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Genesis 33b:

Reading #136

Wandering in Canaan

Our story continues,

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Genesis 33:

12 And he [Esau] said, “Let us take our journey, and let us go, and I will go before you [a request for union, but see Numbers 23:9-10].”  13 And he [Jacob] said to him, “My lord knows 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 you, pass over before his servant: and I will lead on softly, according as the cattle that go before me and the children be able to endure, until I come to my lord to Seir [sometime in the future].”

15 And Esau said, “Let me now leave with you some of the folk that are with me [as a protection].” And he said, “What needs it? [Thank you, but no thanks, God is my protection.]  Let me find grace in the sight of my LORD.”

16 So Esau returned that day on his way to Seir [he went back home].

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One of our greatest problems in the last days will be to see that there is a difference between the people of the world (as distinct from those who are in the churches), and those who have chosen to follow the LORD.  When they offer us protection it comes with conditions which we cannot meet, even if they are not spoken.  In a similar fashion, the LORD has suggested that it is not a good thing to unite with an unbeliever in any business, or even in marriage.

“Be you not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship has righteousness with unrighteousness?  And what communion has light with darkness? And what concord has Christ with Belial?  Or what part has he [or she] that believes with an infidel?  And what agreement has the temple of God with idols?  For you are the temple of the living God; as God has said, ‘I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people’.  Wherefore ‘Come out from among them, and be you separate’, says the LORD, ‘and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,  And will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters’, says the LORD Almighty.  2 Corinthians 6:14-18.

And:

“I wrote to you in an epistle [an earlier letter] not to company with fornicators. Yet not altogether [I didn’t mean just] with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must you needs go out of the world [and you need to live in it as witnesses].  But now [to make myself clear] I have written to you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother [a member of the church, if he] be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat. For what have I to do to judge them also that are without [outside the church]?  Do not you judge them that are within [but without condemnation]?  But them that are without God judges.  Therefore put away from among yourselves [separate from] that wicked person”.   1 Corinthians 5:9-13.

So, after having made a peaceful separation from his brother, Jacob went on his way at his speed with God as his guide and protector.

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Genesis 33:

17 And Jacob journeyed to Succoth, and built him a house [a semi-permanent tent], and made booths [stalls] for his cattle: therefore the name of the place is called Succoth. [“booths” as in the Feast of Tabernacles, Leviticus 23:42]. 

18 And [then] Jacob came to Shalem [“peace” or “safety”], a [suburb of the] 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 a hundred pieces of money.

20 And he erected there an altar, and called it El-Elohe-Israel [ “God is the God of Israel” (not Jacob) – i.e. overcomers, not liars and usurpers]. 

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Crossing the Jordan, Jacob/Israel came in peace to the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan.  Thus the patriarch's prayer at Bethel, that God would bring him again in peace to his own land, had been granted. (Genesis 28:20-22.)  For a time he dwelt in the valley of Shechem and “rested” in his LORD. It was here that Abraham, more than a hundred years before, had made his first encampment and erected his first altar in the Land of Promise. Genesis 12:6-7.

Strangely, there is no mention in our text of Jacob’s meeting with his father Isaac and others in the family.  Of course, his was a separate group from that of his father and as such he lived a separate life, but we have been told that there was a reconciliation.  See Genesis 35:27-29.

Like Abraham, Jacob/Israel now set up beside his tent an altar to the LORD, calling the members of his household to the morning and the evening [afternoon] sacrifice. It was here also that he dug the well to which, some seventeen centuries later, came Jacob's Son and Saviour, and beside which, resting during the noontide heat, He told His wondering hearers of that "well of water springing up into everlasting life", for He also had learned lessons from Jacob’s story.  See John 4:14 and Hebrews 5:8. 

Jacob's history is an assurance that God will not cast off those who have been betrayed into sin, but who have returned to Him with true repentance. It was by self-surrender and confiding faith that Jacob/Israel gained what he had failed to gain by conflict in his own strength.  In this way God taught His servant that divine power and grace alone could give him the blessing he craved.

Thus it will be with those of us who live in the last days. As dangers surround us, and despair seizes upon our minds, we must depend solely upon the merits of the atonement just made for us. 

This atonement is pictured in the following words.

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Revelation 5:

6 And I [John] beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts [various animals representing the saints of God], and in the midst of the elders [of the church], stood a Lamb as it had been [just] slain, having seven horns and seven eyes [all power and all knowledge], which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth [the total actions of the Holy Spirit using them on His behalf].

7 And He [the Lamb] came and took the book out of the right hand of Him that sat upon the throne [God the Father, consider Daniel 7:9-14]. 8 And when He had taken the book [of the future which was sealed with seven seals, verse 1], the four beasts and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps [to assist in the story telling], and golden vials full of odours [sweet incense representing the righteousness of Jesus], which are [mixed with] the prayers of saints. [See Revelation 8:3-4.]

9 And they [the beasts and the elders] sung a new song [a ballad], saying, “You are worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof [the future has been progressively revealed to Christians in seven prophetic sections since the cross, and will be completely opened again in the future]: for You were slain, and have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; 10 and have [now] made us to our God kings and priests: and we shall [soon] reign on the earth.” 

11 And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands; 12 saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing.” [In these verses the first part of the judgment has just finished and the Son of God’s death completed.  Spiritual crucifixion is a slow death, taking some 6,000+ years.]

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What we should learn from this experience of Jacob’s is that we can do nothing of ourselves. In all our helpless unworthiness we must trust completely in the merits of the crucified and risen Saviour. None will ever perish while they do this.   

In the first section of the judgment the long, black catalogue of our sins is before the eye of the Infinite One. The record is complete; none of our offences are forgotten. But He who listened to the cries of His servants of old, will hear the prayers of faith and ratify the pardon of our transgressions at the request of His Son. He has promised, and He will fulfil His word.  This judgment must take place before the second coming so that the loyal angels (especially those who had the privilege of being guardians) may know who is, and who is not, going to visit in heaven with them.

Jacob prevailed because he was persevering and determined. His experience testifies to the power of importunate prayer. It is NOW that we are to learn this lesson of prevailing prayer, of unyielding faith. The greatest victories to the church of Christ or to the individual Christian are not those that are gained by talent or education, by wealth or the favour of men. They are those victories that are gained in the private places with God, when earnest, agonizing faith lays hold upon the mighty arm of power. 

The season of distress and anguish before us will require a faith that can endure weariness, delay, and hunger, a faith that will not faint, though severely tried. A period of probation is granted to all of us now to prepare for that time.  Jacob’s victory is an evidence of the power of unyielding prayer. All who will lay hold of God's promises, as he did, and be as earnest and persevering as he was, will succeed as he succeeded.

Those who are unwilling to deny self, to agonize before God, to pray long and earnestly for His blessing, will not obtain it. Wrestling with God - how few know what it is! How few have ever had their minds drawn out after God with intensity of desire for others until every power is on the stretch. When waves of despair which no language can express sweep over the suppliant because nothing seems to be happening, how few cling with unyielding faith to the promises of God.  Like Jesus in the wilderness after His baptism, we must endure on the word alone.  Take special note of the behaviour of Jesus in Matthew 4:1-11 and Moses’ entreaty and actions in Numbers 16:44-48.

Those who exercise but little faith now are in the greatest danger of falling under the power of Satanic delusions and the decree to compel the conscience, which will surely come as it has in most generations.  (The only real difference this time is that it will be worldwide.) And even if some endure the test without the preparation, they will be plunged into deeper distress and anguish in the time of trouble, because they have never made it a habit to trust in God. The lessons of faith which they have neglected during the training period, they will be forced to learn under a terrible pressure of discouragement as the disciples did at Calvary. 

We should now acquaint ourselves with God by proving His promises.

We should read them aloud and then ask what we can do to obtain them.   Angels record every prayer that is earnest and sincere. We should rather dispense with selfish desires than neglect communion with God. The deepest poverty, the greatest self-denial, with His approval, is better than riches, honours, ease, and friendship without it. We must take time to pray. If we allow our minds to be absorbed by worldly interests, the LORD may give us time by permitting our idols (such as gold, houses, or fertile lands and earthly power) to be removed from us instead of us giving them up willingly. See Job 1:1-22. 

However, it is not money and power by themselves that is the problem, but the love of them above our love for God.

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1 Timothy 6:

7 For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. 8 And having food and raiment let us be therewith content.

9 But they that will be rich [desire to be] fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. 10 For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

11 But you, O man [and woman] of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. 12 Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto you are also called, and have professed a good profession before many witnesses.

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The Scriptures teach that wealth is a dangerous possession only when placed in competition with the immortal treasure. It is when the earthly and temporal absorbs the thoughts, the affections, the devotion which God claims, that it becomes a snare.

May this not happen to you,

See you next week,

RonP

P.S.

Remember that angels are protecting us before and behind.

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