Genesis 33:1-20

What we will find in Genesis 33 is that, when we truly encounter God, it leads us to the reconciliation and restoration we long for.

Outline

  • First, from resentment to reconciliation (33:1-11)
    • We must remember the depths of our division (33:1-3)
    • We must reconnect with the right perspective (33:4-8)
    • We must reconcile with the right heart  (33:9-11)
  • Second, from resistance to restoration (33:12-20)
    • God restores Jacob’s protection (33:12-14)
    • God restores Jacob’s path (33:15-17)
    • God restores Jacob’s place (33:18)

Christ Connections

  • The next time we see a story like Jacob and Esau is in Luke 15 in the parable of the prodigal son. God is waiting to run to us in reconciliation if we turn away from our sin. 
  • After the reconciliation happens, Jacob returns to buy a place in the promised land, this location is where Jesus, the new and better Jacob, later offers the living water of eternal life to the Samaritan woman at the well. 
  • Jacob’s relationship is broken because of his sinful deception. He is living in exile for 20 years, yet, he finally trusts God enough to come home and he experiences the reconciliation he longed for. This is a picture of what God does for us in Christ. Our sin has separated us from him and broken our relationships, but he makes a way for us in Christ to be made right with him.

Applications

  • There is no pain quite like the pain of a broken relationship and there is no joy quite like the joy of reconciliation. If God was willing to pursue reconciliation with us through the gospel after all the wrong we have done, how could we be unwilling to pursue reconciliation in our broken relationships?
  • Full reconciliation does not necessarily entail full reconnection, that was true for Jacob and it may be true for you as you seek healing in your relationship.
  • Two dangers in seeking reconciliation:
    • First, there’s a danger that we would be like Jacob who was so afraid of Esau that it took him twenty years to finally try to make things right.
    • Second, there’s an even greater danger that we would be like Esau. Even though Esau reconciles with his brother, there is no indication at all that he ever reconciles with God. In v. 9 when Jacob offers him gifts, Esau tries to decline by insisting “I have enough.” He is claiming he is good without the blessing of God. Though Esau experienced the temporary joy of reconciliation with his brother, he never experienced the eternal joy of reconciliation with God.