COME AS A CHILD LESSON 86 AN OLD FIGHT IS ENDED AND AN OLD PLACE IS MADE NEW AGAIN

(Writing by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

William Jennings Bryan once said “Destiny is not a matter of chance; it is a matter of choice.  It is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved.”  This was the case for two brothers about to face one another after years of unresolved anger. 

What would be the outcome of Jacob meeting Esau? 

No one knew.

 Neither brother knew how the other would react. 

Jacob was prepared for the worst case scenario.  He had divided his children among Leah and Rachel and their two female servants.  He put the female servants and their children in the front, Leah and her children next, and Rachel and Joseph in the rear.  In other words; he put the one’s he loved the most in the most protected place. 

After everyone was in place Jacob looked up and saw Esau and his four hundred men thundering toward his caravan.  Jacob gathered all his courage and moved to the front of his family, dismounted his ride,  and bowed down to the ground seven times as he approached his brother.

To his utter amazement Esau ran to meet Jacob and embraced him.  He threw his arms around his neck and kissed him.  Together, right there in the middle of the land, the two brothers embraced and wept.  Years and years of tears were released, tears long held back and burden after burden was lifted from the struggling shoulders of two brothers that needed to forgive one another.  Finally they looked up from each other.

“Who are these with you?”  Esau asked.

“They are the children God has graciously given your servant” said Jacob. 

Then the female servants approached with their children and bowed down.  Next came  Leah and her children.  Last to bow were Rachel and Joseph. 

“What is the meaning of all these flocks and herds I met?”  asked Esau.  “To find favor in your eyes my lord,” said Jacob.

Note that Jacob calls Esau “my lord” three times in this passage of scripture.  It was a fulfillment of Isaac’s blessing to Esau that we studied before.  The words are found in Genesis 27:40: “You will live by the sword and you will serve your brother.  But when you grow restless, you will throw his yoke from off your neck.”

“I already have plenty my brother,” said Esau.  “Keep what you have for yourself.”

“No, please!” said Jacob.  “If I have found favor in your eyes, accept this gift from me.  For to see your face is like seeing the face of God, now that you have received me favorably.  Please accept the present that was brought to you, for God has been gracious to me and I have all I need.”

Because Jacob kept insisting, Esau kept the gifts.   

Then Esau said, “Let us be on our way; I’ll accompany you.”    But Jacob told Esau that the children were young and they would be slow walkers.  He said he needed to care for the ewes and cows nursing their young.  The animals would not be able to journey another day without problems to their health.  Jacob told Esau to go on ahead and they would come slowly behind him when they had time to take care of all of their needs and the needs of the animals.  He agreed to meet Esau in Seir.  Esau offered to leave some of his men, but Jacob said that would not be necessary. 

Esau went to Seir, Jacob however went on to Sukkoth, where he pitched a tent for himself and his family and made them a temporary home.  He also made temporary shelters for his livestock.  That is why the place is called Sukkoth.  Sukkoth means “temporary shelters” and that is the name given for the festival and the Holy Days of God that comes for eight days each Fall season.  The temporary dwellings or booths used each year at Sukkot, are similar “temporary shelters.”  It is interesting to note that some of these shelters at Sukkoth were made for housing livestock; as so many people believe Jesus was actually born during the feast of  Sukkot, and he was housed in a manger in a place that provided shelter for livestock at his birth. 

Then Jacob crossed the Jordan and rode to Shechem in Canaan and camped within sight of the city.  The blessing he had requested from God at Bethel; asking that he be allowed to return to his homeland in peace, had been accomplished.

Shechem is the narrow valley between Mt. Gerizim and Mt. Ebal, approximately 65km north of Jerusalem.  This strategic location was between the north and south and east and west main roads.  It was here that existed the well we now called “Jacob’s Well.”  That was not the only water supply though, there was conduit that ran out of a cave that also provided water to the residents in this area. 

For a hundred pieces of silver, Jacob bought the plot of ground where he pitched his tent from the sons of Hamor, the Father of Shechem.  This was the second plot of land bought and paid for from money of Abraham’s descendants in the land of Canaan.  This spot was actually the same place where Abraham built the first altar to God when he first crossed into the promised land himself.  It was the same place, close to the same terebinth tree,  from  years earlier.  There Jacob set up an altar and called it El Elohe Israel, which means El is the God of Israel, or Mighty is the God of Israel.

Seventeen centuries later a man named Jesus, a descendant of Jacob, would walk to this same city and go to this same well in the noontime heat.  There he would have an interesting conversation with a Samaritan woman who would lead many to believe that she had found The Messiah of Israel, the very Son of God.