Jacob & Esau Reuniting

Morning, church.

Today's reading is Genesis 33, verses 1 through 11.

Genesis 33:1–11

And Jacob lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, Esau was coming, and four hundred men with him.

So he divided the children among Leah and Rachel and the two female servants.

And he put the servants with their children in front, then Leah with her children, and Rachel and Joseph, last of all.

He himself went on before them, bowing himself to the ground seven times until he came near to his brother.

But Esau ran to meet him and embraced him, and fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept.

And when Esau lifted up his eyes and saw the women and children, he said, Who are these with you?

Jacob said, The children whom God has graciously given your servant.

Then the servants drew near, they and their children, and bowed down.

Leah likewise and her children drew near and bowed down.

And last Joseph and Rachel drew near and they bowed down.

Esau said, What do you mean by all this company that I met?

Jacob answered, To find favor in the sight of my Lord.

But Esau said, I have enough, my brother.

Keep what you have for yourself.

And Jacob said, No, please, if I have found favor in your sight, then accept my present from my hand.

For I have seen your face, which is like seeing the face of God, and you have accepted me.

Please accept my blessing that is brought to you, because God has dealt graciously with me, and because I have enough, thus he urged him, and he took it.

This is the word of the Lord.

Please be seated.

Good morning.

Thanks for joining us this morning.

These baptism Sundays are always very fun.

Uh, welcome uh Bryn's fan club and welcome Xavier and Xavier and Van's uh fan club.

We're excited for just after the service here when we'll move right out there, do some baptisms.

This Sunday is our last Sunday in Genesis for the year.

Uh yeah, big deal.

We've done a lot of Genesis this year, and we're finishing up at this beautiful place uh where Jacob and Esau, these estranged brothers, are finally reunited in this glorious reunion that we see today.

Next week, we're having some folks in town, uh, some missionaries that we support as a church.

They're missionaries to a small island nation called Vanuatu.

And they'll be joining us to share what uh they're working on and and what it's like to serve.

And uh their names are Brad Namber, so we're really looking forward to hosting them for church next week.

And then the week after that, we're uh Jacob will be preaching on uh giving and what it means to give in the spirit.

And then we'll move into our summer series where we'll be moving through the book of Colossians, uh Paul's letter to the Colossians.

So there's a lot of exciting stuff coming up in uh on Sunday morning.

So yeah, you should go to them.

You should go to church, because you know, before the Bible tells you so.

Jacob and Esau, 20 years later, finally reunite.

Now, this is a big reunion because the last time that they were together or that they uh the last interaction that they had was Jacob deceiving Esau and tricking him, and then Esau committing himself to murder Jacob.

And so Jacob fled, and he had lived with this man named Laban, who'd become his father-in-law for the next twenty years.

But the Lord had called Jacob back into the promised land, and to head back into the promised land meant, among other things, facing his estranged brother.

Now, on the way back to the promised land, what we saw last week is that just before meeting Esau, Jacob spends a night alone.

And during this night alone, he begins wrestling a man.

A man comes up and picks a fight with him.

They begin wrestling.

And as the story progresses, we learn that the man that he is wrestling is God.

And in this wrestling, he meets God face to face, and Jacob is blessed and renamed.

But he leaves that blessing with a limp during a sunrise.

This is what it's like to meet God often.

The sun rises upon us, and yet we leave with a limp, a mark from the Lord.

Today we see that in this reunion between Jacob and Esau, that the same pattern of reconciliation that takes place between the Lord and Jacob will now take place between Jacob and his estranged brother.

We see this principle in Scripture, that what the Lord accomplishes between us and him in our relationship to him, the Lord also accomplishes between us and one another.

That the reconciliation that God desires between us and himself is one that he also desires to be demonstrated in his people, the church.

So we see that this same pattern will play out.

As with God, so with Esau for Jacob, as with our relationship vertically, so with our relationships horizontally.

This is part of our great hope in the gospel.

So let's look at the story.

In Genesis 33, verse 1, and Jacob lifted up his eyes and hey, we should pray.

Genesis 33:1

Let's pray.

Father, as we move through your word, we pray that you would attend this time.

Lord, that you would give us a hope and a picture of your gospel, a clear understanding of the reconciliation that you have made happen between us.

Might we see that take place in our own lives?

Lord, let us joyfully participate as we witness the image of your reconciliation to us and the promises that you offer us in baptism.

Lord, we pray that we would glorify and honor you this morning as a church, celebrating those who you bring in.

Lift this up in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Verse 1 of chapter 33.

And Jacob lifted up his eyes and looked.

And behold, Esau was coming, and four hundred men with him.

So he divided the children among Leah and Rachel, and he put the servants with their children in front, then Leah with her children, and Rachel and Joseph, last of all.

So Jacob is waiting to encounter this brother whom he has sinned against, and last he knew, desires to kill him.

And what he sees coming across the horizon is that brother with four hundred men.

Now that's likely a terrifying sight, because when you bring four hundred, when you're rolling that deep, there's a high risk that it he's coming to hurt you.

He's coming to make good on that promise that you'll be murdered.

So Jacob organizes his family in such a way where he divides the children among his wives, Leah and Rachel.

He puts the servants and their children in front, then Leah with her children, and Rachel and Joseph are last of all.

And here we get sort of a little parenthetical mention of what will be one of the primary details that the rest of the narrative Genesis hinges on, which is that Jacob favors Joseph above all his brothers and above all the rest of his family.

That'll become a pretty major um plot point later on, which but you'll have to wait till January of next year before we start moving through that.

So Esau's approaching, and Jacob organizes himself defensively, and then he goes before his family.

Jacob goes before his family to meet Esau and the 400 men.

In verse 3, it says, he himself went on before them, see, bowing himself to the ground seven times until he came near to his brother.

His approach to Esau is not one of attack.

It's not one of deception, which would have been typical for Jacob.

It is one of submission.

He puts himself into his brother's hands.

Now, I don't know that we would have seen Jacob do this had not the Lord, the Lord, wounded him and renamed him and brought him into the true blessing that he had always desired, which is the blessing of the Lord, just the night before.

Now, at this moment, bowing before Esau, we have this pause of tension, wondering what will Esau's response be?

Will Esau make good on his vengeance?

Will this relationship of brothers continue to be broken and splintered?

Or is there a hope of reconciliation?

So while Jacob is bowing down with his wounded hip, verse 4 says this.

Not that they began a conversation and Jacob had the right words and was able to defuse his brother.

It wasn't that Jacob was able to explain himself.

He didn't even get the chance to say, man, it was 20 years ago, we were so young, weren't we?

Wasn't it foolish the way that I tried to be you and the way that you tried to kill me?

And then they all would have said, Yeah, we were crazy back then.

Didn't even get a chance to say it, to justify it with a youthful ignorance.

Esau ran.

He was running towards Jacob.

He falls upon his neck.

He kisses him.

Those are all things Esau does: the running, the falling, the hugging, the kissing.

And then together they wept.

What is that weeping after 20 years of estrangement?

It is a weeping for the men that they were, for the threats and the lies and the deceit that had marked their estrangement.

It is a weeping for the 20 years of fellowship that had been lost.

It is a mourning, but it's also a joy that's together in that weeping.

Because now they are reconciled.

They are together again.

And Esau has given to Jacob his forgiveness.

It's the same picture.

It's like when Jacob left wrestling with God and he walks away and the sun rises, but he's limping.

It's a mourning and a joy.

It's a death and a resurrection.

This weeping is a picture of forgiveness.

It's maybe the highest thing that can take place between people.

In verse 5, Esau lifted up his eyes and saw the women and children.

He said, Who are these with you?

Jacob said, The children whom God has graciously given your servant.

Now think of what that means.

Do you remember what the blessing was that Jacob stole from his brother?

It's the blessing that he would multiply and become a great nation, even a multitude of peoples would come from Jacob.

And there Esau stands, walking not with his wife and children, but instead with just 400 men.

And he bears witness, and he must look out and see that blessing that was on Jacob's life was real.

And Esau had an opportunity there.

He could resent that, and he could remember that this was stolen and it should have been mine, and he could enter back into a place of envy that would have re-divided the brothers.

But instead, the family comes one by one to Esau, and Esau kisses them and hugs them as they bow down to him.

It is a fullness of reconciliation, a fullness of grace that is given by Esau.

Now, before they had met personally, Jacob had sent three caravans of gifts on the way to sort of intercept Esau and win his good favor.

So as sheep and goats and herds and flocks, and they were all sent forward so that Esau would be walking towards Jacob and be like, What's this on the horizon?

And it would be somebody would say, Jacob, your brother, he sent you another great flock.

Then you'd keep walking, and then you'd look at all these sheep that you just received from Jacob, your brother.

So Esau asks, and he says, Well, what does it mean that you gave me all these people?

What did it mean, all these people that I ran into on my way here?

And Jacob said, It was so that I would find favor in your sight.

Jacob was trying to purchase a reconciliation between them.

But Esau says this in verse 9: I have enough, my brother.

Keep what you have for yourself.

This is a lesson in grace for Jacob.

That the forgiveness that he was that he received could not be purchased on his own.

It had to be freely given by the one whom he offended.

And that was the nature of their forgiveness and their reconciliation.

But Jacob says this: he says, No, please.

If I have found favor in your sight, then accept my present from my hand.

My daughter just fell.

She's fine.

If I have found favor in your sight, then accept my present from my hand, for I have seen your face, which is like seeing the face of God, and you have accepted me.

Jacob can say that with earnestness.

I have seen your face, and it is like seeing the face of God.

What is it like to see the face of God?

We can hear this from Jacob.

It's on good authority.

He saw the face of God the night before, and likewise received the Lord's grace.

And what was it like to see Esau?

What is the face of God like?

Well, Jesus picks up on this same story, and he incorporates this event into one of the parables that he tells, using a phrase almost word for word.

The parable is found in Luke chapter 15, and we know it as the parable of the prodigal son.

Luke 15 · chapter mention

The son who tells his father, I would like my inheritance now, and I will leave you, because I just want your things and I don't want anything to do with you.

So he leaves his father and then he squanders his inheritance and he finds himself in this terrible life away from his father.

And he decides while he's eating out of a pig pen that my father's servants eat better than me.

Why don't I just go back?

And in fact, I may even try and purchase my father's love by coming to him and saying, I'll live for you just as a servant.

You no longer have to consider me a son or an heir.

Just let me live in the overflow of your grace.

And when the prodigal son is returning and walking across the horizon, back to the one who knows his sin.

This is the way God describes that father and his father and our father and the Lord responding.

And he arose and came to his father, Luke 15, 20.

The son did.

But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion and ran and embraced him and kissed him.

This is where Jesus got that image.

What is our father like?

What is our Lord like?

You come to him face to face.

He is the one who knows your sin better than anyone.

He is the one whom you sinned against.

And how is it that our Father, our Lord, comes to us?

He saw you while you were yet a long way off.

And while you're still a long way off, he felt compassion.

And like Esau, he ran.

He ran to you.

And he embraced you and kissed you.

He brought you back in.

Just as Esau was restored to his brother, just as Jacob was restored to his brother, the Lord restores us to himself.

This is the picture of the gospel.

This is our good news, the thing that we can wonder and hope at.

Our Lord is the one who chases after us when he sees us in our sin.

That's good news.

As we take communion, we remember that the way the Lord reconciles himself to us is by taking on the very punishment that we deserved, so that we might walk free.

In 1 Corinthians chapter 11, Paul writes this For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night when he was betrayed, took bread.

1 Corinthians 11 · chapter mention

And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, This is my body, which is for you.

Do this in remembrance of me.

In the same way also he took the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood.

Do this as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.

For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

It is by the Lord's death that we are reconciled.

It is while we were yet in our sin that Christ demonstrated his love to us by dying on our behalf.

Let's remember that this morning.

Let's remember how we are brought in, reconciled.

Holy Father, I pray that you would bless this meal in this time of communion.

Lord, we pray that in our particip participation with it, that our hearts might be made to remember the depth of your love towards us, that that might be the center of who we are, and that the reconciliation we experience between you and us, we might experience in our relationships as we freely offer the grace that you have given us to those around us.

Lord, we pray that we would be remade in your image because of your sacrifice.

We lift this up in Jesus' name.

Amen.