Having
reconciled and restitution made, Jacob could now move on. Esau offered to lead
Jacob and his band to Seir, their home. Jacob declined the generous offer. For
that was not where God had promised him at Bethel. God told him in Genesis
28:15 that He would bring him back to the land, the Promised Land. In his
decline we see a bit of the old Jacob again. He exaggerated to get out of the
situation. In verses 13 and 14 he said, “My lord knows that the children are
frail and that the flocks and herds which are nursing are a care to me.
And if they are driven hard one day, all the flocks will die. Please let
my lord pass on before his servant, and I will proceed at my leisure, according
to the pace of the cattle that are before me and according to the pace of the
children, until I come to my lord at Seir.” Of course he had no intention
to do that. Esau could have sensed his intention but did not want to pursue the
matter.
Why
did he do that? Why did he lie and give this lame excuse for the generous offer
made by Esau? Remember he was both Jacob and Israel. The old nature was still
operating in the new. Like him, after being born again, we too find the new
nature in Christ will conflict with the old nature we got from Adam. In Romans
7:21-24, Paul described it this way saying, “I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one
who wants to do good. For I
joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a
different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law
of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my
members. Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the
body of this death?” Perhaps the situation with Jacob’s two natures
was like this. The Israel in him should have told the truth, but the Jacob in him
rationalized. So he thought to himself, “I am sure one day I might go to Seir,
so let me just make up an excuse for why I don’t need him to go with me.” So he
exaggerated.
The episode with Esau would soon come to a close. He parted way with
Jacob and went off with his 400 men and the good-will gifts given by his brother.
The two would only meet again briefly at the father’s funeral in Genesis 35:29.
The last we read of Esau was in the genealogies given in Genesis 36. Meanwhile,
Jacob did not just cross the Jordan River into the Promised Land or to Bethel. Instead
he travelled down south to Succoth and there he built a house and made booths
for his livestock. He named that place where he stopped Succoth meaning “stalls”
or “booths.” This perhaps was to make use of the fertile valley there to replenish
the remaining stock he had. Remember, he had given some 500 of them to make
restitution with Esau, his brother. Going to Succoth actually contravened God’s
direction. He was supposed to go to Bethel. It was indeed a step backward in
his journey with God. He was still a man who at times would do things according
to what he desired. Going to Succoth would exact a huge price from him and his
family. He would have to pay dearly for this wrong turn in his journey. Like him
we also do create setbacks for ourselves, by not moving in tandem with God’s plan
for our life. It behoves us to stay connected, listen carefully, and act wisely
to avoid needless meanders in our spiritual voyage to where God intents us to
be.
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