What Keeps Us from Loving God? - Genesis 27:46-28:9

Bible Study Lesson for February 24

After stealing his brother Esau’s blessing, Jacob’s flees to his uncle’s house out of a concern for his own safety. Esau is angry with Jacob and is breathing threats against Jacob’s life. Therefore Jacob’s mother Rebekah makes a plan to get Jacob out of the house and out of harm’s way. Already in Genesis 26:34-35, we learned of Esau’s marriages to two Hittite women and Isaac and Rebekah’s disapproval of those marriages. On one level, Rebekah uses this disapproval as a pretense to get Jacob to safety, but there also seems to be a legitimate concern that Jacob needs to marry an acceptable bride.

In the Old Testament, there is a lot of concern about the risks of taking foreign wives. This is expressed most clearly in the prohibition of Deuteronomy 7:3-4: “Do not intermarry with [the Canaanites], giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons, for that would turn away your children from following me, to serve other gods. Then the anger of the Lord would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly.” The concern is that the Canaanites would lead the people of God to idolatry, which is the ultimate compromise of faithfulness. There are similar commandments against marrying Moabites and Ammonites (Deuteronomy 23:3), but we should note that an exception is made in the case of Ruth. As you may remember, Ruth is a Moabite woman during the time of the Judges who pledges her faithfulness to the Lord and ultimately finds herself in the lineage of King David (and Jesus). So we can see that the general rule (“Don’t marry foreigners”) carries a more important reason, effectively making the prohibition: do not marry someone who will pull you away from God. More generally, the principle seems to be: avoid commitments that get in the way of your commitment to God.

In the New Testament, the Apostle Paul deals with Christian marriage to nonbelievers. In 1 Corinthians 7:12-16, Paul counsels those married to nonbelievers to stay married as long as their spouse agrees. Writing to the same church in 2 Corinthians 6:14-18, Paul advises Christians not to enter marriages with non-Christians. These two commands are not really in contradiction, as in 1 Corinthians Paul’s concern seems to be for Christians who become Christians after having already been married. In 2 Corinthians he is talking to people who might be seeking a spouse. The general concern is the same as the Old Testament: the people of God ought to avoid entanglements that might draw them away from God. Though these verses have sometimes been applied to interracial marriages, they really have nothing to do with race and instead point us to the ideal that Christians should marry fellow Christians. This is the best way to avoid having other commitments that pull us away from God.

In the case of Jacob, finding an acceptable wife means leaving Canaan and going to Haran to his uncle Laban’s family. This journey to find a woman from Aram echoes the path of Abraham and Isaac, the patriarchs who God made covenants with. Both Sarah and Rebekah were from Aram.

Isaac sends Jacob out on his journey with a blessing. What Isaac gave unwillingly in the last chapter, he now reinforces, which reflects his conviction that once a blessing is given, it cannot be revoked. Isaac wishes for Jacob to receive “the blessing of Abraham.” This passing of the blessing is an important aspect of the Genesis story: from here on out, God will be known as “The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”

Verses 6-10 concern Esau. Realizing he has displeased his parents by his marital choices, Esau takes a third wife from among the daughters of Ishmael. In his desire to please his father, one can almost hear an echo of his plea in the last chapter: “Have you only one blessing, father? Bless me, me also, father!” Esau is presented as a pitiable son, who has made mistakes but also is the victim of a partial mother and a scheming brother. Esau appears to be a person who seeks to be faithful to the Lord. But he can’t secure his birthright and blessing back from his brother by trying to right old wrongs now. By the next time we encounter Esau, he will have learned to accept his role as a secondary character in the story.

The rivalry of Jacob and Esau is a tragedy of human relationships that plays out too often in our lives. Everybody wants to be the chosen one. Everybody wants to be the bearer of the promise. And those who are chosen, who are called to lead, often become so obsessed with their calling and their ministry and the grace that they have received, that they lose sight of what they are called to. The blessing in Genesis— the “blessing of Abraham” in this passage, is bestowed in order that the recipient of the blessing might bless others in turn. What would it look like for Jacob to refuse to lord his chosen-ness over his brother? What would it mean for Esau to accept his role as a supporter of Jacob? What does it look like for us today to support each other in our callings, to accept one another and love one another in the roles God has given us? In what ways are we doing this? In what ways are we failing to support each other?

One of my favorite stanzas of poetry comes from T. S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”:

No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be;

Am an attendant lord, one that will do

To swell a progress, start a scene or two,

Advise the prince; no doubt, an easy tool,

Deferential, glad to be of use,

Politic, cautious, and meticulous;

Full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse;

At times, indeed, almost ridiculous—

Almost, at times, the Fool.

In this verse, the narrator captures a humility not often seen among characters in literature. He knows that he is not the main character of the story. He longs to find his place, asking, “what is mine to do?” We need to ask the same question of God, “what is my calling?” And maybe also, “how can I support my neighbor’s calling?” We need to learn what is ours to do and what may be someone else’s role. Then we need to support each other as we work together to live into the Kingdom of God.

In the story of Jacob and Esau, each man has a distinct role to play. And they only cause themselves and those around them pain when they do not recognize that role. This is why we also need to recognize what God has called us to do and what God has not called us to do. We cannot do everything and when we try to, we take away from our fellow Christians and their specific callings. We need to not commit to anything or anyone that pulls us away from God. As the author of Hebrews wrote, “let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us” (Hebrews 12:1b). We have to keep our eyes on the goal: to become the people God wants us to be. From this point forward, the test of the actions we will make should be: will this keep me from loving God?  There is no deeper question for the life of faith. And loving God well, in working within the role God has made for us, we will find it easier to love our neighbors also.