July 23, 2007

• Discovering God’s Character – Part 15
  
  
  
  Jacob Meets His Fears and Esau

  In Genesis 32, we find Jacob now went on his way from his encounter
  with Laban. Now the angels of God met him. When he saw them, he called
  it “God’s camp.”

  Now Jacob, in anticipation of meeting his brother Esau, sends
  messengers to his brother in Edom, filling him in that he had stayed
  with Laban until now and is coming with a lot of livestock, and
  servants and hopes that he will find favor with Esau. His messengers
  return and say that Esau is coming to meet him with 400 men.

  Now that really upset Jacob and he was quite afraid and began to take
  evasive action so that at least some of his party would survive an
  attack. And Jacob prays for dear life, for himself and his family and
  reminds God of His promise. He stays the night where he was and selects
  a present for Esau of quite a sizable amount of livestock of various
  types. He split them up into droves and put space between them. Each
  drove would say that they had a present for Esau that was sent from
  Jacob.

  Even though he spends the night there, he doesn’t sleep so well and
  takes his two wives and two maids and eleven children and sent them
  across the Jabbok and he sent everything that he had with them.

  Now Jacob was alone and during the night a man came and wrestled with
  him until daybreak. Jacob apparently wrestled successfully until this
  “man” saw that he had not prevailed against him and touched the socket
  of his thigh and Jacob’s thigh was dislocated. The “man” said to let
  him go because dawn is breaking but Jacob would not unless the “man”
  would bless him.  We find that this “man” renames Jacob and his new
  name is “Israel” because he had striven with God and men and had
  prevailed. Jacob wants to know his name. The “man” asks him “why do you
  ask?” and then blesses him. Yet Jacob knew who it was because he named
  the place, Peniel, because I have seen God face to face, yet my life
  has been preserved.

  Now the sun rose by the time he had crossed over Penuel and he was
  limping.  Jacob was tired and in pain.  What a way to meet Esau!

  It was at this point, in Chapter 33, that Jacob looks up and here comes
  Esau and his 400 men. He divided the children among Leah and Rachel and
  the two maids with maids up front, Leah and her children next, and
  Rachel and Joseph last and then he went ahead of them and bowed down to
  the ground seven times until he came near his brother.

  Esau runs to meet him and embraced him and kissed him on the neck and
  they wept. Esau sees the women and children and asks who they are and
  Jacob tells him that they are his. The maids and their children came and bowed down and Leah and her
  children came as well and did the same and so did Rachel and Joseph.

  So the dialog goes something like this… “Jacob, what’s with all this
  stuff you’ve sent ahead of you all?” “Esau, I was hoping that you’d be
  pleased with it and you would welcome me.”  “Jacob, I have plenty, you
  can keep all that.”  “No, Esau. Please accept my present to you. I am
  so happy to have seen you and you look so good to me its like seeing
  God Himself. God has blessed me so much I want to share it with you.” 
  Jacob urges Esau to accept it so Esau does so.

  Esau says “Let’s get on with the journey and I will go before you.”
  Jacob says something like, “Well, I’ve got to take it a bit slower than
  usual since its hard on the children and the flocks are nursing so it
  probably wouldn’t be a good idea to go too fast or else some of the
  flocks might die. Esau, you can go on ahead. I’ll do fine and move
  along at a pace that is slow enough to keep everything well and I’ll
  join you when I get down to your place. Sound ok, to you?”  Esau says
  something like, “The least I could do is leave some of my people with
  you to help out.”  And Jacob responds, “Thanks. I appreciate that.
  However, I’ve got enough servants already and we’re doing fine but
  thanks for offering. Would that be ok with you?”  So that sounds
  reasonable to Esau and he and his men head back to Seir that day. 
  Everything that Jacob had feared in his meeting with Esau was gone. The
  way was clear to settle in Canaan.

  So Jacob journeyed to Succoth and built a house there and made
  accommodations for his livestock. BTW, Succoth means “booths”. Yet it
  appears that he didn’t stay there very long and came to Shechem, in the
  land of Canaan and he bought a piece of land there with 100 pieces of
  money from the sons of Hamor, Shechem’s father. Then he erected an
  altar there called God, the God of Israel (El-Elohe-Israel).

  Have you been so afraid of something and what you’ve feared doesn’t
  happen? Such was the case with Jacob and Esau.  Now it is true that
  Jacob sent gifts before him to Esau, yet it was this sense of humility
  that had been driven by fear and the Lord working on Esau over this
  time that brought the brothers back together to meet in peace.

  
  When a man's ways are pleasing to the LORD, He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.  Proverbs 16:7 (NASB)

  Peace is not a normal thing in this fallen world.  When you see real
  peace, it is from the Lord.  Why? The Lord is the “Prince of Peace”.

  Now how about the wrestling match with God?  Why do you think Jacob
  prevailed? That would seem strange to have God not win a wrestling
  match. Yet perhaps not.  If Jacob earnestly wrestled with God over his
  fears yet Jacob held on for dear life and wouldn’t let him go and
  wouldn’t give up, do you think that the Lord saw this and the faith of
  Jacob in this?  In spite of Jacob’s fear, it was like a dad and his son
  wrestling and the boy doesn’t have a chance against his father but his
  father lets his son “win” because he wants to encourage his son.  And
  now, the real blessing, the one that meant more than the one Jacob
  received from his father was bestowed on him and this and the
  resolution of the grudge between Jacob and Esau brought a new freedom
  in Jacob’s life that was free from the fears of his past.  We have to
  understand the importance of these two events in Jacob’s life to
  understand what God wants to do in our lives.

  You see, the Lord wants you to be set free from the fear that has held
  you captive all your life.  When we constantly see these fears in the
  “rearview mirror” of our lives, we react and not always positively. 
  You need to wrestle with God on these issues and hold on until he
  blesses you and you find yourself on the “other side” and free. You
  need to face your fears with humility and confidence that the Lord is
  with you wherever you go.

  To do this requires that we have a God that is faithful and wants us to
  overcome these things. We do and He does because He made a way to do it…
  
  
  But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. Romans 8:37 (NASB)

  Once we conquer our fears and move forward in life by faith in Him, we
  find ourselves a new start in life just a Jacob did with all those things
  behind him.  Mr.Vee

  • 12:08 am
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