When it is said
Pray it before you meet a brother or sister after a long rift, or anyone you are afraid to face because you wronged them.
Jacob holds on to God’s promises as he asks for help. The prayer suits any meeting you dread.
Where it comes from
Author known
Why Jacob was afraid
Jacob had cheated his brother Esau out of their father’s blessing (Genesis 27:35). Esau hated him for it and planned to kill him, so their mother sent Jacob away to her brother Laban (Genesis 27:41-43). Years later Jacob was on his way home when he heard that Esau was coming to meet him with 400 men. He was terrified, and he prayed (Genesis 32:6-12).
The King James Version, on eBible.org; The King James Version (Jacob’s journey home), on eBible.org
How it ended
When Esau came near, Jacob bowed to the ground seven times. Esau ran to meet him, threw his arms around him and kissed him, and the two brothers wept (Genesis 33:3-4). Jacob told him that seeing his face was like seeing the face of God, because Esau had welcomed him (Genesis 33:10).
What the words mean
Why “two camps”?
When Jacob heard that Esau was coming, he split his people, flocks, herds and camels into two camps, so that one could escape if Esau attacked the other (Genesis 32:7-8). In the prayer he sets those two camps beside the day he first crossed the Jordan with nothing but his staff, to show how much God had given him (Genesis 32:10).
The Scripture in it
Then Jacob declared, “O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, the LORD Who told me, ‘Go back to your country and to your kindred, and I will make you prosper,’ I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness You have shown Your servant. Indeed, with only my staff I came across the Jordan, but now I have become two camps. Please deliver me from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid that he may come and attack me and the mothers and children with me. But You have said, ‘I will surely make you prosper, and I will make your offspring like the sand of the sea, too numerous to count.’”
Then the LORD said to Jacob, “Go back to the land of your fathers and to your kindred, and I will be with you.”
I will surely bless you, and I will multiply your descendants like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will possess the gates of their enemies.
Bible text: Berean Standard Bible, public domain.