Holly Bible - KJV with Concise Commentaries by Z Selam - HTML preview
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[2.] The world's threatenings should drive us to God's promises.
11 Deliver me, I pray thee, from the hand of my brother, from the
hand of Esau: for I fear him, lest he will come and smite me, and the mother with the children.
12 And thou saidst, I will surely do thee good, and make thy seed as
the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.
13 And he lodged there that same night; and took of that which
came to his hand a present for Esau his brother;
14 two hundred she goats and twenty he goats, two hundred ewes and
twenty rams,
Jacob, having piously made God his friend by a prayer, is here prudently endeavouring to make Esau his friend by a present. He had prayed to God to deliver him from the hand of Esau, for he feared him; but neither did his fear sink into such a despair as dispirits for the use of means, nor did his prayer make him presume upon God's mercy, without the use of means.
Note, When we have prayed to God for any mercy, we must second our prayers with our endeavours; else, instead of trusting god, we tempt him; we must so depend upon God's providence as to make use of our own prudence. "Help thyself, and God will help thee;" God answers our prayers by teaching us to order our affairs with discretion. To pacify Esau,
I. Jacob sent him a very noble present, not of jewels or fine garments (he had them not), but of cattle, to the number of 580 in all, Ge 32:13-15. Now,
1. It was an evidence of the great increase with which God had blessed Jacob that he could spare such a number of cattle out of his stock.
2. It was an evidence of his wisdom that he would willingly part with some, to secure the rest; some men's covetousness loses them more than ever it gained them, and, by grudging a little expense, they expose themselves to great damage; skin for skin, and all that a man has, if he be a wise man, he will give for his life.