Week 34, Day 2: The Peace Offering…
Today’s Reading: Genesis 32:1-32
Some thoughts from the reading…
In chapter 32 of Genesis, we read about Jacob’s return to his homeland. He was afraid to go home, over 20 years later, because he thought his brother was still mad at him. Of course, Esau had every right to be angry, as he had been cheated out of both his birthright and his blessing. Jacob went to great extremes to make sure that he could get at least part of his entourage out of the area if Esau attacked them. He also prepared a huge pay off to try and appease Esau, a type of “peace offering” for his brother.
This account tells us about the “unintended consequences” that sometimes come from our actions. Surely Jacob didn’t really think about what would happen to his relationship with his brother if he went forward with his plan. Or perhaps he didn’t really care what his brother would do at that moment in time. But, as he got older, and decided that he wanted to go home, he had to face the fact that he had mistreated his brother, and try to make amends.
Looking back, it is pretty easy to see how he could have avoided this uneasiness with his brother. He could have treated him fairly, and not tried to steal things from him. But, hindsight, as they say, is 20-20. Because of his misstep, he had to go to these great extremes to protect his family and himself from the wrath of Esau.
How often do we do something that is unkind to our brother (spiritual or physical) that makes us do something later on to try and correct, or appease him? If we would just treat them right in the first place, we wouldn’t have try and make amends! But, often, we don’t think far enough ahead to see the consequences of our actions. We are selfish, and do what is best for us, regardless of what it does for our brethren. We need to take a lesson from Jacob, and try to avoid the actions that lead to problems in the first place, so that we don’t have to work so hard to repair relationships later on!
Question: What can we do to make sure we don’t have to make peace offerings to our brethren today?
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