Kiss of Esau / December 2002

Moses tells us in Genesis 32 how Jacob was afraid to return to the promised land. Jacob had completed 20 years of service to Laban and was returning with his wives and children. But if you recall, Jacob had left 20 years earlier because of his brother Esau. Jacob had received both Esau’s birthright and blessing. Some would argue that the blessing was stolen by his deception of Isaac, but the fact remains that Jacob had them and Esau was angry – angry enough to threaten him with his life. Now, Jacob was returning and Esau was coming to meet him with 400 hundred armed men.

If we fast forward through the story, Esau and Jacob finally meet and results are the opposite of what you would expect.

Then Esau ran to meet him and embraced him, and fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept.

Genesis 33:4

It’s almost like one of those Hollywood endings. There is Jacob approaching Esau and Esau runs and embraces Jacob. All is well and everyone is happy and lives happily ever after … Not quite. That is what happens in Hollywood, but this life and Esau’s embrace and kiss is not a Hollywood ending. It is totally something else. The contrast between Jacob’s fear and Esau’s kiss are at opposite ends. The story demands that we reconcile the fear and the kiss; this is not a fairy tale or a Hollywood story.

History shows us that Esau’s descendants became the Edomites and a great trouble to Israel. Prophetically, this trouble has even come to our day. Moses has given us a sign in the Torah by the way he wrote the word "kiss." The scribes have faithfully copied the Torah even to this day with this special sign. What sign did Moses give us? Moses put six dots above the word "kiss," one for each letter.

The Sages have debated and discussed this sign from Moses for many millennia. For the most part, everyone has agreed that while Esau was enthusiastic and very demonstrative in his affection toward Jacob, it was insincere. To illustrate this insincerity, they say Moses put the dots above each letter. These dots are, according to the sages, Esau’s teeth.

One explanation says that Esau was using the guise of a loving embrace but he intended to literally bite Jacob’s neck like an attacking lion. However, God protected Jacob by transforming his neck into marble and Esau broke his teeth on Jacob’s neck. This is why Esau wept. While I enjoy Rabbinic stories and somewhat agree with the basis for the story, I don’t think Jacob’s neck was hard as marble, nor that Esau went away toothless. I think Moses has given us a sign of warning.

Before we address Esau’s kiss and the dots above each letter, let us go back into the story a little bit before the reunion. First, there is much in this story that has to do with us. In fact, it is my intention to show that Esau’s kiss is something we have seen and experienced in our modern day.

What happens to the fathers will happen to the descendants. These are the words of Torah teachers, past and present. What has happened to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob has happened and will happen to their descendants. The events of Jacob’s trouble and distress before coming into the land are the prophecies of the last generation. It is the last generation that will see the end of the age of the Gentiles and the return to the land of Israel with the Messiah. The Messiah, as the Great Shepherd, will gather us all up by resurrection and rapture before the Messianic era. The prophet Jeremiah specifically speaks of this difficult time and calls it, "Jacob’s Trouble." Most Christians have heard of it as the tribulation – a time of distress as the world has never seen before.

What exactly is Jacob’s Trouble and what is that we are to learn from Jacob’s fear and kiss of Esau? When Jacob left Laban and sent messengers to Esau that he was returning, why was Jacob so afraid? At first blush, most would say that Jacob was afraid because Esau was coming with 400 armed men. That doesn’t sound like a welcoming committee, does it? However, let’s recall something else that Jacob knew. God had given Jacob a promise to protect and preserve him in his journeys and return to the land. In fact, God had promised to cause his descendants to become as the stars of heaven in great number. So, why was Jacob afraid and in terror of facing Esau? Didn’t God protect Jacob for 20 years from the cheating Laban? Didn’t God say that He would bring him into the land and cause him to prosper?

So, was it a lack of faith on Jacob’s part? Why was Jacob so afraid? This is an important lesson for us. Remember, this is going to happen to us. What happens to the fathers, happens to the descendants; we are the descendants. The prophets have said that we will go through "Jacob’s trouble." This is about us.

We are going to be afraid, but what are we going to be afraid of? Is it because we lack faith or is it something else? The answer is with Jacob in Genesis 32. Jacob tells us why he was afraid. Jacob was walking in faith; he was going where God told him to go. He was not afraid of Esau for himself; he was afraid primarily for his wives and children.

Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed; and he divided the people who were with him, and the flocks and the herds and the camels, into two companies; for he said, "If Esau comes to the one company and attacks it, then the company which is left will escape." And Jacob prayed to God relying on his faith, "Deliver me, I pray, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau; for I fear him, lest he come and attack me, the mothers with the children."

Genesis 32:7-8, 11

This is why we will be truly afraid of in the days ahead. We will be afraid for our families and children. This is why Churchmen want a pretrib rapture; they are afraid for their wives and children in the great tribulation. We are not afraid of the antichrist, per se. We think we can run away like Jacob did from Esau. Instead, we are afraid of what the antichrist and his system might do to our families. We are like Jacob coming back to the land.

The Palestinians understand this kind of fear and that is why they send suicide bombers into crowded areas of Israel. This is why they willfully murder women (mothers and grandmothers) and children. They want to instill the greatest fear they can into the hearts of Israel. They want to cause "Jacob’s Trouble." Maybe this is why the Rabbis in Israel have declared that we were in the days of "Jacob’s Trouble" after the seven-year peace process was annulled in September of 2000.

Do you remember the famous handshake between Yasser Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin with President Clinton on the White House lawn? Have you seen Arafat enthusiastically kiss one of his visitors? It’s the kiss of Esau. The world now knows that Arafat’s handshake, however enthusiastic, is not sincere. The world now know that his kiss is a put-on, an attempt to use his teeth on the neck of his adversaries. Gangsters and mobsters do the same thing. They call it a kiss of death.

We have watched Israel faced with the fear of Jacob and we seen Esau’s kiss. Moses gave us this sign to warn us. He wanted us to be careful, to understand how the enemy would attempt to persuade us, but truly endanger us. The same will be true for the antichrist when he comes on the world scene. He will appear to be genuine and caring for all of us, but the prophets tell us that he will not be a caring shepherd. Instead, he will cause even greater harm than anyone imagined. This is why he is called the son of perdition (destruction). The prophet Zechariah likens the antichrist to a false shepherd who does great harm.

For behold, I am going to raise up a shepherd in the land who will not care for the perishing, seek the scattered, heal the broken, or sustain the one standing, but will devour the flesh of the fat sheep and tear off their hoofs.

Zechariah 11:16

So what can we learn from our father Jacob as his descendants? First, the fear for our children must be put into the hands of our Heavenly Father who intends to make them become as the stars of heaven. Secondly, we must not be fooled by the enthusiastic embrace and kiss of our enemy. We know that it is insincere and not what it appears to be. It is really the kiss of Esau.

So, why are their six dots above the six letters? Six means a lot of things in Scripture to us. God created the heavens and the earth in six days and rested on the seventh. Man was created on the sixth day. Noah was six hundred years when the flood came. Jacob served six years for his flocks. Hebrew slaves served six years and were then freed. There are six branches in the menorah. But maybe the most interesting of them all is the clue given about the antichrist’s name. It is a clue to us so we won’t be fooled by his kiss. His name will be six hundred sixty six.

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