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BIBLE
STUDY LESSON
For
the week beginning Sunday February 3, 2019
JACOB
AND ESAU MAKE PEACE
Genesis
33
In Genesis 33 we see a changed
Jacob, who, by now, fully realizes that Esau had every reason to hate him, about
to encounter his only brother for the first time in twenty years. Jacob was
expecting to see a, still hostile Esau, who was ready to wring his neck, but
instead, he was to be met by a man totally lacking in retaliatory spirit. In
fact, Esau ran to meet Jacob and embraced and kissed him affectionately, and
then, both men broke down in tears.
Then Esau looked at the women and children
that accompanied Jacob, and asked who they were. Jacob responded, “These are
the children that GOD has graciously given to me”. First, Jacob’s wives, Bilhah
and Zilpah, who were given to him by Leah and Rachel respectively, came forward
with their children, and bowed down before Esau. Then Leah and Rachel did the
same.
Then Esau replied, “And what were all the
flocks and herds I met as I came?” Jacob explained that they were gifts that he
sent to him to ensure his goodwill. However, Esau told Jacob that he had more
than enough already, and he kindly suggested that Jacob keep them for himself.
But after persistently pleading with Esau to accept his gifts, and telling him
how great it was to see his smiling face, Jacob really piles on the niceties by
telling Esau that, “seeing his smiling face was like seeing the face of GOD”.
And after that lofty comment, Esau finally accepted Jacob’s largesse.
Like
Jacob, Esau, with the LORD’s help (although he may not have been aware of it),
had done very well, and had gained, many times over, what Jacob had taken from
him, and consequently, he no longer felt the need, nor the inclination to be
angry at his brother. The material things he lost in connection with his
birthright, had long been replaced, and he never really cared for the spiritual
side of the blessing anyway, as even now, he was indeed, still a very “worldly”
man.
Esau offered Jacob and his family an
invitation to travel south to his homeland of Seir, and even offered to leave
some of his men to guide and protect them on the way there. However, Jacob
wisely sticks to the plan of GOD, and without seeming rude or ungrateful to his
newly reconciled brother, Jacob offers the excuse that his children and young
animals would have to travel too slowly for their liking, and it would be
better if they went on ahead of them instead.
Here Jacob deceives his brother yet again
by telling him that they would come along shortly at their own pace, however,
he knew full well that he was not coming at all. In fact, as soon as Esau and
his men were out of sight, Jacob packed up and went in the opposite direction,
which was north to Succoth.
This story serves to show us that, despite
all the troubles and heartaches that people can take us through, as long as we
have blood running warm in our veins, we have an opportunity at healing,
renewing, and restoring broken relationships. And while we must always trust in
GOD when others try to victimize us, just like Jacob had to do with Laban,
sometimes we may have to separate from each other in order to preserve peace in
the future.
And so it was too, here in this case, with
Jacob and his brother, Esau. In order to stem the risk of falling out with his
brother all over again, GOD, WHO had already put HIS plans for the two men in
place, had already given Esau the land of Seir (Edom), to the south, had also
pre-ordained Jacob to reside in the north, which was Canaan, “the Promised
Land”, where both men, respectively, could live in peace, apart from each other.
This chapter concludes Jacob’s initial
sojourn outside the land of Canaan. For, he would not do so again until a
future famine forces him to move his family to Egypt, where they would remain
for several generations (400 years). When Jacob arrived safely at Succoth
(which means “Shelters”), he built himself a house and made shelters there for
his animals.
Later he moved his clan to Shechem (the
town), just west of the Jabbok River, and about twenty miles from the Jordan
River in Canaan. They set up camp there outside of town, and Jacob bought that
plot of land from a man named Hamor, who was the father of Shechem (the man) for
100 pieces of silver, and he built an altar there and called it
“El-Elohe-Israel”, which means “El is the GOD of Israel”.
A Sunday school lesson
by,
Larry D. Alexander
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