Read with Me
Genesis 28:6-9 (HCSB)
Esau noticed that Isaac blessed Jacob and sent him to Paddan-aram to get a wife there. When he blessed him, Isaac commanded Jacob, “Do not marry a Canaanite woman.” And Jacob listened to his father and mother and went to Paddan-aram. Esau realized that his father Isaac disapproved of the Canaanite women, so Esau went to Ishmael and married, in addition to his other wives, Mahalath daughter of Ishmael, Abraham’s son. She was the sister of Nebaioth.
Listen with Me
It must be remembered that even though God had begun to reveal himself to Abraham and Isaac, the picture that they had of Him at this point was fragmentary and incomplete. There was still much of pagan customs and beliefs in them, and even of a subtle form of idolatry, recognizing God not as the only God, but as their god, one of many gods that could be chosen and worshiped.
And like most people in that age, they had also lost touch with God’s ethical standards. He had originally designed marriage to be one man, one woman, one flesh, for life. But since not long after the flood, people had corrupted that model. Abraham himself had taken a second sexual partner while his wife was living, although Hagar was considered a concubine rather than being given the title of wife. Her whole purpose was to produce a child for Sarah, who was barren. Isaac had taken only a single wife, but Esau had taken two wives from the Hittites who lived in the land, out of step with God’s original plan for marriage, but in line with the customs of the people of the land.
When Esau heard about the instructions given to Jacob, to avoid marrying any of the women in the land, but to go back to Haran to get a wife from the extended family, he wasn’t aware that the idea had come from his mother and was being used primarily as a way to get Jacob away far from Esau and his intentions to avenge himself by killing his brother on the day Isaac died. Instead, it had made him wonder if he had lost the blessing because his parents didn’t like his Hittite wives who had brought their gods and their pagan practices into the family’s circle.
Esau’s solution was to take a third wife, one he hoped would be more acceptable to his parents – one of the daughters of Ishmael. Even though Ishmael had been cast out from the family circle when he was a teenager, he had been taught by Abraham to worship the one true God, and he had taught his children to do the same. Esau hoped that this fact, plus the fact that Mahalath was as closely related as any of the women Jacob would find in Haran, would put him back in the good graces of his parents.
Pray with Me
Father, I find it interesting that Esau was so caught up in what he felt he had lost, that he lost track of Your overarching plan. Even though he was not the one You had singled out to receive the promise of the land, he was still a descendant of Abraham through whom the whole world would be blessed if only he would submit to Your rule over his life. Instead, he had conformed himself to the customs of the world, and thus put himself outside Your blessing, something that just taking a more orthodox third wife really couldn’t fix. Lord, help me to keep Your will for me at the center of all I do. Help me to walk in your ways every day so that I can receive all that You have in store for me. Amen.
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