Returning To Our Proper Place In God Series

Returning to Our Proper Place in God

Jacob’s Reunion with Esau

Jacob’s Return in obedience to God’s Promised Land

I noticed in the Bristol Bay Times this week that a serviceman and his family were able to visit Dillingham. Imagine he had been gone 13 years.

I know that when Gloria and I leave here, even just to go to Anchorage, we cannot wait to get back home do Dillingham.

Have you ever felt at home in a place…

Maybe its up at Aleknagik,

Maybe its up the Nushagak River,

Maybe it’s in Anchorage, Fairbanks, or the Mat-Su Valley

Where ever that place is to you, I recommend strongly that if you are one called of Christ, a Christian, that it be the place that God has called you to so that you might received all the blessings of being in the center of his will.

We will journey with Jacob as he meets Esau and we will continue with him as he returns to the land that God has promised Abraham and his descendents.

Jacob’s Reunion with Esau

Genesis 33

1And Jacob lifted up his eyes, and looked, and, behold, Esau came, and with him four hundred men. And he divided the children unto Leah, and unto Rachel, and unto the two handmaids. 2And he put the handmaids and their children foremost, and Leah and her children after, and Rachel and Joseph hindermost. 3And he passed over before them, and bowed himself to the ground seven times, until he came near to his brother. 4And Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck, and kissed him: and they wept.

5And he lifted up his eyes, and saw the women and the children; and said, Who are those with thee? And he said, The children which God hath graciously given thy servant. 6Then the handmaidens came near, they and their children, and they bowed themselves. 7And Leah also with her children came near, and bowed themselves: and after came Joseph near and Rachel, and they bowed themselves. 8And he said, What meanest thou by all this drove which I met? And he said, These are to find grace in the sight of my lord. 9And Esau said, I have enough, my brother; keep that thou hast unto thyself. 10And Jacob said, Nay, I pray thee, if now I have found grace in thy sight, then receive my present at my hand: for therefore I have seen thy face, as though I had seen the face of God, and thou wast pleased with me. 11Take, I pray thee, my blessing that is brought to thee; because God hath dealt graciously with me, and because I have enough. And he urged him, and he took it. 12And he said, Let us take our journey, and let us go, and I will go before thee. 13And he said unto him, 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. 14Let 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. 15And Esau said, Let me now leave with thee some of the folk that are with me. And he said, What needeth it? let me find grace in the sight of my lord.

16So Esau returned that day on his way unto Seir. 17And Jacob journeyed to Succoth, and built him an house, and made booths for his cattle: therefore the name of the place is called Succoth

Jacob, seeing Esau approaching with his four hundred men, moves forward in optimism that the God who had provided so abundantly for him the past 21 years of his life would be the God in total control of this meeting with his brother. Jacob still had some fear in his heart that his brother might harbor some justifiable prior misgiving on his part, but having secured the promise of God in prayer in Chapter 32, he put aside his misgiving and walked forward.

This is what God called each and every one of us to do. He asks us to lay our burdens upon him, then take up our cross and follow Him. We follow him in our daily job, commute, and in each and every activity we take part in. We should pray that God may be glorified in our walk on a continuing and daily basis.

Jacob divided his family just in case God’s answer might be different than he interpreted. Jacob probably arranged them according to their preciousness in his eyes, and then walks out to meet Esau.