Genesis 28:1-9 - Homiletics

Jacob and Esau, or diverging paths.

I. JACOB 'S JOURNEY TO PADAN - ARAM .

1. The path of duty . Entered on in obedience to his mother's wish and his father's commandment, it was an e vide nce of filial piety. It is the token of a good son that he "hears the instruction of his father, and forsakes not the taw of his mother" ( Proverbs 1:8 ). Sons come to mature age should respect and, where not inconsistent with allegiance to God, yield submission to parental authority ( Proverbs 6:20 ; Malachi 1:6 ; Ephesians 6:1-3 ).

2. The path of blessing . The benediction already bestowed upon Jacob was repeated with greater amplitude and tenderness before he left the patriarchal tent. Happy the youth who enters upon life's journey carrying on his head and in his heart a father's blessing I much more who goes forth beneath the canopy of Heaven's benediction! and this is ever the experience of him who travels by the way of filial obedience. Pious children seldom fail to come to honor, and never want the favor of the Lord ( Psalms 37:26 ; Proverbs 4:20-22 ; Proverbs 8:32 ).

3. The path of promise . In addition to his father's blessing and the Almighty's benediction, Jacob carried with him as he left Beersheba the promise of a seed and an inheritance to be in due time acquired; and in like manner now has the saint exceeding great and precious promises to cheer him in his heavenward pilgrimage, promises the full realization of which is attainable only in the future ( John 14:2 ; 1 Peter 1:4 ).

4. The path of hope . Sad and sorrowful as Jacob's heart must have been as he kissed his mother and bade farewell to Isaac, it was at least sustained by pleasant expectation. Gilding the horizon of his future was the prospect of a wife to love as Isaac had loved Rebekah, and to be the mother of the seed of promise. So the pathway of the children of promise, though often painful, arduous, and protracted, is always lighted by the star of hope, and always points to a bright and beautiful beyond.

II. ESAU 'S MARRIAGE WITH MAHALATH .

1. The way of sin . His former wives being neither dead nor divorced, the conduct of Esau in adding to them a third was wrong.

2. The way of shame . In the selection of Ishmael's daughter he hoped to please his father, but was apparently indifferent about the judgment of either Rebekah or Jehovah. Daring transgressors, like Esau, rather glory in their shame than feel abashed at their wickedness.

3. The way of sorrow . If not to himself, at least to his pious parents, this fresh matrimonial alliance could not fail to be a grief. The daughter of Ishmael was certainly better than a daughter of the Hittites, being almost as near a relative on Isaac's side as Rachel and Leah were on Rebekah's; but, unlike Rachel and Leah, who belonged to the old family stock (the Terachites) in Mesopotamia, Mahalath descended from a branch which had been removed from the Abrahamic tree.

Learn—

1. The care which pious parents should take to see their sons well married.

2. The piety which children should delight to show to their parents.

3. The connection which subsists between true religion and prosperity.

4. The inevitable tendency of sin to produce shame and sorrow.

5. The wickedness of violating God's law of marriage.