Genesis 28-31

Esau was very angry at Jacob for stealing his blessing, and his father told him, "Do not marry a Canaanite woman. Go at once to Paddan Aram, to the house of your mother's father Bethuel. Take a wife for yourself there, from among the daughters of Laban, your mother's brother. May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and increase your numbers until you become a community of peoples. May he give you and your descendants the blessing given to Abraham, so that you may take possession of the land where you now live as an alien, the land God gave to Abraham." Basically, if you're gonna run away from your brother, might as well make it productive right? So Jacob left.

Esau did a strange thing here. He was married to two Hittite women that his parents hated. When he heard that Isaac had told Jacob not to marry them, he went and found himself a Canaanite woman in addition to the ones he already had. Not sure that solved the problem, but...

Then of course, Jacob had his famous ladder dream, in which God said, "I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you." It would be so amazing to have a dream like that.

He traveled on until he found Laban's household, and saw his daughter Rachel watching the sheep. His eyeballs turned heart-shaped immediately. He watered her flock for her then kissed her and began to weep aloud. Poor girl must have been just a bit freaked out. We were watching a movie on this in which this part was pretty accurate. My sister said, "Wow. That was... abrupt." My mom said, "Well, that's Hollywood for ya." We read that passage and sure enough, Hollywood couldn't have asked for anything better!:P Laban was delighted to have his nephew, and agreed to let him work seven years for Rachel. Then we all know what happened - he married her, but too late he found out that it was the other sister!!!! So he worked seven more years for Rachel.

So both of the two women had children with Jacob. After he had quite a few flocks and herds and children, he moved away from Laban to his own land... where his brother was waiting for him.

Tune in next week for another exciting episode of Jacob and Esau and their numerous relations!