Genesis 33-35; Matthew 11
Transcript
3,168 words · Plain textToday is Monday, November 2nd, and this is Daily Bread, Bible in a Year, thanks for tuning in.
Welcome to Day 16 — we're so glad you're here. Today in Genesis 33-35, Jacob finally faces Esau and finds unexpected grace in their reconciliation, then returns to Bethel to renew his trust in God. Then in Matthew 11, Jesus extends that same grace with His gentle invitation: "Come to me, all who labor." Let's open God's Word together and find rest in Him today.
Genesis chapters 33 through 35.
Genesis 33
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 servants. He put the servants and their children in front, Leah and her children after, and Rachel and Joseph at the rear. He himself passed over in front of them, and bowed himself to the ground seven times, until he came near to his brother. Esau ran to meet him, embraced him, fell on his neck, kissed him, and they wept. He 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.” Then the servants came near with their children, and they bowed themselves. Leah also and her children came near, and bowed themselves. After them, Joseph came near with Rachel, and they bowed themselves. Esau said, “What do you mean by all this company which I met?” Jacob said, “To find favor in the sight of my lord.” Esau said, “I have enough, my brother; let that which you have be yours.” Jacob said, “Please, no, if I have now found favor 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. Please take the gift that I brought to you, because God has dealt graciously with me, and because I have enough.” He urged him, and he took it. Esau said, “Let’s take our journey, and let’s go, and I will go before you.” Jacob 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. Please 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.” Esau said, “Let me now leave with you some of the people who are with me.” He said, “Why? Let me find favor in the sight of my lord.” So Esau returned that day on his way to Seir. Jacob traveled to Succoth, built himself a house, and made shelters for his livestock. Therefore the name of the place is called Succoth. Jacob 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. He 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. He erected an altar there, and called it El Elohe Israel.
Genesis 34
Dinah, the daughter of Leah, whom she bore to Jacob, went out to see the daughters of the land. Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, the prince of the land, saw her. He took her, lay with her, and humbled her. His soul joined to Dinah, the daughter of Jacob, and he loved the young lady, and spoke kindly to the young lady. Shechem spoke to his father, Hamor, saying, “Get me this young lady as a wife.” Now Jacob heard that he had defiled Dinah, his daughter; and his sons were with his livestock in the field. Jacob held his peace until they came. Hamor the father of Shechem went out to Jacob to talk with him. The sons of Jacob came in from the field when they heard it. The men were grieved, and they were very angry, because he had done folly in Israel in lying with Jacob’s daughter, a thing that ought not to be done. Hamor talked with them, saying, “The soul of my son, Shechem, longs for your daughter. Please give her to him as a wife. Make marriages with us. Give your daughters to us, and take our daughters for yourselves. You shall dwell with us, and the land will be before you. Live and trade in it, and get possessions in it.” Shechem said to her father and to her brothers, “Let me find favor in your eyes, and whatever you will tell me I will give. Ask me a great amount for a dowry, and I will give whatever you ask of me, but give me the young lady as a wife.” The sons of Jacob answered Shechem and Hamor his father with deceit when they spoke, because he had defiled Dinah their sister, and said to them, “We can’t do this thing, to give our sister to one who is uncircumcised; for that is a reproach to us. Only on this condition will we consent to you. If you will be as we are, that every male of you be circumcised, then will we give our daughters to you; and we will take your daughters to us, and we will dwell with you, and we will become one people. But if you will not listen to us and be circumcised, then we will take our sister, and we will be gone.” Their words pleased Hamor and Shechem, Hamor’s son. The young man didn’t wait to do this thing, because he had delight in Jacob’s daughter, and he was honored above all the house of his father. Hamor and Shechem, his son, came to the gate of their city, and talked with the men of their city, saying, “These men are peaceful with us. Therefore let them live in the land and trade in it. For behold, the land is large enough for them. Let’s take their daughters to us for wives, and let’s give them our daughters. Only on this condition will the men consent to us to live with us, to become one people, if every male among us is circumcised, as they are circumcised. Won’t their livestock and their possessions and all their animals be ours? Only let’s give our consent to them, and they will dwell with us.” All who went out of the gate of his city listened to Hamor, and to Shechem his son; and every male was circumcised, all who went out of the gate of his city. On the third day, when they were sore, two of Jacob’s sons, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brothers, each took his sword, came upon the unsuspecting city, and killed all the males. They killed Hamor and Shechem, his son, with the edge of the sword, and took Dinah out of Shechem’s house, and went away. Jacob’s sons came on the dead, and plundered the city, because they had defiled their sister. They took their flocks, their herds, their donkeys, that which was in the city, that which was in the field, and all their wealth. They took captive all their little ones and their wives, and took as plunder everything that was in the house. Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have troubled me, to make me odious to the inhabitants of the land, among the Canaanites and the Perizzites. I am few in number. They will gather themselves together against me and strike me, and I will be destroyed, I and my house.” They said, “Should he deal with our sister as with a prostitute?”
Genesis 35
God said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to Bethel, and live there. Make there an altar to God, who appeared to you when you fled from the face of Esau your brother.” Then Jacob said to his household, and to all who were with him, “Put away the foreign gods that are among you, purify yourselves, and change your garments. Let’s arise, and go up to Bethel. I will make there an altar to God, who answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me on the way which I went.” They gave to Jacob all the foreign gods which were in their hands, and the rings which were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the oak which was by Shechem. They traveled, and a terror of God was on the cities that were around them, and they didn’t pursue the sons of Jacob. So Jacob came to Luz (that is, Bethel), which is in the land of Canaan, he and all the people who were with him. He built an altar there, and called the place El Beth El; because there God was revealed to him, when he fled from the face of his brother. Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died, and she was buried below Bethel under the oak; and its name was called Allon Bacuth. God appeared to Jacob again, when he came from Paddan Aram, and blessed him. God said to him, “Your name is Jacob. Your name shall not be Jacob any more, but your name will be Israel.” He named him Israel. God said to him, “I am God Almighty. Be fruitful and multiply. A nation and a company of nations will be from you, and kings will come out of your body. The land which I gave to Abraham and Isaac, I will give it to you, and to your offspring after you I will give the land.” God went up from him in the place where he spoke with him. Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he spoke with him, a pillar of stone. He poured out a drink offering on it, and poured oil on it. Jacob called the name of the place where God spoke with him “Bethel”. They traveled from Bethel. There was still some distance to come to Ephrath, and Rachel travailed. She had hard labor. When she was in hard labor, the midwife said to her, “Don’t be afraid, for now you will have another son.” As her soul was departing (for she died), she named him Benoni, but his father named him Benjamin. Rachel died, and was buried on the way to Ephrath (also called Bethlehem). Jacob set up a pillar on her grave. The same is the Pillar of Rachel’s grave to this day. Israel traveled, and spread his tent beyond the tower of Eder. While Israel lived in that land, Reuben went and lay with Bilhah, his father’s concubine, and Israel heard of it. Now the sons of Jacob were twelve. The sons of Leah: Reuben (Jacob’s firstborn), Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun. The sons of Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin. The sons of Bilhah (Rachel’s servant): Dan and Naphtali. The sons of Zilpah (Leah’s servant): Gad and Asher. These are the sons of Jacob, who were born to him in Paddan Aram. Jacob came to Isaac his father, to Mamre, to Kiriath Arba (which is Hebron), where Abraham and Isaac lived as foreigners. The days of Isaac were one hundred eighty years. Isaac gave up the spirit and died, and was gathered to his people, old and full of days. Esau and Jacob, his sons, buried him.
Matthew chapter 11.
Matthew 11
When Jesus had finished directing his twelve disciples, he departed from there to teach and preach in their cities. Now when John heard in the prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples and said to him, “Are you he who comes, or should we look for another?” Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John the things which you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. Blessed is he who finds no occasion for stumbling in me.” As these went their way, Jesus began to say to the multitudes concerning John, “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? But what did you go out to see? A man in soft clothing? Behold, those who wear soft clothing are in kings’ houses. But why did you go out? To see a prophet? Yes, I tell you, and much more than a prophet. For this is he, of whom it is written, ‘Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you.’ Most certainly I tell you, among those who are born of women there has not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptizer; yet he who is least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than he. From the days of John the Baptizer until now, the Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force. For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. If you are willing to receive it, this is Elijah, who is to come. He who has ears to hear, let him hear. “But to what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces, who call to their companions and say, ‘We played the flute for you, and you didn’t dance. We mourned for you, and you didn’t lament.’ For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’ The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Behold, a gluttonous man and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ But wisdom is justified by her children.” Then he began to denounce the cities in which most of his mighty works had been done, because they didn’t repent. “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works had been done in Tyre and Sidon which were done in you, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I tell you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you. You, Capernaum, who are exalted to heaven, you will go down to Hades. For if the mighty works had been done in Sodom which were done in you, it would have remained until today. But I tell you that it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom on the day of judgment, than for you.” At that time, Jesus answered, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you hid these things from the wise and understanding, and revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, for so it was well-pleasing in your sight. All things have been delivered to me by my Father. No one knows the Son, except the Father; neither does anyone know the Father, except the Son and he to whom the Son desires to reveal him. “Come to me, all you who labor and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
Picture Jacob on the morning after the longest night of his life. He has wrestled with God until dawn, and now he is limping toward the one person he has dreaded for twenty years. Esau is coming, and with him four hundred men. Watch what Jacob does. He arranges his family in careful rows. He sends wave after wave of livestock ahead as gifts. Then he goes out front and bows to the ground seven times, step by step, closing the distance the way a man approaches a throne where he expects to be condemned. Everything about Jacob in that moment says, "I know what I deserve, and I am trying to manage it." And then Esau runs. He doesn't wait for the seventh bow. He runs to his brother, throws his arms around his neck, kisses him, and the two of them weep. All of Jacob's strategy suddenly looks a little beside the point. He came ready to bargain, and he was met with an embrace. Jacob reaches for words big enough for it, and what he says is remarkable: "I have seen your face, as one sees the face of God, and you were pleased with me." Only hours earlier, at Peniel, he had seen God face to face and lived. Now, in his brother's welcome, he sees that same grace reflected. The God who wrestled him down had gone ahead of him and softened the heart he feared most. Esau is not God, and their reconciliation is real but imperfect; Jacob still keeps a careful distance afterward. But the scene is a window. It shows us a man who expected judgment and received mercy instead. And that window opens straight onto the gospel. Jesus told a story about a son who rehearsed his apology all the way home, only to see his father running down the road to meet him. That is the heart of God that Jacob only glimpsed. And in today's chapter in Matthew, Jesus says that no one truly knows the Father except the Son, and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. Jacob saw grace in a brother's face. We are invited to see it fully in the face of Jesus Christ. Then Jesus turns to people exactly like Jacob, people bowing seven times, sending gifts ahead, carrying years of guilt and effort, and he says, "Come to me, all you who labor and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart." He doesn't say, "Come once you've arranged things properly." He says, "Come." The reconciliation Jacob couldn't purchase, Jesus secured himself, at the cross, where he carried the weight we were trying to manage. Because of him, God does not meet us with four hundred armed men. He meets us with open arms. So here is something to carry into today. Notice where you are still bowing seven times, approaching God with performance and careful arrangements, as though you need to soften him up first. Then stop, and come to him plainly. Name the burden you've been managing alone, in a sentence or two, and leave the strategy behind. You may find, as Jacob did, that grace was already running toward you before you finished bowing.
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