Dear Christian friends:

In the Old Testament their are many types of Christ. A few weeks ago we saw how the brazen serpent which Moses hung on a pole was a type of Christ crucified. In our text today we have a type or hint of Christ's great Easter victory. Our text tells of Jacob's sunrise victory. As Jacob won His wrestle with God at sunrise so Jesus won His Easter victory at Sunrise.

It is not easy for us to believe Christ's Easter victory. We by nature doubt and cannot believe such strange and wonderful preaching. We are like the disciples and Thomas in the gospel lesson which we just read. So we need all the proof we can get from God's Word. Last Sunday we saw how David sang of Christ's Easter victory 1,000 years before it happened. Our text today which is a type of Christ's Easter Victory happened 1,700 years before Christ.

These prophecies and hints of Christ's Easter victory in the Old Testament give our doubting hearts extra assurance and proof. So let us attend to:


We see many points in these two events the same if we compare the two: Same, same, same, same, same, same.

But first let us review this very strange and interesting event. Jacob had a sin problem. Jacob's sin was his own fault because he deceived his father Isaac and his brother Esau to get the best blessing. God had promised the best blessing to Jacob. But Isaac wanted to give that to Esau. He told Esau to go shoot a deer and then cook him some nice deer meat that he loved. After eating he promised to bless Esau with the great blessing.

While Esau was out hunting Rebekah told Jacob to hurry and kill a goat, which Jacob did. Then she cooked it and put the goat skins on Jacob's arms and put on Esau's clothes and sent Jacob in with the dinner to Isaac. Now Isaac was almost blind. He thought Jacob was Esau and gave Jacob the great blessing. The great blessing was that he would be the Father of the Jewish nation from which Christ the promised Savior should be born.

When Esau heard that Jacob had deceived him he was very angry and swore to kill Jacob. So Jacob fled to his uncle Laban far away and stayed there twenty-one years. God blessed him there with many cattle, wives and children. Then God told him to go home again and He would go with him.

On the way home Jacob remembers his sin against Esau and hears that Esau comes with four-hundred soldiers to meet him. Now his conscience troubles him and blames him. He doubts if God will stay with him and save him from Esau. That night he is troubled and cannot sleep. He gets up and sends his wife and servants and eleven children across the brook nearer to Esau. By this he is trusting only in God to save him from Esau.

Then we read a strange thing. While Jacob stands alone on the other side of the brook a strange man comes to wrestle with him and they wrestle until sunrise. The stranger cannot conquer Jacob, so he touches his thigh and the thigh bone slips our of the joint. The strange man is the Son of God wrestling with Jacob.

The Son of God says, "Let me go for the sun rises." But Jacob says, "I will not let you go, except you bless me." So the Son of God blessed him and assured him that God will go with him and protect him from Esau's wrath and that the great blessing of the promised Savior would stay with him and his children. As Jacob came across the brook to join his family the sun rose and he limped upon his thigh. Later that day Jacob and Esau met and embraced and kissed each other.

Jacob's sunrise victory is much like Christ's Easter sunrise victory. Both Jacob and Christ had a sin problem. Jacob's sin was his own fault. But Christ's sin problem was not His fault, but ours. Isaiah says, "Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows." Paul says, "He was made sin for us." And Jesus felt our sin and shame as if that were His own.

David prophesied of His terrible sin suffering saying, "Innumerable evils have compassed me about; mine iniquities have taken hold upon me so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of mine head: therefore my heart faileth me." (Psalm 40:12)

Both Jacob and Jesus wrestled and fought with God. First it appears that Jacob's fight and trouble is with Esau, but it is not. His chief sin was against God and with God He must deal cry, pray and beg. Once Jacob makes peace with God; he is easily makes peace with his brother Esau.

Their is a good lesson in that for you and me too. If we truly make peace with God, then we will have no problem or trouble making peace with our brother. If you can't make peace with your brother it is because you have not yet really made peace with God.

Jesus' fight also seemed to be with men: The chief priests, Jewish teaches and judges and others. But men were not His chief opponents God was. God was against Him and God punished Him because He carried all our sins. That's why out stretched on the cross Jesus suffers as the forsaken in hell, saying, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?"

Both Jacob and Christ won the great blessing of God by their fight and victory. The Son of God did not refuse to bless Jacob as the sun rose and so God did not leave Jesus in the grave, but let Him rise with glory and power that first Easter while the sun rose. Jacob won peace with God and peace with his brother in the great blessing. So Jesus by His suffering, crying and death won peace with God for you and me and all people.

Both Jacob and Jesus were hurt in their bodies. The man who wrestled with Jacob touched his thigh and it slipped our of the joint and Jacob limped always after that. So God let Jesus's body get hurt or marked: the nail prints in His hands and feet, and the sword scar in His side. Thomas after he saw them believed.

So you see we have a hint of Easter in Genesis the first book of the Bible. Truly the deaf have a perfect sign for the Bible, the Jesus-Book. All the Old Testament hints and prophecies of Jesus and His great Easter Victory for our salvation and the New Testament shows how that happened exactly in Christ.

Jesus did rise from death. He is our mighty Savior. We have forgiveness of sins and we too shall rise and live forever. It is true, do not doubt.

Amen.