HUMBLE MEETING

“Ya’akov raised his eyes and looked out; and there was Esav coming, and four hundred men with him. So Ya’akov divided the children between Le’ah, Rachel and the two slave girls.”
Genesis 33:1

The day had finally come when the two camps would reunite. Ya’akov was moments from seeing his brother again after about twenty years. But the deceitful man that Esav may have remembered was no more. Adonai had worked in Ya’akov to change him. In some places the change had had time to set in, but in others the change was recent. In fact, it was only hours before while in the night that Ya’akov wrestled with the man. In an effort to break free, the man touched Ya’akov’s hip socket, dislocating the hip. Moving forward, Ya’akov stepped with a limp.
Still it wasn’t only the hip displacement that the man gave Ya’akov, but it was also a new name. From this time forward, Ya’akov was to be known as Isra’el. I have read this name change explained as such. Ya’akov was no longer to be known as a deceiver or as one who obtained his possessions through trickery. Instead, he was to be known as one who had been publically authorized to receive the blessing. Think about that for a moment. In the context of Ya’akov, his whole life was built on pulling one over on people. But now, after wrestling with the man, he was being told that he fairly won this one; he won the ability to be blessed. He even had the battle scar to prove an honest fight.
It is in this humility and change of character that Ya’akov marched out to meet his brother Esav and prostrated himself on the ground seven times before approaching his brother. It is in this humility that I want to be found as well. I am not saying this because I want the blessings only, but because pride will be our downfall. I do not want my gain to come through trickery, but through Adonai declaring that I have been authorized to receive the blessing.

Genesis 32:31 – 33:5