Jacob spoke to Laban about the “fear” of Isaac and planted the seed that it was Abraham and Isaac’s God that was protecting him. In the hills Gilead, Laban had the fear of Isaac’s God as well and made a truce with Jacob sending him and his daughters away with hugs and kisses. Probably with a sigh of relief Jacob’s attention was turned from his father-in-laws pursuit of him from the north to his inevitable encounter with the brother in the south who he had cheated out of Isaac’s blessings. He sent messengers ahead to see what they could learn about his brother Esau. In Genesis 32:6, we read, “And 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.’” Out of the frying pan and into the fire, as one commentator expressed it. But did that bother Jacob? Of course not! (Read some Sarcasm here please!). He had just been protected by God and bragged to his father-in-law that Abraham and Isaac’s God was looking out for him against any who might intend to do him harm. You’d think that he would have had more faith but the following verse, Genesis 32:7, says, “Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed.”
It’s always easy to see How God has delivered us through our problems in the past. Hindsight is always 20/20. But I somehow don’t have the same confidence about the problems that are staring me in the face at the moment. My mother was right. “There is always something. If it’s not one thing, it’s another.” You just get over one difficulty and you face another one. You get through one fear and there’s something else facing you. There’s always something else to be afraid of. Why was Jacob so brave to stand up to Laban but so afraid to face Esau. Maybe Guzik is right. He says, “This was because Jacob knew he was in the right with Laban, but he knew he was in the wrong with Esau.”1 Shakespeare wrote in Act 3, Scene 1 of Hamlet, “ “Conscience does make cowards of us all.” Wow! How true is that? Like Jacob I believe my confidence and assurance is often hindered by my past. I’m thinking that’s not unusual for believers today and of every age. Indeed guilt makes cowards of us all! There might be a good reason for Jacob’s fear also. 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 (Genesis 27:45). Rebekah never sent for Jacob; therefore he had every reason to believe that Esau was still angry with him 20 years later.
Genesis 32:1-2 says that as Jacob went on his way from Laban, “… the angels of God met him. And when Jacob saw them he said, ‘This is God’s camp!’ So he called the name of that place Mahanaim.” This is a good place to set up camp is what Jacob thought. It’s safe, I have God’s protection all around me. Even though Jacob saw the angels, he was afraid of Esau and the 400 soldiers that came with him. Jacob was still afraid. I like how Duguid wraps up this scene. He writes, “Do you see the message that God is trying to get across to Jacob? It is that he need not resort to slippery strategies in the face of obstacles, no matter how overwhelming they appear. Instead, he should trust in the unseen forces of God. Just as God had protected him against the wrath of Laban, so he could be trusted to protect him against any threat from Esau.”2 But, Jacob, devised his own plan to protect himself from Esau. I often do the same thing with all the Labans and Esaus in my life. And my mother was right, “There is always something!”
1 David Guzik, Genesis, David Guzik’s Commentaries on the Bible (Santa Barbara, CA: David Guzik, 2013), Ge 32:7–8.
2 Iain M. Duguid, Living in the Grip of Relentless Grace: The Gospel in the Lives of Isaac and Jacob, ed. Tremper Longman III and J. Alan Groves, The Gospel according to the Old Testament (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2002), 108.