Starting on New Year’s Day (well, technically, on New Year’s Ever), I switched from using One Year Bible Online for my daily Bible reading to the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net”.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Genesis 24-25.

    As I was reading this today, I was struck by the fact that, while Abraham wanted Isaac to marry a woman from among his relatives, he emphatically did not want Isaac to visit them. There is little in the passage to explain his reasons. It is even interesting how it came about that Abraham expressed this. When his servant asked him if he should take Isaac there to live if none of the young women were willing to travel to Canaan, Abraham not only told him no to that, but he told him to never take Isaac there. It reads to me that Abraham was afraid that if Isaac visited his relatives, Isaac would never want to return to Canaan. I think that this points up something we often overlook. Abraham’s father, Terah, had begun moving to the land of Canaan, but settled down before he got there. This passage suggests to me that God had spoken to Terah, just as He did to Abraham, but something about Haran caused Terah to not continue. Perhaps Abraham feared that if Isaac went to Haran, he would be seduced by the same thing which kept his father there.

    The story of Esau selling his birthright is a classic example of allowing the desire for instant gratification to overcome our long term best interest. Esau was hungry, Jacob had food. Esau traded away his birthright, which had many long term benefits for him for a quick bowl of soup. He came to regret doing so. We need to be careful not to make the same mistake.