Friends. Brothers.

"In God's eyes, Jacob made peace with Esau forever."

JACOB AND ESAU were fighting each other before they were born, and their mother, Rebekah, in what must have been extreme discomfort, prayed and asked why. The Lord’s reply came to her: From Esau and Jacob would come two nations, and the younger brother would serve the elder. Fast forward to a day many years later, and Jacob, the younger, is going to meet his older brother, Esau, shaking and trembling. Many things had separated them. Esau sold Jacob his birthright for a bowl of beans. Jacob tricked their father into giving him Esau’s blessing. Enraged, Esau vowed to kill him for it. Insert years and years apart, building their families and flocks. All came down to this one meeting, and Jacob was determined to make peace.

The Middle East is fraught with tension. A multitude of mixed cultures, Jew and Muslim, living one atop the other in a tiny plot of land. We hear of war in the news, and our hearts are drawn to the deaths of innocents, to the opposing sides, and as Christians, to the history of that beautiful land. On it were the children of Jacob blessed. From it came prophets and kings. The King of Kings.

But that day when Jacob approached his brother, his stomach in a knot, his flocks divided, “just in case” Esau killed one of them, in the end, there was no war at all. Esau approached his brother with joy, with gifts, and Jacob submitted to him. Instead of fighting, blaming, calling names, they embraced. Two nations, formed as their mother had been promised, numbering today in the millions, began as friends. Brothers.

“And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be my people.” (Leviticus 26:12)

Jacob had a covenant with Almighty God, passed down from his father, Isaac, and his grandfather, Abraham. On that land of Canaan, his seed would become as the dust of the earth. Through his children would all the earth be blessed. There, within those borders, the Lord God promised Jacob his offspring would “possess the gate” of their enemies. These words came true in the birth of the Messiah, in His death and Resurrection, in His victory over the devil, but the covenant spoken by Jehovah to His people, so many years before, to multiply and bless them through Jacob did not end at death, nor is the peace made between these brothers forgotten. In God’s eyes, Jacob made peace with Esau forever.

The devil works through people to stir up strife, and where strife is, the Word of God tells us there is confusion and every evil work. The innocents, caught up in the argument, the people descended from Jacob and Esau, as well as those of Gentile nations, are not to be blamed for the violence. It has been said on repeat, but we are not fighting a war with people. We fight against the devil and demonic powers. Pick a nation and you will see how, at a point in its history, the devil tried to divide it. You can also see how Israel’s God worked to bring peace there. With the Jews in Israel and those living in Palestine, this truth is far more poignant. Theirs is a past fraught with hatred.

Peace sits in our hands, speaks in our voices. We are God’s tools to promote peace, to make peace. He is the God of peace. Jesus is the Prince of Peace. The Holy Spirit is the spirit of peace, who grows the fruit of peace within us. We go forth and preach the gospel of peace. The devil seeks to steal, kill, and destroy our peace, individually, corporately as the body of Christ, and nationally as nations and governments, and he does so through us. Our words and our actions can put us on the devil’s side of the conflict.

There is no side in a war but God’s, and in Israel’s case and those who live around her, God’s side is for the covenant He has kept faithfully since Abraham offered to sacrifice Isaac. God provided a ram as his son’s replacement, and to this day, the Lamb of God holds that land in His hands.

Their peace is ours. Our compassion for them is God’s.

“Likewise also the chief priests mocking said among themselves with the scribes, He saved others; himself he cannot save. Let Christ the King of Israel descend now from the cross, that we may see and believe.” (Mark 15:31-32)

“I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew.” (Romans 11:1-2)

Star of David Image by Mike from Pixabay


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Suzanne D. Williams, Author
www.suzannedwilliams.com
www.feelgoodromance.com