Jacob Bowed Seven Times, and Esau Ran to Embrace Him (Genesis 33:1–11)

Esau ran to meet him

When Jacob met Esau, his brother welcomed him and the two of them wept together. Jacob had looked up and seen Esau "coming toward him with four hundred men" (Genesis 33:1). He put the maidservants and their children in front, Leah and her children next, and Rachel and Joseph at the rear, and then he walked out ahead of all of them. "Esau, however, ran to him and embraced him, threw his arms around his neck, and kissed him. And they both wept" (Genesis 33:4).

Twenty years before, Esau had said in his heart, "then I will kill my brother Jacob" (Genesis 27:41). At the Jabbok Jacob had prayed, "Please deliver me from the hand of my brother Esau" (Genesis 32:11). God answered that prayer with his brother's arms around his neck.

Seven times to the ground

Jacob bowed seven times because he came to Esau the way a servant comes to his lord, asking for peace. "But Jacob himself went on ahead and bowed to the ground seven times as he approached his brother" (Genesis 33:3). Through the whole meeting he called Esau his lord and called himself his servant.

The blessing Jacob had taken from his blind father said, "may the sons of your mother bow down to you" (Genesis 27:29). The blessing said his mother's sons would bow to him, and on this road Jacob bowed to his mother's son. He had grabbed that blessing by deceit, and that morning he walked out alone in front of his wives and children, trusting the God who had promised to bring him back.

Like seeing the face of God

Jacob meant that the God who met him at Peniel had met him again in his brother's welcome. The night before he had said, "I have seen God face to face, and yet my life was spared" (Genesis 32:30). In the morning he told Esau, "I have seen your face, and it is like seeing the face of God, since you have received me favorably" (Genesis 33:10).

Jacob also told his brother where everything had come from. When Esau asked about the women and children, Jacob answered, "These are the children God has graciously given your servant" (Genesis 33:5). Pressing his gift on Esau, he said, "God has been gracious to me and I have all I need" (Genesis 33:11). Twice in one conversation he named what God had done, telling his brother what God had given him.

The father who ran

Esau's welcome points to Jesus, because Jesus told of a father who ran to a son who had wronged him. In the parable, "while he was still in the distance, his father saw him and was filled with compassion. He ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him" (Luke 15:20). Jesus told it with the same running, embrace and kiss that Genesis 33:4 records. Jacob came ready to pay for his past and was embraced, and in Christ the Father runs to meet everyone who comes home to Him.

God has been gracious to me

We are the people who remember what God has done. Jacob carried God's promise for twenty years, held on to it all night at the Jabbok, and on the road he said it out loud to his brother. When God answers what you have prayed, write down what He did and the date in the Doxa app, beside the promise you were holding, so you can read the two together for decades and keep your heart burning for Him. This is why we keep what He says, to know God and be known by Him, the God who goes ahead of us on every road home.

What has God graciously given you that you could name out loud to someone today?

Deeper study today in the Doxa Deeper Dive: the Hebrew word Jacob used in verse 11 to give back what he once took, and what Esau's welcome meant to the first readers. Read it here.