Genesis 33:1–17
The Bible4Jesus.com Podcast
About this episode
We come now to one of the most anticipated and dreaded reunions in all of Scripture. For twenty years, Jacob has lived with the consequences of his deceit. In the intervening years, Jacob the supplanter has been supplanted by his father-in-law Laban, he has wrestled with wives and wages, and he has accumulated a great household. But all of this has been under the shadow of that broken relationship back home. Just prior to our text, Jacob has had his ultimate confrontation, not with Esau, but with God Himself at the Jabbok. He wrestled with a man who was no mere man, and he walked away from that encounter with two things: a new name, Israel, which means he who strives with God, and a permanent limp. The old Jacob, the conniving, self-reliant schemer, died that night. The man who walks to meet his brother is a broken man, a man who now clings to God because he has no choice.