FBC Morning Light – January 17, 2023

Well, a good Tuesday morning. Now, yesterday in the Morning Light broadcast, you know, we left off with this unresolved conflict between Jacob and Esau, and today that conflict is apparently going to be resolved.

Jacob’s Fear, Esau’s Welcome, and the Limits of Human Trust

But I want you to notice how. Jacob had devised this plan to sort of bribe his brother to get his brother's favor. You say, well, that's a little strong. Well, it may sound a little strong, but that's really what Jacob did, and he himself admitted it.

So, for example, in chapter 33, Jacob and Esau finally meet, but this is after Jacob had sent all of these other gifts ahead of him, and he sent the rest of his family ahead of him, and so forth. And finally he crossed over, and then he finally meets his brother, okay?

They meet. And there's this wonderful interchange in verse 4, where it says, you know, Esau ran to meet him, Jacob, and embraced him, and fell on his neck, and kissed him, and they wept. Remember all the fear and the concern on the part of Jacob, you know, is my brother going to still hate me?

Is he going to despise me? You know, what do I have to do to keep him from killing me like he intended to do 20 years ago? And then when you see this, it appears that, you know, Esau, all of that animosity, that hostility, it's all melted away.

You know, time has passed, and he's let bygones be bygones, if you will. That's the way it seems to be. Jacob isn't so sure. He's not so sure about that. So when Esau then asks his brother, you know, what do you mean by all of this company that I met?

You know, these droves of animals, and so forth, that Jacob sent ahead of him to be gifts to Esau. Jacob says this, he said, these are to find favor in the sight of my Lord. I sent these all because I wanted to curry your favor.

I thought they might be a good bribe to get your favor. And Esau replies and says, hey, I don't want any of your stuff. I've got plenty. You know, I've been richly blessed. I have enough for myself. Keep what you have for yourself.

Jacob insists, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. You got to take this stuff. Now, you know, in the mind of, the way Jacob's mind is working, I believe, he's got to get Esau to accept all this stuff, because that then make Esau his debtor, and, you know, Esau won't be in any way, shape, or form inclined.

You kind of wonder, in this interchange between Jacob and Esau, it seems that Jacob just does not trust his brother. Esau offers to go with him and to help him move everything back to Canaan. Jacob says, no, no, no, no, you go on ahead.

And Esau says, well, let me leave some of my servants, and they can at least help out. He says, oh, no, no, that's okay. You just, you go on ahead, and I'll follow up on behind you. And so we read in verse 16 that Esau returned that day on his way to Seir.

You remember, Jacob said, I'm going to meet you. Esau returned on his way to Seir, and Jacob journeyed to Succoth, and he built himself a house, and he made booths for his livestock, and he named the place that is called Succoth.

And you get the impression that they didn't meet back up again, and that may very well be the case. So what's going on in Jacob's mind here? Did he pick up some things in Esau's demeanor? Did he read some body language, expressions?

You know, what did he pick up that made him respond this way and be so distrustful? Was it some of those things? Or instead, was it simply that he projected, Jacob projected his own deceptive heart on his brother Esau?

Now remember that from the beginning of this whole interchange between Jacob and other people, we keep seeing Jacob as a supplanter, as a deceiver, as acting deceptively. And when somebody has that kind of a heart, it's very likely that they're going to interpret the actions of other people according to their own heart.

They're going to project their deceptive heart on the other person, and presume that they are just as deceptive as they are. And I think that's more likely the case. But here's what I want us to get, because this is where chapter 33 comes to an end.

God’s Faithfulness in the Land of Canaan

In all of this 20 years worth of stuff that's been going on, when Jacob left Canaan, he had that vision of the Lord coming down from the ladder from heaven. And Jacob said, if you bring me back here, you'll be my God.

And 20 years have passed, and through all of the conflict, all of Jacob's practices, Laban's practices against Jacob, and all that kind of stuff, the ongoing feelings of conflict between Jacob and Esau, even though Jacob is not the perfect, pristine person that we would think needs to be, he needs to be in order for God to bless him, and to be his God, and all the rest of that.

In spite of all of that, we read in the end of chapter 33 that Jacob came safely to the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, when he came from Paddan Aram, and he pitched his tent before the city, and, now get this, he bought the parcel of land where he had pitched his tent.

Here's the second occurrence of land in Canaan being bought. Remember? Abraham bought a parcel of land for a cemetery for Sarah, and he buried her there, and that became his piece of property in the land of Canaan.

And now Jacob comes to Shechem, and he buys a parcel of land, and when he did that, he erected an altar there, and called it El Eloha Israel, God the God of Israel. God is my God. In other words, here's what I want us to see.

God has been working in all of these arrangements, all of these conflicts, and all of the mess. He's been working in all of that to bring this man back to this place, and provide yet another stake in the land of Canaan, because many, many years earlier, God had made a promise, a covenant promise to Abraham, reiterated to Isaac, and reaffirmed to Jacob that the land of Canaan would be their inheritance.

God Keeps His Covenant Promise

God is working to keep his promise. A faithful God works faithfully to fulfill his word as he has promised it. We thank you for that, Father. We thank you for who you are. We thank you for your faithfulness.

We thank you that you keep your covenant, even when we, your fallen people, with our own messed-up hearts sometimes, we're not all that we should be. We thank you that you are all, always all, that you should be.

We thank you for your faithfulness today, in Jesus' name, amen. All right, well listen, have a great Tuesday. I trust the Lord will bless you in it. Good day.