Lamp and Light Bible Reading Plan

February 7, 2026 - Genesis 33 & Psalm 29

• Josiah Smith - Compass Bible Church South Valley

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Jacob bows low before Esau and finds embrace instead of wrath, tracing a path from trickster to transformed man who trusts God’s promises. We link Genesis 33 with Psalm 29 to show how humility, worship, and right attribution glorifies God. 

For more information about Compass Bible Church South Valley, visit compassbiblesv.org. Keep reading. Keep growing. God’s Word is a lamp to your feet, and a light to your path.

SPEAKER_00:

Welcome to the Lamp and Light Bible Reading Plan, where we are seeking to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength with God's word lighting the way. I'm Josiah Smith, joined by Tyler Sanborn. Today is Saturday, February seventh, twenty twenty-six. Listen intently to God's written word. Genesis thirty-three. And Jacob lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, Esau was coming, and four hundred men with him. So he divided the children among Leah and Rachel, and the two female servants, and he put the servants with their children in front, then Leah with her children, and Rachel and Joseph last of all. He himself went on before them, bowing himself to the ground seven times until he came near to his brother. But Esau ran to meet him and embraced him, and fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept. And when Esau lifted up his eyes and saw the women and children, he said, Who are these with you? Jacob said, The children whom God has graciously given your servant. Then the servants drew near, they and their children and bowed down. Leah likewise and her children drew near and bowed down, and last Joseph and Rachel drew near, and they bowed down. Esau said, What do you mean by all this company that I met? Jacob answered, To find favor in the sight of my Lord. But Esau said, I have enough, my brother. Keep what you have for yourself. Jacob said, No, please, if I have found favor in your sight, then accept my present from my hand, for I have seen your face, which is like seeing the face of God, and you have accepted me. Please accept my blessing that is brought to you, because God has dealt graciously with me, and because I have enough. Thus he urged him, and he took it. Then Esau said, Let us journey on our way, and I will go ahead of you. But Jacob said to him, My Lord knows that the children are frail, and that the nursing flocks and herds are a care to me. If they are driven hard for one day, all the flocks will die. Let my lord pass on ahead of his servant, and I will lead on slowly at the pace of the livestock that are ahead of me, and at the pace of the children until I come to my lord and seer. So Esau said, Let me leave with you some of the people who are with me. But he said, What need is there? Let me favor let me find favor in the sight of my lord. So Esau returned that day on his way to Seir. But Jacob journeyed to Succoth, and built himself a house and made booths for his livestock. Therefore the name of the place is called Sucath. And Jacob came safely to the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, on his way from Padan Aram, and he camped before the city, and from the sons of Hamer, Shechem's father, he bought for a hundred pieces of money the piece of land on which he had pitched his tent. There he erected an altar and called it El Elohisrael.

SPEAKER_01:

Psalm twenty-nine. Ascribe to the Lord, O heavenly beings, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. Ascribe to the Lord the glory do his name. Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness. The voice of the Lord is over the waters. The God of glory thunders. The Lord over many waters. The voice of the Lord is powerful. The voice of the Lord is full of majesty. The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars. The Lord breaks the cedars of Lebanon. He makes Lebanon to skip like a calf. In Syrian like a young wild ox. The voice of the Lord flashes forth flames of fire. The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness. The Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh. The voice of the Lord makes the deer give birth and strips the forest bare. And in his temple all cry, Glory. The Lord sits enthroned over the flood. The Lord sits enthroned as king forever. May the Lord give strength to his people. May the Lord bless his people with peace.

SPEAKER_00:

We've come pretty much full circle with good old Jacob, the the trickster in his youth, is now in a very different position and seems to have a very different kind of character. At the beginning of Genesis 33, when Jacob is drawing near to Esau, of course, he's had some anxiety, he's had some fear, he had the moment of wrestling with God, God making again the promise that he would be protected. Uh it says in verse 3, he himself went on before them, bowing himself to the ground seven times until he came near to his brother. Now, this man we think of really the beginnings of the relationship between Jacob and Esau, Tyler, where Jacob, in a sense, was elevating himself above his brother in some pretty dramatic and direct ways. He took the inheritance. Esau's the firstborn. And so, in a in terms of number and order, Esau is supposed to be above Jacob, but Jacob took that from him. He asserted himself above his brother and did the same thing by tricking his father Isaac into giving him the blessing. And we talked about that as well. So he has consistently, or at least years prior, he was pretty persistent in elevating himself above his brother. And what do we see here? We see the opposite. What an encouragement. Yeah, where he is lowering himself. And I do think there's some level of humility. You were talking about that before we began recording. There's some level of humility that we see showcased here. But I also think Jacob is now a man who has wrestled with God. He's now a man who whose faith has been refined in a lot of ways. And so uh on this loop, and it seems like maybe even Esau as well, that we don't know the specifics there. Of course, he doesn't um he doesn't harm Jacob in any way. He doesn't seek to retaliate. Uh, there's other places in scripture that talk about Esau actually never repented. Uh, but at least in this moment, God is faithful and doesn't allow Esau to bring any harm. And there seems to be some level of reconciliation between Esau and Jacob. But nevertheless, Jacob is showcasing the faith of someone that has kind of been through the fire a little bit and had a lot of circumstances where his faith has been refined, and that culminated in chapter 32 with him wrestling directly with God. So I think it's an encouragement uh for you and I, Tyler, and for our church to know that the circumstances in our life that we may stumble through, to be honest, and that we may do imperfectly, we may make the wrong decisions, we may uh even engage willfully in uh sin at times uh through the faithfulness of God and just the consistent growth that comes from walking with the Lord, uh, we can see incremental transformation in our life. And so we can uh looking back, we can see the kind of trajectory that we see with Jacob, where he begins as this trickster. And now he seems to be someone who's uh stronger in his faith, who has dependence on the Lord. And again, what a great encouragement for us to know that where we are today is not necessarily where we will be tomorrow. Uh, if we continue to pursue the Lord and if we continue uh to trust in his promises, God can be faithful to shape us, to humble us, and to grow us in our faith.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, there's a great encouragement there to even look, look within and and see how how God is shaping us. And you might be in a position now where you're struggling with with sin and you don't want to struggle with it. And there's uh there's a hope for us who are in Christ. We can look to see that uh God who has begun a good work will continue and he will continue continue to keep shaping us and molding us, though we may take a step back or two steps back, but uh we talk we talk about um direction, we talk about the direction, not the perfection of our faith. One day our faith will be made will be made perfect when we see Christ face to face. But this is a great encouragement for us. If you're holding on, some some people like to hold on to their past mistakes and somehow like assign identity in them. But if you've been forgiven by God, if you've been forgiven by others, you may be dealing with the stinging effects of your past sin, but there is a way to move forward, there is a way to reconcile and to humble yourself before others, to confess your sin to others, and to seek forgiveness.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, and I want to draw your attention to just a textual connection between chapter 33 and chapter 32, when Esau and Jacob are kind of going back and forth. It says in verse 9, Esau said, I have enough, my brother, keep what you have for yourself. So Jacob's trying to give him all these gifts and things like that, and Esau's trying to refuse. But in verse 10, Jacob said, No, please, I have found favor in your sight, then accept my present from my hand. For I have seen your face, which is like seeing the face of God, and you have accepted me. And again, if we're good Bible readers, that should kind of have uh an alarm bell going off in our heads. Where have we seen that before? I have seen your face. Well, we saw that uh just in the previous chapter, in chapter 32, uh, verse 30, it says, So Jacob called the name of the place Pineel, saying, For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered. So I think it's intentional that Jacob says that about his brother Esau. Of course, he's not saying that he's seeing God in Esau's face. I think what he is saying, though, is that he is seeing the faithfulness of God as he's looking upon his brother, who in uh an earthly perspective had every right to be angry, had every right to have murderous intent for what Jacob had done and the way that he had treated him. And so the way that Esau received Jacob, I think he's attributing that reception and uh just the uh the weeping that they do together. And it seems like, again, some some sense of reconciliation or some restored relationship, Jacob attributes that to God. And so I think that's why he says, I've seen your face, which is like seeing the face of God. He's recalling back to uh when he was wrestling with the Lord and just the promises that God was making to him, uh, and even just the faith that was kind of solidified as a result of that wrestling that we talked about yesterday. And here again, he's saying, Okay, uh the wrestling that I did is now giving me a new perspective as I view my brother and I view this interaction. I see this as again a blessing from the Lord, a provision from him. He is the one that has caused this to go the way that it is, and what a great thing for Jacob to get to that point where he trusts in the Lord and attributes that in this situation.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

And making a connection here to our psalm, Psalm 29 today. I'm trying to imagine Jacob reading the first handful of verses of Psalm 29. And uh we read Um, ascribe to the Lord, O heavenly beings, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength, ascribe to the Lord, glory to his name, worship the Lord in splendor and holiness. And then he's surely recalling how God is with him and how God has wrestled with him, and he's in a position to where uh this is a very intimidating thing he's about to go and do. He's gonna go and meet his brother for the first time in many, many years, face to face. And uh, and he's going to walk forward in in confidence because he's giving God the glory. I I can imagine him saying, This is intimidating, God. I I don't want to do this, but I know this is the direction that you're leading me. I know this is where I must go. Uh, and God, whatever happens, you're gonna get the worship no matter the outcome, you're gonna get the glory because you deserve it. And and this is where you're leading me. So I'm gonna follow you. And um, that's a great reminder for us to when when we see God working in our lives, yeah, when we see relationships being restored in real time, people coming to faith in Christ. What are we gonna do? High-five each other? Surely we're gonna celebrate.

SPEAKER_00:

Be quick to surely, surely be quick to say, uh, I have I have seen the the face of God, right? Uh, at least in that uh proverbial sense of his work and the results of his providence. And uh we see that again in Psalm 29, ascribing to the Lord the glory due to his name. And I think one way that we can do that very practically is when we notice growth in others, when we notice protection, when we notice provision, uh, we say, Hey, this was this was a gift from the Lord. And really that that kind of stirs a thankfulness and a gratitude to us, which the scriptures have much to say about. Uh, but we see that's what Jacob does. And uh we see here in Psalm 29, just this list uh that is being recounted of uh who the Lord is, his power, verse 5 the voice of the Lord breaks the cedars, the Lord breaks the cedars of Lebanon, he makes Lebanon to skip like a calf, and Syrian like a young wild ox. The voice of the Lord flashes forth flames of fire, and just this list goes on. Uh, but I think, yeah, we we need to have a a greater sensitivity to the work that the Lord is doing in our lives and the lives of other and others, and be quick to say, uh, you know, blessed be the name of the Lord, and ascribe the glory that is ultimately due to his name.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, the the things that are are on my mind as we go from season to season. Sometimes I I look at the Thanksgiving season and I think about uh the ways that God has worked specifically um in those months, even as so there's seasons of of remembrance, seasons of uh even of recognizing hard times, um, hard times that over in God's goodness, over time, he has healed and he has uh comforted us through these hard times. So you might be looking at an anniversary, you might be listening to this, you might be thinking about um a relationship that is lost, or you might be thinking about um a relationship that you hope God will one day restore. And we can look to uh we can look to a psalm like this and and and remember if anything good happens in this, if anything um that I've been praying for comes comes to pass that I know is gonna honor God, we can we can bless his name, we can honor the Lord. Uh we can together and and share in life groups, we can share uh these these victories that that God has done and in worship with people that are calling upon the Lord together. And that is some of the richest times I've experienced as when men in my life, we've been collectively praying for something, and then God answers the prayer. Uh we can we can rejoice and and report back the news that God has done, and and what a rich encouragement that is to us.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, and one more quick note just to connect that again to Genesis 33. Uh verse 18 says, And Jacob came safely to the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, the land that God promised, the land that God is providing, and even the journey that it took for Jacob to get there. Uh he had some detours with Laban and other things, obviously getting kind of sent away, banished of sorts because of uh his brother's murderous intent. But here he is, and the text makes it clear he arrived safely. And again, that's that's not just a small detail that that's a I think that's a that's a neon sign that says God did it, God provided, he kept his promise, he did what he said he would do. Uh and I mean that's just Genesis uh as a whole is who is this God? He is faithful, he is true to his word, he keeps his promises. And in verse 18, Jacob came safely to the city of Sid of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan. And so uh what a great thing there. We're gonna see uh the story continue, and we're gonna pick it up with Joseph and and uh some other uh main characters here in the book of Genesis as we continue. But uh, this book as a whole is about the faithfulness of God to keep his promises. And so we again just we need to make sure that we're paying attention uh to the ways that the Lord provides for us, uh, for the ways that the Lord protects us, for the for the ways that the Lord keeps us safe, for the ways that the Lord grows us and uh showcases his mercy and his kindness to us. And let's be quick to ascribe the glory to his name as a result of that. And let's have the response that Jacob has, where he recognizes God's fingerprints, so to speak, uh, all over the situation between him and his brother. Well, thanks for joining us today on the Lamp and Light Bible Reading Podcast. For more information about Compass Bible Church South Valley, visit compass bible sv dot org. Keep reading, keep growing. God's word is a lamp to your feet and a light to your path.