Then Isaac called Jacob and blessed him and directed him, “You must not take a wife from the Canaanite women.

Gen. 28:1 (ESV)

By the time Isaac was an old man and blind, his family was a hot mess. Esau spent his time hunting and carousing with the neighborhood women. Rebekah was vexed by them and said to Isaac, “I loathe my life because of the Hittite women. If Jacob marries one of the Hittite women like these, one of the women of the land, what good will my life be to me?” (If Mama ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy!) And with his mother’s help, Jacob deceived his father into giving him the birthright blessing. To top it off, Esau was planning to kill Jacob.

You would think that after all this Isaac would be exasperated with every member of his family. But the deepest cut of all was Jacob’s scheming, conniving deception, the bond of trust utterly broken. Isaac had every right to send Jacob away and never speak to him again.

The startling piece of this drama is in verse 1 of chapter 28: “Then Isaac called Jacob [the creature!] and blessed him….” Isaac did not treat Jacob as he deserved. Instead, Isaac turned to Jacob with grace. That grace took root and grew so that Jacob could endure, in turn, the betrayal of his sons and still maintain his faith in God. At the end of his life, Jacob would speak of “…God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has been my shepherd all my life long to this day.” (Gen. 48:15 ESV)

We have a choice when family hurts: we can react and confound the mess, or we can plant seeds of grace and trust God they will grow.