Theme
Trouble ahead or a peaceful re-union.

Sunday
Rebekah said to her son Jacob, “Look, I overheard your father say to your brother Esau, Bring me some game and prepare me some tasty food to eat, so that I may give you my blessing in the presence of the LORD before I die. Now, my son, listen carefully and do what I tell you: Go out to the flock and bring me two choice young goats, so that I can prepare some tasty food for your father, just the way he likes it. Then take it to your father to eat, so that he may give you his blessing before he dies. Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, “But my brother Esau is a hairy man, and I’m a man with smooth skin. What if my father touches me? I would appear to be tricking him and would bring down a curse on myself rather than a blessing.” His mother said to him. “My son, let the curse fall on me. Just do what I say; go and get them for me.”
Genesis 27: 6-13

Monday
After Isaac finished blessing him and Jacob had scarcely left his father’s presence, his brother Esau came in from hunting. He too prepared some tasty food and brought it to his father. Then he said to him, “My father, sit up and eat some of my game, so that you may give me your blessing.” His father Isaac asked him, “Who are you?” “I am your son,” he answered, “your firstborn, Esau.” Isaac trembled violently and said, “Who was it, then, that hunted game and brought it to me? I ate it just before you came and I blessed him – and indeed he will be blessed!” When Esau heard his father’s words, he burst out with a loud and bitter  cry and said to his father, “Bless me – me too, my father.
Genesis 27:30-34

Tuesday
Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Haran. When he reached a certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep. He had a dream in which he saw a stairway and resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. There above it stood the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are living. Your descendants will be like dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised.
Genesis 28:10-15

Wednesday
Jacob also went on his way, and the angels of God met him.
Genesis 32:1

Thursday
So, Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man.
Genesis 32:24-25

Friday
Jacob sent messages ahead of him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom. He instructed them: “This is what you are to say to my master Esau: ‘Your servant Jacob says, I have been staying with Laban and have remained there till now. I have cattle and donkeys, sheep and goats, menservants and maidservants. Now I am sending this message to my lord, that I may find favour in your eyes. When the messengers returned to Jacob, they said, “We went to your brother Esau, and now he is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him.”
Genesis 32:3-6

Saturday
Jacob looked up and there was Esau, coming with his four hundred men; so he divided the children among Leah, Rachael and the two maidservants. But Esau ran to meet Jacob and embraced him; he threw his arms around his neck and kissed him. And they wept. Esau asked, “What do you mean by all these droves I met?” “To find favour in your eyes, my lord,” he said. But Esau said, “I already have plenty, my brother. Keep what you have for yourself. “No, please!” said Jacob. “If I have found favour in your eyes, accept this gift from me. For to see your face is like seeing the face of God, now that you have received me favourably. Please accept the present that was brought to you, for God has been gracious to me and I have all I need.” And because Jacob insisted, Esau accepted it.
Genesis 33:1, 4, 8-11

Comments
(i) Rebekah wronged Jacob by tempting him to cheat his father and gave his brother, Esau, a pretext to hate him. This is another example of mankind ‘trying to help’ God, as if the end could justify wrong means. Note also that it is too daring for any human to say: “upon me be the curse.”
(ii) Jacob had to flee but as he did so he looked to God to make him live in safety and, he even lie down to sleep in the open air with his head resting on a stone. God’s time to visit his people is when they are most destitute, weak, vulnerable and in need of a comforter.
(iii) The angels of God appeared to Jacob to encourage him with the assurance of Divine protection.
Times of fear should be times of prayer. When we are fearful we should go to our knees and there wrestle with our God in prayer.