Sunday Sermonette: brotherly love

Genesis 32, like many of the chapters, is divided oddly. In fact the Masoretic text puts the first verse with chapter 31; while there are clearly two stories in the rest of it. The first one, turgidly written and repetitive, is also illogical. But we'll do it now and get it over with.

Jacob also went on his way, and the angels of God met him. ² When Jacob saw them, he said, “This is the camp of God!” So he named that place Mahanaim.^[b]

KJV has "this is God's host." Not sure why the discrepancy.

³ Jacob sent messengers ahead of him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom. ⁴ He instructed them: “This is what you are to say to my lord Esau: ‘Your servant Jacob says, I have been staying with Laban and have remained there till now. ⁵ I have cattle and donkeys, sheep and goats, male and female servants. Now I am sending this message to my lord, that I may find favor in your eyes.’”
⁶ When the messengers returned to Jacob, they said, “We went to your brother Esau, and now he is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him.”
⁷ In great fear and distress Jacob divided the people who were with him into two groups,^[c] and the flocks and herds and camels as well. ⁸ He thought, “If Esau comes and attacks one group,^[d] the group^[e] that is left may escape.”

Okaaay. I can certainly understand why Jacob thinks Esau is likely to be hostile. However, if Jacob is desperately afraid of him, why did he send messengers to tip him off that Jacob was in the neighborhood?

⁹ Then Jacob prayed, “O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, Lord, you who said to me, ‘Go back to your country and your relatives, and I will make you prosper,’ ¹⁰ I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness you have shown your servant. I had only my staff when I crossed this Jordan, but now I have become two camps. ¹¹ Save me, I pray, from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid he will come and attack me, and also the mothers with their children. ¹² But you have said, ‘I will surely make you prosper and will make your descendants like the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted.’”
¹³ He spent the night there, and from what he had with him he selected a gift for his brother Esau: ¹⁴ two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, ¹⁵ thirty female camels with their young, forty cows and ten bulls, and twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys. ¹⁶ He put them in the care of his servants, each herd by itself, and said to his servants, “Go ahead of me, and keep some space between the herds.”

Again, camels had not been domesticated at the time this supposedly took place.

¹⁷ He instructed the one in the lead: “When my brother Esau meets you and asks, ‘Who do you belong to, and where are you going, and who owns all these animals in front of you?’ ¹⁸ then you are to say, ‘They belong to your servant Jacob. They are a gift sent to my lord Esau, and he is coming behind us.’”
¹⁹ He also instructed the second, the third and all the others who followed the herds: “You are to say the same thing to Esau when you meet him. ²⁰ And be sure to say, ‘Your servant Jacob is coming behind us.’” For he thought, “I will pacify him with these gifts I am sending on ahead; later, when I see him, perhaps he will receive me.” ²¹ So Jacob’s gifts went on ahead of him, but he himself spent the night in the camp.

Also unclear is why Jacob assumes that Esau is much more militarily powerful.  In any event, he hopes to buy Esau off by giving up half of his animals, but if Esau is really all that horrific he can just take the rest, no?

Again, Jacob could have spared himself all of this pain by just sneaking on by. Very odd.

1. Genesis 32:2 Mahanaim means two camps.
2. Genesis 32:7 Or camps
3. Genesis 32:8 Or camp
4. Genesis 32:8 Or camp