"My Heathen Children" (Genesis 26:34-35

“My Heathen Children” (Genesis 26:34–35)

Sometimes your children will do things that cause you to shake your head. They are indeed, flesh of your flesh and bone of your bone. Though you love them dearly, sometimes they act just like heathens.

Even our adult children, at times, will act as if they had no parenting at all, not even a little bit. While we plead with them, caution them, and sometimes even beg them, they don’t always lay aside their heathen ways.

No matter how embarrassing it may be, it happens to the best of us, including the miracle child Isaac, and his dream-wife, Rebekah. Isaac and Rebekah seemingly had everything, the “old-money” wealth of Isaac’s father Abraham (Genesis 25:5); the newly acquired wealth from farming while the remainder of the Middle East was suffering from a drought (Genesis 26:12); and the spiritual promises of God that He will bless the whole world because of them and give them all the land that they presently shared with the Canaanites (Genesis 26:3–4).

Perhaps the only source of significant discomfort for Isaac and his wife came from their eldest son, Esau. Tucked into the last two verses of Genesis chapter 26, is the disappointment of the parents, and it’s a big one.

These verses read as follows in the NLT:

“At the age of forty, Esau married two Hittite wives: Judith, the daughter of Beeri, and Basemath, the daughter of Elon. But Esau’s wives made life miserable for Isaac and Rebekah.”

What Esau did was not good. First, he engaged in polygamy, which was practiced from earliest times, by those who had no relationship with God. Cain’s ancestors were the first to practice having more than one wife.

When the Bible gives Cain’s genealogy in the later verses of Genesis chapter 4, there is no specific mention of the worship of God or any godly activities. There is only the mention of specific sins, and polygamy was one of them.

The second thing that Esau did that made life miserable for his parents, was to take a wife (or two) from the Canaanites (the Hittites in particular). Abraham knew that the practice of intermarrying with the Canaanite natives (the heathens) was forbidden by God (Genesis 24:3). Later, these type intermarriages would be forbidden by the law of Moses (Deuteronomy 7:3).

Consider the following three points:

1. The love that we have for our children ought to cause us to teach them the ways of God.

a. Parents should raise children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord (Ephesians 6:4).

b. Isaac failed Esau in that he didn’t do for Esau what his father, Abraham did for him. According to Genesis 24:3–4, Abraham knew the dangers of Isaac marrying a Canaanite woman. So, on his deathbed, he made his top servant promise to not let Isaac marry a heathen.

2. Though your heathen children may fail God, do not break your covenant with God to rescue them.

a. Esau was not right before God.

i. According to Genesis 25:34, Esau had previously “despised his birthright.” This action caused him to be rejected by God (Hebrews 12:16–17).

ii. He took wives from among the Canaanites (Genesis 26:34–35; Deuteronomy 7:3).

b. Isaac did not stop serving God because Esau was not right.

i. He only gave Esau the blessing that was his (Genesis 27:37).

ii. He was vexed in his spirit because Esau intermarried with the Canaanites (Genesis 26:34–35).

3. All the actions of our heathen children have already been foreseen by God.

a. God had prophesied about both Esau and Jacob before they were born (Genesis 25:23).

b. God allowed Isaac to prophesy about Esau’s descendants (Genesis 27:39–40).

“Christ First, Christ Only, Christ Always.”