Wrestling With God’s Sovereignty
Introduction
Morning, it's good to see you this rainy weather, or where day, I guess, storm watch day, I think the worst of it came through around 10:30, so while you were not quite here or in Sunday school. So that's good to know, hopefully.
Well, last night, a pretty amazing thing happened when I was just watching what was going on in the world last night: USA Hockey Team, USA Hockey played Team Canada in the World Cup of Hockey Tournament. I think Finland and Sweden are also in it. So it's the best hockey players in the world. Most of them play in NHL, and they didn't play in their respective teams.
It's the first time that Team USA had played Team Canada in like, nine years. It says big, big rivalry between the two nations. The majority of the NHL teams are in the United States, and I think it's been like over 20 something years since Canada has won an NHL title—a Canadian team has. So there's a little bit of resentment there.
And with all the talk, you know, the government annexing Canada, and the tariffs and all this kind of thing, the last few weeks when they have an NHL event, and it's been in a Canadian city, like a game, NHL game, there's been—when they do the national anthems for both countries—the Canadians have been booing The Star-Spangled Banner, then booing the national anthem.
So last night, when both teams were getting ready to play, and they're in Montreal, and they sing the national anthem for the United States, they booed it. And so a couple of the American Hockey players at that point, I believe, made a decision that they weren't going to take that lying down. And so as soon as the puck dropped, the gloves came off within one second. And you can go on and watch the video. It's pretty interesting.
There was a fight, and there were two brothers that did the two of them, their dad was a famous hockey player as well, but they—the gloves came out. And then there was this big hockey fight. And of course, the crowd loved it and cheered it and everything. And then, you know, they put one of them in the penalty box or whatever, when they got done. And then two seconds later, the gloves came off again, and there was another one. And then they skated for about five or six seconds and had a shot on goal. And then there was a third fight.
And the place was just going, was just going crazy, because all this kind of built-up resentment—you know, maybe some playful resentment, you know, but maybe also some serious resentment—between the two countries. And the players have said, Hey, we're not, we're not going to put up with this. We're in Montreal, and we're going, we're going to do this.
The Nature of Hockey and Aggression
Hockey is one of the only sports that really allows anything like this. You get in a fight. Usually it's because over the course of a game, aggression is built up, and they just kind of fight it out a lot of times, just wrestling and to the ice, and then they just put them in the penalty box, and then, you know, they've kind of got it out of their system, and then go and play the game. So it's unusual to happen at the beginning of the game. So, you know, it's probably premeditated, but they played the rest of the game without incident for the most part. And praise the Lord, the Americans won 3 to 1.
And so I don't think we have any Canadians in here. But anyway, now why? Some people would call this hockey fighting barbaric. There's something in the way that God has created men that has called us to be aggressive in some level, especially when we're young boys and young men. It's why we love to watch football and play football and play sports and athletics. It's why I never really got into hunting or fishing, because I'm just sitting there for a long time. I'm not doing anything active. I want to hit something or play something or do something, you know.
And so my son loves to wrestle. It's fun. He loves to attack me, and lets me just kind of throw him on the bed and wrestle him and everything. And then, until he realizes he can't beat me, and then he cries and tells me to quit or whatever. But when I was a child, I loved to wrestle my dad and then our friends would wrestle, and we would do, you know, WWE moves on each other and stuff, even though it said, “Don't try this at home.” You know, we would do all kinds of things like that.
And that's why boys, when they grow up, they love contact sports. And really, this is, for the most part, a safe way for young boys, young men, to get that natural aggression out that God's given us. Because in our culture, society, not many of us have to hunt for survival. Most of us don't have to really actively protect our families. Mostly we live in safe areas, so that instinct to protect and to fight has to come out in some other way.
And women maybe not have the same type of urges on scale as men, but their aggression comes out verbally, mostly. And then if men, if they don't get that aggression out physically, it comes out verbally, or it comes out playing video games or something like this, or at different ways. And sometimes that stubbornness, that aggression, we use wrongly, which is why you have violence and things like that happen.
We might find ourselves wrestling and being stubborn and being aggressive in ways that are not productive for us. And even spiritually speaking, our spirit might wrestle. Our spirit might struggle, and we can find ourselves maybe even wrestling against God, struggling against His plan for our life.
A New Sermon Series: The Life of Jacob
We're starting a new sermon series today about the life of Jacob, a man that the Bible tells us was not the manliest of men, yet he still had stubbornness issues. He still had restlessness issues. He still had wrestling issues, if you would. And even though he was who he was, and even though he spent most of his life wrestling God and wrestling people, so to speak, God still chose to use him for the Messiah's line to go through.
So we're going to look at today what it means to wrestle against God's sovereignty, God's dominion over our lives, God's authority over our lives—what it means to wrestle over that.
Biblical Passage: Genesis 25 (Starting in Verse 19)
Today, we're looking at Genesis 25 starting in verse 19:
“Bible tells us these are the generations of Isaac Abraham's son: Abraham fathered Isaac. And Isaac was 40 years old when he took Rebecca, the daughter of Bethuel the Aramean of Paddan-aram, the sister of Laban the Aramean, to be his wife. And Isaac prayed to the Lord for his wife because she was barren, and the Lord granted his prayer, and Rebecca, his wife, conceived. The children struggled together within her, and she said, ‘If it is thus, why is this happening to me?’ So she went to inquire of the Lord. And the Lord said to her, ‘Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you shall be divided; the one shall be stronger than the other, the older shall serve the younger.’ And when her days to give birth were completed, behold, there were twins in her womb. The first came out red, all his body like a hairy cloak, so they called his name Esau. Afterward, his brother came out with his hand holding Esau's heel, so his name was called Jacob. Isaac was 60 years old when she bore them. When the boys grew up, Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field, while Jacob was a quiet man, dwelling in tents. Isaac loved Esau because he ate of his game, but Rebecca loved Jacob.”
Heavenly Father, as we continue worshiping You today, as we look at this passage, we show that You would show us what we need to learn about Your sovereignty in our lives, even as we struggle to accept it sometimes—we wrestle with Your plans for us. I pray that You would speak Your words through me today, that Your Holy Spirit would move in here through my preaching and through the receiving of Your word, and we would see more clearly about why we struggle and what that looks like, Lord, and what we should do about the fact when we struggle with Your plan for our lives.
Give us insight, Father. We ask these things in Jesus' name, Amen.
Three Truths About God's Sovereignty Over Our Lives
As we look at this passage, we see three truths about God's sovereignty over our lives.
1. God Is Sovereign Over Our Life
The first truth is that God is sovereign over our life. I almost use the word “birth” because we're looking at it, but really it's more than just your birth. It's your entire life, your entire timeline here on earth.
God is sovereign over our life. Look at verse 19: We see this sentence talking about the generations of Isaac. Then we get down to verse 21, and it said that Isaac prayed to the Lord for his wife because she was barren, and the Lord granted his prayer. And Rebecca, his wife, conceived.
In a similar way to his father, Abraham, Isaac and his wife, Rebecca, had problems conceiving a child. Now, Abraham was 100, Isaac is now 60, so it wasn’t quite as bad—maybe half as bad, you could say. Rebecca was old enough to where she was considered barren, but the promise of Abraham had been passed down to Isaac. Isaac knew that he’d have to have a son in order to bring about God’s covenant of blessing to the world and to fruition. So he prayed.
It doesn’t say Rebecca prayed, although she might have, but it tells us that Isaac prayed. Isaac prayed, and Rebecca became pregnant. But it wasn’t with just one; it was with two.
Verse 22: The children then struggled within her, and she said, “If it is thus, why is this happening to me?” So she went and asked the Lord about it.
Apparently, even though she had never been pregnant before, she knew that this normal was not normal baby kicking in the womb. Her maternal instinct clued her in that something was not right, so it seemed like they were wrestling and struggling with each other. So she did what we should do, and she went and asked the Lord.
Verse 23: The Lord said to her, “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you shall be divided; the one shall be stronger than the other, the older shall serve the younger.”
So God revealed to Rebecca that her sons would be not just one nation, but two distinct nations. And through one, Jacob, would come the nation of Israel, by which the Messiah would come—Jesus. And through the other, Esau, they would be another nation that would become the Edomites, the nation of Edom.
One nation would be stronger, yet the stronger one—Esau—would serve the younger one, which is upside down, culturally speaking. This shows that God has a plan for us before we are even born. The struggle, the conflict between Jacob and Esau, would be a part of God's plan for their lives. Indeed, this was part of His plan.
Struggle and conflict are not necessarily bad for us. They can serve a purpose in our lives, and when these struggles and conflicts occur, we should follow Sarah's model and seek guidance from the Lord.
God is sovereign over our birth and our lives.
Psalm 139: “Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when, as yet, there was none of them.”
God knows us as we’re being formed, when it seems like we might just be a collection of cells, some doctors will tell us, and our substance is unformed. Our book has started to be written; every day was written for us. God has a plan for us from conception until death.
Jeremiah 29:11: “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”
This was written to exiled Jews, but what this tells us is that even in exile, God still has a plan for us. He has His plan, and we should be able to trust His plans.
Ephesians 2: “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”
One reason God has created us is to do His good works. He is sovereign over our life.
2. God Is Sovereign Over Our Families
No families are just a collection of individuals, so He’s sovereign over that as well.
Verse 24: “When her days to give birth were completed, behold, there were twins in her womb. The first came out red, all his body like a hairy cloak, and they called his name Esau. Afterward his brother came out with his hand holding Esau’s heel, so his name was called Jacob.”
That’s what you did—you would name your children after some trait that you wanted them to have or some trait that they already are. Jacob meant “supplanter,” to supplant—holder of the heel. It means to “plant” someone, to take their place. And by holding on to Esau’s heel, Jacob was pulling himself up and supplanting—or attempting to supplant—Esau in a very visible way, and he would supplant him in various ways throughout their lives, as we'll see.
It tells us in verse 26 that Isaac was 60 years old when she bore them, and when the boys grew up, Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field, while Jacob was a quiet man, dwelling in tents.
Then we see in verse 28 a problem:
Verse 28: “Isaac loved Esau because he ate of his game, but Rebecca loved Jacob.”
So you start to see more of a contrast between these brothers. Esau, the skilled hunter, the man's man. He would be the man you would see, you’d say, “Oh man, that's somebody I can follow. I want to be like him.” Jacob, though, says that he was quiet. He stayed inside, helped his mother cook. Esau probably was this gregarious, extroverted, warrior-type guy. It says that Jacob was quiet. He was the introvert of the two.
And it says that Isaac loved his son Esau more than Jacob because of these manly hunting skills, yet Jacob would be what we would call, often disparagingly, a mama’s boy. And since he spent more time with his mother, Rebecca, Jacob naturally developed a special bond.
You often wonder how two boys can come from the same family, but that’s how God designs family. They can be very different but very similar. My own children are similar in many ways, but they’re all very different from each other in other ways, and that’s what makes them unique to the family. I’ve never tried to force my children to a certain role. Now, I’ve tried to teach them what a man should be like and a Christian woman should be like, but I’ve never tried to force them into certain activities or things like this. If they want to play sports, great. If they want to do other activities, that’s fantastic.
So I would want them to do what they want to do, and if I didn’t know about it, I would try to learn about those activities on some level. We need to be careful to encourage our children and our grandchildren to do what they’re naturally interested in, because that’s how God has created them. Let them use their God-given abilities to build the kingdom of God.
Little John David loves to play soccer. We’ve played T-ball before—he was good at it—but he likes soccer better. And I said, “You want to play flag football?” and he says, “No, I just really want to play soccer.” And he knows all these soccer players’ names. I guess he’s European, I don’t know. But he just—he knows them all. He has his own goal dances when he scores in a goal. He’s just ready to play again this spring. And so, quite honestly, I’ve watched all sports for kids, and soccer is pretty easy to get through, so I’m not unhappy about it.
But you let them use what they want to do, and you encourage them to do that. We also see something that is not healthy in this family relationship, and that is favoritism. Apparently, it was either explicitly stated before or just implicitly implied or known that Esau was the favorite of Isaac and Jacob was the favorite of Rebecca. Obviously, favoritism leads to jealousy, to sibling rivalry. Most all children think that their parents love the other child—or another child in the family—more than them. That’s a pretty normal thing to think.
But as parents, even when our children grow up and become adults, we may have more in common with them than others. It just might be the case. You know, some of my children get my sense of humor better than others; that’s just how it works. And then some of my children, we get along in other ways than others; that’s just how it is.
So it’s up to us to find the commonalities of our children and speak to them about those things. Charles Stanley says this:
“Children are like seeds, each with their own unique potential, waiting to be nurtured. It is our role as parents to cultivate and nourish their passions and talents.”
Tony Evans says:
“Empower your children to pursue their passions with confidence and faith, knowing that God has placed those desires in their hearts for a purpose.”
See, God is sovereign over our families. We can’t force our children to fit some mold we want them to fit, other than the fact that they need to be biblical and they need to be Christ-fearing people. But their interests—we must remember that God has put them there for a reason, and we must do our best to make sure we understand God is sovereign over them and that He created them. We didn’t create them—He did. And we must remember that as we seek to lead them.
3. God Is Sovereign Over Our Choices
Finally, in this passage, we see that God is sovereign over our choices. Amen, it’s good to know, because not every choice we make is the right choice, as we know. Sometimes we don’t even know we’ve made the wrong choice. Sometimes we might never know that. Sometimes it takes us many years to realize that.
We get a story here that confirms these conflicts that have been brewing:
Verse 29: “Once when Jacob was cooking stew, Esau came in from the field, and he was exhausted.”
So get this picture: Jacob cooking like he normally would. Esau is exhausted from hunting and hungry. But I don’t think it is just tired—it seems to be more to the story here, based on what we read.
Verse 30: “Esau said to Jacob, ‘Let me eat some of that red stew, for I am exhausted.’”
By the way, who do you think caught the meat for that stew? Who do you think killed it? It was probably Esau. Jacob’s cooking it. At this point, Jacob had a choice to make. He could love his brother and serve him—and we know later in the passage, this seems pretty serious, because Esau says he’s about to die—so he had a bad day in the field. Something’s happened. So Jacob makes a choice, and he makes it difficult on his brother.
Verse 31: “Jacob said, ‘Sell me your birthright.’”
Verse 32: “Esau said, ‘I am about to die; what use is a birthright to me?’”
He feels like he’s on death’s door. He willingly gives Jacob his rights as his firstborn son in the family.
Verse 33: “Jacob said, ‘Swear to me now.’ So he swore to him and sold his birthright to Jacob.”
What were the things that Esau was giving up?
His Inheritance – The firstborn son typically received a double portion of the father’s inheritance.
A Mantle of Leadership – The firstborn son often held a position of leadership within the family, carrying on the family’s name and responsibilities.
Priestly Duties – The firstborn son had specific religious responsibilities and privileges, offering sacrifices and leading in worship.
Authority – He had some authority over his siblings and other family members, especially in matters of decision-making.
Verse 34: “Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew, and he ate and drank and rose and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright.”
Esau makes a bad choice. Jacob makes the sinful choice to take advantage of his brother. Yet God is still sovereign over these. And while there are consequences to our choices, praise the Lord, God still works through them.
How God Is Sovereign Over Our Choices
He Knows What We’ll Do
God is all-knowing. He has perfect foreknowledge of all our choices, both good and bad, before we even make them.Psalm 139: “Even before a word is on my tongue, Lord, You know it altogether.”
He Works Through What We Do
God is ruling over all events, including the choices we make. He can rule all things over, even our bad choices, for His ultimate purposes.Romans 8:28: “And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose.”
He Gives Grace and Often Intervenes
He gives us grace many times when we don’t even realize it, whether it’s protection or making our plans not work so that our future is good and not bad.Romans 5:20: “Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.”
That doesn’t mean that we need to keep sinning to get more grace. It just means that as we sin, grace happens, and as we sin badly, the beauty of grace is even more attractive to us. Grace overpowers sin every time.
He Gives Consequences Yet Redeems
This is perfect modeling for fatherhood. Even in our bad choices, God remains sovereign in allowing us to face the consequences of our actions while offering us the opportunity for redemption and restoration.Hebrews 12:6: “For the Lord disciplines the one He loves and chastises every son whom He receives.”
1 John 1:9: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
See, when we sin, as God’s children, He might put us in the penalty box, but just like a hockey game, we’re not kicked out of the game. We’re not kicked off the team. Our season’s not over. We go in, we serve our time, and then when that clock hits zero, we put the gloves and helmet back on, and we go back out there and skate. It’s just a temporary chastisement because God’s ultimate goal is to get us to love Him, to get us to restore that relationship with Him.
Conclusion
God can do this because of what Jesus did. Jesus, of course, came to our world many years ago—2,000 years ago. In the incarnation, He came to Earth, died the death we deserved, took our penalty on the cross, and through His burial, through His resurrection, He’s purchased not only eternal life for us, but He’s made us right with God, and He’s given us that abundant life.
So we need to ask God for wisdom for when, “Lord, when we’re struggling against You, how should we be?” Let’s not struggle. Let’s not get consequences. But if we do, there’s grace—and how we treat other people, how we treat people in our lives—know that, yes, there might be a time where there’s a consequence, but there’s always restoration, there’s always redemption, because our God is a God of mercy and grace.
No matter how much we struggle against God, He’s going to get us where He wants us to be. If He has to hurt us a little bit, He’s going to do that, but He’s going to redeem us, and He’s going to restore us, because He is that loving Father that we need.
Closing Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You so much for who You are, what You’ve done for us. And as we close our time together today, we thank You for being that God that is so sovereign over our lives. You give us the things we need, and even when we sin and are in rebellion against You, You don’t just let us go. You do things to bring us back into relationship with You. We might wrestle against You. We might struggle against You, and You might put us in time out, but You always bring us back. We thank You for that. We thank You that Your ultimate goal is for us to have a restored relationship with You.
So Lord, as we close our time together today, if there’s one in here that’s never had that relationship with You, they’re still lost and dead in their sins, that today they would turn from those and they would place their faith in You, that You would save them. You would make them right with You. You are the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No man comes to You, except by Jesus Christ.
So Father, that’s my prayer for those. And for those of us that know You, Lord, that find ourselves struggling with Your plan for our lives, wrestling with Your plan for our lives, we would take those energies and use them in a more positive way. You would show us how we can do that individually in our lives, Lord. We thank You for Jesus. We thank You for these things that He gives us, and we ask these things in His name, Amen. Amen.
