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Esau and Jacob – Preparing to Face Danger

Genesis 32: 13-32

(2447b)

I’ll just remind you where we are up to. Jacob is back in the land of Canaan and hears his brother is coming out to meet him, but with 400 men and Jacob is very afraid because he thinks his brother might be coming to kill not just him but his whole family as well. So, in response he initially divides his family into two camps, and then he prays. Let’s pick up the story at verse 13 and see what he does next.

“So, he lodged there that same night, and took what came to his hand as a present for Esau his brother:  two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, thirty milk camels with their colts, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten foals. Then he delivered them to the hand of his servants, every herd by itself, and said to his servants, “Pass over before me, and put some distance between successive droves.”

(Genesis 32: 13-16)

The third thing he’s going to do is he’s going to send Esau some presents. He has a plan, he prays, and now he sends him a present.  There were a lot of animals here, I think this 580 don’t count, I’ve already done the adding up. He hands them over to his servants  and he says go out to meet Esau with all the animals in fount of you.  

“And he commanded the first one, saying, “When Esau my brother meets you and asks you, saying, ‘To whom do you belong, and where are you going? Whose are these in front of you?’  then you shall say, ‘They are your servant, Jacob’s. It is a present sent to my lord Esau; and behold, he also is behind us.’

(Genesis 32: 17-18)

“So he commanded the second, the third, and all who followed the droves, saying, “In this manner you shall speak to Esau when you find him; and also say, ‘Behold, your servant Jacob is behind us.’ ” For he said, “I will appease him with the present that goes before me, and afterward I will see his face; perhaps he will accept me.” So the present went on over before him, but he himself lodged that night in the camp.

(Genesis 32: 19-21)

He tells all the servants to say the same thing in the hope that he can  appease Esau with the good will offerings he is sending him. The presents go out first but he himself sleeps that night in the camp. Very simply what’s happening here is he’s gathered this large, huge group of animals and he divides them into at least three groups, and he puts a distance between each group, and says to his servants, head out and when you meet Esau and Esau ask who you are? You answer, my Lord, this is a present from your brother. This means, Esau will get a third of the animals and then he travels a little further and he meets the second group and get a second third and so on, and so on. It is very clear what he’s doing. He’s showering Esau with presents to soften him up. That is why verse 20 says,  “I will appease him with the presents”. That’s the point of versus 13 through 21, everything he does is to appease Esau. Then he says at the end of verse 20, “perhaps he will accept me”, meaning he won’t kill me. 

So, this is the final part of his 3-part plan. He prayed, he’s trusting the Lord and at the same time he acted responsibly and tried to make things right by offering gifts. Doing something responsible and exercising faith are not incompatible, sometimes we  should do both. He had a plan, prayed, trusted the Lord, and at the same time did everything he could to make peace and avoid  further conflict in the future. So how should we handle points of conflict or even potentially points of danger. Answer, just like this.

Firstly, have a plan in case danger comes. Secondly, do you think that maybe you should pray? Hopefully you already knew that. Pray but sometimes the plan might involve you giving the other party what they want. If you find you self facing a 1-1 conflict in the future I wonder if you have ever asked the other person simply, what can you do to make things right. That’s not the end of the story. We’ll get to that in a minute.  In the meantime, look at verse 22. 

“And he arose that night and took his two wives, his two female servants, and his eleven sons, and crossed over the ford of Jabbok. He took them, sent them over the brook, and sent over what he had. Then Jacob was left alone; and a Man wrestled with him until the breaking of day”.

(Genesis 32: 22-24)

A man. What’s that all about? In my Bible, the word Man is capitalized, so this is no ordinary man, which is why it is capitalized in every Bible by the way. Who is this guy? Well, you can imagine the commentators go into overdrive trying to explain this. Some say it was the Lord, others say no. it was a real man.  Some say he wrestled with an angle, but that angel was the angel of the Lord, but I want to tell you what Jacob said about this wrestling match. We get there in a minute, but I want to get ahead of the story  and drop in verse 30. 

So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.”

(Genesis 32: 30)

I pointed out before that there is a figure in Genesis called the ‘Angel of the Lord’, which many say is the Lord himself. I would say, and I agree, that this is an Old Testament appearance of the preincarnate Christ. I think that’s what’s going on here and so do many, many other Bible teachers. Let’s see what’s going to happen is he meets the Lord and go back to verset 25. 

“Now when He saw that He did not prevail against him, He touched the socket of his hip; and the socket of Jacob’s hip was out of joint as He wrestled with him. And He said, “Let Me go, for the day breaks.” But he said, “I will not let You go unless You bless me!” 

(Genesis 32: 25-26)

They are apparently wrestling all night, but the question that raises in my mind is , if this is the Lord, surely, he has enough strength to overpower Jacob, right? The Lords wrestling with you would be like a grown man wrestling with a 4-year-old child. But sometimes when a father wrestles with a child he lets the kid get the best of him for a minute. Just because the father has all the power doesn’t mean he has to use it. Jacob is not giving up and he says, I’m not going to let go until you bless me. There’s a clue, whoever this is has the power to blessing and Jacob do that. So, verse 27,

“So, He said to him, “What is your name?” He said, “Jacob.” And He said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel; for you have struggled with God and with men, and have prevailed.” Then Jacob asked, saying, “Tell me Your name, I pray.” And He said, “Why is it that you ask about My name?” And He blessed him there”.

(Genesis 32: 27-29)

So, he says he said to him. What is your name? OK, I’m going to bless you, and he replied, Jacob, and he said your name should be no longer called Jacob, but Israel, for you have struggled with God and with men and have prevailed. 

“So, Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: “For I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.” Just as he crossed over Penuel the sun rose on him, and he limped on his  hip. Therefore to this day the children of Israel do not eat the muscle that shrank, which is on the hip socket, because He touched the socket of Jacob’s hip in the muscle that shrank”.

(Genesis 32: 30-32)

That custom, by the way, is not repeated in the mosaic law, but the children of Israel did this as a memorial to Jacob at least until the day the Book of Genesis was written. But it did not get perpetuated past this point or ratified under the Mosaic law going forward. This is a very famous passage of scripture, and everybody seems to agree that what is going on is Jacob is wrestling with the Lord and says I’m not turning you lose until you bless me. The application of that is that we are to wrestle with the Lord in prayer and not stop loose until he blesses us. In the process, he changed his name from Jacob, by the way do you remember what Jacob meant? He was named a long time ago when he and his twin brother were born. They were twins and they came out and he grabbed the heel of his brother, so he got named Jacob which means heal-grabber. He has now had his name changed to Israel, which means God is upright. So, the story doesn’t end here and there more to say in chapter 33. At this point in the narrative, he has faced danger and because of that he made a plan to protect his family. He prayed and offered presents today to prevent any conflict with his brother. Then he wrestles with the Lord until the Lord promises to bless him and the text says God blessed him there and changed his name to Israel. 

I want to conclude by breaking any possible application into very small little bites. Have you ever faced danger, or have you ever made some very angry with you? Well, I believe we should do what Jacob did and the first thing he did is he made a plan. He developed a plan for protection. Some say that his plan indicates that he was not trusting the Lord completely, and I personally disagree with that. I don’t think there’s anything in the Bible that says you should not do what is practical whilst at the same time trusting in the Lord, and I think that’s what he did.

Firstly, pray, pray a lot. This whole chapters is about prayer, but in the process he had some well thought out plans as well, and that’s what we should do. Second thing I would say he developed the plan and he deeply desired God’s blessing. He wasn’t just trying to get out of the danger. He wanted to have God blessing to the point where he wrestled with God to get it. That doesn’t mean we have to have the Jacob experience to get God to bless us. Jacob had to wrestle with the Lord to the point where he had to walk with a limp the rest of his life. Do we have battle with God to the point whereby were marked for life in order for God to bless us in? The answer is no, and I would quickly add that Abraham and Isaac didn’t need to do this. The point is that he wrestled with the Lord, the point is that you deeply desire God’s blessing and say I’m going to pray until you bless me but the thing, I would say is that he was dependent on the Lord, and he did from the very beginning. He prayed Lord, you said you would protect me, and he recognized that he was not worthy of God’s blessing. And when he was facing danger, he also prayed.

I can’t think of a more perfect, prayer. It recognizes who God is and it recognizes who he was. It recognizes that God is the sovereign source of all blessing, and it recognizes that we no claim on than that than Lord has promised it. So, it’s not that he earned it, it is that God promised it. Matter of fact, do you remember Jacob was a deceiver and a scoundrel and a liar. Yet he reaches a point where he comes to the Lord and says I’m not worthy, but because you promised it, I’m hanging on. I want to also finally say he not only made a plan but he developed the plan. He deeply desired God’s blessing and he remained determined to receive it. He wouldn’t let go of God, he said, I’m not quitting. He wrestled all night with the Lord and said, “I’m not quitting”. If you knock my hip out of joint, I’m not quitting. Going to constantly badger you until you answer me and bless me. That’s what’s going on here.  He said, Lord, I want your blessing and I’m determined to get it even if I have to wrestle all night with you to get it. So that’s what we need to do, we need. to wrestle with the Lord, which for us means prayer.

I mentioned earlier George Mueller, who was a great example of prayer? At one point in life, George Mueller prayed for five of his friends. After many months, one of them came to the Lord, 10 years later, another was converted. It took a quarter of a century before the 3rd man got saved, and 25 years later the 4th was saved. But Mueller never gave up, he persisted in prayer until his for the fourth. The last of the five he prayed for. You ready for this? took 52 years but he only came to faith a few days after Georges own funeral.

What we need to do folks, is we all need to pray. Pray, pray, pray, pray, pray all night. All week, all month, all year, every ear, for a decade, for half a century, all our lives if necessary. A prayer like Jacob’s that says, “Lord, I am determined you are going to do what you have promised to do, and I going to trust that you will do it because I know you and I know your character, and I’m going to keep praying until you bless me. Amen