Now came Esau and his four hundred men, and seeing them coming, Jacob divided up his family, each mother having her children with her, with those he cared the least about first, I suppose; and certainly the one he loved the most,—Rachel —and her child, the little Joseph, last. Then he went ahead of them to meet Esau, and how polite he was,—bowing right down to the ground seven times until Ile came near to his brother. No doubt all this was done to make Esau feel kindly towards him, but Esau’s behavior to Jacob was as though he had forgotten all about the past, for he ran to meet Jacob and kissed him. Then he asked about all the animals he had met, and when Jacob told him they were for a present to him, Esau said he had enough, hut he finally took the animals home, when Jacob urged him to. Here again, though, I am sorry to say, Jacob showed his old bad ways, for he told Esau that he was so pleased to meet Esau, that it was like his seeing the face of God, which can’t have been true; it was only said for a purpose, though of course, Jacob was glad that his brother didn’t hate him as he had feared. Then to there was deceit in Jacob’s saying to Esau that he would follow him to his home at Mount Seir, for he didn’t mean to. Esau at last started back for his home, and Jacob followed along slowly, but presently stopped at a place called Succoth where he built a house and made shelters for his cattle. Next we find him across the Jordan, back again in the land of God’s promises to Abraham and Isaac and himself. He settled down at Shalem, a city of Shechem, buying a piece of land, and building an altar to God there. Jacob’s father and grandfather had always been like strangers in the country, never buying land except for a cemetery or building houses and Jacob was wrong, and we shall see what trouble it brought on him. He ought indeed to have gone on to Bethel, and to his father’s home at once, and he would then have missed the disgrace, and other things of the thirty-fourth chapter.
Well. it’s very easy to point out other folk’s mistakes, sometimes. A servant of God once said, when talking about Jacob and his ways, as God has told of them in His word, “Did you ever see Jacob in the mirror?” He meant that we all easily forget how bad we are, for the old selfish and bad ways come out sometimes after we are saved, but we should not let them, should we?