Ge. 33: The Meeting and the Reconciliation...?

After wrestling God, and now beset with a limp, looking up and seeing Esau and his posse rolling up was probably the last thing Jacob needed. After putting his group in order, Jacob hobbles up to the front, and begins bowing before Esau, still not knowing how he was going to react.

I know the feeling. I am not a fan of confrontation. It is agonizing to me. And there is nothing worse for me than letting something simmer for a long time, and when I was growing up, there was nothing I wanted to hear less than, "Wait till your father gets home." That was not pleasant. That's how I imagine Jacob felt, with the knots in his stomach, and the shortness of breath...just can't wait for it to be over.

But he could breathe easy. Esau ran to meet him and embraced him and kissed him. What a relief. Have you ever been so relieved about something that you just wept?

Esau sees the entourage Jacob brought with him, and like a long-lost uncle, wants to meet the wife...wives. And the nephews. The family he hadn't met.

After 20 years, Esau more or less accepted the idea that his younger twin received his birthright. Esau had to go out and make it happen for himself, and it sounds like he did pretty good for himself, in how he responded to Jacob telling him all these animals were gifts for him. He flatly refuses to accept them, but eventually does when Jacob insists, citing that it was God who was the source of his wealth.

Esau is excited to be with his brother again, so he wants to travel with him. Jacob tells him the little ones...human and non...need to go slow, so he tells Esau to go ahead of him, and Jacob will catch up to him in Seir. Esau wants to leave some of his men with Jacob...probably to aid him in protection. Jacob will have nothing of it, saying he wants to find favor in the Lord. Either Jacob is plotting something, or he wants to be like his grandfather back in chapter 14, not accepting help or assistance from anyone but God. Clearly, he does not want to have Esau with him. I do not know why this is...this is a sudden change of pace, from wanting only to find favor in Esau's eyes, to know doing his best to get rid of him.

So Esau heads to Seir like he said, while Jacob heads somewhere else. He builds shelters for his camels and calls it Succoth. Then he goes and camps by the city of Shechem in Canaan. He buys the plot of land where he camps from Hamor, and builds an altar, calling it El Elohe Israel...God is the God of Israel.

Jacob still must not be trusting of Esau. Maybe he had good reason. Esau probably didn't hold ill will in his heart toward Jacob, but Jacob had no way of knowing that, and it's too bad. It didn't have to be this way. Esau didn't have to be all over dramatic and shortsighted, and Jacob didn't have be deceptive to someone in the worst way. It's easy for me to like Esau more than Jacob here, but God chooses who He chooses, apparently, regardless of their likability. Which is good for me.