Praying for the Best...

This week, we are looking at a section of the very first letter that is recorded for us in the Bible called the book of Genesis. Yesterday, we saw a man named Jacob prepare to meet his older brother Esau, who he had not seen in twenty years as a result of an unresolved conflict between them.  Jacob responded to his fear and anxiety about this meeting by preparing for the worst. Jacob divided the people and possessions into two groups in order to best defend against Esau in the event that Esau responded to the conflict between them by striking out.

But not only did Jacob make preparations for how he would respond if the conflict took a turn for the worse. Today, we will see two more ways that  Jacob responded to this unresolved conflict in verse 9:

 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 relatives, and I will prosper you,'  I am unworthy of all the lovingkindness and of all the faithfulness which You have shown to Your servant; for with my staff only I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two companies. "Deliver me, I pray, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau; for I fear him, that he will come and attack me and the mothers with the children. "For You said, 'I will surely prosper you and make your descendants as the sand of the sea, which is too great to be numbered.'"

Here we see Jacob respond to the unresolved conflict with Esau by pursuing God in prayer. In his prayer, we see Jacob acknowledge three things. First, we see Jacob acknowledge God’s position in the conflict. Notice that Jacob refers to God as O God and as O Lord. While the phrase O God, recognizes God as Creator, the phrase O Lord, recognizes God as the One who is large and in charge of all of creation and over every situation.  Jacob is acknowledging God’s position as the sovereign Creator who is large and in charge of his life.

Second, Jacob acknowledges his fear about the conflict. Jacob asks God to rescue him from Esau because he is afraid that Esau will strike out at him in vengeance. Third, we see Jacob acknowledge God’s promises toward him. Jacob reminds God of His promises to prosper him. What is so interesting is that this phrase literally means to do good with you. Jacob is reminding God of the promise of His presence and provision in his life.

Now, does God need to be reminded of His position or promises to Jacob? Does God need to be reminded that Jacob is afraid? Do you think that God was up in Heaven saying “Oh thanks for reminding me of the promises that I made to you. And thanks for letting me know that you are afraid, I didn’t know”. No God did not need to be reminded.

 In his prayer to God, Jacob is relying on God’s promises by reminding himself of God’s’ promises as he prays to God. As Jacob prays to God, God is changing Jacob by aligning him with His promises and how he should respond to this conflict based on God’s promises and commands to him. You see prayer changes us by aligning us with God’s desires and direction. We see how God aligned Jacobs’s heart when it came to how he was to respond to his fears regarding this unresolved conflict in verse 13:

So he spent the night there. Then he selected from what he had with him a present for his brother Esau: two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, thirty milking camels and their colts, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys. He delivered them into the hand of his servants, every drove by itself, and said to his servants, "Pass on before me, and put a space between droves." He commanded the one in front, saying, "When my brother Esau meets you and asks you, saying, 'To whom do you belong, and where are you going, and to whom do these animals in front of you belong?'  then you shall say, 'These belong to your servant Jacob; it is a present sent to my lord Esau. And behold, he also is behind us.'" Then he commanded also the second and the third, and all those who followed the droves, saying, "After this manner you shall speak to Esau when you find him; and you shall say, 'Behold, your servant Jacob also is behind us.'" For he said, "I will appease him with the present that goes before me. Then afterward I will see his face; perhaps he will accept me." So the present passed on before him, while he himself spent that night in the camp.

After preparing for the worst and praying for the best, we see Jacob respond to his unresolved conflict by preparing a large gift that was to be given, in stages, to his brother. The reason behind the large gift, and its delivery in stages, was to appease Esau. Now this word appease literally means to cover one’s face. This word is also translated to make atonement for. This word means to satisfy one’s wrath or anger.

You see, Jacob wanted to satisfy Esau’s response of anger that came as a result of being wronged by him. Jacob wanted Esau to accept him. Jacob wanted Esau to look favorably toward him. Jacob wanted Esau to extend grace and forgiveness to him. And to show that he was sorry; to show that he had recognized that he had wronged Esau; to show that he had changed his ways and that he wanted to resolve their conflict; Jacob is providing restitution for what he believed that he wronged Esau from receiving.

And it is here that we see Jacob respond to his role in this unresolved conflict with repentance and restitution. Now the word repent literally means to feel remorse that results in a change of one’s mind and heart. To repent means more than simply feeling sorry for something you did; to repent means that you feel sorry for what you did and the sorrow that you feel drives you to change something in your life. Repentance is an inward recognition of the need for change that produces outward results. Jacob recognized that to resolve this conflict, he would need to demonstrate that he had changed and had a desire to make things right as a result of those changes.

And as Jacob spent the evening pondering the changes that had occurred in his life over the past twenty years and how he need to demonstrate those changes to his brother in repentance for the wrong that he had committed, we see God enter into this story in an amazing way. We will find see how God entered into this story and discover a timeless truth that can powerfully impact our lives on Friday…