But First, Prayer

We have so much to cover here, we are going to skip fancy introductions and jump right in! We find ourselves at a brand new chapter in Jacob’s life with a fresh challenge for him, the dreaded encounter with Esau. It has been twenty years since, from Esau’s perspective, he tricked him out of the blessing of Isaac. It is important to remember that even though Jacob went about it badly, the blessing was always supposed to be Jacob’s. Nevertheless, Esau took it badly and purposed to kill Jacob when he got the chance.

Jacob, at the direction of God, heads back away from Laban to the promised land of Canaan, and back to his kinsmen, meaning Esau. This is going to be one of the hardest things he will ever face, and like the rest of us, there is a mixed bag in how he approaches this test. We will start with what Jacob does well and then make some critique on how this could be better, with the expectation that we learn from his mistakes AND his faithfulness. The main point I want you to draw from this is that we are to Prayerfully prepare for life with God’s promises in mind.