Arise, go to Padan-Aram, to the house of Bethuel thy mother's father, and take a wife thence of the daughters of Laban thy mother's brother.
Isaac sends Jacob off with an instruction: leave Canaan, go to your mother's family, and take a wife from there. Two questions follow. Why a bride from Padan-aram? And why must Jacob travel for her himself?
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The blessing carries a refusal inside it. One writer explains why Canaanite wives were ruled out, and how Jacob's obedience differed from Isaac's:
One thing stands out in the blessing Jacob's father pronounced on him: a "charge" (v. 1) came with it. Jacob must not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan. In Jehovah's eyes they stood accursed. The judgment on them only waited until the guilt of the Amorites was full. Jacob the wanderer had to refuse any tie with the Canaanite as clearly as Isaac did. Yet Isaac was forbidden in the strictest way to leave the land (Gen. 24:6, 8), and his bride had to be brought to him; whereas Jacob goes in search of a wife to the house of his mother's father (v. 2). So Jacob's earthly place and relations stand out as plainly as Isaac's heavenly ones. Isaac's history is a picture of sovereign grace calling a bride for the Heir of all things in heavenly places.
Another writer follows the question of who a child marries down three generations:
Abraham had been most careful about the choice of a wife for Isaac; she was not to be a daughter of the Canaanites. But Isaac clearly did not interfere when Esau chose wives from the daughters of the Hittites. Those wives were a grief of mind to him. Isaac charged Jacob not to take a wife from the daughters of Canaan. Yet Jacob does not appear to have minded when Judah joined himself to the Canaanites through Shuah. There is much for Christians to learn here. We should be very careful about our associations, both for ourselves and for our children. 2 Corinthians 6:14-18 is a Scripture we should ponder in relation to this important subject.
One commentator sees a real change in Isaac at this point:
That Isaac was satisfied with Rebekah's explanation is clear as we read the opening verses of Genesis 28. Indeed at this point we see him in a much more favourable light, and speaking as a man of faith. He charges Jacob to go to Padan-aram and find a wife among his own people. He then blesses him in a way that surely shows he now accepted God's purpose about his two sons. That purpose overruled and cancelled out his own natural inclinations.
Commentators differ on how much credit Isaac deserves. Another writer leaves his motive an open question:
Isaac, restored in soul, now follows in the wake of the promise, and forbids Jacob to take a wife of the daughters of Canaan. This was right; but was it done intelligently, or was he persuaded by Rebekah's fears? However that may be, Jacob is sent to Padan-aram, and the lessons of faith continue in his history.
The name marks a real district, and the family already had roots there:
A farming district in Mesopotamia. The city of Nahor stood there. Terah and his family moved there from Ur of the Chaldees. Rebekah, Leah and Rachel, the wives of Isaac and Jacob, all came from there (Gen. 25:20; Gen. 28:2-7; Gen. 31:18). The exact name is Paddan-aram, meaning 'table land of Aram.'
Jacob obeyed, and obedience cost him. The same writer follows what the journey did to him:
Isaac asks Jacob to go to Padan-aram and take a wife from there of the patriarch's kin, from Laban's daughters. So early must Jehovah visit Jacob according to his ways. He became an exile from the land of promise. In a strange land his own relatives cheated him. This was the sad repayment of his own crooked ways. Those ways grasped at what Jehovah had already given him, and would have secured for him in His own holy way of faithfulness and truth.
- Charge — The blessing came with a ban: no wife from Canaan. God had already condemned that people.
- Contrast — Isaac never left the land, and his bride was brought to him. Jacob had to go and find his own. The difference marks his earthly path.
- Clan — Padan-aram means "table land of Aram." It was the family's home district, and the home of Rebekah, Leah and Rachel.
- Cost — Obedience sent Jacob into exile. There his own relatives cheated him. It was the repayment of his crooked ways, since God had already promised him what he grabbed at.
- Care — The lesson still stands: watch your associations, for yourself and for your children.
And the Almighty God bless thee, and make thee fruitful and multiply thee, that thou mayest become a company of peoples.
Jacob is leaving home, and his father sends him off with a blessing instead of goods. Two questions sit in the verse: why Isaac blesses him so readily now, and why he calls on God as God Almighty.
Isaac had planned to bless Esau. Now he blesses Jacob without hesitation, and that change is the point.
In verses 3 and 4 Isaac blesses Jacob again. He wants God Almighty to make him fruitful and to multiply his descendants. He wants God's promise to Abraham fulfilled through him, both in his descendants and in the possession of the land of promise. It seems clear in this passage that Isaac's thoughts had been corrected, for he did not speak this way to Esau. God had overruled him and given the blessing to Jacob. Isaac at least stayed by that, and here he confirms it in no uncertain terms.
In Hebrew this title is El Shaddai. Writers read its two parts in different ways.
The word El is said to mean strength, omnipotence. Some think Shaddai means the same thing. Others prefer to translate it as all-sufficient, or self-sufficiency. Either way, the two words together carry divine attributes, since omnipotence and all-sufficiency are found in God alone.
God did not use one name in every age. He gave this one to the patriarchs — Abraham, Isaac and Jacob — and each name He gives comes with a way of living.
"Jehovah" is the name of relationship taken with Israel, as "Shaddai" with the patriarchs. God revealed Himself to those fathers as "El Shaddai", and they were to walk in the faith of that name. He revealed Himself as Jehovah to Moses and Israel, and they were to walk in the faith of that name. He reveals Himself to us as Father, and so we are to walk.
Jacob is about to leave the promised land with nothing. This title fits that moment exactly.
God revealed Himself to Abraham as "the Almighty" (El Shaddai). Abraham was called to be a pilgrim, with none but God to look to, so He is revealed to him as the "All Powerful One."
Isaac prays a name he had never received the way Abraham and Jacob did.
It is also worth noting that in verse 3 Isaac says, "God Almighty bless you," and in verse 4, "May He give the blessing of Abraham to you." But the blessing is clearly limited. It reaches only to a "multitude of peoples," and to his inheriting, with his offspring, "the land of his sojournings which God gave to Abraham." Yet we never hear that God appeared to Isaac under that name, as He did to Abraham so plainly in Genesis 17:1... Isaac did not receive it directly, as Abraham and Jacob did.
The prayer asks for fruitfulness, numbers and land. Notice where it stops.
"God Almighty bless you," prayed Isaac, "and make you fruitful and multiply you, that you may become a company of peoples." So it was of old, so it will be yet more in the future. Here, as before, this is blessing on earth only. Not a word points to heaven or eternity. The prayer promises growth on earth, but nothing of a higher order.
One promise given to Abraham is missing here. It is the one that narrows down to a single descendant.
Another mark of difference is of much interest, and Galatians 3:16 points to it. "Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring." The apostle reasons on the one offspring, who is Christ, as against the many descendants, who are Israel... This however is absent from Isaac's blessing on Jacob.
Years later God speaks this name over Jacob Himself. Jacob keeps it on his own lips to the end of his life.
Isaac blessed Jacob in the Name of the Almighty (Gen. 28:3). Later God changed Jacob's name to Israel and said to him, "I am God Almighty… the land that I gave to Abraham and Isaac I will give to you" (Gen. 35:9–12). Jacob uses the Name of the Almighty in Genesis 43:14, 48:3 and 49:25. He knew the omnipotent power of Him who had blessed him despite all his failures.
- Corrected — Isaac stops fighting God's choice. He confirms it in plain words, and speaks to Jacob as he never spoke to Esau.
- Almighty — El Shaddai means strength and all-sufficiency. Commentators differ over which sense the word Shaddai itself carries.
- Pilgrim — this is the name given to men with nothing to lean on but God, and Jacob is leaving the land empty-handed.
- Earthly — the prayer asks for fruitfulness, peoples and land. Heaven, eternity and the one offspring who is Christ are left out.
- Answered — God later speaks this name to Jacob Himself. Jacob dies still naming the Almighty who blessed him despite his failures.
And may he give thee the blessing of Abraham, to thee and to thy seed with thee, in order that thou mayest possess the land of thy sojourning, which God gave to Abraham!
Isaac sends Jacob away to find a wife. As he goes, Isaac hands him the promise first made to Abraham — a land Jacob is about to leave, and one he will only ever live in as a stranger. So what is "the blessing of Abraham"? And how can a man inherit ground he only travels through?
Earlier Isaac had tried to aim the family blessing at Esau, and God overruled him. Now he blesses Jacob knowing exactly who stands in front of him. One commentator finds the proof in this: Isaac never speaks this way to Esau.
Isaac again blesses Jacob in verses 3 and 4. He asks God Almighty to make him fruitful and to multiply his descendants. He asks that God would fulfil through him the promise made to Abraham, both as to his descendants and as to owning the land of promise. It seems clear in this passage that God had corrected Isaac's thinking, for he did not speak this way to Esau. God had overruled him by having the blessing given to Jacob. Isaac at least stayed by that, and here he confirms it in no uncertain terms.
Commentators differ on how much this phrase carries. One reads it as everything Esau threw away — the promise of a coming Seed who would bless all nations:
He calls on God to give "the blessing of Abraham" to him. That blessing carried with it the coming of the "Seed," in whom all nations would be blessed. It was the very heart of that much-wanted birthright.
Another weighs Isaac's actual words and finds them narrow. Isaac names the blessing, then defines it by the land. He says nothing of heaven, of eternity, or of the one Seed:
"God Almighty bless you," prayed Isaac, "and make you fruitful and multiply you, that you may become a company of peoples." So it was of old, and so it will be still more in the future. Here, as before, the blessing is on earth only. Not a word drops that points to heaven or eternity. Growth on earth is sure, but the words reach no higher. Even when Isaac asks God to give him "the blessing of Abraham," to him and to his seed with him, he narrows it to this: "that you may take possession of the land of your sojournings that God gave to Abraham."
Isaac says God gave the land to Abraham. Yet Abraham had to buy a plot just to bury his dead in it. That oddity is not a flaw in the promise — it is the point:
God's gift is absolute and future. Buying a burial-place from the Hittite confirms this rather than weakening it. For who that owned this land, or any other, would think of buying what was already his? He lays his dead in land so clearly not his own that he has to buy it for the purpose — a pledge to faith that he will have it another day… God will surely give "this land" to Abram's seed. They will buy it from no stranger in that day. Nothing that happens in between can touch His promise.
These men called themselves strangers out loud, and this verse is one of three places where they do it:
"They acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth." This was true in the plainest sense, as their journeys carried them on through time. By word of mouth they declared this of themselves. (Gen. 23:4; Gen. 28:4; Gen. 47:9.)
Holding the title deed while living as a tenant is not only Jacob's story. One writer links the same pattern to the Christian through Galatians 3:14:
We notice further that having this blessing meant owning the land of promise in the end, but for now living as strangers in the middle of it. This has a remarkable voice for us. In Galatians 3:14 we read of "the blessing of Abraham" coming "to the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith." In receiving the Spirit we have the pledge of the heavenly portion that is ours, but for the present we are left as strangers in the place where we are. Our portion lies there in the age to come. Our life as strangers is here in the age that is.
- Corrected. Isaac once aimed the blessing at Esau. Now he speaks it over Jacob with open eyes, and never speaks this way to Esau again.
- Given. The blessing is not Isaac's to invent; he asks God to hand on what God already promised Abraham.
- Disputed. Commentators differ on the reach of "the blessing of Abraham." One sees the promised Seed for all nations in it. Another sees it tied to the land and to earth.
- Unheld. Abraham had to buy a grave in the land God "gave" him — proof that the gift is absolute and still future, not that it failed.
- Sojourning. Jacob inherits a land he is only passing through. Believers receive the Spirit as the pledge of a portion in the age to come, and stay strangers in this one.
And Isaac sent away Jacob; and he went to Padan-Aram, to Laban the son of Bethuel the Syrian, the brother of Rebecca, Jacob's and Esau's mother.
One short line sends Jacob north to his mother's family in Padan-aram. Behind it stand a father acting in faith at last, a son leaving home as an exile, and one question: is God blessing Jacob here, or disciplining him?
Earlier chapters show Isaac in a poor light. Here his tone changes.
At this point we see him in a much more favourable light, and speaking as a man of faith. He charges Jacob to go to Padan-aram and find a wife among his own people, and he blesses him in a way that surely shows he now accepted the purpose of God as to his two sons, which overruled and cancelled out his own natural inclinations. He asks God to give "the blessing of Abraham" to Jacob. That blessing brought with it the coming of the "Seed," in whom all nations would be blessed, and it was the very heart of the birthright Jacob had wanted so much.
Commentators differ on how far Isaac's words reach. Another writer weighs what the prayer never mentions.
"And God Almighty bless you," prayed Isaac, "and make you fruitful, and multiply you, that you may become a company of peoples." So it was of old, so it will be yet more in the future. Here, as before, the blessing is for earth alone. Not one word points to heaven or eternity. It guarantees growth on earth and says nothing higher. Even Isaac's prayer for "the blessing of Abraham," for Jacob and his offspring, narrows to one thing: "that you may take possession of the land of your sojournings that God gave to Abraham."
Isaac never left Canaan to find a wife; a servant brought Rebekah to him. Jacob must make the journey himself.
Here, on the contrary, Jacob must go to Padan-aram and take a wife there from the patriarch's family, from Laban's daughters. So early must Jehovah deal with Jacob according to his ways… He became an exile from the land of promise. In a strange land his own relatives cheated him. That was the sad payment for his crooked ways, used to grab what Jehovah had already given him and would have secured in His holy way of faithfulness and truth.
This is no joyful send-off.
After all this, at the end of his ways though not of his days, Isaac sends Jacob away. The suspicious and frightened Rebekah asked for it. He does it with sorrow, shame and disappointment — the bitter fruit their own way had prepared for them.
From this verse Jacob has no home. That is where God begins to work on him.
We now follow Jacob as he leaves his father's roof, and see him as a homeless, lonely wanderer on the earth. It is here that God's special dealings with him begin… God will carry out His own purpose, no matter by what means. But if His child takes himself out of His hands, unrepentant in spirit and unbelieving in heart, he must expect much sorrowful exercise and painful discipline. So it was with Jacob: he might not have had to flee to Haran, had he allowed God to act for him.
Jacob reaches the land his family came from. He never treats it as home.
His wrong way brings him under divine chastening, and he has to seek the distant land of his forefathers. But he is there as an exile, not as a man at home. He is there because God is disciplining him, not because his own heart wanted it… As he set out, he was already talking eagerly of his return.
One writer reads Jacob's road north as a preview of what would happen to his descendants.
Jacob's departure stands for Israel being driven out of their own land into wandering and suffering, until God brings them back to the land He swore to the fathers of the nation. In the chastening that passed over Jacob we see how God governs Israel.
- Blessed. Isaac sends Jacob off as a man of faith. He has accepted God's choice over his own preference.
- Limited. Isaac prays for fruitfulness and the land. Commentators differ over whether the promised Seed stands inside that prayer.
- Sent. Isaac never left Canaan for a wife; Jacob must go himself. The road to Laban is God dealing with him according to his ways.
- Disciplined. From this verse he is a homeless wanderer, and God's special dealings with him begin. He might have avoided the chastening had he let God act for him.
- Longing. He lives in Padan-aram as an exile, talking of return from the day he sets out. His story maps a nation later scattered and brought home.
And Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob, and sent him away to Padan-Aram, to take a wife thence, blessing him, and giving him a charge saying, Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan;
Esau watched Jacob receive the family blessing and leave to find a wife among their own relatives, not among the Canaanites. What Esau did with what he saw shows the difference between faith and copying.
Esau watched Jacob receive more than a kind farewell. The blessing carried the birthright itself.
Here we see Isaac in a much more favourable light, speaking as a man of faith. He charges Jacob to go to Padan-aram and find a wife among his own people. He blesses him in a way that shows he now accepted the purpose of God about his two sons. That purpose overruled and cancelled out his own natural leanings. He calls on God to give him "the blessing of Abraham." That blessing brought with it the coming of the "Seed," in whom all nations should be blessed. It was the very essence of the birthright Esau had coveted.
Esau noticed three things: the blessing, the charge about marriage, and Jacob's obedience. Each one pushed him toward a plan of his own.
Esau learned that Isaac had given Jacob his blessing and sent him away with a charge not to take a wife from the Canaanites. He also learned that Jacob had accepted his parents' charge and obeyed (vv. 6-7). Then it stirred Esau up that his two wives had not pleased his father (v. 8). Yet how sad was his effort to fix the situation! He seems to have thought his parents would be more pleased if he added another wife, so long as she was related to Abraham! So he took the daughter of Ishmael, the son of the slave woman (v. 9)… He knew his father had only one wife. How could he expect Isaac to be pleased that Esau now had three! But "those who are in the flesh cannot please God" (Rom. 8:8).
Esau copied the outward shape of his brother's obedience. One thing was missing.
Scripture tells us in verses 6-9 that Esau imitated his brother as far as appearance allowed. He did this because his Canaanite wives displeased his father. But God was not in his thoughts; and his imitation fell miserably short. For along with his Hittite wives he took a daughter of Ishmael as wife. She was the child of the slave woman sent away from Abraham's house. There was no faith, only a natural and useless effort after better ways. Apart from faith it is impossible to please God. Anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists, and that He rewards those who seek Him out. This was true of Jacob, in no way of Esau.
Esau's move looked like reform. But the moment for it had already passed.
God made clear the character He put on this transaction with Jacob. Then came Esau's imitation of conduct directed in this way. We must expect this. But in fact it only revives the earlier lawlessness towards God. It does not remedy the evil; it increases it. God had already passed sentence. When there had been any opportunity for it, or good in it, he did not do God's will but his own. Now this imitation was too late.
Ishmael was Abraham's son, so his daughter looked closer to the family line than Esau's Canaanite wives.
In the eyes of God there was no difference between Ishmael's daughter and the daughter of Canaan. She was a sorrow to Esau's parents and to God, in nature and in practice. In his second choice Esau came near to the right line. But he stopped short of the mind of God for the descendants of Abraham, the friend of God. How often Christians form close friendships with people who look connected to the Christian faith, but who turn out to be no different from the world.
Esau's whole story runs on one settled character. The New Testament names it with a word older translations give as "profane."
The apostle calls him "a profane person, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright"… So we learn what a profane person is. He is one who would like to hold both worlds. He would like to enjoy the present without losing his title to the future. This is by no means an uncommon case. It pictures for us the worldly person who only claims faith. His conscience has never felt the action of divine truth, and his heart has never felt the influence of divine grace.
- Saw. Esau watched the blessing, the charge, and Jacob's obedience. He saw it all and received none of it.
- Copied. He imitated his brother's course as closely as appearance allowed, but God was not in his thoughts.
- Missed. Without faith the copy is worthless. Anyone who comes to God must believe He exists, and that He rewards those who seek Him out.
- Late. God had already passed sentence. When obedience would have counted, Esau did his own will.
- Near. A daughter of Ishmael came close to the right line and stopped short of God's mind. Friendships built on Christian appearance without Christian reality miss in the same way.
and [that] Jacob had obeyed his father and his mother, and was gone to Padan-Aram.
This verse is part of what Esau saw: his younger brother leaving home at his parents' word. Two questions follow — what exactly was Jacob obeying, and what did Esau do about what he watched?
Jacob's obedience was about marriage. His father shut one door and pointed him through another.
Jacob must not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan. They were accursed in the Lord's eyes, though the carrying out of that sentence waits until the sin of the Amorites is full. For Jacob the wanderer there was to be as clear a refusal of alliance with the Canaanite as there was for Isaac. Only Isaac was forbidden, in the strictest terms, to leave the land. His bride had to come to him. Jacob, by contrast, goes to look for a wife at the house of his mother's father. So Jacob's earthly place and relationships are as plain as Isaac's heavenly ones. Isaac's story pictures sovereign grace calling a bride to the Heir of all things in heavenly places.
Paddan-aram was a real place, and Jacob's family already had roots there.
A farmed district in Mesopotamia, holding the city of Nahor. Terah and his family moved there from Ur of the Chaldees. Rebekah, Leah and Rachel, the wives of Isaac and Jacob, all came from there. The name is strictly Paddan-aram, meaning "table land of Aram."
Jacob obeyed a father whose own leanings had run the other way. The charge and the blessing came from a changed man.
Indeed at this point we see him in a much more favourable light, and speaking as a man of faith. He charges Jacob to go to Padan-aram and find a wife among his own people. He then blesses him in a way that surely shows he now accepted God's purpose for his two sons. That purpose overruled and cancelled out his own natural inclinations. He calls on God to give him "the blessing of Abraham." That blessing carried with it the coming of the "Seed," in whom all nations should be blessed. It was the very heart of the birthright Jacob had wanted so badly.
The same road that carried Jacob into his father's blessing carried him out of the land of promise.
He became an exile from the land of promise. In a strange land his own relatives cheated him. It was the sad repayment of his own crooked ways in gaining what the Lord had given him. The Lord would have secured it for him in His holy way of faithfulness and truth.
Esau watched all this and set out to copy it. The copy failed at the one point that mattered.
Verses 6-9 tell us that Esau copied his brother's appearance as closely as he could, because his Canaanite wives displeased his father. But God was not in his thoughts, and his imitation fell miserably short. Besides the daughters of Heth he took a daughter of Ishmael as a wife — the offspring of the slave woman, cast out of Abraham's house. There was no faith, only a natural and useless effort after better ways. Without faith it is impossible to please God. Whoever comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him. This was true of Jacob, and in no way of Esau.
Esau's new wife came from Abraham's line, not Canaan's. One writer points out what the record later does with her name.
Esau saw that Jacob had been sent away with his father's blessing, and told not to take a wife from the daughters of Canaan. So he went to Ishmael and took his daughter Mahalath for a wife. Later the Spirit of God, giving the genealogy of Esau, said that he took Bashemath, Ishmael's daughter, for a wife. Historians say the writer of Genesis made a mistake by mixing up the names! We suggest the revised name had deliberate significance. In God's eyes there was no difference between Ishmael's daughter and a daughter of Canaan. So in the record she was given a name of Canaan... In his second choice Esau came near to the right line, but stopped short of the mind of God. How often Christians form close friendships with people who outwardly claim the Christian faith. Those people prove to be no different from the world.
- Charge. Jacob's orders were a refusal. He must take no wife from the daughters of Canaan, a people already under God's sentence.
- Blessing. The father who gave that charge had bowed at last to God's purpose for his two sons. He handed Jacob "the blessing of Abraham," the real substance of the birthright.
- Cost. Obedience sent Jacob out of the land as an exile. There his own relatives cheated him — repayment, one writer says, for his crooked way of seizing what God meant to give him.
- Copy. Esau watched, and copied the look of it as closely as he could. But God was not in his thoughts, and without faith no one can please Him.
- Near. A daughter of Ishmael brought Esau near the right line and still short of God's mind. Close friendships with people who claim the faith but live like the world end in the same place.