Genesis 27:41-28:9.   Rebekah did not want her son, Jacob, marrying like Esau did.  The Hittite women Esau married had made life bitter for her and Isaac.  But the real reason she wanted Jacob to move back to Paddan-Aram to stay with Laban is to allow Esau time to cool down.  Esau had been planning to murder Jacob – and was just waiting for Isaac to die.  Esau married another wife, from the family of Ishmael.   Centuries later, his marriages will place his descendants in the land God tells the Israelites to conquer.  By having Jacob marry among Rebekah’s kin, the Holy Spirit avoids making Israel’s conquest of the holy land a civil war.

LORD, we don’t always understand why things happen as they do.  Help us to trust you to see the big picture.