Genesis 32 to 36 is also known as “Parashah Vayishlach”. The Hebrew word “Vayishlach” means “And he sent” – referring to Yaakov sending messengers ahead to Esau to ensure that his meeting with Esau would be as friendly and peaceful as possible. In these chapters it becomes clear that this event was shrouded in a prominent cloud of fear and anxiety. To send someone or something is not usually an act born of fear. In Yaakov’s case, it was. We read in Genesis 32 that Yaakov “was greatly afraid and distressed” when he heard that Esau was preparing to meet him. On more than one level, Esau was for Yaakov the personification of a bunch of things that caused fear and unease in his heart. Not only was Esau the tougher of the two brothers, the strongly built one, the hairy one, the hunter, the one who would not hesitate to kill. He was also the one who awakened all kinds of guilt feelings in Yaakov. Yaakov had not forgotten the injustice he had done to his brother. Esau represents for Yaakov the bad consequences of sin not being addressed and forgiven. Yaakov is terrified that his past, and especially his shameful past with Esau, is going to catch up to him, ruin his life, and rob him of Yahweh’s blessing.
But there was an even deeper dimension to Yaakov’s fear. A fear that went beyond the history between these two brothers. We should not exclude the possibility that Yaakov, on a prophetic level, sensed that his brother Esau would, in the future, represent a spirit of fear among generations of believers yet to be born. Any true believer who looks at Esau, and understands something of the conflict between Esau and Yaakov, will know the danger of despising spiritual inheritance and exchanging it for something fleeting and worthless – just like the bowl of lentil stew that Esau preferred over his birthright. Ultimately, it is the danger of being apathetic and indifferent towards things that concern the essence of faith. The kind of attitude that John saw around him in the world when he was already an old man, and then wrote about in his second letter: “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world.” There is something of the spirit of Esau in it when one succumbs to the temptations and the desires of the world. It is a spirit that we need to resist pro-actively, so that we may be free from the unnecessary anxiety and insecurity it can unleash in our hearts.
The uneasiness on the inside, when one realizes that one has succumbed to the temptation of drifting away from the pattern of the Scripture, and has followed the pattern of the world, is what we could call: The Inner Esau, that may surface in any believer’s life. But just as for Yaakov, there is also an Outer Esau that threatens each of us. And that is the systems, the logic, the traditions, and the strongholds of the world – those things that directly contradict the unadulterated message of the Word. And ultimately, this manifests in people who make no secret of the fact that they hate what you do and what you believe, and will not hesitate to oppose it. How can you be so petty as not to celebrate Christmas? Who said a pig is an unclean animal? And where do you get the obsession to rest and attend meetings on the seventh day? And to this list, we could easily add ten more things. The choice FOR the spirit of Yaakov, and AGAINST the spirit of Esau, does not come without a price. There is large-scale opposition. There is contempt. There is conflict. Clashes in the spirit. Verbal attacks. Emotional withdrawal. And ultimately: Anxiety and fear – across the whole spectrum, from vague feelings of unease to full-scale turmoil in the innermost being.
In today’s world, fear and anxiety occur in proportions and forms that were previously unthinkable and unknown. Technological progress has many advantages, but also many victims. Even experts admit that no one can determine the full emotional price of technological advances. And the largest part of this emotional price manifests in some form of anxiety and fear in all kinds of people. Older people feel that the new wave of technology is completely beyond their comprehension, and fear that they will be left out and left behind. Younger people find themselves in a new kind of competition dominated by artificial intelligence – a fast moving reality and in which traditional skills often no longer have a place. Some professions are no longer needed at all, and career anxiety is the order of the day.
And Esau, who was strictly speaking Yaakov’s “older brother,” has now made his appearance as a more recent descendant in the form of the so-called “Big-Brother Syndrome.” The “Big Brother” character first appeared in the book “Nineteen Eighty-Four” by George Orwell, but is more famous as a TV reality program in which every part of the daily doings of a group of people is broadcast worldwide to TV viewers by strategically placed cameras. According to dictionaries, the “Big Brother Syndrome” refers to the fear, anxiety, and psychological consequences that come with knowing that there is an authority figure or a body of authority that places you under continuous, excessive, and intrusive surveillance. It makes one think of Yaakov and Esau. Because Yaakov thought that if he sent messengers ahead, it would calm Esau down. But later he had to hear: When the messengers arrived at Esau, Big Brother was already aware of him and ready to meet him!
When one thinks of Esau, the Big Brother of Yaakov, and the fear he awakened in Yaakov, the fear of death is also included here. For twice in Genesis 27 and once in Genesis 32, it is said that Esau’s intention was to kill Yaakov. Yaakov’s name means “heel-grabber,” and when one hears this name, one cannot help but think of the first time a “heel” is mentioned in the Scripture: “I will put enmity between you (the serpent) and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel” (Genesis 3:15). The promise of a “Seed” who would be born of the woman, whom Satan would bite in the heel. But it would not end there. The woman’s Offspring would crush the head of Satan, and with that, take away the fear of death. Note: Not take away death itself. Y’shua died and was raised from the dead. You and I will most likely die and will be raised from the dead, on the day when He returns to the earth.
But Hebrews 2 tells us that Y’shua, through his death and resurrection, destroyed the power that Satan has over death. And listen here: That he came to free people who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery (Hebrews 2:15). Just as Yaakov’s sons went to live in Egypt and were subjected to slavery under the Egyptians, and had to be freed from it by the exodus from Egypt – so too are you and I, through our connection to Y’shua, freed from our fear of death. Therefore, we can say the words of Romans 8: We are more than conquerors through Him who loved us, and we are assured that NO DEATH will be able to separate us from the love of Elohim that is in the Messiah Y’shua, our Master. And the words of Romans 14: Whether we live or whether we die, we belong to the Master. And even clearer in 1 Thessalonians 5: For Elohim destined us, not to perish under his wrath, but to receive salvation through our Master, Y’shua the Messiah. He died for us, and now we know, whether we are awake (in life!) or whether we sleep (in death!), we shall live together with Him! We are called to live our lives to the fullest and not aid or challenge death. But when death does come our way, we are not like those who look at death with terror and utter anguish. No, we are like those who know that the sting of death and fear has been removed, and Y’shua has guaranteed our resurrection! Through Him, we are healed of our fear!
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