Esau was the firstborn son, but he had lost his inheritance and his blessing (Genesis 25:29-34, 27:35-40). In anger he had vowed that he would kill his brother Jacob (27:41). Jacob had left home, and been gone for twenty years; but now he was homeward bound, and he sent messengers to tell his brother he was on his way. These messengers brought back the information that Esau had decided to come meet his brother Jacob, and he was bringing a small army of four hundred men with him (32:6).

This news frightened Jacob. He took steps to meet this danger: he arranged his family and goods into two separate groups, saying “If Esau comes to the one company and destroys it, then the company that is left will escape” (32:7-8). He sent both companies forward, with a space between them; and he put himself at the very back, behind both groups. That way, if he lost both companies, he himself would still be able to get away (32:22-23).

But when Esau arrived with his four hundred men and saw Jacob, “Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him and fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept” (33:4). Jacob was determined to give his brother an extensive gift, to win his favor (32:13-15, 33:8). But Esau was not interested in enriching himself at Jacob’s expense: “I have enough, my brother; keep what you have for yourself” (33:9). In the end he only accepted the gift because Jacob urged him so strongly (33:11).

Thus while Jacob had been a schemer at the start and was still scheming how to work all the angles at the end, Esau had become a person of graciousness and compassion. As we have seen several times – with Hagar and with Pharoah, with both Abimelechs, and now with Esau – the narrative often shows us how persons outside the main storyline prove to be more devout and virtuous than the members of the covenant family. If we face this honestly, there is an important lesson in it: those who have recognized the Lord’s calling don’t behave any better than the rest of the world, and frequently we are worse. It is not on the basis of our goodness, then, that God’s calling has come to us; instead, we have to acknowledge that it comes on the basis of the gracious mercy of the Lord.

* * * * *

We belong to you, O Lord, because you chose to claim us: not because we had earned it, not because we deserved it. You saw us, and loved us, and called to us in grace: and though we are so often slow to respond, we are grateful for all your care and blessing.