Dealing Directly and Quickly with Sin


6 Now Esau learned that Isaac had blessed Jacob and had sent him to Paddan Aram to take a wife from there, and that when he blessed him he commanded him, “Do not marry a Canaanite woman,” 7 and that Jacob had obeyed his father and mother and had gone to Paddan Aram. 8 Esau then realized how displeasing the Canaanite women were to his father Isaac; 9 so he went to Ishmael and married Mahalath, the sister of Nebaioth and daughter of Ishmael son of Abraham, in addition to the wives he already had. Genesis 28:6-9

Oh boy! Bitterness. Envy. Jealously. Rage. All within four verses.

Esau did not take too kindly to his father favoring non-Canaanite women, so he married a non-Canaanite woman. Did he expect and hope to please his father and mother with this action or did it just make matters worse. We still see no repentance regarding his attitude towards Jacob. If he saw him, I’m certain he would have dealt with him swiftly. I suspect Esau just wanted to try to undo what was already done and thus please his father.

We see how undealt with sin escalates. It is never beneficial to anyone. For Esau, trying to undo wrongs by committing other wrongs (marrying a third wife) doesn’t solve anything, and in fact compounds the problems.

But, Esau will need to live with and deal with the consequences of his decisions just as we must live with the decisions we make. It all started because of his hatred towards his younger brother.

The bottom line to this is, deal with your sins early rather than later. The longer you wait, the harder it is to make reconciliation or even to confess it to God.


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