Hi Bishop,

This morning I was wondering about how much Jacob’s gift to his brother would be at the current prices, and I found someone who had made the calculations this last March. They seem very reasonable. The only one that’s hard for me to assess is the camels. We don’t have many in Katy.

Here are the approximate modern day market prices of the animals that Jacob gave as a gift to his brother :

200 female goats @ $163 = $32,600

20 male goats @ $177 = $3,540

200 ewes @ $340 = $68,000

20 rams @ $541 = $10,820

30 female camels with their young @ $15,000 = $450,000

40 cows @ $700 = $28,000

10 bulls @ $1700 = $17,000

20 female donkeys @ $1500 = $30,000

10 male donkeys @ $1500 = $15,000

Total: $654,960

I knew that Jacob was rich after leaving Laban, but I never realized how rich. If he was able to give a gift of over half a million dollars, which clearly was a huge sacrifice, to his brother, imagine how much more he had.

I think this gift is a crucial part of the story because he separated these animals and sent them off in the direction of his brother right before he wrestled with God — I don’t think that’s a coincidence. We could say this was not only a gift to his brother, but his sacrifice to God. Like BM has been speaking about, the offering on the altar has no value when we have something against a brother in our hearts. By giving this gift he was cleaning his heart so that his sacrifice would be accepted by God.

The passage also says that this gift was “going ahead of him”…. just like our sacrifices do.

Maybe you’ve already developed this thought there in Brazil, but I wanted to share it with you anyway.