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5 So Isaac sent Jacob away, and he went to Padan Aram, to Laban the son of Bethuel the Syrian, the brother of Rebekah, the mother of Jacob and Esau. 6 Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Padan Aram to take himself a wife from there, and that as he blessed him he gave him a charge, 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 Padan Aram. 8 Also Esau saw that the daughters of Canaan did not please his father Isaac. 9 So Esau went to Ishmael and took Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, the sister of Nebajoth, to be his wife in addition to the wives he had. ~ Genesis 28:5-9
Today, we return to our study of the life of Jacob in Genesis 28. When Jacob's father blessed Jacob at the expense of Esau, Isaac left out the spiritual aspects of the covenant that God had given to Abraham. He had done this earlier in Genesis 27 where he had mentioned the land, the seed, and the blessing that was promised to Abraham, but he said nothing about how God would bless the whole world through His Seed. This was a serious oversight on the behalf of Isaac and this may well explain why Esau went the way he did.
In v.5 of today's passage we read, "So Isaac sent Jacob away, and he went to Padan Aram, to Laban the son of Bethuel the Syrian, the brother of Rebekah, the mother of Jacob and Esau."
In this verse, Rebekah was referred to as "the mother of Jacob and Esau." This is the first time in the Bible that Jacob is mentioned first before Esau. The prophecy given to Rebekah back in Genesis 25 when the children were still in her womb was fully realized right here in today's passage. The older shall serve the younger was the result of who would be defined by God in the end and who wouldn't.
We don’t know how many people traveled with Jacob to Padan Aram, but we do know that Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, went with him back to her home. Deborah was the one who delivered Rebekah’s children, including Jacob. For a woman who is only mentioned by name once in the Bible, she played a very important role in the history leading to the coming of the Lord Jesus. We know that she traveled back to Padan Aram with Jacob because according to Genesis 35 she was with him when he arrived there.
In v.6-7 of today's passage we read, "6 Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Padan Aram to take himself a wife from there, and that as he blessed him he gave him a charge, 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 Padan Aram."
God instructs us to obey our parents for a reason. Parents were given to their children so that they could lead their children to faith in the God of the Bible. God desires to be the Heavenly Father to all of our children, but this can only happen through our faith in Him. It is through our faith in Him and trust that we decide to be defined by God through our obedience to Him. In the New Testament book of Philippians we learn that because of the obedience of the Lord Jesus to His Father, God highly exalted Him and gave Him the name which is above every name.
In the mind of Jacob, I am sure that this idea to be obedient to his parents was a no brainer because he trusted his parents. In addition, Jacob knew that going to Padan Aram was a great idea because there he would be safe from the violent overtures of his brother Esau. So, Jacob made the long arduous journey to Padan Aram where he would meet his wife. The distance from Canaan to Padan Aram was about 480 miles. For Esau to go there would meant a long journey; It would have meant a long time away from his family and he would have been unable to try to regain Isaac’s favor during the time he was gone.
In v.8-9 of today's passage we read, "8 Also Esau saw that the daughters of Canaan did not please his father Isaac. 9 So Esau went to Ishmael and took Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, the sister of Nebajoth, to be his wife in addition to the wives he had."
When Esau saw that his father was not pleased with his Canaanite wives to whom he had been wed for 40 years, he set out to change it. Unlike Jacob who set out in faith to obey his dad, Esau looked in the wrong direction for answers. Esau did this because he never entered into a personal relationship with the Lord. Foreign to Esau was a life lived by faith in the God of the Bible, even though it was modeled for him by his mother and father. Esau stood at the door of the Lord, but he never invited the Lord into his life. Instead, he lived in accordance with his works-based religion and his faith was essentially in himself.
Since Padan Aram was so far away, Esau, instead of doing what would have been pleasing to his dad, he went to marry a daughter of Ishmael. Again, he did this because Ishmael was a son of Abraham and Esau thought that this would make Isaac happy with him once again. But, Ishmael had been removed from Abraham's house and it was Isaac who became the son of the promise. Esau was not even aware that Ishmael was a picture of the law for the narrative that God was bringing about never included either Ishmael or Esau because they never came to faith in God.
No descendant of Ishmael is found in the genealogy of the Lord Jesus because the law is of works. It is faith, not works, which pleases God. Ishmael and Esau were both pictures of fallen man. Instead of exercising faith and traveling to Padan Aram to obtain a wife to make his father happy, Esau went to Ishmael, picturing for us a man who tried to earn his father's favor through his supposed good works.
The girl Esau married was named Mahalath which means "sad song." That day, Esau did what religions all around the world do every day, he performed in order to please God instead of exercising faith in Him which is the only thing that pleases Him. This was the stumbling block that Esau stumbled over again and again. Esau trusted in his goodness to please his father instead of doing what would have pleased his father.
We can spend our whole lives just like Esau making the wrong choices and continuing on down the wrong path, or we can make the choice to cry out to the Lord. When we trust in something other than the Lord's mercy and grace, we are actually trusting in ourselves. This is self-idolatry. The answer to this is as simple as A,B,C. The "A" stands for admit that you are a fallen sinner in need of God's help. The "B" stands for believe in the Lord Jesus as your Savior. The "C" stands for calling out to the Lord and inviting Him into your life to be your God and Savior.
