Good morning my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
Family love can be wonderful and stronger than steel, but family anger and resentment can also be more destructive than almost anything, right? As you think of your extended family, going back several generations, have there been any major family crises of anger and bitterness between family members, even to the point of vicious, wounding words and behavior? Is there estrangement between family members, in your family, which has lasted many years?
Come with me, let’s rejoin Jacob and the huge caravan of his very large family of 12 children, four wives! Oh and of course, the many flocks and herds of animals and the servants who are tending them. This drove of people and animals is moving south from where Jacob has lived these past 20 years. Where are they going? Back to Jacob’s homeland in southern Israel. God Himself had instructed Jacob to do so: “The LORD said to Jacob, ‘Go back to the land of your fathers and to your relatives and I will be with you.” (Gen. 31:3) Yes, Jacob knew he was living the inheritance of God’s Covenant of Land and a Nation of people which God made first to Abraham and then a generation later to Isaac, Abraham’s miracle son, and about 20 years ago God repeated this covenant to Jacob.
But the problem with this command from God is that Jacob well remembered WHY he had run away from home 20 years before. Jacob had been a scoundrel! He had cheated his brother Esau out of his birthright and family inheritance, and he had deceived his father Isaac into giving to Jacob Esau’s firstborn blessing. As Jacob thought of going back home, I have no doubt nothing but fear welled up inside him. Jacob could not imagine his father Isaac could ever forgive him and bless him after Jacob had deceived Isaac in a way which totally disrupted the family estate inheritance. Jacob knew his brother Esau had been looking to kill him 20 years before, so Jacob could well imagine with 20 years to develop a retaliation plan, when Esau heard Jacob was coming, well Jacob should probably assume the worst… bloodshed, lots of it!
Genesis 32 is a remarkable chapter showing us Jacob had good reason to be fearful. The record says: “Jacob sent messengers ahead of him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir… Jacob instructed them: ‘This is what you are to say to my lord Esau: ‘Your servant Jacob says I have been staying with Laban, brother of our mother, and have remained there till now. I have cattle and donkeys, sheep and goats, male and female servants. Now I am sending this message to you so that I may find favor in your eyes.’
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.’ In great fear Jacob divided the people who were with him into two groups, and the flocks and herds as well. He thought, ‘if Esau comes and attacks one group, the group that is left may escape.” (Gen. 32:1-8)
Now look at Jacob, scurrying about trying to decide which of his sons and their families should go in which group, and how to divide up all the animals traveling with them? Can you see the deep remorse in Jacob’s face as he considers the very real possibility that some, perhaps many of these, his precious family, will be slaughtered or taken as slaves and perhaps most of all these animals might be taken away from him? 400 men? Jacob assumes the men are armed and ready for attack. Jacob and his sons and servants have no weapons, only shepherd staffs, and the tools of their trade. Perhaps Jacob went over to be by himself under a tree and cried out to God, acknowledging again his great sins of years ago, sins which so badly divided his parents, and he from his twin brother Esau. Oh the terrible consequences of family sin!
The record tells us this about what Jacob said to God in this moment: “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. I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness you have shown your servant. I had only my staff when I crossed the Jordan, but now I have become two camps of people and animals. Save me, I pray, from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid he is coming to attack me and also the mothers with their children…” (Gen. 32:9-11) Can we understand Jacob’s fear, Jacob’s regret for his actions, Jacob’s amazement when he considers how God has blessed him even though he was so unworthy of God’s blessing after having deceived his father and cheated his brother?
In the verses which follow in Gen. 32 Jacob separated his animals into several smaller flocks assigning servants to each and sending them ahead to meet Esau with clear instructions that they are to tell Esau these animals are a gift to him from Jacob who is coming with anticipation of meeting his brother again after 20 years apart. Jacob explains WHY he did this: “Jacob thought, ‘I will pacify Esau with these gifts I am sending on ahead; later, when finally I see him, perhaps he will receive me.’ So Jacob sent these gifts on ahead of him, but he spent the night in the camp. That night, Jacob got up and took his two wives, [Leah and Rachel] and his two female servants [Bilhah and Zilpah, who had mothered four of Jacob’s sons] and his 11 sons and they crossed the ford of the Jabbok river. Then Jacob sent across all his remaining possessions. So Jacob was left alone…” (Gen. 32:20-24)
Now look at Jacob. A man of about 60 years of age, all alone in the night. He had sent all his animals with his servants ahead to meet Esau. Those animals were the sum total of his earnings of 20 years of hard word with Laban. He had sent his family across the river and now all alone, Jacob was as he had been when he fled from his homeland more than 20 years before. Jacob was alone with nothing but his shepherd’s staff. And Jacob remembered, this was how he met God the first time, 20 years before at the place he named Bethel. (Gen. 28:16,17) My friends, are you able to turn off all the noise and find a quiet place to sit with God and consider who you are and what you have if everything was taken from you. If you were left with no family, no belonging, no financial estate…nothing, empty handed, only you and God. What do you say to God when it’s only you and Him?
How long Jacob sat alone with God that night in deep reflection of who he had become and what he had experienced in all these years I do not know, but suddenly a man approached Jacob and they began to wrestle, not speaking words, just wrestling. In fact the record says, “the man wrestled with Jacob until daybreak…” (Gen. 32:24) Tomorrow we’ll look closely at this all night wrestling match, for Jacob was never the same after that night, and the story of the nation of Israel is impacted significantly by that night. For today, I urge us all to give consideration to what Jacob was thinking about as he reviewed his life… I wonder what God wants to show you and me about what HE sees, and here’s a song to help us reflect:
Today’s Scripture is Genesis 32:2-24.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
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Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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