Genesis 32.13-21-Jacob Sends Gifts to Esau
Wednesday August 23, 2006
Genesis: Genesis 32:13-21-Jacob Sends Gifts to Esau
Lesson # 192
Please turn in your Bibles to Genesis 32:1.
In Genesis 32:1-2, we saw Jacob encountering the angels of God as he was returning to the land of Canaan and naming the place, “Mahanaim,” which means, “two camps.”
This encounter with the elect angels of God was designed to reassure Jacob once again of the divine presence and protection.
Then, we noted Genesis 32:3-6, where Jacob sends a delegation to his brother in order to communicate to him his desire to reconcile with him but Jacob receives information from the messengers that Esau is coming with four hundred men to meet him.
As we noted the delegation did not make contact with Esau and therefore, did not convey Jacob’s message to Esau but rather they simply turned around after seeing Esau coming with four hundred men and assumed that Esau had hostile intentions.
In Genesis 32:7-8, we saw Jacob’s response to this information, which was to divide his family into two companies in order to save lives.
Then, we noted Genesis 32:9-12 where Jacob prayed for protection from Esau and claims the covenant promises of God (32:9-12) in order to meet his fear of Esau.
This evening we will study Genesis 32:13-21, which presents to us the record of Jacob sending gifts to Esau to restore stealing the blessing of the birthright and thus pacifying him in case Esau has hostile intentions towards him.
Genesis 32:1, “Now as Jacob went on his way, the angels of God met him.”
Genesis 32:2, “Jacob said when he saw them, ‘This is God's camp.’ So he named that place Mahanaim.”
Genesis 32:3, “Then Jacob sent messengers before him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom.”
Genesis 32:4-5, “He also commanded them saying, ‘Thus you shall say to my lord Esau: ‘Thus says your servant Jacob, ‘I have sojourned with Laban, and stayed until now; I have oxen and donkeys and flocks and male and female servants; and I have sent to tell my lord, that I may find favor in your sight.’”
Genesis 32:6, “The messengers returned to Jacob, saying, ‘We came to your brother Esau, and furthermore he is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him.’”
Genesis 32:7-8, “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 companies; for he said, ‘If Esau comes to the one company and attacks it, then the company which is left will escape.’”
Genesis 32:9-10, “Jacob said, ‘O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O LORD, who said to me, ‘Return to your country and to your relatives, and I will prosper you, I am unworthy of all the lovingkindness and of all the faithfulness which You have shown to Your servant; for with my staff only I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two companies.’”
Genesis 32:11, “Deliver me, I pray, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau; for I fear him, that he will come and attack me and the mothers with the children.”
Genesis 32:12, “For You said, ‘I will surely prosper you and make your descendants as the sand of the sea, which is too great to be numbered.’”
Genesis 32:13-15, “So he spent the night there. Then he selected from what he had with him a present for his brother Esau: two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, thirty milking camels and their colts, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys.”
When Genesis 32:13 records that Jacob “spent the night there” it is referring to “Mahanaim,” which according to Genesis 32:2 was the place that he encountered the elect angels.
“Mahanaim” is the proper noun machanayim (<y!n^j&m^) (makh-ah-na-yim), which means, “two camps,” referring to Jacob’s human encampment and the angels encampment and was located on the Jabbok River, along which the major east-west trade route connecting the Trans-jordan King’s Highway and the coastal Via Maris run.
The statement “Then he selected from what he had with him” indicates that Jacob had little time to assemble these animals and simply took whatever was brought to him and did not have the opportunity to inspect them since this was done at night.
A comparison of Genesis 32:13 and 21-22 indicates that after his prayer to the Lord for deliverance and during that same night, Jacob decided it proper to send a very gracious gift to Esau.
Genesis 32:14 records that Jacob sent Esau two hundred female goats and twenty male goats.
Goats were domesticated as early as 3000 B.C. and their milk, butter, cheese and meat provided sustenance.
Goat hair and hides were useful in making clothing and containers for liquids.
Genesis 32:14 also records that Jacob sent Esau two hundred ewes or female sheep and twenty rams or mature male sheep.
Genesis 32:15 records that Jacob sent Esau thirty milking or nursing camels and their colts.
The camel was a prime beast of burden and a prime measure of wealth in the ancient Near East, owing both to its ability to store water and to survive on desert and steppe scrub.
With the camel’s domestication, overland trade routes to the remote spice regions of the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula were opened to the rest of the ancient Near Eastern economic sphere.
Camels were used for milk and hides and their skins were used for sandals.
The Israelites were prohibited from eating the meat of camels (Lev. 11:4; Deut. 14:7).
However, camel meat is a common part of the diet of Arabic peoples today and was also part of the diet of many biblical peoples.
The possession of many camels implied that the owner was engaged in caravanning.
The camel was used for riding and as a beast of burden and for recreational purposes such as racing.
Genesis 32:15 records that Jacob also sent Esau forty cows and ten bulls as well as twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys.
These animals were valuable for transportation, milk and leather.
The females are especially prized for breeding and thus herd expansion and milking, thus Jacob sends more females than he does males.
Donkeys were domesticated early and were comparatively plentiful.
Therefore, if we do the math, Jacob sent a total of 550 animals, which is not counting the young camels.
This gift was very generous and gracious and was Jacob’s attempt to reconcile with Esau and offer restitution for his deceiving his blind father Isaac into bestowing the blessings of the birthright upon him rather than Esau.
Jacob sends the gifts in increments in order to offer restitution to Esau in case he is still offended by Jacob’s past conduct in relation to the blessing of the birthright.
The animals were sent as free gifts to compensate the wrong Jacob had done to Esau when he deceived his father Isaac into bestowing upon him the blessing of the birthright rather than to Esau.
Bruce K. Waltke, “He is ready to restore the blessing and to recognize Esau as lord (See Proverbs 25:21-22), trusting God to keep His covenant promises (See Genesis 13; 32:9-12)” (Genesis, A Commentary, page 444, Zondervan).
This gift was “not” a bribe on Jacob’s part but rather it was to express that his intentions towards Esau were peaceful and conciliatory and deferential.
Also, this gift was “not” an attempt on Jacob’s part to help God out here and therefore an act of unbelief.
If you recall, Jacob prayed to God for deliverance from Esau in Genesis 32:9-12.
This gift should be “not” construed that Jacob was now forgetting about his prayer to God for deliverance and thinking that he could deliver himself with this gift or help God out with this gift.
Rather, Jacob was doing what was required of him under these circumstances since he had cheated and had been deceitful with Esau in the past and was offering restitution for his past conduct with Esau.
With this gift, Jacob was attempting to offer “restitution” to Esau and make amends for actions against Esau when he had deceived his blind father Isaac into bestowing the blessings of the birthright to him rather than Esau.
The Lord Jesus Christ taught His disciples the doctrine of restitution.
Matthew 5:21, “You have heard that the ancients were told, ‘YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT MURDER’ and ‘Whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court.’”
Matthew 5:22, “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, ‘You good-for-nothing,’ shall be guilty before the Supreme Court; and whoever says, ‘You fool,' shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell.’”
Matthew 5:23-24, “Therefore if you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your offering there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering.”
Matthew 5:25, “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.”
Some propose that the believer when he sins against his fellow believer need only to confess his offense to God who then freely forgives, without any need to seek forgiveness or to resolve the offended horizontal relationship.
Some make the claim that the death of Christ brings experiential forgiveness before God and before men without any further resolution or restitution between men.
These proponents argue that for every sin and crime, one need only to confess to God for total forgiveness experientially.
The victim is then required to forgive based solely upon the positional forgiveness that “he” has personally received in Christ.
This view is proposed from faulty interpretations of the following two passages:
Ephesians 4:32, “Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.”
Colossians 3:13, “bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you.”
If we carry this view to its logical end, the victim must forgive and seek restoration with the perpetrator solely because of the forgiveness of Christ.
Thus, the thief steals, confesses to God, who supposedly totally forgives him, but tough luck for the victim who has lost real property!
The slanderer libels, devastates his target, and confesses to God, who supposedly totally forgives him but tough luck again for the victim with a ruined reputation!
In the case of sin against one’s fellow human being, those who hold that confession to God alone is all that is necessary for forgiveness in the experiential sense remove the basis for criminal law.
They also remove the basis of restitution to victims and some holding this view include in their logic a faulty interpretation of David’s prayer of confession in Psalm 51.
Psalm 51:4a, “Against You, You only, I have sinned and done what is evil in Your sight.”
Thus, with their logic, the thief steals, confesses to God, who supposedly totally forgives him, but tough luck for the victim who has lost real property or the slanderer libels, devastates his target, and confesses to God, who supposedly totally forgives him but tough luck again for the victim with a ruined reputation!
In this way they avoid the command of James 5:16 to confess your sins to one another but to the contrary, we should interpret this passage where the confession of the offender’s sin to the offended party takes place.
Our Lord taught His disciples that if their horizontal relationships with people are not right because of sin, then they are not right in their vertical relationship with God.
For instance, if we don’t forgive our fellow believers, then God won’t forgive us in the experiential sense and thus we won’t be restored to fellowship (Mt. 6:14-15; Mt. 18:21-35).
Matthew 6:14-15, “For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions.”
So, if we have sinned and injured someone whether his or her property or reputation, we must confess it to the injured party and offer restitution, which in some cases, restitution could simply involve an apology.
Sins against society and against one another require civil restitution for experiential forgiveness before God and men, thus, the thief steals, realizes his sin, and confesses to God and his victim, then makes restitution, and God forgives him.
The divine requirement commands men to forgive the repentant offender.
The death of Christ compensated God and the perpetrator compensates the victim by restitution.
The slanderer libels and devastates his target, realizes his sin, confesses to God and the victim, makes restitution, and God forgives him.
The Lord requires men to forgive the repentant man and the death of Christ compensates God whereas restitution compensates the victim.
Leviticus 6 presents clear guidelines about the principles involved when one sins against God and another person.
Leviticus 6:1-3, “Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, ‘When a person sins and acts unfaithfully against the LORD, and deceives his companion in regard to a deposit or a security entrusted to him, or through robbery, or if he has extorted from his companion, or has found what was lost and lied about it and sworn falsely, so that he sins in regard to any one of the things a man may do.”
Leviticus 6:4-5, “then it shall be, when he sins and becomes guilty, that he shall restore what he took by robbery or what he got by extortion, or the deposit which was entrusted to him or the lost thing which he found, or anything about, which he swore falsely; he shall make restitution for it in full and add to it one-fifth more. He shall give it to the one to whom it belongs on the day he presents his guilt offering.”
Leviticus 6:6-7, “Then he shall bring to the priest his guilt offering to the LORD, a ram without defect from the flock, according to your valuation, for a guilt offering, and the priest shall make atonement for him before the LORD, and he will be forgiven for any one of the things which he may have done to incur guilt.”
In the Gospel of Luke, Zaccheus informed the Lord that he gave to those whom he had defrauded four times as much.
Luke 19:8-10, “Zaccheus stopped and said to the Lord, ‘Behold, Lord, half of my possessions I will give to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will give back four times as much.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Today salvation has come to this house, because he, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.’”
Therefore, we see that in Genesis 32:13-21, Jacob is offering restitution to Esau in order to make amends for defrauding Esau when he stole the blessing of the birthright.
Genesis 32:13-15, “So he spent the night there. Then he selected from what he had with him a present for his brother Esau: two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, thirty milking camels and their colts, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys.”
Genesis 32:16, “He delivered them into the hand of his servants, every drove by itself, and said to his servants, ‘Pass on before me, and put a space between droves.’”
Genesis 32:16 records that Jacob divided the animals into five different droves: first the goats (200 female and 20 male), then the sheep (20 male and 200 female), then camels (30) and their young, then the cattle (40 cows and 10 bulls) and then the donkeys (20 female and 10 male).
Jacob told his servants to keep a good distance between each drove of animals so that as a result Esau would receive five separate gifts at different times.
Jacob instructed his servants in command of each drove to inform Esau that each drove of animals was a gift from Jacob who would be following behind them.
Notice also that Jacob gives instructions that each shepherd was to “follow” his herd, rather than lead it in order to impress Esau with the herd and then the message that the herd was a gift for him.
Genesis 32:17, “He commanded the 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?’”
Genesis 32:18, “then you shall say, ‘These belong to your servant Jacob; it is a present sent to my lord Esau. And behold, he also is behind us.’”
Genesis 32:19-20, “Then he commanded also the second and the third, and all those who followed the droves, saying, ‘After this manner you shall speak to Esau when you find him and you shall say, ‘Behold, your servant Jacob also is behind us.’ For he said, ‘I will appease him with the present that goes before me. Then afterward I will see his face; perhaps he will accept me.’”
“Appease” is the piel form of the verb kaphar (rp^K*), which in the context of Esau and Jacob’s relationship at this point refers to “reconciling” or “repairing” their relationship.
The implication of this word is that with this gift Esau would be visually blocked from seeing Jacob’s transgression of twenty years earlier or in other words, the gift was designed to “cover” the sin that Jacob had committed against Esau some twenty years earlier.
Genesis 32:21, “So the present passed on before him, while he himself spent that night in the camp.”
