Jacob and Esau
GENESIS 32 – 36
32:1-2
"So Jacob went on his way, and the
angels of God met him. When Jacob saw them, he said, 'This is
God's camp.' And he called the name of that place Mahanaim."
This is an amazing statement but, no doubt, was an even more amazing
experience for Jacob. Back in 31:13, Jacob told his wives about his dream in which
God had spoken to him saying, "I am the God of
“And when the servant of the man of God arose early and went out, there was an army, surrounding the city with horses and chariots. And his servant said to him, ‘Alas, my master! What shall we do?’ So he answered, ‘Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.’ And Elisha prayed, and said, ‘LORD, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.’ Then the LORD opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw. And behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.”
Are you aware that there are
angels around you today, dear child of God? Hebrews
1:14 says...
“Are they not all
ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those who will
inherit salvation?”
And again in Hebrews 13:2, (speaking to believers)...
"Do not forget to entertain strangers,
for by so doing some have
unwittingly entertained angels."
God’s angel’s
function primarily to minister to us believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. That was
what they did for Jacob. And, as we saw in the case of Abraham, sometimes they
appear in human form in their function. Therefore, you and I might not even be aware
that angels are present at all. Angels do not always appear as angels, you
see. Have you entertained any strangers lately? One thing is certain. There is a
spirit world that is far more real than the physical world that is all around us right now.
We believers constantly enjoy the ministry of God's angels, whether we are aware
of them or not, and whether they manifest themselves openly or not. Isn't our God
good! This truth of guardian angels is a biblical one.
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32:3-8
"Then Jacob sent messengers before him
to Esau his brother in the
Proverbs 29:25 says...
"The fear of man brings a snare, but whoever
trusts in the LORD shall be safe."
Isn't that a precious truth? Both sides of that scripture are illustrated for us here in Jacob’s story. Jacob was deathly afraid of Esau. Esau had vowed to kill him. True to the scripture above, when Jacob allowed his fear of Esau to take over, it was a snare to him. The trouble with fearing man is that it takes the place of trusting the Lord. It focus' one's heart and mind away from God and his promises and causes us to focus on the problem and ourselves ... culminating in unbelief and despair. When we fall into that trap, we find ourselves asking such questions as, "What if God doesn't come through?" I’m sure such thoughts must have crossed Jacob’s mind. I suspect he probably thought, over and over again, of Isaac's troubling prophecy ... “Behold, your dwelling shall be of the fatness of the earth, and of the dew of heaven from above. By your sword you shall live, and you shall serve your brother; and it shall come to pass, when you become restless, that you shall break his yoke from your neck." (27:39-40). Satan loves to put God’s people in situations like this, by the way. And, he loves to twist the scripture, accuse us and lie to us. He probably gave Jacob no rest. He probably said, "This is the day your father's prophecy will be fulfilled and it will be fulfilled with your own blood."
We can only imagine the impact on Jacob ... when he received word that Esau was coming and he was coming with four hundred men! Immediately, Jacob made preparations to deal with Esau, if worse came to worse. He divided his family into two groups. He reasoned that if Esau attacked the first group perhaps the other one would have a little time to get away.
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2:9-12
"Then Jacob said, 'O God of my father Abraham and
God of my father Isaac, the LORD who said to me, "Return to your country and to
your family, and I will deal well with you": I am not worthy of the least of all
the mercies and of all the truth which You have shown Your servant; for I
crossed over this Jordan with my staff, and now I have become two companies.
Deliver me, I pray, from the hand of my brother, from the hand
of Esau; for I fear him, lest he come and
attack me and the mother with the children. For You said, 'I will surely treat you well, and make your
descendants as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.'"
Jacob turned to God. Now, that’s more like it! He was in dire circumstances and he needed help. His prayer was simple. Deliver me ... from the hand of my brother. God’s people are a needy people, by the way. And, thank God, we have a wonderful Father to turn to in times of fear and trouble. It would be better for us if we never feared man and always simply trusted God but, in all honesty and practicality, that is not often the case. So, in times of fear and peril, the best thing for us to do is just what Jacob did ... run under the wings of our Father above. Those wonderful words from the Psalms come to mind here...
“Whenever I am afraid, I will trust in You.
In God (I will praise His word), In God I have put my trust; I will not fear.
What can flesh do to me?” Ps. 56:3-4
Are you afraid of something or someone today, dear Saint? Take it to the Lord. Put your trust in him. He’s not called the Deliverer for nothing, my friend. Those of us who have had children will recall the many times when our little ones became terrified and ran into our arms. Remember how we lifted them up in our arms above their troubles and their fear? We protected them, assured and comforted them, did we not? So it is with our heavenly Father and his children. Although fears are snares to us, our Father is always there to help and lift us above them and give us strength and faith to overcome. So it was that Jacob ran into the arms of his God. Have you ever stopped to think about what might have happened to Jacob if he had not prayed to the Lord for deliverance? Perhaps Esau really was still intent on murdering his brother, pillaging his flocks and seizing his family and his goods! But, Jacob prayed, you see. And, God answered Jacob’s prayer. I believe there is indications here that God intervened because of Jacob’s prayer and changed Esau's vengeful heart. I believe that is exactly what happened. Why else did Esau have 400 men of war with him?
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32:13-23
"So he lodged there that same night, and took what
came to his hand as a present for Esau
his brother: two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes
and twenty rams, thirty milk camels with their colts, forty cows and ten bulls,
twenty female donkeys and ten foals. Then he delivered them to the hand of his
servants, every drove by itself, and said to his servants, 'Pass over before me,
and put some distance between successive droves.' And he commanded the first
one, saying, 'When Esau my brother meets you and asks you, saying, "To whom do
you belong, and where are you going? Whose are these in front of you?" then you
shall say, "They are your servant Jacob's. It is a present sent to my lord Esau;
and behold, he also is behind us.'" So he commanded the second, the third, and
all who followed the droves, saying, 'In this manner you shall speak to Esau
when you find him; and also say, "Behold, your servant Jacob is
behind us." For he said, 'I will appease
him with the present that goes before me, and afterward I will see his face;
perhaps he will accept me.' So the present went on over before him, but he
himself lodged that night in the camp. And he arose that night and took his two
wives, his two female servants, and his eleven sons, and crossed over the ford
of Jabbok. He took
them, sent them over the brook, and sent over what he had."
Now, you may have noticed, that in spite of the fact that Jacob was older and had had several encounter's with God, he still was a conniver. So, he begins to plot his own deliverance from the hand of Esau. He decided that his first line of defense would be to space his people into three groups and provide each group with gifts for Esau. After that, he decided to send his wives across the river Jabbok to be the final buffer between his brother, Esau, and himself. All of Jacob's family would have to face Esau alone. Jacob himself would remain on the far side of the river and at the rear of the parade. His number one priority? Save Jacob! Like many a child of God, Jacob called upon the Lord for deliverance but then trusted in his own devices. And so it was, in that miserable state, that the pre-incarnate Christ Jesus came to Jacob on the far bank of the river Jabbok. His life would be changed forever.
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32:24-32
"Then Jacob was left alone; and a Man
wrestled with him until the breaking of day. Now when He saw that He did not
prevail against him, He touched the socket of his hip; and the socket of Jacob's
hip was out of joint as He wrestled with him. And He said, 'Let Me go, for the
day breaks.' But he said, 'I will not let You go unless You bless me!' So He said to
him, 'What is your name?' He said, 'Jacob.' And
He said, 'Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but
Jacob had exhausted all of his own resources and put into motion everything he
could think of to deal with Esau. Can you picture him there on the bank of
the river Jabbock ... all alone in the
firelight? Suddenly, a Man stepped out of the shadows and laid hold of him. The
struggle was immediate and desperate. Jacob grappled in desperation. They rolled in the dust.
They fought. How Jacob's fears must have risen in his throat as he thought, "This is an assassin from Esau!" The
struggle continued on through the night ... ebbing and flowing ... hour after
hour. Countless times they must have battled to a standstill ... then ... when
their panting subsided and their strength returned ... their desperate struggle
began anew. Several times Jacob must have spoken ... but he received no answer.
They seemed to be evenly matched. Neither gained the upper hand on the other.
But, at the break of day, the true strength and superiority of Jacob’s
protagonist was revealed. Suddenly, with a mere touch of his finger, Jacob's
opponent ended the fight. Immediately, Jacob’s hip was out of joint. There was
excruciating pain. ... and with the pain ... fear ...
the only good fear that a human being can have, by the
way. It came with the sudden realization that this was no mere man with whom
Jacob had been wrestling. It was, in fact, The Man, himself! The Psalmist
said...
"The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring
forever..." Psalm 19:8a
Jesus said...
"And do not fear those who kill the
body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear
Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not
two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground
apart from your Father's will. But the very hairs of your head
are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you
are of more value than many sparrows. Therefore whoever
confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before
My Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies Me
before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven." Matt.
10:28-33
Jacob, had been in desperate need of an attitude adjustment that night by the Jabbock river. And, that is what he got ... in spades. I don’t pretend to understand the enormity of what actually was taking place in Jacob's spirit that night so long ago. But, deep things were taking place way down in Jacob’s soul. Adjustments were being made under the physical and spiritual hand of the Lord of Hosts himself. Make no mistake about it, Jacob was wrestling with the pre-incarnate Christ ... third member of the Trinity ... the Son of God. Jesus had wrestled with this conniving, stubborn, selfish and bullheaded Jacob for years. Now, he had laid hold of him for real. I repeat, there were some deep things going on that night in that fight. I don’t know that I fully understand them, but the Lord did. I just know this. It was exactly what Jacob needed. Somehow, Jacob needed to be physically knocked down before he could spiritually stand up like God wanted him to ... as was the case with Saul on the road to Damascus, by the way, after which his name was changed to Paul the Apostle.
Finally, the Man spoke. "Let me go, for the day breaks." This is amazing. What a stubborn guy that conniving Jacob was. His hip was out of joint and he still wouldn’t give up! Jacob, beginning to realize who he had been fighting with, replied, "I will not let You go unless You bless me." The request was immediately granted. Jacob was now in the position that God had wanted him to be all along. He had forgotten all about Esau. He didn’t ask to be delivered from him again. He didn’t ask for prosperity or any one of a hundred other things he could have asked for. He just asked to be blessed of God. That’s all Jacob had ever needed, by the way. And, I might add, that is all you and I have ever need as well .. just to be blessed of God. Amen?
The Man spoke again, "What is your name?" "Jacob"
he replied ... the “conniver”, “sneak”, “supplanter”
“con”. Up until that moment, Jacob had lived out the meaning of his name wherever he
went. However, there is a God who is in the people changing business, brother!
So, what we are does
not matter. What we can become in the Lord's hands and with his blessing is all
that matters. "Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but
“Therefore, if anyone is
in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things
have become new.”
"Jacob asked, 'Tell me Your name, I pray". Jesus replied, "Why is it that you ask about My name?" I think the Lord smiled when Jacob asked that. The implication was, "You know who I am, Jacob. We've met before, have we not?" Phillip asked a similar question of Jesus in John 14...
“Philip said to
Him, ‘Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.’ Jesus said to him,
‘Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not
known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the
Father; so how can you say, 'Show us the Father'?”
Then the Lord blessed Jacob. Wasn’t that wonderful to be blessed by the Savior!? We believers have been blessed by Him as well. In fact, we have been blessed far beyond the blessing that he bestowed upon Jacob that bright morning. As you have it in Ephesians 1:3-6...
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing
in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the
foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in
love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself,
according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His
grace, by which He has made us accepted in the Beloved."
I really like David’s words in I Chronicles 17:27b (KJV) in this regard...
"...for thou blessest, O
Lord, and it shall be blessed for ever."
There is no greater thing in all our wide universe and in all of life than to be the recipient of the blessing of God, my friend. Whoever he blesses is blessed forever, brother! They stay blessed. The Man blessed Jacob and then Jacob let him go and the Man vanished out of his sight. Jacob called the place Peniel, meaning, "The Face of God" for he said, I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved. And, he surely had. He had wrestled with the very One who one day would become flesh and dwell among us and wrestle with Jacob's sin (and yours and mine) on a rugged cross and prevail. And, not only for our sins but for the sins of the whole world (I John 2:2).
Jacob was permanently injured in his fight with the Lord. His hip was
forever after
affected. From that day forward, he would walk with a limp. It would remind
Jacob of his face to face encounter with the true and living God when he was wounded
outwardly but healed inwardly. To this day, the Jewish people will not eat the
sinew of the hollow of the thigh of an animal in remembrance of this amazing
experience of their father,
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33:1-11
"Now Jacob lifted his eyes and looked, and there,
Esau was coming, and with him were four hundred men. So he divided the children
among Leah, Rachel, and the two maidservants. And he put the maidservants and
their children in front, Leah and her children behind, and Rachel and
Joseph last. Then he crossed over before them
and bowed himself to the ground seven times, until he came near
to his brother. But Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and
fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept. And he lifted
his eyes and saw the women and children, and said, 'Who are these with you?' So
he said, 'The children whom God has graciously given your servant.' Then the
maidservants came near, they and their children, and bowed down. And Leah also
came near with her children, and they bowed down. Afterward Joseph and Rachel
came near, and they bowed down. Then Esau said, 'What do you mean by all this
company which I met?' And he said, 'These are to find favor in the sight of my
lord.' But Esau said, 'I have enough, my brother; keep what you have for
yourself.' And Jacob said, 'No, please, if I have now found favor in your sight,
then receive my present from my hand, inasmuch as I have seen your face as
though I had seen the face of God, and you were pleased with me. Please, take my
blessing that is brought to you, because God has dealt graciously with me, and
because I have enough.' So he urged him, and he took it."
Proverbs 18:19 says...
"A brother offended
is harder to win than a strong city, and
contentions are like the bars of a castle."
In this life, when a serious rift comes between brothers, the offenses are
often very difficult to resolve. That's because it takes a lot to cause a
fracture in those lifelong relationships in the first place. Unfortunately, such a
fracture had occurred between Jacob and Esau. Nevertheless, nothing is
impossible with God. The worst fracture can be made whole again if God is in it.
Obviously, the Lord had worked on Esau in respect to his brother, Jacob. When the
two finally saw one another again, they fell upon each other's necks and
wept. Beautiful, is it not?
Afterwards,
Jacob pressed Esau to accept all the gifts he had sent ahead and
that too added to the reconciliation. As you have it in Proverbs 17:8...
"A present is a precious stone in the eyes of its possessor; wherever he turns, he prospers."
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33:12-16
"Then Esau said, 'Let us take our journey; let us
go, and I will go before you.' But Jacob said to him, 'My lord knows that the
children are weak, and the flocks and herds which are nursing are with me. And
if the men should drive them hard one day, all the flock will die. Please let my
lord go on ahead before his servant. I will lead on slowly at a pace which the
livestock that go before me, and the children, are able to endure, until I come
to my lord in Seir.' And Esau said, 'Now 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.' So Esau returned that
day on his way to Seir. And Jacob journeyed to
Succoth, built himself a house, and made booths for his livestock. Therefore the
name of the place is called Succoth. Then Jacob came safely to the
city of
Although Jacob and Esau had reconciled, old wounds were hard to heal and, apparently, they still parted ... not truly being comfortable with one another's company. You can feel it in their words to one another above. And, though they said they would meet down the road in Seir … in actuality they went their separate ways and Jacob ended up in Shechem. At Shechem, Jacob bought a piece of land from Hamor which became a key piece of real estate in biblical history. As it turned out, Joseph's bones would one day be buried there, after the land was conquered (Josh. 24:32), and further down in history, Jesus would sit on Jacob's well there and would meet a woman there and offer to her living water (John 4).
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34:1-4
"Now Dinah
the daughter of Leah, whom she had borne to Jacob, went out to
see the daughters of the land. And when Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, prince of the
country, saw her, he took her and lay with her, and violated her. His soul was
strongly attracted to Dinah the daughter of Jacob, and he loved the young woman
and spoke kindly to the young woman. So Shechem spoke
to his father Hamor, saying, 'Get me this young woman
as a wife.'"
Proverbs 13:20 says...
"He who walks with wise men will be wise, but the
companion of fools will be destroyed."
Do you think that Dinah just happened to be in the wrong place at the
wrong time? Or, was her rape actually a wreck that was just waiting to happen? I
suspect it was due to her own lack of precaution and desire to run with the
wrong crowd that got her into trouble. Our text says that Dinah went out to see the daughters
of the land. What do you suppose those daughters
were like? Well, they were Caananites. Need we say
more? They were idol
worshippers. Their culture was ungodly and immoral to the core. The written
history of Canananite culture is among some of the most sordid
of accounts of ancient history. The Caananites
practiced human sacrifice and sexual immorality was rampant among them.
Archeologists have found that their remains are riddled with evidence of
sexually transmitted diseases. Dinah had no business looking for friends amongst
that crowd. And, when she did, it cost her dearly. Take note young people! Take
care who you associate with .... who
your friends are ... which crowd you choose to run with. They can mean the
difference between a good life for you and absolute ruin. Listen carefully to God's Word above in
Proverbs 13:20 above. Meditate on it. Let it sink in. Make good choices when it comes
to your associations.
Now, this young man, Hamor (although he had just
raped Dinah), “fell in love" with her and proceeded to seek to acquire her for
his wife. In reality though, Hamor's love was a
sham. It was of the
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34:5-24
"And Jacob heard that he had defiled Dinah his daughter. Now his sons were with his livestock in the field; so Jacob held his peace until they came. Then Hamor the father of Shechem went out to Jacob to speak with him. And the sons of Jacob came in from the field when they heard it; and the men were grieved and very angry, because he had done a disgraceful thing in Israel by lying with Jacob's daughter, a thing which ought not to be done. But Hamor spoke with them, saying, 'The soul of my son Shechem longs for your daughter. Please give her to him as a wife. And make marriages with us; give your daughters to us, and take our daughters to yourselves. So you shall dwell with us, and the land shall be before you. Dwell and trade in it, and acquire possessions for yourselves in it.' Then Shechem said to her father and her brothers, 'Let me find favor in your eyes, and whatever you say to me I will give. Ask me ever so much dowry and gift, and I will give according to what you say to me; but give me the young woman as a wife.' But the sons of Jacob answered Shechem and Hamor his father, and spoke deceitfully, because he had defiled Dinah their sister. And they said to them, 'We cannot do this thing, to give our sister to one who is uncircumcised, for that would be a reproach to us. But on this condition we will consent to you: If you will become as we are, if every male of you is circumcised, then we will give our daughters to you, and we will take your daughters to us; and we will dwell with you, and we will become one people. But if you will not heed us and be circumcised, then we will take our daughter and be gone.' And their words pleased Hamor and Shechem, Hamor's son. ' "So the young man did not delay to do the thing, because he delighted in Jacob's daughter. He was more honorable than all the household of his father. And Hamor and Shechem his son came to the gate of their city, and spoke with the men of their city, saying: 'These men are at peace with us. Therefore let them dwell in the land and trade in it. For indeed the land is large enough for them. Let us take their daughters to us as wives, and let us give them our daughters. Only on this condition will the men consent to dwell with us, to be one people: if every male among us is circumcised as they are circumcised. Will not their livestock, their property, and every animal of theirs be ours? Only let us consent to them, and they will dwell with us.' And all who went out of the gate of his city heeded Hamor and Shechem his son; every male was circumcised, all who went out of the gate of his city. Now it came to pass on the third day, when they were in pain, that two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, Dinah's brothers, each took his sword and came boldly upon the city and killed all the males. And they killed Hamor and Shechem his son with the edge of the sword, and took Dinah from Shechem's house, and went out. The sons of Jacob came upon the slain, and plundered the city, because their sister had been defiled. They took their sheep, their oxen, and their donkeys, what was in the city and what was in the field, and all their wealth. All their little ones and their wives they took captive; and they plundered even all that was in the houses."
This is a classic example of the truth of the Word of God that says, “The wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God.” The wrath of Dinah’s brothers and their desire for revenge exploded into cold blooded and pre-meditated murder. Then, the transgression of the sons of Jacob far exceeded that of Hamor. This is why you and I are not to judge, by the way. You see, when we fallible humans judge, we always go too far or we don't go far enough. Only the Omniscient Just One, The Judge of the Whole Earth, judges correctly. He always does it just exactly right. God's Word says...
"So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be
swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath; for
the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God."
James 1:19
We are reading history here. This is what happened. The Bible does not condone it. God did not order it. Levi and Simeon acted on their own. In their rage and desire for revenge, they told themselves they were justified ... but they weren't. Even Shechem didn't deserve this stiff a penalty. But those who take revenge in wrath always feel they are justified. But, they never are.
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34:30-31
"Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, 'You have troubled me
by making me obnoxious among the inhabitants of the land, among the Caananites and the Perizzites; and
since I am few in number, they will gather themselves together
against me and kill me. I shall be destroyed, my household and
Jacob was right when he told Simeon and Levi that the inhabitants of the land would surely now band together and come after them to kill them. That's exactly what they would try to do. They viewed the breach on Shechem as an atrocity that required immediate retaliation. They viewed the Jacob clan as dangerous renegades who must be dealt with before they killed again. I wish, however, that Jacob had addressed the moral issues of his son’s acts ... not just how it had jeopardized the family’s safety. But, he didn’t. His boys justified themselves saying, "Should he treat our sister like a harlot?" Jacob should have replied, "Even so, what about the others who you killed? What did they do?" This is not the last word on this incident, by the way. Jacob carried it in his heart to his dying day. He sugar-coated it here with his sons but he never forgot what these two boys had done and what they were capable of. When it came time to bless them from his deathbed, he finally told them what he should have told them way back here. He said...
"Simeon and Levi are brothers; Instruments of
cruelty are in their dwelling place. Let not my soul enter their council; Let not my honor be united to their
assembly; For in their anger they slew a man, and in their self-will they
hamstrung an ox. Cursed be their anger, for it
is fierce; and their wrath, for it is cruel! I
will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in
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35:1-8
"Then God said to Jacob, 'Arise, go up
to
It's an amazing thing how God has worked with fallen man down through the ages. Here we see that the one and only true God was not the only deity that was worshipped in the Jacob household. Many in Jacob's family were polytheists. They worshipped many gods. The Lord instructed Jacob to “put away the foreign gods that are among you.” You will remember that Rachel had stolen Laban’s household gods and kept them.
The Lord
instructed Jacob to return to
"Therefore put to death your members which are
on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and
covetousness, which is idolatry."
May I say to you, dear saint, we need to examine ourselves frequently in this area. We believers should do frequent “idol sweeps” of our hearts. We need to ask ourselves, "What is in this heart of mine that I desire more than I desire the Lord Jesus? What are my idols?” Are they possessions or a relationship, a position or money or prestige or education or some other so-called “addiction”? Do you know how to get rid of an idol? It's a simple three-step process.
First, lay it at Jesus feet and call it what it is.
Second, ask forgiveness for making it an idol in the first place (I Jn.1:9).
Third, ask Jesus to deliver you from it altogether. I can't overemphasize the importance of this third step. It is the Lord's job to sanctify his people. It is not our job to clean ourselves up. That is his job. Our job is to go to him. His job is to deliver us.
Coming back to our text, notice that God sent a supernatural terror of the Jacob clan upon all the Canaanites of the land. God had said he would be with Jacob and, true to his word, Jacob was thereby spared the wrath of the Canaanites. Out of that "dog eat dog" ancient world, God was calling out a people for his name's sake ... sinners like Jacob and his sons. Someone has said, "It doesn't amaze me that God sends people to hell, it amazes me that God saves anybody!" Praise God for his grace and mercy toward sinners like you and me, Amen?
Finally in verse 8, the death of Deborah, Rachael's nurse, is recorded. You will recall that this dear lady went with Rachael when she left Laban's house to go and to be the wife of Isaac (24:59). We are finally given her name here at the recording of her death. Being Rachael's nurse means that she actually nursed little Rachael as an infant. After that, she faithfully served her mistress all the remaining years of her life. Her death must have been more bitter to Rachael than the loss of her actual mother. Rachael had her dear and faithful nurse buried under an oak that was ever after named Allonbachuth ("oak of weeping"). God takes note of his faithful, but often obscure, saints. I am convinced that, at the judgment seat of Christ, we will not be evaluated on the basis of what we accomplished here on Earth. We will be evaluated on the basis of our faithfulness as good servants of the Lord Jesus Christ. I believe that is why Deborah's name is found recorded here in the eternal Word of God. She was one of the Lord's faithful children. She was faithful to the task that he assigned in life for her to do. And, she did it well all the days of her life.
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35:9-15
"Then God appeared to Jacob again, when he came
from Padan
Once again, God appeared to Jacob. Apparently, Jacob had not
instituted
the name change that God had given him back in 32:28, when he wrestled with God
and received his new name, Israel from the Lord. So, Jacob was still going by
his old name, Jacob. Perhaps he had not taken
the Lord words too seriously. After all, a name change, at this late date in
life, was no small thing for him to deal with. However, God reminds him afresh
here that
Another important thing to note here is
that the Lord identified himself to
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35:16-20
"Then they journeyed from
Here, on the road to
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35:21-22a
"Then
A concubine, you will remember, was a servant-wife. She was someone who was owned to begin with
but who in time had become an owner's additional wife. In the context of certain
times and cultures, this was considered a great promotion for a servant girl ... a
great elevation in status.
Reuben was Jacob's firstborn. His
sexual violation of his father's concubine would cost him dearly. He would lose his
birthright over this sin ... you will not excel
(Gen. 49:3-4). The birthright was a double portion of the inheritance. Sin
always has consequences, even when it does not seem readily apparent. As you
have it in
Numbers 32:23b...
"...and be sure your sin will find you out."
I don’t believe that it was by
accident that the death of Rachel and the Ruben's defilement of
Bilhah
occurred in such close proximity. You will remember that Bilhah was Rachel’s maid who she gave to
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35:22b-26
"Now the sons of Jacob were twelve:
the sons of Leah were Reuben, Jacob's firstborn, and Simeon, Levi, Judah,
Issachar, and Zebulun; the sons of Rachel were Joseph
and Benjamin; the sons of Bilhah, Rachel's
maidservant, were Dan and Naphtali; and the sons of Zilpah, Leah's maidservant, were Gad and Asher. These were
the sons of Jacob who were born to him in Padan
Again, please note how that the Word of God places the true wife first. Make
no mistake about it, Leah was Jacob's first wife and thereby his only true wife
(regardless of how it came about). As such, she was blessed of the Lord and bore
Jacob 6 sons. Then, Rachael had 2 sons; Bilhah
had 2 and Zilpah had 2. These sons became the twelve
tribes of
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35:27-29
"Then Jacob came to his father Isaac at Mamre, or Kirjath Arba (that is,
We come here to another milestone in the history of God's people
... the death
of Isaac. Isaac was a man of peace and a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. Forever
after, God would describe himself as "...the God of Abraham and
Isaac...". Again, notice the way the Lord describes death
here. He tells us that Isaac was gathered to his
people. Isn't that precious?! He was gathered to his people. At the
point of death, Isaac experienced a great reunion. He found himself in the
presence of his father, Abraham, and his mother, Sarah, and many other godly
relatives and friends. My own mother passed away a while back. She was 91.
Afterwards, as I passed by her empty room, it seemed like she was still there but the
bed was empty and the room was silent. I could still see the grooves that her
walker made as she went back and forth to the bathroom. My greatest prayer
warrior was gone and I felt an emptiness that only she could fill. However, I
took comfort in the thought that she not only was taken into the presence of her
Lord but she was gathered unto her people. She found herself in the presence of her father,
Cliff, and her mother, Bertha, her brother and her
sisters, grandfather, Mose, (a great saint who lived in
"So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we
are absent from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight. We are
confident, yes, well pleased rather to be
absent from the body and to be present with the Lord."
Praise God, should we not have to die but live until the Rapture of the
Church, the reunion will be even greater. As you have
it in I Thessalonians 4:14-17...
"For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again,
even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus.
For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain
until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. For
the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout,
with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And
the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who
are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet
the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the
Lord."
"Sweet!"... as the young folks say. "Amen!" ... say us old codgers!
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36:1-8
“Now this is the genealogy of Esau,
who is
Finally, Esau’s genealogy is given here as proof positive of the fulfillment of God
word to Rebekah back in 25:23, where the Lord said to
her, “Two nations are in thy womb.” From Jacob came the nation of
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36:9-30
“And this is
the genealogy of Esau the father of the Edomites in
I love the little details that the Word of God includes for us. This fellow Anah, for instance, became known by the fact that he discovered water out there in the desert while he was caring for his father’s donkeys. These bits of information speak of the fact that the Bible is indeed a history book but, also, that God loves people and loves to note and enter into each and every event of their lives. Anah was probably just a boy. One day he was out there keeping his dad’s donkeys and he found water. Boys have a way of doing things like that, by the way, and the Lord loves being involved with them. No one else knew that water was there. In that wilderness, Anah’s find was better than finding gold. It made him famous beyond his wildest dreams ... for we find him here recorded forever in the eternal Word of God! Not bad for a kid, aye?
36:31-43
“Now these were the kings who reigned in the
Our chapter ends with a list of the kings of Edom. The descendants of Esau truly became a nation … just as God had foretold.