SURVIVING GOOGLE POWER

Genesis 32:1-21
Bob Bonner
January 21, 2007 

With the age of the internet and the powerful search engines it provides, you can find just about anything and everything you want to know about a person’s past. Google power is truly amazing. You may think that you are a nobody or an insignificant person, who has privacy. Not any more. Your past is not your own. Your past will no longer remain secret. Whether right or wrong, good or evil, whether your pursuits have been worthwhile or worthless, your life is an open book to any who seriously wishes to research your life. 

This point was driven home last Sunday evening to any who watched CBS’s Sixty Minutes. During this program, the three sets of parents of the three Duke lacrosse athletes charged with the kidnap, rape and sexual assault of a woman hired to entertain the athletes and their friends at a party, were interviewed. In the course of the interview, one father made an observation about this event and its impact on the future of all three students.  His observation appeared to catch even the savvy interviewer off guard. He made the point that now, due to Google power, anyone in the future, who wants to research their sons’ lives, will find thousands of reports, many of which are filled with false statements accusing their innocent sons of the three charges made against them. Even if acquitted, this event will forever be on the record, open to anyone slightly interested in their past. There will forever be a question as to their complete innocence due to the twists and turns of the case. They will forever be remembered for the foolish actions and choices made as teenagers, even if the illegality of it all proves to be minor. It will be a permanent black mark on their record. Furthermore, this father rightly stated that their sons’ ability to seek outstanding employment post college will be seriously hindered due to the ease with which anyone can research their past via Google power on the internet. What law firm, what political party, what reputable business will knowingly want to associate with, hire or promote such a person whose past foolishness cannot be hidden in a typical resume? Who would hire such an individual knowing that, should that person’s past be revealed, it might tarnish their firm’s reputation? Their choices and these events of their college careers will forever dog them.

Struck with this point, that none of us can hide from Google power, Becky challenged me to look on the internet to see if anything could be brought up about her. Sure enough, with in a matter of seconds, I found a reference to her. Thankfully nothing that pointed to criminal activity. It simply stated she was the wife of Pastor Bob Bonner of Calvary Crossroads Church in Grants Pass, Oregon, but also that she is a sponsor for CMAC, “Concerned Mothers Advocating for Children.”

All of us have a past. And with that past, all of us have made choices, decisions and taken actions that were wrong. Choices and actions that were selfish. Choices and actions that were made for our own personal advancement or pleasure. Sometimes these past actions were secretive. At other times, our past actions were public, but we have tried to cover them up or we have tried to rationalize them, anything but take responsibility for them.  

In politics, in order to remain in the favor of the public eye, if in the past, a politician has joined the side of one who has made a decision that appears today to have been a wrong decision, rather than admit that the supportive politician was wrong too, typically, that politician will distance himself from or abandon the one who made the wrong decision, in order to save his political career. However, be sure, thanks to Google power, that politician’s wrong choice, or your sin, your wrong move, your irresponsible choices will be more apt to find you out here on earth, not just in heaven.

So, can we move forward in life, with hope and confidence for our future, when we all carry around with us our skeletons of bad choices in what used to be very secure, secret closets? Is there anything we can do to right past wrongs and lessen the consequences of our past foolish choices? Can we find freedom from our past mistakes? If so, how? How do we reconcile our past with our future? How do we undo the hurt we have caused others in the past, such that we can live in reconciliation with one another? What does it take? This is what our study of Genesis 32 touches upon today. 

Having escaped the conflict with Laban, his father-in-law, Jacob is now headed back home, and having secured the northern entrance to the land of Canaan, Jacob now faces an even more serious problem that has been nagging him for the past twenty years. It is a problem that he has known for twenty years that one day he would have to face. For if he did not face it now, his life and right to rule Canaan would not be secure. He had postponed this dance as long as he could, but now, he had to face the music.  Now he had to face another enemy from the south, an enemy of his own making, his own brother, Esau. Esau had become the hero, the powerful ruler of the southern nomadic peoples of Edom.

More than 20 years before, Jacob had fled his home with nothing but that which he wore on his back. Ringing in his ears were the reports of Esau’s murderous threats, because Jacob had manipulated and cheated Esau out of his rightful birthright and blessing, which would have made Esau the most powerful man in Canaan. This homecoming for Jacob was a time of personal crisis, one filled with anxiety. Even with all of his wealth and servants, Jacob had little confidence that he was any match for this wild man, this outdoors man, this skilled hunter who was out to kill him. He instinctively knew that Esau, for the past twenty years had been building a following. Esau had become the powerful leader of all the Edomites. Esau would be a formidable enemy to any ruler in the land.

Chapters 32-33 of Genesis reveal God’s solution to Jacob’s problem. We see what it takes to deal with our past mistakes and to be reconciled to a family member. There are four major parts to this drama: Act One, verses 1-2, the vision of the angels that make up the “camp of God.”  Act Two, verses 3-21, the sending of a gift to Esau in fear. Act Three, verses 22-32, Jacob’s wrestling with the angel of the Lord at Jabbok. And Act Four, chapter 33, the peaceful reconciliation with Esau. As the reader can tell, Jacob’s preparation to meet with Esau is bracketed by two unexpected meetings with the divine. These two meetings signal another major transformation is going to take place in Jacob’s life. This morning we will look at just the first two acts. 

Let’s begin with reading Act I. “Now as Jacob went on his way, the angels of God met him. Jacob said when he saw them, ‘This is God’s camp.’ So he named that place Mahanaim.”

As Jacob leaves Laban and heads further south, he encounters the “angels” or more literally, the “messengers” of God. The text says that the angels met Jacob, not that Jacob met the angels. The stress is important, because God is deliberately putting Himself right in front of Jacob’s face. Furthermore, this expression “met him” is one that describes a threatening encounter. I don’t know if this is a reference to these angels actually threatening him or causing him to fear them, because they appeared as fearsome, or if their mere presence has forced him to remember his past and their meeting at Bethel as we was fleeing from his brother, Esau. Remembering his brother was a flash reminder that he had unfinished business to tend to. Either way, Jacob had some concerns to deal with. He knew that he was on “holy ground” of sorts. Furthermore, these fearsome beings had done nothing to harm him, so he must have concluded eventually that he was safe in their presence. They were a fulfillment of God’s promise made to Jacob in a dream, back in 31:5, to be with him and to protect him.

In addition to being surprised by these angels, Jacob apparently believes that this must be God’s “earthly camp” from which He rules the world. Hence, he names it “Mahanaim.” Literally, this word “Mahanaim” means “two camps.” It most likely refers to the fact that at this place there are two camps of beings. There is the camp of angelic hosts and then there is Jacob’s family’s camp.

Furthermore, by remaining at Mahanaim, Jacob signifies that he understands that presently he was being protected by these angels. One last interesting observation: If you remember the name, “Bethel” which Jacob gave to the place of his first meeting with God’s angels, you will see the significance of “Mahanaim.” “Bethel” was the place known as the “gateway” to heaven; whereas “Mahanaim” represents God’s camp on earth.

It’s obvious that Jacob realizes that now that he is back home, he needs to get to his unfinished business of reconciling with his brother Esau. He probably figured that it would be better for him to find Esau than for Esau to know that he is here and have Esau greet him with a surprise attack. 

Having noted that God’s messenger’s were in this camp, it’s interesting to me that Jacob does not ask them for help or instructions as to what he should do about this matter. Instead, on his own, he sets out a plan to ease the tension of their first meeting. “Then Jacob sent messengers before him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom.”

When the writer calls the area to which Jacob sent his messengers, “the land of Seir, the country or field of Edom,” he is making a deliberate notation about how Jacob feels about sending messengers to find his brother Esau. The word “Seir” means “hairy”, which is a reference to Esau’s body being one which was very hairy. The word “country” literally means “fields” or “outdoors,” pointing to Esau being an outdoorsman. The word “Edom” means “red stuff” like the red stew that Jacob fed Esau as the purchase price of the birthright. All three of these terms are deliberately used to evoke the memories of Jacob’s past hostile relations with Esau.

“He also commanded them saying, ‘Thus you shall say to my lord Esau: Thus says your servant Jacob, I have sojourned with Laban, and stayed until now; I have oxen and donkeys and flocks and male and female servants; and I have sent to tell my lord, that I may find favor in your sight.’” Jacob specifically orders his servants to begin their conversation with Esau referring to him as Jacob’s Lord, and to refer to Jacob as Esau’s servant. By doing this, Esau’s first impression will be, “This does not sound like my arrogant brother of the past.” Furthermore, Jacob has his servants tell Esau about Jacob’s holdings, not to brag, but to say, “I have much to return to you. I’m giving back to you your blessing.” And finally, by stating that he hopes to “find favor in your sight,” Jacob is throwing himself upon Esau’s grace for forgiveness and acceptance. Jacob is not coming to do battle with Esau. He is not looking for a fight.

However, Esau’s response to Jacob’s offering is totally disheartening to Jacob. He would have hoped that Esau would have sent him back a mere letter, saying, “No problem, all is forgiven. Welcome home.” Or, if not a letter, maybe Esau and a few of his men might come in person to pay their respects. But that’s not what he gets. We read, “The messengers returned to Jacob, saying, “We came to your brother Esau, and furthermore he is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him.”

That’s the whole message they had for Jacob. The expression “coming to meet you” is deliberately ambiguous in the Hebrew. Sometimes it denotes hostility and at others it denotes peace. Esau is keeping Jacob guessing. However, the four hundred men is a rather large showing of men, and probably is taken as a very discomforting sign by Jacob. Why would a person come to meet his brother with an army of 400 men, if he didn’t plan to attack? Then again, why would you return the messengers unharmed when you could have killed them and then made a surprise attack? Jacob is terrified and doesn’t know what to think. There is only do one thing he can do: Hope for the best, but plan for the worst...WAR! It’s very possible that Esau intends to make good on his more than 20-year-old threat to kill Jacob. 

Note that all during these hours, Jacob temporarily forgets the comfort he received from seeing those protective figures, the angels of God at his camp. For we continue to read, “Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed; and he divided the people who were with him, and the flocks and the herds and the camels, into two companies; for he said, ‘If Esau comes to the one company and attacks it, then the company which is left will escape.’”

It’s obvious that Jacob believes that his first attempt to appease his angry brother failed, so he decides to prepare for the worst. He divides his family into two camps, with the hope that should Esau attack his family and kill him, then maybe some of them might get away and thus be saved.

Only after he had devised this rather weak plan, but still doing all that he could, he fearfully approaches God and says, “Hey God. I could use a little help at the moment!” The following prayer is the first recorded prayer of Jacob and it is the longest prayer recorded in all of Genesis. Being his first recorded prayer, we see that finally Jacob is developing a right relationship with God, who in turn will help him to recreate a right relationship with his brother. Up to this point, Jacob was a prayerless man. While his wives were desperately calling out to God to give them children and praising God for their subsequent births, Jacob was never heard praying for his wives or his children.  But now...through brokenness, forced to be confronted with the consequences of his past, he finally prays! Which raises a question that I would specifically like to address to men: This question can also be addressed to women, but men, we typically do not humble ourselves before others very easily, even before God. Are you regularly on your face before God in prayer for yourself, your wife or your children? If not, what will it take God to do in your life to bring you to this very important place? Failure? What will it take for you to demonstrate your worship of God, His worthy place in your life through ongoing prayer? Prayer is one major key to God transforming our lives.

And this first prayer of Jacob not only indicates an incredible step in the spiritual transformation of Jacob’s life, but this prayer also stands as a model of how one is to humbly make a request of God. This prayer has four parts to it. First, Jacob begins with a proper invocation. He begins with declaring the rightful place of God in his life. “Jacob said, ‘O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O Lord, who said to me, ‘Return to your country and to your relatives, and I will prosper you,’”

Then, in contrast to recognizing God and His rightful place, Jacob confesses his sin and unworthiness before God, as well as the truth that all he now possesses is an evidence of God prospering him. He states, “I am unworthy of all the lovingkindness and of all the faithfulness which You have shown to Your servant; for with my staff only I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two companies.”

You bet Jacob, the schemer, is unworthy. We can see that. But now is the first time that Jacob has taken ownership, even privately, that he was wrong and received his father’s birthright and blessing through deceit. What has caused him to admit this now is his being forced to see the potential consequences of his decisions and actions that took place twenty years ago. His wrong choices have now come back to haunt him and possibly destroy the ones he loves, his innocent family members. They did nothing to deserve what is about to befall them.

Then, in verse 11, we have his petition: “Deliver me, I pray, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau; for I fear him, that he will come and attack me and the mothers with the children.”  His request is simple: Please save me and my family!

Finally, Jacob declares what gives him the confidence that he can come to God and ask for such things. His confidence, the foundation upon which Jacob builds his petition or request of God is God’s Word, His past promise to protect and provide for Jacob. We read, “For You said, ‘I will surely prosper you and make your descendants as the sand of the sea, which is too great to be numbered.’ So he spent the night there.”

Having prayed, and having received no immediate response from God, and probably he didn’t expect one, Jacob now sets out to do what he has to do. Try to win back his brother’s trust. 

We read that the next day Jacob, “selected from what he had with him a present for his brother Esau”. He didn’t just send out his servants and tell them to grab the first of anything they could find that would make a plausible gift for his infuriated brother. He handpicked his best to send as a present to Esau. These gifts reflect a worthy tribute of wealth being passed from a servant to his Lord. “He sent him two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, thirty milking camels and their colts, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys.”

That’s 550 animals! It’s quite some gift, but it also reveals how truly wealthy Jacob had become. For this was not all he had. Furthermore, he wanted his brother to know that he was not coming to plunder what Esau had. He was coming in peace.

“He delivered them into the hand of his servants, every drove by itself, and said to his servants, ‘Pass on before me, and put a space between droves.’”

Note the wisdom of Jacob. He sent these animals in several droves with much space in between. These animals probably stretched out for miles. When Esau would see them, one at a time, he would be impressed by each drove as it came near. He would realize that when his brother’s servants had come before and said that Jacob had many animals, he wasn’t kidding! But then, Esau would discover that these are not all of Jacob’s flocks. These were but a gift of Jacob to Esau, for Jacob commanded the lead drove man to pass on this message to Esau. “He commanded the one in front, saying, When my brother Esau meets you and asks you, saying, ‘To whom do you belong, and where are you going, and to whom do these animals in front of you belong?’ then you shall say, ‘These belong to your servant Jacob; it is a present sent to my lord Esau. And behold, he also is behind us.’ ” [ note the ongoing humble stance of Jacob’s message] Then he commanded also the second and the third, and all those who followed the droves, saying, “After this manner you shall speak to Esau when you find him; and you shall say, ‘Behold, your servant Jacob also is behind us.’” The repetition of each of Jacob’s servants saying the same thing to Esau would drive home Jacob’s message: I’m coming to you with good will and a desire for reconciliation. We hear these very thoughts of Jacob in the rest of verse 20, For he said, “I will appease him with the present that goes before me.” Literally, this Hebrew word to “appease” describes the “wiping of anger from the face.”  The writer continues to explain Jacob’s hopes, “Then afterward I will see his face; perhaps he will accept me [literally, “he will lift up my face].” The idea is that Jacob hopes that Esau will forgive him for Jacob’s past wrongs done to Esau and will embrace or accept Jacob rather than kill him. Jacob fully recognized that he needed to be forgiven by Esau for his wrong.

The writer then concludes this act with, “So the present passed on before him, while he himself spent that night in the camp.”

Reconciling oneself with others we have wronged is never easy. For true reconciliation to take place, it usually requires three people. The wrongdoer, the wronged person and God, to bring about supernatural healing. If all three are not ready to reconcile, one cannot find true healing reconciliation.

This passage reveals several ingredients necessary for the type of reconciliation that allows a person to move forward in life, following a big mistake.  If one wants to get rid of the skeletons of the past and move forward with hope and confidence about one’s future, then these ingredients of reconciliation are vital. If we want to right past wrongs and lessen the consequences of our past foolish choices, if we want to find freedom from our past mistakes, the following lessons learned from Jacob are a must to be applied to our lives:

The first thing Jacob did to bring about hope for his future through finding freedom from his past, was to humble himself before God. Remember, I told you that it takes three to reconcile. God is included in all disputes because when we wrong another, we typically have also simultaneously sinned against God and our sin requires that we humbly seek God’s forgiveness. In addition, if we truly want supernatural healing to take place in the relationship with another, we need His power to do this work.

Only as Jacob first admitted to God, that he had not only wronged Esau, but he had also wronged God Himself, could Jacob expect any kind of forgiveness and help from God. Hence, in the process of humbling himself before God, Jacob began with his wronging God. He got specific about his wrong and didn’t try to rationalize or hide anything. 

Second, he admitted to God that God really wasn’t obligated to rescue this artful deceiver or to forgive Jacob. Although God never refuses to forgive those who truly in humility seek His face, our honest humility before God should also recognize that our sovereign God is never obligated to do anything for anyone, including forgive us. To say a sovereign being is obligated to do anything, is contradictory to the term, “sovereign.” No one tells a sovereign what to do. The fact that He never refuses to forgive those who genuinely seek His face, is a credit to His mercy and grace.

Further, Jacob humbled himself before God by admitting that anything that appeared good to others about Jacob’s life, was really not a result of Jacob’s doing, but God’s doing for Jacob, in spite of Jacob. When you study this prayer, Jacob could not have been more humble and truthful with God than in this, his first recorded prayer.

But Jacob could not stop there. His attempt at reconciliation was not finished simply because, in private, he had admitted to God his wrongdoing. He had to go to the third party, Esau, and humbly seek forgiveness from Esau. In doing so, Jacob so humbled himself before Esau, that he took complete ownership over everything that he had done wrong. He didn’t make any excuses for his behavior or try to shift blame or rationalize his doing wrong.

Having been involved as a mediator in the reconciling of many others’ relationships, I found it quite common that we human beings don’t wish to come clean with all our wrongdoings. We will blame others, rationalize, and minimalize the truth about all of our actions. But friend, it doesn’t work to go only part way. Bring it all out and deal with it.

Furthermore, Jacob did naturally what Jesus tells us we should do if we ever want God’s intervention in our lives when we have messed up. In Matthew 5:23, Jesus said in His sermon on the mount, “If therefore you are presenting your offering at the altar, [a sign that one sincerely is seeking after God’s best] and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your offering there before the alter, and go your way; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering.” Prove your sincerity of wanting to walk worthy before God, to live a worshipful life before Him by taking seriously that which He takes seriously, the reconciling of relationships.

Jacob, having prayed this prayer, proves his desire to honor God by first making his move to correct his wrongdoing with Esau. He makes plans to demonstrate to Esau that he is serious about admitting his wrong against Esau and that he genuinely wants to be forgiven. He is not only sending him a gift, but he is sending himself as well.  

It’s very interesting in the sequence of events that God does not show up in Jacob’s life until after he does this. God does not honor Jacob with his new name, “Israel” in the next act of this drama beginning in verse 23, until Jacob takes the proper steps to seek his brother’s forgiveness. God waits for Jacob to take the step of faith and do what is right, although it is a very fearful step for Jacob. Jacob obeys God, seeks to make right his horizontal relationship with his brother, and only then knows that his vertical relationship will be repaired with God, and in turn he can know that God will fulfill His promise to continue to bless and protect Jacob.

Jacob traveled to Esau with no guarantees that their relationship would be reconciled. You and I have no guarantee that even if we do everything right in trying to clear up our wrongs that there will be reconciliation, because there always is a possibility that the other party doesn’t want to reconcile with us. But that is not our problem, that is theirs. We can’t wait to know if they want to reconcile before we go. We are told to go first and leave the rest to God.

Only in this manner, can we remove past wrongs from blocking our progress to move forward in life. Only when we obey these steps completely can we move forward with our lives, with freedom from our past mistakes and with confidence that our God will continue to guide our steps.

back to top