John Kitto Morning Bible Devotions: March 11

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John Kitto Morning Bible Devotions: March 11

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Seventh Day: The First Prayer

Genesis 32

The natural curiosity which we experience to know what Esau had been doing during the twenty years of Jacob’s absence, is in part gratified. Still it is merely a glimpse of him and his condition that we obtain. He resided chiefly among the mountains of Seir, which was then occupied by the Horites; and by the power which he acquired, through the gathering around him of persons of like bold and hardy character and habits, eventually strengthened by the pastoral wealth which he received on the death of his father, his children were enabled to establish a paramount influence in the country, and to become its sovereigns. Even at the time of Jacob’s return, Esau’s power had become very great; for when he received a submissive and most respectful message from Jacob, making known his return, he was able to command the services of four hundred men, at whose head he set forth to meet his brother.

What his intentions were in taking this step, he did not disclose to the messengers. It might be friendly; for, according to the custom of the East, the attention paid to a person is in proportion to the extent and splendor of the train sent forth to meet him. But Jacob feared, and had reason to fear, that his design might be hostile, although it does not often happen that men of Esau’s impulsive temper retain their anger for twenty years. But the angels of the Lord encamp round about those that fear him; and Jacob had been encouraged by a vision, in which he beheld the protecting angels, in two hosts, at Mahanaim. Still, his heart was moved by the intelligence his messengers brought: and as a measure of precaution, he divided his people and flocks into two companies—the one to be in advance of the other, that if the foremost were smitten by his brother, the other, containing the women and the children, might have the opportunity of escape. What more could he do? He prayed. This prayer is the first on record—for the intercession of Abraham for Sodom was more of a remonstrance or argument than a prayer. Many prayers had been offered before the time of Jacob, but this is the first of which we have any knowledge; and since the most ancient remaining example of any human act and thought, is deemed worthy of peculiar notice and consideration, the first human prayer that has reached us is entitled to attention. It is short, emphatic, comprehensive, and strictly appropriate to the exigency. “O God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, the Lord who saidst unto me, ‘Return unto thy country and to thy kindred, and I will deal well with thee;’ I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth, which thou hast showed unto thy servant: for with my staff I passed over this Jordan, and now I am become two bands. Deliver me, I pray thee, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau: for I fear him, lest he will come and smite me, and the mother with the children.”

It does not seem that there could be a finer model for a special prayer than this, the most ancient of all. He first claims his interest in the broad covenant with Abraham and Isaac—just as we might, and indeed ought, to set forth our interests in the mercies covenanted to us in Christ; then he urges the covenant of personal mercies and promises; then he humbles himself into nothing before God, confessing, with most affecting emphasis, his utter unworthiness of the blessings that have been showered upon him—yet venturing, notwithstanding, to hope deliverance from the danger that lay before him. His prayer was heard. Mysterious encouragements were given him that very night, when he remained alone, after he had sent his people over the river Jabbok. An unknown traveller engaged, as it were, in a struggle with him, in the course of which it seems that the stranger suffered not his spiritual nature to transpire, but allowed his opponent to seem the stronger, until at length he put forth an atom of his shrouded strength, and, by a simple touch, caused the sinew of Jacob’s thigh to shrink. Then, knowing that his conflict was not with flesh, Jacob yet retained his hold, and with the strong importunity and boldness of conquering faith, cried: “I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.” And he was blessed. And not only so; but he received a new name—the name of Israel—intended to denote his power with God, and, therefore, to assure him and his against any cause of dread from the power of man.

The whole scene, which some do not hesitate to regard as the most important event in the life of Jacob, seems to us like the spiritual struggles to which we are all subject, that some have doubted whether there is more in this than the representation of mental thought and conflict under the figure of bodily action; while others have, supposed that Jacob, having remained behind, wrapped himself up in his mantle and slept—then undergoing in vision the conflict which is described. There is not, in the nature of things, any intrinsic objection to this—for we read in Genesis of divers communications made to man in visions, but we shall not always be safe in regarding that as a vision which Scripture records as a fact. Besides, that Scripture records some things as visions, and others as facts, renders it the more difficult to regard as a vision that which the text describes as a fact. If we admit this, it must become uncertain what is visionary and what is true, unless we contend that a vision is not less true than a fact. And it may be so; yet in the case of a fact, we can ourselves judge of it; whereas in a vision the judgment of another, in the interpretation of that vision, is interposed between us and the simple truth. Besides, in those ages, God taught mankind by more sensible manifestations and representative actions than are now, with our fuller light, required; and it seems to us, that we are precluded from regarding this as a vision, by the fact that, when Jacob resumed his journey, he actually “halted upon his thigh,” where the angel had touched him—a physical fact, physically commemorated by the Israelites to this day, in their abstinence from the particular part of the animals they eat, which answers to “the sinew that shrank” in the thigh of Jacob. Men do not get lame in visionary conflicts. With the greater or lesser probability of real and of visionary conflicts, we have nothing to do. We are to see what it really is that Scripture teaches or communicates. Rightly apprehended, the circumstance, whether a vision or a fact, is full of matter to awaken thought and to afford encouragement. Let those who wish to see how it may be applied, and what sweetness may be extracted from it, read Charles Wesley’s noble hymn, beginning—

“Come, O thou Traveller unknown,

Whom still I hold, but cannot see!

My company before is gone,

And I am left alone with thee:

With thee all night I mean to stay,

And wrestle till the break of day.”

And ending thus—

“Contented now, upon my thigh

I halt till life’s short journey end;

All helplessness, all weakness, I

On thee alone for strength depend;

Nor have I power from thee to move—

Thy nature and thy name is Love.”

This encouragement to rely upon the Divine protection, did not seem to Jacob to require any alteration of the arrangements he had previously made, with the view of propitiating his brother. This consisted of the noble present from his own flocks and herds, which he proposed to send on in advance in different droves, the leaders of which were instructed severally to declare, when questioned by Esau, that “These be thy servant Jacob’s; it is a present unto my lord Esau; and, behold, he also is behind us.” This is the first direct case of making presents which we find in the Scripture, but which we often meet with afterwards; and the case is in entire conformity with the existing usages of the East. No one dreams of approaching a superior without a gift; and the respect and consideration he means to evince, is estimated by the value of his offering, due regard being had to his circumstances. In this case it was not only a mark of attention, but an acknowledgment of inferiority.

After all this preparation, it was still a trying moment when the two brothers, the cautious Jacob, and the rough but warm-hearted Esau, came in sight of each other, after so long a separation. Jacob, who was probably riding, dismounted when Esau appeared, and adopted the form of advance which a subject uses in approaching a prince in the East. He stopped, at intervals, seven times, to bow very low—“bowed himself to the ground”—as he advanced. The seventh pause, the seventh bow, brought him very near to his brother. They saw each other face to face once more; and although “a brother offended is harder to win than a strong city,”—Esau was won. He yielded to his heart’s impulse, and rushed forward to give the embrace of a brother to his father’s son. “He ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell upon his neck and kissed him; and they wept.”