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CHAPTER 33 Jan. 19 
Jacob Meets Esau 
Jacob lifted up his eyes, and looked, and, behold, Esau was coming, and with him four hundred men. He divided the children between Leah, Rachel, and the two handmaids. 2He put the handmaids and their children in front, Leah and her children after, and Rachel and Joseph at the rear. 3He himself passed over in front of them, and bowed himself to the ground seven times, until he came near to his brother. 4Esau ran to meet him, embraced him, fell on his neck, kissed him, and they wept. 5He lifted up his eyes, and saw the women and the children; and said, Who are these with you? He said, The children whom God has graciously given your servant. 6Then the handmaids came near with their children, and they bowed themselves. 7Leah also and her children came near, and bowed themselves. After them, Joseph came near with Rachel, and they bowed themselves. 8Esau said, What do you mean by all this company which I met? Jacob said, To find grace in the sight of my lord. 9Esau said, I have enough, my brother; let that which you have be yours. 10Jacob said, Please no, if I have now found grace in your sight, then receive my present at my hand, because I have seen your face, as one sees the face of God, and you were pleased with me. 11Please take away my blessing that I brought to you, because God has dealt graciously with me, and because I have all things. He urged him, and he took it. 
Jacob and Esau Part Company 
12Esau said, Let us take our journey, and let us go, and I will go before you. 13Jacob said to him, My lord knows that the children are tender, and that the flocks and herds with me have their young, and if they overdrive them one day, all the flocks will die. 14Please let my lord pass over before his servant, and I will lead on gently, according to the pace of the livestock that are before me and according to the pace of the children, until I come to my lord to Seir. 15Esau said, Let me now leave with you some of the folk who are with me. He said, Why? Let me find favour in the sight of my lord. 16So Esau returned that day on his way to Seir. 17Jacob travelled to Succoth, built himself a house, and made shelters for his livestock. Therefore the name of the place is called Succoth. 18Jacob came in peace to the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, when he came from Paddan Aram; and encamped before the city. 19He bought the parcel of ground where he had spread his tent, at the hand of the children of Hamor, Shechem’s father, for one hundred pieces of money. 20He erected an altar there, and called it El Elohe Israel.

Commentary


33:3 Jacob's new appreciation of the blessing of forgiveness is reflected by the way in which he effectively tells Esau that he is handing back to him the birthright, the physical blessings. The way he bows down seven times to Esau is rejecting the blessing he had obtained by deceit from Isaac: “Be master over your brethren, and let your mother's sons bow down to you” (27:29). His experience of the blessing of God's grace was sufficient for him, and he rejected all else. See on 33:11.
33:5 Graciously given- Jacob is beginning to understand that his blessings of family and wealth were a gift of God’s grace and not achieved, as he had thought, as a result of his own hard work and pagan practices. The grace of the one true God is being subtly contrasted with the works-based mentality of paganism.
33:11 The Hebrew words translated “take (away)” and “blessing” are exactly the same as in 27:35,36, where Isaac laments that Jacob had taken away Esau’s blessing, and Esau repeats those same words. Now Jacob is saying: 'I have experienced the true grace of God, I stand forgiven before Him, I saw His face in His representative Angel , I therefore have all things, so I don't want that physical, material, temporal blessing I swindled you out of'. This is why Jacob pointedly calls Esau his “Lord” in the record. He was accepting Esau as the firstborn. Because God had dealt graciously with him, he felt that he had “all things”. All he needed was God’s grace, and he had that. Rev. 21:7 appears to allude to Jacob by saying that he who overcomes [by wrestling?] shall inherit “all things”. We are all to pass through Jacob’s lesson; that material advantage is nothing, and God’s grace is everything. Truly could Jacob later say, after another gracious salvation, that there God had appeared to Him, had been revealed to him [RV] in the experience of grace (35:7).  See on 33:3.