Genesis Continues:   Genesis Chapter 32   Jacob was on his way back to Canaan and knew he would be going through country controlled by Esau.  So he sent messengers ahead to speak with Esau in a humble manner.  The messengers return and tell Jacob Esau is coming to meet him with 400 men.  Jacob feared this meeting and prayed to God.  In his prayer, he told God he was being obedient but was unworthy.  He asked God to save him.  Jacob sent presents ahead for his brother.   Jacob sent his wives and his 11 sons ahead and was alone.  The Genesis record reports Jacob wrestled with a man till dawn.  Jacob knew the man to be God in the flesh.  Jacob would not give up.  Jacob told God he will not let go until he is blessed.  God changed Jacob’s name from Jacob to Israel.  Vs 28 states: “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome.”  NIV God touched Jacob’s hip socket so that his leg was wrenched.    Commentary: The wrestling with God is difficult to explain.  The name change is, however, very significant.  It is at this point in Genesis where the story changes from being about various people (i.e., Adam, Eve, Noah, Abraham and Isaac) to being about a nation, the nation of Israel.  God has established a chosen people through Jacob who is now called Israel.       Jacob had stolen Esau's birthright.  He was getting ready to meet Esau who was coming with 400 men.  Jacob had great fear.  So he comes up with his own plan, dividing his people into two groups and sending gifts ahead.  And he prays to God.  Later, when he is alone, he has an encounter with God when a man wrestles with him until dawn.  During this long struggle, Jacob gave up his old nature as a deceiver and received the blessings that he really wanted having been changed by his encounter with God.   When you have an encounter with God, He may or may not change others, such as Esau, but He will change you.  And then give you the opportunity to bless others.   Then Esau met his brother Jacob with an enbrace and wept.   An encounter with God can change your difficult and impossible circumstances also.  This happens when you seek Him and surrender your life to his good plan for you.   But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.  Matthew 6:33 KVJ     Genesis Chapter 33   The brothers meet and separate peacefully.  Jacob settles in Shechem.  Esau went back to Seir.  Jacob set up an alter and worshipped God.  He called it El Elohe Israel (rough translation, the God of Israel).  Shechem was an important city and will appear in the Bible text many times associated with the people of Israel.  For more information, here is a link:  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shechem)     Genesis Chapter 34   Dinah was the daughter of Jacob and Leah (birth described in chapter 30 Genesis).  Her name means “judged or vindicated.”  In the Genesis record, Dinah went to visit women of the land but was observed by Shechem, a prince of the area, who raped her.  Shechem went to his father Hamor and asked that Hamor intercede and obtain Dinah as a wife for Shechem.    Hamor spoke to Jacob about this situation.  Dinah’s brother found out about how she had been mistreated and were enraged.    Shechem suggested a proper marriage with a price to be paid for the bride.  Jacob’s sons replied deceitfully and said the only way this would be proper is if all the males in Shechem were circumcised.  This condition was acceptable to Shechem.    While the men of Shechem are sore and weak from the circumcision, some of Dinah’s brothers attack them and put them to death by the sword.  Jacob learned of this, after it happened, and criticizes them and said that what they have done has put their entire family in danger.  Jacob would not have permitted this to have happened if they had consulted him.  The brothers actions show the hardness of their hearts.  The brothers defend themselves saying:  “Should he (be permitted to ) deal with our sister as with a harlot?”   Gen 34:31 (Amp) Commentary "There is a Bible truth most Christians simply do not grasp.  That truth is this:  God does not punish people for sinning; He punishes them because they refuse to repent of their sin."  Pastor John Hagee, The Seven Secrets, p. 151.   Genesis Chapter 35   The family now has problems in the area.  God told Jacob to return to Bethel and dwell there.  Geographically, Bethel (Israel) is located about 10 miles from  modern day Jerusalem.    At Bethel, Jacob (Now Israel) set up an alter and worshipped God.  Jacob called this place El-bethel.  God spoke to him and said:    “And God said unto him, I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins; And the land which I gave Abraham and Isaac, to thee I will give it, and to thy seed after thee will I give the land.”  Genesis 35:11-12 KJV   They journeyed from  Bethel (Israel) to Bethlehem.  Rachel died there while giving birth to Benjamin.  She named Benjamin ‘Ben-oni’ (son of my sorrow) but Jacob changed his name to Benjamin, son of the right hand.   While they were there, Reuben, the eldest son, had intercourse with Bilhah, Jacob’s concubine, who was the mother of his half-brothers (Dan & Naphtali) and Jacob heard of this.    The family journeyed to Hebron.  Isaac was there but died at age 180 and was buried there.    The two sons, Jacob (now Israel) and Esau buried Isaac at Hebron, with his ancestors.      Historical Insert: "The most famous historical site in Hebron sits on the Cave of Machpelah (Arabic: المسجد الإبراهيمي, or masjid al-Ibrahimi; Hebrew: מערת המכפלה, or me'arat ha-machpela). The site is considered holy by all three Abrahamic faiths: Islam, Christianity, and Judaism. According to the book of Genesis in the Bible, Abraham purchased this cave and the field around it to bury his wife Sarah. Jews believe that Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebekah, Jacob, and Leah are buried in the cave. The cave is the second holiest site in Judaism, and Churches, Synagogues, and Mosques have been built on this site throughout history (see "History", below). Today, the Ibrahimi Mosque sits on most of the site; part is used as a synagogue by Jews."   Source:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hebron   See also:    “The Jews are the most tenacious people in history.  Hebron is there to prove it.  It lies 20 miles south of Jerusalem, 3,000 feet up in the Judaean hills.  There, the Cave of Machpelah, are the Tombs of the Patriarchs.  According to ancient tradition, one sepulcher, itself of great antiquity, contains the mortal remains of Abraham, founder of the Jewish religion and the ancestor of the Jewish race.  Paired with his tomb is that of his wife Sarah.  Within the building are the twin tombs of his son Isaac and his wife Rebecca.  Across the inner courtyard is another pair of tombs, of Abraham’s grandson Jacob and his wife Leah.  Just outside the building is the tomb of their son Joseph.  This is where the 4,000-year history of the Jews . . . began.   Hebron has great and venerable beauty.  It provides the peace and stillness often to be found in ancient sanctuaries.  But its stones are mute witness to constant strife and four millennia of religious and political disputes.  It has been a Hebrew shrine, a synagogue, a Byzantine basilica, a mosque, a crusader church, and then a mosque again.  Herod the Great enclosed wit with a majestic wall, which still stands, soaring nearly 40 feet high, composed of massive hewn stones, some of them 23 feet long. . . David was anointed as King there.”  (Johnson, p 3)   Jacob had four wives.  "Muslims deduce from this that a man is allowed four wives.  Christians teach that marriage is a relationship between one man and one woman."  (Richards, "The Bible:  The Smart Guide to the Bible," p. 19)   "A man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh."  Genesis 2:24 NKJV   Genesis 36   This chapter is all about Esau and his descendants.  His wives were from the women of Canaan, themselves descendants of Ham’s son Canaan who was cursed by Noah.  His other wife was a daughter of Ishmael, Nebaioth.  Esau and his household all moved, after the death of Isaac, into a land away from Israel, into Edom.  The Bible, vs. 8 says Esau is Edom.      We have briefly looked at Malachi before.  Here is complete text.  God is speaking to Israel through Malachi about Jacob (Israel) and Esau, specifically Esau’s descendants.   “I have loved you (Israel) deeply,” says the LORD.   But you retort, “Really? How have you loved us?”   And the LORD replies, “I showed my love for you by loving your ancestor Jacob. Yet Esau was Jacob’s brother, and I rejected Esau and devastated his hill country. I turned Esau’s inheritance into a desert for jackals.”   And Esau’s descendants in Edom may say, “We have been shattered, but we will rebuild the ruins.”   But this is what the LORD Almighty says: “They may try to rebuild, but I will demolish them again! Their country will be known as ‘the Land of Wickedness,’ and their people will be called ‘the People with Whom the LORD Is Forever Angry.”  Malachi 1:2-4 NLT Read Genesis 37-40