1-20 Jacob lifted up his eyes, and saw Esau his brother coming with four hundred men. And he divided his children unto Leah, and unto Rachel, and unto the two maidservants, and set the maidservants with their children in the front, and Leah with her children after, and Rachel with Joseph last. And he went before them, and bowed himself to the ground seven times, until he came to his brother. And Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck, and kissed him; and they said. And he lifted up his eyes, and saw the women with the children, and said, Who are these with thee? And he answered, They are the children which God hath given unto thy servant. And the handmaids came near with their children, and bowed themselves to him. And Leah came near with her children, and bowed herself to him. Then Joseph and Rachel came near, and bowed themselves to him. And he said, What wilt thou do with all this host that I have met? And he said, That I may find grace in the sight of my lord. And Esau said: I have enough, my brother; keep what thou hast. Jacob answered:
Oh not, if I have found grace in your sight, take my gift from my hand. For I see thy face as I see God's face, and let it please thee from me. Accept from me the blessing that I have bestowed on you, for God has bestowed it on me, and I have enough. So he urged him to accept it. And he said, Let us depart and travel; I will go with thee. And he said unto him, My lord, thou knowest that I have tender children with me, and sheep and oxen young. If they were to overdo it by one day, the whole herd would die for me. Let my lord go before his servant, and I will go forth maelishly, 1) after which the cattle and the children may go, until I come to my lord in Seir. And Esau said, I will leave with thee some of the people,
1) Marginal gloss: Mälig. Notice that the orthodox and the works saints cannot walk with each other; for the orthodox walk neatly, with a quiet spirit, but the works saints walk with presumption of their works in God's laws.
that is with me. And he said, What is the use? let me find grace in the sight of my lord. So Esau went his way again that day to Seir. And Jacob went to Sukhoth, and built him a house, and made tents for his cattle: therefore the name of the place is Sukhoth. Then Jacob went toward Salem, to the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, after he was come out of Mesopotamia; and he pitched before the city. And he bought a piece of land of the children of Hemor, the father of Shechem, for an hundred pence; and there he pitched his tents. He built an altar there and called on the name of the mighty God of Israel.
(1) Now this is a bad history, which seems little, as the others commonly are; for which are high, as the next written before, are scarcely to be remembered. Now I have said enough, why Moses makes so many useless words, and describes the holy fathers with so little stories, so the world would not look at. Summa: It goes that we become fools with our cleverness and learn to recognize God, that he deals with such things, which are nothing before the world.
2) So here he also writes how the two brothers bump into each other. A bad story; but nevertheless it shows how God lets the worldly people ride high, but his own low and unnoticed. For what is God's must first be nothing and have no appearance. Esau comes along mightily with many armies; Jacob alone with wife and child, who should be the greatest according to the promise; but God always lets it go on like this until his time. He brought Esau forth and raised him up, so that he soared at two hundred years; while Jacob always had to remain weak and lowly; but when the time came, he raised him and his people far above Esau, so that they had to serve him. This is a figure and model of Christ, who lay three days in the grave, and made the world and the devils cry, "Won! as if it were over with him;" but in the same he burst forth, and became a Lord of the world and of all creatures. So also, his first Christianity, the martyrs, he left a year or two or three hundred to succumb and die.
But soon afterward God sets them over all the powers of the world, so that even kings and princes must fall at their feet.
3 When Jacob saw his brother Esau, the text says, he divided his children and made an order. For although he is no longer so afraid of his brother, he does not trust him very much, but because he was uncertain how God would deal with him, he placed himself in God's power and dared to do so with only what he has, for he knows that Esau is in God's hands and cannot harm him if he wants to. In addition, he is certain that he has a gracious God who wants to protect and save him; but how, and in what way, he does not know. Yet he does what he can, does not tempt GO'tt, and yet remains in the right faith. For if he had despaired, he would have run and gone aside; but he stands still, and dares to go up to the first, whether he would, by God's decree, be in the forefront, whether he would save the others; he lays down his life for his wife and children.
4 Is this not tempting God? No, because faith is right in that it commands God, [it] does not seek how to help it, thinking: Even if it beats us, God's word must still remain true; nevertheless, it worries about the brother's unfaithfulness, and needs the wisdom and reason that God has given. For nature teaches that what one holds dear, one should save first.
005 So he put Rachel and Joseph, the right child, in the rear, and Leah after them, and the maids in the front; but he put himself in the entrenchment. This is the right brotherly love, with which he does as much as reason teaches; not as those who tempt God, and want to go about it among the multitude without order, and think: If we are beaten, then we are beaten.
(6) But this is not true, for faith and temptation do not go together. Those who tempt God pretend to believe, but they go without God's word and command. As if one would step on a high tower and spire and fly down. As when a lazy ass would not work, and wait for God to feed him from heaven.
7 Therefore the two must be separated, so that you put faith in the things that are above you, but avoid temptation in those that are beneath you. God has given you the body, five senses and reason; item, wife and child; all of which is in your hand, you shall use as much as you can; but if you cannot, you may leave it and wait for what God gives you. For this reason we were created, to rule over the animals of the earth, the woman, the child and the house, and to seek food with labor from the earth and from other things; with this we are to deal. But what is above us we are always to let go, as Jacob does here. For that he made order was not above him, 1) but under him, namely, vain reasonable thing; but faith dealeth only with those things which are above reason. As it was not in his hand to save himself and his own from Esau, but only God's work; therefore he needs faith alone in this, and lets God rule. Therefore I say again: Temptation of God cannot happen in the things that are above me and concern faith; where I cannot help, I must believe. But where I can help myself, and have God's goods at hand, I shall not tempt him; for there I must not believe, because I have it before my eyes and in my hand.
(8) One reads an example in vitis patrum of two brothers who wandered for a time with each other over a field, and although they had no food, they decided not to take food from the pagan, evil people, but to wait until God gave them bread from heaven. And when they had long hungered, the one said, It is too long for us, and went and took that which was given him, and remained alive: but the other continued in his resolution, and died also of it. Now conclude: Where did this one go? God gave him that he might well counsel hunger, therefore he was not allowed to wait for another, and leave the bread; but if there had been no one to give him a piece of bread, it would have been right to wait for it from God.
1) Jenaer: him.
2) Baarschaft --- the available money or goods.
9 So understand the difference between trying and believing. Faith should not come sooner than God's commandment and word, which applies when one is in trouble and cannot help oneself, except in death and other trials; but when God gives such good, one should thank Him and take it to oneself. So Jacob alone used his art to the best of his ability, as he knew, but in faith he did not know how it should go out, who would remain alive or dead; God only commands him to protect and save. So he goes through properly, neither to the left nor to the right, neither in unbelief nor temptation.
(10) Let these be simple and bad histories, which have no appearance of the fathers walking in such loose works; but when the heart is seen, and the faith according to which the work is directed, it is perceived that they are excellent examples. Therefore such histories are not to be regarded according to works, as the world does; otherwise they are cold and unworthy; but according to faith they are precious treasures.
11) The text continues: "And he went before them, and stooped down to the ground seven times, until he came to his brother. In this, I have said, he shows true brotherly love, that he lays down his life with good, firm faith, for wife and child. This does not mean seeking what is his, nor living and dying for his sake. This is how the work goes in strong faith and perfect love.
(12) How is it not great honor that he bows down seven times before his brother? How bad are the works in which he walks, nor do they show such great virtue. For is this not great humility, because he has the promise of God that his seed shall be blessed? that he might have boasted and said, Brother, you must fall at my feet. Did he also pretend or lie? No; for St. Paul also commanded Rom. 12:10, that one should precede another in reverence; though Esau does not do it again, yet he is moved by it.
(13) Therefore, though we have great good in Christ, and are lords even of the devil, yet it is God's will that we humble ourselves before those who are things in the world,
The authority and dominion, if you were as holy as Jacob.
14 Neither was there ever a priest so holy as Jacob, nor does he not let his feet be kissed, but falls at the feet of the tyrant, gives him more honor than is due him, and does it from a right cause and a good heart; so think, as he himself says, "I have seen your face, as if I saw the face of God. How do you lie like this, Jacob? Shall you say thus to the unholy man? It is all directed to this, because Esau was a great lord, far above Jacob, therefore he looketh upon him, as his lord, and lieth not, but [it] is his earnestness; to us for an example. If a man is in the government, he is to be honored, not for his own sake, but because it is God's order [Rom. 13:1, 7]. Why does Jacob ask whether Esau abuses his authority? [He nevertheless leaves him the honor that the authority has, and speaks out arrogantly that he has seen his face as the face of God.
(15) For the authorities, be they what they may, are not of men, or they would not be safe for one hour; if God did not maintain it by force, Lord Omnes would strike them all dead. Therefore, because it is God's force and order, one must look at it as if one were looking at God. Where he throws them, there his honor shall follow. He deals with his goods as one who throws money into the rapuse: wherever it falls, there is GOD, one needs it willy-nilly, he will find it. You go ahead, humble yourself, and give her the honor.
(16) More are the fruits of faith in this chapter. Thus Solomon says in Proverbs [Cap. 16, 7.]: "If a man's ways please the Lord, he also makes his enemies content with him." This is God's nature and work, that He can make the highest enemies friends, when here Esau was actually Jacob's mortal enemy, also had in mind to harm him. There you see how God has this man's heart and thoughts in His hand, that they must go as He wills, and break his mind, that he himself does not know how to go, and falls around his neck. What a change and a change it is, that he is consumed in defiance with so many men, and when he comes, he begins to weep; is he not a man?
Is it not a strange bargain that such a mortal enemy should so soon be turned back?
(17) Therefore the Scripture teaches that we should walk in righteousness and humility, 1) not for our own sake, but for the sake of our enemies. For where such humility is, God gives grace that even the enemies may be broken and turned back. Hence the proverb comes: A good word finds a good place; but when pride and hardness are against hardness, nothing good comes of it. Although there are also many hard heads that cannot be softened by words or works. God wants Christians to humble themselves and be respectful, even toward their enemies, so that he will bless them and make such works strong and convert their hearts.
018 So both wife and child go out to meet him, and all bow down before him. He lets this happen, even though he is now a friend; but they even win his heart away with it, so that he leads the way and says, "Keep what you have, my brother, I have enough"; he begs to accompany him, and when Jacob apologizes, he wants to give him a portion of his people. This is written for us, if we would also do it once; but the devil is in pride, that no one wants to yield to the other. Therefore let us keep such examples as fruits of faith, as the holy father believes and is tempted, and humbles himself against the authorities.
019 And Moses wrote how Jacob came to Shuhoth, and built there a house, and tents for his cattle. The place is therefore described, that the Jews, when they came into the land afterward, might know where Jacob had dwelt. That is why this place must keep its name, and why it became a city afterward, because St. Jacob lived there and lay there.
020 Then he went to Salem, to the city of Shechem. Salem must not be Jerusalem, as some think; for Shechem is still a good journey away, where he also lived for a while as a pilgrim and stranger, but buys a piece of land and sets up his tents. Why he moved from Sukhoth, the text does not indicate, but [it] is
1) Erlanger: "humble".
from the foregoing. For we have heard above of Abraham and Isaac, how they always had to be strangers, and had no certain place, and moved from one place to another, which was almost difficult for them, constantly hovering with wife, child and all good things between heaven and earth, and nowhere being safe, that they sometimes also became impatient, always suffering violence and injustice among strangers. Which is always held up to us, so that one can see what the right life is, even if it seems to be a bad, foolish thing.
21. item that he sets up an altar here and calls on God's name, we have also heard how the dear fathers set up a place.
to come together, teach and preach how to trust God and call upon the promise of the seed, through which the world would be blessed. For such preaching and exhortation was necessary against weakness of faith and impatience. And the text adds: "He called on the name of the strong God Israel", to indicate what and how he preached, namely about the God who is strong and mighty, so that he could protect them and help them in suffering and the cross, even if it did not seem so. Thus you see the simple life of the fathers, and yet so full of examples of faith, love and patience in the smallest works.