Genesis 33
Jacob saw his brother Esau coming with his four hundred men. Very much afraid, he divided up the women and children to meet Esau. Jacob bowed seven times and Esau ran forward to meet him; they embraced each other and wept, and kissed each other. Esau asked Jacob, “Whose are those with thee?” and he said, “The children which God hath graciously given thy servant.”
And he said the cattle were a gift. Esau said, “No”, but Jacob pressed him, so he took it. Then Esau said, “Let us go together,” but Jacob did not want to. Was he still afraid? So he said that he and the cattle would move very slowly, so the cattle would not die, till he would go to Esau’s place. But he did not really wish to be with Esau, instead, he went to Succoth where he built a house. Neither his father Isaac nor his grandfather Abraham had built any house. God called Jacob to be a stranger and a pilgrim in Canaan. Would a stranger build a house? Where was his tent? Then Jacob moved to Shechem and bought a field; for a stranger, was this wise? No, a real pilgrim only stays a little while, not thinking of fields and houses. But Jacob forgot. Yet he built an altar and called it El-elohe-Israel (“God—the God of Israel”).
We Christians are strangers on earth; our home is heaven; but how do we act? Are we now like true pilgrims and strangers content with a tent and an altar to please God?