5When Esau looked up and saw the women and children, he asked, “Who are these with you?”
Jacob answered, “These are the children God has graciously given your servant.” 6Then the maidservants and their children approached and bowed down. 7Leah and her children also approached and bowed down, and then Joseph and Rachel approached and bowed down.
8“What do you mean by sending this whole company to meet me?” asked Esau.
“To find favor in your sight, my lord,” Jacob answered.
9“I already have plenty, my brother,” Esau replied. “Keep what belongs to you.”
10But Jacob insisted, “No, please! If I have found favor in your sight, then receive this gift from my hand. For indeed, I have seen your face, and it is like seeing the face of God, since you have received me favorably. 11Please take my present that was brought to you, because God has been gracious to me and I have all I need. So Jacob pressed him until he accepted.
“Although Esau did not receive the great blessing — the covenant blessing, — that having gone to Jacob who secured it by deception, yet Esau did receive a great blessing of a temporal kind, which Isaac pronounced upon him with all the fervor of a father who loved his son most ardently. Esau thus received what he most wanted, for he cared very little for the spiritual blessing, — not being a spiritual man, — and when he obtained the temporal blessing, that satisfied his heart, and he said, ‘It is enough.’” (Spurgeon)
In that culture, one would never accept gifts from an enemy. But Esau accepted the gifts, thereby accepting the friendship.
Do you prefer a spiritual or a temporal kind of blessing?
Blessings, David
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