3 Then Jacob sent messengers on ahead to his brother Esau in the land of Seir in Edom. 4 He instructed them: "Tell my master Esau this, 'A message from your servant Jacob: I've been staying with Laban and couldn't get away until now. 5 I've acquired cattle and donkeys and sheep; also men and women servants. I'm telling you all this, my master, hoping for your approval.'" 6 The messengers came back to Jacob and said, "We talked to your brother Esau and he's on his way to meet you. But he has four hundred men with him." 7 Jacob was scared. Very scared. Panicked, he divided his people, sheep, cattle, and camels into two camps. 8 He thought, "If Esau comes on the first camp and attacks it, the other camp has a chance to get away."
9 And then Jacob prayed, "God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, God who told me, 'Go back to your parents' homeland and I'll treat you well.' 10 I don't deserve all the love and loyalty you've shown me. When I left here and crossed the Jordan I only had the clothes on my back, and now look at me - two camps! 11 Save me, please, from the violence of my brother, my angry brother! I'm afraid he'll come and attack us all, me, the mothers and the children. 12 You yourself said, 'I will treat you well; I'll make your descendants like the sands of the sea, far too many to count.'"
13 He slept the night there. Then he prepared a present for his brother Esau from his possessions: 14 two hundred female goats, twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, 15 thirty camels with their nursing young, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys. 16 He put a servant in charge of each herd and said, "Go ahead of me and keep a healthy space between each herd." 17 Then he instructed the first one out: "When my brother Esau comes close and asks, 'Who is your master? Where are you going? Who owns these?' 18 - answer him like this, 'Your servant Jacob. They are a gift to my master Esau. He's on his way.'" 19 He gave the same instructions to the second servant and to the third - to each in turn as they set out with their herds: 20 "Say 'Your servant Jacob is on his way behind us.'" He thought, "I will soften him up with the succession of gifts. Then when he sees me face-to-face, maybe he'll be glad to welcome me." 21 So his gifts went before him while he settled down for the night in the camp.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Genesis 32:3-21
Commentary on Genesis 32:1-8
(Read Genesis 32:1-8)
The angels of God appeared to Jacob, to encourage him with the assurance of the Divine protection. When God designs his people for great trials, he prepares them by great comforts. While Jacob, to whom the promise belonged, had been in hard service, Esau was become a prince. Jacob sent a message, showing that he did not insist upon the birth-right. Yielding pacifies great offences, Ecclesiastes 10:4. We must not refuse to speak respectfully, even to those unjustly angry with us. Jacob received an account of Esau's warlike preparations against him, and was greatly afraid. A lively sense of danger, and quickening fear arising from it, may be found united with humble confidence in God's power and promise.
Commentary on Genesis 32:9-23
(Read Genesis 32:9-23)
Times of fear should be times of prayer: whatever causes fear, should drive us to our knees, to our God. Jacob had lately seen his guards of angels, but in this distress he applied to God, not to them; he knew they were his fellow-servants, Revelation 22:9. There cannot be a better pattern for true prayer than this. Here is a thankful acknowledgement of former undeserved favours; a humble confession of unworthiness; a plain statement of his fears and distress; a full reference of the whole affair to the Lord, and resting all his hopes on him. The best we can say to God in prayer, is what he has said to us. Thus he made the name of the Lord his strong tower, and could not but be safe. Jacob's fear did not make him sink into despair, nor did his prayer make him presume upon God's mercy, without the use of means. God answers prayers by teaching us to order our affairs aright. To pacify Esau, Jacob sent him a present. We must not despair of reconciling ourselves to those most angry against us.