Lecrae’s Pastor: Genesis 33 is About Jacob Paying Reparations To Esau For ‘Abuse’ and ‘Violations’
Léonce B. Crump Jr. is the founder and senior pastor of Renovation Church in Atlanta, which was a PCA church plant. Crump was frequently found retweeting radicals like Ibram X. Kendi and liking tweets of Black Lives Matter activists demanding reparations and defunding the police, all before he deleted his Twitter account. He also happens to be Matt Chandler’s mentor who he credits for helping him understand race issues (Chandler wrote the forward to his book), as well as Lecrae’s pastor, which might tell you perhaps from where the rapper gets some of his wokeness.
In 2019, Crump spoke at the 400 Leadership Summit hosted by the OneRace Movement. Referencing Genesis 33 – the story of how when Jacob met Esau later in life and Jacob was fearful that his older brother might attack him and so he brought him gifts – Crump explains that what really was happening was that Jacob was paying his brother deserved reparations. As @wokepreachertv points out, Crump “fabricates quotes that do not appear in the text by saying Esau suffered ‘abuse’ and Jacob admitted to ‘injuring,’ ‘robbing,’ and ‘violating’ his brother.”
When he saw his brother, he decided to send first a series of peace offerings. Hundreds of goats, hundreds of sheep, hundreds of camels, hundreds of cows, hundreds of bulls, hundreds of donkeys. And then he limped forward, hoping for the best. He approached his brother and it says that he bowed down seven times to show deference to the man to whom he owed his life.
And what happens next is astonishing. Esau embraces him, and they both begin to weep. And then Esau initially refuses his brother’s offering, saying that he already has enough, that the Lord has indeed, in spite of the abuse, still allowed him to prosper in the land. And Israel said, “Okay, I’ll keep my stuff.” If you know your Bible, you should have jumped back at that point. No, Israel insisted.
He insisted, “I have injured you. I have robbed you. I have violated you. I have taken from you. I altered the course of your reality, Esau. So you must receive this reparation.”
[TEXT CHECK: Genesis 33:8-11 actually reads:
Then Esau said, “What do you mean by all this company which I met?”
And he said, “These are to find favor in the sight of my lord.”
But Esau said, “I have enough, my brother; keep what you have for yourself.”
And Jacob said, “No, please, if I have now found favor in your sight, then receive my present from my hand, inasmuch as I have seen your face as though I had seen the face of God, and you were pleased with me. Please, take my blessing that is brought to you, because God has dealt graciously with me, and because I have enough.” so he urged him, and he took it.]
You see, Israel knew that it would not be right to simply apologize, because reconciliation, or in reality, and we don’t have time to unpack this either, conciliation, because you cannot reconcile what was not ever conciled, conciliation requires more than simply apologizing for the offense. It requires that defrauded parties be made whole.
And so Israel, formerly Jacob, having met the Lord, having met the Lord, knew that he could not just simply approach his brother with seven bows and an apology. But, in fact, there was a cost required to make him whole.
What does this story teach us? It teaches us how difficult reconciliation is. It involves risk. It comes with sacrifice. It comes with cost. It takes faith, an actual trust in God.
As usual, the comments are gold:
Transcript written by @wokepreachertv and posted with permission.
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Yet another Scripture-rending, narcissistic opportunist masquerading as a pastor. Run for your spiritual lives, saints!
Someone twisting scripture to suit their own desires? No way! I’m shocked!
Not really. It’s very typical