After all this, when Jacob saw Esau, he was bold, yet humble, to go to the front to meet him (33:3-4). Verse 3 says, "And he passed over before them, and bowed himself to the ground seven times, until he came near to his brother." In a sense, he was honest and faithful to his wives and children and went to the front to pioneer the way. Jacob's coming to him in this manner greatly surprised Esau who "ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck, and kissed him" (v. 4). Both Jacob and Esau wept. By this we see that all of Jacob's fears were products of his own worrying and that all he did was in vain. He did not need to divide his people into two camps, to pray the best prayer, to present nine droves of cattle as a gift to Esau, to wrestle with the Lord in the form of man, and to divide his wives, children, and maids the second time. If he had truly known God and had trusted in Him, he would have been continually at peace, saying, "I am not worried about Esau because God has promised to bring me back to my father's land. He even told me to go back, and I have the peace that He will bring me there. No matter what Esau might do to me, I am not concerned because my God has given me His word."
We all must learn from Jacob's experience. We do not need to do so much. Are we not today's Jacobs, the chosen ones? Surely we are. Has not the Lord given us His promise? Certainly He has. Are not the camps of angels encompassing us? We must believe that they are. We may think that certain people are our enemies. The enemy, Satan, may inject thoughts into our minds regarding our Laban or Esau. All such thoughts are vain. Recall your past. Have you not done many things which eventually proved to be useless? Whatever we did was in vain. Many times I have said to myself, "Man, you are really stupid. You have wasted your time and energy in doing things in vain. Nothing of what you have done was a help, for the Lord did not use them." Surely Jacob never dreamed that Esau would have come to him with such fervent love. God frustrated Laban by speaking to him in a dream and also He aroused Esau's brotherly love toward Jacob. Hence, Esau did not come to Jacob with hatred or with the desire for vengeance; rather, he came with warm, brotherly love. Esau had forgotten the suffering Jacob had caused him. But Jacob, the supplanter, had not forgotten what he had done to his brother. In this we see God's marvelous acts.
I would like to say a word especially to the young brothers and sisters. Undoubtedly, you love the Lord. By loving the Lord, you have the assurance that you are one of the chosen ones. As chosen ones, the Lord's promise, His goal, and His destination are for you. The Lord has charged us all to advance toward the goal, to go on to our Father's land where we can enjoy the riches of the Lord for His eternal purpose. So we simply need to enjoy peace in Him. Do not be bothered by any Labans or Esaus. Whatever happens, simply rest in Him. If you cannot take my word now, wait for a certain period of time, and you will discover that all the things that worried you will come to nothing. You do not need to do anything, for actually there is no real trouble either in front of you or behind you. Apparently, there is a great deal of difficulty; actually, because you are God's chosen ones under His all-sufficient care, there is no difficulty at all. You are God's chosen ones assured with His promise and charged with His goal. Now you are on the way. I do not care about all the opposition and rumors. Many times I laugh at them. As long as we are on the way to reach God's goal and as long as we have His promise as His chosen ones, everything is all right.
These two chapters are a portrait revealing what kind of God our God is. I can testify of His lovingkindness and faithfulness. If Jacob was smaller than all the Lord's lovingkindness and faithfulness, then I am even smaller than he. No matter what our circumstances are, the Lord is here. We do have Him, His promise, His goal, and His armies. Forget about your skill and your ability to cope with the situation. Jacob was very skillful, dividing his people firstly in one way and then in another. As we have seen, the second division of his people was according to his heart's desire to preserve Rachel and Joseph. But nothing he did was useful; everything was in vain. What a good picture this is for us today.
As I was preparing this message, I was greatly helped. I said to myself, "Poor man, you are still at least somewhat like Jacob. On the one hand, you have the word of God, you trust in God, and you have prayed to Him. On the other hand, you still have so many kinds of dividing. Eventually, the person you are afraid of is one who loves you." Many times, the ones whom we were afraid of became our helpers. This happened to Jacob with Esau. Jacob had a great deal of wealth and needed help to transport it. Esau brought four hundred men to help him, but Jacob was frightened when he heard of this. The people whom he feared were actually his helpers.
Sometimes the Bible has a play on words. For example, there were two camps of angels, and Jacob divided his people also into two camps. Later, he divided the cattle into nine droves. When Esau beheld all these droves, he did not call them droves, but camps, saying, "What meanest thou by all this camp which I met?" (33:8, Heb.). Esau seemed to be saying, "Jacob, did you send these camps to fight against me? What does this mean?" Jacob replied, "These are to find favor in the sight of my lord...Take, I pray thee, my blessing that is brought to thee" (vv. 8, 11, ASV). Notice that Jacob changed the word from present to blessing. Apparently he was saying, "Esau, I do not come to fight against you but to give you this blessing. These are not camps; they are my blessing to you." After this, Jacob and Esau were at peace.
Esau, having a good heart, said to Jacob, "Let us take our journey, and let us go, and I will go before thee" (v. 12). Jacob, however, was still somewhat fearful of Esau and did not want to stay in his presence very long. Using his cleverness once again, he said, "My lord knoweth that the children are tender, and the flocks and herds with young are with me: and if men should overdrive them one day, all the flock will die. Let my lord, I pray thee, pass over before his servant: and I will lead on softly, according as the cattle that goeth before me and the children be able to endure, until I come unto my lord unto Seir" (vv. 13-14). In other words, Jacob was saying, "Please leave me. I don't want to stay with you. As long as you are here, I am threatened." When Esau said, "Let me now leave with thee some of the folk that are with me," Jacob said, "What needeth it? Let me find favor in the sight of my lord" (v. 15, ASV). As long as Jacob could see Esau's face or the faces of Esau's men, he could have no peace. Many times, even after we have passed through a certain thing, the tail of that problem is still within us, and we do not want to be reminded of it. Actually, that was not a troublesome thing; it was a loving thing. Esau came with a loving heart. But Jacob's fear had not entirely subsided. This is an accurate picture of our experience.
If I had been Jacob, I might have said to myself, "Stupid man, you didn't need to do anything. You have the Lord's promise and you are moving toward His goal. You saw His angels and He Himself even wrestled with you, changed your name to Israel, and gave you a blessing. What else do you need? You should not do anything." Jacob, on the contrary, was very busy, scurrying about like an ant on a hot frying pan. In these two chapters there is no hint that Jacob had any enjoyment. I doubt that he either ate or slept well. He was constantly busy, thinking about how to face the situation and how to deal with Esau. Even when Esau came to him in a loving way, Jacob still did not trust him but asked him to go on ahead of him. Actually, Jacob was saying, "Esau, don't stay here. Take your four hundred men and go ahead. Your men frighten me. I don't want any one of them to stay with me." What a strange experience this was!
God is faithful, and eventually Jacob returned to Canaan (vv. 17-20). Verse 18 says, "And Jacob came to Shalem, a city of Shechem." This could also be translated, "And Jacob came safely to the city of Shechem." He returned to Canaan by the way of "Salem" (v. 18). Salem, the second half of the word Jerusalem, means peace, safety. Thus, for Jacob to return to Canaan by the way of "Salem" meant that he came safely in peace. In a later message we shall see that Jacob followed the tracks of Abraham. According to chapter twelve, when Abraham entered Canaan, the first city he visited was Shechem. Jacob also came safely to the city of Shechem. This proves that God kept His word and fulfilled His promise, for He had promised Jacob that He would bring him back safely to the land of his fathers. Jacob did not make this journey by himself; God made it for him. Here, in Shechem, Jacob did the same two things that his grandfather did: he pitched a tent and erected an altar (vv. 18, 20). Now he began to have a testimony. During the previous twenty years, he had neither the altar nor the tent, indicating that he did not have the proper life as a testimony of God. Now, having returned to the proper ground in the proper place, he had a life with the testimony of God. Here we see that this chosen one of God has been brought back, by God's grace, to the proper standing for the fulfillment of God's eternal purpose.