Genesis 26:34 When Esau was forty years old, he married Judith daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and also Basemath daughter of Elon the Hittite.
I amazes me how many people will reject a blessing. The blessing can be right there in front of them, but they don’t seize it. They would rather allow the fruit of blessing to just sit there unharvested, rotting on the vine. What a shame.
I think, most of the time, fear gets the way of picking up the blessing being offered. We get comfortable where we are in life, even if it is exceedingly difficult, and that prevents us from letting go of the thing in our hands and grasping the new blessing heading our way.
Our text comes at the end of a chapter that has outlined the blessings that are flowing in Isaac’s life. The chapter has centered around the digging of wells, an essential to life in a desert climate. There has been some opposition from neighbors who don’t see the LORD’s blessing in the exploration for wells. Instead, they see competition and rivalry.
But that view couldn’t be further from the truth. The LORD has promised to bless Abraham’s descendants and this who are willing to line up with them. If they would just stop the opposition, then the blessing would flow over to them as well.
Those who don’t see the blessing of Isaac, see the world as a place where there are only so many resources. So if they give up a well to Isaac, they will have less. But that isn’t how the LORD”s economy works. He has more than enough blessing for everyone.
Our text tells us about Esau, Jacob’s older brother. His priorities are all backwards. He wants to be at the top and his younger brother at the bottom. A strange event since they are twins.
But Jacob had come out of the womb assuming the role of the Serpent of Genesis three. The Garden Serpent will bite the heal of the Blessed One. Isaac comes out holding onto Esau’s heal, even though the promise is that Isaac will be on top.
This point is a pivot in the story. It now becomes how each of these two sons goes about finding a wife to help fulfill the promise of God. Esau marries two foreign women. Two and foreign. Definitely not what mom and dad want him to do. This becomes a snare to him, and a source of grief to his parents.
Jacob, on the other hand, goes to his tribal family to get a wife, just like Isaac had done. This is a contrast in choices. Will you do it God’s way, in a way that honors Him in what you do and how you do it? It seams as though Jacob, despite his starting life as the one who is playing the role of the snake in the Garden, going for the heal, he seems to be turning a corner.
But he has not arrived at his destination. He is moving in the right direction, but he has a journey to go. But will he go for the blessing, or short-change the process? You have to wait and see.
But clearly, Esau has run ahead. He has made his choices, and he is sticking with it. He has alienated his parents. He stands alone. And alone is not a good place to be.
So we must decide. Will we go for blessing? Or will we go forward despite our past? Even heal grabbers can turn out OK.
The Arnold Journey 