Genesis 28:1

Genesis 28:1 says, 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.  Isaac blessed Jacob once again, this time knowing who Jacob was.  He then told Jacob to not take a wife from the women of Canaan.  As parents, though we really cannot choose who our children marry, as followers of Christ, we should always want them to choose the one they marry wisely.  Verse two states, 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.  Just as Abraham had sent his servant to Abraham's family to find a wife for Isaac, Isaac was sending Jacob to her family to find a wife.  Isaac was not sending a servant, but was sending Jacob himself, which would also give Esau some time to allow his anger to cool.  Somethings are better done personally, and when it comes to salvation, that is the only way we can achieve it.  Verse three declares, And God Almighty bless thee, and make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, that thou mayest be a multitude of people;  Even though Jacob had gotten Isaac's blessing through deceit, once it was given, Isaac asked God's continued blessing on Jacob.  Isaac asked that God make Jacob the father of a multitude of people.  Since this was a promise that God had made to Abraham and reaffirmed to Isaac, we might think that Isaac would already know that this was what God would do.  Still, even if we know God's promise to us, it is good to ask His blessings on others and ourselves.  Verse four adds, 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. Isaac did ask that Jacob be given the blessing of Abraham, and that was that God would make Abraham the father of a great nation.  We, as followers of Christ, can really only ask that others will claim the promise of salvation through Christ and thereby become a part of His great nation.  We will spiritually always be strangers in this world.  Verse five states, 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.  Isaac sent Jacob to Rebekah's family.  While he was alive, though he had blessed Jacob, Isaac was still the authority.  When we become a follower of Christ, we still need to listen to those who are older in their relationship to God and wiser than us many times.  Verse six declares, When Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob, and sent him away to Padanaram, to take him a wife from thence; and that as he blessed him he gave him a charge, saying, Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan;  Esau saw what was happening with Jacob.  He may have been watching Jacob because he was still very angry at him and wanted to see what would happen next.  It is not unusual that someone who is angry at us, especially if they feel that we have somehow cheated them, to be watching us closely.  Verse seven adds, And that Jacob obeyed his father and his mother, and was gone to Padanaram;  Esau saw that Jacob obeyed his father and mother.  I believe that this may have further added to his anger.  Verse eight continues, And Esau seeing that the daughters of Canaan pleased not Isaac his father;  We have already been told that Esau married two local women, so he may have felt that Isaac was rejecting him even more by sending Isaac back to Rebekah's family to find a wife.  Though Esau should not have married more than one woman, he had.  We should attempt to never play favorites with the spouse's of our children, though at times it may be difficult not to.  Verse nine states, Then went Esau unto Ishmael, and took unto the wives which he had Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael Abraham’s son, the sister of Nebajoth, to be his wife.  Esau took one of Ishmael's daughters as wife, possibly believing this would satisfy the requirement that his wife be a blood relative of Abraham.