This morning when we were listening to the story of Esau approaching Jacob’s family with 400 men, I stopped the audio to ask the kids how they would feel. Esau had previously said that he would murder his brother Jacob for stealing his birthright and blessing through trickery and lying. Jacob knew that he was going to be killed, and he was scared half out of his mind.
“What would you have done to appease your brother’s fury and try to protect your family from being killed?” I asked this after they heard that Jacob had given a huge present of lots of animals to his brother.
“Give him presents” was the answer that seemed appropriate because Jacob had sinfully tricked Esau out of his father’s blessing, and Jacob had received double the inheritance that Esau had, because the right of the firstborn back then was to get a double portion of the inheritance. (To do the math, since there were two kids, the money was divided into three parts; the firstborn got 2/3rds, and the second son was supposed to get 1/3. If you had 8 kids, you divided the inheritance money into 9 parts, giving the firstborn a double portion.) Anyway, since Jacob had swindled riches away from his brother, it was only right for him to make up for his sin through money. Money back then (wealth) was counted through livestock and land. So Jacob was giving large amounts of livestock to his brother to appease his anger.
“But wait, Mom!” shouted my oldest son. “God told Jacob that he would prosper in the land back home. So there was no way that Esau would kill his brother. If he had trusted God, he would not have been scared.”
I paused. My son was right.
Circumstances are not reality. God’s Word is reality. If we can truly grasp this, we would never have fear, because God has promised that all our circumstances will work out for our good. I was shocked that my son had such deep spiritual perception.
