Genesis 28:1-4 "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. 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. And God Almighty bless thee, and make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, that thou mayest be a multitude of people; 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."
Genesis 28:8-9 "And Esau seeing that the daughters of Canaan pleased not Isaac his father; 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."
In the close of chapter twenty-seven of this book, we see that Rebekah was sick to death of Esau’s wives. Seeing their behavior, Isaac both blessed and commanded Jacob that he should not take a wife from among the Canaanite women. We may not often think of blessing and command in the same sentence. However, it would prove to be a great blessing to Jacob that his father had commanded him to go to his mother’s family to find a bride. In the same fashion, God’s commandments to us are also blessings to us.
Jacob was Isaac’s son. His obedience to his father had nothing to do with making him a son. He did, however, find great joy in obeying the charge of his father. How many times in the scripture do we find the words “arise” and “go” used together in the scripture. We see the one action following the other many times in God’s word. To this day, if the Holy Spirit bids us arise, we can rest assured that there is some “going” ahead of us. It may not necessarily imply a physical change of location, but we will certainly find ourselves on a spiritual journey of faith into a deeper understanding of the things of God.
What greater joy can we hope to find in our life of service and obedience than the blessing of God Almighty? Notice that the blessing is that God will make us fruitful, and God will multiply. It is God that will give the blessing of Abraham to us. Arising and going does not make us worthy of the blessing of God, but it does put us in the place to see that blessing.
Not everyone will be glad to hear the blessing of God Almighty on you. It will prompt some to act out of spite. Esau heard Rebekah and Isaac clearly speaking against the daughters of Canaan. So, Esau went immediately and added another wife just because he knew it would displease Isaac. Rest assured that nothing good ever comes from willfully disobeying our Fat