Genesis 32:6And the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, “We came to your brother Esau, and he is coming to meet you, and there are four hundred men with him.” Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed. He divided the people who were with him, and the flocks and herds and camels, into two camps, thinking, “If Esau comes to the one camp and attacks it, then the camp that is left will escape.”
And Jacob said, “O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O LORD who said to me, ‘Return to your country and to your kindred, that I may do you good,’ I am not worthy of the least of all the deeds of steadfast love and all the faithfulness that you have shown to your servant, for with only my staff I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two camps. Please deliver me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear him, that he may come and attack me, the mothers with the children. But you said, ‘I will surely do you good, and make your offspring as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.’”
Jacob, seeking to reconcile with his brother (who 20 years before swore to kill him), first began by humbling himself and beginning his message with “your servant Jacob.” He wanted Esau to know that he was a man of wealth and that he did not come to take anything from Esau. Jacob tried to anticipate his brother’s thinking and to answer Esau’s concerns. When the messengers returned, Jacob heard news that gave him great concern – Esau was coming to meet him with 400 men. Because Jacob could not bring himself to think the best of Esau (for understandable reasons), he was convinced the 400 men were an army intending to destroy him and his family. Before Jacob left home, after his brother swore to kill him, Rebekah told Jacob until your brother’s anger turns away from you, and he forgets what you have done to him; then I will send and bring you from there. Rebekah never sent for Jacob; therefore, he had every reason to believe that Esau was still angry with him 20 years later. (Guzik)
We see how a consciousness of sin tends to weaken faith, and to produce fear and dread. For, notwithstanding the repeated experience Jacob had had of the divine protection; though he had just seen himself surrounded with a host of guardian angels; though he had undertaken his journey in obedience to God’s express command, and had God’s renewed promise to assure him of a safe return, yet a consciousness of having injured his brother, and of his brother’s having it in his power, should God permit him, to avenge himself, damps his faith, and fills him with the most painful and distressing apprehensions. A lively sense of danger, however, may very well consist with a degree of confidence in God’s power and goodness. (Benson)
A lively sense of danger, and quickening fear arising from it, may be found united with humble confidence in God’s power and promise. (Henry)
Faced with the possibility of his brother’s wrath, Jacob is conflicted. He was told to leave Laban and come back home. He was visited by angels. He was promised good and offspring numbering as the sand of the sea. He has heard God’s direction for him. Now he hears that after his messengers have told Esau that Jacob is coming with gifts for him, Esau is coming to meet him with 400 men. Jacob’s mind has to remember how he stole Esau’s birthright and blessing. He surely remembers how Rebekah sent him away in haste because of Esau’s anger and threat to kill Jacob. 20 years does not remove consciousness of sin because it is a distant memory. A hard heart may bury remembered sin so deep and cover it up with self-confidence, denial, or some form of justification. A humble heart will not. The act(s) will be remembered and the conscious seared with the memory of the wrong. Wrongs cannot be righted. They have occurred and cannot be undone. If you hurt someone physically or mentally the pain inflicted cannot be taken away. It may be forgiven or forgotten but the reality of that pain did occur. Some wrongs like lying, cheating, and stealing can be made acceptably right by confessing the truth or repaying what was cheated or stolen, however the feeling of being lied too, cheated on, or stolen from cannot be removed from the person who experienced it. For man it is impossible. Jacob wants to offer Esau gifts as a way to reconcile himself for what he had done. He does not ask for forgiveness. I am unsure of his repentance. He wants to make amends by offering a great gift to Esau – to whom he has wronged more than once. Shame and guilt surely have found a place in Jacob’s mind. How much easier would it have been to seek forgiveness and reconciliation this way rather than trying to buy it with gifts.
How many people miss the importance of the gospel because they want to barter with God and offer Him some means of “good works” as a means of being made right with Him? All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. God gave His only Son so that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not from yourselves; it is the gift of God, not by works so that no one can boast.