Genesis 33:1-10

This story makes me smile.  I hope you had a chance to read the chapters between 27 and 33 because they are filled with life and struggles.  They lead up to this climactic meeting between brothers; one feeling guilty from the deception he performed years earlier, the other full of love and forgiveness.  He is anxious to see his brother and get caught up.

What a party there must have been that evening.  How many times in our lives do we let our pride, or fear, get in the way of doing the right thing?  How many sleepless nights have we given up to tossing and turning in our guilt and shame?

"But Esau ran to meet Jacob and embraced him; he threw his arms around his neck and kissed him. And they wept." (Genesis 33:4)

If this scene were a Hollywood production, this is where the slow motion camera would zoom in on first one then the other brother as they closed in on each other.  Can you see the family of Jacob watching in fear and then smiles slowing breaking across their faces?  I love the visual the words in Genesis 33 provide the reader.  Love in action, the love of God coming out in his servant, Esau.  

Does this make you just chomp at the bit to call you brother you may be estranged from?  Don't you want to knock on your sister's door and give her a big hug?  Go ahead, it isn't too late.  Take it from one who knows, while I was not at odds with my sisters, distance kept us from having a close and meaningful relationship.  That has all changed now and I know it is part of God's big plan for us.  Years ago I claimed Jeremiah 33:3 and God is working now.


Read the Genesis 33:1-10 text here.  Listen to a reading of the text here.