Jacob Part 19: The Reunion of Jacob and Esau

The Reunion of Jacob and Esau

We have the sending of messengers to Esau. He's coming with 400 men. We have the wrestling with God, seeing him face to face. Yaaqov is now the wounded servant. But he has the blessing, he has the blessing of God.

The blessing of God is a dangerous thing to one's own health. It can be both a blessing and a dangerous thing at the same time. Just like the presence of God. It isn’t something to be taken lightly.

We're gonna now come to the third and final bit of the opening of act three and it's where he meets his brother. It's 20 years, this culminating moment.

This is Genesis 33, verse 1.

Genesis 33:1–17 CSB

1 Now Jacob looked up and saw Esau coming toward him with four hundred men. So he divided the children among Leah, Rachel, and the two slave women. 2 He put the slaves and their children first, Leah and her children next, and Rachel and Joseph last. 3 He himself went on ahead and bowed to the ground seven times until he approached his brother. 4 But Esau ran to meet him, hugged him, threw his arms around him, and kissed him. Then they wept. 5 When Esau looked up and saw the women and children, he asked, “Who are these with you?” He answered, “The children God has graciously given your servant.” 6 Then the slaves and their children approached him and bowed down. 7 Leah and her children also approached and bowed down, and then Joseph and Rachel approached and bowed down. 8 So Esau said, “What do you mean by this whole procession I met?” “To find favor with you, my lord,” he answered. 9 “I have enough, my brother,” Esau replied. “Keep what you have.” 10 But Jacob said, “No, please! If I have found favor with you, take this gift from me. For indeed, I have seen your face, and it is like seeing God’s face, since you have accepted me. 11 Please take my present that was brought to you, because God has been gracious to me and I have everything I need.” So Jacob urged him until he accepted. 12 Then Esau said, “Let’s move on, and I’ll go ahead of you.” 13 Jacob replied, “My lord knows that the children are weak, and I have nursing flocks and herds. If they are driven hard for one day, the whole herd will die. 14 Let my lord go ahead of his servant. I will continue on slowly, at a pace suited to the livestock and the children, until I come to my lord at Seir.” 15 Esau said, “Let me leave some of my people with you.” But he replied, “Why do that? Please indulge me, my lord.” 16 That day Esau started on his way back to Seir, 17 but Jacob went to Succoth. He built a house for himself and shelters for his livestock; that is why the place was called Succoth.

"And Yaaqov lifted his eyes and he saw and behold Esau was coming with those 400 men.

And he divided up the children by Leah and by Rakhel and by the two servants.

He put the servants and their children first, Leah and her children afterwards, Rakhel and Yosef afterwards.

And he himself passed on in front, before the face of all of them.

And he bowed down to the ground seven times until he drew near to his brother.

And Esau ran to meet him, he embraced him. He fell on his neck," meaning they collapsed in a hug, "kissing each other and they wept."

Yaaqov put himself in the front after his encounter with God.

Two times we were told Yaaqov's in the back.

Now the wounded servant of Esau puts himself and remember 'cause what's his fear? His fear is he's gonna kill us.

And has that, do we have any indication that that possibility has changed? It's like, here they are. Like, here's the crew. You know, you can picture 'em with spears or whatever coming and he sees them. He sees, like, the small army coming, and he puts himself in front of all of the, it's so powerful.

So he sees, he saw God, and therefore he believes God and the blessing.

remember he was afraid. So he saw that my camp is God's camp. You know, but then the moment he hears about Esau, that's when he was afraid. And then he feared his brother more than he feared God. And now he's able to see the threat. And it's the wounded one who's seen the face then.

You could say this is the moment where he finally does something for others at his expense.

He's risking, in his mindset as far as he knows, he's risking his life.

This is Noah's sacrifice. This is Avraham surrendering his son over to the will and purpose of God. This is Yaaqov surrendering his life over and trusting God.

This is gonna get replayed in the time when Judah, who sold Joseph for 20 shekels and then it's all gonna catch up with him in Joseph's court. And Judah will give his life in the place of Benjamin.

Yaaqov's, right? Yaaqov's other, the other son that will come from Rakhel.

So in other words, these narratives are all designed with these culminating moments when one of the chief characters is faced with this moment of whether they're going to fear God or fear humans and give their life for others.

But this is the first time he does something at his own expense. so it was really, really powerful. You can read right over the sentence and if you haven't tracked with that, you know, you wouldn't see it. But he goes before them.

And something seems to have had to happen to Esau as well. I mean, he goes from, you know, I'm gonna kill you to the total opposite of embracing him and, you know, and this kiss and this weeping of joy. So we see something happening with both of them to bring about this reconciliation.

Even though we are not told about that transformation.

Moving on verse 5

"So Esau lifted his eyes," notice, this all began with Yaaqov lifting his eyes. "Esau lifted his eyes and," what did he see? "Women and the children. And what he said was, 'Who are all these with you?' And Yaaqov said, 'The children with whom God has favored your servant.'" Remember that motif, your servant. He keeps putting himself in servant. So he sees his family now as a result of God's favor.

"And the servants came near with their children and they bowed down like he did. Leah came with her children and they bowed down, afterward, Joseph and Rachel come near, they bowed down and he said, 'What is all of this to you? This huge camp that I'm encountering?' And he said, 'Well, you know, it's for you to find favor in your eyes, my lord.'

And Esau said, 'I have much, my brother.

Keep what's yours, I don't need it.'" Like, this isn't necessary. And Yaaqov, look at what he says. "Yaaqov says, 'No, no, no, no, no. If I have found favor in your eyes, please take my offering from my hand. This is why when I look at you, I see the face of God, and you are accepting me right now.

So please take my blessing, which has been brought to you because God has shown favor to me.

I have everything that I need now.' And he urged him. And so he finally took it."

It's almost like you said that when he's making an offering to his brother, it's like he's making an offering to God.

He puts himself in front, in the place of danger. The danger is passed. We're still not done yet. There's one more step to this, which is to make things right. So this becomes like the second layer of the offering. That's what he says, take the offering 'cause how I'm relating to you right now is how I relate to God. And then look with the arrows, I'm pointing out the symmetrical design of the statements. And so look what matches what. Esau says, "I have much." Jacob says, "No, no, no, I have much." Yaaqov says, "It's to find favor in your eyes because God has shown favor to me." And look, when he says, "take my offering" he repeats that by saying, "take my blessing." Think about it. Take my blessing.

Whose blessing is it?

Finally sharing the blessings.

This is like Cain, this is like what God says to Cain, "Listen, listen. Just 'cause I favored your brother doesn't mean there's nothing for you.

If you do good, there's exaltation for you too."

It turns out that they both are well taken care of and have been for a long time, but Yaaqov's been acting like there's not enough and I've gotta do it. And so his offering is giving back the blessing because I've got all the blessing I need and I took yours.

It’s a switch from a scarcity mindset to a recognition of reality that I have everything I need.

so notice the narrative transformation of Yaaqov takes place in his actions. He gives his life, or at least puts his life in danger. And then, and that's on relation to his family. And then now, it's in relation to his brother. He gives up the thing that he's been striving his whole life for, which is to grab at that blessing.

And he's willing to give it up. And what's interesting is he ends up giving it, but he's still loaded. You know what I mean? He's gonna be just fine.

And at the center of this symmetrical thing is, you know, when Jesus summarizes all of the Torah in two ways, one is "Do to others what you want them to do to you for on this all the Torah and the Prophets hang." And then what he says to the Torah scholar who comes to him and says, "What's the most important command in the Torah?" And then he says two in response, and it's "Love God" and then "Love your neighbor." And there's, somehow they're both the single most important. 

And it's the same idea here. It's like the way you relate to your brother, that is the way that you relate to God, and like, those are never separate things. And so this becomes a little reflection back on the wrestling story 'cause what the man said was you've been wrestling with God and with people, the whole thing is the same thing.

whatever happens next, we can hold onto this moment as another melody of a high point, of the reconciliation of the brothers. So his reconciliation with Lavan was good, it was, you know, let's agree not to kill each other. This, they're like weeping in each other's arms, kissing each other. I mean, this is the reconciliation that one prays for and dreams of. And, like, reality is more often like the situation with Lavan. But this is like a little taste of Eden kind of thing.

Lets keep Going verse 12

"So Esau says, 'Hey brother, let's go hiking together.

Let's journey. Let us go. I will go in front of you.' And he, that is Yaaqov said to him, 'Oh my lord. Surely you know the children here, they're very tender and the flocks and the herds that are nursing, they're with me. You know, they're not fast. You know, even if I drived them, drove them too hard one day, oh, they would all die. So let my lord pass on before his servant. And I will go at my leisure, at the pace that I can go according to the pace of the cattle and the pace of the children. And I'll tell you what, I will meet my lord in Seir.'" In Hairy. But Seir is, it's where Esau's been living. So you go first, I'm gonna be slow, I'll meet you there. "And Esau said, 'Oh, please let me leave some of my people here who are with me.' And Yaaqov said, 'No, what need is there? Just show me favor. Let me have favor in the eyes of my lord.'" Like, what more favor would you want, buddy?

"And so Esau returned that day on his way to Seir. And Yaaqov, he didn't go to Seir, he journeyed on to Sukkoth," Tents.

He's returning to Eden. So he goes to the place of the tents, "and he made for himself a house and he made some tents." He made sukkoth, he goes to Sukkoth and he made some sukkoth. "And this is why the name of the place is Sukkoth."

Here we see Yaaqov's evasive and scheming nature re-emerge. While he clearly wants to be reconciled to his brother, we now wonder about his ultimate motives. Perhaps what he really wants is simply to live in the land of his birth and ancestors, and making peace with Esau is a necessary step. Every response of Yaaqov sounds like a lame excuse. Esau wants to live together, but Yaaqov lets the "weakness" of the flocks and children pose the obstacle (much like he placed the animals and children in front of himself as a human shield in chapter 32).

At the culmination of his excuses, Yaaqov simply lies outright and says he will follow Esau to Seir. He has no intention of doing this, and his actions tell the real story. As soon as Yaaqov and Esau are reunited, Yaaqov tries to get his brother out of his hair and territory. Yaaqov is on a mission to get back into the land and be near his father.

There's the, one of the seven feasts talked about in Leviticus, the annual feast for Israel was Sukkoth. And it's where they go. And you build a sukkoth outside of your normal house, live in it for a week, having feasts every night. And you relive the abundance that God provided in the wilderness for the 40 years. And so that is a later repetition of this theme of Eden in the wilderness. God provides the manna and the quail and the water. So he's providing little Eden oases and tents as they go through the wilderness. So this is the same idea, tent imagery being used to describe his return to Eden. Remember he met, he met those messengers on the way, the divine messengers. So that was a return to Eden image, and now it's a return to the tent.

And so he's back in Eden. The brothers will not dwell together in unity. You thought that they would, and they're at peace with each other, but Yisrael and Edom will in fact turn out to become hostile siblings throughout the rest of the Hebrew Bible. So that's something we'll explore on the other side. That's the final beat of the story.

The Oppression of Dinah

Bibliography

https://bibleproject.com/classroom/jacob

Freedman, David Noel, Gary A. Herion, David F. Graf, John David Pleins, and Astrid B. Beck, eds. in The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary. New York: Doubleday, 1992.

Freedman, David Noel, Allen C. Myers, and Astrid B. Beck. in Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible. Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans, 2000.

Mathews, K. A. Genesis 11:27–50:26. Vol. 1B of The New American Commentary. Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2005.

Brannan, Rick, and Israel Loken. The Lexham Textual Notes on the Bible. Lexham Bible Reference Series. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2014.

Barry, John D., Douglas Mangum, Derek R. Brown, Michael S. Heiser, Miles Custis, Elliot Ritzema, Matthew M. Whitehead, Michael R. Grigoni, and David Bomar. Faithlife Study Bible. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012, 2016.

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https://hebrew4christians.com/Scripture/Parashah/Summaries/Vayetzei/Leah_s_Eyes/leah_s_eyes.html

https://biblepure.com/tender-eyed-meaning-in-the-bible/

https://www.logos.com/grow/tender-eyed-leah-meaning/

John D. Currid, A Study Commentary on Genesis: Genesis 25:19–50:26, EP Study Commentary (Darlington, England; Carlisle, PA: Evangelical Press, 2003), 97–98.

Abraham Kuruvilla, Genesis: A Theological Commentary for Preachers (Eugene, OR: Resource Publications, 2014), 374.

John D. Currid, A Study Commentary on Genesis: Genesis 25:19–50:26, EP Study Commentary (Darlington, England; Carlisle, PA: Evangelical Press, 2003), 97–98.

Abraham Kuruvilla, Genesis: A Theological Commentary for Preachers (Eugene, OR: Resource Publications, 2014), 374.

Scott Noegel's “Sex, Sticks, and Tricksters in Genesis 30:31-43: A New Look at an Old Crux” in Journal of the Ancient Near Eastern Society, vol. 25 (1997), p. 7-17.