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In Genesis chapter 33 we're getting into what I would title this as Jacob and Esau reunite. So in the last chapter we see where it's kind of building up to that and we saw that Esau was coming to meet him with 400 men and Jacob's afraid of that and he wrestles with the man all night long which could very well have been an Old Testament picture of Christ and wrestling with God and because he said I've seen God face to face and we kind of talked about that a little bit but yeah so anyway we get into this chapter and this is actually where he him and Esau meet up but before he meets up he was kind of showing this how he put him in droves and he split up his people he put a present out in front of him of all this cattle and sheep and all this stuff but he had his servants up there with that and then he would have in chapter 33 here it specifically shows the prioritization of his family and in verse 1 there it says and Jacob lifted up his eyes and looked and behold Esau came and with him 400 men and he divided the children unto Leah and unto Rachel and unto the two handmaids so we see he's dividing the children to their mothers if you think about it so what he has is the handmaids are in one group with their children so Gad, Ash or Dan and Aftelai right those are the ones of the handmaidens and then you have Rachel who had Joseph but then you had Leah who had six sons right and so but notice in verse 2 how he puts them as far as how close they are to where Esau is going to be it says and he put the handmaids and their children foremost and Leah and her children after and Rachel and Joseph hindermost so foremost would be in the front hindermost would be in the back right and so basically he has his present out in front and then he has his handmaids and their children behind that and behind that he has Leah and her children and then behind that he has Rachel and Joseph so he has Rachel and Joseph all the way in the back like if all else fails they'll get out and so you know why does he do that well he loved Rachel and Joseph more than the rest and the Bible states that actually if you go to go to Genesis chapter 29 we already saw this when he married Leah and Rachel and I don't believe this is right I believe you know obviously we should reward our children based off what they do but the amount of love that we give them I don't believe should vary right I mean you think of God like like he gives us the same amount of love but obviously he rewards us if we do right and he chastens us but you got to think about it when he chastens us is it because he doesn't love you no the Lord loveth him he chaseneth and scourges every son him he receiveth it's not like he doesn't love those who he chastens and so I don't I don't believe in this favoritism as far as favoritism of now here's the thing when it comes to wives that shouldn't be a factor right yeah I'm not gonna preach to you be like don't favor one wife over another right that obviously that's true in this case but just don't have multiple wives and you'll have to worry about that right so but anyway in Genesis chapter 29 verse 30 it says and he went in also unto Rachel and he loved also Rachel more than Leah and served with him yet seven other years so we already saw this but it's clear that he loved Rachel more than Leah and then go to Genesis 37 Genesis 37 to see about Joseph now this is obviously later on but we see that he he so as much as he loved Rachel more than his wife Leah and and the wives of the handmaidens he loves Joseph all over all his other children and the Bible states that and this is this is the narrator speaking right so we know this is true in verse 3 so Genesis 37 verse 3 it says now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children because he was the son of his old age and he made him a coat of many colors so I really want to get into this favoritism stuff a little more when we get to chapter 37 but it's not it's not wrong to love your child and so into to basically reward your children if you have a child that does a lot of things right and they do everything you tell them do there's nothing wrong with rewarding them more than the child that doesn't do what they're supposed to be doing right I'm not saying like you need to reward them all equally and all this stuff but the love should be the same meaning that you still love that child you're chasing but the reason you're chasing them is because you love them right so the love it should be the fact that you love them all and you're not trying to hold one above another and the fact that how much you love them but you may hold them one above another as far as who you would give more power to or you give more responsibility to and you know maybe that'll make the other one jealous of that or you know basically to the point where they say hey I want to be blessed by my parents I want to do right so that the so I can be like that right and so obviously in the case of Joseph we'll get to that that his brothers were not in the right you know because Joseph was a godly young man and so it's not like he did something wrong or anything like that to deserve what they did to him but but we do see that this is very true why did he put Rachel and Joseph all the way in the back because he loved them more than the rest it's just a fact I'm not saying it's right it's just that's just what it was but we see that they finally meet together Jacob and Esau finally come together and notice how this happens in verse three it says and he passed over before them so basically all his family is back here and he goes into the front now that's what a man should do right he's got this present he's got these people and all this stuff and he goes forward so it's not like he's hiding behind them he's back there with Rachel and Joseph just saying hey I wonder how this is gonna work out you know hopefully that present works and I don't kill the rest of my family right so he's obviously going to the front of the line so you know that's the the godly thing to do that's the man you know step up into the role of what who needs to take control here and so in verse three it says and he passed over before them and bowed himself to the ground seven times until he came near to to his brother and so when he comes near to him he's bowing himself so it's kind of like you walk he bows himself gets up and walk a little bit further and then bows himself again he does that seven times so he finally makes it to him and we're gonna talk about that for a minute too but in verse four it says and Esau ran to meet him and embraced him and fell on his neck and kissed him and they wept so this is a good meeting and so what they're finding out here and and we don't really know that if you imagine it's probably like this that the wires are getting crossed that Esau is coming with 400 people because he doesn't know what his brother's gonna do to him and then you think about Jacob's afraid and doing all this stuff because he's not he's afraid what his brother's gonna do to him and they both just want to see each other they both miss each other right and but you also see the fact of how humble Jacob is so when he comes and he does that Esau probably sees hey he's not coming to bite me he's not coming to take all that I have he's coming because he you know he's being humble and so he runs and kisses him and well you definitely see how this would picture how we should come to God and I'm not saying I mean later on does say that I've seen my face as if I've seen God right and so I don't want to liken Esau to God right but if you think about it draw an eye to God and he will draw an eye to you humble yourselves in the sight of God and he'll lift you up so I mean you think about this idea of bowing yourself down to God and he's gonna run and meet you think of the father with a prodigal son right he comes and then the father runs to meet him and they kisses upon that you kind of see the similarities as far as how we should come to God and then how God treats that that he'll he'll come if you if he sees you coming toward him he's coming to you okay but you got to go first you see that Jacob comes to meet him first he's the one bowing down seven times first but it's interesting anytime you see the number seven it's always interesting of passages and I'm not going to all the passages say seven okay here all the sevens in the Bible we here be all we are until like Eutychus falls out of the loft but there is some similar there is some interesting things dealing with seven dealing with this passage go to Proverbs chapter 24 Proverbs chapter 24 I immediately think of this passage it doesn't it doesn't mesh completely with what's going on and with with Esau but you think about what Jacob has gone through and just the troubles you know he's kind of tried to overcome since he left his father's house and all this stuff but Proverbs 24 this is this is a passage that I probably quoted a few times preaching it says in verse 16 for a just man falleth seven times and riseth up again but the wicked shall fall into mischief and so you can kind of think about it and I obviously he's bowing down he's not falling down right and when this passage is more so dealing with the fact that hey you stumble and fall but you pick yourself back up and so it's basically saying you you fall seven times you rise up again and so it's just basically saying you fall you get back up you fall you get back up that's what a righteous man does you don't fall and just lay there and wallow in sorrow okay you pick yourself up by your own bootstraps and you keep going and that's kind of what Jacob went through I mean you think about him working for his wives and working for the change his wages ten times and just the stuff that he has gone through how he's kind of like fallen getting back up falling getting back up and obviously reaping what he's sown you know with supplanting his brother and all that stuff but we can see how that could apply to Jacob but also he's bowing down seven times and then you know getting up and then embracing his brother go to Proverbs 18 because this is really when I see them reuniting I see something that doesn't happen very often or something that's hard to happen meaning that you are reconciling with a brother that's offended notice what says in Proverbs chapter 18 and verse 19 it says a brother offended is harder to be one than a strong city and their contentions are like the bars of a castle and so this is as true as the day is long as far as you can think about contentions and bitterness that can be between brothers now Jacob and Esau are physical brothers so this definitely applies to physical siblings but you got to think about this in the spiritual realm as far as brothers and sisters in Christ and there can be contentions and just things that that are you're trying to win your brother right and we know that in unity we need to love our the brethren we're never supposed to hate the brethren we need to not be bitter against the brethren that doesn't mean that we have the fellowship with all brethren right there's a time to not eat with certain brethren because of you know if they're in some kind of sin that the Bible would kick them out of a church or or whatever or if you just don't like the person like as as far as their personality I'm not saying you got to hang out with them but you should never hate them you still love them right and so but we need to remember that that a brother offended is harder to be one than a strong city you know what that tells me is try not to offend your brother and if you do offend your brother try to get that right immediately it's like about you know let's not the Sun go down upon your wrath you know and go to it talks about that many places where it says go to him you know you know speedily and so we need to remember that with our brother now this took 20 years for this to be reunited here okay so he didn't do it speedily okay he didn't do it it didn't not the way the Bible says you should do it so that's probably why there's a lot of fear on both sides as far as what's gonna happen when they come back together and try to you know make things right and so we need to keep that in mind with the brethren is try not to offend them now if they're offended and it's just because of something that you're doing biblically then whatever there's nothing you can do about that right there's plenty of you know soft-soaked Christians out there that will get offended by you know you just being a righteous person just the way it is people tend to tend to hate us just because we're righteous sometimes and that goes I mean obviously you had the reprobates that that's true like Cain you know wherefore he slew him because his own works were evil and his brothers righteous so we know that that's true when it comes to the world or with reprobates but even Christians you know you think about like you're out soul winning and you're doing what you should be doing you're going to church or reading the Bible and then they look at you and they're not doing it so they feel ashamed and therefore it offends them or they get offended at you know what you believe because they're ignorant of the Bible that happens a lot too you know you have people that don't read the Bible they don't go to a church that preaches the Bible so when you when you say something that's biblical like him that pisseth against the wall right we were talking about this earlier right you know like you you'll say something like you know you know you know that person's a bastard and they're like whoa yeah and they get offended it's like wait a minute that's a biblical term and you're talking about someone that says they're like saved but they're not because they don't believe on Christ they're a bastard they're not a son right because they're an illegitimate child and so there's many terms like that you say damn or you say hell and they just get all offended and huffy-puffy about like what you're saying and you're just using biblical terms and they get offended there's nothing wrong with that but if they get offended based off you know basically how you say something or if you know as far as like your demeanor and and what you're doing that's different okay there's nothing wrong with someone being offended by the Word of God but if you're offending them and and it's because of just the way you're treating them then maybe you need to check on how you're dealing with them okay but go to Luke chapter 17 Luke chapter 17 because dealing with this seven times where he he bows down seven times before he meets his brother this is something that is brought up in the New Testament in Luke chapter 17 and there in verse 3 I kind of want to talk about this as far as forgiving your brother because there are some misconceptions with this okay and in Luke 17 verse 3 it says take heed to yourselves if thy brother trespass against thee rebuke him and if he repent forgive him and if he trespass against thee seven times in a day and seven times in a day turn again to thee saying I repent thou shalt forgive him now I want to talk about this because notice how it says seven times so I do think there's a link to where he bowed seven times and kind of linking to his brother forgiving him because you got to imagine that's probably why he's doing it because he's wanting Esau to forgive him for what he did from the last time he saw him right but notice here it says if thy brother trespass against thee rebuke him do you know it's very biblical to rebuke someone that did you wrong and I feel like this is out the window where people are just like if someone does you wrong forgive him out of hand that's not what the Bible teaches does Jesus forgive us out of hand or do we have to put our trust on him if that was true if Jesus says I'm gonna forgive everybody even if they they don't ask me to then everybody would go to heaven you know if everybody just say forgive me of myself you know they didn't even have to ask for it so they have to ask you for forgiveness before you're obligated to forgive them now once they ask you for forgiveness now you're obligated to forgive I'm not saying you can't forgive them right but the obligation is not there you know and then this may not be popular out there you know maybe you know especially in the churches today they just think you know forgive everybody you know and obviously people are like love everybody you never hate anybody right but never rebuke anybody don't judge anybody well here here's the thing if you're gonna rebuke somebody don't you have to judge them before you do that shouldn't there be some judgment there how about that you judge your brother righteously the Bible teaches and Leviticus 19 and also in John where it talks about judge righteous judgment and with righteousness judge thy brother so you have to judge righteously before you can rebuke them right you don't just go out and start rebuking people without thinking about why you're rebuking them right but notice how that's first there someone wrongs you you rebuke them notice this if he repents forgive him there's a clause there it doesn't just say rebuke him and forgive him so that's something you need to remember as far as the fact that hey I'm not obligated to forgive somebody if they did me wrong unless they ask me to forgive them of that trespass I think about this with church discipline a lot too I think about Doug Trowbridge right the snake that he was right but I think about the fact that he wouldn't ask for he wouldn't ask for forgiveness he he wouldn't even say why he just he's just like I'm sorry this happened it's like let's not ask that's not repenting there's no repentance there you know and I'm not saying you need to be down on your knees crying to me but you need to recognize what you did wrong that's what it means like in this passage where it's talking about if they repent you're recognizing that hey this is what I did I you know you really rebuked me for it I did wrong you know please forgive me and that needs to happen you know if someone gets kicked out of the church for some something you know as far as and here's thing it's not just the list in 1st Corinthians chapter 5 listen if I think somebody is causing discord or I think that they're spreading some false gospel or false doctrine I mean not even a false gospel well let's say a false doctrine of some sort and I think that it's gonna affect the church they'll get thrown out and you know this Pat that passage you know where it talks about the fact that you know if they don't hear between one or two or bring it before the church you know that's not talking about the pastor the pastor is a shepherd of the flock and if I think that there's somebody in the church or there's something going on in the church that's gonna cause a lot of trouble then you know I had the right to just say hey listen you need to get this right and if you don't you're not welcome to come back now you're welcome to come back if you get this right and I don't have to bring it before the church but this is between brethren okay now someone wrongs me let's say personally they wrong me they hit my car or hit my truck and you know I'm angry about it and you know they didn't add they didn't forget you know they didn't ask for forgiveness and I go up to them personally first right that's what Bible teaches go up to them try to reconcile it and if he doesn't do that then and do you see the difference between that and someone trying to come in and trying to tear the church apart as far as someone trespassing against me personally like they you know hit me or they did something you know I mean like they they they said something you know they called me a bad name whatever right there's a difference between that but we need to know that hey there needs to be if they keep asking and it's truly sincere right it's sincere they they repent when it says that they repent you know said they they trespass seven times in a day and seven times and they turn again to the saying I repent that's not forgive them that doesn't mean they're giving you lip service right I'm not saying someone's coming up here be like okay I'm sorry there's a difference so this case of someone doing this is probably few and far between of being sincerely sorry or it's sincerely like wanting to get it right does that does that make sense and so if someone just like let's say someone's just like flicking you back in the head you know and then then you turn around and say hey you know and you rebuke them and they're like sorry and then they do it again and then like sorry and you can tell you they're not sincere right they're just trying to get away with it and so there's a difference between that and somebody that sincerely it's just doing wrong and they just struggle with something and they just keep asking for forgiveness and they're they're sincere about it it's just something that they're dealing with and they just can't you know they're just struggling with it right and so we need to have compassion on those people but remember there's nothing wrong with rebuking them but go to go to Galatians chapter 6 I don't have this in my notes but I was just kind of thinking about it Galatians chapter 6 because when you rebuke them I'm not saying to like call down the thunder on them okay or call down the fire like Elijah you can do it in a meek way okay so in Galatians chapter 6 and verse 1 it says brethren if a man be overtaken in a fault ye which are spiritual restore such in one in the spirit of meekness considering thyself lest thou also be tempted so notice how in the spirit of meekness if someone's taken over in a fault and I'll say this if someone trespasses against you you need to have the attitude of hey you know let's get this right it's no big deal but that doesn't excuse the fact they don't get it right that makes sense like you can have the attitude like I don't want this to be a big deal I don't want this to be something that is even an issue let's just get it right you know and and just have that attitude that if you if you do someone wrong and then let's say it's just an accident or whatever just be like hey I'm sorry I did that you know move on and once if someone comes up to you and says hey I'm sorry I said this or I did this you know it's gone like I'm not thinking about it anymore and you know forgive and forget okay we're not dealing with reprobates here we're not dealing with predators we're dealing with someone that just like did you wrong or like you know whatever it can be something just really petty as far as you you paid for their lunch and they never paid for your lunch when they said they were going to I don't know I'm just thinking of petty things that people will get upset about or you know they didn't put up the decorations you wanted and you know you wanted to put up these decorations and I you know there's just there's really petty stuff out there that people can get upset about you know he didn't you know someone didn't tell you that their wife was pregnant and they told your other friend that their wife was pregnant you know stuff like that you know you don't let it go okay no but all I'm saying is that there's things like that that are really petty does that make does that like change the the the price of tea in China you know that type of stuff like what what our church like decorations are for the month or whatever and by the way there's no flowers up here okay so I know you already know that but we're not putting flowers up here I just saw if you haven't listened to it yet listen to Pastor Anderson sermon on queer sounding music and skinny jeans and it's a sermon that I've been wanting to preach for a long time but now I feel like I can't do it justice because it was one of the best sermons I've ever heard and but anyway there's this pastor that came into town and they're like meeting at a bar or a nightclub but then he's got a pulpit up there with this big fluffy flower thing up here and you just say I don't want to spoil it for you if you haven't listened to the sermon you need to listen to it and do the one that has the visuals on okay but anyway I don't know how I got off on that but but anyway we need to we need to have compassion we need to be be able to forgive and just let the petty stuff go but we need that be the kind of people that hey you know I'm recognizing off the bat hey I think I did that person wrong I might have said something I'm just gonna you know be preemptive about it they don't even come up to me and rebuke me I just say hey you know I said this the other day I just wanna make sure that that's okay you know like I didn't mean anything by it and stuff like that but honestly I'll say this if someone does you wrong you don't rebuke them for it you don't have the right to be bitter about it because some people I mean you just don't know I mean some people get bitter about things and then they're holding it in they never tell you about it this can apply to marriages okay if you if you're really annoyed at how your spouse choose things you know you need to let them know about that no but the thing is that those type of things will build up you need to talk about it you need to if it's if there's something that bothers you that's that your spouse is doing or your friend is doing or whatever you know and if it's something that's worth rebuking obviously chewing is not worth rebuking but but if it's something you know that's worth rebuking and that you're mad about it if you don't rebuke them for if you don't like bring it up then you can't really be mad at them because you didn't even give them a chance to even realize they did something wrong because a lot of people don't you know even though it's obvious let's say it's something obvious right and there's people out there that I know it's like they'll do something that's so obviously wrong that they did and they're just oblivious to the world that is wrong you know and you know like that they'll slam into your car and they'll just be like well it's just material possessions right you know they don't think anything of it because they don't care about their possessions right and so it's just kind of like off you know water off the ducks back to them and they don't even think that's an issue right I can't think of anything else sorry that's the only thing I can think of is like Raymond someone's car okay I'm looking out in the parking lot that's all I got that and flowers and all this other stuff anyway go back to Genesis chapter 33 Genesis 33 so not only does Jacob bow himself seven times but his whole family comes and bows himself so you think about this all the tribes of Israel come and bow themselves before Esau besides Benjamin right he hasn't been born yet but he was yet in the loins of Jacob right you know just like Melchizedek anyway in Genesis 33 verse 5 it says and he lifted up his eyes and saw the women and the children and said who are who are those with thee and he said the children which God hath graciously given thy servant then the handmaidens came near and they and their children and they bow themselves and Leah also with her children came near and bowed themselves and after came Joseph near and Rachel and they bowed themselves so now obviously the order in which they were in line there but they they all bow themselves and so we see that what's what's the common theme here thy servant my lord thy servant my lord and they're all bowing down to Esau and we've talked about this a lot as far as just the fact that this is clearly showing us that this did the promise of this the the elder serving the younger was not the personally to Jacob and Esau or even to their children but it was it was it was obviously in a future tense as far as the nations go but also in the spiritual sense if you remember the sermon on Obadiah we're dealing with Israel and Edom and the fact of what's that picture the children of God and the children of the devil you know as far as the the the wheat and the tares and just that picture of that so you have the the physical with the nations but you also have the spiritual with the spiritual nations right the children you know the the armies of God and the armies of the devil but we see that it doesn't personally apply okay so I just want to show you on all fronts there it's not just even Jacob and Esau like saying thy servant thy my lord you know Jacob's saying that to Esau but also all his children and his wives bow down to them and so that's to me it it makes it pretty clear now why that's interesting is because go back to Genesis 27 because the the promise that Isaac the blessing that Isaac gave his son Jacob was the fact that it was the other way it was supposed to be the other way around notice in verse 28 so Genesis 27 verse 28 so this is after he like smells them and says you know this is my son because he's got the smell of a field right and in verse 28 it says therefore God gives thee of the dew of heaven and the fatness of the earth and plenty of corn and wine let people serve thee and nations bow down to thee be Lord over thy brethren and let thy mother's sons bow down to thee cursed be everyone that cursed thee and blessed be he that blessed thee so that seems to be backwards right but obviously this promise we've seen this many times because this promise was made to Abraham and his seed and the seed was just what Christ so this promise is if you think about it is really mostly for Christ on how they were gonna bow down on him and we will see later with Judah and how Jesus is the line out of the tribe of Judah and how all his brethren shall praise him and so all this is pointing to Christ mostly but also the fact that this is talking about later on we're dealing with the nation of Israel as a whole compared to the nation of Edom and how that's gonna be in the future but notice also Jacob gives tribute to Esau notice in verse 33 or verse 8 so Genesis chapter 33 verse 8 so he gives tribute to his brother he comes about so let me ask you a question does that does it sound like that that blessing that Isaac gave to Jacob actually came true I don't see it so here's the thing that's what it comes out to you can't steal a blessing of God right and that's what he tried to do he tried to steal the blessing and and here's the thing that the the fact that Christ is gonna come out of Jacob would have happened either way because that was chosen before they were born according to Romans chapter 9 so it's not like he had to like work this thing out and try to get it working out for God okay God already had it set up and it's gonna work out the way he wants to do it and so you can't steal that blessing you can't steal the blessings of God and we're just seeing the fact that it didn't come it didn't come to pass and so in verse 8 it says and he said what meanest thou by all this drove which I met and he said these are to find grace in thy sight of my Lord and Esau said I have enough my brother keep that thou hast unto thyself and Jacob said day I pray thee if now I have found grace in thy sight then receive my present at my hand for therefore I have seen thy face as though I had seen the face of God and thou was pleased with me take I pray thee my blessing that I brought to thee because God had dealt graciously with me and because I have enough and he urged him and he took it so Esau took it and later on Esau is gonna try to give Jacob something but he doesn't take it so Jacob doesn't take tribute and you kind of think about you know who gives tribute to who as far as authority goes at Romans chapter 13 give tribute to whom tribute is due it's all it's talking about you know the higher powers so we see who's in authority in this position right now I think it's pretty clear right that Esau is in the position of authority they're bowing down to him they're giving him a present you know all this they're calling him Lord and saying that were your servants and so but I when I see this phrase here I have seen thy face as though I had seen the face of God now what's that mean well that that phrase or that that type of phrase is in is dealt with with with Stephen as well only it talks about I've you know they looked on his faces they've seen this face of an angel so go to Acts chapter 6 and what I believe this is talking about is the fact that his countenance was very powerful very powerful meaning like if you ever looked at somebody be like that person just looks like a powerful man you know someone you don't want to mess with right they just have this countenance about them that's just very you know it could be terrifying it could be just a strong countenance right but Acts chapter 6 you get context here in verse 8 most of you know Stephen and how he was martyred in the next chapter and that well at first he ripped face then he was martyred but in verse 8 here says and Stephen full of faith and power did great wonders and miracles among the people then there arose certain of the synagogue which called which is called the synagogue of the Libertines and Cyrenians and Alexandrians and of them of Cilicia and of Asia disputing with Stephen and they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spake then they suborned men which said we have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and against God and they stirred up the people and the elders and scribes came upon him and caught him and brought him to the council and set up false witness false witnesses which said this man ceaseth not to speak blasphemous words against this holy place and the law but we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this place and shall change the customs which Moses delivered us and all that sat in this and the council looked steadfastly on him looking steadfastly on him saw his face as it had been the face of an angel so I see these two passages are very similar okay as far as I you know as this I had seen the face of God or as if I've seen the face of an angel and why why did they say that well I think in verse 8 it's kind of he was full of faith and power he had a powerful countenance about him I don't think it was necessarily like Moses where his face shown it could have been right but wait but that was a case where he saw God you know or saw his back parts and his face shown and you know they couldn't look upon him and all that stuff but in this case I believe both in the case of Esau and Stephen he had a powerful countenance about him and that's something that we should we should strive to have right we want to be filled with the spirit and have that that countenance right and people you know you think about going out so when you're filled with the spirit and you have this countenance about it like I need to listen to this person like they just they just have this countenance about them that they're they're bold they know what they're they're talking about you know and you know it's it it's just something that you're gonna look and be like that's an authority figure if you want to look at it that way right it's like that's someone that I should listen to that I should look up to that I should follow right well go to Judges chapter 13 now we went to judges 13 when we were kind of talking about the man wrestling with with Jacob and whether it was God or an angel actually after we were talking about it after the sermon I lean more towards that as God just from just different things in the passage it just seems like it's it never mentions it's an angel but there are just certain things in there that I you know thou has had power with God you know and stuff like that that really makes it sound like it's an old testament appearance of Christ but but in Judges 13 this is clearly an angel but notice what it says in verse 6 this is where Manoah's wife is coming to him kind of talking about this person that met him and at this point she doesn't know that they don't know it's an angel right and verse 6 it says then the woman came and told her husband saying a man of God came unto me and his countenance was like the countenance of an angel of God very terrible so terrible you know like by the Bible actually says that our God's a terrible God but it's not terrible like like hell okay you know like you think it's something that's terrible it's like oh that's terrible you know but think about the word terrific and so that's where that word you know terrible kind of comes from something that's terrific you know terrible wonders or and stuff like that you think about the Lord is very terrible why because he's terrific and so we we kind of use it more in the negative sense of it although something that's terrible is a terrific thing but we wouldn't say like that tragedy over there's terrific we'd say it's terrible and so but anyway I see that with this countenance of an angel so when it says I've seen his face as the the face of an angel what are they saying his countenance is very terrible it's very like you know it's kind of like just an awe-inspiring countenance that he had about him he was bold they're looking at the face of a line is what they were looking at and when when Jacob came up the Esau that's what he saw that's what he's basically telling them is when I'm seeing your faces as the face of God meaning that you have this this terrible countenance about you you know like you're a great man like a mighty man right and go to 1st Chronicles chapter 12 1st Chronicles chapter 12 and this is something that's brought up you know the countenance your countenance the type of countenance you have David had a beautiful countenance right goodly to look on or look to right and so your countenance is what you look like right and so when you when you when you see something do they look timid did it look scared or do they look like they're ready to charge hell with a squirt gun or they're ready to rip a line in half right and so you know when when you when I used to wrestle or you know or just basically you could look at somebody and see either the fear in their eyes or basically the tenacity that like this is gonna be a fight and that countenance is something that comes from within okay cuz I'm not talking about looks you can't change what we look like okay we all just look like what we look like but there you can change that that facial expression or just the way you look and you can just you can see it dourly from the inside right if you're afraid you can see if someone's afraid by the way they look and if someone's bold you can see that they're bold by the way that they look but in 1st Chronicles chapter 12 always think about this when I think about you know people that are mighty or that have a good countenance about them and verse 8 so 1st Chronicles 12 verse 8 it says and of the Gadites they're separating themselves unto David into the hold of the wilderness men of might and men of war fit for the battle that could handle shield and buckler whose faces were like the faces of lions and were as swift as the rose upon the mountains now those are people you don't want to mess with imagine you're coming to these people coming at you they had the face of lions and they're not only they have that countenance of a lion but they're also as quick as deer on the mountains right and they know how to battle they know how to handle shield and buckler and so these are mighty men that know how to fight and they not only know how to fight but they have this countenance about them that would probably make people crawl up into the fetal position right and so that's the type of countenance that I see Esau having I see Stephen having and it doesn't mean that you have to be you know ready to fight a battle but at the same time he had this boldness you think about Stephen there's no doubt that he had boldness because when he preaches that whole sermon in chapter 7 there's no doubt I mean he just recounts all this he's filled with the Holy Ghost and at the end he says you do always resist that you know ye uncircumcised and hard you know and he says you know you do always resist the Holy Ghost and he just ripped their face off and why because he had the boldness you know the Bible says in Proverbs 28 and 1 it says the wicked flee when no man pursueeth but the righteous are bold as a lion and when you're bold you could have the face that the face of a lion I believe Esau had that you know that's why he's saying that he's not saying he's God right but it's you know if you saw God what would you do you bow down before him and anytime you see the word where someone has seen God or like seen him on his throne or or whatever you just see him bowing down before him because of just you know his countenance I'd imagine if Jesus were to walk in here if I were to see God I'd be on my knees you know you think of Daniel he couldn't even stand up he lost all the strength that was in him when he saw like the image of the Son of Man and these images that he would see and stuff like that but in Micah chapter 3 and verse 8 get a Micah chapter 3 and verse 8 as you're going there Micah chapter 3 verse 8 and and second Timothy chapter 1 and verse 7 it says for God hath not given us the spirit of fear but of power and of love and of a sound mind so Stephen was full of the Holy Ghost he was full the Spirit of God that's why he was you know full of power you know it says in Acts chapter 6 when he was getting into this situation he was full of power why because he's full of the Spirit of God and it's not a spirit of fear it's a spirit of power and so if you're afraid it's not it's you know if you're afraid of what man can do unto you you're afraid of you know going soul winning or doing anything like that that's not from God and so we need to get the Spirit of God in us to give us that boldness that we may open our mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel but in Micah 3 8 it says but truly I am full of power by the Spirit of the Lord and of judgment and a might to declare unto Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin so it's something that we see over and over again and I honestly believe that's what that's talking about when it says I've seen your face as if as if I've seen the face of God does that mean that he's coming up to Esau and saying man you look like you're sinless and you know that's not what he's saying he's not saying like your deity he's saying you know when I see you I see you know I see someone terrible as if I'm looking at God you know and the same thing when you see Stephen when they saw his face you imagine that they were a little afraid when they saw Stephen because they saw his face as if it was the face of an angel why because he full power and might and he was full the Holy Ghost and he ripped their face off to the point where they were so angry that they killed him and so something to think about that we need to have that type of countenance okay I'm not saying to be like Esau but you can have that countenance that's not even you ever you know you go to a you know you're working or and people just respect you okay the one thing that I that that I think men enjoy is when people respect you they're not they're not making fun of you or they're afraid to make fun of you you ever have people you know like you have those people that you just know that they're probably afraid to make fun of you because they don't want to and and that's the kind of thing I don't like to be the person that's like the butt of the joke or anything like that and here's the thing I have a sense of humor I'm not saying that people can't joke around my wife you know always crack jokes or someone crack jokes I'm not I'm not I'm not talking about that I'm talking about people that are that are trying to be malicious or they're just constantly trying to tear you down or whatever and so when you have this countenance this this powerful countenance as far as hey I'm serious about this I'm not joking around this isn't time to play you know people take notice of that as far as if you don't cuss at work and you do you do your job you're righteous you do what you need to do people take note of that and they take note of your boldness and that you're not like this little weakling to where they know not to mess with you when it comes with that type of stuff and so I see that in in the Bible and that's something that I saw with my dad you know when it when it comes to growing up how a lot of people like who he worked with would respect him and it shows like what kind of person you are okay I'm not and here's the thing there's always gonna be someone that's gonna disrespect you I'm not saying that someone comes up in disrespect you'd be like oh you must be failing at being a righteous person but by and large you know the kind of thing about the the qualify qualification for a past year you have good report of them without if someone that was just outside that knew me and you came up to me say hey you know Jason Robinson what would they say about me you know it's a good thing to know right now obviously there's gonna be people that don't like me and would say something crazy about me but by and large people should hopefully people with people would say decent things about me say he's nice guys hard work or whatever right and that's the type of you know basically resume that you want to have and that's how you're gonna have this countenance now I'm just thinking in the physical realm working out in the workforce but how much more in biblical things when you go out soul winning or if I'm out if I'm out here preaching the gospel if everything was a joke to me would you take me seriously you know when it comes to preaching or things about God you know then there's a time to joke there's time to have fun and all that stuff but when it comes down to it hey church isn't a playground we're here to get the job done you know we're for preaching the gospel we need to we need to get dig our heels in we need to hear hard preaching we need to we need to have sermons of teaching we're here to learn so that we can do the work but a lot of these churches nowadays are joke the pastor's a joke everybody in leadership's a joke and the people in the pews don't respect them because they're a joke okay and you know we need to respect the pastor that doesn't excuse them not respecting the pastor but it sometimes is hard to respect the pastor you know when the pastor isn't going soul winning when the pastor isn't reading his Bible when the pastor is preaching lame sermons putting you to sleep all the time you know and here's thing you know it there's gonna be sermons that aren't the best there's gonna be sermons that aren't just these Wow sermons like man that was a fantastic sermon listen I know I know I'm not like some special preacher up here but we need to just dig in you know get some integrity listen to the Word of God we need it we need to hear it and it's got it's going to give you that countenance that you need to have integrity to go out into into the world and have that boldness to have that countenance like an angel and so anyway I see that with Esau and Esau gets a bad rap a lot of times but you know in this passage he's kind of you know he's not a bad guy here he meets he meets his brother and he's getting all this respect from his brother you know he had a countenance as you know as if he was looking at the countenance of God so he obviously wasn't afraid he wasn't just his little weakling guy you know that was just timidly coming up to him he was just a mighty man that was coming to meet his brother and everything went well so in this passage it was kind of it was a happy ending but as we see here they part ways in verse 12 it says he said let us take our journey and let us let us go and I will go before thee and he said unto him my Lord my Lord knoweth that the children are tender and flocks and herds with young are with me and if men should overdrive them one day all the flock will die let my Lord I pray thee pass over before that his servant and I will lead on softly according as the cattle that goes before me and the children be able to endure until I come unto my Lord unto seer and Esau said let me now leave with thee some of the flock that are with me and he said what needeth it let me find grace in thy sight in the sight of my my Lord now why is he asking Esau to go first because they're kind of part in ways it sounds like to me when I'm just reading this is the fact that it's gonna take some time with all his cattle and stuff like that and he doesn't want it's kind of like if you're in the front of the line and there's someone behind you that's just like wanting to get through because he's just got a bunch of men with him besides what Jacob gave them right and so he he it's kind of that's what I see there is that he doesn't want the men to override them meaning like some of the sheep may die because you're trying to get through and you're trying to plow through us because they're just trying to get home or whatever right that's what I kind of see there as far as why he's even mentioning this like you go ahead and then I'm gonna go but we also see where does where does Esau he returns in verse 16 to Seir now Seir Mount Seir is in Edom that's something you're gonna see over and over and over again when you see the nation of Edom and Mount Seir okay but then Jacob journeyed to Sukkoth and built him in house and made booths for his cattle therefore the name of the place is called Sukkoth so I don't know if it's called Sukkoth because of the booths I'm guessing that's the case like that has something to do with booths but you say well where in the world are they well I don't have a map of Israel or like Egypt and all that stuff around here but if you're looking at at Israel Edom is south of that if you remember when they're going through the wilderness they have to go through Edom and they're trying to travel there and when they come up to get into Israel they're not coming up from the bottom they come up and then they cross over Jordan which is kind of like the right border or the east border of East border as you're looking at right the east border of Israel and they go over Jordan they go over Jordan into Canaan into Jericho and all that stuff so they don't come up from Beersheba and come up through that way so they're kind of going around it so if this is Jordan Edom would be like down here somewhere okay now where's Sukkoth well I believe it's actually pretty close to Egypt or where they came out of Egypt in Exodus okay so I believe he went even further so if you remember where did he come from he came up from where like Syria, right so he came all the way from the northern part of Canaan where Syria's at came all the way down and came in to Edom to meet up with his brother and then he kept traveling and went to Sukkoth that's not where he ends up at the end of the chapter but go to Numbers chapter 33 at the end of the chapter he ends up in in Shalom which is a city of Shechem which is in Canaan okay so he doesn't stay here he builds this house and these booths but then he goes back to Canaan so but I just want to show you that you know where Sukkoth is and just kind of now Numbers chapter 33 is an interesting chapter because Numbers 33 is recapping where they came from they came out of Egypt and where they journeyed all the way up to where they go into the Promised Land so it literally just going like the timeline of where they journeyed so you may wonder you're reading through Exodus and then you're reading through Numbers and you're like you're trying to keep track of where they went and all this stuff this literally just tracks it all in one chapter so it's kind of a cool chapter to see like hey here's where they started here's where they ended goes up to where they find they go to Mount Sinai then they leave there remember because then they don't go into the Promised Land they go up to the point where they're gonna go into the Promised Land then they wander in the wilderness for 40 years and then it goes all the way back to where they're gonna go in but in verse 4 there it says for the Egyptians buried all their firstborn which the Lord had spent among them upon their gods also the Lord executed judgment so this is when they're coming out of Egypt when Moses you know with all the ten plagues all that stuff right verse 5 it says the children of Israel were removed from Rameses and pitched in Sukkoth so where is the first place that they went to after they left Rameses now Rameses is where they were at now obviously the children of Israel were in Goshen but that's the city that they were at as far as where they left and where the firstborn died all that stuff so Sukkoth is really close to if not in Egypt now I think the way you look at the map now it's technically Egypt but if you look at Egypt it's kind of like this block but then there's like this little piece over here there's this little piece gotta do this as like mirrored this little piece and then you have like the Red Sea that kind of forks up right and so it looks like that they came around the one part of the Red Sea and then they crossed it the way I understand it okay now if you have an NIV or something like that the maps will show that they never crossed the Red Sea but I believe they crossed because it says that Mount Sinai is in Arabia okay so I don't believe a lot of people think that they crossed that one first fork when you get it home look at a map I should have brought a picture but they but that wouldn't really be Arabia but if they cross the second fork and it also makes sense of where Sukkoth would be and all this other stuff and where they got to where they come to the Red Sea because notice in verse verse 33 so it's going down through this list of where they went to they went to Mara and all that some verse 9 you remember the waters of Mara all that before they get to the Red Sea but in verse 10 there it says and they removed from Elam and camped by the Red Sea okay now I'm not gonna go through all the places that they went to we don't have time but anyway it's just interesting how that works that they cross the Red Sea then they go to Mount Sinai they go into the wilderness of Sinai and so and we know from Galatians chapter 4 that Mount Sinai is in Arabia okay and so if you look on a map that's where Arabia is at if you were to cross that second portion now of course you cross the big part of the Red Sea maybe that's where they cross I don't know could have been I'm not sure exactly where these places are I know that Ramesses it looks like they'd have to go like this if they were to cross that little fork or they could have just went from Ramesses and just went over to the east and then got to to the big portion of it so anyway they cross the Red Sea I know they did that right that's what the Bible teaches so that's that's Genesis chapter 33 they end up he ends up in Shalom with in the city of Shechem and then that's gonna be important because that's where they're at in chapter 34 when we get into Dinah his daughter and obviously a sad story there but we're gonna preach on that next week so let's end with a word of prayer daily father what we thank you for this evening and pray that you'd be able to go throughout the rest of the work week and we thank you for your word and just so many things that we can learn from these passages in Genesis and we we just pray against you be with us we love you pray all this in Jesus Christ name amen