টীকা বর্তমানে শুধুমাত্র ইংরেজিতে উপলব্ধ। বাংলা অনুবাদ চলছে।
Genesis 33 — I Have Seen Thy Face as Though I Had Seen the Face of God
Esau approaches with his four hundred men. Jacob bows seven times to the ground. Esau runs, embraces him, falls on his neck, and weeps. Esau refuses Jacob's gifts at first but is persuaded. The brothers part in peace. Jacob travels to Succoth and Shechem.
“I have seen thy face, as though I had seen the face of God, and thou wast pleased with me.”
— Genesis 33:10
- v.1-4 Esau runs to embrace Jacob
- v.5-11 The introduction of family; the accepted gift
- v.12-17 Jacob declines to travel with Esau; arrives at Succoth
- v.18-20 Jacob settles near Shechem; builds an altar
The morning after Peniel, Jacob sees the face of his brother and calls it the face of God. The connection is not accidental. Having met God face to face, he sees God's image in his enemy.
Matthew 5:23-24 — if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee... first be reconciled to thy brother. The face of God and the face of the offended brother are bound together.
Jacob declines to travel with Esau, sending him ahead. The reconciliation does not require entanglement. Some restored relationships work best with distance maintained.
Jacob is gentle but firm. He has been forgiven by his brother, but his calling lies elsewhere. Forgiveness does not always mean returning to the same proximity that produced the original wound.
El-elohe-Israel — "God, the God of Israel." Jacob names the altar by his own new name. He claims the covenant relationship personally — not just God of Abraham or God of Isaac but God of Israel.
A new altar marks every stage of growth in Genesis. Abraham's altars (12:7, 13:18, 22:9), Isaac's (26:25), now Jacob's. The mature life is marked by worship at every milestone.
There is someone you have been dreading to face. You have rehearsed the conversation a hundred times. Pray the night before like Jacob at Peniel. The brother may run to embrace you. God specializes in twenty-year reconciliations.
The brother who embraced the offender pictures the Father who embraces the prodigal (Luke 15). And both point to Christ, the Greater Brother, who reconciles the offending sinner not just to Himself but to the Father.
After twenty years of expected hostility, this. The brother whose murderous threats drove Jacob into exile (27:41) runs to embrace him weeping. God can change a heart in twenty years.
The verse echoes the father in the prodigal son parable — his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him (Luke 15:20). Jesus may well have had Genesis 33:4 in mind.