Genesis 28:1 So Isaac called for Jacob and blessed him. Then he commanded him: “Do not marry a Canaanite woman.
As I read this dysfunctional family saga, Gen 50:20 keeps coming to mind, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good….” Isaac wanted to bless his favorite. Esau wanted the blessing he threw away carelessly (that was never actually his). Rebekah wanted her favorite to get what she saw as his due. Jacob wanted the birthright.
Genesis 28:2 Go at once to Paddan Aram, to the house of your mother’s father Bethuel. Take a wife for yourself there, from among the daughters of Laban, your mother’s brother.
They intended harm, trickery, deception, but God…. I was going to say that God used it for good. And He does in Gen 50:20, but in this story, God uses their scheme to accomplish His will, which He declared at the twins’ birth– “the older will serve the younger” (Gen 25:23). They schemed, but God’s will was accomplished, despite them.
Genesis 28:3 May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and increase your numbers until you become a community of peoples.
Precious Savior, As I ponder what You would have me learn from today’s scripture, I wonder if the lesson is that I don’t need to get all upset when things don’t go the way I feel they should, when I feel I am due something and it doesn’t look like it will happen. If I trust, if I put You first, Your way will win out. Your will *will* be accomplished. So help me to peacefully, defiantly live out Exodus 14:14: “The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still.” Amen.
Genesis 28:4 May he give you and your descendants the blessing given to Abraham, so that you may take possession of the land where you now reside as a foreigner, the land God gave to Abraham.”
Have a blessed day.