Why did Jacob gather his flocks and herds together before meeting Esau?
Jacob gathered his flocks and herds around himself as a buffer, seeking a measure of protection from Esau’s wrath. He feared his brother because he had tricked him some forty years earlier, so the assembled livestock served as a safeguard, though God had a different purpose in mind.
Les explains that Jacob had returned to Canaan with God’s leading, and soon he had to meet his brother Esau. Jacob was scared to death of what Esau might do to him because he had tricked him some forty years earlier. So Jacob surrounded himself with all his flocks and herds and so forth in order to have a little bit of protection from the wrath of Esau. But Les points out that God had something else totally on His mind: He was going to come down in human form, as God did throughout the Old Testament, and confront Jacob man to man.
And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day.