The Gift You Can’t Give God

Genesis 32:1-21

Jacob Fears Esau

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³And Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau his brother in the land of Seir, the country of Edom, ⁴instructing them, “Thus you shall say to my lord Esau: Thus says your servant Jacob, ‘I have sojourned with Laban and stayed until now. ⁵I have oxen, donkeys, flocks, male servants, and female servants. I have sent to tell my lord, in order that I may find favor in your sight.’”

⁶And the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, “We came to your brother Esau, and he is coming to meet you, and there are four hundred men with him.” ⁷Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed. He divided the people who were with him, and the flocks and herds and camels, into two camps, ⁸thinking, “If Esau comes to the one camp and attacks it, then the camp that is left will escape.”

⁹And Jacob said, “O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O LORD who said to me, ‘Return to your country and to your kindred, that I may do you good,’ ¹⁰I am not worthy of the least of all the deeds of steadfast love and all the faithfulness that you have shown to your servant, for with only my staff I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two camps. ¹¹Please deliver me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear him, that he may come and attack me, the mothers with the children. ¹²But you said, ‘I will surely do you good, and make your offspring as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.’”

¹³So he stayed there that night, and from what he had with him he took a present for his brother Esau, ¹⁴two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, ¹⁵thirty milking camels and their calves, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys. ¹⁶These he handed over to his servants, every drove by itself, and said to his servants, “Pass on ahead of me and put a space between drove and drove.” ¹⁷He instructed the first, “When Esau my brother meets you and asks you, ‘To whom do you belong? Where are you going? And whose are these ahead of you?’ ¹⁸then you shall say, ‘They belong to your servant Jacob. They are a present sent to my lord Esau. And moreover, he is behind us.’” ¹⁹He likewise instructed the second and the third and all who followed the droves, “You shall say the same thing to Esau when you find him, ²⁰and you shall say, ‘Moreover, your servant Jacob is behind us.’” For he thought, “I may appease him with the present that goes ahead of me, and afterward I shall see his face. Perhaps he will accept me.” ....

(ESV)

Thought:
Jacob has devised his most ingenious plan, he will divide his household into two camps, so if his brother attacks him at least half of them might have a chance to escape. But he is even smarter than that, he takes many of his livestock and resources, bundles them into almost like little hampers for Esau and sends them one after another before him to Esau. He had taken his brother’s inheritance and blessing from him and now it appears he is trying to pay him back, believing he can assuage his wrath with these many gifts.

Bribery is not a bad way to get the things you want, but sometimes even it is not sufficient to placate the wrath of someone you have severely wronged. You see this is very often how we interact with God. We sent all these little hampers to God, look what I did for you here? Look what I gave up for you today?

We send all these little gifts to him, thinking they will placate God, and satisfy that longing to quench the guilt we all carry inside. But in case you didn’t know, it would not matter if you offered God all the wealth in the world, it would not be sufficient to appease him.

As Jesus says at the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 7:21-23…

I Never Knew You

²¹“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. ²²On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ ²³And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

(ESV)

They did many mighty works for Gods, so many things they did for him, but yet it could not satisfy his wrath. There is only one thing that will suffice, a worthy substitute must suffer in your place. So God in his grace sent his own son to take that wrath in your place.

Jesus is the gift that placates the wrath of the father, so that when you meet him, you will see nothing but his smiling face.

Reflection:
And as you rest in Christ today, remember that His grace not only covers your past but strengthens your present. Let His kindness draw you away from striving and into a deeper confidence in His finished work.

Prayer:
Strengthen my trust in Your mercy, Lord. Help me walk in the freedom Christ purchased for me, confident that Your favour rests on me through Him alone. And when my heart drifts toward earning Your favour, draw me back to the cross. Teach me to rest in the grace that covers me, carries me, and keeps me close to You each day.