Please, take my blessing that is brought to you, because God has dealt graciously with me, and because I have enough." So he urged him, and he took it. – Genesis 33v11
There is no way that Jacob could fully reverse what he had done to Esau. Since his Bethel encounter though he was a different man. He knew when he was coming to meet Esau that he needed to do the right and try to make restitution for his trickery.
Jacob offered a great number of livestock and servant to Esau to try and make up for what he had done. At first Esau resisted, assuring Jacob that God had taken good care of him. Jacob persisted and used the words, ‘please take my blessing that is brought to you, God has dealt graciously me, I have enough.’ Esau had the same spirit of contentment because he had earlier said, “I have enough.’
‘Please take my blessing’ intrigues me. Remember the Isaac’s blessing was the thing that Jacob stole from Esau. When he tricked Esau out of the birthright part of the problem was Esau’s brashness and his hasty fleshly decision. Jacob could not fix what he had done. But he could do what he could do to set things right. And that is exactly what he did.
Restitution is an important principle. Often getting right with God also means getting right with man. It is easy enough to get right with God. Getting right with man can be the tough part.
1 comment:
You are bang on! Restitution means I have to do that pesky self-examination and assess all the ramifications (intentional and unintentional) of my former sin. I can't just say, "I did this to you. I was wrong. Will you forgive me?" and expect those words to be a magic eraser. They go a long way, but they don't rebuild trust. To rebuild trust with someone I have wronged takes time and effort because I have to show the reality of my heart - that it is now trustWORTHY.
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