And he lodged there that night; and took of what came to his hand a gift for Esau his brother --
Jacob has just prayed to God for rescue from Esau. Before the night ends he is back among his herds, choosing a present to send ahead — so what was he leaning on?
Notice the order. Jacob prays, and then goes straight back to his own planning.
Jacob's first thought was always a plan, and in this we have a true picture of the poor human heart. True, he turns to God after he makes his plan, and cries to Him for rescue. But as soon as he stops praying, he goes back to planning. Now, praying and planning will never do together. If I plan, I am leaning more or less on my plan; but when I pray, I should lean on God alone.
The animals were not a brother's gift. Jacob sent them to buy safety, and it turned out he never needed to.
Just see how vain are Jacob's plans to buy a pardon with a present! Yet perhaps he takes the credit for the happy outcome. Jacob said, "I will appease him with a present." … "I have sent to tell my lord that I may find grace in your sight." But Esau had not even seen the servants, the flocks, the donkeys and the oxen until he had wept on his brother's neck. Only then "he lifted up his eyes and saw the women and children, and said, Who are these?" As for the droves, he did not know what they meant till Jacob told him. And then he took the gift not as the price of pardon, but as Jacob's blessing.
Something had already happened on the road that Jacob seems to have forgotten.
On his way back to Canaan, God sent an army of His angels to meet Jacob, to comfort and strengthen him. Yet being rescued from danger does not destroy unbelief, and Jacob's fear of his brother Esau came back. You do not get rid of the difficulties on the path of faith by trying to avoid them. You must overcome them by the power of God. Jacob had brought these difficulties on himself, because he had not trusted in God. Jacob forgot the army God had sent. Esau no longer held hatred in his heart against his brother, but his army frightened the feeble Jacob. He could then use all kinds of means to appease the supposed and dreaded anger of his brother. He causes flock after flock to pass; and this does more to show the state of Jacob's heart than to change Esau's.
Jacob also scripted what his servants should say when Esau met them.
He sets apart 560 animals altogether as a present for Esau, apparently in about six droves with some distance between each. He gave the driver of the first drove his instructions: he was to tell Esau that the animals belonged to Esau's servant Jacob (why not Esau's brother?), and that Jacob was giving them as a present to "my lord Esau." When Jacob knew that the Lord had told Rebekah "the older shall serve the younger" (Gen. 25:23), it is sad to see him taking this place of unfitting subservience to Esau. Of course, because he had earlier supplanted Esau, he was moved by both conscience and fear.
This way of thinking is not limited to angry brothers.
This is the natural idea of human beings. They use this method again and again when they seek any proper relationship with God. They act as though God will be swayed by man giving Him presents of things that God created in the first place! But God is not looking for gifts from men. Rather, He desires their hearts.
The story is not only about Jacob.
And here let us judge ourselves seriously, and without sparing, in the way we act. The day of trial will expose the crooked workings of human confidence, and the unbelief behind our own schemes, if we are using them instead of relying only on the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. You can be sure God loves us too well to encourage us in a course so destructive to our own real blessing, and so dishonouring to Him. The trouble today is that policy, even among Christians, now stands side by side with faith.
- Plan — Jacob prays, then plans. The plan shows where his weight really rested, because no one can lean on a scheme and on God at once.
- Price — the droves were meant to buy a pardon, yet Esau embraced him before he had even seen them.
- Mirror — the flocks passing over did more to reveal Jacob's heart than to change his brother's; he had forgotten the army of angels God sent to meet him.
- Position — Jacob called Esau "my lord" and himself Esau's servant. God had told Rebekah the older would serve the younger; conscience and fear, not faith, set that tone.
- Heart — people still try to secure God's favour with gifts of what He made; He is not after presents but after hearts.
two hundred she-goats, and twenty he-goats; two hundred ewes, and twenty rams;
Jacob is back in the land after twenty years away. He has just heard that Esau is coming to meet him with four hundred men. His answer is a counted gift of livestock, sent on ahead — and the question is whether a man who has just prayed for rescue can also buy it.
Jacob counts the animals out and sends them in stages. One writer notes the total, and the way Jacob tells his servants to speak of him:
After prayer Jacob goes back to his planning as to how he can protect himself from Esau. Of course he finds afterward that his planning was totally unnecessary. He sets apart 560 animals altogether as a present for Esau, in what seems to be about six droves, with some distance between each. He told the driver of the first drove what to say to Esau when he met him. He expected Esau to ask who the man was and who owned the animals. The driver was to reply that they belonged to Esau's servant Jacob (why not Esau's brother?), and that Jacob was sending them as a present to "my lord Esau." Jacob knew the Lord had told Rebekah, "The older shall serve the younger." It is sad to see him putting himself so low before Esau. Of course, because he had cheated Esau earlier, both conscience and fear moved him.
Jacob divides his company, prays, and then goes straight back to arranging droves.
Jacob's first thought was always a plan, and in this we have a true picture of the poor human heart. True, he turns to God, after he makes his plan, and cries to Him for deliverance; but no sooner does he cease praying than he resumes the planning. Now, praying and planning will never do together. If I plan, I am leaning more or less on my plan; but when I pray, I should lean on God alone. So the two cannot go together; in effect they destroy each other.
There is a quieter danger here than forgetting to pray. We can fold prayer into the arrangements as one more item on the list.
We often feel very satisfied with ourselves when we add prayer to our arrangements. We feel the same when we have used every lawful means and then asked God to bless them. When this is the case, our prayers are worth about as much as our plans, since we are leaning upon them instead of upon God. We must come to the end of everything that self has a hand in, for until then God cannot show Himself. But we never get to the end of our plans until we come to the end of ourselves.
Jacob said the gift would appease Esau. One writer traces that word back to its first use in the Bible:
The word atonement is the Old Testament word, just as propitiation is the New Testament word, and it simply means to cover. It first appears in Genesis 6:14: God told Noah to pitch — that is, cover — the ark inside and out with pitch. It is used again in Genesis 32:20: Jacob said he would appease Esau with a present, and the present would cover his fault... The offering puts the offence out of sight. Something of equal worth goes to the injured party, and it covers the cause of the offence.
Jacob sends the gift ahead, then hopes: "Perhaps he will accept me." One writer sees in that the first instinct of every sinner before God.
How many people live under the illusion that they must do something to propitiate God. What a mistake! ... Of course if your present is the ground upon which you are to appear before God, you may well say "perhaps." Can you appease Him with a present? Impossible! Yet that is the first thought in the heart of the sinner when he would draw near to God.
The droves never changed Esau's heart. He had not even noticed them when he reached his brother.
Just see how vain are Jacob's plans to buy a pardon with a present! ... But Esau had not even seen the women-servants and men-servants, or flocks, and donkeys, and oxen, until he had wept on his brother's neck... As for the droves, he did not know what they meant until Jacob told him. Then he took them not as the price of pardon, but as Jacob's blessing.
- Fear counts. Conscience and fear moved Jacob to count out 560 animals for the brother he had cheated.
- Plan cancels prayer. Praying and planning cannot run together. Leaning on a scheme is not leaning on God, and the two destroy each other.
- Prayer joins the plan. Ask God to bless arrangements you have already made, and your prayer is worth no more than the plan.
- "Appease" means cover. To appease is the Old Testament idea of atonement — to cover. The offering puts the offence out of sight.
- Grace arrived first. Esau wept on Jacob's neck before he had even seen the herds. The pardon Jacob tried to buy was already his, and Esau took the gift as a blessing, not a price.
thirty milch camels with their colts; forty kine, and ten bulls; twenty she-asses, and ten young asses.
The animals in this verse are one part of a large present, driven ahead of Jacob to meet Esau, the brother he feared. He sent them right after praying for rescue — so why did he need the cattle as well?
One commentator counts the animals and notes the words Jacob gave his drivers:
He sets apart 560 animals in all as a present for Esau. They seem to have gone in about six droves, with some distance between each. He gave the driver of the first drove instructions as to what to say to Esau when he met him... In reply he was to tell Esau that they belonged to Esau's servant Jacob (why not Esau's brother?). Jacob was giving them as a present to "my lord Esau." Jacob knew that the Lord had told Rebekah "the older shall serve the younger." It is sad to see him putting himself so low before Esau.
Jacob had just poured out an honest prayer asking God to save him from Esau. Then he reached for the cattle:
Jacob asked God to deliver him from his brother Esau. Clearly he was not satisfied with that, so he tried to "appease him with a present." His confidence was in the "present," and not entirely in God... It is often hard to detect what the heart is really resting on. We imagine, or try to persuade ourselves, that we are leaning on God, when we are in reality leaning on some scheme of our own making.
The scheming did not just follow the prayer. It came before the prayer too.
He has such confidence in his own ability to manage the matter that he turned to a rescue plan of his own before he ever prayed. And after his short but orthodox prayer, he at once fled to his own inventions again... He is a double-minded man, trusting in God in some sense, and relying on his own efforts and schemes as well.
Jacob hoped a present would win Esau over. One writer sees the same instinct in how people approach God:
This is the natural idea of human beings. They constantly use this method when they seek a proper relationship with God. They act as though God will be swayed by gifts of things He created in the first place! But God is not looking for gifts from men. Rather, He desires their hearts.
People whose religion works this way are left with one word:
For people like this, as for Jacob, acceptance is still a "perhaps." If your religion is of that sort, how can you know when you have done enough? Suppose it should not be just what you estimate it to be in God's sight. Oh, would you hang eternity upon a — perhaps?
The order of events when the brothers met settles the question:
Just see how useless Jacob's plans are to buy a pardon with a present!... But Esau had not even seen the women servants and men servants, or flocks, and donkeys, and oxen, until he had wept on his brother's neck. Then "he lifted up his eyes and saw the women and children, and said, Who are these?" As to the droves, he did not know what they meant till Jacob told him. He took them not as the price of pardon, but as Jacob's blessing.
One writer points to who had already dealt with Esau:
The present was quite unnecessary — the plan useless. God "appeased" Esau, as He had already appeased Laban. This is how He always delights to rebuke our poor, cowardly, unbelieving hearts and put all our fears to flight.
The droves crossed the ford ahead of him; Jacob stayed behind. What met him there was not Esau but God, and the blessing came by a route that ruined his own strength:
Grace gave him the strength to hold on and to win, but in a way contrary to man's thoughts. It was not Jacob's goodness, wisdom or power at all, but God's faithful mercy. That is why He touched the hollow or socket of Jacob's thigh, so that it went out of joint. This would make the strongest man powerless; but it was not so here. His grace enabled Jacob to hold on.
- Counted. Around 560 animals in staged droves, each driver given his lines — Jacob measured his fear in livestock.
- Divided. Jacob schemed before he prayed and again after; his real confidence sat in the present, not in God.
- Purchased. The human heart tries to buy acceptance with a gift. God asks for hearts, not presents.
- Unnecessary. Esau wept on his neck before he saw a single animal; God had appeased him already, as He had appeased Laban.
- Blessed. What Jacob needed came last: his strength withered, and he held on to a mercy no gift could buy.
And he delivered [them] into the hand of his servants, every drove by itself; and he said to his servants, Go on before me, and put a space between drove and drove.
Jacob is hours away from meeting the brother he cheated years earlier. Esau is coming with four hundred men. Jacob's answer is a procession of livestock: herd after herd handed to servants, sent on ahead, and spaced out so that each one arrives alone.
The gaps between the herds are not an accident of travel. Jacob planned them, so that Esau would meet herd after herd before he met Jacob himself.
His prayer over, he resumes his plans, and sends a present to Esau. He divides the present into five droves, so as to make it look as imposing as possible, and he sends his servants forward.
Another writer weighs what methods like these reveal.
Unbelief and worldly scheming are carefully wrapped up in their own fears. They give themselves away by the very methods they turn to, and by their style of action.
Jacob prayed for rescue. Then he got up and organised the herds.
Jacob's first thought was always a plan, and in this we have a true picture of the poor human heart. True, he turns to God after he makes his plan, and cries to Him for deliverance; but as soon as he stops praying he resumes the planning. Now, praying and planning will never do together. If I plan, I am leaning more or less on my plan; but when I pray, I should lean exclusively upon God.
The same writer asks where Jacob's confidence was resting.
We imagine, or would like to persuade ourselves, that we are leaning upon God, when we are in reality leaning upon some scheme of our own devising.
Jacob wants to soften Esau before he meets him face to face. Commentators see the same instinct in how people try to approach God.
This is the natural idea of human beings. They constantly use this method when they seek a proper relationship with God. They act as though God will be won over by man giving Him presents of things that God created in the first place! But God is not looking for gifts from men. Rather, He desires their hearts.
Jacob's plan ended on a word of uncertainty, and so does every version of it since.
Jacob's way of winning his brother is still a much approved and fashionable way when the question and the Person are of far more importance. "I may appease him with the present that goes ahead of me," he says, "and afterward I shall see his face. Perhaps he will accept me." And with these, as with Jacob, acceptance is still a "perhaps." If your religion is of that sort, how can you know when you have done enough? Suppose it should not be just what you estimate it to be in God's sight. Oh, would you hang eternity upon a — perhaps?
When the brothers finally met, Esau's response had nothing to do with the plan.
Just see how useless are Jacob's plans to buy a pardon with a present! … But Esau had not even seen the women-servants and men-servants, or flocks, and donkeys, and oxen, until he had wept on his brother's neck. Then he "lifted up his eyes and saw the women and children" and said, "Who are these with you?" As for the droves, he did not know what they meant until Jacob told him. Then he took them not as the price of pardon, but as Jacob's blessing.
The instinct to put distance between himself and danger kept going until Jacob had sent forward his gift, his servants, his wives and his sons. What he had engineered as self-protection God used for something else entirely.
Not a very dignified or courageous proceeding! Yet God was in all this. Because he was left alone, the moment had come for God to bring him face to face with Himself, so that he might have an experience he would never lose. Up to this point his life had been mainly one of scheming against and wrestling with men. Now God by His Messenger was going to wrestle with him.
- Fear plans. Jacob spaced the herds to make the gift look as impressive as possible. Fear, not generosity, did the arranging.
- Plans crowd out prayer. Jacob prayed well, then went straight back to managing. You cannot lean on a scheme and on God at the same time.
- Gifts cannot buy favour. Sending a present ahead of a meeting is how people still approach God, but He wants hearts, not presents.
- "Perhaps" is the wage of self-effort. A gift can never tell you when you have given enough — it can only say perhaps.
- Grace arrives first. Esau had not even looked at the droves before he fell on Jacob's neck and wept. Jacob already had the favour he schemed for.
And he commanded the foremost, saying, When Esau my brother meets thee, and asks thee, saying, Whose art thou, and where goest thou, and whose are these before thee?
Jacob has just prayed for rescue from the brother he wronged. Now he goes back to managing the danger himself. Droves of livestock go ahead, and the first driver gets a script for the moment Esau stops him. The answer he rehearses tells us more about Jacob than about Esau. Why does a man who holds God's promise talk to his brother like a servant before a king?
One commentator notes the word Jacob chose not to have his servants use:
After prayer Jacob goes back to his planning about how he can protect himself from Esau. He expected Esau to ask who the man was and who owned the animals. In reply he was to tell Esau that they belonged to Esau's servant Jacob (why not Esau's brother?), and Jacob was giving them as a present to "my lord Esau." When Jacob knew that the Lord had told Rebekah "the older shall serve the younger," it is sad to see him taking this unfitting place of a servant under Esau. Of course, because of his previous supplanting of Esau, he was moved by both conscience and fear.
Jacob's prayer just before this was real. Yet the planning starts again the moment it ends. One writer asks what a prayer added to our own plans is worth:
Nor will it do to make our prayers part of our management. We often feel very well satisfied with ourselves when we add prayer to our arrangement. When this is the case, our prayers are worth about as much as our plans, because we are leaning on them instead of on God. We must be brought right to the end of everything that self has any part in. Until then, God cannot show Himself.
Jacob kept sending livestock ahead to soften his brother. The effect landed on Jacob himself:
He could then use all kinds of means to appease the anger he assumed his brother felt and dreaded. He sends flock after flock past, and that does more to show the state of Jacob's heart than to change Esau's.
When the brothers met, Esau's welcome came before he had any idea what the droves were for:
Just see how useless are Jacob's plans to buy a pardon with a present! Jacob said, "I will appease him with a present." … "I have sent to tell my lord that I may find grace in your sight." But Esau had not even seen the women-servants and men-servants, or the flocks, donkeys and oxen, until he had wept on his brother's neck. Only then did he lift up his eyes and see the women and children, and say, "Who are these with you?" As for the droves, he did not know what they meant till Jacob told him. He took them not as the price of pardon, but as Jacob's blessing.
One writer turns this on us. We try the same thing with God:
Did we not each think — if not say — "I will appease him with the present"? He needs no appeasing, or turning of His heart towards us. He showed His feelings toward us in the gift of His Son. "God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him" … and "to be the propitiation for our sins." You do not need, in that sense, to appease Him. There is nothing in His heart towards you but love. We needed to be reconciled to God; not God to us. He always was and is for us. Because sin has come in, there must be propitiation. But propitiation is not there to turn God's heart towards us. It is needed to meet the righteous claims of His throne, so that He can let His heart flow out to us in grace, and accept us in righteousness.
The droves go over. The family goes over. Jacob is left by himself. That is when God moves:
Jacob had carried out all his contrivances, and was alone. So we read that "Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day." Here we see God's governmental dealing with His double-minded servant. Notice, Jacob was left ALONE, and then the wrestling began. It was not, as many say, Jacob wrestling with God to get a blessing by his persistent efforts. It is rather God wrestling with him, to teach Jacob that he is not so good and clever as he supposes himself to be.
- Conscience — Jacob's script calls him "Esau's servant" and Esau "my lord". That came from conscience and fear over supplanting his brother, not from God's word that the older would serve the younger.
- Contrivance — Jacob prayed, then went straight back to planning. Prayer added to our own management is worth no more than the management.
- Exposure — The droves showed the state of Jacob's heart more than they changed Esau's.
- Needless — Esau wept on his neck before he knew what the droves meant. God needs no appeasing either: He showed His heart in the gift of His Son.
- Alone — Every scheme had gone on ahead, and Jacob was left with nothing. Then God wrestled with him — not Jacob winning a blessing by effort.
-- then thou shalt say, Thy servant Jacob's it is a gift sent to my lord, to Esau. And behold, he also is behind us.
Jacob is heading home, and word has come that his brother Esau is riding toward him with four hundred men. Before that meeting he sends droves of livestock ahead. In this verse he drills his servants in the exact words they must say. Those words reveal far more about Jacob than about the cattle.
Jacob puts two titles into his servants' mouths. Both belong to a man who is not at ease.
"My lord," and "your servant," is not the language of a brother. Nor is it the language of someone who knows the dignity of standing in God's presence. It was the language of Jacob — Jacob with a bad conscience.
There is a further problem. God had already settled the order between these two brothers before either was born.
The servant was to tell Esau that the animals belonged to Esau's servant Jacob (why not Esau's brother?). Jacob was giving them as a present to "my lord Esau." Jacob knew that the Lord had told Rebekah "the elder shall serve the younger" (Gen. 25:23). It is sad to see him take this place of undignified submission to Esau. Of course, both conscience and fear moved him, because he had taken Esau's place by trickery before.
Jacob had just prayed for deliverance. Then he went straight back to arranging droves and coaching servants. The two activities pull against each other.
True, he turns to God after he makes his plan, and cries to Him for deliverance. But as soon as he stops praying, he takes up the planning again. Now, praying and planning will never do together. If I plan, I am leaning more or less on my plan; but when I pray, I should lean only on God. So the two things do not go together. They destroy each other. When my eye is filled with my own management of things, I am not ready to see God acting for me.
Look at the staging: drove after drove, a gap between each, a speech for every driver. Jacob's arrangements give him away.
Unbelief and worldly strategy wrap themselves carefully in their own fears. They give themselves away by the very devices they fall back on, and by their style of action. … He has not enough confidence to be quiet in God's hand for protection and deliverance. … He gets no answer to his prayer, and follows his own plans with his goats and sheep, camels and donkeys. … Lower than this he cannot go. When he is at his wit's end, the Lord takes him in hand for gracious discipline.
Jacob's own stated reason for the gift was to soften Esau before he ever showed his face. That instinct, one writer says, runs far past Jacob.
So many people live under the delusion that they have something to do to win God over. What a mistake! "I will appease him with the present that goes before me, and afterward I will see his face. Perhaps he will accept me." Of course, if your present is what you stand on before God, you may well say "perhaps."
The same writer points to a gift moving the other way.
He needs no appeasing, no turning of His heart toward us. He showed His feelings toward us in the gift of His Son… You do not need, in that sense, to win Him over. His heart is toward you. There is nothing in His heart toward you but love. We needed to be reconciled to God; not God to us. He always was and is for us.
The rehearsed speech never did the work Jacob gave it.
See how useless Jacob's plans are to buy a pardon with a present! … But Esau had not even seen the women-servants and men-servants, or the flocks, donkeys and oxen, until he had wept on his brother's neck. Then "he lifted up his eyes and saw the women and children, and said, Who are these?" As for the droves, he did not know what they meant until Jacob told him. Then he took it not as the price of pardon, but as Jacob's blessing.
- Conscience talks. The titles Jacob scripts — "your servant," "my lord" — are not a brother's words. They are a guilty man's. They also reverse what God had said about the elder and the younger.
- Plans crowd out prayer. He prayed, then went back to managing. You cannot lean on a plan and lean on God at once.
- The scheme betrays the schemer. The droves, the spacing, the rehearsed lines show a man who lacks the confidence to stay quiet in God's hand.
- Gifts cannot buy welcome. What we bring can never make God favourable. It leaves us forever saying "perhaps." He needed no winning over, and He proved it by giving His Son.
- Grace arrived first. Esau wept on his brother's neck before he ever saw the present. Jacob tried to buy a welcome he already had.
And so commanded he the second, and the third, and all that followed the droves, saying, According to this word shall ye speak to Esau when ye find him.
Jacob is about to meet the brother he cheated, and his plan is wave after wave of livestock, every driver given the same words to say. Can a gift buy back a brother, and does a man God has promised to keep need a plan like this?
Verse 19 repeats the message first given to the driver of the first drove. Notice the title Jacob gives Esau, and the one he takes for himself:
He found out later that all his planning was completely unnecessary. He set aside 560 animals in all as a present for Esau, in about six droves, with some distance between each one. He told the driver of the first drove what to say to Esau when he met him. He expected Esau to ask who the man was and who owned the animals. The driver was to answer that they belonged to Esau's servant Jacob (why not Esau's brother?), and that Jacob was sending them as a present to "my lord Esau." Jacob knew the Lord had told Rebekah that "the older shall serve the younger." So it is sad to see him take such a low, servant-like place before Esau. He had taken Esau's place years before, so both conscience and fear were at work in him.
Jacob had already prayed. But the droves in this verse come after that prayer, and the order is the problem:
Jacob's first thought was always a plan, and in this we have a true picture of the poor human heart. Yes, he turns to God after he makes his plan, and cries to Him for rescue. But the moment he stops praying, he starts planning again. Praying and planning will never work together. If I plan, I am leaning to some degree on my plan. When I pray, I should lean on God alone. So the two cannot go together; they destroy each other.
The staging itself is the evidence — drove after drove, spaced out, each with its own script:
Unbelief and scheming, wrapped up in their own fears, give themselves away by the very devices they fall back on, and by the way they go about things... How often the flesh shows itself to other people through the very cover-ups it works on its own owner! ... He gets no answer to his prayer, and follows his own plans with his goats and sheep, camels and donkeys. That is not all: he hands them over to his servants, each drove on its own, with a further order to "put a space between drove and drove," and he even arranges the words the messengers are to say.
The verb Jacob uses for what the present is meant to do is the same word the Old Testament uses for making atonement:
The blood of the atonement wipes out the record of sin and hides it from the eye of God... The word also means to appease or pacify. So Jacob sent a present to (atone for or) appease his brother Esau.
When the brothers met, the careful staging counted for nothing. Esau had his arms round Jacob's neck before he knew what the droves were for:
See how useless Jacob's plans are to buy a pardon with a present! Yet perhaps he takes the credit for the happy outcome... But Esau had not even seen the male and female servants, or the flocks, donkeys and oxen, until he had wept on his brother's neck. Only then did he lift up his eyes and see the women and children, and say, "Who are these with you?" As for the droves, he did not know what they meant until Jacob told him, and then he took them not as the price of pardon, but as Jacob's blessing.
One writer turns Jacob's plan on the reader. We try to appease God with a present too:
Did we not each think — if not say — "I will appease him with the present"? He needs no appeasing, or turning of the heart to us. His feelings toward us were shown in the gift of His Son. "God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him" ... and to be "the propitiation for our sins." You do not need, in that sense, to appease Him. His heart is towards you. There is nothing in His heart towards you but love. We needed to be reconciled to God; not God to us. He always was for us, and He still is.
- Fear scripts. Fear wrote the speech handed to every driver. The titles it chose — Esau as "my lord," Jacob as his servant — show conscience at work over an old wrong.
- Prayer sidelined. Jacob prayed, then went straight back to managing. Leaning on a plan and leaning on God cancel each other out.
- Plans expose. The devices a man reaches for show the trust he lacks, even when he mixes a real prayer in with them.
- Grace outran it. Esau embraced Jacob before he had seen a single animal, and received the droves not as the price of pardon but as a gift.
- God unbought. No present appeases God. He showed His heart by sending His Son — we needed reconciling to Him, not He to us.
And, moreover, ye shall say, Behold, thy servant Jacob is behind us. For he said, I will propitiate him with the gift that goes before me, and afterwards I will see his face perhaps he will accept me.
Jacob is heading home, and he is afraid of meeting his brother Esau. So he sends drove after drove of livestock ahead of him with a rehearsed message. His plan raises the question every reader has to answer: can favour be bought?
Jacob had just asked God to rescue him from Esau. What he says next shows where his trust really lay.
Jacob asked God to deliver him from his brother Esau. But he was not satisfied with that, so he tried to "appease him with a present." His confidence was in the "present," and not entirely in God. "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick." It is often hard to detect what the heart is really resting on. We imagine, or would like to persuade ourselves, that we are leaning on God, when in reality we are leaning on some scheme of our own devising. … It will not do to make our prayers part of our management either. We often feel very satisfied with ourselves when we add prayer to our own arrangements. When that is the case, our prayers are worth about as much as our plans, because we are leaning on them instead of on God.
The same writer notes that Jacob only stopped managing when God touched him:
Up to this point he had held on to his own ways and means; but now he is brought to say, "I will not let you go." … If he had been looking to God alone to appease Esau, could he have said, "I will appease him with a present"? Impossible: God and the creature must be kept distinct.
The word behind "appease" carries a long history in Scripture.
The word atonement, which is the word found in the Old Testament, as propitiation is found in the New, means simply to cover. It is first used in Genesis 6:14: God told Noah to pitch (cover) the ark inside and out with pitch. It is used again in Genesis 32:20: Jacob said he would appease Esau with a present; his fault would be covered by the present. … The offering puts the offence out of sight. It gives the injured party something equal in value, and that covers the cause of the grievance.
The message calls Esau "my lord" and Jacob "your servant." That sits oddly with what God had already told Rebekah about her two sons.
He set apart 560 animals altogether as a present for Esau, in about six droves. He told the driver of the first drove what to say to Esau, expecting Esau to ask who he was and whose the animals were. In reply he was to tell Esau that they belonged to Esau's servant Jacob (why not Esau's brother?), and Jacob was giving them as a present to "my lord Esau." Since Jacob knew that the Lord had told Rebekah "the older shall serve the younger," it is sad to see him taking this place of unfitting subservience to Esau. Of course, because he had earlier supplanted Esau, he was moved by both conscience and fear.
When the meeting finally came, the droves played no part in it at all.
Just see how useless Jacob's plans are to buy a pardon with a present! … But Esau had not even seen the female servants and male servants, or flocks, and donkeys, and oxen, until he had wept on his brother's neck. Then "he lifted up his eyes and saw the women and children, and said, Who are these?" As for the droves, he did not know what they meant until Jacob told him. Then he took them not as the price of pardon, but as Jacob's blessing.
Many people still take Jacob's approach, only with God Himself in view.
Jacob's way of winning his brother is still a much approved and fashionable way when the question and the Person are far more important. "I may appease him with the present that goes ahead of me," he says, "and afterward I shall see his face. Perhaps he will accept me." And with these people, as with Jacob, acceptance is still a "perhaps." If your religion is of that sort, how can you know when you have done enough? Suppose it should not be exactly what you estimate it to be in God's sight.
The answer is not a better gift.
A man hung up by a hook through his back for hours in the blazing sun no doubt thinks he will appease God that way. He too is mistaken. … But you will never appease Him with presents. He does not want to be appeased. All He wants He has found in Christ, and all you need, sinner, you can find in Christ. And if you find Him you need not say, "Perhaps he will accept me," for "he has made us accepted in the beloved" is the blessing of every believer in Jesus.
- Fear. Conscience and fear over an old wrong drove Jacob to bow to Esau as "my lord" — the man God had said would serve him.
- Gift. He prayed, then went straight back to managing. The droves show where his confidence really lay.
- Cover. "Appease" is the Old Testament word for atonement. It means to cover: an offering hides the offence from sight.
- Perhaps. A bought pardon can never say more than "perhaps he will accept me." You never know when you have given enough.
- Accepted. Esau wept on Jacob's neck before he ever saw the herds. God does not want presents either; He has found all He wants in Christ.