Is there someone who would need to crawl back towards you before you forgave them? This next verse should be read as a standalone sentence. It has been twenty years since the two brothers were together. Jacob had cheated his brother out of his inheritance and then fled. Now they were to meet. How would that be?
“But Esau ran to meet Jacob and embraced him; he threw his arms around his neck and kissed him. And they wept.” (Genesis 33 v 4)
Jacob was not expecting this. He had anticipated his brother’s anger. Who is the initiator? Who is running? It is the brother who was wronged.
When forgiveness is real, it doesn’t wait to be asked; it always moves first.
We are surely reminded of the story of the lost son that Jesus tells.
There’s no list of wrongs. There’s no clearing the air. Esau does not carry the covenant promises of God as his brother does. Yet it is Esau who is demonstrating not only that he was the one truly free but that his heart was like God’s. The one who runs towards the person who hurt them is truly free.
Missions Paul 