Jacob Fears Esau

Story: Jacob Fears Esau

Passage: Genesis 32:1-21

Characters: Jacob, Esau

Summary: Jacob leaves and meets the angels of God. Jacob sent messengers to Esau. He sent them in droves to appease Esau. He split into two camps to keep one camp safe for sure.

Notes: Jacob knew he did not deserve God’s blessings. He also realized what he had done to Esau and knew Esau was justified in hating Jacob. He also realized that Esau was older and therefore should have authority over Jacob. Because of his understanding of this, he feared Esau and now he humbly offers a significant amount of his possessions to his brother. Jacob acts out of what appears to be human fear and divides his camps into two. This ensures the safety of one of them should the other be attacked. He also sent many gifts to Esau. Yet we know he ultimately looked to God for protection, appealing to God’s promise to Jacob. From what I can tell, Jacob is the first person we see who appeals to God’s promise in a tough situation instead of needing God’s reminder. This shows us that God’s promise had sunk in. In verse 1 we read that the angels of god met him. I don’t know why or how long they stayed, but Jacob named the camp Mahanaim, “two camps”. He then splits into two camps. This is interesting to me also. It is possible that the angels were still with him and the order to split camps came from them. I like the detail in the exact numbers of male and female livestock he sent to Esau. He sent them in droves so that Esau would continually see the gifts sent to him. In verse 20, the Hebrew says that Jacob hopes to appease Esau’s face so that Esau would lift his face. I enjoy this use of words and the parallelism between the appeasing of Esau’s and the lifting of Jacob’s face. Jacob shows great humility and submission to Esau. This is totally different from how Jacob interacted with Esau up until he fled. He had been struggling with Esau from birth. Ironically, now that Jacob submitted to Esau, God was going to bless Jacob.

Questions: Is it possible that the angels of God stayed with Jacob and were instructing him? Why was he afraid even with the promise? Are we sometimes afraid even though we have the ultimate promise from God?

Lessons: We can learn from Jacob’s humility and submission to someone he viewed as having authority over him. Esau was not necessarily a good man, but Jacob still submitted to Him. Even though Jacob was afraid, he trusted God enough to obey him and go back to his brother who, last he saw him, wanted to kill him. We need to learnt o trust God enough to obey Him, even when we are afraid of the consequences. We do not have a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind.