5
Theme: BE YE ALL OF ONE MIND
Text: “And Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck, and kissed him: and they wept.” – Genesis 33:4
Comment: The text for today is a classic example of the offended initiating reconciliation and forgiveness like the father of the Prodigal son did in Luke 15:20. Before the meeting, Jacob had prayed to God to make the encounter a peaceful one. Jacob prayed and said “O God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, the LORD which said unto me, Return unto thy country, and to thy kindred, and I will deal well with thee: I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and all the truth … Deliver me, I pray thee, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau: for I fear, lest he will come and smite me, and the mother with the children” (Genesis 32:9-11). What played out eventually, shows that God answers prayers.
Sometimes, it is good for the person who has been hurt to extend the hand of reconciliation and forgiveness just as God exemplified in Isaiah 1:18 to wit: “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD…” Forgiveness by either parties is desirable, but in order to improve on our physiology and spirituality, forgiveness remains the most powerful thing to do.
We will achieve more in forgiveness because it builds love and strengthen the Christian bond of unity in the spirit because “…if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father…” – Matthew 18:19.