Parental Grief
And Esau…took to wife Judith…the Hittite…and Bashemath…the Hittite: Which was a grief of mind unto Isaac and to Rebekah.” ~ Gen. 26:34
Isaac had peace roundabout with his neighbors, but unrest within the home from one of his children. His worldly son Esau had gone against God’s command and his parent’s wishes in marrying these heathen women. By doing so he intimates that he neither desired God’s blessing, nor dreaded His curse. And what’s more, he cared little or nothing for the grief it caused his mother and father. It is clear he had a festering hurt that left him spiteful.
Grown children need to realize that not all the instruction given to children in Proverbs is to adolescents; much is to grown adult children. And I find it is the latter of the two that brings the most heartache to tender and good parents. I am not speaking of minor preferences, but bedrock moral principles. Certainly they can and ought to be individualist as to the first, but never independent of the second.
Where do you find in the Bible any grown child that went against the God honoring principles they were brought up with, prosper? No adult, Christian son or daughter, who purposely causes their godly parents continual grief, need ever expect God’s full blessings upon his or her life. Ask Esau if you don’t believe me!
Richard the Aged