Genesis 33

Jacob and Esau meet (vs. 1-16)—Jacob, still afraid of what his brother might do, aligns his family in such a way as to protect them as best as possible. Rachel and Joseph, his favorites, are in the back—maximum protection (vs. 1-2). He then prostrates himself before Esau seven times (v. 3), but it was unnecessary: “Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept” (v. 4). It’s nice to see this from Esau, who hadn’t shown a lot of character or spiritual maturity in our earlier encounters with him. The two men have a most congenial conversation, very Oriental, but almost sickening to our Occidental, western ways. Jacob introduces his family (vs. 6-7), and insists that Esau accept the gift that Jacob had sent to him (see previous chapter). Esau politely refused: “'I have enough, my brother; keep what you have for yourself'" (v. 9). But at Jacob’s repeated urgings, Esau acquiesces.

Esau wants them to travel together (v. 12), but Jacob is afraid he’ll slow the procession down with all that he has (v. 13). So he suggests Esau go on and “I will lead on slowly at a pace which the livestock that go before me, and the children, are able to endure, until I come to my lord in Seir" (v. 14). We can suppose that Jacob was sincere about going down to Edom to see Esau—at least it appears that his brother thought he was—but circumstance will prevent him from doing so. Esau left that same day for home (v. 16).

Jacob settles in Shechem (vs. 17-20)—If Jacob did intend to go to Edom to see his brother, it wasn’t an immediate intention. He “came safely to the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan…and he pitched his tent before the city” (v. 18). He bought a piece of land, built an altar, and called it “God, the God of Israel” (v. 20). The Lord had brought Jacob securely back to Canaan, but the story will turn very ugly from here. Jacob’s sons—most of them—are scoundrels and debauched miscreants, but they are still young—Reuben, the oldest, was about 13 now, so they are going to sow their wild oats in a most egregious fashion, as we shall see.