Genesis chapter 33. Now Jacob lifted his eyes and looked, and there Esau was coming, and with him were four hundred men. So he divided the children among Leah and Rachel and the two maidservants. And he put the maidservants and their children in front Leah and her children behind, and Rachel and Joseph last. Then he crossed over before them, and bowed himself to the ground seven times, until he came near to his brother. But Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck, and kissed him, and they wept. And he lifted his eyes, and saw the women and children, and said, Who are these with you? And he said, the children whom God has graciously given your servant. Then the maidservants came near, they and their children, and bowed down. And Leah also came near with her children, and they bowed down. Afterward, Joseph and Rachel came near, and they bowed down. Then Esau said, What do you mean by all this company which I met? And he said, these are to find favor in the sight of my Lord. But Esau said, I have enough, my brother. Keep what you have for yourself. And Jacob said, no, please, if I have now found favor in your sight, then receive my present from my hand, inasmuch as I have seen your face as though I had seen the face of God, and you were pleased with me. Please take my blessing that is brought to you, because God has dealt graciously with me, and because I have enough.' And he urged him, and he took it. Then Esau said, Let us take our journey. Let us go, and I will go before you. But Jacob said to him, My lord knows that the children are weak, and the flocks and herds which are nursing are with me. And if the men should drive them hard one day, all the flock will die. Please let my Lord go on ahead before his servant. I will lead on slowly at a pace which the livestock that go before me and the children are able to endure until I come to my Lord and see her. And Esau said, now let me leave with you some of the people who are with me. But he said, what need is there? Let me find favor in the sight of my Lord. So Esau returned that day on his way to see her. Well, the two brothers, Jacob and Esau, are finally now to meet. And what will happen? That's the question in Jacob's mind. He has just the night before wrestled with the angel, the pre-incarnate Son of God, and prevailed. And having seen God face to face, and having lived to tell about it, It does not seem quite so difficult to him to face his brother Esau. He still has fears about Esau, but now his attitude is different. He has prayed, and he has wrestled, and he has received great blessing from God. Now he can go forward. Where does the confidence come from to be able to face our greatest fears. It comes from having been with God in prayer and wrestling through the issues of our life. Jacob lifted up his eyes, it says, and he looked. And there Esau was coming and with him were the 400 men. And it's a good thing if you and I can come to the place where we can say that God has dealt graciously with us and that we have enough. God is our all-sufficient portion in this life and the next. Then we can say, I know that whatever befalls me, that Jesus does all things well. As the hymn writer says, when you are blessed by God with the blessings of salvation in Jesus Christ, you have enough. If you will notice, both Esau and Jacob said that they had enough. in this text. Esau says it first in verse 9 when Jacob tells him of the gift that he has for him. I have enough my brother, keep what you have for yourself. And Jacob says it in verse 11. Please take my blessing that is brought to you because God has dealt graciously with me and because I have enough The words enough that were spoken by Jacob and Esau in the original language are two different words. The word enough that Esau spoke means that he had enough worldly goods that he did not need Jacob's gift. But the word enough that Jacob spoke means all things. Jacob was saying that he had all things because he had God for his God. Even so, all those who have Jesus Christ for their Savior have all things as well. Now the question that I want to pose to you this morning is this. What are the all things that Jacob has which Esau does not have, even though Esau says that he has enough. I think that if we look at the text that we can see that there are four things that were manifested in Jacob's spirit which show us that God had dealt graciously with him. They show that he indeed had all things. First of all, Jacob had a courageous, Christ-like spirit. Verses 1 to 4. Before, when Jacob realized that Esau was coming with 400 armed men, he was greatly afraid. And so he divided the people that were with him, the flocks and the herds into two companies. And at this point where we are reading, he divides the children among Leah and Rachel and the two handmaids. He puts the maid servants and their children in front, then Leah and her children behind, and Rachel and Joseph last. It would appear that he is doing this to guard what was most precious to himself in terms of his love for them. But then he does something that he did not do the night before. It says in verse 3 that he then crossed over before them and he bowed himself to the ground seven times until he came near to his brother. The night before he wrestled. Here he bows. He bows down before Esau to show his submission to God's will. there must have been at least one more stream after the Jabbok that Jacob and his families had to cross because the previous evening he had sent his wives and his servants across the ford of the Jabbok. It says in verse 23 of chapter 32, now here again they are crossing over a river or a stream to meet Esau. You see, there are sometimes many rivers for us to cross in our lives, each one needing our individual attention. If we are the head of the household, or if we are a leader in the church, you have probably heard the expression, we will cross that river when we come to it. In the Christian life, there are times for prayer alone with God, wrestling with Him over the issues of your life, and there are also those times when you stay behind. Those are the times when you draw apart to be with God alone, and then there are times for decided and deliberate action, where you go before those who are under your charge. To discern when we should do the one and when we should do the other requires a Christ-like spirit. Now I do not think that we should misconstrue Jacob's actions here as though his meekness in bowing down to Esau was weakness in him. Instead, I believe that we ought to think the very opposite. Jacob had obtained the birthright and the blessing from his brother by tricky scheming and deception. and he had lived by his boldness and cleverness before. But at this time he was in good faith, showing his repentance toward Esau and his faith in God. He was ordering his way aright before God and Esau in this situation. His going before his wife and children was to show Esau the respect due to an elder brother. that had been offended. And he was showing forth the hope that he had that they would be reconciled to God and to each other. These were entirely appropriate actions in this situation. If Jacob had not sinned against Esau twenty years before in the way that he did to obtain the blessing of Isaac, then these actions might be misconstrued as related only to a sinful fear. in Jacob. But this was not the fear of a man which brings a snare that was being exhibited by Jacob. Here, these were the actions of humility and his repenting of his past methods which he had used to get what he wanted by using cunning and trickery. He was saying that he was seeking forgiveness. He was seeking reconciliation and the restoration of their relationship by these actions. And the reason that I say that Jacob had a Christ-like spirit in this situation is because of what we read concerning the arrest of our Lord Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. which is found in the accounts of Matthew and John's Gospels, I believe that what the Lord Jesus was doing in that garden was done for sinful Jacob. Indeed, it was done for all people who know themselves to be sinful and who need a Savior. What our Lord Jesus did there would form the basis for all that Jacob was enabled to do and to receive and to give when he met Esau on that memorable day. In our text, Jacob was looking forward to what God would do for him. And all that God would do to help him would be based upon the grace which Christ would purchase at the cross for him at a much later time. But the proof of what I'm saying to you is found in the fact that Jacob wrestled with the pre-incarnate Lord Jesus Christ the night before this incident. When the angel, because that's what the Lord Jesus was called there, allowed Jacob to prevail there, it was as much as his saying, I will die for you, Jacob, so that this great thing can come to pass. I will die so that you can be reconciled, not only to me, but to your brother. Yes, I will do this. I will die so that you might be reconciled to God and come to have a new heart that does things differently from what you sinfully did in your natural strength before. You know, dear believers, there were things that we did in our natural strength before we became a Christian that should not continue after we become a Christian. But God knows that this is the case, and He has made provision for it through the death of Christ, so that after you come to know Him, that all of those bad methods and ways of doing things would be addressed by you in connection with His working in your heart by the grace of the Lord Jesus, so that you would be changed and transformed. into the image of Christ so that you would be a better person than you once were, so that you would become a better person than you were at the point of your conversion. We need to see this. We need to see this. I want you to look with me at Matthew chapter 26 and verse 36. Matthew chapter 26. And verse 36, it says, then Jesus came with them, that is his disciples, to a place called Gethsemane and said to them, sit here while I go and pray over there. And our Lord Jesus drew apart to pray and to wrestle with God over the issues before he was arrested and went to the cross. It says, and he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and he began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed. Then he said to them, my soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death, stay here and watch with me. And he went a little farther and fell on his face and prayed saying, oh my father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me, nevertheless not as I will, But as you will, then he came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, What? Could you not watch with me one hour? So you see here that Peter and the others could not watch with him for one hour. And Peter would even deny his Lord three times. that very night. And so Jesus must wrestle, and Jesus must pray, and Jesus must prevail with his Father so that sinners like Peter and Jacob could be saved and helped to face the greatest distresses of their lives. Distresses that had come to them because of their sins. So too we must have Christ and his blessed work and prayer in the garden so that we will be able to pray. And we must have Christ and his blessed work of resolution to go to the cross and to remember the cross and what the Lord Jesus suffered in order that we might be able to take the holy initiative. and pick up our own cross in the way that Jacob did with Esau that day to bow to him. And what did Jacob do? He crossed the stream ahead of those whom he loved in order to face whatever he would suffer from Esau in the hope that those whom he loved would be spared. His was a Christ-like spirit, for it is the same kind of action that the Lord Jesus took before he was crucified. Jesus says in Matthew 26, 45, Behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us be going. See, my betrayer is at hand. And in John 18, 1, it says, When Jesus had spoken these words, he went out with his disciples over the brook Kidron, and in verse 4 it says there, Jesus, therefore knowing all things that would come upon him, went forward and said to them, Whom are you seeking? He asked this of them twice. And then in verse 8, he says, I have told you that I am He. Therefore, if you seek me, let these go their way, that the saying might be fulfilled, which he spoke of those whom you gave me. I have lost none. You see these are the actions that make me think of Jacob in our text because Jacob also crossed a river that day and he showed submission and respect to his brother to whom he would show his repentance to. and his changed life too? He could do this because Christ would pray, because Christ would die, and because Christ would rise again. The Lord Jesus had no sins to atone for, but Jacob did. But Christ would die so that Jacob could bow first to God, and his way of doing things, and then to his brother in order to show him repentance. He bowed himself seven times, it says, until he came near to his brother. He could have tried foolishly to defend himself with a sword like Peter tried to defend his master when they came to take him. But that would not have been the right way here. Esau must see a different Jacob. And he did. And this is why their meeting turned out so well. It was God who Jacob wrestled with first, and Jacob prevailed with him beforehand, and it was God who worked in Esau's heart to soften and to change it enough through the means that Jacob used so that the outcome was astoundingly good. They were reconciled. But Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck, and kissed him, and they wept. It sounds like the prodigal son coming home to the father. They both did this. They both have enough, but Jacob has more. He has the grace and forgiveness of God, and he had a Christlike spirit. Second, Jacob had a thankful spirit for God's blessings on his family, verses five to seven. So Esau lifted up his eyes and saw the women and children and said, who are these with you? So Jacob said, these are the children whom God has graciously given your servant. Now I wonder this morning if each of us understands the richness of the blessing of having a family, to have a wife and children, who follow your lead into living a godly life. Jacob certainly did. He could have simply told Esau that these were his wives and children and not said a word more. But he says, these are the children whom God has graciously given your servant. If you are a husband or a father, are you thankful to God in this way that Jacob was thankful before God and Esau when he said these things? Let me ask you, do you express your love and appreciation toward God for what he has done for you when you are in the presence of unbelieving family members? As the truth of your heart, Jacob did not fail to do so, and it should be a lesson to us. Let your speech, it says in the New Testament, Paul says, let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one. He says in Colossians 4 or 6, one of the ways that you can do this is when you can speak of what God has done for you in giving you a wife and children that follow your lead. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Children are a gift of the Lord. The fruit of the womb is a reward. As arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are the children. of one's youth. Jacob well knew that these things were true and oh how thankful he was for it. Esau may ride up with an entourage of 400 men and he might be very showy and impressive at their first meeting, but does he have the gift of God which is a godly wife and children? I think not. And who is the better off? Surely it is the Christian man with his seemingly less impressive entourage of a wife and children. We should not be fooled by the world's view of what is significant. It is the Christian family that is impressive and significant in God's sight. Not a man running around the countryside with 400 armed men. This is how God views it, no matter what any worldly man may think. Jacob has more than enough. He says, he has all things, and when God saw fit to give him a wife and children that would follow him and learn the way of the Lord, they really did follow his lead. And they all came and bowed to Esau to show him respect, even as Jacob had done, and they acted in unison as a family. which was of great value and a great blessing to this godly man. Now third, Jacob had a generous spirit, having been reconciled to God and to his brother, verses 8 to 11. Then Esau said, what do you mean by all this company which I met? He means all the flocks and herds that were Jacob's present to him. And Jacob says to him, these are to find favor in the sight of my Lord." Now, Esau had already had this explained to him by the servants who had been leading the droves, but he wanted to hear it from Jacob himself. And now that he sees that Jacob is no threat to him, in the sense of the things that were important to himself, he is therefore really able to see and to say, I have enough, my brother, you keep what you have for yourself. And now we can see that Jacob has all things but that Esau has only this world to hold on to. Jacob we know was wealthy because it says so in Genesis chapter 30 and verse 43, thus the man was prosperous and had large flocks, female and male servants, and camels and donkeys, he had been made wealthy by gods prospering him, even though Laban had been so stingy to him. Now Jacob desires to take up his wealth, and use it in a way that he would find favor in the sight of his brother. Jacob reasons this way, if God has been so generous and gracious to me as he has, then I can afford to be generous and gracious with this my brother, who I stole the blessing from before. But Esau will not take it, at least not initially. He does not think that he needs anything more than he has. He has everything of this world's goods, he thinks. And he does not think about what it would mean to have spiritual blessings from God. But Jacob is insistent. And in his insistence, he will preach the gospel to his brother. His lost brother, he says in verse 10, No, please, if I have now found favor in your sight, then receive my present, from my hand inasmuch as I have seen your face as though I had seen the face of God and you were pleased with me. What a statement this is. Jacob is here comparing the face of Esau and finding favor with him to the face of God and finding favor with him. And Jacob is comparing Esau's showing him a kindly face and showing him his favor to God's showing him a kindly face and favor. Even as God had shown Jacob favor and Jacob would bring a present to him, even so now Jacob would bring a present to Esau. now that he knows that they are reconciled. He had sent this present on before him to appease Esau's anger, but Esau forgave him of the past sins even before the explanation was given. Jacob knew that only God could produce such a change in Esau. He knew that the change of attitude did not mean that Esau was a saved man or a godly man, but it did mean that God was sovereignly working so that he could be reconciled to his brother in peace. Please take my blessing, he says, that is my gift that is brought to you because God has dealt graciously with me, because I have enough, I have all, It is only one who has been taught by grace himself that can teach grace and what it is like to another. And of course, for it to be truly understood by Esau, it would require God's working in his heart as well. But Jacob would try to make him understand it. It says, so he urged him and he took it. And Jacob knows that the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable and that there is no chance that he will lose the spiritual blessings that have been bestowed upon him by his father those many years ago. But he would show Esau this gospel of reconciliation and grace if he can, because God had dealt graciously with him and he could therefore be very generous. because God had been generous to him. Now let me ask you this morning, is this you, my friend? Do you as a Christian seek to be reconciled to those who have been offended by you? in the past because you now see that the way you spoke or the way that you did things in relation to them was not right in the past? If you do seek reconciliation, do you see the importance of having a generous conciliatory spirit as Jacob had? Because you have been forgiven a great debt. And therefore, you can forgive the debt of others. Because you have been given the gift of eternal life and abundant grace, you can now exhibit a generous spirit toward those who you have previously offended. All this comes when you realize that God has dealt graciously with you. You may need to urge the person that you are now thinking of to take your gift and to receive your words even as you would urge a person that you wanted to see come to know Christ to take of that free gift of being reconciled to God when they are reluctant. When you do this, you are saying, I have enough. I have all things. I want you to have all things as well. Esau took the gift but I fear that he never came to understand the grace of God that was being communicated in its being given. Oh, may this not be you here this morning. If you have never come to know God through Jesus Christ, I urge you to take the free gift of salvation which is found in Jesus Christ alone. Do not be merely satisfied with the worldly blessings that come to you if you begin to live according to biblical principles. Do not be satisfied until you have come to experience all the spiritual blessings which Christ died to bring to you a sinner. Jacob had all, but Esau had only the blessings of this life. And I urge you to seek for more than worldly wealth, more than earthly blessings. Seek for it by faith in Jesus Christ. Seek for salvation, but seek then also the riches which are in Christ, that you might be rich toward God and towards other people as well. And then fourth, and finally Jacob had a tender. and compassionate spirit for those who are weaker. Verses 12 to 16, then Esau said, let us take our journey and let us go and I will go before you. Now you can imagine that if you're a man like Esau and you're riding with 400 armed men, that it would seem a strange thing to stay very long at a family reunion with your men and they're not being relatives. Esau would return to Seir, and he would have Jacob to follow him quickly. He probably is excited to show off the place where he resides, but Jacob politely declines his offer. to jump up and leave immediately and he has very good reasons for doing so. My Lord knows that the children are weak and the flocks and herds which are nursing are with me and if the men should drive them hard one day all the flocks will die. Please let my Lord go on ahead before his servant. I will lead on slowly at a pace which the livestock can go on before me and the children are able to endure until I come to my Lord. Now, if Jacob was the kind of person who was simply interested in making an impression upon Esau, realizing the way that Esau lived and wanting to keep up with him, he would have said to his wife and children and servants, I'm going with Esau to Seir. I will leave you to follow and catch up with us when you can. But that's not what Jacob did. He showed where his greatest love and his priorities lay. It was with his family. And even when Esau offered to leave some of his people with Jacob to strengthen him and protect him and help him in the journey, Jacob declines that as well. What need is there, he says. And yet he still asks to find favor in Esau's sight in this regard. So Esau returned that day to Seir, and Jacob, we must assume, went and saw where he lived at a little bit later time. Now, I think that we can say by way of conclusion that Jacob was indeed a man whom God had been gracious to, and we see that he was willing to decline this offer of Esau's to try to keep pace with him. A godly man does not feel the need to keep pace with the men of culture and the world. He does see his highest priority lies with God and his family. His highest priority lay in doing things as God would have them done, considering the needs of the weak ones under his charge. He was tender and compassionate toward the needs of his family and his loved ones. A godly man will show respect for his relatives and want to spend some time with them. but he will not allow them to drag him along with them into all of their interests unless he sees that it would be profitable for his family and that God himself would be pleased with it. Jacob had all things in his having God as his God, and he had been taught by God to have a Christ-like spirit. He was thankful that God had been gracious to him in giving him his family and these flocks, and he was going to take good care of them. And God had so ordered things and had so worked that his relationship with Esau was now restored. And he had even gotten to share the gospel of grace, the grace of God in the midst of this, of their being reconciled. Truly he had all things. And he was blessed. In closing, I want to point out to you that the greatest thing in this life is when you come to realize that when you believe in Jesus Christ, you have all things. You are truly able to say that you have enough, even though you may not have great earthly riches, You do not feel that you have to have all of these earthly riches and earthly things to be happy or be satisfied when you have Christ. And that is because your spirit has been changed by grace. And you are finding your satisfaction with your relationship to God. And yet you now find that you are looking out for the interests of others. besides yourself. Esau had enough for himself and for this life, but it is not enough if it is only for this life. Each of us must have Christ to have the forgiveness of our sins. Each of us must have Christ to have eternal life and to come to know God. Each of us must have Christ to see the sinful direction of our heart change in a way that honors God and will be truly helpful to other people. And Christ gives a greater grace, for he gives us all things necessary for life and godliness for this life and the next. Your spirit really changes. when his grace is at work, Jacob's did, and that is what made all the difference in God's sight. and in his relationship with Esau. May it be so for all of us as well. Let's pray together. Lord, we thank you for this passage which gives us so much information of how it was that you, by your powerful grace, changed Jacob from being a tricky, selfish man to being a man who is more concerned about his family members and their well-being and welfare and being reconciled to his brother who he had sinned against so many years before. Dear Father, help us to be the same kind of people who have a Christ-like spirit in this way. May our life as we live it tend to the godliness which you expect us to live. The truth of your word being lived out in our lives, that we might be able to forgive others as you have forgiven us. That we might seek to be reconciled with those whom we are estranged from. that we might be able to see you work in these difficult situations that great things might come to those whom we love and that you might do great things for them as well as for us by your precious and mighty grace for we pray it in your dear name lord jesus amen