mean struggle, but God strives seems most appropriate.

God would strive to accomplish much through the people named Israel.  God used those who would come from Israel to make himself and his way known in the world.

But why the wrestling match?  Was it really with God?  Why is this story at this point in the story?

God told Jacob—who we can now call Israel—to go and that God would be with him.  God promised to prosper this son of Isaac.  God told him that his descendants would be too numerous to count.  God promised all these things to Jacob.

For these things to come true, it would seem that Jacob would have to survive his reunion with his brother, Esau. But Jacob implemented a mitigation strategy.

What is mitigation?  What is it to mitigate?  COVID and 2020 obliterated the meaning of this word, but to mitigate is to reduce the effects of something.

Whatever it is that is of concern may still happen, but you take measures to reduce its effects.  The hurricane is still coming, but you sandbag your house and board up your windows.  You reduce the effects of the storm’s damage.

The storm still came through, but you reduced its impact upon you or your property.

Do you remember flatten the curve? That was a mitigation strategy.  It was never designed to stop the COVID virus only to reduce the rate of its spread in the early stages. 

How would that mitigate anything?  In theory, the hospitals would not be overwhelmed all at once so early in the course of the epidemic.  The virus would continue to spread but hopefully, the curve would not be as steep as if there had been no mitigation strategy.

Such a mitigation strategy would allow the nation to mobilize more assets for treating the illness.

We will never know if it helped or not.  Because of the money attached to COVID, everything became COVID.  But understand that flatten the curve was a mitigation strategy.

Jacob thought that his brother might be coming to exact vengeance, but perhaps half of the people might escape. That was a mitigation strategy.

The gifts and humble language were meant to appease his brother.  Dividing into 2 camps was mitigation in case that didn’t work.

You have to go beyond this chapter to see how the encounter between Jacob and his brother went.  I’ll give you a hint if you have not read ahead.  There is no vengeance exacted by one brother upon the other.

The mitigation strategy was for nothing.

The gifts and humbling language were to appease the brother that wanted to kill him 20 years ago. Dividing everything that belonged to Jacob into 2 camps was mitigation in case appeasement didn’t work.

But God had told Jacob to come to this place and that God would be with him.  Some of us think that we should throw in a couple oh yea of little faith editorials to go with this story.

C’mon Jacob, c’mon Israel, God said he would be with you.  Why this mitigation strategy? Is God is not enough?

We could point some condemning fingers here. Jacob, dude, how could you not trust that God would provide for you?

Israel, man how could you not see that God is striving to work through you?

We could jump all over Jacob, at least until we had to look in the mirror.  How many times have we second-guessed God?  How many times have we wondered if we understood him correctly?

I think I will just pretend that what God told me to do was garbled in transmission. It’s not true but it’s my story and I’m sticking with it.

How many times have we implemented a mitigation strategy in case the worst happened and we had to go through this thing—whatever it is—without God?

God strives to accomplish his will through us.  Sometimes we resist.  Sometimes we doubt.  Sometimes we prepare for the worst.

There is nothing wrong with an emergency fund.  That’s good planning.

There is nothing wrong with a contingency plan.  That’s the application of sound thinking.

There’s nothing wrong with gaming a scenario or situation.  What if?  What if this? What if that?

But when we start to mitigate what we will do as if God will not deliver on his promises, that’s a problem. When we think we are in this thing called life without God, that’s a problem.  That’s when we expend energy without producing a return on our investment.

If God has told us that he will deliver us from something but our plans are based on the fact that he probably won’t do what he said he would do, that’s a problem.

Now if you don’t make your car payment for 6 months but you have asked God to make it for you, don’t be surprised when the tow truck finally arrives at your house to take your car away.

If you shouldn’t have had those last 2 drinks at the bar but you asked God to get you home safely after you started the car, don’t be surprised when you are standing before the judge being arraigned for DUI.

When you didn’t study all semester but you ask God to help you ace the finals, don’t be surprised when your grade reflects your effort.

But when God promises you life, life abundant, and life eternal but you think you had better get all you can for yourself as often as you can because you are not so sure about this eternity thing, that’s a problem.

When God tells you not to be anxious for anything but to receive his peace instead, but you have 2 or 3 or 300 things that you just won’t turn over to God, don’t expect his peace.

When God promises you that you are in good company because you are persecuted because of him, but you decide to please the world and take the path of least resistance, that’s a problem.

You may or may not have read the next couple of chapters but Jacob—Israel—did not need a mitigation strategy.  God said he would be with him and he was.

Jacob would have been blessed to have memorized Proverbs 3:5-6 before he embarked upon this journey home. Had he visited the Burns Flat Cumberland Presbyterian Church en route—a slight detour in time and geography—he would have known Proverbs 3:5-6 even though it wouldn’t be written for another 700 years.

How many times has our own understanding prompted us to create a mitigation strategy because we are not trusting God? When will our Christian maturity emerge in the form of trust and faith and tangible belief in what God has told us?

We see that God did not kick Jacob to the curb because his faith was weak.  God continued to bless Jacob and fulfilled his promises to him, but consider the peace that Jacob forfeited because of his doubt.

Consider the opportunities for pure joy that were missed because of doubt. Jesus told us to be known as his disciples by our love, not by our doubt, but we choose doubt over faith and trust so many times.

Consider the human legacy that we pass on to our children and their children when we doubt. Our legacy should be composed of faith, hope, and love not doubt.

We should continue to do prudent things.  God gives us the thumbs up on wisdom. Some of those prudent things include different courses of action and contingency plans but these should be in accord with what God has promised us, not because we are not sure if he will fulfill his promises.

God is faithful even when we are not.

This week’s lesson comes from Jacob’s mitigation strategy.  He didn’t need it.  If it was just Jacob and Esau, such a strategy might have been prudent, but God was with Jacob.

That’s a game-changer.

That’s our lesson.  Don’t mitigate when God has told you that he is with you. 

God is with us.  Trust in his promises. Live by faith not sight. Trust in the Lord with all of your heart.

Amen.