When Fear Comes

Good morning! My name is Matt Martinez and I am the pastor here at Renovation Church Shoreview.

The journalist Eric Sevareid wrote, “the biggest business in America is not steel, cars, or media. It is the manufacture, refinement, and distribution of anxiety.” The human experience of fear is universal. It fuels politics, our decision-making and pays the bills for news outlets. The American Psychological Association in 2022 said that 1 in 3 adults are habitually anxious and/or fearful. Maybe you are one of those people.

We worry about our bills. We worry about our health. We worry about our kids. Our closest relationships can create anxiety. And with the state of the world, the future can be more fearful than hopeful. We even get fearful of being fearful and try to avoid being fearful…which is being fearful.

When fear overcomes, the good news is that Jesus offers help.

Please turn in your Bibles to Genesis 32:1-21. If you are using the Renovation Church Bibles under your chairs, our passage today is on page 23.

This summer, we have been studying the life of a person in the Bible named Jacob. God had made a promise before

Jacob was born to bless him, to grow his family into a strong and powerful nation, and his family would be an example of God to the rest of the world.

But even with this promise, Jacob still tried to get things his own way. He still schemed and strategized how to get ahead of others in his life. One of those people he deceived was his brother Esau. The deception and betrayal was so great that when Jacob’s brother Esau found out about it, he vowed that when he saw Jacob next, he would kill him.

Jacob ran and left the country for over 20 years, but now God has instructed him to go back home. Let’s pick up the story now, we will start reading on page 23 where you see the big number 32.

32 Jacob also went on his way, and the angels of God met him. 2 When Jacob saw them, he said, “This is the camp of God!” So he named that place Mahanaim.

3 Jacob sent messengers ahead of him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom. 4 He instructed them: “This is what you are to say to my lord Esau: ‘Your servant Jacob says, I have been staying with Laban and have remained there till now. 5 I have cattle and donkeys, sheep and goats, male and female servants. Now I am sending this message to my lord, that I may find favor in your eyes.’”

6 When the messengers returned to Jacob, they said, “We went to your brother Esau, and now he is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him.”

7 In great fear and distress Jacob divided the people who were with him into two groups, and the flocks and herds and camels as well. 8 He thought, “If Esau comes and attacks one group, the group that is left may escape.”

9 Then Jacob prayed, “O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, Lord, you who said to me, ‘Go back to your country and your relatives, and I will make you prosper,’ 10 I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness you have shown your servant. I had only my staff when I crossed this Jordan, but now I have become two camps. 11 Save me, I pray, from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid he will come and attack me, and also the mothers with their children. 12 But you have said, ‘I will surely make you prosper and will make your descendants like the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted.’”

Jacob was led by God back to his homeland, and now he discovers that his brother Esau is coming to meet him with 400 men. Jacob remembers Esau's promise to kill him many years ago, and verse 7 says he was filled with great fear and distress.

That's understandable. But notice something: nothing has actually happened yet. Fear has already convinced Jacob of the worst.

Fear has a way of doing that. It makes us fearful of the future and it reminds us of our past. Old failures, guilt, and shame. Jacob is wondering if his past with Esau has finally caught up with him.

This passage shows us that when fear comes, we have a role to play, and God has a role to play. Let's start with ours.

Our role:

• Pray

We read an incredible prayer from Jacob in verses 9–12. This is the first time we read Jacob initiating a conversation with God. He's desperate and afraid, but instead of relying on his own ability, his own strategy, or another scheme, he turns to God.

When we're facing fear or conflict, we have a choice. We can run around trying to control everything, or we can stop and pray. Which one do you believe is actually going to help?

A few months ago, a great story came out about a concert performance in Sydney, Australia. The orchestra was playing the score to the movie La La Land. During the first

part of the concert, the keyboardist got incredibly sick. So much so that during the intermission, he couldn’t play for the second part. The conductor got desperate; asking around if people could sight read the music, if they had any relatives that could drive there in time to play the rest of the show. The keyboard was crucial in the next part of the concert because many songs featured a skilled piano player. No one could fill in or get there in time, and things got really tense and desperate. They kept pushing back the time they would come back from intermission for fear that they could not continue the performance. And with one final act of desperation, the conductor came out onstage and made a plea to the 2500 people in attendance, asking if anyone could play.

A person in the crowd raised her hand and volunteered her friend, 21 year old Sterling Nasa. Having never played the score before, Nasa came on stage and sight-read the entire rest of the concert, playing incredibly complex songs, and even an improvised solo. Finishing the concert, he received a standing ovation.

When encountering fear, we often do what they started to do in Sydney. We can desperately obsess over what can go wrong, lose countless hours of sleep and forego reading our Bibles. The fears we have could be legitimate but we are neglecting the spiritual, emotional, and relational resources available to us. The conductor and orchestra had resources available to them. They just had to reach out to the right person.

Prayer is reaching out to the right Person.

Notice how Jacob prays in verses 9-12.

First, he starts with humility. "God, I don't deserve all You've done for me."

Then he honestly tells God exactly what he's afraid of.

And finally, he reminds God—and himself—of God's promises. "But You said..."

That's a great pattern for us. "God, this is what I feel... but this is what You said."

Jacob has begun to change. Earlier in his life he bargained with God. Now he's grateful for God's blessings, honest about his fears, and anchored in God's promises. He's asking God to come through because God has been faithful before.

God is available to you always, don’t let Him be your last resort. Go to Him first in prayer. That’s the first part of our role, let’s read about the second part in verses 13-21 of our passage.

13 He spent the night there, and from what he had with him he selected a gift for his brother Esau: 14 two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, 15 thirty female camels with their

young, forty cows and ten bulls, and twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys. 16 He put them in the care of his servants, each herd by itself, and said to his servants, “Go ahead of me, and keep some space between the herds.”

17 He instructed the one in the lead: “When my brother Esau meets you and asks, ‘Who do you belong to, and where are you going, and who owns all these animals in front of you?’ 18 then you are to say, ‘They belong to your servant Jacob. They are a gift sent to my lord Esau, and he is coming behind us.’”

19 He also instructed the second, the third and all the others who followed the herds: “You are to say the same thing to Esau when you meet him. 20 And be sure to say, ‘Your servant Jacob is coming behind us.’” For he thought, “I will pacify him with these gifts I am sending on ahead; later, when I see him, perhaps he will receive me.” 21 So Jacob’s gifts went on ahead of him, but he himself spent the night in the camp.

The second part of our role when fear overcomes us is to:

• Use wisdom

It's hard to have wisdom when we're worried about our relationships, our jobs, our health, or our future. One question I've been trying to ask myself in those moments is: What would a wise person do if they were in my situation?

Biblical wisdom isn't just making the smartest plan. It's responding in a way that trusts God.

For Jacob, wisdom starts with a plan. He wants to protect his family, so he divides the camp. He sends gifts and servants ahead to Esau. Jacob is the one who initiates the interaction.

That's a very different Jacob than the one we've been reading about. His whole life has been about taking. Taking the birthright. Taking the blessing. Taking every opportunity he could get. But now, for the first time, he's offering instead of taking. He's trying to be wise.

Jacob is on his way home because God told him to go. He could have stayed safely in the north near Bethel, where God had met with him. Instead, he heads south toward Seir—toward Esau. Toward his past. He doesn't avoid what's hard just because it's scary or uncomfortable.

I also want to talk about the extravagant gift Jacob sent ahead. The idea that a gift can turn away anger is actually deeply biblical. It's one of the pictures Scripture uses to describe the cross. Jesus, through His sacrificial death, turned away the wrath of God. Even Proverbs says that a gift can open doors in a relationship.

So Jacob's plan isn't the problem. But something is still missing.

Jacob is putting his confidence in the plan instead of in God.

He's trying to make up for years of deception with a big gift and some humble words. But no amount of goats could undo what he had done. The issue between Jacob and Esau wasn't a lack of livestock. It was a broken relationship.

And we do the same thing.

We all have our own goats.

We think, Maybe if I work harder... apologize one more time... prove myself... keep everyone happy... then everything will be okay.

We keep trying to manage the outcome.

But what Jacob hadn't surrendered—at least not yet—was himself. He sent the gifts, but stayed back himself. He would surrender the goats before he surrendered control. He trusted his strategy more than he trusted God's promise.

A wise plan is a good thing. God often uses wise plans. But a wise plan was never meant to replace dependence on God.

That's biblical wisdom. It's not just making the smartest plan. It's responding in a way that trusts God.

With this in mind, let's rewind all the way back to the first two verses of this chapter. Before Jacob heard Esau was coming. Before the fear. Before the planning. Before the gifts. Before Jacob did anything, God had already done something. Look at verse 1.

32 Jacob also went on his way, and the angels of God met him. 2 When Jacob saw them, he said, “This is the camp of God!” So he named that place Mahanaim.

When fear overcomes us, God also plays a role.

God’s role:

• Presence

God speaks to Jacob, and Jacob goes. And as he goes, God’s angels show up — a visible sign that God was with him. Jacob names the place Mahanaim, which means "two camps." God's camp and Jacob's camp, together.

Mahanaim was a name Jacob picked to describe this moment. But Mahanaim became a place people went to find deliverance. In the book of Joshua, it became a city where someone guilty of manslaughter could flee and be protected. And later it became a place Jacob’s descendent King David later fled to for deliverance from his enemies. Jacob named a place after God's presence, and that place became where others experienced safety and redemption generations later.

Charles Spurgeon once said that when we separate ourselves from worldly pursuits and pursue Christ, our eyes are opened to the presence of God.

Our gaze is usually fixed on other things — our fear, our plans, our next move — and so we can't see him. But when we set that down, even for a moment, we don't find a God who just arrived. We find the God who never left.

Think back to that concert in Sydney. The person who saved the second half of the show wasn't rushed in once the crisis hit. He had been sitting in the crowd the whole time — present all along, long before anyone knew he'd be needed. That's Mahanaim. God doesn't scramble an emergency response the moment Jacob's fear shows up. The camp of angels was already there. The presence of God came first. The fear came later. It's always in that order with God, even when we can't see it that way in the moment.

So when fear shows up in your life this week — in that diagnosis, that conversation, that inbox, you don’t need to ask God to show up. Ask him to open your eyes to the help that's already there. You're not waiting for Mahanaim. You're standing in it.

Presence isn't the only thing God gives Jacob at this moment. He also gives him something to stand on — a promise.

• Promise

Maybe you noticed this: Jacob prays an honest, heartfelt prayer... and God never answers.

Why? Because Jacob already had God's word.

Sometimes we want God to give us a new promise, when he's asking us to trust the one he's already given. God hadn't abandoned Jacob. God hadn't changed his mind. Jacob hadn't failed one too many times, so now God won’t talk to him. God had already spoken.

The question wasn't whether God would say something new. The question was whether Jacob would believe what God had already promised.

Despite his fear, Jacob prays. He makes wise plans. He doesn't know whether Esau is coming in peace or in war, but he keeps walking in the direction God told him to go.

There are moments in our lives when that's exactly what faith looks like — not a new word from God, but obedience to the one he already gave. Maybe it's a verse you memorized years ago and haven't actually leaned on since. Maybe it's a promise God made clear to you in a season when things were easier, and now that season's gone, so you've quietly stopped believing it's still true. Maybe God isn't waiting to say something new to you. Maybe He’s waiting to see if you'll walk in what he already said.

Conclusion

When the fear of life overcomes you and you're unsure what to do, praying a prayer like Jacob's is a great place to start. After that, when you're trying to figure out what to wisely do, go back to the last thing you felt God said to you. Remind yourself of it. Keep walking in that direction. Keep seeking the Lord in the process.

If you haven't heard from the Lord yet, it's time to start praying and listening and remembering.

But even Jacob's best praying, his best planning, his best obedience — none of it gets him all the way there. Remember all the stuff he sent ahead, hoping they'd be enough to cover what he owed Esau? They weren't. They never could be. That's not how forgiveness works, on earth or in heaven. What Jacob needed wasn't a bigger gift. He needed a mediator — someone to actually stand in the gap between him and the brother he'd wronged.

That's exactly what Jesus does for us, except the distance he crosses is infinitely greater. We don't come to God with livestock, hoping it's enough. We come empty-handed, and Jesus himself becomes the gift — his own sacrifice absorbing the punishment for our sin we deserved.

We don't have to bargain, appease, or perform our way back into God's presence. Jacob spent that night alone, still unsure if he'd be received by Esau. You don't have to. Because of Jesus, you already are.