January 12: Genesis 32:1 – Genesis 35:27

Jacob Fears Esau – Genesis 32

• As Jacob starts on his way again, angels of God appear to him.
• Jacob sends messengers ahead to his brother Esau, hoping that Esau will be friendly to him. The messengers return with word that Esau is coming to meet Jacob—with an army of four hundred men.
• Jacob splits his household and flocks in two, hoping Esau will only be able to attack one. He then prays, since God told him to return to his land. He asks that the Lord rescue him from Esau. Then he selects gifts for his brother from his flocks and other livestock. He has his servants take the animals and go ahead to meet Esau.

Jacob Wrestles with God

• During the night, Jacob sends his wives, his two servant wives, and his eleven sons across the Jabbok River. Then he sends over all his possessions. He is now alone in the camp.
• A man comes and wrestles with Jacob until dawn. When the man sees that he would not win the match, he touches Jacob's hip and wrenches it from its socket. Then the man asks Jacob to let him go. Jacob says he won't let go until the man blesses him.
• The man asks his name, and Jacob tells him. The man then tells him his name is no longer Jacob, but is now Israel, because he has fought with God and men and has won.
• Jacob asks his name, and the man asks him why he wants to  know his name and then blesses him. 
• Jacob names the place where this happened Peniel, meaning "face of God" (Jacob says he has seen God face to face but his life has been spared). 
• Jacob leaves Peniel when the sun rises, limping due to his injury. (Even today the people of Israel don't eat the tendon near the hip socket because of what happened to Jacob.)

Jacob Meets Esau – Genesis 33

• Jacob looks up and sees Esau coming with his four hundred men. He divides the children among his wives: the servants wives and their children first, then Leah and her children, and then Rachel and her children.
• Jacob goes ahead of them and bows before Esau. Esau runs to him, embraces him, and kisses him. They both weep. 
• Esau asks who the women and children are, and Jacob tells him they are his wives and children. He has the women and children come forward and bow before Esau. Esau then asks about the flocks and animals sent before them, and Jacob tells him they were a gift for him.
• Esau tells Jacob that he has plenty, and that Jacob should keep what he has. Jacob insists he take the gift, and Esau eventually agrees and tells Jacob to follow him home.
• Jacob tells Esau to go ahead, as he doesn't want to harm any of his children or animals by driving them too long. Esau agrees, but leaves some of his men to guard them.
• Esau returns to Seir, and Jacob travels to Succoth, where he builds himself a house and shelters for his livestock. Later, Jacob travels to Shechem and sets up camp outside town. He buys land there and builds and altar to the Lord.

The Defiling of Dinah – Genesis 34

• Dinah, the daughter of Jacob and Leah, goes to visit some young women who live in the area. The local prince, Shechem son of Hamor the Hivite, seizes her and rapes her. Then he falls in love with her and tries to win her affection with tender words. Shechem tells his father that he wants to marry Dinah.
• Jacob learns what has happened to Dinah, and since his sons are all out in the fields, he says nothing until they return. Hamor comes to discuss the matter with Jacob, and while they are speaking, Jacob's sons return. They are furious about what has happened.
• Hamor claims that Shechem loves Dinah and wants to marry her, and proposes that Jacob's sons and daughters marry with his sons and daughters. Shechem then asks Jacob if he can marry Dinah.
• Jacob's sons respond deceitfully since Shechem has defiled their sister. They tell Hamor and Shechem that they could not allow the marriage because the men are not circumcised, and agree that if all their men will be circumcised, they will agree to marriage.
• Hamor and Shechem agree, believing that marriage will allow them to becomes owners of Jacob's families livestock and possessions. All the men in the town agree to their circumcision, believing it will give them a way to get to Jacob's possessions, and it is carried out.
• Three days later, Jacob's sons Simeon and Levi (Dinah's full brothers) take their swords and enter the town without opposition (the men are all healing). They kill every male there, including Hamor and Shechem, then take Dinah from Shechem's house and return to their camp.
• The rest of Jacob's sons arrive in town, and finding all the men dead, they plunder the town and take all the possessions and livestock they can find. They also take the women and children of the town as captives.
• When they return to Jacob, he tells Simeon and Levi that they have ruined him, and that the Canaanites and Perizzites will destroy them.
• The brothers ask why they should let their sister be treated like a prostitute.

God Blesses and Renames Jacob – Genesis 35

• God tells Jacob to move to Bethel, settle there, and build an altar to the Lord. Jacob tells everyone in the household to get rid of their idols, purify themselves, and put on clean clothing. Jacob buries their pagan idols and earrings under a tree in Shechem. As they leave, fear spreads over the people, and they allow Jacob's family to leave.
• Jacob and his family eventually reach Bethel, in Canaan. There he builds an altar. Soon after, Rebekah's old nurse, Deborah, dies and she is buried.
• God appears to Jacob and blesses him, telling him he will now be called Israel. God tells him to be fruitful and multiply, and that he will become a great nation and God will give him the lands that once belonged to Abraham and Isaac.
• Jacob sets up a stone to mark where God spoke to him. He pours wine over it as an offering and anoints the pillar with olive oil. He names the place Bethel, which means "house of God."

The Death of Rachel

• Jacobs clan leaves to move to Ephrath (Bethelehem). Rachel goes into labor while they are traveling, and after a hard delivery, the midwife tells her she has another son. With her last words, Rachel names him Ben-Oni (which means "son of my sorrow"). Jacob renames him Benjamin, meaning "son of my right hand." 
• Rachel dies and is buried on the way to Ephrath. Jacob sets up a stone monument over her grave.
• Reuben, Jacob and Leah's son, has intercourse with Bilhah, his father's servant wife, and Jacob hears about it. (He does this to assert himself as principal heir, but this act later causes him to lose the blessing he desired.)
• Jacob returns to his father, Isaac, in Mamre, where Abraham and Isaac had both lived as foreigners.