FRAMEWORKS:
Genesis 32: Preparing to Meet Esau
v.1,2
Jacob sees Angels
v.3-6
Jacob sends a message home that he is returning
v.7-12
In Fear Jacob Prays
v.13-21
He Prepares Gifts for Esau
v.22-32
Jacob Wrestles With God
v.1,2
Jacob sees Angels
v.1
Jacob
also went on his way, and the angels of God met him.
v.2
When
Jacob saw them, he said, “This is the camp of God!” So he named
that place Mahanaim. [meaning
two camps – his and God's]
[Notes:
Almost
insignificant verses except they show God is there with Jacob
as he continues on home.]
v.3-6
Jacob sends a message home that he is returning
v.3
Jacob
sent messengers ahead of him to his brother Esau in the land of
Seir, the country of Edom.
v.4
He
instructed them: “This is what you are to say to my lord Esau:
‘Your servant Jacob says, I have been staying with Laban and have
remained there till now.
v.5
I
have cattle and donkeys, sheep and goats, male and female servants.
Now I am sending this message to my lord, that I may find favor
in your eyes.'”
v.6
When
the messengers returned to Jacob, they said, “We went to your
brother Esau, and now he is coming to meet you, and four hundred
men are with him.”
[Notes:
Jacob
wants to ease his way back into his home situation after 20 years
away [31:41] and so sends a messenger ahead of him saying he is
coming back after all this time and hopes to receive Esau's welcome
and approval. The messenger, on his return, tells Jacob that Esau
is coming with a large band of men.]
v.7-12
In Fear Jacob Prays
v.7
In
great fear and distress Jacob divided the people who were with
him into two groups, and the flocks and herds and camels as well.
v.8
He
thought, “If Esau comes and attacks one group, the group that
is left may escape.”
v.9
Then
Jacob prayed, “O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac,
Lord, you who said to me, ‘Go back to your country and your relatives,
and I will make you prosper,'
v.10
I
am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness you have shown
your servant. I had only my staff when I crossed this Jordan,
but now I have become two camps.
v.11
Save
me, I pray, from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid
he will come and attack me, and also the mothers with their children.
v.12
But
you have said, ‘I will surely make you prosper and will make your
descendants like the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted.'”
[Notes:
Jacob
assumes Esau is coming to kill him after all that happened twenty
years ago, and so in desperation he prays. He reminds the Lord
that He had told him to return and that He would bless him. He
asks for the Lord's protection and again reminds Him he had promised
his descendants would prosper. The message had obviously gone
home!]
v.13-21
He Prepares Gifts for Esau
v.13-15
He
spent the night there, and from what he had with him he selected
a gift for his brother Esau: two hundred female goats and twenty
male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, thirty female camels
with their young, forty cows and ten bulls, and twenty female
donkeys and ten male donkeys.
v.16
He
put them in the care of his servants, each herd by itself, and
said to his servants, “Go ahead of me, and keep some space between
the herds.”
v.17
He
instructed the one in the lead: “When my brother Esau meets you
and asks, ‘Who do you belong to, and where are you going, and
who owns all these animals in front of you?'
v.18
then
you are to say, ‘They belong to your servant Jacob. They are a
gift sent to my lord Esau, and he is coming behind us.'”
v.19
He
also instructed the second, the third and all the others who followed
the herds: “You are to say the same thing to Esau when you meet
him.
v.20
And
be sure to say, ‘Your servant Jacob is coming behind us.'” For
he thought, “I will pacify him with these gifts I am sending on
ahead; later, when I see him, perhaps he will receive me.”
v.21
So
Jacob's gifts went on ahead of him, but he himself spent the night
in the camp.
[Notes:
Still
in scheming mode he separates out a large gift for Esau from all
of his many herds. The magnitude of the gift [which would only
be a part of what he had] indicates just how wealthy Jacob has
become. He instructs his servants to make space between each of
the herds that constituted the gift to, bit by bit, impact Esau
as to just how rich [? and powerful] his brother now was – perhaps
not wise to contend with him.]
v.22-32
Jacob Wrestles With God
v.22
That
night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two female servants
and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok.
v.23 After
he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions.
v.24
So
Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak.
v.25
When
the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket
of Jacob's hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with
the man.
v.26
Then
the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.” But Jacob replied,
“I will not let you go unless you bless me.”
v.27
The
man asked him, “What is your name?” “Jacob,” he answered.
v.28
Then
the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel,
because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.”
v.29
Jacob
said, “Please tell me your name.” But he replied, “Why do you
ask my name?” Then he blessed him there.
v.30
So
Jacob called the place Peniel, [meaning
God's face] saying, “It is because
I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.”
v.31
The
sun rose above him as he passed Peniel, and he was limping because
of his hip.
v.32
Therefore
to this day the Israelites do not eat the tendon attached to the
socket of the hip, because the socket of Jacob's hip was touched
near the tendon.
[Notes:
That
night one of the strange events of the Old Testament occurred.
Jacob is alone in the night when a man arrives and goes to apparently
attack him. The two of them wrestle until daybreak and when Jacob
would not submit, the man put Jacob's hip out of joint. What follows
is highly significant:
•
the man
calls on Jacob to submit [v.26a]
•
Jacob
refuses unless the man will bless him [v.26b]
•
the man
asks him his name [v.27] and he confesses it – Jacob, twister.
•
the man
changes his name to Israel [meaning God-wrestler] [v.28]
•
Jacob
then asks him his name, and the man simply queries why he asks
but does now bless him. [v.29]
•
Jacob
reveals he realises he has wrestled with God and has been spared.[v.30]
The
significance of this may be inferred as follows:
•
God comes to Jacob to get
him to submit to Him
•
Jacob refuses [as he has done
all his life] and ‘wrestles' with God.
•
When God calls him to give
up he makes the point that he can only give up his life if God
will bless him.
•
The blessing comes in a strange
form: first he has to acknowledge who he is – his name, what
it means and what he's been like all his life – grabber, twister,
deceiver.
•
As soon as he acknowledges
that, God blesses him [decrees good for him].
The
enormity of the whole story of Jacob is that God knew exactly
what he would be like but also what he could become and, because
of that latter point, He chose him over Esau who was indifferent
to God and remained like that. All of his life, Jacob had been
putting himself first and yet God had been there again and again
reassuring him:
•
allowing Isaac to speak the
family blessing over him [27:28,29],
•
allowing Isaac to bless him
when he left home [28:3,4],
•
receiving the Lord's blessing
about descendants and the land in a dream [28:12-15],
•
the Lord telling him to go
home [31:3] and He will be with him,
•
the Lord warning Laban in
a dream to treat Jacob well [31:24],
•
the Lord sending two angels
to accompany him [32:1],
•
and now at this crisis moment
bringing him to a place of facing himself and then being blessed
yet again.
It
is a remarkable story of a twister, blessed by God and brought
to a point of self-realization and surrender to God. Watch what
sort of man he eventually turns out to be. He is already the father
of a big family with eleven sons, and very rich.]
Lessons
or Challenges to Ponder from Genesis Chapter 32
1.
When you know that reconciliation is the right path, it is wise
to spend time thinking about how it may be brought about, so that
the other party finds it acceptable.
2.
When God ‘wrestles' with us it is always to help us face the truth,
often about ourselves and our failures and shortcomings and need
of His help, as well as realising His greatness and His grace
that perseveres with us.
Continue to Chapter 33