I want us to take a brief walk through this chapter in Genesis 33. Of course, in context it follows the three days covered in Genesis 32 in which Jacob finds out his brother is coming to meet him with 400 men. The rest of that chapter is wrapped up in Jacob’s human attempts and frailties to undo a lifetime of bad choices through his own power and with faltering hope and faith in God’s ability to deliver.
God has to literally break the man in order to make him. Jacob is forced to come to the end of himself; to exhaust every resource and still realize that God alone is his only chance. And just in time it seems, Jacob does precisely that.
So let’s read and walk through this chapter together.
Verse notes for Gen 33:1
The moment of truth!
Verse notes for Gen 33:2
Is this a case where the most expendable lead the way? It seems that way to my un-middle eastern eye. Clearly enough Jacob knows he has to introduce his family to Esau who may well be angry enough still to wholesale slaughter them. So again with hopes that the ones in the back can turn and make a break for it, he puts the most precious in the back and the most expendable at the front. This becomes important later and helps to display already the favoritism extended to Joseph and the problems that will lead to.
Verse notes for Gen 33:3
Finally he plays the man, where the last night he had sent them all ahead by making them cross the river - now here he rushes ahead of them to take whatever may be coming to him. Or then again there is the possibility that he is trusting in God to deliver him finally. Unfortunately there’s no way to discover that from the text itself.
But look at the way he bows down seven times in front of his brother. I think it’s authentic humility. Jacob now appears to be genuinely repentant for having mistreated his brother. Esau in turn displays a sharp contrast between the 400 warrior he’s bringing with him and the hug he gives to Jacob. We get to the fourth verse and there are no swords, no slings or spears - only hugs and tears.
So we get to see that miracles were worked both in Jacob and in Esau.
In Jacob, God brought about a spirit of humility and generosity.
Esau was changed from seeking revenge to desiring reconciliation. These changes were proof that God had delivered Jacob in answer to his prayer (32:11).1
When we finally get to the tenth verse, you ought to be a little startled at his declaration that seeing Esau’s face was like seeing God’s. But it’s an intentional phrase that points back to the last chapter’s events.
Remember the hushed awe that Jacob had responded with when he said, "I have seen the face of God and lived!" There it was a testimony of grace where Jacob knew he should have died and didn’t. Here again it’s a testimony of grace as Jacob is now just as surprised that he has seen Esau’s face and lived. This after spending 20 years in hiding for fear of his life from Esau whom he had tricked and deceived.
But moving from Genesis 33:13-ff it looks almost like Jacob is starting to lie again to his brother and maybe he is… but maybe again he isn’t. He starts making excuses as to why he can’t go with Essau but the excuses sound authentic enough. The children probably wouldn’t be able to handle a hard military march. And he tells Esau that he’s planning to meander his way down to him in Seir, (The verb means " to go by stages, to move from one place to the next on a journey."2 but there is never an instance in the Bible in which Jacob makes it to Seir.
So What’s going on here? Is he lying about Going to Sier? He doesn’t even move in that direction he actually goes north-west while Sier is straight south. Whatever did happen there, Jacob and Esau meet again as friends at their father’s funeral in Genesis 35:29. What is clear is that God had demanded that Jacob go to Canaan and Jacob obeys that demand.
(VV 19-20)
As he moves deeper into the land, Jacob buys a plot of land, just as Abraham had done. And just like Abraham’s purchase it shows that Jacob, in reliance upon the promise of God, regarded Canaan as his own home and the home of his ofspring. 3
Finally at the end of the chapter as he had promised way back in chapter 28 Jacob fulfilles his promise to make God his God. He names the new altar God is the God of Israel.
So now what is the key lesson in this chapter? Basically this:
God is powerful enough to Restore Broken Relationships
In the flesh
Each one of us has had occasions to become an enemy to someone else. And each one of us has from time to time been on the receiving end of mistreatment. In the midst of that morass of ill treatment – antagonisms arise and relationships are broken.
Remember that Jacob had a distinct problem. His brother had sworn to kill him and had the power to do it. Esau was, after all, bringing 400 men with him. And that was more than likely a militaristic contingency – he was coming to kill his brother. But somewhere between the story we see – where Jacob is wrestling with the angel of God, getting a new name and making his own plans – there is the story we don’t see.
God works a supernatural transformation in Esau’s heart. In fact, God did what Jacob was hopping to do with all his pacifism gifts. Jacob wanted Esau’s heart and it was God who gave it to him.
So when we come to the text and we ask the question, "Where is Jesus in this text?" we discover that He is wrapped around the grace exhibited to Jacob in restored relationships. He is removing the dividing wall of hatred and animosity erected by Jacob’s actions and Esau’s hatred. He is delivering his chosen (Godly yet still fleshly) man and family from certain death at the hand of 400 men coming with worldly Esau. In this chapter Jesus is the answer of redeemed relationships.
Do you have a broken relationship? As much as is possible, remember we are supposed to live at peace with everyone. That means that the people that we have offended we have a responsibility to seek reconciliation with them. As believers we DO NOT HAVE the luxury of holding grudges and letting raw wounds remain. If however reconciliation is something THEY are unwilling to pursue, all is not lost.
We have a God who has the power to break hardened hearts and to institute reconciliation even at the last moment – when someone is mustering troops to go to war with us like Esau.
Not only is God powerful enough to heal broken relationship with people, but he has done an even greater work…
With himself.
The great story of this chapter is more than the redemption of the relationship between Jacob and Esau but is the declaration of a relationship between Jacob – who is now to be called "Israel" and His God – Elohim.
That’s the culmination of the chapter. As we get to the place where Jacob looks back at the promises in chapter 28:13-21 he sees that God has indeed protected him and delivered him and now Jacob makes good on part of his promise: He declares at the end EL-ELOHE-YISRAEL! (God is the God of Israel!) The relationship broken by sin is restored by faith. And this is the greatest redemption of relationship offered.
