The Brother Who Ran to Forgive

(Genesis 33)

Jacob was walking toward the one place he was most afraid to go.

Long ago, Jacob had cheated his brother Esau. He had taken what was not his to take, and then he had run far away, for years and years. All that time, deep down, Jacob carried a heavy stone in his chest, and the stone had his brother's name written on it.

Only the night before, down by the river, Jacob had wrestled with God until dawn and limped away with a new name. Now, still limping, he was coming home. And word came that Esau was riding out to meet him with four hundred men.

Four hundred. Jacob watched them gather on the hills like a coming storm.

Do you know that feeling? When you have done something wrong to someone, and now you have to stand in front of them. Your stomach goes tight. Your feet go slow. You would give anything to be anywhere else in the whole world.

That was Jacob.

He set his children behind him to keep them safe. He bowed down low to the ground, once, twice, again and again, seven times, the way a small, frightened person bows before a king who might be angry. He was getting ready to be punished. He was sure of it.

But watch what happened.

Esau saw him.

And Esau ran.

He ran to Jacob and threw his arms around his neck and held him close and would not let go. The two brothers wept, right there in the dust, with all those men looking on. And the heavy stone in Jacob's chest, the one with his brother's name on it, broke, and fell away, and was gone.

Jacob could hardly believe it. "Seeing your face," he said, "is like seeing the face of God."

He had come braced for a fist, and he was given an embrace. He had run away once, and now, at last, someone had run toward him.

Long, long after Jacob, there came Another who told a story almost exactly like this one. He told of a son who took what wasn't his, and ran far away, and grew too ashamed to ever come home. And while that son was still a long way off, still mumbling his sorry speech to himself, his father saw him.

And the father ran.

Jesus told that story to show us God's heart. When you come home, while you are still far away, still afraid, still certain you'll be turned away, he runs. He gathers you up. He will not let you go.

Esau weeping in the dust was a small glimpse of that running Father.

Turn the page, and you will meet Jacob's own sons: twelve brothers, one bright coat, and a boy whose story begins at the bottom of a deep, dark pit.