God Still Speaks – Va’Yishlach – Dec. 17

Can a person really hear from God?

Living in Jerusalem, I regularly hear people explain how they have heard the Lord speak to them. Some people have proven that they have truly heard from God while others have proven just the opposite, as the word which they claimed was from the Lord was shown to be false. I have more often witnessed prophetic chaos than true prophetic words from God. Despite this plethora of prophetic words which have proven to be false, I believe that God still speaks to His people today.

Discerning God’s voice amidst the noise of this world is very challenging and it is easy to miss God’s voice or to question His leading in our life. We may ask ourselves, Did I really hear God correctly? Did God really tell me to do this? If I really heard from God, where is He now that I need Him? These are good questions to ask and we need to be certain that we have heard God correctly. In this week’s Torah Portion we read of an example in Jacob’s life when he struggled to believe the words which God had spoken to him.

Watch a short overview of this week’s teaching!

Jacob’s Return Home

After twenty years of living in Haran, the LORD spoke to Jacob and told him that it was time to leave Haran and make the journey back to Canaan: “Then the LORD said to Jacob, ‘Return to the land of your fathers and to your relatives, and I will be with you.’” (Gen 31:3) Jacob arrived in Haran as a single man and left with two wives, two maid-servants, and eleven sons along with flocks and herds in great numbers.

As Jacob approached his homeland, he sent word by messengers to his twin brother, Esau, hoping to find him amicable after many years of separation. Instead of a welcome home party, however, it seemed that Esau had other plans for his brother:

The messengers returned to Jacob, saying, “We came to your brother Esau, and furthermore he is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him.” Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed; and he divided the people who were with him, and the flocks and the herds and the camels, into two companies; for he said, “If Esau comes to the one company and attacks it, then the company which is left will escape.” – Gen. 32:6-8

Jacob feared for his family as he heard the news of Esau’s coming with four hundred men. Jacob was afraid and began to act in survival mode.

Jacob’s “Crisis of Faith”

Jacob had left his homeland twenty years earlier after having purchased his brother’s birthright and having stolen the blessing of the firstborn. Esau vowed to kill Jacob after their father was dead and upon hearing this their mother sent Jacob to her homeland in order to protect him. Jacob had hoped that the twenty years which had passed had made his brother forget about his vow but it didn’t appear that way. Jacob was afraid and he was trying to make sense of this situation with all of the specific words that God had given him.

Whenever real life situations start to play out in a way that is contrary to how we expect in our life, we begin to wonder if we are really on the right path. When we believe that God has specifically spoken to us regarding certain situations in life and then we are met with opposing forces to these very words which God has spoken, we stop and wonder if we really heard Him correctly. It is at times like this that we will be tested and must stand firm in what we know to be clear revelation from God. This is exactly where Jacob found himself at that particular point in his life.

Jacob’s Prayer

God had clearly been with Jacob on his journey to Haran and God was clearly leading him to return, however, the situation that Jacob was facing with his brother seemed to present a clear and present danger to him and his family. In response to the unknown scenario that lay before him regarding his brother Esau, Jacob immediately prayed to God:

Jacob said, “O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O LORD, who said to me, ‘Return to your country and to your relatives, and I will prosper you,’ I am unworthy of all the lovingkindness and of all the faithfulness which You have shown to Your servant; for with my staff only I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two companies. Deliver me, I pray, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau; for I fear him, that he will come and attack me and the mothers with the children. For You said, ‘I will surely prosper you and make your descendants as the sand of the sea, which is too great to be numbered.’” – Gen. 32:9-12

Jacob poured out his heart to God in this prayer and explained to God exactly how he was feeling. This prayer of Jacob is simple and yet bold and full of faith. It is worth looking at in more detail.

Knowing God by Name

Jacob began his prayer by acknowledging God for who He was to him at that time, the God of his fathers; the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac. Jacob also used the name of God, “יהוה.” We generally do not pronounce this name in Hebrew as we do not know exactly how to pronunciation it today, so in place of the Name we say, “Adonai” which means “LORD.”

Jacob knew that his father and grandfather had a living relationship with God and Jacob had also come to know God in this way. Jacob prayed to the God of his fathers, to Adonai who had also become his God.

Approaching God in Humility

The tone of Jacob’s prayer was not in arrogance but with complete humility. We read in this prayer of Jacob the following words: “I am unworthy of all the lovingkindness and of all the faithfulness which You have shown to Your servant;” The word that Jacob used for the phrase “I am unworthy” in Hebrew is “קטונתי” – “katonti” which comes from the word “קטן” – “katan” meaning “small” or “insignificant.”

Jacob humbly admitted to the God of all creation that he felt small, insignificant, and unworthy of all of the lovingkindness and faithfulness that God had so clearly shown to him by establishing him as a family and giving him great wealth. Jacob knew that he didn’t deserve anything, however, he was grateful.

Making Petitions to God

After setting a proper foundation of who he was before Almightly God, Jacob openly petitioned God to come to His aid and deliver him from his brother Esau. Jacob was honest about the fear that he had regarding his brother Esau and knew that God alone could help him. Jacob had experienced the providential hand of God in his life over the past twenty years and he had just witnessed the deliverance that God provided from his father-in-law, Laban (Gen. 31). Jacob was now crying out to God to come to his aid against Esau.

Declaring God’s Revealed Word

Twice in this prayer, in both the beginning and the end, Jacob reminded God of the words which He had spoken to him. God had told Jacob to return to the land of his birth and God had also promised to bless Jacob and to make him into a great nation. Jacob knew what God had told Him and he was asking God to fulfill His promised word to him. In his honesty and humility, Jacob poured out his heart to God and stood on the clear revelation that God had given him over the years. Jacob’s prayer was centered on God’s revealed word to him.

This prayer of Jacob should challenge each one of us to know God intimately, to listen for His voice, and to walk boldly in His revealed word to us. The Bible is God’s written word to us and we need to know it, live it, and defend it. We also walk with God in a living faith: we make requests of Him and we obey Him as He leads us. We must clearly discern His voice and hold fast to that which He speaks to us through His Word, by His Holy Spirit, as well as through other people and through situations in life.

Prophecy with Discernment

While pursuing and believing in the prophetic word of God we need to beware that there is always a danger in missing what God is trying to communicate to us. While keeping this mind, we must do all that we can in order to guard against false prophecies and strange teachings just as Paul taught in his letter to the believers at Thessaloniki:

Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Yeshua the Messiah. Do not quench the Spirit; do not despise prophetic utterances. But examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good; abstain from every form of evil. – 1 Thessalonians 5:16-22

In our life of faith we must make room for the prophetic, but as Paul has warned; we must examine every word carefully, holding on to that which is good and abstaining from every form of evil.

Jacob’s example in this week’s Torah Portion of walking with God, praying to God, and confidently pursuing the revealed word that he had received should inspire each one of us to continually seek God and expect Him to answer. God answered Jacob’s prayer that day in a unique way as recorded in this week’s reading. Jacob presented a gift to Esau which overwhelmed him and his brother’s anger was broken (Gen. 33). God is always faithful to his word to us.

Discerning God’s Voice Today

I want to conclude this week’s study with an example of how God has recently spoken to me. I’m currently planning a trip to Australia and as I was looking at various flights to my final destination, Brisbane, I noticed a flight with an overnight layover in Perth, Australia. The layover is on a Friday evening and I thought it would be worth checking to see if any of my Australian contacts would be interested in having me come to Perth in order to lead a Sabbath celebration on that particular date. I sent out a couple of emails and began to pray about possibly spending some time in Perth and leading a Sabbath celebration there.

Within a day or so of praying about this Perth layover option I was watching something on the news and the news anchor mentioned Perth, Australia in an example that he was giving. I don’t believe that I’ve ever heard Perth mentioned in the news or anywhere else before for as long as I can remember. I immediately started to wonder if God was speaking to me about going to Perth and after some consideration I took it as a sign that God was confirming to me that He wanted me to visit Perth. Over the next several days I was waiting in expectation for someone to reply to my emails about going to Perth.

After several days of praying and waiting without receiving an email, I began to wonder if God had really spoken to me about Perth. I believed in my heart that God had clearly spoken to me and that He was guiding me to buy a ticket with the layover in Perth but there was no human confirmation of this. There was just an answer to my prayer through a news anchor who knew nothing of my situation. Had God really spoken to me or not?

Although I whole heartedly believed that God had confirmed His answer to my prayer request, I bought my ticket to Brisbane, Australia without the layover in Perth. After purchasing my ticket I was struggling to understand why I thought that I had heard God so clearly without receiving any confirmation. Then it happened! Three days after I had bought my ticket I received an email from an acquaintance in Perth informing me that they would like me to come to Perth and that they would organize a group of 30-40 people for a Sabbath celebration.

God had truly spoken to me and He had confirmed His plans concerning Perth before I received the email but I struggled to walk in faith in what I was hearing. God’s guidance in life will not alway make sense in the natural. We often need to take steps of faith and see God’s plans come together in His timing not ours. It was at this point that I failed to take a step of faith. Thankfully, however, I was able to change my ticket to fly through Perth and I’m now going forward with God’s plans.

I share this story from my own life to show that I’m not perfect and that I’m still learning to hear from God. We must be willing to make mistakes along the way but most importantly, we must learn to expect God to answer our requests and to walk in obedience when He speaks to us. God desires to reveal Himself to us and to guide us on this journey of life and this will often require us to step out in faith and to take Him at His word. God still speaks!

Shabbat Shalom!

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Torah Portion: Gen. 33:3 – Gen. 36:43

Haftara:  Obadiah 1:1-21  

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