Read with Me
Genesis 32:13-21 (HCSB)
He spent the night there and took part of what he had brought with him as a gift for his brother Esau: 200 female goats, 20 male goats, 200 ewes, 20 rams, 30 milk camels with their young, 40 cows, 10 bulls, 20 female donkeys, and 10 male donkeys. He entrusted them to his slaves as separate herds and said to them, “Go on ahead of me, and leave some distance between the herds.”
And he told the first one: “When my brother Esau meets you and asks, ‘Who do you belong to? Where are you going? And whose animals are these ahead of you?’ then tell him, ‘They belong to your servant Jacob. They are a gift sent to my lord Esau. And look, he is behind us.’ “
He also told the second one, the third, and everyone who was walking behind the animals, “Say the same thing to Esau when you find him. You are also to say, ‘Look, your servant Jacob is right behind us.’ ” For he thought, “I want to appease Esau with the gift that is going ahead of me. After that, I can face him, and perhaps he will forgive me.”
So the gift was sent on ahead of him while he remained in the camp that night.
Listen with Me
Even after he prayed for God’s help, Jacob still trusted in his own plan and his own resourcefulness to try to sway Esau’s heart. The many gifts of livestock that he sent ahead of him were lavish, and they show how wealthy he had become in Haran, since they represented only a portion of all he now possessed.
The fact that Jacob sent such a large gift ahead of himself shows the depth of his fear of his brother’s anger. He realized that since his mother had not sent anyone to bring him back (Genesis 27:45), it meant that his brother was still very angry at him for stealing their father’s blessing. Add to that the fact that Esau was bringing with him 400 men and in Jacob’s mind it signified that death was coming for him, and likely for his whole family, on the road ahead.
Jacob commanded that the servants keep some space between the individual flocks and herds so that the impression made by the gifts would be cumulative. Jacob hoped that the gifts, as well as the repetition of the phrase “your servant Jacob”, would act like a jackhammer, and by repeated blows on the same spot would shattered Esau’s stony heart.
Pray with Me
Father, Jacob was indeed clever and resourceful. And it was only after he sent the gifts ahead that You wrestled with him as a demonstration of the reality of his independent mindset and his stubborn refusal to let You be God. Lord, it is still easy for us to slide into a spirit of independence and to rely on our own cleverness and our own resources to meet the challenges we face. But You have all we need to meet every challenge, every need, as Jesus himself so powerfully illustrated. Help me to turn solidly away from self-reliance, and to make ourselves reliant only on You. Amen.