Page:An Exposition of the Old and New Testament (1828) vol 1.djvu/178

146 friendships and correspondences, there is need of the wisdom of the serpent, as well as the innocency of the dove. Nor is it any transgression of the law of meekness and love, fairly to signify our strong perception of injuries received, and to stand upon our guard in dealing with those that have acted unfairly.

3. Abimelech professes his sincerity, in this address to Isaac, and earnestly courts his friendship, v. 28, 29. Some suggest that Abimelech pressed for this league with him, because he feared lest Isaac growing rich, should some time or other, avenge himself upon them for the injuries he had received. However, he professes to do it from a principle of love rather. (1.) He makes the best of their behaviour toward him. Isaac complained that they had hated him and sent him away; No, said Abimelech, we sent thee away in peace. They turned him off from the land he held of them; but they suffered him to take away his stock, and all his effects with him. Note, The lessening of injuries is necessary to the preserving of friendship; for the aggravating of them exasperates and widens breaches. The unkindness done to us might have been worse. (2.) He acknowledges the tokens of God's favour to him, and makes that the ground of their desire to be in league with him. The Lord is with thee, and thou art the blessed of the Lord, as if he had said, "Be pursuadedpersuaded [sic] to overlook and pass by the injuries offered thee; for God has abundantly made up to thee the damage thou receivedst." Note, Those whom God blesses and favours, have reason enough to forgive those who hate them, since the worst enemy they have, cannot do them any real hurt. Or, "For this reason, we desire thy friendship, because God is with thee." Note, It is good to be in covenant and communion with those who are in covenant and communion with God, 1 John 1. 3. Zech 8. 23. (3.) He assures him that their present address to him was the result of mature deliberation. We said, let there be an oath betwixt us; whatever some of his peevish envious subjects might mean otherwise, he, and his prime-ministers of state whom he had now brought with him, designed no other than a cordial friendship. Perhaps Abimelech had received by tradition, the warning God gave to his predecessor not to hurt Abraham, (ch. 20. 7.) and that made him stand in such awe of Isaac, who appeared to be as much the favourite of Heaven as Abraham was.

4. Isaac entertains him and his company, and enters into a league of friendship with him, v. 30, 31. Here see how generous the good man was, (1.) In giving; he made them a feast, and bid them welcome; (2.) In forgiving; he did not insist upon the unkindnesses they had done him, but freely entered into a covenant of friendship with them, and bound himself never to do them any injury. Note, Religion teaches us to be neighbourly, and as much as in us lies, to live peaceably with all men.

5. Providence smiled upon what Isaac did: for the same day that he made this covenant with Abimelech, his servants brought him the tidings of a well of water they had found, v. 32, 33. He had not insisted upon the restitution of the wells which the Philistines had unjustly taken from him, lest that should have broken off the treaty, but sat down silent under the injury; and, to recompense him for that, immediately he is enriched with a new well, which, because it suited so well to the occurrence of the day, he called by an old name, Beer-sheba, The well of the oath.

34. And Esau was forty years old when he took to wife Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Bashemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite: 35. Which were a grief of mind unto Isaac and to Rebekah.

Here is, 1. Esau's foolish marriage; foolish, some think, in marrying two wives together, for which perhaps he is called a fornicator, Heb. 12. 16. or rather in marrying Canaanites, who were strangers to the blessing of Abraham, and subject to the curse of Noah, for which he is called profane; for hereby he intimated that he neither desired the blessing, nor dreaded the curse, of God. 2. The grief and trouble it created to his tender parents. (1.) It grieved them, that he married without asking, or at least, without taking, their advice and consent: see whose steps those children tread in, who either contemn or contradict their parents in disposing of themselves. (2.) It grieved them, that he married among those who had no religion among them; for Esau knew what were his father's care and mind concerning him, that he should by no means marry a Canaanite. (3.) It should seem, the wives he married, were provoking in their conduct towards Isaac and Rebekah: those children have little reason to expect the blessing of God, who do that which is a grief of mind to their good parents.

CHAP. XXVII. In this chapter, we return to the typical story of the struggle between Esau and Jacob. Esau had profanely sold the birth-right to Jacob; but Esau hopes he shall be never the poorer, nor Jacob the richer, for that bargain; while he preserves his interest in his father's affections, and so secures the blessing. Here therefore we find how he was justly punished for his contempt of the birth-right, (which he foolishly deprived himself of,) with the loss of the blessing which Jacob fraudulently deprives him of. Thus this story is explained Heb. 12. 16, 17, Because he sold the birth-right, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected. For they that make light of the name and profession of religion, and throw it away for a trifle, thereby forfeit the powers and privileges of it. We have here, I. Isaac's purpose to entail the blessing upon Esau, v. 1..4. II. Rebekah's plot to procure it for Jacob, v. 6..17. III. Jacob's successful management of the plot, and his obtaining of the blessing. v. 18..29. IV. Esau's resentment of this: in which, 1. His great importunity with his father to obtain a blessing, v. 30..40. 2. His great enmity to his brother for defrauding him of the first blessing, v. 41..46.

ND it came to pass, that when Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim, so that he could not see, he called Esau his eldest son, and said unto him, My son: And he said unto him, Behold, here am I. 2. And he said, Behold now, I am old, I know not the day of my death: 3. Now therefore take, I pray thee, thy weapons, thy quiver and thy bow, and go out to the field, and take me some venison; 4. And make me savoury meat, such as I love, and bring it to me, that I may eat; that my soul may bless thee before I die. 5. And Rebekah heard when Isaac spake to Esau his son. And Esau went to the field to hunt for venison, and to bring it.

Here is,

1. Isaac's design to make his will, and to declare Esau his heir. The promise of the Messiah and the land of Canaan, was a great trust, first committed to Abraham, inclusive and typical of spiritual and eternal blessings; this, by divine direction, he transmitted to Isaac. Isaac, being now old, and either not knowing, or not understanding, or not duly considering, the divine oracle concerning his two sons, that the elder should serve the younger, resolves to entail all the honour and power that were wrapped up in the promise, upon Esau his eldest son. In this, he was governed more by natural affection, and