007. A Prayer Of Jacob For Deliverance From Esau.

A Prayer Of Jacob For Deliverance From Esau. The Prayer as recorded.—Genesis 32:9-12. The Answer.—Genesis 33:1-4. The first impression made by the character of Jacob, as recorded in the Bible, is far from favorable. There is much enmity existing between himself and his brother Esau. We meet him under a great variety of circumstances, the subject of many deep and heavy trials, hated by one who should have been nearer than a brother, an exile and wanderer, deserted and alone in the plain of Bethel; when poor, the object of persecution, when prosperous, the victim of the envious.

There is not one of all the patriarchs whose path lay so thickly strewn with sorrows, many of them, too, the bitter fruits of the seed of his own wild sowing. The plan of divine providence had been imparted to Jacob in that vision of the night, in that dream from which he awoke filled with the presence of the Lord—a holy sense which enabled him to endure with submission almost uninterrupted hardship, and made his death a happy and quiet release.

Jacob was about to meet Esau at the head of an army of four hundred men. Knowing he had given his brother cause for resentment, he had much reason to dread the encounter, and has recourse to prayer; with all his anxiety and evil foreboding he comes to God; we have reason to infer that a whole night was passed in communion with his Maker; his prayer was earnest and anxious. It is thus God likes to be importuned, and in this prayer we are taught the nature of true, heartfelt petition.

God does not answer this prayer as we would be led to suppose; he does not destroy the gathered hosts, or send some calamity on the brother’s head; he pours into the heart of Jacob a right spirit so that he may turn the wrath of Esau into feelings of peace. There is much wisdom displayed in all the plans of Jacob; humbled and subdued he uses the language best calculated to pacify his brother; it is, “Thy servant,” and “My lord;” and they meet as friends. The prayer though long and importunate was answered. God requires this spirit, and will finally yield to it. We must be—

“Watching, waiting, hoping, yearning, With the lamp well trimmed and burning.” The sign given to Jacob convinced him of God’s approbation of his faith and perseverance, and showed him how frail man was in his own strength