Bible Commentaries
Genesis 33

Verses 1-20

The morning broke and Jacob-or Israel as he had now become- went forward to meet Esau. How strange a mixture there was in the make-up of this man is once more clearly evident. It is patent that fear of his brother still lurked in his heart and there is a touch of nobleness in his going forward alone to meet him, having set his loved ones behind in two companies. Moreover, his love of Rachel is again manifest as he put her in the second company, so that if Esau met him in anger she, at any rate, might have a better chance to escape

The chief interest of this story, however, is found in Esau's attitude. In him Jacob met no angry man but a brother. It would appear that Esau had started to meet Jacob with revenge in his heart, as the armed bands suggest. But God has the disposing of all hearts in His own power; and while He had been dealing with Jacob by the brook, probably all unconsciously to Esau, He had been dealing with him too, changing his attitude toward Jacob.

The measure of a man's finding God is ever that of his discovery of a pathway straitened and yet smoothed. Evidently, all Jacob's preparations to appease Esau would have been of no avail, for Esau did not want them. But God had met and dealt with the difficulty for this man who had been brought into submission to Him in the long struggle of the lonely night.