Daily Scripture Reading Genesis 27:41 - 28:15
Those of us who grew up in church and are familiar with all the Bible stories tend to have positive opinions of Bible characters like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We know they were not perfect people, but we tend to think they were normal families with a few flaws.
We will see in today’s passage that Isaac’s family was actually very dysfunctional. In fact, you can make an argument that it was one of the most dysfunctional families in history. This means that Isaac’s family is probably a great lesson in what families should not do.
Isaac sent Esau to hunt game and prepare a meal so that Isaac could bless Esau. As Esau was hunting, Jacob brought a meal to Isaac, pretending to be Esau, so Isaac blessed Jacob instead of Esau. When Esau arrived with a meal, Isaac knew he had been deceived, but he had no blessing left with which to bless Esau.
Gen. 27:41 ¶ So Esau bore a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him; and Esau said in his heart, “The days of mourning for my father are near; then I will kill my brother Jacob.”
Notice the phrase “bore a grudge”. It is easy to understand why Esau resented Jacob.
Don’t miss the word “kill”. Esau was so resentful, he wanted to kill Jacob.
Look at the words “said in his heart”. This verse tells us that Esau’s plan to kill Jacob was merely something he was thinking about.
Gen. 27:42 Then the words of her elder son Esau were told to Rebekah. So she sent and called her younger son Jacob and said to him, “Behold, your brother Esau is consoling himself concerning you by planning to kill you.
At some point Esau began to verbalize his plan to kill Jacob, and Rebekah heard about it.
Gen. 27:43 So now, my son, listen to my voice, and arise, flee to Haran, to my brother Laban!
Rebekah did not treat Esau’s rumblings as an idle threat. She truly believed Jacob’s life was in danger, and she took the extraordinary step of telling Jacob to flee for his life.
Gen. 27:44 Stay with him a few days, until your brother’s wrath subsides,
Notice the words “a few days”. We will see in later chapters of Genesis that Jacob stayed with Laban 20 years.
Gen. 27:45 until your brother’s anger against you subsides and he forgets what you did to him. Then I will send and get you from there. Why should I be bereaved of you both in one day?”
Take note that Rebekah promised to “send and get you from there”. There is no evidence in the Bible that Rebekah ever did that.
Rebekah was afraid of losing both Esau and Jacob in one day because if Esau had killed Jacob, then it would have been necessary to put Esau to death.
Those of us who are familiar with the Bible stories have heard this story so often we are somewhat numb to it. We look with fondness on Bible characters like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We tend to think they were normal families with a few flaws.
However, Isaac’s family was so dysfunctional that Rebekah and Jacob deceived Isaac, then Esau wanted to kill his brother. Think about all the families you know in your life. How many of them are this dysfunctional? Probably very few. This means Isaac’s family is much closer to being one of the worst families in history than it is to being one of the best families in history.
Gen. 27:46 ¶ Then Rebekah said to Isaac, “I am tired of living because of the daughters of Heth; if Jacob takes a wife from the daughters of Heth, like these, from the daughters of the land, what good will my life be to me?”
Once again Rebekah was being dishonest. It may have been true that the daughters of Heth would not have made a good wife, but that wasn’t the real reason Rebekah wanted Isaac to send Jacob away.
Gen. 28:1 ¶ So Isaac called Jacob and blessed him and commanded him and said to him, “You shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan.
Gen. 28:2 Arise, go to Paddan-aram, to the house of Bethuel your mother’s father; and from there take to yourself a wife from the daughters of Laban your mother’s brother.
Gen. 28:3 May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you, that you may become an assembly of peoples.
Gen. 28:4 May He also give you the blessing of Abraham, to you and to your seed with you, that you may possess the land of your sojournings, which God gave to Abraham.”
Isaac passed the blessing of Abraham on to Jacob.
Gen. 28:5 Then Isaac sent Jacob away, and he went to Paddan-aram to Laban, son of Bethuel the Aramean, the brother of Rebekah, the mother of Jacob and Esau.
Gen. 28:6 ¶ And Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Paddan-aram to take for himself a wife from there, and that when he blessed him he commanded him, saying, “You shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan,”
Gen. 28:7 and that Jacob had listened to his father and his mother and had gone to Paddan-aram.
Gen. 28:8 So Esau saw that the daughters of Canaan were displeasing in the sight of his father Isaac;
Esau was already married to two Hittites who brought bitterness to Isaac and Rebekah (see Genesis 26:34). The Hittites were the descendants of Heth. Heth was the son of Canaan (see Genesis 10:15), meaning Esau was married to Canaanites.
Gen. 28:9 and Esau went to Ishmael and took Mahalath, the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, the sister of Nebaioth, to be his wife, besides the wives that he had.
Esau took an Ishmaelite as his wife, hoping Isaac would be pleased with her.
This was a sad situation. Esau wanted his father’s approval, but knew he did not have his father’s approval in something as fundamental as his choice of wife.
Those of us who grew up in church and are familiar with all the Bible stories tend to have positive opinions of Bible characters like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We know they were not perfect people, but we tend to think they were normal families with a few flaws.
However, Isaac’s family was actually very dysfunctional. It was dysfunctional because Isaac favored one son while Rebekah favored another. Rebekah deceived her husband. Jacob deceived his father. Esau had wives who brought grief to his parents. It got so bad that Esau actively planned to kill his brother. Isaac’s family is a great lesson in what families should not do.
To what extent are you or your family making the same mistakes that Isaac’s family made?
What do you need to do differently in order to avoid living in the dysfunction experienced by Issac, Rebekah, Esau, and Jacob?
Gen. 28:10 ¶ Then Jacob departed from Beersheba and went toward Haran.
It was at least 450 miles / 725 km from Beersheba to Haran. That would have been at least a 15 day journey.
Gen. 28:11 And he reached a certain place and spent the night there because the sun had set; and he took one of the stones of the place and put it under his head and lay down in that place.
Gen. 28:12 Then he had a dream, and behold, a ladder stood on the earth with its top touching heaven; and behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.
Gen. 28:13 And behold, Yahweh stood above it and said, “I am Yahweh, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie, I will give it to you and to your seed.
In tomorrow’s reading we will see that this happened in Bethel. Bethel was right in the middle of Canaan. This was the land that Yahweh had promised to Abraham. Now Yahweh was promising to fulfill that promise by giving it to Jacob’s descendants. Jacob’s descendants became the Israelites.
Gen. 28:14 And your seed will also be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and in you and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.
Yahweh had promised that all the families of the earth would be blessed through Abraham. Here we see that Yahweh intended to fulfill that promise through the descendants of Jacob, the Israelites.
Gen. 28:15 Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go. And I will bring you back to this land; for I will not forsake you until I have done what I have promised you.”
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“Scripture quotations taken from the (LSB®) Legacy Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2021 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Managed in partnership with Three Sixteen Publishing Inc. LSBible.org and 316publishing.com.”