God told Jacob in Genesis 31:3 to “Go back to the land of your fathers and to your relatives.” Go on, go back home, face the music with Esau, and make up with him. Not the most pleasant thought for Jacob who, twenty or so years previously, had upset Esau so badly that Esau had wanted to kill him.
But God’s in the business of reconciliation, because it’s one great way of God making himself real to us, by enabling us to reconcile with people in what might seem to us as “impossible to reconcile” situations. Because that’s exactly what he does here with Jacob.
And it starts with God giving Jacob a reconciling spirit, because reconciling hadn’t come naturally to Jacob. He’d deeply upset his brother and with no remorse, no apology, and no desire to resolve the hurt he’d caused Esau either. How on earth, then, could Jacob go back home?
Amazingly, the old conniving Jacob did not try to get out of it. Instead, he found himself sending messengers to Esau (32:3) in the hope “that I may find favour in your eyes” (32:5). To Jacob it must’ve seemed he was asking the impossible, which God obviously knew because as Jacob headed out on the dreaded journey, angels met him on the way to encourage him (32:1). So God not only provided Jacob with a reconciling spirit, he also provided encouragement along the way.
And it certainly made God real to Jacob, because he cries out, “This is the camp of God!” (2) – hey, God’s camped out here with me, I’m not heading into this alone. So, petrified though he was at the thought of having to face his brother, Jacob was given the spirit nudge he needed to see this through.
Which he really did need, because his messengers reported back that Esau was setting out to meet him with four hundred of his men in tow. It sounded like Esau was spoiling for a fight, and now Jacob was really scared (6-7).
But instead of high tailing it into the hills, Jacob prayed to God to save their lives (11). So God had made himself real to Jacob, by asking the impossible of him and then providing the spirit help and encouragement to get the job done. Just as he promises to do in our impossible situations too (2 Corinthians 12:8-10). But was there still a bit of “Praise the Lord, and pass the ammunition” in Jacob still?….(next blog)
