God’s Grace
Opening Prayer
I thank You, Lord, for the great gift of knowing You through Jesus and becoming Your beloved child.
Read GENESIS 32:1–21
Jacob also went on his way, and the angels of God met him. 2 When Jacob saw them, he said, “This is the camp of God!” So he named that place Mahanaim.
3 Jacob sent messengers ahead of him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom. 4 He instructed them: “This is what you are to say to my lord Esau: ‘Your servant Jacob says, I have been staying with Laban and have remained there till now. 5 I have cattle and donkeys, sheep and goats, male and female servants. Now I am sending this message to my lord, that I may find favor in your eyes.’”
6 When the messengers returned to Jacob, they said, “We went to your brother Esau, and now he is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him.”
7 In great fear and distress Jacob divided the people who were with him into two groups, and the flocks and herds and camels as well. 8 He thought, “If Esau comes and attacks one group, the group that is left may escape.”
9 Then Jacob prayed, “O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, Lord, you who said to me, ‘Go back to your country and your relatives, and I will make you prosper,’ 10 I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness you have shown your servant. I had only my staff when I crossed this Jordan, but now I have become two camps. 11 Save me, I pray, from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid he will come and attack me, and also the mothers with their children. 12 But you have said, ‘I will surely make you prosper and will make your descendants like the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted.’”
13 He spent the night there, and from what he had with him he selected a gift for his brother Esau: 14 two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, 15 thirty female camels with their young, forty cows and ten bulls, and twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys. 16 He put them in the care of his servants, each herd by itself, and said to his servants, “Go ahead of me, and keep some space between the herds.”
17 He instructed the one in the lead: “When my brother Esau meets you and asks, ‘Who do you belong to, and where are you going, and who owns all these animals in front of you?’ 18 then you are to say, ‘They belong to your servant Jacob. They are a gift sent to my lord Esau, and he is coming behind us.’”
19 He also instructed the second, the third and all the others who followed the herds: “You are to say the same thing to Esau when you meet him. 20 And be sure to say, ‘Your servant Jacob is coming behind us.’” For he thought, “I will pacify him with these gifts I am sending on ahead; later, when I see him, perhaps he will receive me.” 21 So Jacob’s gifts went on ahead of him, but he himself spent the night in the camp.
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Meditate
“I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation” (2 Cor. 6:2b; Gen. 27:41a). As you go about your life today, make a prayerful effort that this scriptural word is true of you.
Think Further
No sooner was one crisis over than another loomed ahead. Leaving behind a formerly hostile but now reconciled Laban, Jacob crossed into the region where his equally hostile brother, Esau, lived (Gen. 27:41). It is on this point between their two territories that Jacob is again met by angels as an assurance that God is with him and for him. Indeed, the events of this chapter are couched
between two accounts of Jacob’s encounter with angelic beings (1,25). His naming the place of the first meeting “Mahanaim,” meaning “double camp” (2), indicates his growing awareness that God was with him. What has been remarkable throughout is his repeated experience of God’s undeserved favor, his grace.
Jacob’s attempt to pave the way for meeting with his brother appeared to fail and scared him into his first recorded prayer since leaving Bethel! He saw himself and his problem in relation to the revealed purpose of God in such a way that he expected a response, because God cannot fail to stand by his word. Here we see a man who has lived his life by manipulation and deceit lay himself bare before God, admitting his guilt and expressing his deepest fears. Immediately upon ceasing his prayer, he constructed an elaborate appeasement strategy to attempt to win his brother’s favor. It’s not clear whether this was a case of faith-inspired wisdom or of Jacob keeping his options open by praying and then reverting back to reliance on his own methods.
Does the latter sound familiar to you as a default position we can easily adopt? Unfortunately, it does to me! Be encouraged though: remember that God can never become disillusioned with us, because he has no illusions in the first place—as in Jacob’s case. God loves us anyway.
Apply
Jacob’s leadership affected the lives of others. How can you encourage your church leaders as they try to lead well? How are you dealing with your own private struggles and frailties?
Closing prayer
Merciful Lord, I acknowledge that all of my relationships are not perfect. Show me new ways to seek reconciliation with those with whom I am not on the best of terms.
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