Great Moments in Bible History
Number 36
Time to Face the Music
It is a lot easier to get into a mess than it is to get out of it, as Jacob discovered in our story for today. We sinful humans think we can get what we want by lying, cheating, and treating those around us as objects to be used, and then just walk away from the mess we have made. God does not let us off so easily. He has an amazing way of bringing our sins back onto our own heads. In previous articles we saw how Jacob “helped God out” by lying to his father to get the blessing that he knew God intended him to have. It worked, but God did not let him off without consequences. A few years later his uncle Laban pulled a trick on him that was very similar to the one he had played on his father. That trick cost him an extra seven years of work and a lot of grief as he dealt with two wives when he really only wanted one. I’m sure he recognized that God was teaching him what it felt like to be lied to.
But lying to his father was not the only sin Jacob needed to repent of. On two occasions he had taken advantage of his brother. The second time was when he pretended to be his brother Esau in order to get the blessing. His brother was so angry after that sin that he vowed to kill Jacob as soon as his father died. Obviously, taking revenge like that is not God’s way of dealing with an offence, but God used Esau’s sinful attitude to help teach Jacob to trust in God.
Jacob’s mother arranged for him to run away to her brother’s house (500 miles away) until Esau got over his anger. But after 20 years of being away, Jacob still had not gotten word from her that his brother had cooled off. (In fact, it is possible that she had died during that time. We never read of her again in the story.) When God finally told him to go back to Canaan, Jacob obeyed, but he sneaked out without telling his uncle (who was now his father-in-law as well). That ended up causing such a problem that he realized he could not go back there again. So Jacob was stuck. Whether Esau had cooled off or not, Jacob was going to have to make Canaan his home.
Although Esau’s name has not been mentioned in the story since Jacob left home, it is obvious that he has been on Jacob’s mind a lot. Jacob would really like to know how Esau feels 20 years after Jacob stole his blessing. As soon as Jacob entered Canaan, he sent messengers to tell his brother, “Thus says your servant Jacob, ‘I have sojourned with Laban and stayed until now. I have oxen, donkeys, flocks, male servants, and female servants. I have sent to tell my lord, in order that I may find favor in your sight’” (Genesis 32:4-5). When the messengers returned, they told him, “We came to your brother Esau, and he is coming to meet you, and there are four hundred men with him.”
Jacob was terrified! Although he had a good-sized company himself, they were nothing compared to 400 men. The first thing Jacob did was to divide his company into two. He explained, “If Esau comes to the one camp and attacks it, then the camp that is left will escape.” He was desperate. He prayed a very heartfelt prayer. “O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac,” he began. “O Lord who said to me, ‘Return to your country and to your kindred, that I may do you good’” (verse 9). With this introduction, Jacob teaches us a very important aspect of prayer. The problem that we sinful humans have when we come before God is that we need things from Him but we have nothing to offer Him that He needs in return. The only thing we can bring before God is His own promises to us. That is what Jacob does in this prayer. He reminds God of His promise that He would do good to Jacob. He continues, “I am not worthy of the least of all the deeds of steadfast love and all the faithfulness that you have shown to your servant, for with only my staff I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two camps.” We are all in the same boat. We are not worthy of God’s love. None of us can say, “God, you owe me!”
Finally, Jacob brings his fear before God. “Please deliver me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear him, that he may come and attack me, the mothers with the children.” When Jacob originally angered Esau with his sin, Jacob was the only one who could suffer the consequences. But in the past 20 years Jacob has gained a family. Those people did not participate in his sin against Esau, but when they joined Jacob’s family, they got the bad with the good. Jacob now realizes that his sin has consequences way beyond what he imagined when he committed it.
Jacob concludes his prayer with a final reminder of what God had promised him. “But you said, ‘I will surely do you good, and make your offspring as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.’” Unlike some of us, God does not mind being reminded of His promises. In fact, that is what God wants His children to do. He wants us to have faith in Him. That faith includes believing that God keeps His promises. Jacob was showing faith when he reminded God that He had promised to make him into a huge nation. Obviously, that promise would fail if Esau wiped out Jacob and his family.
After praying, the next thing Jacob did was to prepare a present for his brother. From his flocks and herds he selected sheep, goats, camels, cows, and donkeys—a total of 580 animals—and sent them in separate droves to his brother. That was a costly present. It was intended to tell Esau just how sorry he was for the shabby way he had treated him in the past. That is important. Jesus told us that if we are offering a gift to God (surely a very important thing to do) and then remember that our brother has something against us (because we have sinned against him), we must immediately stop what we are doing and go make things right with that brother (Matthew 5:23-24). We need to face the music and make things right with those we have wronged.
A Strange Wrestling Match
After Jacob sent the expensive gift to his brother, he sent everyone across the Jabbok River, but for some reason he stayed behind. Perhaps he wanted time to be alone as he steeled himself for the upcoming meeting. Whatever his reason, it certainly did not work out as he expected. The actual story goes this way, “And Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day” (Genesis 32:24). This is a very strange story. Where did this man come from? We don’t learn that until a little later. No reason is given for why the man wrestled. And it seems strange for a wrestling match to go on all night with neither side winning.
The next thing we read is that “when the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched his hip socket, and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him.” This is even stranger. This mysterious man wrestled with Jacob all night without getting the advantage, yet when he decided the match had gone on long enough, he simply touched his hip socket and put it out of joint! In a couple more verses Jacob will learn that he has actually been wrestling with God (in human form, of course), but it appears that he figured that out before being told. Surely the match cannot continue long with Jacob’s hip out of joint. The man said to him, “Let me go, for the day has broken.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” Jacob understands this is no ordinary man.
The man said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” Jacob had been given that name when he was born while holding onto his brother’s heal. The name Jacob really does tell the story of his life up to this point. He was always figuring out how to get the advantage in any situation. He had been a grabber all his life. And he has finally reached the point where all of that grabbing is coming back to bite him. What he did not realize was what that grabbing had been doing to his relationship with God.
The stranger told him, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.” Jacob’s new name means, “He strives with God.” What that strange wrestling match was intended to teach Jacob was that all of his life, as he had been striving with men, trying to get ahead, he had actually been fighting against God. When he thought he was helping God out, he was actually working against God. God did not need his help. What God wanted from Jacob was for him to trust in God and let God deal with the problem. When he faced the “emergency” where his father was going to bless the wrong son, Jacob should have gone to God in prayer and let Him handle it. “Helping God out” like he did just added more sin to the already bad situation.
It has taken 20 years, but Jacob is finally at the point where he sees how helpless he is and how much he needs God. He has finally become someone who strives not to get ahead, but to be blessed by God. He is finally becoming the kind of person God had in mind when he promised that the elder would serve the younger. In the next chapter we will see that God grants him his request for favor with his brother. But Jacob has learned a much more valuable lesson. From this time forward in the story he no longer behaves like the grabber he once was. He has finally learned to trust God.
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible.