Verse 13, he lodged there that same night,
took of that which came to his hand
a present, for he saw his brother.
Two hundred she-goats, twenty he-goats, two
hundred ewes, twenty rams, thirty milk camels with
their coats, forty kine and ten bulls, twenty
she-asses and ten foals.
You see, he's pretty generous with his stock
now.
And he delivered them into the hand of
his servants, every drove by themselves, and said
unto his servants, Pass over before me, and
put a space betwixt drove and drove.
Now, you see, his tactic is this.
He'll send out a drove, a very rich
gift for his brother.
And when that first drove would arrive, Esau
would say, Well, what is this?
He said, Well, we're bringing you a gift
from your brother Jacob.
And then he'd receive that, he'd ride on
a little farther, meet another drove, same size.
And he'd ask them, Where are you going?
Well, they said, We're going to meet Esau.
Well, he said, I'm Esau.
Well, he said, Here's a gift for you
from your brother Jacob.
Believe me, by the time that he got
down to where Jacob and the family were,
he'd be softened by then.
You see, he's prayed to God, and he's
reminded the Lord that, You told me to
return to my country.
You said you'd protect me.
But does he believe God?
No.
He goes right ahead and makes these arrangements,
which reveals he wasn't trusting God at all.
And that, I'm afraid, is our same position.
Many of us take our burdens to the
Lord in prayer.
We just spread them out before him.
I do that.
Then when we get through praying, we get
right up and put each little burden right
back on our back and start out again
with it.
We really don't believe him, do we?
We don't really trust him as we should.
Now, let me put in it, verse 17,
And he commanded the foremost, saying, When Esau
my brother meeteth thee, and asketh thee, saying,
Whose art thou, and whither goest thou, and
whose are these before thee?
Then thou shalt say, They be thy servant
Jacob's.
It's a present unto my Lord Esau.
And behold, also he's behind us.
He's coming, and that'll be one after another
like that.
This is the plan that he's working on.