When the sun rose
Dietmar Joosten
Announcements:
The second edition of ‘Under the Cedar’ is now available at the Media Room at R30 per copy. One article – Running the Race – is the testimony of Rev Joe Newlands from Donnybrook. Read this magazine – it is wonderful.
Country Christmas Market arranged by DSS on 1–2 November.
Youth Conference 10 – 16 December. Prepare yourselves for that.
Ministers’ Conference, if the Lord keeps us, from 3 - 5 March 2025, the theme: “Lord send me”.
Choir Sings
Ntokozo Nhlabathi
I greet you, brethren, in the wonderful name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We thank our God for this opportunity we can meet this morning. It is good to be at home today. Recently we were in Cape Town for a Youth Conference there. We are so thankful for how the Lord is working.
On Thursday we were at a funeral of a young man who had been with us at the mission. I wished that the young people could have been at that funeral. This young man came to the mission with a drug problem. He would come, receive help, and go – he returned again and again for help. The Lord gave Him an opportunity to come once again where he gave himself time to make right with the Lord Jesus. When he then died soon afterwards, the parents were very grateful and thanked God for the way he died. They said, once he had received the Gospel, he returned home and made sure that he made right with each one he had wronged. While at the mission, if some sin was revealed to him, he would phone that person concerned and make right with him. He used each opportunity he had to share Bible verses with people he knew.
In today’s sermon I’d like to use the same scripture verses as I used at the funeral.
Genesis 32:30 – 31 So Jacob called the name of the place [a]Peniel: “For I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.” 31 Just as he crossed over [b]Penuel the sun rose on him, and he limped on his hip.
I will try and summarise this story. Here we read of Jacob who wrestles with God. Let’s go back and we see who Jacob really was, who was now wrestling with God – what had happened?
Jacob was the twin brother of Esau. The Bible says that he was blessed before his birth. But today I would like to look at his deception towards his brother and how he ran away from the impossible situation he had put himself in.
We read in the Bible that his mother overheard his father talking to Esau. He said to Esau, I am old, and I want you to hunt some game and cook my favourite stew for me. Jacob’s mother heard this conversation. She told Jacob what she had heard and the implications of that act, Isaac would pass on his blessing to his oldest son. Jacob didn’t know what to do, but his mother planned what to do and succeeded, so that Jacob got the blessing of the firstborn.
Isaac, the father, said, it feels like Esau (when Jacob arrived with the stew his mother had prepared and covered his smooth arms in skins), but he suspected that it wasn’t Esau’s voice. However, he went ahead, and Jacob obtained the blessing. That act, where he stole his older brother’s blessing, didn’t give him peace and he had to flee. His mother who had given him this plan, was not troubled as he was.
The Bible tells us Jacob had to flee from Esau and went to his uncle Laban and worked for him, receiving a salary. His reward for working faithfully was to receive Rachel, Laban’s daughter as his wife, but Laban also deceived him (as he, Jacob, had deceived his father and brother). Eventually Jacob decided to return to his home with his wives, his children, household and his flocks he had accumulated over the years.
It had become clear to him how evil his deed had been, and he feared how his brother would react if he saw him again. Then he decided to send gifts ahead of him to try and soften his brother’s heart towards him. During all his time of planning, he realised that the time had come where he first had to meet with God. Remember that he had already been blessed, yet he still stole the birthright blessing.
Then the time came where he wrestled with God. We look at it like this – it was his time where he humbled himself before God and confessed his sin. He sent his children, wives, livestock, all he had, across the river, and stayed on this side so that he could be alone with God. When he wrestled with God he came to the point where even his character and name was changed, now he was someone who had become truthful before God. He had run away with the name Jacob, deceiver, but he became Israel, because he had seen God face to face, and the sun rose, the Bible doesn’t say the sun rose, but the sun rose on him. During the time after he fled from home the sun set on him and he was in darkness, but when he confessed his sin, it became light, the sun rose on him.
When his life was changed, God also changed his brother. Esau was not a threat to him anymore, because his heart had been softened by God. When the Sun of righteousness has dawned upon your life, things that were difficult to part from before, you can part from now, and even overcome in the future. However, he still had to face his brother to ask for forgiveness and amazingly, he had the courage to meet with him.
When we continue to read (Gen 33:3) Then he crossed over before them and bowed himself to the ground seven times, until he came near to his brother.
As he had sinned against Esau, he knew what he had to do when he met his brother. He had to humble himself. After this, they hugged each other, both acknowledged the grace of God. Friend, how long will you remain in darkness, when the grace of our Lord wants to shine upon you – when will you allow that work of grace to works in your life?
The Lord Jesus Christ, the Sun of righteousness, works so that you will have no desire for evil in your life. Is it like that with you? When the Sun of righteousness, the Lord Jesus Christ, is in your life you will have a desire to live in the light, to part from sin. You will desire to work with those you could not stand to be with before. When that Sun rises, darkness will flee away, you will love the light, there is no way that satan can work in you.
After he had wrestled with God there was a mark on Jacob, the angel of God had touched his hip socket causing him to limp. If he was asked why he limped, he could explain the reason; that the Sun of righteousness had risen upon him. In the same way, if that Sun of righteousness has risen on you, you will not be able to be silent about what He has done for you as it will be evident for all to see that you have changed.
When I read about this sun rising upon him, I was reminded of the time I received the Gospel, oh how wonderful it was, and I frequently ask myself, do I still have that same love? The wonder that I felt and the desire to proclaim the Gospel to all people, telling them that the light of the Son chases all darkness away. However, if the Sun has not risen on you, it sounds like a fairy tale. You hear that God is at work, that He performs miracles, but you don’t see or believe it.
The Sun of righteousness, the Lord Jesus Christ, gave him the courage to meet with his brother. All these other gifts, the flocks that he had sent ahead, in the end were not even necessary anymore as he was the one who went ahead of them to his brother. Esau met him with love and kindness. This was because Jacob had wrestled with God until the sun rose on him, the snare of deceit with which the devil had ensnared him, was broken and his soul was freed.
Today, you too can be freed from the snare of satan, whether in your thoughts or motives, let the sun shine on your life and change you.
If it is pornography that has its hold on you, the sun of the Lord Jesus Christ can shine on you and free you from that snare through His power.
The trap of the cellphone has hooked you, controls you, even when you don’t want to – but when the sun of the Lord Jesus Christ dawns, you can be rescued from that. Maybe as siblings you constantly fight, but today the Sun of righteousness can work in your lives and from now on you can live together in peace.
As a wife you always have the last word, but you can be rescued from that snare by the Sun of righteousness. As a father and husband, you say you are the man in the house and it must go your way, even though the way is crooked, but today is the day the Sun of righteousness can rescue you from that snare. Maybe it is your stubbornness, you say ‘I know’, if others warn you about the dangers ahead, you don’t care because ‘I know’. If you do hit the wall that you were warned about, don’t be surprised if you get no sympathy, know that it is because of your stubbornness. You refuse to accept any advice because you are married - how can unmarried people help me? What language is this? You live in the darkness of your stubbornness. The only way out is if the light works in your life where you say, here I am, please help me, and it can even be the one you despise the most who will have to help you. Once the Sun has risen on you, you will respect the one you despised, and you will automatically apologise and make right.
When a light is switched on, you find the insects fly to the light, they want to be close to the light, where there is light there is movement. It confuses me when you say you are a child of God yet you have to be pushed like a wheelbarrow. When last did you cleanse your life?
Why do you speak a different way or language with some people, but not with others? Once the Sun has risen, you will be the same with all people.
When you have met with the Sun of righteousness, the Lord Jesus Christ, you will have the courage to face that mountain you have always dreaded. When the Sun has risen on you, then you will be able to overcome that dreaded sin in your life.
When the sun had risen on Jacob, he realised, here is my brother, I have to face him personally, the gifts I sent ahead are not enough, this is between him and me now.
When we meet up with Jesus He will show us the things that dim the sun. Will we allow Him to work freely when he points at something? Will we do something about it? How terrible is a Christian who procrastinates – saying I still have time to do what the Lord has shown me. Right there where someone speaks to you and shows you something, you should take immediate action. When the Sun has risen on you, it will work in your life, and you won’t have peace to remain in disobedience as you are in now.
Have you met up with that Sun, the Lord Jesus Christ? Has He worked in your life, that you have humbled yourself, as he bowed down 7 times, have you come to the Cross, bringing your life and submitting fully? Maybe you say, I am not Jacob, I have not stolen anything, but the life you have lived has not been holy. When the Sun of righteousness has worked in your life you will go onto your knees, begging for sanctification.
Baba J Dube
There is so much we can say.
When I was 17 years old I heard a sermon on this word. I can remember to this day, Rev Stegen said, may each one wrestle with God. And then he challenged us that we should come back after having wrestled with God and share what He said to us. He explained what it means to wrestle with God. You may have sin you cannot overcome; you are a Christian for so long, but you are still bound by it, that Sun has not yet shone on you. Parents, you must change your children’s names, he had said to us as a congregation – Jacob means deceiver, and until today I remember why his name was changed. He said, maybe you have given your children names that have a bad meaning and because of that, they live accordingly. He encouraged us to wrestle with God. We went and did that. At that time names were changed. Now if you have a name such as Jospeh, Mary, Elisabeth, Mark, do you live according to the meaning of your name?
Jacob wrestled with God all night – he said, I will not let you go until you bless/change me. You do the same.
I think of Zaccheus, the whole crowd complained that Jesus was going to visit a sinner. When Jesus who is the Sun of righteousness saw him in the tree and said, come down. Having come down, he said, anyone I have cheated I will repay four times. Jesus declared; salvation has come to this home.
Your neighbours are waiting for you, your family members, all waiting for you to apologise. Even Esau waited because he said, my brother has stolen my blessing. Jacob humbled himself 7 times before his brother.
Maybe the people you know are waiting for you to come, but the way you make restitution they do not see humility – look at the Prodigal Son – when it dawned on him, he said, I will go back to my father and say that I have sinned. Consider it, when he humbled himself, his father embraced him and informed the family he had changed and had returned from the dead.
Maybe you can’t humble yourself – to your wife, your husband, your children?
Revival came because a small group wrestled with God and obeyed Him and made things right – only then He sent the Holy Spirit.
Maybe you are known as a person who lies. Possibly you gossip, maybe you are known as someone who is stubborn, let the Lord change you.
As we go to our homes, if there is something that still troubles you, wrestle with God, God will change you. Everyone will see you have changed – that which you were you will be no more. You are a new creation.
Which sins are do you remove from under the blood of the Lord Jesus? I hate my brother, I hate this one and that one. Look at the example of Esau when his brother knelt before him and hugged him, his hatred disappeared.
Bear with me if you who are in a hurry to leave – this matter is important. Do people see that there is something that has changed in my life from when I met the Lord Jesus? When Moses came down from the mountain people saw that his face was shining. People should not be confused, it should be obvious that something has happened in our lives. Jesus came for sinners. People are still waiting for you – if you stole, lived immorally – they are still waiting for you to apologise.
Wrestle with God. Do you now know what it is to wrestle with God? Take your wife, your children, your husband, put them aside, go into a room and cry out to God. You have been to a child of God and confessed your sin, now you go to your room and cry out to God, I am a sinner! Some don’t know what prayer is. They just ramble off words before going to sleep. When you pray, know that you are speaking to the Almighty who is on His throne.
Cry to God so you can conquer your sin.
We do not read that Jacob ever deceived his brother again. Nor do we read that the Prodigal Son returned to his sins. We do not read that after David confessed his sins that he returned to them. Rev Stegen used this as an example, when king David was ill, they put a girl in his bed to keep him warm, but he did not sin with her. When he had confessed and said, God I sinned before you, he did not say that satan made me look at that woman. Jacob did not blame his mother for what he did, although she had worked out the plan for him. Accept your guilt and confess and leave your sin.
If someone speaks to you about the way you dress, don’t say, it’s the way boys or girls dress nowadays, no, face your own evil desires that make you wear the clothes that you do. You haven’t been saved yet if you have no clarity about modesty. When you wrestle with God you will see a great change. You won’t point fingers at people anymore.
As we read in the Bible, cry out for yourself so that others can see that you are really apologising. Faith and Christianity is wonderful if we have repented. Let’s not mix things.
Jesus Himself was touched when Zaccheus said, I will repay fourfold what I have taken unlawfully and He said, salvation has come. Esau was touched when he saw Jacob. It will help us if we are humble. When you are up there in the heights, there is no way God can use you. You cannot carry a cross standing upright; you must bow down. Then you will be able to say, how precious, how blessed is this Cross that brought me salvation.
If you have a name such as Blessing, or Goodness – can that be seen in your life? You should realise which things are holding you back, things that you must wrestle with God about.
If we want a heart of wisdom, we need to be taught to number our days. Jacob understood and grasped the secret – all his wealth had to go to the other side so that he could meet and wrestle with God alone. Then the sun rose on him.
