(Gen 31:38) "These twenty years I have been with you; your ewes and your female goats have not miscarried their young, and I have not eaten the rams of your flock. {39} "That which was torn by beasts I did not bring to you; I bore the loss of it. You required it from my hand, whether stolen by day or stolen by night.

 

 

(Gen 31:40) "There I was! In the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night, and my sleep departed from my eyes. {41} "Thus I have been in your house twenty years; I served you fourteen years for your two daughters, [he didn’t mention here that seven of those years were because of his fraud] and six years for your flock, and you have changed my wages ten times.

 

Jacob gives God the Glory:

 

(Gen 31:42) "Unless the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had been with me, surely now you would have sent me away empty-handed. God has seen my affliction and the labor of my hands, and rebuked you last night."

 

 

(Gen 27:33 NKJV)  Then Isaac trembled exceedingly, and said, "Who? Where is the one who hunted game and brought it to me? I ate all of it before you came, and I have blessed him; and indeed he shall be blessed."

 

 

 

(Gen 31:43) And Laban answered and said to Jacob, "These daughters are my daughters, [14 years of labor didn’t change a thing.  They are still his according to Laban!] and these children are my children, and this flock is my flock; [six years of labor did not pay for any of the flocks.  Now his erroneous conclusion:] all that you see is mine.

 But what can I do this day to these my daughters or to their children whom they have borne?

 

 

(Gen 31:44) "Now therefore, come, let us make a covenant, you and I, and let it be a witness between you and me." {45} So Jacob took a stone and set it up as a pillar. {46} Then Jacob said to his brethren, "Gather stones." And they took stones and made a heap, and they ate there on the heap. [by, adjoining, next, at, over, around – Brown, Driver, & Briggs]

 

 

{47} Laban called it Jegar Sahadutha, but Jacob called it Galeed. {48} And Laban said, "This heap is a witness between you and me this day." Therefore its name was called Galeed, {49} also Mizpah, because he said, "May the LORD watch between you and me when we are absent one from another. {50} "If you afflict my daughters, or if you take other wives besides my daughters, although no man is with us; see, God is witness between you and me!" {51} Then Laban said to Jacob, "Here is this heap and here is this pillar, which I have placed between you and me.

(Gen 31: 52) "This heap is a witness, and this pillar is a witness, that I will not pass beyond this heap to you, and you will not pass beyond this heap and this pillar to me, for harm. {53} "The God of Abraham, the God of Nahor, and the God of their father judge between us." And Jacob swore by the Fear of his father Isaac. {54} Then Jacob offered a sacrifice on the mountain, and called his brethren to eat bread. And they ate bread and stayed all night on the mountain. {55} And early in the morning Laban arose, and kissed his sons and daughters and blessed them. Then Laban departed and returned to his place.

 

And so an important chapter in the life of Jacob closes.  He is leaving Laban.  A new chapter begins: Esau is coming to meet him with 400 men!

 

(Gen 32 NKJV)  So Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him. {2} When Jacob saw them, he said, "This is God's camp." And he called the name of that place Mahanaim.

 

(Gen 32:3) Then Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau his brother in the land of Seir, the country of Edom. {4} And he commanded them, saying, "Speak thus to my lord Esau, 'Thus your servant Jacob says: "I have dwelt with Laban and stayed there until now. {5} "I have oxen, donkeys, flocks, and male and female servants; and I have sent to tell my lord, that I may find favor in your sight."' " {6} Then the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, "We came to your brother Esau, and he also is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him."

 

 

(Gen 27:41 NKJV)  So Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father blessed him, and Esau said in his heart, "The days of mourning for my father are at hand; then I will kill my brother Jacob."

 

(Gen 32:7) So Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed; . . .

 

(Gen 32:7b) and he divided the people that were with him, and the flocks and herds and camels, into two companies. {8} And he said, "If Esau comes to the one company and attacks it, then the other company which is left will escape."

 

 

(Gen 32:9) Then Jacob said, "O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, the LORD who said to me, 'Return to your country and to your family, and I will deal well with you':

 

The bargain driving Jacob is now very humble.

 Do you remember the Jacob of 20 years earlier?

 

(Gen 28:20-22 NKJV)  Then Jacob made a vow, saying, "If God will be with me, and keep me in this way that I am going, and give me bread to eat and clothing to put on, {21} "so that I come back to my father's house in peace, then the LORD shall be my God. {22} "And this stone which I have set as a pillar shall be God's house, and of all that You give me I will surely give a tenth to You."

 

But now look at his humble words:

 

(Gen 32:10) "I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies and of all the truth which You have shown Your servant; for I crossed over this Jordan with my staff, and now I have become two companies.

 

Things are great at this point, but now there is something more important than wealth—life!

 

(Gen 32:11) "Deliver me, I pray, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau; for I fear him, lest he come and attack me and the mother with the children. {12} "For You said, 'I will surely treat you well, and make your descendants as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.'" {13} So he lodged there that same night, and took what came to his hand as a present for Esau his brother:

 

 

(Gen 32:14) two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, {15} thirty milk camels with their colts, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten foals.

 

(Gen 32:16) Then he delivered them to the hand of his servants, every drove by itself, and said to his servants, "Pass over before me, and put some distance between successive droves." {17} And he commanded the first one, saying, "When Esau my brother meets you and asks you, saying, 'To whom do you belong, and where are you going? Whose are these in front of you?' {18} "then you shall say, 'They are your servant Jacob's. It is a present sent to my lord Esau; and behold, he also is behind us.'"

 

 

(Gen 32:19) So he commanded the second, the third, and all who followed the droves, saying, "In this manner you shall speak to Esau when you find him; {20} "and also say, 'Behold, your servant Jacob is behind us.' "

 

(Gen 32:20b) For he said, "I will appease him with the present that goes before me, and afterward I will see his face; perhaps he will accept me." {21} So the present went on over before him, but he himself lodged that night in the camp. {22} And he arose that night and took his two wives, his two female servants, and his eleven sons, and crossed over the ford of Jabbok.

 

Just repeating what had been said:

 

(Gen 32:23) He took them, sent them over the brook, and sent over what he had.

 

He wrestles with God, or with God’s angel

 

(Gen 32:24) Then Jacob was left alone; and a Man wrestled with him until the breaking of day. {25} Now when He saw that He did not prevail against him, He touched the socket of his hip; and the socket of Jacob's hip was out of joint as He wrestled with him. {26} And He said, "Let Me go, for the day breaks." But he said, "I will not let You go unless You bless me!"

(Gen 32:27) So He said to him, "What is your name?" He said, "Jacob." {28} And He said, "Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel; for you have struggled with God and with men, and have prevailed." {29} Then Jacob asked, saying, "Tell me Your name, I pray." And He said, "Why is it that you ask about My name?" And He blessed him there. {30} And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: "For I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved."

 

 

(Gen 32:31) Just as he crossed over Penuel the sun rose on him, and he limped on his hip. {32} Therefore to this day the children of Israel do not eat the muscle that shrank, which is on the hip socket, because He touched the socket of Jacob's hip in the muscle that shrank.

 

 

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