17. God helps Jacob meet his brother. Has the grudge from twenty years ago really been resolved?

We were under pressure, but we didn’t break down; Confused and anxious inside, yet not despairing; Persecuted, yet never abandoned; Knocked down, but not dead. “[2 Corinthians 4:9]

In the darkness, someone grabbed Jacob’s shoulder. Jacob was startled and suddenly turned around, seeing under the starlight a tall, handsome man. By intuition, Jacob knew it was an angel sent by God.

The angel suddenly grabbed his shoulders. Did he know he planned to escape in the middle of the night, or was he going to tell him how to deal with his brother? But the angel didn’t speak, just tightly gripped Jacob’s arms, twisted his waist, and tried to knock him to the ground.

Confused, Jacob instinctively countered and wrapped his arms around Angel’s lower back, preventing him from exerting much force, but he also lacked the ability to attack, only stubbornly protecting himself from falling in the stalemate.

In the wilderness, they were locked in a stalemate, like two stone statues. Jacob was dripping with sweat, feeling almost exhausted, but he persisted with determination. The river flows gently and steadily, yet the stars gradually fade away, and dawn appears in the east. Jacob, however, seemed to forget everything—forgot Esau, who led four hundred warriors, forgot his wife and children across the river, and forgot himself in a desperate situation with no way out.

The angel had come to fulfill his mission; he wanted to completely shatter Jacob’s cunning and schemes. In the stalemate, the angel freed one hand, grabbed Jacob’s thigh, spun outward, and with a loud snap, dislocated Jacob’s thigh bone from the hollow. Jacob instantly lost his balance, and the pain made him scream as if a house had collapsed, collapsing to the ground. But on earth, He still clung to the angel’s leg, refusing to let him escape. “Let me go, because it’s already morning.

You need to go see your brother. The angel looked down at Jacob and said, If you don’t bless me, I won’t let you go. “What’s your name?” “My name is Jacob.” “Do not call Jacob anymore; you shall call Israel (meaning war with God), because you have won both the wrestling with God and man.” “Tell me your name?” Jacob still wouldn’t let go. “Why do you know my name?” After the angel finished speaking, he blessed Jacob and then left. Too much

The sun rose, and Jacob limped across the river. Leah and Rachel, waiting by the river, saw their husbands approach, and their anxious expressions eased a little. Because he hadn’t slept all night, his eyes were bloodshot, but the anxiety in his gaze was gone. By midnight, he seemed much thinner, his graying hair wet and greasy covered in dust, his right leg limping as he slowly walked forward leaning on a shepherd’s staff. Jacob divided his wife and children into three groups: at the front were two maidservants and four children, in the middle was Leah and her six sons, and finally Rachel and her son Joseph. Once everything was arranged, Jacob walked at the front, letting the three squads of wives and children follow him.

The sun rose, and a moving pillar of dust rose across the wilderness, moving northward. Esau led four hundred warriors to welcome his brother Jacob. Yesterday, he encountered nine groups of cattle and sheep, and the leading servant of each group repeated the same sentence: “These are the gifts your servant Jacob is giving to his master Esau, and he himself follows behind.” Every time he heard such words, it was like spring river water washing away the ice of resentment he had chilled for twenty years. At first, the ice was as hard as iron. He had never forgotten those twenty years of resentment; otherwise, why would he have led four hundred strong men here? But twenty years later, before they met, the younger brother had actually given him generous gifts nine times. Was it because he was too vengeful for every slightest grudge?

Isn’t the price paid for his brother fugitive twenty years away? Wasn’t it her brother who couldn’t forget her mother before she passed away? When their mother was buried, the younger brother was completely unaware—isn’t that enough to make people lament? Thinking this, Esau and his group approached the banks of the Yabo River. He looked up and saw a lame man with graying hair walking alone on the road, moving slowly. Esau quickened his pace and recognized him as Jacob, his brother whom he hadn’t seen in twenty years. Jacob also recognized his brother. He stood where he was, bowed seven times, and bowed in turn.

Seeing his brother’s travel-worn face, the marks left by twenty years of hardship on his face, and the humble bowing of his brother, Issau was overcome with sorrow and tears streamed down his face. He quickly ran forward, hugged his brother by the neck of the dust-covered brother, helped him up, and burst into tears.

Jacob also wept uncontrollably, his body unsteady from the excitement. Twenty years had passed, and the bond between brothers had been destroyed by his cunning from the past. Their reunion after twenty years was truly heartbreaking.

Yet over these twenty years, God has always reached out to help when we were at our most helpless. After a long while, their emotions gradually calmed down, and Jacob introduced his wife and children to Esau. Esau invited Jacob back to his own territory of Seir. But Jacob said, “My Lord knows the children are still young, and I must care for the nursing cattle and sheep. If they travel all day, the cattle and sheep will exhaust themselves to death.”

It would be better to ask my lord to go first, and I will accommodate the livestock and children to go slowly, and I will meet my lord in Seir. Yisao found it reasonable, so he led the warriors back the way he came.

Jacob stood where he was, watching his brother and his group walk southward. After pondering for a while, he gathered all his servants into a single group, ordered them to head west, cross the north-south Jordan River, cross the valley, continue west, enter Canaan, and return to Shechem, the city-state he had passed through twenty years earlier during his escape. He camped outside the city of Shechem.

Jacob did not expect that although he had schemed to escape his brother Esau’s threat, Shechem, this unfamiliar city-state would face a great disaster before Jacob.