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Lamp and Light Bible Reading Plan
Welcome to the Lamp and Light Bible Reading Plan where we are seeking to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength with God's Word lighting the way!
Lamp and Light Bible Reading Plan
February 6, 2026 - Genesis 32 & Psalm 28
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In Genesis 32 Jacob returns to Canaan afraid of Esau’s approach, schemes for safety, then meets God in a night of wrestling that leaves him limping and renamed. We connect that encounter to Psalm 28, showing how honest prayer shifts anxiety into trust under a faithful Shepherd.
For more information about Compass Bible Church South Valley, visit compassbiblesv.org. Keep reading. Keep growing. God’s Word is a lamp to your feet, and a light to your path.
Welcome to the Lamp and Light Bible Reading Plan, where we are seeking to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength with God's word lighting the way. I'm Josiah Smith, joined by Tyler Sanborn. Today is Friday, February 6th, 2026. Listen intently to God's written word. Genesis 32. Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him. And when Jacob saw them, he said, This is God's camp. So he called the name of that place Mahanaim. And Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau, his brother in the land of Seir, the country of Edom, instructing them, Thus you shall say to my lord Esau, thus says your servant Jacob, I have sojourned with Laban and stayed until now. I have oxen, donkeys, flocks, male servants, and female servants, I have sent to tell my lord, in order that I may find favor in your sight. And the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, We came to your brother Esau, and he is coming to meet you, and there are four hundred men with him. Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed. He divided the people who were with him, and the flocks in herds and camels into two camps, thinking, If Esau comes to the one camp and attacks it, then the camp that is left will escape. And 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 kindred, that I may do you good. I am not worthy of the least of all the deeds of steadfast love, and all the faithfulness that you have shown to your servant, for with only my staff I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two camps. 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. So he stayed there that night, and from what he had with him he took a present for his brother Esau, two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, thirty milking camels and their calves, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys. These he handed over to his servants, every drove by itself, and said to his servants, Pass on ahead of me and put a space between drove and drove. He instructed the first, When Esau my brother meets you and asked you, To whom do you belong, where are you going? And whose are these ahead of you? Then you shall say, They belong to your servant Jacob. They are a present sent to my lord Esau, and moreover, he is behind us. He likewise instructed the second and the third, and all who followed the droves, you shall say the same thing to Esau when you find him, and you shall say, Moreover, your servant Jacob is behind us. For he thought, I may appease him with the present that goes ahead of me, and afterward I shall see his face. Perhaps he will accept me. So the present passed on ahead of him, and he himself stayed the night in the camp. The same night he arose and took his two wives, his two female servants, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabak. He took them and sent them across the stream and everything else that he had, and Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day. When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched his hip socket, and Jacob's hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. Then he said, Let me go, for the day has broken. But Jacob said, I will not let you go unless you bless me. And he said to him, What is your name? And he said, Jacob. Then he said, Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed. Then Jacob asked him, Please tell me your name. But he said, Why is it that you ask my name? And there he blessed him. So Jacob called the name of that place Piniel, saying, For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered. The sun rose upon him as he passed Pinuel, limping because of his hip. Therefore, to this day to the people of Israel do not eat the sinew of the thigh that is on the hip socket, because he touched the socket of Jacob's hip on the sinew of the thigh.
SPEAKER_00:Psalm twenty-eight. To you, O Lord, I call, my rock. Be not deaf to me, lest if ye be silent to me, I become like those who go down to the pit. Hear the voice of my pleas for mercy, when I cry to you for help, when I lift up my hands toward your most holy sanctuary. Do not drag me off with the wicked, with the workers of evil, who speak peace with their neighbors while evil is in their hearts. Give to them according to their work and according to the evil of their deeds. Give to them according to the work of their hands, render them their due reward. Because they do not char uh regard the works of the Lord or the work of his hands, he will tear them down and build them up no more. Blessed be the Lord, for he has heard the voice of my pleas for mercy. The Lord is my strength and my shield. In him my heart trusts, and I am helped. My heart exalts, and with my song I give thanks to him. The Lord is the strength of his people, he is the saving refuge of his anointed. Oh, save your people and bless your heritage, be their shepherd, and carry them forever.
SPEAKER_02:Tyler, did you ever wrestle when you were in high school? You kind of look like a wrestler. No, whatever that means.
SPEAKER_00:No, I uh I never did. I had some friends that that wore the singlets, and that was enough to turn me away. I said, no, thanks to that. Uh but even today.
SPEAKER_02:Is that distinct from a leotard? I think so. Or are they the same?
SPEAKER_00:No, I yeah, I think I think they're different. Uh but I do have a desire today. If someone were to invite me to go roll around in a jujitsu class, I might, I might go for that.
SPEAKER_02:Wow. Is that a is that a shout to the people listening to shout to the please invite me? Please invite me to the doji.
SPEAKER_01:It's okay.
SPEAKER_02:Well, in Genesis 32, we have a wrestling match, which is so fascinating. I mean, Genesis has given us quite a bit. We've had family drama, uh, we've had uh lots of things in Genesis, but now we have a wrestling match, and it is a wrestling match for the ages in a lot of ways, and there's there's lots to learn from it. And what we see is Jacob, of course, heading back to the promised land, heading back to Canaan as God directed, and God promised to protect him, God has promised to provide for him. That's reiterated here in Genesis 32. Uh, but he comes close and he sends his servants, and who does he find? His brother Esau, who he has done pretty dirty. I'd be I'd be scared. He's terrified. We all remember what happened. Last time last time we saw Esau, what was what was he thinking about?
SPEAKER_01:I'm gonna get that brother of mine.
SPEAKER_02:Murdering Jason. He's done. Now it's been it's been a few years, it's been two decades. Uh there's you know, they say time heals all wounds, which is not really true, but uh so time has passed, maybe Jacob's thinking, maybe he let it go. The the blessing and the uh the inheritance that he stole, maybe he's forgotten. Probably not. Uh, but he's afraid, he's fearful. And so part of what I love, and this is just the humor, uh, maybe the oh, the I don't know, the where he divides the two camps, and he's kind of like, I just I just imagine being in one of those camps, and if you're kind of like, wait a minute, who's which one of us is getting sacrificed? Because what it's like if if he takes out one of one of the camps and the other can escape. It's like Jacob's playing risk out here with his own kind with his own people. Literally says in verse 8, you know, he divides his camels into two camps and all of his his family thinking if Esau comes to the one camp and attacks it, then the camp that is left will escape. It's just you know, I would I would hate to be the one that that got attacked, the falling on the sword, so to speak. But anyways, we we have uh just uh a great a great chapter that focuses on in a lot of ways anxiety, uh wrestling, and blessing from the Lord. And what's so fascinating is that Jacob clearly he's overwhelmed. He is even yesterday, we talked about how fear is something that we should seek to to push out of our hearts because a heart that is fearful is a heart that is gripped with doubt. And in a sense, that's where Jacob's at, where he's doubting that when God said he was gonna protect him, that God said he was gonna lead him to uh the promised land, the land that was included in the Abrahamic covenant, um, he's doubting if that's actually gonna happen because Esau's gonna, he's gonna snuff him out. He's gonna harm him and his family and his wives and his children. And so we see fear, we see anxiety. Uh, but what's interesting about the the wrestling and the anxiety that that Jacob has is actually that the wrestling that he does, and ultimately we know that though that the individual in this text that he's wrestling with is God, the wrestling actually pulls Jacob out of his anxiety and puts his focus on God. And what a what a great example for us that so often in our life, when we're overwhelmed with fear, when we're overwhelmed with uncertainty or anxiety, the temptation, Tyler, is where do we look?
SPEAKER_00:How am I gonna get myself out of this?
SPEAKER_02:We look internally, right? It's all the the the gaze of our eyes, even the eyes of our hearts, they shift inward, and we we we just start pacing and we start running scenarios in our head. Well, if this happens, then this, or if that happens, or what if this happens? And we we just get so inwardly focused, and that's where Jacob was. He was wrestling, he couldn't sleep. Uh, he had anxiety, he had fear, and actually the wrestling that that God initiated with him pulls him out of that state and actually puts his gaze on God himself. And so I just thought about in the even the Psalms where the question, I believe it's Psalm 121, the question that says, Where does your help come from? You know, lift up your head, lift up your eyes. Where does your help come from? Your help comes from the Lord, uh, the maker of heaven and earth. And so I think in those seasons of anxiety, of fear, of uncertainty, take your eyes off of yourself, off of your circumstances, and lift them to the Lord. And I think that's one of the lessons that we learn here uh from Jacob ultimately wrestling with God.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I think the the one of the main features and one of the main focuses that we can look at to a text like this is the identity of man and who God is calling Jacob. At the end of this chapter, we see Jacob calling uh God calling Jacob, you're no longer Jacob. You now you're Israel. And uh we look we look a little to the left in our Bibles, Abram. You know, you're you're no longer Abram, you're Abraham. And and these promises that I give to you are attached to your name. And I'm gonna give you your new name. And that's an encouragement for us. Like we're we're no longer as Christians, we're no longer enemies of the throne of God, we're sons and daughters of the king, and that that identity comes with a promise. If we're a son and a daughter of the king, we we have promises that are are connected to that to that heritage, connected to that lineage of Christ. And that's um, that is a huge encouragement for us.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, and the name change here in Genesis 32 is is associated actually with faith. It talks about in the the chapter that when when God is renaming him in verse 28, then he said, Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men and have prevailed. Uh, and even in my my Bible, the footnotes says, Israel means he strives with God, um, or God strives. And so uh the there is this um faith exemplified and demonstrated by Jacob that God uh initiates this name change to kind of be uh an example of that faith, and even as a for for Jacob to recall this moment in his life moving forward and his name being associated with that. Now, I was reading an article on uh Desiring God uh about this passage, and I thought this quote was uh both somewhat humorous, but also uh helpful just to summarize what we see. Uh but the article says, remember, God pursued Jacob for this match. It was God who was the initiator. Jacob was stewing in his own anxiety over Esau and his approaching, they said, slaughter squad when God showed up. And the wrestling drew Jacob out of his fearful preoccupation and forced him to focus on God. I think that's a great way of just kind of summarizing what we're seeing here. The gaze of Jacob was pulled to the Lord, and as a result, he he actually becomes a new man in a lot of ways. He is given a new name, he's got a new confidence, and there's this sense of uh God is with me. Even the reaffirmation of that promise uh from the time that Jacob laid his head on the stone and had that dream where God said he was going to be with him, that God said he was gonna provide for him. This is another just re-upping in Jacob's heart of the truthfulness of that. And he walks out with a greater sense of confidence again and a greater sense of faith in the Lord. And so, what a great thing for us in the midst of our anxiety, in the midst of our fears, look to the Lord. Look to uh the one who is the maker of heaven and earth. Where does your help come from? And that's really the question that we often ask in the midst of these kinds of circumstances is where am I gonna find help? And the scriptures say uh help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth. And I think that's what Jacob is experiencing here in Genesis 32.
SPEAKER_00:To make this connection and a transition to Psalm 28 this morning, uh this psalm concludes Pastor Josiah uh reading, the Lord is a strength of his people, he is the saving refuge of his anointed. We don't need to look in, like you were saying, we don't need to look. Nothing there. How am I going to do this under my strength, under my um, my ingenuity, my uh cleverness? I don't know. We see in verse 9, oh, save your people and bless your heritage, be their shepherd and carry them, carry them forever. And uh I love the imagery of of agriculture, the imagery of of shepherds, and the this the the real physical responsibility of of a shepherd, a demanding job. Um you're on your feet day in, day out, you're hiking, you're fighting off wild animals, and you you're protecting. So there's a lot of facets to this to this role and responsibility as a shepherd. And um we see God here being the shepherd of Israel, being the shepherd of his people. And I I love this imagery of uh of caring, caring. God is God is nurturing, God is is taking the ownership uh of maturation, of maturity. He's delivering his people from one point to another and carrying them along, um, and giving giving them what they need all along the way.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. And if I could connect Genesis 32 and uh the idea of wrestling that we see Jacob uh undergoing with God to the reading today in Psalm 28, uh, I want you to think of Psalm 28 specifically, but also just Psalms more broadly as wrestling, as wrestling psalms. Um look to the Psalms for how to wrestle with God. And I think this is actually kind of a theme that we see throughout the scriptures where uh God pulls us into these wrestling matches and uh he does it for our good, he does it to to bless us, he does it uh to uh grow our faith. And I think the psalms are wrestling psalms. I mean, how to do you describe David just constantly being like, Where are you, Lord? Uh my my eyes grow dim, my throat is parched, right? All these things.
SPEAKER_00:David is David's this warrior figure, he's this warrior king. Yeah. I think a lot of the a lot of the battles were internal for this guy. Yeah, he's in his own thoughts and his own feelings and just going going to work, wrestling with these these thoughts and these realities that he's pouring out.
SPEAKER_02:And psalm after psalm written by David is a wrestling match between him and the Lord. But often, so often, what do we see even within the same psalm, even within Psalm 28, there's the blessing of remembering who God is that is sharpened and becomes clearer through the process of wrestling with the Lord. And so wrestling in that sense, you know, asking the tough questions, asking God where he is, asking God when he will provide is not out of bounds for the Christian. I mean, we're it'd be hard to say that because all the psalms, we'd have to take them out of our Bible because David's always asking those questions. Where are you, Lord? Well, how long do I need to wait? Uh even he that's uh sometimes he's like, Have you abandoned me? And so that that kind of wrestling we see all throughout the Psalms. And I think that's actually a pivotal part of the Christian life is this sense of uh we're we're navigating, living in a fallen world, or we're walking through the valley of the shadow of death, and we're gonna wrestle with that. We're gonna our flesh at times is is gonna want to complain or accuse God or others. And I think Psalms is is a healthy way to wrestle. And I want you to look at the book of Psalms as you think about what it looks like to wrestle in your life, or if you're in a season of discouragement right now, and you just you and the Lord in your prayer life, you're you're kind of raw and you're you're honest and vulnerable. Look to the Psalms as a template to what it looks like to wrestle with God and trust that in that process, just like Jacob, he is blessed by the Lord. Uh, you will also be blessed by him. He will reveal himself, he will prove his character. And that wrestling, I think, is actually so pivotal in the process of uh just growth in a Christian life uh in general.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I I love the the resolve, these wrestlings with the Lord. David's pouring out his heart, he's asking questions that he has the answer to, but he's acknowledging how he's feeling, he's acknowledging his circumstances, and as a result, he's pouring out worship, he's pouring out praise. He's David's saying, My heart exalts. I'm gonna I'm gonna sing a song to thank the Lord for how you have faithfully walked with me. You've never left me, you've always been leading, and you've heard my cries, you've heard my pleas, and and it my strength is in you. Where else am I gonna go? He's he's saying, My strength is not in myself, my strength is not in my training, and not not in my my skill set. My strength and my my coverage is in the Lord. And I'm I'm encouraged in that because I I can find myself um impatient with my with where I am, impatient with um the way that I I'm growing or the way that I'm trying to accomplish certain goals. And um the phrase trust the process comes to mind. It's a sports uh phrase, or it's it's not about results, results, results every day. It's what where is the ultimate goal? Where are you wanting to go and how are you gonna get there? We're gonna trust the process that God has us on. He's gonna take care of the growth and the maturity. We need to continue to stay steadfast day in, day out, following him, pouring out our heart to him and remembering his promises.
SPEAKER_02:Absolutely. So look to Genesis 32 and the Psalms as a whole for how to wrestle well and expect in that process of wrestling that God will bless you and that he will increase and grow your faith as a result. Well, thanks for joining us today on the Lamp and Light Bible Reading Podcast. For more information about Compass Bible Church South Valley, visit compass bible sv.org. Keep reading, keep growing. God's word is a lamp to your feet and a light to your path.