God's Gracious Dealing

God's Gracious Dealing in Genesis 33

Well this morning we begin chapter 33, we're not going to complete Chapter 33 we'll take what remains into next week as we work through chapter 34. The long night of chapter 32 has now broken into dawn.

Last week, we saw Esau closing in with his 400 man militia. Intent it seemed to destroy Jacob and his family as far as Jacob knew. This encounter that was screaming toward him might be his last costing him his wife's His children his flocks his servants even himself.

But as we saw things have come full circle. Jacob was on the banks of the Jabbok and As he had been running from Esau 20 years before alone vulnerable in the fearful night at Bethel. We left him last week Alone and vulnerable in the fearful night at Mahanaim.

And once again, he was left utterly alone. And yet as we saw Jacob has never been alone. Through this mysterious encounter of the man in verse 24. We find a demonstration of God's faithfulness to Jacob.

He had promised at Bethel 20 years. Before that he would be with Jacob and indeed Jacob though He felt alone on the brooks of that night with Esau raging toward him in his own imagination. He was not alone.

We saw Jacob in his fight of faith the angel of Hosea 12 for Wrestling grappling with Jacob through the night until daybreak and when that fight of faith was over Jacob understood that his very life had been delivered verse 30 and Jacob strived for the real blessing the true gain in the hours that rolled by our Condescending Savior was wearing Jacob down Untwisting the twister stripping away his self-reliance and his self-sufficiency.

And the result of this night. Leading into chapter 33 is that Jacob had learned how to prevail with God in utter dependence upon God. Not as some unflinching Titan, but rather as a limping crippled Dependent.

Jacob knew from this moment forward that he was being pursued by the grace of God. It was as we left last week the hound of heaven Breathing down in that steady pace upon Jacob. I Have seen God he said in verse 30 of the last chapter face to face and my life is preserved.

He recognized that God had spared him and now he's boldly prepared to approach Esau Knowing that the Lord has delivered him and therefore will preserve him. And so we left last week with the very end of the last chapter just as he crossed over The place meaning the face of God.

The Sun rose on him and he limped on his hips. So we're through that long arduous night the fight of Jacob's faith. His soul has been delivered and now the Sun is is shining its radiant beams upon him as he limps Past the brook toward his brother Esau.

The Family Reunion and Humble Bowing Before Esau

Well, we have four parts in the 17 verses of our time this morning. No fancy alliteration here first We'll look at the family reunion second the gift exchange third the patient pace That keeps Jacob delayed and then lastly suck off sucker at suck off.

First we see this family reunion and it's coming right off the heels of the morning. Jacob lifted his eyes verse 1 and looked and there Esau was coming. So he literally goes from receiving the blessing of the Lord Naming the place Penuel to looking and Esau and these four hundred men have finally arrived.

And 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 in Rachel and Joseph last we're reminded that at this point Rachel's only child is Joseph something that will be changing shortly.

Picture the scene Jacob lifts his eyes just coming out of this encounter through the night completely exhausted and spent. Probably could barely lift his eyelids and he looks over and here's Esau and this spread of 400 men and yet.

What does he do? I don't think this is fearful tactical. Jacob saying oh, no, you know you you go ahead of me. This is actually an arrangement and as we'll see a very formal procession a formal display to his brother.

So he arranges his family first Bilhah and Zilpah and their children then Leah and her children and then Rachel with their son Joseph, but he goes forward he passes in front. Now we have to remember what Esau would have been receiving.

From the end of the previous day through the night perhaps if there was a stumbling servant He would have been receiving wave after wave of this very elaborate gifts. Cattle and servants cattle and servants flocks of all kinds always with this message.

These are gifts from my Lord my master Jacob and he is coming to meet you. Well when Jacob finally approaches Esau you can picture Esau's mind these elaborate gifts this incredible abundance and Jacob's behind this and Jacob's behind this and Jacob's behind this you think with more and more Costly and elaborate gifts that when he finally sees Jacob It's gonna be a whole train of servants with much more cattle and he's gonna be lifted on this bronze bed with you know Ostrich feather fans and Jacob's eating grapes brother.

Nice to finally see you. But how does Esau actually experience Jacob limping? Exhausted. Barely able to pick himself up. Here's Esau after all these elaborate gifts limping. Exhausted torn torn clothing limping toward his brother.

No wonder Esau takes pity upon.

Jacob.

He crossed over before them. We read in verse 3 bowed himself to the ground seven times. Until he came near to his brother. So Esau's watching this spectacle unfold. He sees some people behind Jacob but here's the limping Jacob making his way toward Esau and stopping at Designated times to bow himself to the ground.

So we see again this humbling of the Lord that is now Demonstrated physically by Jacob. He has been humbled by the Lord humbled in the situation with his brother Esau. And he wants to demonstrate that humility to Esau not by bowing merely as a courtesy or something polite to do.

But bowing sevenfold bowing seven times on his way to actually stand before his brother. It may have been the first time in his whole life that he willingly bowed to Esau. And so we see the effect of God's grace in his life over these past 20 years.

He doesn't just bow once. A Sevenfold bow was something fitting for royalty. If you approached a Pharaoh if you approached a king. You would take these kinds of pains to demonstrate your your humility and your gratefulness for being received in court a vassal.

Meaning a subject to a suzerain a great or mighty ruler would come in with this kind of ceremony as a sort of Servant or a dependent upon that great rulers patronage. He would come in with an elaborate display of gifts and and bowing seven times this number of completion.

These constant addresses of let it please your servant if I found favor in my Lord's sight. All of this is part of this elaborate ceremony. Esau's being treated like a king. More importantly Jacob is treating himself as a subject a servant to Esau and we can't help but see here an ironic reversal of all that God had prophesied about Jacob back in chapter 27 verse 29.

Let people serve you nations bow down to you. Be master over your brethren be a lord over your brother. Let your mother's sons bow down to you. And yet here we find the recipient of that promise bowing down to his brother naming himself.

Identifying self as a servant to his brother. So God had promised the nations would bow down to him that will be true that covenant will be fulfilled. And yet the way to that glory the way to that cross is through humility.

Through a humbling a sevenfold obeisance To his brother Esau and so again. We see the effect here. God desired to break Jacob in order to bless him and this leads to the covenantal heir lying Prostrate before his wronged brother.

This is the fruit of God's discipline God's blessing God's trial in the life of Jacob and he needed this divine Humbling so that he could receive the fulfillment of those promises so that the Lord in due time would exalt him.

He needed to be brought low in this very way. After the seven bowings He finally stands before his brother and then comes The fateful moment of verse 4 what we've been chasing now for several months. Esau we read ran to meet him embraced him fell on his neck kissed him and they wept.

What a scene the sequence of verbs is so elaborate. Every little motion matters. It's all sort of in slow-mo. Nothing's missed and they reconciled. That's not what we have. We don't have a summary statement.

We have every action of this encounter Esau running to meet his brother embracing him. Falling upon his neck kissing him and only then does Jacob enter into this description they together wept. We remember Esau Raising his voice in a roar.

Weeping when Jacob stole his blessing we read in 27 that he left it he lifted his voice and wept but now Esau weeps again with his brother Jacob and this weeping doesn't just contain the joy of their present Reconciliation really it contains the pain of the past 20 years as often moments of reconciliation like this do not just the joy of the present the prospect of moving forward, but the memory of what's being left behind and so I say not only with the pain of their past because there's 20 years worth of resentment and guilt and shame and frustration and resentment.

Embedded into this very moment and it's all Bursting out of the seams as they embrace and they weep and weeping is something you do when words fail. It's beyond language and so they don't even know what to say.

What fitting words are there? All they can do is weep and embrace and hold each other close. Gil points out John. Gil points out Esau ran to meet him. Ran to meet him. Most likely he would have been on some sort of animal maybe one of the camels that he received from Jacob.

But as soon as he actually saw his brother limping toward him and by the time that fourth fifth or sixth bow was taking place. He was already galloping toward him. He wanted to express express the fact that he had already received him.

He had already been willing to reconcile with him. He wanted to show something of his affection for him and all of this is enigmatic of the father running to meet the prodigal you remember in Luke 15 this perhaps most famous of parables the parable of the prodigal son.

When the younger son had gathered together all journey to the far country wasted everything in a prodigal lifestyle and. Then when finally a famine came and he was reduced to to even desiring the pods that the swine were dining upon.

He came to the end of himself and he said I've had enough better to be a servant in the house of my father than to perish here with hunger. And so he had his plan. I'll go to him and I'll say father I've sinned against heaven before you no longer fit to be called your son.

Rather let me be as one of your slaves make me a hired servant and so he arose and carried out this plan and we read so Powerfully in verse 20 when he was still a great way off. His father saw him had compassion.

He probably looked a lot like Jacob beleaguered. Exhausted torn clothing maybe limping his way back toward his father. And what does the father do like he saw he sees him from afar. He runs. He falls upon his neck.

He kisses him. Where's Jesus getting this language? It's right out of Genesis 33. It's the same sequence of verbs the running the falling upon the neck the kissing. And then the son says father he begins this rehearsed speech and the father cuts him off.

He's not even listening bring out the best robe kill the fatted calf put my golden ring upon him. I thought my son was dead and. So Jesus is taking this language from this encounter between Esau and Jacob in Genesis 33.

And he's he's as it were pasting it over the encounter between the father and the prodigal son. Why does Jesus do that? What is he emphasizing here? Well, I think one of the thing that comes across is Jesus saying listen when it comes to being reconciled with the father.

When you recognize like Jacob the twister that you've been a far way off and yet and yet you've been Compelled to come and be reconciled to the father. You don't need endless trains of gifts. You don't need to send servants and camels and have a demonstration.

Wave after wave of all the reasons that you're actually worthy to be received. You don't need to have a cunning speech. You don't even need to necessarily have this confession of guilt as if that's what's coercing the father to show mercy.

You know really plead your case really balance it out. I've tried really hard Lord, you know I know I did wrong but I'm owning up to it and look at the good things I have here if that's waves of gifts if that's coercive speech.

Jesus is saying the father needs none of that. He's already running. He's already ready to reconcile. He's not looking for a speech. He's not looking for camels and flocks. He's not looking for the good things that you've done with your life all the things that would make you worthy of receiving this kind of forgiveness of being Reconciled with the father does not need these things.

He's not look for these things. This is something that Jesus is showing in the contrast when you come to be reconciled to the father. You come as you are because you can't do anything else and coming as you are you find this one Jesus seems to say that you fear will never received you will never never offer forgiveness to you.

But coming in that humility in that repentant self-acknowledgement Jesus is saying you'll find the father running to you in mercy. He saw Is magnanimous in this passage beginning in verse 5, you know, you almost get the sense that he's gonna be a really good uncle.

He lifted his eyes.

Saw the women and the children who are these with you? And so Jacob said the children whom God has graciously given your servant and the maidservants came near. They and their children and they bowed down like father like sons.

They bowed down. They see their father's humility before Esau. Is this the guy that dad was always talking about? I Guess we're supposed to bow now. Leia comes near with her children. They bowed down.

Joseph and Rachel come near they bowed down. The whole household of Jacob honors Esau. They lie down before him. Esau doesn't seem to desire this at all. He just wants to be introduced and Then there's this gift exchange very significant beginning in verse 8 Esau said what do you mean by all this company which I met?

Not just speaking of what stands before him, but everything he's received over the previous day. And he said these are to find favor in the sight of my Lord pay attention to that phrase. But Esau said I have enough my brother keep what you have for yourself.

Keep in mind Jacob's whole presentation was coming to Esau as to a royal as to one who was truly the heir worthy of this kind of recognition. But Esau doesn't play into that. Esau does not receive Jacob as though he were a dependent a servant a vassal.

He says I have enough brother. Doesn't say yes my servant this pleases me. He doesn't play into the way that Jacob is showing this kind of honor. It's as if Esau's picking Jacob up to stand as an equal alongside him.

It's enough brother. So we begin to appreciate the way that not only has Jacob changed over these past 20 years but in many ways this wild man intent on murder has changed as well and Let's not attribute that change to well I guess you don't really need to be in this in this covenant till dealing with God, you know.

Working under Laban 20 years at trial. I guess you can go and just you know. Kick pants and in Edom and take possession and I guess that'll work just as well. No, we cannot say that. We have to give credit where credit is due.

I love what Arthur pink has to say about this. Had Esau been left to himself. This reception with Jacob would have been very different, but he was not left to himself. Jacob had prayed earnestly to God and this was God answering that prayer.

He in whose hands the king hearts the king's heart turns. After his will inclined this fierce and envious man to deal kindly with Jacob. I think that's exactly right. The same grace that was working in Jacob's life over 20 years patiently.

Untwisting and breaking him down. So that he could be blessed and lifted up was also at work as a result of intercession as a result of Jacob's prayer God's hands were in the heart of Esau turning it after his will.

All the credit goes to God. I don't want Esau coming out that profane man as Scripture calls him. I don't want him coming out looking better than he ought. All the credit here of his reception goes to God.

It reminds us doesn't it as Christians that we meet people often who are unbelievers that that have some character of grace in their lives. Patient wise loving devoted loyal and. When we meet people like that, we don't say oh, I guess there are these things outside of God's work.

Outside of a relationship with God. No, we rather give credit to God. Even though you do not know him, even though your ways are far from him yet He has been so good to you to give you these Characteristics these Capacities in your life and in your relationships we give all the credit of grace to God and people's lives.

Including Esau and we also recognize that God in his common grace in his kindness toward all has actually blessed Esau. Esau is a profane man who from the beginning despised the blessings of God. Even when he had opportunity to repent and and receive the inheritance at the household of Isaac because Jacob was on the run.

He had no interest in that. He left his father's household. He moved down toward Edom to take possession. But we recognize that nonetheless Esau has been blessed. We see again a demonstration of God's common grace to all that he has made.

I Love what Spurgeon says about this? Esau received a great blessing of a temporal kind an earthly blessing. Which Isaac did pronounce on him with all the love of a father. Esau received what he most wanted.

He cared very little for the spiritual blessing. He was not a spiritual man. And when he obtained the temporal blessing that satisfied his heart. No wonder he can say it is enough brother. He got what he sought in life.

This is all I ever wanted. I wanted to be at this place with these possessions at this point in my life. It's enough brother. Don't you know Jake I have never interested in the whole church stuff like you just not my bag.

I've got what I want. I'm a go-getter. It's enough. What what could you offer me that I need? I don't need any of this. So first recognize God's blessing upon Esau, but then I say this strikingly, please be warned by the fact that God's blessing upon Esau is Inevitably a curse upon Esau.

We see God's grace in the life of Esau such that he will be reconciled to Jacob. We see God's grace and the life of Esau in these Wonderful ways that he shows humility and even sympathy and pity upon his brother.

We see God's grace in the life of Esau and that he is blessed. God gives him a household gives him wives and children gives him possession gives him progeny and a heritage. We see God's grace in all of that.

But Esau was not a spiritual man. He was profane. Esau never sought after the face of God. It's what distinguished him from Jacob from the very beginning of their lives. Jacob was a man after the earth.

Jacob was a man after God's own heart. Esau was a man after the earth. Esau was a profane man when he obtained what he wanted in this life. It was enough. That's the worst thing that could be said about someone.

They got what they wanted in life and it's enough. God has so designed his relationship with us that we should always have a yearning for him and That this life and all that could be obtained in this life is never enough.

Like Jacob we strive until we receive the blessing and all the things that seem to be a part of that have clearly Paled in Jacob's eyes. I won't let you go until you bless me. What's your name? And that's when the angel is surprised.

What what is this? Why are you asking my name? He recognized the pearl of great price. Esau was too busy expanding the field. He wasn't willing to lose it. It is a fearful thing. I say this especially to young men and young woman here.

It is a fearful thing. When you pursue things in life and you receive the things in life that you pursue and it's enough for you. That's a fearful thing. Contentment is a virtue in the Christians life.

Godliness with contentment is great gain first. Timothy 6 says. But if you're unspiritual if you're not spiritually minded if you're profane and your life is bound up with the things of the earth. Contentment is God's curse upon you.

I know people in my life not not here.

Who are?

Fatally content. Fatally content their contentment is their ruin. It is good for Jacob to strive after the blessing to throw off every Weight that so easily entangles and press forward notice as we get back to the gift exchange that Jacob insists and this is really important.

This is not the kind of gift that can be turned down because it's more than just a gift. Beginning in verse 10 Jacob said no, please if I've now found favor in your sight Receive my present from my hand and as much as I've seen your face as though I've seen the face of God.

And you were pleased with me so Jacob's now looking sort of back over their past in this encounter the pain of what he had done the guilt that he's now Trying to rectify and he's saying no. No. No, this is not saying I know you're being polite and and very gracious and I'm so thankful, but you cannot turn this down.

You don't understand. I need to make restitution. I need to make amends and for for Esau to turn this down is to almost say it's not forgiven. I don't accept your attempt to reconcile and so in this place of Gratitude toward God.

We've already seen it. God has blessed them Blessed me with these children. God has given them to me. We see this this God-centered gratitude this radical self-awareness in Jacob's life, but then this attempt to find favor.

No, no, no, you have to receive it. I need to find favor in your sight and then To find favor he says to Esau is like seeing the face of God. What is going on here in verse 10? We remember God had blessed him at Peniel the face of God and that is saying Jacob saw God face to face and remember even leading up to that back in chapter 31 that Jacob has been seeking the face of Esau.

So 31 Jacob seeking the face of Esau verse 2 verse 5. This is verse 20 from 31 if I see his face. That's Esau. If I see Esau's face, perhaps he will accept me. Perhaps he'll show me favor. That was the only plan Jacob had.

I'm seeking Esau's face. Perhaps he will accept me. Perhaps I will find favor in his sight. Perhaps I will be reconciled to my long-lost brother Esau. I'm seeking his face and as he prepared to do that He gets ambushed by God and he spends the night wrestling with God.

Until the point that he sees God face to face and he receives the blessing of God. He finds favor in God's sight. He's reconciled to God and now he goes forward with the original plan Seeking the face of Esau and he says if I am reconciled to you if I find favor in your sight.

It's like I've seen the face of God. In other words these two events are the same. Derek Kidner points this out. Jacob saw these two encounters as one. The encounter with the Lord and the encounter with his brother two levels of a single event.

It's almost like Jacob is saying You've received me like this because because God has received me. You're able to show me this kind of favor because God has favored me. You want to reconcile with me because I've been reconciled to God so to see your face like this upon me is like seeing the face of God and Jacob knows I no longer need to twist and wrestle and manipulate.

I Just need to limp by faith not by sight. It was Jacob's faith Jacob's experience of this mercy That allowed him to see it was God at work in Esau's life. This is almost Jacob's testimony to Esau. And that's why he continues to make God the forefront of everything.

He says look at the next verse, please take my blessing. That is brought to you because God has dealt graciously with me because I have enough. I'm not giving these things to you Esau because you have.

I'm giving back the blessing because I I've seen the face of God and he's delivered me. I Have enough. Take my blessing no longer my gift no longer the present. But the blessing the very word the very thing that Jacob had taken from Esau.

He says take the blessing back. God has dealt graciously with me. And so he urged him you have to take this if not for your sake then for mine. I need to physically Demonstrate that God has dealt graciously with me and I have a contentment in him.

I have enough. I Need to physically demonstrate that my desire now is to be at peace with you because I'm at peace with my God. I need to physically demonstrate that this reconciliation Between us is something that God has brought not something that I've manipulated.

Gil points out the the language here is stronger. I have enough. It's actually emphatic in Hebrew he says the expression is stronger than Esau indeed Jacob shares a much larger share not of temporal blessings, but of Spiritual ones.

God is a covenant God to him Christ his Redeemer the Spirit his sanctifier. He had every grace bestowed on him and was an heir of glory. Jacob says I have enough. It's very deliberate that Esau receives the gift and it's very important that Esau offers nothing in return.

That's Esau's way of saying you are the one that had wronged me. I accept your restitution for that wrong and Now we can be at peace. He doesn't say oh since we're giving gifts. Let me give you something in return.

That's not what this is about. This is about restitution and reconciliation. So Esau as it were receives the blessing back from Jacob. Now, of course that blessing will rest upon Jacob as his father said indeed He shall be blessed, but we see in Jacob this gracious willingness to lose Everything that he had spent so much of his life pursuing because now he found what in fact he always wanted whether he knew it or not.

He found what he had been made for. He found who had made him. He found the one that had pursued him the one that he would say at the end of his life had been his shepherd his whole life and That leads us thirdly to this patient pace speaking of shepherds Esau says in verse 12.

Let us take our journey. Let us go. I'll go before you and Jacob said to him my lord knows that the children are weak. The flocks and the herds which are nursing are with me. Not to mention my hip really hurts and I haven't slept.

If the men should drive hard one day the whole 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 and seer. This is a lot of detail. We actually don't need verses 12 through 14 in my opinion unless there's something that we're meant to see in them. I don't think there's any problem in terms of setting up the next location for chapter 34 if we go from verse 11 He urged him and he took it right down to verse 15.

And and so Esau says let me leave with you some people who are with me. Let me find favor in the sight of my lord. Esau returned that day on his way to seer Jacob journey to suck off. That's really all we need.

Where do they go after this encounter, but we don't have that. We actually have a lengthy description of Jacob saying my children are weak. My flocks and my herds. They're at a tender age. If they're driven the hard they're gonna perish.

I'm gonna lead them slowly. I'm gonna go at such a pace that they'll be able to endure. Why is all this language here we don't need this description just to get to seer and suck off. I Think it's here because it's echoing the way that God has dealt with Jacob and in these very words Jacob is as Israel saying this is how Israel needs to be led.

Israel needs to be led Carefully because they're weak and if I drive them hard they're gonna perish. I'm going to lead but it's gonna be slow and it's gonna be at a pace that Accounts for their weakness and I'm gonna lead in a way it won't always be easy, but they'll be able to endure it.

And all of a sudden now Jacob is Resonating with the way that God has dealt with him. Not driving him hard fix this now this year or you're gonna perish. But still driving him not leading him ruthlessly so that he's Exasperated and and tumbles into a pit for ten years, but still leading him.

Leading him not always in an easy way not without anxiety or trial or even trouble. But always in a way that causes him to endure. Even when he makes mistakes along the way God is leading him slowly, but at a pace.

That will cause him to prevail. We'll come back to that as an application. You can't you can't get on to that now, but I just Am struck by this description and what it means for Jacob's life. We come lastly and briefly to the fourth and last part of our verses beginning in verse 15.

Let me leave with you some of the people who are with me Esau says but Jacob says what need is there? Let me find favor. This is now the third time that Jacob has said let me find favor. Do you do you see what I'm all about?

Esau I'm all about finding favor in your sight being reconciled to you. So Esau returned to that day on his way to seer verse 17. And this is a disjunctive clause could easily be translated. But it's adversative, but Jacob journeyed to suck off built himself a home made booths for his livestock.

Therefore the name of that place is called Sukkoth which just means booths. Now I say sucker at Succoth sucker meaning relief. Or comfort. I Think there's this great relief of what he has just done. He's been reconciled to God and to man.

He's he's encountered the Living God his life has been delivered and the thing he's been fearful of for 20 years has finally come to Pass. It's just like oh, that's like you know gold medal at the Olympics, and now what do you do with yourself?

And so I think when he goes to suck off He's in a place of relief. He begins to show that he has a desire to settle in the land at least a desire for settled life. A Lot of commentaries point out God had called him to go to Bethel, and he never went to Bethel.

I don't know that God ever called him to go to Bethel so much as God said I am the God who called you at Bethel. I'm you know the God who revealed myself to you at Bethel. He said return to the land of your father.

Now arguably he should have gone to the home of his father. Why he settles here. It's hard to say and a lot of interpreters want to set this up toward Shechem and the disaster that follows in 34 that this is the beginning of backsliding or compromise in the life of Jacob that may be true.

I don't read at least up to verse 17 in that way. It's a minority position. A Lot of commentators, you know good good trustworthy men would disagree. I just don't think the narrative is framed in that way.

I don't think it's framed to show the beginning of backsliding and then conclude with him building this altar to the God of Israel, I don't think this is setting up some Fearful distrust of God as he sets up a life in Shechem and now he's still afraid of Esau.

And he's still afraid to go back home or further into the land that to me seems incontinent with the way the narrative flows. I've at least found John Gill Expressing the way that I'm looking at this.

Whether no doubt he intended to come when he parted with Esau. But for reasons which after appeared to him declined it or this is Gil more probably he actually did go to seer. It's not recorded for us.

But he did go he kind of kept his family got them situated there at Sukkoth and he went At least for a short time to seer or quickly after though the scripture makes no mention of it. We don't have a record of this.

He might have gone with his servants directly. Sent his family flocks and herds under the care of other servants forward on their journey and then returned to them at Sukkoth. And this is what Gil says that he should tell a lie here seems unlikely and he seems to have no temptation to do it.

I think Gil is understanding the flow of the narrative rightly the rabbis would line up very well. It's a lot of more recent preachers and commentaries come in and they go Oh Jacob back to his old self.

Oh Jacob losing his trust in God just when you think he's got it together. He blows it. I think that's a horrible misreading of the way the narrative is flowing here. But I won't disagree that once he sets up a life and check him The influence of that area has a disastrous effect upon his family as we'll see.

So.

Two possibilities with how things. And I take it as he's relieved. He's recovering and he's preparing in further obedience to settle within the land. That's what God had asked him to do. I don't think we can say more or less than that.

Reconciliation, Contentment, and the Ministry of Reconciliation

Three applications.

First.

Consider God's gracious countenance and Reconciliation. God's gracious countenance and Reconciliation. Looking at verse 10 if I've now found favor in your sight receive my present from my hand and as much as I've seen your face as.

Though I'd seen the face of God and you were pleased with me. So we see this Desire again. Upon Jacob to be reconciled to his brother. What he did not know was that he needed first to be reconciled to God as we said last week and having been reconciled to God He has all urgency and all motivation to be reconciled to his brother and for him.