...went ahead of his family, bowing himself to the ground seven times, until he came near to his brother. And Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck, and kissed him; and the two of them wept. And Esau lifted up his eyes and saw the women and children, and asked,...

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...previous night's wrestling makes easier his bowing before Esau. But Jacob receives a surprise. "But Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck and kissed him" (Gen. 33:4). In Jesus' story of the prodigal, we read that when the son came home, "while he was...

...limping Jacob was reconciled with the brother he had wronged. Esau ran to meet him, the story says, and embraced him, and fell on his neck and kissed him and they wept. In the same way, Jacob and Esau need to be reconciled within us. We don't want to be stealing another's...

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...But in a scene that responds to Cain's earlier murder of Abel, Jacob and Esau come together and Esau "embraced him, and fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept" (33:4). Forgiveness breaks the cycle of revenge, and reconciliation substitutes for murder. Just as...

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...were now answered. Esau, whom he had feared so greatly, turned out to be friendly rather than hostile. "And Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck, and kissed him: and they wept" (33:4). That this was to be regarded as a special answer to prayer appears from the fact that Esau...

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