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Genesis 32a:

Reading # 130

The approach of Esau

We pick up our story now with Jacob nearing the place of his birth, which is a picture of Christians returning to the place of their spiritual rebirth after wandering away for a while as most of us do.

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Genesis 32:

1 And Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him. 2 And when Jacob saw them, he said, “This is God's host”: and he called the name of that place “Mahanaim” [“two hosts” (of angels)].

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As he approached his home district the remembrance of his sin against Esau brought Jacob many a troubled thought. Over the years since his flight Esau had come to regard himself as the sole heir of their father's possessions and Jacob knew that the news of his return would stir the fear that he was coming to claim the inheritance.  He also knew that Esau was now able to do him great injury, if so disposed, and he might be moved to violence against him, not only by the desire for revenge, but in order to secure undisturbed possession of the wealth which he had so long looked upon as his own. 

So again the LORD granted Jacob a token of the divine care. As he travelled southward from Mount Gilead, two hosts of heavenly angels seemed to encompass him, one before and one behind, advancing with his company as if for their protection.  (Compare this with Elisha’s experience in 2 Kings 6:15-17.)  Jacob then remembered the vision at Bethel so long before, and his burdened heart grew lighter at this evidence that the divine messengers who had brought him hope and courage during his flight from Canaan were to be the guardians of his return. This is why he called the name of that place “Mahanaim”—“two hosts, or, camps” - that is, complete protection. 

We need to understand better than we do the mission of the angel visitors. It would be well to consider that in all our work we have the co-operation and care of heavenly beings. Invisible armies of light and power attend the meek and lowly ones who believe and claim the promises of God. Cherubim and seraphim and angels that excel in strength - ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands - stand at His right hand, "all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation." Hebrews 1:14.

The whole heavenly universe shows the greatest interest in this speck of a world, for Christ has paid an infinite price for the lives of its inhabitants. The world's Redeemer has bound earth to heaven by ties of intelligence as well as love, for the redeemed of the LORD are here.

Heavenly beings still visit the earth by passing up and down the ladder as in the days when they walked and talked with Abraham, and with Isaac and Jacob. Amid the busy activity of our great cities, amid the multitudes that crowd the thoroughfares and fill the markets of trade where from morning till evening the people act as if business and sport and pleasure were all there is to life, where there are so few to contemplate unseen realities - even here heaven still has its watchers and its holy ones.

There are invisible agents observing every word and deed of human beings. In every assembly for business or pleasure, in every gathering for worship, there are more listeners than can be seen with the natural sight. Sometimes in the Bible the Spirit of God draws aside the curtain which normally hides the unseen world that our thoughts may be withdrawn from the hurry and rush of life to consider that there are unseen witnesses and protectors to all we say or do, and this was one of those times. 

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Genesis 32:

3 And Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau his brother to the land of Seir, the country of Edom [Esau’s nickname, Genesis 25:30]. 4 And he commanded them, saying, “Thus shall you speak to my lord Esau; Your servant Jacob says thus, I have sojourned with Laban, and stayed there until now: 5 and I have oxen, and asses, flocks, and menservants, and womenservants [of my own]: and I have sent to tell my lord, that I may find grace in your sight.”

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Even with the evidence of God’s care Jacob felt that he had something to do to secure his own safety. He therefore dispatched messengers with a peace-making greeting to his brother. He instructed them as to the exact words in which they were to address Esau. It had been foretold before the birth of the two brothers that the elder should serve the younger (Genesis 25:23), and, lest the memory of this should be a cause of bitterness, Jacob told the servants they were sent to "my lord Esau."  When brought before him, they were to refer to their master as "your servant Jacob."   And, to remove the fear that he was returning as a destitute wanderer to claim the family inheritance, Jacob was careful to state in his message, "I have oxen, and asses, flocks, and menservants, and womenservants: and I have sent to tell my lord, that I may find grace [forgiveness] in your sight." 

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Genesis 32:

6 And the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, “We came to your brother Esau, and also he comes to meet you, and four hundred men with him.”  7 Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed: and he divided the people that was with him, and the flocks, and herds, and the camels, into two bands; 8 and said, “If Esau come to the one company, and smite it, then the other company which is left shall escape.”

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The servants returned with the tidings that Esau was approaching with four hundred men, and that no response was sent to the friendly message.  (This was because Esau had not yet made up his mind how to treat his brother.)  To the Christians it appeared certain that he was coming to seek revenge. Terror pervaded the camp. "Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed." (When it happened, Esau came peacefully under God’s leading.)

In the meantime, Jacob could not go back, and he feared to advance.

His company, unarmed and defenceless by choice, because Christians do not fight with “carnal weapons” (see 2 Corinthians 10:3-4), were wholly unprepared for a hostile encounter. He accordingly divided them into two groups, so that if one should be attacked, the other might have an opportunity to escape.  Trusting in God’s word, he still did all in his power to atone for the wrong to his brother and to avert the threatened danger, for that is the nature of righteousness (right doing).  He also sent from his vast flocks generous presents to Esau, with a friendly message. What we can do under the Spirit’s direction, He will not do for us.  What we cannot do, He will.  In this is shown the partnership of the Christian “marriage”.  See Romans 7:4.

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Genesis 32:

9 And Jacob said, “O God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, the LORD which said to me, ‘Return to your country, and to your kindred, and I will deal well with you’: 10 I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth, which You have showed to Your servant; for with [just] my staff I passed over this Jordan; and now I am become two bands [of people]. 11 Deliver me, I pray you, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau: for I fear him, lest he will come and smite me, and the mother with the children. 12 And You said, ‘I will surely do you good, and make your seed as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude’.”

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Having tried to make peace with his brother (Matthew 5:23-24), in humiliation and repentance Jacob now pleaded for the divine protection which he had already been promised.  Our Redeemer loves it when we come to Him repeating His own words and asking Him to fulfil them.  Then He knows that we really believe Him based on the word.

It was the Son of God who, in the mysterious conflict by the Jabbok, inspired Jacob with persevering faith. (See Luke 18:1-8). And the confidence which He Himself had implanted, He did not fail to reward.  His pleasure is more in His people, struggling with temptation in a world of sin, than in the host of angels that surround His throne.  The prodigal has more need than the stay-at-home.  Luke 15:24.  (The loyal angels are NOT like the elder brother of the next few verses.) Therefore we have the assurance that our prayers will be heard when we approach our time of trouble, whether it be the large one at the end of time, or a smaller one during our days on earth.

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Genesis 32: 

13 And he lodged there that same night; and took of that which came to his hand a present for Esau his brother; 14 two hundred she goats, and twenty he goats, two hundred ewes, and twenty rams, 15 thirty milch [in milk] camels with their colts, forty kine [cows], and ten bulls, twenty she asses, and ten foals. 16 And he delivered them into the hand of his servants, every drove by themselves; and said to his servants, “Pass over before [in front of] me, and put a space between drove and drove.” 

17 And he commanded the foremost, saying, “When Esau my brother meets you, and asks you, saying, ‘Whose are you? And where go you? And whose are these before you?’ 18 Then you shall say, ‘They be your servant Jacob's; it is a present sent to my lord Esau: and, behold, also he is behind us’.” 19 And so commanded he the second, and the third, and all that followed the droves, saying, “On this manner shall you speak to Esau, when you find him.”  20 And say you moreover, “Behold, your servant Jacob is behind us.” For he said, “I will appease him with the present that goes before me, and afterward I will see his face; peradventure he will accept of me.”

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Here Jacob was following the local custom to show his desire to be reconciled.  It will be a major characteristic of the last generation of Christians that they will confess that they have often desired to obtain the riches of this world in the way the world gets them.  (They really belong to the rejecters of God’s grace and at last Christians will believe that we can take nothing of this world with us.)  We need to learn to “render unto Caesar” now, and then we may be able to do what Jacob did. Matthew 22:21.

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Genesis 32:

  21 So went the present over before him: and himself lodged that night in the company. 22 And he rose up that night, and took his two wives, and his two womenservants, and his eleven sons, and passed over the ford Jabbok. 23 And he took them, and sent them over the brook, and sent over that he had.

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In his night of anguish beside the Jabbok, when destruction seemed just before him, Jacob was being taught how vain is the help of man, how groundless is all trust in human power, even his own. He saw that his only help must come from Him against whom he had so grievously sinned. Helpless and unworthy, he pleaded God's promise of mercy to the repentant sinner. That promise was his assurance that God would cleanse that failing from him. Sooner might heaven and earth pass than that word could fail; and it was this that would sustain him through the fearful conflict that was to come.

See you next week,

Ron

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