Please accept my blessing that is brought to you, because God has dealt graciously with me, and because I have enough.” Thus he urged him, and he took it.
Jacob finally gets his brother Esau to accept his gift, and the reason he gives is not fear but grace received. The verse turns on two small words: "blessing" and "enough." Commentators also read Jacob's tone in different ways.
Two Different Words for "Enough"
In verse 9 Esau declines the gift, and in verse 11 Jacob presses it. English translations use the same word for both men. The original does not.
F. B. HoleEsau accepted Jacob's present in the end. But at first he refused it, saying, "I have enough," or more literally, "I have much." In verse 11 we find Jacob saying, "I have enough," but he used a different word, meaning "all." He could use that word because he was able to say, "God has dealt graciously with me." A man of the world may be able to say, "I have much." Only a believer who knows God has blessed him can say, "I have all." This is what the Apostle Paul said in Philippians 4:18.
Grace Named as the Source
Jacob does not credit his own skill for what he owns. One writer sees a real change in the man here. (Older translations end his answer "I have everything"; the ESV has "I have enough.")
F. A. HughesAlthough he failed at times, clear progress in his soul appeared. His affections reached beyond Bethel — the place — to El-Bethel — to God Himself. He is now Israel — a prince — before his God. Talking with Esau, he confesses that the possessions he had gained came from God's graciousness to him. So when Esau says, "I have enough," Jacob can answer, acknowledging God's goodness, "I have everything."
The Gift Called "My Blessing"
Jacob calls the gift "my blessing." One writer points out that it never did the work Jacob planned for it.
The Bible TreasurySee how useless Jacob's plans were to buy a pardon with a present! Jacob said, "I will appease him with a present." … "I have sent to tell my lord, in order that I may find favor 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. Then "he lifted up his eyes and saw the women and children" and said, "Who are these with you?" As to the droves, he did not know what they meant until Jacob told him. He took the gift not as the price of pardon, but as Jacob's blessing.
Why He Urged It So Hard
Commentators differ over how much credit Jacob's speech deserves. Some hear the language of faith. Others hear a man still anxious, still flattering, still trying to buy safety.
William KellyJacob goes further in pressing him to accept it: "for I have seen your face, as though I had seen the face of God, and you were pleased with me. Take, please, my blessing that is brought to you, because God has dealt graciously with me, and because I have all." In fact the gift was meant to turn away the anger and strong fury he expected. The way he framed it, and the words he used, hardly deserve the praise they usually get. God had acted in pity, and Jacob owed Him thanksgiving.
One detail supports the harder reading. Jacob is generous with Esau, but there was an older promise still outstanding.
L. M. GrantJacob insists that, since Esau's attitude toward him was friendly, he wants Esau to take his present. His words to Esau are far too flattering and exaggerated. He says that seeing Esau was like seeing the face of God. … We read of Jacob giving this large gift to Esau. But we never read of him keeping his promise to give one tenth of his possessions to God!
Where His Confidence Really Rested
Jacob had prayed about Esau. Then he arranged the herds anyway, and the gift he now calls "my blessing" started out as that plan.
C. H. MackintoshJacob asked God to deliver him from his brother Esau. Yet he was not satisfied with that, and so he tried to "appease him with a present." His confidence was in the "present," and not fully in God. … 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.
Summary
- Grace first. Jacob's reason for giving is not Esau's need but God's kindness: "God has dealt graciously with me."
- Grace fills. Esau can say "I have much." Only a man who knows God has blessed him can say "I have all" — the note Paul strikes in Philippians 4:18.
- Grace overflows. Because he has all, Jacob can hand a blessing over instead of holding on to what he owns.
- Grace was already at work. Esau wept on his neck before he ever saw the herds. The gift did not buy the peace.
- Grace outlasts the scheming. Jacob still leaned partly on his own plan, and his flattering words show it, yet God's dealings with him held.