Jacob’s reunion with his twin brother Esau turned out to be uneventful.
The years had softened Esau’s heart and the Lord had blessed him with great wealth and a growing family.
When the brothers finally met face-to-face after many long years, the former animosity that had existed between them seemed to have disappeared.
They hugged each other and the tears flowed.
Jacob even offered gifts of reconciliation but Esau refused.
What Jacob had been dreading all along never came to pass and he and Esau ended up parting in peace.
Onward.
Jacob (whom we can also now properly call “Israel”) continued his journey to a walled city-state in Canaan called Shechem.
Shechem was the exact piece of land God told Abraham would belong to him and his descendants forever.
However, during Abraham’s time it had yet to transform into a hustling and bustling metropolis and was little more than a watering hole that provided sustenance and rest for wandering shepherds and their animals.
When Jacob arrives at Shechem, he likes what he sees and decides to make this place a permanent home for his family and clan.
He shells out some serious dough and buys a plot of land from the King of Shechem.
There were many practical reasons that motivated Jacob to buy real estate in Shechem.
For one thing, living near a city offered protection.
Pacts or treaties of the type Jacob entered into had as part of their arrangement the understanding that citizens living inside the city would band together with the folks living outside the city to ward off outside attacks from bandits and hostile neighboring towns.
Israel (Jacob) settles down and looks forward to what he hopes will be a nice long and peaceful life.
Turns out no such thing.
Soon after the King of Shechem’s son rapes Israel’s only daughter Dinah.
In response, Dinah’s brothers Levi and Simeon become enraged and they lead a raid of revenge that leaves pretty much every male resident of the city dead.
Israel is grieved over the vicious and murderous actions of his sons and now realizes he can longer stay in Shechem.
Once again he gathers his clan, they pack up and head to a town called Bethel.
The Lord appears to Israel and reassures him that regardless of what happened in the past, the covenant promises he made to Abraham, Isaac and now Israel still stand.
At this point in time, Rachel, the women he loved so much that he gave 14 years of servitude to earn her hand in marriage dies while giving birth to Jacob’s 12th and final son.
This son’s name is Benjamin.
The era is now around 1800 BC.
Great overview.
Glad you found this enlightening. Be blessed!