Genesis 33--Jacob meets Esau

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Jacob Meets Esau

33 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. 2 And he put the servants with their children in front, then Leah with her children, and Rachel and Joseph last of all. 3 He himself went on before them, bowing himself to the ground seven times, until he came near to his brother.

4 But Esau ran to meet him and embraced him and fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept. 5 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.” 6 Then the servants drew near, they and their children, and bowed down. 7 Leah likewise and her children drew near and bowed down. And last Joseph and Rachel drew near, and they bowed down. 8 Esau said, “What do you mean by all this company that I met?” Jacob answered, “To find favor in the sight of my lord.” 9 But Esau said, “I have enough, my brother; keep what you have for yourself.” 10 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. 11 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.

12 Then Esau said, “Let us journey on our way, and I will go ahead of you.” 13 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. 14 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 in Seir.”

15 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 find favor in the sight of my lord.” 16 So Esau returned that day on his way to Seir. 17 But Jacob journeyed to Succoth, and built himself a house and made booths for his livestock. Therefore the name of the place is called Succoth.

18 And Jacob came safely to the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, on his way from Paddan-aram, and he camped before the city. 19 And from the sons of Hamor, Shechem's father, he bought for a hundred pieces of money the piece of land on which he had pitched his tent. 20 There he erected an altar and called it El-Elohe-Israel.

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It's time for the rubber to meet the road.  Jacob has enemies behind him and really can't return back to Laban, and he has enemies in front of him.  This feels like a situation that the Israelites would be in later with the Red Sea in front of them and the Egyptian army behind them.  All they could do in both cases is cry out to God for Him to make a way and provide the deliverance.

Jacob still tries to be "Jacob," the schemer here, as he had developed a plan before he wrestled with God that he followed through with, only in a slightly modified version.  Instead of using his sheep and cattle and wives and children as shields that would go before him and him to be in the rear of the procession, he decides now to take the lead and to take a position of submission by bowing low to the ground seven times in the presence of Esau and calling him "my lord," and calling himself "your servant." 

Even in this there was deception though as he continued to say that he would let Esau take everything that he owned as gifts and kept on insisting, even when Esau refused, but Jacob never intended for his wives and children to be subjects of Esau (at least, not Rachel and Joseph).  We'll see that he didn't even sacrifice his flocks and herds as he originally said he would.  Maybe he went along with what he had told the servants, wives and children at first but knew that God had changes the plan and went with a new plan after everyone had said their lines.  I really don't know what changed here, but somehow God seems to indicate to him that he is not to go to Seir with Esau and that none of his family is to go with Esau either.

Jacob uses his tongue to concoct a story about why Esau needs to go ahead of them because the women and children are frail and dehydrated and that if the animals are pushed that hard, they will die.  Esau promises to take a slower pace, but Jacob insists that he forge on ahead and they would be right behind.  Esau tries to leave some of his troops as protection (and I think he doesn't fully trust Jacob to keep his word), but Jacob insists that there is no need for that.

Well, Jacob and his family never went to Seir, they instead made Succoth their destination.  This is still on the east side of the Jordan river in the area that would be given to the tribe of Gad later after the conquest.  Jacob and his family would set up temporary shelters ("booths") here that would be similar to those that the Lord would command his people to build during the Feast of Booths to remind themselves that they did not always live in cities and were once a people without a home that wandered in the wilderness during the time of the Exodus, but I think it was also to point back to this time during which God took care of the patriarchs while they were living as strangers in the land that God had promised to them yet, but they had not yet fully received.

Jacob them safely passed on from Succoth to Shechem, which we will see was the center of worship for a long time for the Israelites as the Tabernacle would be set up here after the Exodus until the time of David and Solomon.  The altar that was set up here by Jacob was significant because its name means "God is the God of Israel").  This was a marker that Jacob was laying down to say much like Joshua would hundreds of years later, "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."--In fact it is in this very place that Joshua would make that statement in Joshua and would charge the people to keep to Law of the Lord and put away their false gods and to be the covenant people that God had made them to be and He would be their God and they would be His people.