“Jacob Builds an Altar”

Genesis 32:1-21

 

Jacob has spent the last twenty years in exile in Mesopotamia, halfway to Babylon. He managed to squeak out a covenant with his Uncle Laban and he is making his way back home. This is where Jacob will need to face his past, which includes facing his brother Esau, who last time we heard of him was so angry he was going to murder him. Do you recall what Rebeka his mother said, “You know, if you go away for maybe a few days, Esau will forget all about this.” We will see how true those words were. 

 

We are beginning the third part of the story of Jacob. This section contains three stories which are designed in a 

significant way. 

 

When the prodigal son returns, it’s not always easy. The first story contains a triad of vignettes describing what Jacob went through prior to meeting his brother Esau. 

 

The following section focuses on Jacob's sons. Although Jacob plays a small role in that story, it will be mostly about the deceit and treachery of Jacob’s sons. Jacob’s story began with him and his brother’s birth and a deceit of his father. When Jacob comes back, it’s not him that is doing the deceiving, but his sons. We are now four generations into this family in Genesis and everyone has intensified the sins of their ancestors. The story of the deceptive sons is pretty disturbing. 

 

The concluding story will shift back to the two brothers again. Which will wrap up the remainder of Jacob’s story. 

In this third and final act the author does an excellent job of tying everything up using all the threads from all the acts before. 

 

We will begin with the three opening vignettes……

Jacob prepares to meet Esau.

God picks a fight.

Jacob actually meets Esau.

 

Today’s section is Jacob preparing to meet Esau. It begins with Jacob crossing into the land and the very first thing that happens is he encounters God’s angels. He then names the place “Two Camps.” 

 

Remember the last time Jacob encountered God’s angels? 

 

When he fled from home, as he left the land he had a vision of Heaven and Earth united by messengers. 

Remember? Angels going up and down the stairway? 

 

It was a portal of Heaven-and-Earth. Now returning, even though he was in a different spot, he passes by another Heaven-and-Earth portal. This is the narrator’s way of telling us that Jacob is returning to Eden, God’s promised land. This also evokes the melody of the redemption story, the return from exile. Makes you wonder how this is going to go. 

 

Upon encountering God’s messengers Jacob comes up with an idea. He decides to send some human messengers to his brother Esau. There are some Hebrew word plays here, “the land of Seir” contains the same Hebrew letters as the word, “hairy” and “in the field of Edom” you may remember means “red.”

 

Jacob instructed the messengers to say to Esau, verse 4, 

‘Your servant Jacob says, I have been staying with Laban and have remained there till now. I have cattle and donkeys, sheep and goats, male and female servants. Now I am sending this message to my lord, that I may find favor in your eyes.’”

When the messengers returned back to Jacob, they reported, verse 6,

“We went to your brother Esau, and now he is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him.”

Oh! Oh! His brother is coming towards him with 400 men? 

Jacob was in great fear and distressed. 

No reply, only that Esau was coming after him. His devious mind went into action. He divided the people who were with him into two groups. He also divided the flocks and herds and camels as well. 

He thought, verse 8,

“If Esau comes and attacks one group, the group that is left may escape.”

Let’s step away for just a moment and recall what Esau was like the last time we read about him. Esau was speaking to his heart about the pain and grief and we were told he had to comfort himself. This was exactly the same language that was used when God comforted Himself when He declared that He was going to bring the flood to deal with the outcry of evil. 

Previously Esau was pictured as the one crying out because of the evil done to him. Now he is pictured as if he’s God, deliberating about sending a flood. 

Well, Jacob has divided his spoils into two camps, in hopes to at least save half should something bad happen. Remember, we started today’s narrative with Jacob recognizing “Two camps,” God’s camp and Jacob’s camp. It’s like he has the realization that God was with him. But notice what Jacob does first, he comes up with a plan. He knows God is with him, but just in case, he has a back up plan, which involves one group surviving. The Hebrew word used for the word group is “remnant.” These two camps become contrasting portraits of Jacob’s faith. One moment he was like, “God is my camp,” the next moment, when there appears to be imminent danger, he’s got a plan to save his remnant, not through God’s hand but through his own cunning plan. 

What triggers all of this?        Fear

Which does Jacob fear more at this point? 

God or his brother Esau? 

The fear of the Lord leads to wisdom, in which case, one should get on their knees and pray. Which Jacob eventually gets around to doing. Let’s read it again, verse 9, 

“O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, Lord, you who said to me, ‘Go back to your country and your relatives, and I will make you prosper,’ I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness you have shown your servant. I had only my staff when I crossed this Jordan, but now I have become two camps. Save me, I pray, from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid he will come and attack me, and also the mothers with their children. But you have said, ‘I will surely make you prosper and will make your descendants like the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted.’”

Does he sound a bit desperate? A little scared? 

Who hasn’t uttered their own version of this prayer?

Jacob is in a predicament he created himself, but, nonetheless, he cries out and trusts that his father’s God will be more generous than He ought to be. 

He has been thus far and when you think about it, that’s the kind of God that God is in the Bible. 

Many times the first prayer uttered by someone is a prayer of desperation. 

At least it’s a start. 

Following his prayer, we are told he spent the night. Next he put together a “gift” which is the Hebrew word “camp” but with the letters swapped. Check it out: 200 female goats, 20 male goats, 200 ewes and 20 rams, 30 female camels with their young, 40 cows, and 10 bulls, 20 female donkeys and 10 male donkeys. He puts together a 10 part list of animals. 

He put them in the care of his servants, each herd by itself and gave instructions, verse 16,

“Go ahead of me, and keep some space between the herds.”

We have a Hebrew word hyperlink, the Hebrew word for “space” is also the word “Noah.” Here we have Jacob gathering the animals, creating a remnant, all on his own steam, and he makes sure there is a Noah-like space between all the animals. 

He puts them into three groups and gives them further instructions: verse 17,

“When my brother Esau meets you and asks, ‘Who do you belong to, and where are you going, and who owns all these animals in front of you?’  then you are to say, ‘They belong to your servant Jacob. They are a gift sent to my lord Esau, and he is coming behind us.’”

He doesn’t just give these instructions once, he gives them twice! What’s his fear?

The last memory Jacob has of his brother Esau is vengeful hatred. Jacob is afraid Esau will come and strike. He was architecting a plan that spaced everything out. 

He orchestrated a three part offering. This is a motif used in a moment of testing. As in three days, however, these words, the first, the second and the third only appear one other time in the book of Genesis. It was when God instructed Noah to gather all the animals and build an ark. God says, “Make the ark with firsts, seconds, and thirds.” It actually doesn’t say floors, or decks or anything. It is an odd phrase that is used only one more time, in this passage. This creates a meaningful hyperlink, we are reading how Jacob was creating his own ark. He was establishing what he hoped would be a remnant, his own Eden refuge. Why else would he put a space of Noah in between all of them? 

Then, notice where he puts himself…. In the back!

Here we have it, the heel-grabber, trying to preserve life, but by his own ingenuity, especially his own.

Think about it! If Jacob really trusted God to take care of him, he would have met Esau, like a man, one on one and take what was due him. 

The narrator then tells us what Jacob was thinking, verse 20,

“I will pacify him with these gifts I am sending on ahead; later, when I see him, perhaps he will receive me.”

The Hebrew word for “pacify” used here is the same word used in Leviticus to mean, “atone.” Jacob’s plan was to swamp his brother with offerings to appease his brother’s anger. Oh, as for Jacob’s gifts, verse 21, 

“So Jacob’s gifts went on ahead of him, but he himself spent the night in the camp.”

Check in time. 

Okay, how sincere was Jacob with the message he sent his brother? The fact was Esau was coming towards him with 400 guys. Jacob had reason to fear. 

You can almost be sympathetic towards him. How many of us can remember a time when we have created a mess and then are faced with having to deal with the horrible consequences. That’s when the “Dear God, please deliver me prayer” commences. And then just like Jacob, no sooner have we asked God to deliver us, we begin to set up our own plan to solve it. Instead of waiting, we become fearful. We go to God, but we don’t give God time to work. Like Jacob, we try to take control instead of waiting on the thing we just asked for. 

So what should the correct response be? 

Jacob did pray. Isn’t that what we are supposed to do? 

Honestly, there is a way to pray and then there is a way to pray. Not all prayers reflect the real core of the issue. Some prayers have a way of covering up the real issues. 

Jump forward…. Esau’s response to Jacob’s plan provides an answer. Esau doesn’t even want any of it. 

In theory, Jacob could have prayed and then walked on expecting God to take control of the outcome. This scene is a seed being planted in Genesis that will repeat the theme of “mismatched battles.” We will encounter David and Goliath, Hezekiah with the armies of Assyria around Jerusalem. David’s plan was to wear no armor and use a toy weapon. Presenting us with moments of radical danger requiring a radical response, to surrender one’s life over to God. 

Who is your Goliath? What is your battle? Whether you created it on your own or find yourself in the midst of fear created by others, what’s the correct response? 

May we always choose to respond on our knees.

Let’s pray.