41
¶ And Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing
wherewith his father blessed him: and Esau said in his heart, The days of
mourning for my father are at hand; then will I slay my brother Jacob. 42 And these words of Esau her elder son were
told to Rebekah: and she sent and called Jacob her younger son, and said unto
him, Behold, thy brother Esau, as touching thee, doth comfort himself,
purposing to kill thee. 43 Now
therefore, my son, obey my voice; and arise, flee thou to Laban my brother to
Haran; 44 And tarry with him a few days,
until thy brother’s fury turn away; 45
Until thy brother’s anger turn away from thee, and he forget that which
thou hast done to him: then I will send, and fetch thee from thence: why should
I be deprived also of you both in one day? 46
And Rebekah said to Isaac, I am weary of my life because of the
daughters of Heth: if Jacob take a wife of the daughters of Heth, such as these
which are of the daughters of the land, what good shall my life do me?
At this point Esau planned on killing Jacob once their
father had died. Someone, perhaps a servant, told Rebekah who told Jacob. She
told him to run away to his Uncle Laban. A
few days clearly just means a period of time until Esau’s heat of anger
dies down. In fact, Esau will not be full of rage at Jacob when they meet again.
God did not permit Esau’s wrath to fester and turn into a quest for revenge.
Rebekah promises to call Jacob from his exile. And, she tells Isaac that she
wants Jacob to leave lest he, too, take Hittite wives.
Chapter
28
1
¶ And Isaac called Jacob, and blessed
him, and charged him, and said unto him, Thou shalt not take a wife of the
daughters of Canaan. 2 Arise, go to
Padanaram, to the house of Bethuel thy mother’s father; and take thee a wife
from thence of the daughters of Laban thy mother’s brother. 3 And God Almighty bless thee, and make thee
fruitful, and multiply thee, that thou mayest be a multitude of people; 4 And give thee the blessing of Abraham, to
thee, and to thy seed with thee; that thou mayest inherit the land wherein thou
art a stranger, which God gave unto Abraham. 5
And Isaac sent away Jacob: and he went to Padanaram unto Laban, son of
Bethuel the Syrian, the brother of Rebekah, Jacob’s and Esau’s mother.
Amazingly, to us anyway, Isaac, knowing now of Jacob’s
deception blesses him again. Perhaps he was relieved that Jacob would be going
away. But, he commands Jacob to go to his Uncle Laban’s house and take a wife
from his own people. Genetic deterioration would not have been significant in
those early days of man’s history as it is now in our degenerated state.
Marrying a cousin would not necessarily have been unhealthy but, even if it
was, it was a practice not uncommon.
Isaac blesses Jacob in that he may be multiplied and a
great many people will come from him. Remember the blessing Rebekah received?
Genesis
24:60 And they blessed Rebekah, and said
unto her, Thou art our sister, be thou the mother of thousands of millions, and
let thy seed possess the gate of those which hate them.
Isaac passed on the blessing given by God to Abraham
regarding the land grant, and to his posterity. Clearly, Jacob did not
physically receive this inheritance but it is for his posterity. Many
prophecies in the Bible are for a future time, not the time in which they are
given.
Hebrews
11:8 By faith Abraham, when he was
called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance,
obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. 9 By faith he sojourned in the land of promise,
as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the
heirs with him of the same promise: 10
For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker
is God. 11 Through faith also Sara
herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when
she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised. 12 Therefore sprang there even of one, and him
as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand
which is by the sea shore innumerable. 13
These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having
seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and
confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
Always keep in mind how God’s plan of reconciling
mankind to Himself is playing out in this history.
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