Grappling with God...Continued from page 1

To make matters worse, when they are born, because of their birth order, Isaac comes up with this wonderful idea of how to keep sibling rivalry to a minimum by picking Esau as his favorite son. But don’t worry Rebecca isn’t above such vices, because she has her favorite too.

Then there is that incident with the stew and birthright. Allow me to play the devil’s advocate, Jacob isn’t all to blame here. The writer of Hebrews has this to say about Esau and his handling of the situation, “lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright.” Esau isn’t completely innocent he is just as much to blame for what transpired between the stew and the birthright.

But that isn’t what we are really talking about here, is it? I mean Esau did in a sense sign over his right to receive the blessing from Isaac, but he still tried to get it in the end, if it wasn’t for Jacob deceiving everyone. We all know Esau’s sentiments about that moment he wanted to kill his brother. Then to ensure her son’s safety because of this incident, Rebecca asks Isaac to send Jacob back to her brother’s house, because her excuse is that she hates the Hittite women that Esau has married.

Now comes the moment of truth, he is about to see his brother again, after all of these years. This brother that Jacob hasn’t seen in twenty years is ahead of him and coming in Jacob’s direction with 400 men. Can you hear the way that maybe his servant delivered the message to Jacob about his brother? “How’s your ulcer, sir?” “It still hurts, but I have been taking some of these chalky like pills, and it seems to be a little better. So what is happening?” “Well, we did what you said.” “And my brother, any word about him.” “No, not much, except that he has 400 men with him.” I can actually hear Jacob reach for more of those pills at the sound of that report. Maybe time hasn’t healed old wounds. So Jacob devises a plan in case his brother attacks him so that there can be an escape for at least some of his people and family.

Then in Genesis 32:9 Jacob begins to pray, his first prayer in this chapter. He knows that God has spoken to him and told him to leave Laban and return to his home country, but he is afraid. He wants God to deliver him from the hand of his brother because as he says in verse 11, “For I fear him.”