Genesis 32:9-12: A Few Tips on Prayer from a Man Named Jacob

"Please deliver me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear him, that he may come and attack me, the mothers with the children. But you said, ‘I will surely do you good, and make your offspring as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.’” Genesis 32:11-12

This morning as we read Genesis 32-34, let us take our magnifying glass and zoom in on Jacob's prayer in verses nine through twelve of chapter thirty-two. In these great verses, we find a great prayer to God from Jacob's lips that can teach us how to pray amidst our struggles as well. However, let us note the context first.

In these chapters, we find Jacob returning to his brother after many years of being away. As we looked at before, Jacob was the great deceiver who had tricked Isaac, his father, into giving him the blessing rather than Esau. Nevertheless, Esau was very angry with Jacob, so he fled from him for a long while that his anger might subside. Amidst his journey, he finds a wife named Rachel and ends up working 14 years in order to obtain her, along with her sister Leah. Both of these wives along with their maidservants bear children to Jacob, and it is now time to go home. After dealing with his father-in-law Laban, Jacob finally starts his journey home, not knowing whether or not his brother will be angry with him anymore.

Thus, as he approaches home, he offers up this great prayer of faith. The prayer starts out in verse nine with Jacob acknowledging God's command to him to return home, followed by Jacob's realization of God's grace upon him, which we looked at in our last devotional. Yet in verses 11-12, we find a great request of faith, asking God to deliver Jacob from his brother, as he is concerned that he might attack and kill him. Nevertheless, Jacob knows the promise of God, and thus clings to it in verse 12: "But you [God] said, 'I will surely do you good...'"

Let us notice the pattern of this prayer. It starts with an address, which then turns to thankfulness, which then turns to an acknowledgment of our own fears and failures, which then turns to a request rooted in a promise of God. This, my dear friends, is the way to pray. Amidst our fears and failures, this is the way in which we find hope. Notice that Jacob did not dismiss his fears in his prayer, but he acknowledged them fully, even as he acknowledges the Lord's mercy in his fears. Oftentimes, we think we need to have perfect obedience before we pray, but if that were the case, what would the point of prayer be? Even in the Lord's prayer, we find a line telling us to confess our sins to God ("forgive us of our debts..."). If we don't come to the Lord confessing our sins, surely we are merely coming out of self-righteousness. Therefore, we ought to come to the Lord confessing our sins just as Jacob did, realizing his mercy, as well as grounding our prayers in the Lord's promises to us. The Lord may have not promised us the same thing he promised to Jacob, but in Christ, he has promised us much, much more that we can rely on (just read Ephesians 1). Amen!

So, how have you prayed lately? Have you confessed your sins amidst your prayer? Have you praised the Lord for your mercy in your prayer? Have you grounded your requests in God's promises amidst your prayer? If not, I encourage you to do so, as we seek to pray like Jacob, and ultimately like Christ.