Meeting a Foe

Intro.

Few things in our interpersonal relationships are harder than admitting we are wrong and facing the person whom we have wronged. It’s tense, it’s often heated, it’s embarrassing. Truthfully, we don’t like admitting that we are wrong! However, let’s look at what Jesus says about it:

Matthew 5:21–25 “21 “You have heard that the ancients were told, ‘You shall not murder’ and ‘Whoever murders shall be guilty before the court.’ 22 “But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever says to his brother, ‘Raca,’ shall be guilty before the Sanhedrin; and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell. 23 “Therefore if you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your offering there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering. 25 “Make friends quickly with your opponent at law while you are with him on the way, so that your opponent may not hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the officer, and you be thrown into prison.”

In a powerful example of sincerity, a young woman shared how she wronged her best friend by betraying a secret. Over time, the weight of her guilt grew unbearable. When she finally mustered the courage to face her friend, she approached with trembling hands and a heart full of regret. The willingness to apologize was difficult, but it opened the door to healing. This illustrates the daunting task of making amends; while the act might be uncomfortable, it often leads to deeper relationships built on honesty and trust.

What has it been like for you when you have had to do this exact thing?

Jacob Meets Esau

*RECAP THE ESCAPE FROM LABAN*

Genesis 32:1–23 LSB

1 Now Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him. 2 Then Jacob said when he saw them, “This is God’s camp.” So he named that place Mahanaim. 3 Then Jacob sent messengers before him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom. 4 He also commanded them saying, “Thus you shall say to my lord, to Esau: ‘Thus says your servant Jacob, “I have sojourned with Laban and have been delayed until now; 5 And I have oxen and donkeys and flocks and male and female slaves; and I have sent to tell my lord, that I may find favor in your sight.” ’ ” 6 Then the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, “We came to your brother, to Esau, and furthermore he is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him.” 7 Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed; and he divided the people who were with him, and the flocks and the herds and the camels, into two camps. 8 And he said, “If Esau comes to the one camp and strikes it, then the camp which remains will escape.” 9 And Jacob said, “O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O Yahweh, who said to me, ‘Return to your land and to your kin, and I will prosper you,’ 10 I am unworthy of all the lovingkindness and of all the truth which You have shown to Your slave; for with my staff only I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two camps. 11 “Deliver me, I pray, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau; for I fear him, lest he come and strike me down with the mothers and the children. 12 “For You said, ‘I will surely prosper you and make your seed as the sand of the sea, which is too great to be numbered.’” 13 So he spent the night there. Then he took from what he had with him a present for his brother Esau: 14 two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, 15 thirty milking camels and their colts, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys. 16 And he gave them into the hand of his servants, every flock by itself, and said to his servants, “Pass on before me and put a space between flocks.” 17 And he commanded the first one in front, saying, “When my brother Esau meets you and asks you, saying, ‘To whom do you belong, and where are you going, and to whom do these animals in front of you belong?’ 18 then you shall say, ‘These belong to your servant Jacob; it is a present sent to my lord, to Esau. And behold, he also is behind us.’” 19 Then he commanded also the second and the third and all those who followed the flocks, saying, “After this manner you shall speak to Esau when you find him; 20 and you shall say, ‘Behold, your servant Jacob also is behind us.’” For he said, “I will appease his face with the present that goes before me. Then afterward I will see his face; perhaps he will lift up my face.” 21 So the present passed on before him, while he himself spent that night in the camp. 22 And he arose that same night and took his two wives and his two servant-women and his eleven children and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. 23 And he took them and sent them across the stream. And he sent across whatever he had.

First Things First

Jacob decided the first thing he was going to do was pray!

When you are in a stressful situation in life, what is often the very first thing you do about it?

Panic attack

Plan a way through it

Seek Advice

When we try to do things like this our own way, it rarely goes the way we would like it to. Trying to control things like this is often like clutching sand: it simply slips away from us.

Jacob knew he could not do this one on his own, and the first thing he seems to do is pray. He has gotten a lot of things wrong, historically, but this time he gets it right — and hear what he prays to God:

Genesis 32:9–11 “9 And Jacob said, “O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O Yahweh, who said to me, ‘Return to your land and to your kin, and I will prosper you,’ 10 I am unworthy of all the lovingkindness and of all the truth which You have shown to Your slave; for with my staff only I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two camps. 11 “Deliver me, I pray, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau; for I fear him, lest he come and strike me down with the mothers and the children.”

See what faith Jacob has, recognizing humbly what God had done for him in his life, and even that he by no means deserved the “lovingkindness and truth [faithfulness]” which God gave him.

Finally Reconciling

How would you feel about meeting Esau again if you were Jacob?

Scared

Anxious

Ready to fight

To me, it is completely understandable why he is sending out separate camps to his brother with gifts upon gifts — he is scared that if he does not come humbly then Esau will still kill him!

Jacob, perhaps, is showing us how we ought to approach those whom we have wronged:

Prayerfully and in full humility and repentance of our wrongdoing.

Full Forgiveness

Genesis 33:1–17 LSB

1 Then Jacob lifted up his eyes and saw, and behold, Esau was coming, and four hundred men with him. So he divided the children among Leah and Rachel and the two servant-women. 2 And he put the servant-women and their children first, and Leah and her children after them, and Rachel and Joseph after them. 3 But he himself passed on ahead of them and bowed down to the ground seven times, until he came near to his brother. 4 Then Esau ran to meet him and embraced him and fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept. 5 And he lifted up his eyes and saw the women and the children and said, “Who are these with you?” And he said, “The children whom God has graciously given your servant.” 6 Then the servant-women came near with their children, and they bowed down. 7 Leah likewise came near with her children, and they bowed down; and afterward Joseph came near with Rachel, and they bowed down. 8 And he said, “What do you mean by all these camps which I have met?” And he said, “To find favor in the sight of my lord.” 9 But Esau said, “I have plenty, my brother; let what you have be your own.” 10 And Jacob said, “No, please, if now I have found favor in your sight, then take my present from my hand, for I see your face as one sees the face of God, and you have received me favorably. 11 “Please take my blessing which has been brought to you, because God has dealt graciously with me and because I have everything.” Thus he urged him, and he took it. 12 Then Esau said, “Let us take our journey and go, and I will go before you.” 13 But he said to him, “My lord knows that the children are weak and that the flocks and herds which are nursing are a care to me. And if they are driven hard one day, all the flocks will die. 14 “Please let my lord pass on before his servant, and I will lead on slowly, according to the pace of the cattle that are before me and according to the pace of the children, until I come to my lord at Seir.” 15 Then Esau said, “Please let me leave with you some of the people who are with me.” But he said, “Why do this? Let me find favor in the sight of my lord.” 16 So Esau returned that day on his way to Seir. 17 But Jacob journeyed to Succoth and built for himself a house and made booths for his livestock; therefore the place is named Succoth.

Did Jacob end up getting from Esau what he expected?

What did he receive?

Full forgiveness!

Ephesians 4:32 “32 Instead, be kind to one another, tender-hearted, graciously forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has graciously forgiven you.”

Colossians 3:13 “13 bearing with one another, and graciously forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone, just as the Lord graciously forgave you, so also should you.”