After cheating his near relative Laban, Jacob fled with his flocks to return to his homeland — where the elder brother he’d cheated years before, who had sworn to kill him, awaited.
Ginny seemed eager. “Shirlee, this is the story about Jacob going back to see Esau, right?”
“It is, Ginny. Why are you so excited about it?”
“Because Jacob’s a dirtbag and Esau’s gonna get him!”
Shirlee was shocked. Whatever had gotten hold of Ginny’s mind couldn’t be Godly; her vengeful streak was getting wider each week.
A sudden gust of wind hit the church, shaking the building and rattling the padlocked closet door. Shirlee caught her breath then, feeling silly and finding herself staring at the hasp, turned back to Ginny. “It’s up to God to decide who ‘gets’ who, Ginny. And this story just might surprise you!”
Mark spoke up. “Look how disappointed she is, Shirlee!” It’s true, Ginny was clearly crestfallen. “Couldn’t you at least have let her hope for a moment?”
“Hoping for others to suffer is not something Godly, to be encouraged, Mark.”
“Can I quote you on that, Shirlee?”
Shirlee peered at Mark over her reading glasses. He must be up to something. Again. But what? Nothing was coming to mind today. “Sure, Mark.”
“When it’s time, I will.”
“May I tell the story now?” Shirlee glanced around the room as heads nodded. “In Genesis 32 – 33, Jacob travels to meet his brother Esau, and wrestles with God!”
Ginny’s eyes lit up. “Does God break his legs?”
Shirlee sighed.
After leaving Laban, Jacob traveled and met angels of God. Or so he assumed, so he named the place Mahanaim. Nothing happened there. (Genesis 32:1-2)
Jacob then sent messengers ahead of his caravan to Esau, saying that he was on his way, having stayed with Laban, and he bringing flocks and slaves and such, and that he hoped to find grace in Esau’s sight.
The messengers came back, saying that Esau was coming to meet Jacob, with four hundred men! (Genesis 32:3-6)
Ginny was practically giddy. “Four hundred men? Esau’s gonna get him! Esau’s gonna get him!”
“Sounds like a bloodbath,” added John.
“Hush!” snapped Shirlee.
Jacob was very scared, and divided up the people and flocks and herds with him into two groups, thinking that if Esau attacked one group, the other group could escape.
“Is Esau going to divide Jacob?” Ginny seemed to think this was a good idea.
John added, “He could draw and quarter him! Plenty of oxen to pull, right?”
Shirlee was horrified by this talk. “Stop it! Stop it! Sometimes I swear you children are worse than the . . . the locals!” Shirlee barely avoided calling the local kids by the nickname common in Kingsport, the “Dunwich Dullards”.
Jacob prayed. He begged for God to protect him from Esau, without mentioning that just a few short days earlier, God had directed him to go home and become reacquainted with Esau. But Jacob did, in the habit of his father Isaac and Abraham before him, remind God that he’d promised to make Jacob’s seed “as the sand of the sea”, apparently because Jacob and his immediate family members thought God to be absent-minded. (Genesis 32:9-12)
The next morning, Jacob prepared a present for Esau, a substantial Jacobean Sampler of assorted livestock, and gave them in three groups to certain of his slaves. He directed the slaves to take them to Esau, one group at a time, as presents for Esau. He hoped that these presents would help Esau to [forgive Jacob for stealing Esau's birthright and the blessing of his dying father] accept him. (Genesis 32:13-20)
Jacob then took his wives and children and the two slavewomen who’d also borne children for him, and traveled with them by night over a brook to set them apart from the company. He was left alone, and then wrestled with a man until dawn.
The man wasn’t beating him, and so put Jacob’s thigh out of joint. Yet Jacob still didn’t let go. When the sun was rising, the man asked to be released, and Jacob said he’d only release him if the man blessed him. So, the man said that Jacob would henceforth be called Israel, for he had power of a prince with God and with men. (Genesis 32:22-28)
“Since when do princes have power with God?” John looked confused. “How can a prince, who is just a man, have any power at all with the creator of the entire universe?”
“That’s a good point, John.” Shirlee was pleased to hear John refer to God as the Creator.
“And who was this wrestling guy, anyway?”
“The Bible doesn’t actually say, John. Jacob asks, and the man refuses to give a name. But then he named the place Peniel, to note that there he’d “seen God face to face” and survived.”
Mark raised his hand. “But I thought the glory of God was too much to observe — you know, Moses, and the hind parts?”
“Mark, we’ve already discussed that. The earliest people, like Noah and Adam and Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, all could visit in person with God and not be incinerated. We don’t know why.”
“Do we know why Jacob would randomly wrestle some guy in the desert at night, and not have any idea if it was a man, or God, or an angel, or a demon?”
Shirlee sighed. “No, we don’t.”
“Why didn’t God break his legs?” asked Ginny.
Shirlee turned to Ginny. “He put Jacob’s thigh out of joint and left him with a limp, isn’t that enough, Ginny?”
“Not really. And I bet Esau won’t draw and quarter him, either.”
“You’re right on that count, dear.” Shirlee turned back to her Bible.
In the morning, Jacob saw Esau and the four hundred men approaching. So, he split his children to their mothers, placing the slavewomen and their children first, then Leah and her children, and finally Rachel and Joseph last. (Genesis 33:1-2)
“Why would he do that?” John wondered.
Mark was too quick for Shirlee. “Isn’t it obvious? If Esau was going to start slaughtering Jacob’s kids, he wanted to give the ones who really mattered to him the best chance to escape. And even though they were all his kids, the ones his slaves bore weren’t too important to him. Right, Shirlee?”
Shirlee paused, then turned to John. “Well . . . The Bible isn’t specific about Jacob’s reasoning, but Mark is probably right.”
“Wow, that’s pretty sick,” said John.
As Esau approached, Jacob approached slowly, bowing to the ground seven times. Esau came up and hugged him and kissed him and they cried together. Jacob then introduced Esau to his wives, slaves, and children. Esau refrained from slaughtering any of them like cattle.
Esau then asked what the story was with the Jacobean Livestock Samplers presented to him, and Jacob explained they were gifts to please Esau. Esau had plenty, and told Jacob to keep his livestock. But Jacob insisted, and Esau accepted the gift.
After some further discussion, Esau went back to his home in Seir, and Jacob traveled to Succoth, and built a ranch there with a house and with cattle containments. Soon after, he went to Shalem, bought a piece of land, and built an altar.(Genesis 33:5-20)
“Esau is an unusual name,” mused John.
“John, if you name your son Esau, people will think he’s a lumberjack!” Ginny laughed.
“I guess, but at least he’s a decent human being. He got ripped off, twice, and instead of killing Jacob, or taking all his wealth, he just gave him hugs and kisses and accepted him back into the family. So much for the wages of sin . . .”
“Jacob sure didn’t deserve that,” agreed Ginny.
Shirlee interrupted, “This is a great lesson in Godly justice, children!”
“Justice? Where?” Ginny was genuinely perplexed. “I saw no justice!”
“Yeah,” added Mark. “He really got a ‘Get Out of Jail Free’ card!”
Shirlee smirked. “And that’s the point of Godly justice. It’s not always going to be what we might think is right by our flawed human sense of right and wrong. It’s God’s justice, and He decides what is right, and what people deserve.”
“So . . .” Mark led off.
“So, what?” snapped Shirlee.
“That tree in the garden, with the magical right-and-wrong fruit . . . what about that? We’re all supposed to be subject to the ‘original sin’, but we don’t have the ‘original benefit’?”
Shirlee thought for a moment. “It’s more complicated. Humans create their secular humanist values, and start ignoring the ingrained sense of right and wrong. Then they mistake their own, human-created values for God’s values.”
Mark wasn’t buying it. “OK, Shirlee . . . Can I quote you on that?”