Jacob Leaves to get A Suitable Wife

12/13/2006

SPIRITUAL DIARY

My Worship Time                  Focus:  Jacob leaves to get a suitable wife

Bible Reading & Meditation             Reference:  Genesis 27:46-28:9

            Message of the verses:  “46  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?’

1 ¶  So Isaac called Jacob and blessed him and charged him, and said to him, ‘You shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan.  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.  3  ‘May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you, that you may become a company of peoples.  4  ‘May He also give you the blessing of Abraham, to you and to your descendants with you, that you may possess the land of your sojournings, which God gave to Abraham.’

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.

6 ¶  Now Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Paddan-aram to take to himself a wife from there, and that when he blessed him he charged him, saying, ‘You shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan,’  7  and that Jacob had obeyed his father and his mother and had gone to Paddan-aram.  8  So Esau saw that the daughters of Canaan displeased his father Isaac; 9  and Esau went to Ishmael, and married, besides the wives that he had, Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, the sister of Nebaioth.”

Rebekah now talks to her husband about having Jacob leave and to get a wife from Abraham’s family, because she knew that Esau was threatening to kill Jacob and Isaac does agree with Rebekah for he knew that the covenant blessings were suppose to go to Jacob all of the time and thus did not seem to upset about the outcome of what just happened.  Isaac went so far as to give Jacob two more blessings, and this makes me wonder why he did not have any more blessings for Esau when he asked for more, for Isaac’s response was that he had no more blessings to give him.  The two additional blessings are found in verses 3-4 of chapter 28 and one of them was the blessing of Abraham, that Jacob’s descendents would possess the Promised Land.

Verse 6-8 tell more of the sad story of Esau, and that he did not get it spiritually for he did figure out that the wives that he had made his parent upset, but the next wife that he chose was still not the kind of wife that his parents would have liked for him to have, as she came from his uncle Ishmael’s family.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Through out this story of Jacob who eventually got the covenant blessings, and how he got them and then leaving for the home of Abraham’s family the hand of God is seen and his plan coming together in spite of the sins of those involved in this family.  God surely does not remember our sins as He has said in His Word, but there were sad effects of the sins that this family had committed even though God’s plan was being fulfilled.  I can surely learn from this story, and what I can learn from can be summed up in one of my favorite and most loved verses.  Trust in the Lord with all of your heart and lean not upon your own understanding, in all of you ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your path.

The Word of God has be a challenge to my heart as I read and studied it this morning.

My Steps of Faith Today:  Continue to trust and rely upon the Lord as Proverbs 3:5-6 says.