[Today: Genesis 33] . In this chapter after wrestling with the Lord at the brook Jabbok Jacob is met by Esau and four hundred men. How Jacob handles himself in the matter with Esau reveals his changed nature. He is not the conniving trickster any longer. He has wrestled with the Lord and had a name change and a heart change as well.
[Gen 33:1-20 KJV] 1 And Jacob lifted up his eyes, and looked, and, behold, Esau came, and with him four hundred men. And he divided the children unto Leah, and unto Rachel, and unto the two handmaids. 2 And he put the handmaids and their children foremost, and Leah and her children after, and Rachel and Joseph hindermost. 3 And he passed over before them, and bowed himself to the ground seven times, until he came near to his brother. 4 And Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck, and kissed him: and they wept. 5 And he lifted up his eyes, and saw the women and the children; and said, Who [are] those with thee? And he said, The children which God hath graciously given thy servant. 6 Then the handmaidens came near, they and their children, and they bowed themselves. 7 And Leah also with her children came near, and bowed themselves: and after came Joseph near and Rachel, and they bowed themselves. 8 And he said, What [meanest] thou by all this drove which I met? And he said, [These are] to find grace in the sight of my lord. 9 And Esau said, I have enough, my brother; keep that thou hast unto thyself. 10 And Jacob said, Nay, I pray thee, if now I have found grace in thy sight, then receive my present at my hand: for therefore I have seen thy face, as though I had seen the face of God, and thou wast pleased with me. 11 Take, I pray thee, my blessing that is brought to thee; because God hath dealt graciously with me, and because I have enough. And he urged him, and he took [it]. 12 And he said, Let us take our journey, and let us go, and I will go before thee. 13 And he said unto him, My lord knoweth that the children [are] tender, and the flocks and herds with young [are] with me: and if men should overdrive them one day, all the flock will die. 14 Let my lord, I pray thee, pass over before his servant: and I will lead on softly, according as the cattle that goeth before me and the children be able to endure, until I come unto my lord unto Seir. 15 And Esau said, Let me now leave with thee [some] of the folk that [are] with me. And he said, What needeth it? let me find grace in the sight of my lord. 16 So Esau returned that day on his way unto Seir. 17 And Jacob journeyed to Succoth, and built him an house, and made booths for his cattle: therefore the name of the place is called Succoth. 18 And Jacob came to Shalem, a city of Shechem, which [is] in the land of Canaan, when he came from Padanaram; and pitched his tent before the city. 19 And he bought a parcel of a field, where he had spread his tent, at the hand of the children of Hamor, Shechem’s father, for an hundred pieces of money. 20 And he erected there an altar, and called it Elelohe-Israel.
In v. 1 Jacob returns to his family from Jabbok and sees Esau approaching with several hundred men. Why would Esau bring so many? Perhaps he wasn’t sure what Jacob’s intentions were. When last they met the enmity between them was murderous and hateful in the extreme and just as Esau thought to do harm to Jacob he had every reason to wonder if Jacob was returning home to do him violence as well.
Jacob doesn’t seem sure as to what will happen next so he arranges his two wives and their children behind the servants and handmaids for their own protection. What do Jacob do next? He doesn’t hide or to deceive Esau in any way. Here is where his heart change is made evident. He goes alone ahead of his people, his servants and his family and bows himself to the ground before Esau. In fact v. 3 says that he bowed himself seven times in all. What is the significance of this? Theologians tell us that in the Old Testament, the act of bowing was the customary act of self-abasement performed by an individual before a person in a superior position. When Jacob bowed before Esau he was saying “Esau you are a better man than I am…” What about the fact he bowed seven times? In ancient times to bow repeatedly in this way meant that Jacob was identifying himself as a guilty party and that he was asking forgiveness. What was Jacob’s guilt? He stole Esau’s blessing by dressing up like Esau before his blind father Isaac.
Jacob’s act of humility is recorded not just as history for us but as an example that we are to follow. In the book of Phillipians the Apostle Paul wrote:
[Phl 2:3 KJV] 3 [Let] nothing [be done] through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.
As Christians we are not to take advantage of one another or seek to get over on each other in any way. Paul elaborates on this further in 1 Corinthians 10:23-24:
[1Co 10:23-24 KJV] 23 All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not. 24 Let no man seek his own, but every man another’s [wealth].
Jacob had sought to improve his situation at Esau’s expense. As he matured he experienced being taken advantage of many times by Laban and he got a sense of the disenfranchisement he had perpetrated on his brother. In fact if Jacob had not performed this act of obesience before Esau the mistreatment he experienced under Laban may well have continued as a repeating cycle in Jacob’s life until he figured it out.
What about your own life? In your past have you ever advantaged yourself at someone else’s expense? In your work situation? In relationships, or perhaps in finances? These things tend to become self-engendering and what you perpetrate on others you will experience as well many times over. In the gospel of Mark Jesus touches on this when he gives the first and second great commandments:
[Mar 12:30-31 NKJV] 30 ‘And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This [is] the first commandment. 31 “And the second, like [it, is] this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
To be sure the hand of destiny was at work in bringing the birthright and the blessing upon Jacob and away from Esau. At the same time this did not relieve Jacob of his responsibility toward his brother or gloss over the sinful attitudes these two brothers demonstrated toward one another in their youth. Jacob also understood that recompense is a requirement in God. The Azusa Street believers emphasized this in their doctrine stating that they believed that forgiveness in God was conditioned on a willingness to recompense past wrong doing where it was possible and reasonable to do so. Be that as it may the question to consider is are we loving others as ourselves? To fail to love others and treat them with respect and kindness is in fact not loving yourself because the law of reciprocity assures us that our bad acts will be visited down upon our lives lest we humble ourselves as Jacob did toward Esau in our chapter.
