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.

 

 

Just Trust Him

 Read Genesis 27

Here’s the thing for the next couple of Sundays.  We are calling them Throwback Sundays.  Why?

You are going to get the same message at the 9 am service and the 11 am service.  Why call them Throwback Sundays?

That’s the way we did it about 16 or 17 years ago.  If I had to go back 50 years, I would call them vintage Sundays.  I just realized that most the things that I have at home are not old.  They are vintage.

But to the message.  It’s the same at both services.  I tell you this because some of you might not have noticed.

For this story to make any sense at all, you must consider God’s words to Rebekah in Genesis 25.

“Two nations are in your womb,

    and two peoples from within you will be separated;

one people will be stronger than the other,

    and the older will serve the younger.”

The children from whom these two nations would come are Esau—the older but just by a heel, and Jacob who had latched on to his brother as they emerged from the womb.

To further understand, we look to the end of Genesis 25.

Once when Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau came in from the open country, famished. He said to Jacob, “Quick, let me have some of that red stew! I’m famished!” (That is why he was also called Edom.)

 Jacob replied, “First sell me your birthright.”

“Look, I am about to die,” Esau said. “What good is the birthright to me?”

But Jacob said, “Swear to me first.” So he swore an oath to him, selling his birthright to Jacob.

Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and some lentil stew. He ate and drank, and then got up and left.

So Esau despised his birthright.

Isaac is now an old man and his vision is about gone.  He knows his days are numbered and it is time to give his blessing to his oldest son.  He calls for Esau and tells him to get some fresh game and cook it for him.  Isaac wanted a special meal to go with this blessing.

Esau got his hunting equipment and went to the field.  Rebekah had overheard this conversation and told Jacob to go get 2 goats from the flock so she could cook them just the way Isaac liked them.

As they say in theater, the plot thickens.  Both sons are on their assigned tasks.  Slaughtering the goats and preparing them took less time than hunting game.  Jacob’s meal was ready first. Mom made sure of it.

Jacob was Leary of passing himself off as his brother.  Esau was a man who was rougher.  His skin was tougher.  He was still a hairy man.  Jacob, well, not so much.

Jacob knew this whole ploy was so that Isaac would bless him and not his brother.  Esau had sworn away his birthright for a bowl of stew, but his father’s blessing was still in the hands of Isaac.

Mom dressed Jacob in Esau’s best clothes and put goat skins over his hands.  Isaac could barely see so he would have to rely on other senses.  If he touched or smelled Jacob, he would feel and smell like his older brother.

Jacob was still skeptical.  What if his father discovered the deception?  He would curse him.

Rebekah said that the curse would fall on her.  Jacob proceeded to take his father the meal.

Jacob began with a lie.  Isaac asked, “Who is there?”

Jacob replied, “It’s Esau, your oldest son.” The deception was in full swing.

The deception was not easy.  Jacob felt and smelled like Esau, but the voice was that of Jacob.  In the end, Isaac was convinced that this was his older son and he blessed him.

He blessed him.  This was a big deal.  This was huge as far as the estate of his father was concerned, though if you keep reading, Jacob does not seem to be the beneficiary of that estate.

But a blessing is a blessing and Jacob had it.  He was blessed as if he were the firstborn.

What a screwball story.  God’s Chosen People will come from the line of Jacob.  The Savior of the world will come from the line of Jacob.

But could it have not come from Esau? Again, let’s go back just a little.

When Esau was forty years old, he married Judith daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and also Basemath daughter of Elon the Hittite. They were a source of grief to Isaac and Rebekah.

Esau already had 2 wives from the pagan people who surrounded them.  Remember that Abraham sent his servant to get Isaac a wife from his brother’s family hundreds of miles east of where they lived now.  There was no way that his son would marry one of these heathen women.

But Abraham’s oldest grandson did just that.  Actually, he took 2 pagan wives.  We are told that Esau despised his birthright.  He apparently was not too concerned about his offspring either.

By the way, Esau would later take a wife from the descendants of Ishmael. 

Jacob was pretty slick.  His mom was a good coach, but the story doesn’t end here.  Esau comes to his father’s tent with the game he killed and cook to his dad’s specifications only to discover that Jacob had stolen his blessing.

There were no do-overs.  What was done was done. Jacob had his father’s blessing.

Esau asked if his father had only one blessing.  This was Isaac’s response.

“Your dwelling will be

    away from the earth’s richness,

    away from the dew of heaven above.

You will live by the sword

    and you will serve your brother.

But when you grow restless,

    you will throw his yoke

    from off your neck.”

That’s not quite the same as how Isaac blessed Jacob.

“Ah, the smell of my son

    is like the smell of a field

    that the Lord has blessed.

May God give you heaven’s dew

    and earth’s richness—

    an abundance of grain and new wine.

May nations serve you

    and peoples bow down to you.

Be lord over your brothers,

    and may the sons of your mother bow down to you.

May those who curse you be cursed

    and those who bless you be blessed.”

Now that was a blessing that would continue this special lineage from the Father of Many Nations.  It was all part of God’s will that the line to his chosen people and to Jesus would go through Jacob.

We think of our plans as well order and sensible.  Sometimes we look at God’s plans and think, “What is he thinking?’

Did the God of all the universe really come up with this?

Our own understanding tells us that it’s a crazy plan.  That won’t work. I’ve got some ideas of my own.

When we think about those things too much, we have forgotten that God is all-powerful, all-knowing, and truly sovereign.

When we think, “Just what is God thinking?” we are asking if God has lost control of his creation.

Through our human eyes and through our own understanding, it might seem like he has, but we walk by, live by faith not sight.

God does not run his plans by us for an estimate of supportability.

God does not ask us to chime in as the dream team of consultants that we think ourselves to be.

Have you ever seen those memes of our plans as a straight line from point A to point B?  Then there is one of God’s plan that goes from A to B but looks like a 2-year-old was turned loose with a crayon.  The trip takes you from A to B but it visits a thousand other destinations en route, some more than once.

Let me tell you that the one that looks like it was done by a small child armed with crayons is the one to put on your refrigerator.

Trust God’s plan.

It may involve hardship.  It may involve suffering.  It may involve death of loved ones.  I may involve dealing with people who hate your guts.

It may not proceed at your pace. It may include what you might think are unnecessary steps. It may just seem outright crazy, but if you know it to be from the Lord, then just trust it.

Decades ago, I was known among the Marines in my company by a simple phrase.  When Marines were looking at all the reasons that would make the mission impossible, I would simply say:

JUST DO IT

Yes, Nike stole my slogan.  It’s my own fault.  I never copyrighted or trademarked it.  Who would have thought it would catch on with people who made shirts and shoes?

JUST DO IT

I want us to try something similar.  As we face the absurdity of navigating our world, let’s think in similar terms.

JUST TRUST HIM

As we look at putting our Master’s words into practice in what seems like a never-ending race of running against the wind, let us think:

JUST TRUST HIM

When God’s word tells us to love our enemies or pray for those who hate us or turn the other cheek when our own nature would like to deliver a real whopping, think this:

JUST TRUST HIM

We will continue following the story of Jacob and Esau. We skipped over Esau’s part in this for today, but he is not forgotten.  For now, let’s just leave it with he is very upset and thinking about killing his brother.

 It’s good to know the story.  Study it. Learn it.  Know it, but above all just trust God and God's plans and his thoughts and his ways for they are truly higher than our thoughts and ways.

In an age that seems exceedingly complicated, here’s is something simple to which you may cling.

JUST TRUST HIM

It’s the whole trust in the Lord with all of your heart thing again.

It’s that lean not on your own understanding bit one more time.

It’s just trust him.

JUST TRUST HIM

 

Amen.