Monday, April 18, 2011

As thou saidst


Genesis 32: 12-21: “And thou saidst, I will surely do thee good, and make thy seed as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude. And he lodged there that same night; and took of that which came to his hand a present for Esau his brother; Two hundred she goats, and twenty he goats, two hundred ewes, and twenty rams, Thirty milch camels with their colts, forty kine, and ten bulls, twenty she asses, and ten foals. And he delivered them into the hand of his servants, every drove by themselves; and said unto his servants, Pass over before me, and put a space betwixt drove and drove. And he commanded the foremost, saying, When Esau my brother meeteth thee, and asketh thee, saying, Whose art thou? and whither goest thou? and whose are these before thee? Then thou shalt say, They be thy servant Jacob’s; it is a present sent unto my lord Esau: and, behold, also he is behind us. And so commanded he the second, and the third, and all that followed the droves, saying, On this manner shall ye speak unto Esau, when ye find him. And say ye moreover, Behold, thy servant Jacob is behind us. For he said, I will appease him with the present that goeth before me, and afterward I will see his face; peradventure he will accept of me. So went the present over before him: and himself lodged that night in the company.”
Even though the Lord intervened to save Jacob from Laban, Jacob still wanted to bargain with the Lord. Jacob reminded the Lord of the promises that the Lord had made. This isn’t bad, even though God doesn’t forget about important things like promises. It is good for every person who comes to God to remind themselves of the things that God had promised. If we remember what God has promised then we will be more likely to pray to Him at an early stage than leave things to the last moment when there is nothing left for us to do. After that Jacob took some of the things that God had given him and offered them to Esau in the hope that Esau would be distracted from his desire for revenge. After all, Jacob hadn’t seen Esau for more than twenty years and the last thing that he could remember about Esau was the fact that Esau wanted to kill him. He also sent everything in front of him in the hope that Esau’s anger would be satisfied before he saw Jacob. After making all his preparations he spent the night with all that he had left.
(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)

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