Jacob‘s Petition for Safety (Gen 32.9-12)
“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 kindred, and I will do you good,’ I am not worthy of the least of all the steadfast love and all the faithfulness that you have shown to your servant, for with only my staff I crossed this Jordan; and now I have become two companies.
“Deliver me, please, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I am afraid of him; he may come and kill us all, the mothers with the children.
“Yet you have said, ‘I will surely do you good, and make your offspring as the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted because of their number.’”
Background
This is another prayer by Jacob. This one also takes place in the wilderness, like the prayer-vow he offered in Genesis 28.20-22.1 Jacob offered that prayer after deceiving his father into giving him the blessing intended for his older brother. This prayer acts as a frame, or a “bookend,” with that prayer. The first prayer was offered when he was leaving home; this one is offered as he heads back home. He had left with nothing except the fraudulent blessing; he returns with two wives, many children, and fabulous wealth. God blessed him beyond measure. Despite the entourage of family and servants, Jacob is afraid, and for a good reason.
This prayer, and the attitude behind it, is quite different from the prayer-vow he offered when he left home. In that prayer, there was some arrogance, self-centeredness, and immaturity. He prayed that if God would protect him, he would adopt God as his own. Much has happened since that shallow prayer, and Joseph has matured. He spent many years working for Laban to win the hand of Rachel, only to be tricked into marrying the older sister, Leah, first. (Note how the “trickster” Jacob has been tricked himself, and that trick involved the rights of an older sibling, just like Jacob’s trick again Esau.)
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