TRANSACTION COMPLETED

Genesis Chapter 32 and 33

Whether Jacob anticipated the events described in today’s text or not, it is fascinating that he sent everybody and everything across but he himself remained. He sent both his present and his future ahead, standing there only with his past, the name he bore as a supplanted. Then he encountered God.

We would note in the text that Esau was meant to have met Jacob, the man who expertly robbed him of his birth rite [we know that Esau himself had a hand in that process but that is beside the point]. In essence, therefore, their scheduled encounter was one between a man who was guilty, and another who was grieved enough to want revenge.

One detail, however, that we might have overlooked is that “Esau never actually got to meet Jacob“. The man he encountered was Israel, and that was another man with whom a new relationship had to be built. There was no anger, but an image we recognise is that of the prodigal son and his father “a warm embrace, and much tears(Gen 33:4).

The transaction that resulted in Jacob’s change of identity to Israel happened in a flash, a single moment and in a few words. Does this ring a bell? The text that came to mind thinking about these details in today’s text was “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, this person is a new creation; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come(2 Corinthians 5:7).” No longer a guilty verdict because the you that was the culprit, no longer exists.

Jacob stood alone to wrestle, likewise each of us stands alone to confess faith in Jesus. That exchange, that translation from the world to into the kingdom of God happens in a moment. Men may come looking to encounter an old version of you, but I pray they meet the version of you that has transacted with God.

#sly