Jacob and Esau were sons of Isaac and Rebekah. When Isaac was dying, Jacob tricked his father. He did two things – he stole Esau’s birthright and also his blessing. Esau, being the oldest would have received more than half of the assets when his father died. Isaac was very old and his eyesight was bad. He asked Esau to go and kill some game to prepare a dish for him so he could eat it, bless his son Esau, and die.
Rebekah overheard this and told Jacob to go and do these things in his brother’s place. Jacob put on his brother’s clothes and put skins of an animal on his hands in order to deceive his father. There was a lot of deception going on here.
The Bible says that Esau held a grudge against his brother, and he vowed to kill him for what he had done. Jacob went away and after many years he became prosperous. God told him to return to his father’s land so he did. Before he got to where his brother Esau was, he began to worry about what his brother would do to him – he had fear in his heart. So he decided to give him a few presents:
14 two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, 15 thirty female camels with their young, forty cows and ten bulls, and twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys.
He was still afraid and he sent the women and children ahead of him. It seems that Jacob was afraid that Esau would still be holding a grudge.
4 But Esau ran to meet Jacob and embraced him; he threw his arms around his neck and kissed him. And they wept.
A relationship gone bad was mended! God did that then – and He still does that today. In fact he did that for me about 20 years ago. I had some terrible feelings toward my father…..never provided for me, etc. But God allowed me to forgive. Oddly enough – it was after I became a parent.
I encourage you not to let years go by before mending a broken relationship. What Jacob did against Esau was a big deal. What someone has done to you might be a big deal too. The fact is –God wants people to make amends and restore relationships. Just like Jacob – we may have a fear that we won’t be accepted. Esau was waiting with open arms when Jacob came to him. We need to be willing to step out and approach that person – they may be waiting with open arms also.
