Bible Commentaries
Genesis 32

Verses 1-31

XXVIII

JACOB’S MEETING WITH ESAU

Genesis 32:1-34:31

Our last discussion closed with the thirty-first chapter of Genesis, and we had just finished our discussion of Jacob’s meeting with his uncle Laban. In this discussion we take up the thirty-second chapter, which deals with Jacob’s meeting with Esau, his brother, his inveterate enemy, and the method which was pursued by Jacob in appeasing Esau’s wrath. "And Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him. And Jacob said when he saw them, This is God’s host, and he called the name of that place Mahanaim," or as the margin has it, "The two hosts or companies." This vision was an encouraging revelation to Jacob. He saw a heavenly band on earth; hence the name, "Mahanaim," or "two companies." That upper band had been with him all the time, but invisible. Here he is permitted to see them. In view of apprehended troubles ahead of him, this vision greatly assures him of safety. The psalmist later expressed the general truth: "The angel of Jehovah encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them" (Psalms 34:7). In the same way Jehovah opened the eyes of the faithful young man with Elisha: "And he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha" (2 Kings 6:17). So, when our faith is bright enough we can see the presence of attending angels.

In Genesis 32:3 we learn that Jacob sent messengers forward into the country of Esau to find out the plan of his brother. It had been twenty years since Jacob had seen his brother, on that occasion when through the duplicity of his mother and himself he had secured the blessing of the birthright from his old, blind father, when Esau had determined to kill him and his mother had sent him away from home secretly. Jacob was naturally very anxious to know what Esau’s reception would be and so he sent these messengers. And in order to excite the attention of his brother to his wealth and possessions, Jacob directed the messengers as follows: "Thus shall ye say unto my lord Esau: Thus saith thy servant Jacob, I have sojourned with Laban, and stayed until now: and I have oxen, and asses, and flocks, and men-servants, and maidservants: and I have sent to tell my lord, that I may find favour in his sight."

When the messengers returned to Jacob they brought back the news that the wrath of Esau had not abated during these twenty years. "We came to thy brother Esau, and moreover he cometh to meet thee, and four hundred men with him." And Jacob was afraid. So he began to make preparation for his meeting with his brother. His first step was to divide his herds and his people into three companies, in order that they might not all be destroyed at one stroke from the warlike band of his brother. But notice that in his preparation, he made no effort to resist the onslaught of his brother’s men. He had a stronger shield than physical forces, the shield of faith in God’s promises to him, and the accompanying angel host. And his next step and best step of all was his earnest prayer. Let us notice that prayer: "O God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac." Do you notice how that prayer leads? He states the fact that Jehovah was the God of his father and his grandfather, and he had made promises to both of them. Then he pleads the fact that God had commanded him, therefore the Lord ought to protect him in his obedience. He pleads the Lord’s promise: Who said, "I will do thee good." Notice another element of power in his prayer: "I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth, which thou hast shown thy servant." There is humility in the prayer, pleading the promise, pleading the command, pleading the triple blessing pronounced upon Abraham, Isaac, and himself, and then acknowledging, that, personally, he was not worthy of any of it: "With my staff I passed over this Jordan; and now I have become two companies." Let us see what he is going to ask for. He knows how to make a request. He did not commence by praying that the Lord would bless the dwellers in the steppes of Asia and on the islands of the sea, and then pray all around the world. He says, "Deliver me, I pray thee, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau: for I fear him lest he come and smite me, the mother with the children. And thou saidst, I will surely do thee good, and make thy seed as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude." That is his step so far. Now he is going back to his worldly wisdom again. He is like Mohammed, who said, "Tie your camel and pray the Lord that he may not get away." Don’t turn the camel loose and then pray that he may not escape. As the old British general said to his soldiers, "Pray to the Lord and keep your powder dry." Don’t simply pray and leave God to do everything, but do what you can do.

Let us see the next step he takes. "He took a present for his brother Esau: first, two hundred she-goats and twenty he-goats; second, two hundred ewes and twenty rams; third, twenty milk camels and their colts; fourth, forty cows and ten bulls; fifth, twenty she-asses and ten foals." Notice how he makes that work: "And he said unto his servants, Pass over before me, and put a space betwixt drove and drove." When the first drove meets Esau, he will say, "Who are you, and what is this?" They will say, "We are Jacob’s servants, and this is a present to his brother Esau." After awhile Esau meets the second drove, and receives the same answer to his question. Imagine in your mind the effect of these repeated answers. Imagine his feelings after he had met these five successive droves, – Jacob’s wisdom, viz.: that he must not be content with making a small impression:

Many drops of water, drop, drop, drop,

.....will wear away a rock.

And yet again present a thing to a man’s mind; wait a while and present it again. Maybe the first impression glances off, but after awhile one will stick. It does not seem to me that the maddest man in the world could have remained mad until he got through meeting these herds.

We now come to Jacob’s last step. Here was the brook Jabbock, flowing into the Jordan. Jacob sends all his family and property across that brook and is left alone. He is going to have a big battle and he is going to fight this battle out with God. From no scripture have I ever gained more spiritual power than that. I never went out as an agent or undertook any enterprise that I did not separate myself from all humankind, and go off alone with God, and just like a little child, state the whole case, prostrate myself before him; and if I win the divine favor I am not afraid of anything. And a man wrestled with him till the rising of the dawn. The prophet Hosea calls him an angel (Hosea 12:4), and a little later Jacob calls him God, and he was a manifestation of the Logos, the Son of God. When he saw that he prevailed not against Jacob, he touched the hollow of Jacob’s thigh and it was out of joint. He said to Jacob, "Turn me loose, for the dawn is coming." Jacob said, "I will not let thee go, unless thou bless me." He could stand on but one foot, but he would not turn loose. TheHoosier Schoolmaster by Edward Eggleston has a remarkable lesson about a bulldog that belonged to "Old Man Mean’s" boys which had this virtue, viz.: whenever he took hold he would not turn loose. You might kick him and scold him, but he held his grip. That taught a lesson to the schoolmaster. I think the dog and the schoolmaster both might credit Jacob with the original idea. What a marvelous secret of success that is: "I will not let thee go unless thou bless me." Anybody that knocks tentatively at the door of prayer and runs off before anybody comes, making but one petition, will never succeed. You have heard me state before, and I will restate it now, how that idea of persistence got hold of me when I was four years old. I slept with my eldest brother and he taught me history lessons in child stories. One night he told me the history of the g Battle of Marathon, where one hundred thousand Persians were assailed by ten thousand Greeks under Miltiades; how the Greeks broke the ranks of the Persians, and followed them into the sea; how the Persians got into their boats, and the Greeks grabbed the boats with their hands until the Persians cut their hands off; and then how they caught bold with their teeth until the Persians cut their heads off. And when my brother got that far, I jumped up in the bed and yelled out, "Hurrah for the Greeks!" until I woke up the whole house. There is the secret of prayer. As David Crockett said, "Be sure you are right, and then go ahead." "And the angel said to Jacob, What is thy name? and he says, Jacob," which means supplanter, a crafty fellow, and the angel says, "Thy name shall no more be called supplanter, but Israel, for thou hast striven with God and with men and has prevailed," power with God and man. One of the greatest revival sermons ever preached in Waco was preached by A. B. Earle, an evangelist, on that text: "Israel, power with God and man." One of my examination questions is: Analyze Jacob’s power with God and with man. With God: humility, pleading of commandment, then the promise, then his faith which took hold, then his importunity: "I will not let thee go unless thou bless me." His power with men appears from the way he got at Esau. He took every step that wisdom could suggest to placate and disarm the adversary of hostility. Some men have a way of looking at you that conveys an insult, and others with a shrug of the shoulders. Shakespeare tells how the’ followers of Montague and Capulet would insult each other, one by twisting his mustache and the other by letting his hand rest on his sword. They would begin, "Did you twist your mustache?" "I twisted my mustache." "Did you touch your sword?" "I touched my sword," until finally they got to fighting. Jacob had none of that. He was never going to have a controversy for which he was responsible. His power with man consisted in this also, that he never violated a contract. You can find no evidence in the Bible that Jacob ever went back on a compact made with men.

"Jacob called the name of the place Peniel," i.e., "the face of God." "I have seen God face to face, and my soul was delivered." The sun rose upon him as he passed over Peniel, and he limped on his thigh. Therefore, the children of Israel eat not the sinew of the hip. Look at the effect of that upon Esau: Present after present, and Jacob coming to meet him, limping, without a weapon in his hand. There are two things I want to say about this. One is that all the second-blessing people and sanctificationists make this an example in which their second blessing was received, sinless perfection. And they used to go by the name of "Penielists." Unquestionably it was a tremendous upward step in the spiritual life of Jacob. But he needed more of God’s discipline before he would be perfectly holy, and we will come to some of it after awhile. I ask you to read the best spiritual interpretation of this incident of Jacob’s life that I know, Charles Wesley’s great hymn. Every time I teach Genesis I have the class bring out that hymn, which you will find in the old-time Methodist hymnbook:

Come, O thou traveller unknown, whom still I hold but cannot see,

My company before is gone, and I am left alone with thee.

With thee all night I mean to stay and wrestle till the break of day.

My prayer hath power with God, the grace unspeakable I now receive

Through faith I see thee face to face and live.

In vain I have not wept and strove; thy nature and thy name is love.

I have a remark for you preachers: Get as many commentaries as you can on that wrestling of Jacob. Every time you see it mentioned in literature, buy what is said, and read and study it profoundly. You are looking for power; that is what you preachers ought to be looking for, power with God and men. Right in that incident of Jacob’s life power can be found. There are a great many things in the Bible you can go over hurriedly. They are parts that hold the rest together, but this is a passage to spend the night on.

But we will go on, however. Jacob has the matter settled with God, and has done everything he can do to get God on his side, and has succeeded. As Saul’s name was changed to Paul, and Abram’s name was changed to Abraham, so Jacob’s name was changed to Israel, as Simon’s name was changed to Peter, Cephas, a stone. Great events of life justify a change of name. "Jacob lifted up his eyes and beheld Esau coming with his four hundred men." Now we see the last step that Jacob took. First he takes the two concubines and their four sons, as the least beloved, and puts them ahead; then Leah and her six sons and daughter as next most beloved, and puts them next; and last he puts Rachel and Joseph in the rear, furthermost from danger. I don’t blame him for his preference, but Jacob is not going to skulk in the rear. He goes in front, limping as God had lamed him. But as Paul says, "When I am weak, then am I strong." He is now going to rely upon God altogether. When Esau saw him all of his enmity had banished and he ran to meet him and embraced him and fell upon his neck and kissed him and they wept. They had not met for twenty years. Then Esau saw the women and children and asked an introduction. Each woman with her children came up and was introduced in order; so Esau became acquainted with the family and Jacob won out completely.

The clouds ye so much dread

Are big with mercy, and shall break

In blessing on your head.

I hope that when trouble comes and takes to itself the form of a cloud and gathers thick and thunders loud, you will be as humble before God and as courageous before man as Jacob was, and come out of it as well.

Esau proposes to accompany him. Jacob said no; that he had a great many young cattle and children, and they could not go fast like the soldiers, and he does not think it wise to keep too long in the company of that force of border men. In Ivanhoe we have an account of the wisdom of Wamba, the son of Witless, when he saw Richard the Lion-Hearted, "hail fellow well met," with Robin Hood’s crowd of thieves. It all went off very well, but he was afraid if they kept on, directly some controversy would arise, and so he got off into a thicket and blew a horn, and everybody got up. Thus the wise son of Witless warned Richard that he had better separate from the thieves.

Jacob moved down into the valley of the Jordan, a hot, rank place, and full of sinkholes. He did not stay long. Next he came to Shechem and pitched his tent before that city. Although all the country belonged to him as it did to Abraham, he bought a piece of land. There occurs the incident which is self-explanatory, recounted in the thirty-fourth chapter, and upon which I need to comment very little. Dinah wanted to go to a parties – will call it that – that the Shechemites were giving. It is a characteristic of girls that they do like to go to parties, but it is not best for a young girl, unchaperoned, to go, among strange wild people. But this heathen loved her and came to Jacob and proposed to marry her, and Jacob would have consented under the circumstances, but an expedient was resorted to that they should become Jews. So the males were circumcised. But Simeon and Levi and their followers came and killed all the men and took possession of the property, and merged the two tribes into one, a most horrible transaction, yet it is customary for brothers to slay those who ruin their sisters, at least it used to be so regarded in the South. Jacob did not approve of it and felt that it was an awful wrong, especially after a covenant had been made and marriage had been proposed and accepted, and they had even agreed to turn Jews. When the old man comes to die you will hear from him on this.

QUESTIONS
1. What assurance of safety did God give Jacob in view of his apprehended trouble in meeting Esau, what name did Jacob give the place and why?

2. Cite a passage in the psalms on this, "id an incident in the life of Elisha on this point.

3. What initiative step did Jacob take toward reconciliation with Esau?

4. What plan did Jacob then adopt for meeting his brother?

5. What report did the messengers make to Jacob?

6. What are the elements of power in his prayer?

7. What was his request and how does he co-operate in bringing it about?

8. Give the sayings of Mohammed and of the British general on this point.

9. What present did he send Esau and what was the plan of presentation?

10. What was his last battle before meeting Esau?

11. Who wrestled with Jacob and what is the key to Jacob’s power?

12. How was the lesson of persistence impressed upon the expositor’s mind?

13. What new name was given Jacob here, and why?

14. Analyze Jacob’s power with God and his power with men.

15. What name did Jacob give to the place where he wrestled, and its meaning?

16. What effect of this fight went with Jacob through life and what custom practiced by the children of Israel in memory of the event?

17. What modern claim is based upon this experience of Jacob’s and what is the fallacy of this claim?

18. What matchless hymn was suggested by this event in Jacob’s life?

19. What advice here is especially adapted to preachers?

20. Cite several instances in Scripture of the change of the name and the justification for such change.

21. How did Jacob shield Rachel from danger in this plan of meeting Esau?

22. What position did Jacob take and what was the effect of all this on Esau?

23. How did Jacob evade Esau’s proposal to accompany him on the journey?

24. Where did Jacob stop after this meeting with Esau and why so named?

25. Where did he stop next and what trouble did Jacob have here? Cite the dying testimony of Jacob relative to this incident.

26. What part of Jacob’s character was inherited from Isaac? What is attributable to divine discipline?