Moving On: Genesis 33:12-20

We all have seasons where our relationship with God is deep and other seasons where the relationship is shallow.  Life gets busy and it is hard to make time for God.  Life slows down and we find space to focus more upon God.  Regardless of the season of life we find ourselves in, our Christian ideal is to come before our God.

Jacob and Esau decide to journey on.  Esau offers to journey with Jacob, but Jacob makes excuses about the flocks being slow and the children being unable to travel quickly.  Esau goes ahead and Jacob promises to join him in Seir.

Unfortunately, Jacob is back to his worldly ways.  He tells Esau one thing, but schemes again.  Jacob doesn’t have any intention of joining Esau in Seir.

Seir is in Edom, which is south of the Dead Sea.  Penuel and Succoth are a good bit north, between the Dead Sea and the Sea of Galilee.  Shechem is almost directly west of Succoth and therefore still a good way to the north of Edom. 

Jacob doesn’t even attempt to go south towards Edom to visit his brother.  He is grateful for the encounter to be over.  He has come through it unscathed.  He wants to continue into Canaan and settle down.

We can’t fault Jacob for wanting to bring the journey to an end.  The ordeal with Laban and the stress over meeting with Esau took its toll.  But why lie to Esau?  Why tell Esau he would come to Seir?  Why not confess to being tired and desiring to stop traveling?  There is no issue with Jacob wanting to rest from travel, but there isn’t any need to lie about it.

When Jacob gets to Succoth, he builds booths for his livestock.  Booths are nomadic buildings; they are designed to be constructed and deconstructed easily.  He also builds a house for himself.  Houses are not the structures of nomads.  Houses are permanent dwellings that indicate the desire to stay in one’s locale.  Abraham and his offspring were called to be nomads as they learned to depend on God’s provision.  Jacob breaks this tradition.

Jacob then moves from Succoth to Shechem.  He purchases the land where he plans on pitching his tent.  This is another act of settling down and leaving the nomadic lifestyle behind.  Once more Jacob breaks with God plan and schemes on his own.

Jacob is a great study in how people walk with God.  Sometimes Jacob walks very closely with God and talks a great game of faith.  Other times Jacob does what makes sense in his own mind and leaves God’s desires for his life behind.  Jacob’s walk with God ebbs and flows with the various seasons of his life.  That’s true for all people.  We all have seasons where our relationship with God is deep and other seasons where our relationship is shallow.