“Esau was coming, and with him were four hundred men” (Genesis 33:1). Israel—the exhausted, God-struck patriarch—had no choice but to trust. He prostrated himself like a vassal before a royal in an ancient court. And all of a sudden “Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him,…and they wept” (Genesis 33:4).
They wept for relief. They wept with forgiveness. They wept at the possibility of a new start, a fresh beginning. Esau wept because his brother was home. Israel wept because he’d come face-to-face with his past, only to find that his past held no power over his life.
God had gone ahead of him. God had kept the promise he had made in Bethel. “I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land” (Genesis 28:15). He will do the same with you my friend. God never gives up on you.
