Children Who Bring Grief to their Parents - Genesis 27-31

 Genesis 28:6-9 (ESV)

Esau Marries an Ishmaelite

6 Now Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Paddan-aram to take a wife from there, and that as he blessed him he directed him, “You must not take a wife from the Canaanite women,” 7 and that Jacob had obeyed his father and his mother and gone to Paddan-aram. 8 So when Esau saw that the Canaanite women did not please Isaac his father, 9 Esau went to Ishmael and took as his wife, besides the wives he had, Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham's son, the sister of Nebaioth.

Children Who Bring Grief to their Parents:

Children are a blessing.   Sometimes, they can be a cures.  Think of Adam.  His son killed his other son. The first human death recorded in the Bible was a son taking the life of another son.   After Cain slew Able, God gave Eve another son she named Seth.  In the Hebrew the word Seth means “compensation.”  God replaced one son with another.  Imagine the grief Adam and Eve experienced.   

In the above passage we read about Esau’s plan to deliberately hurt his farther.   In the story of Cain and Abel the murder seems to read as though it was an act of jealously and rage and not premeditated (only God really knows).   In the above passage we read the Esau is deliberately going to do something to hurt his father.    Absalom did the same thing to his father David.   He conspired to take away the kingdom from David and that costs him his life.   In the parable of the prodigal son, a son takes his inheritance and squanders it.   Solomon wrote about those who give grief to their parents:

Proverbs 17:25 (ESV)

25 A foolish son is a grief to his father

and bitterness to her who bore him.

Esau wanted to hurt his father. In so doing he really brought pain between him and his Heavenly Father.   God is the one who is ultimately grieved.   The only commandment with a promise is this one:

Exodus 20:12 (ESV)

12 “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.

God is knowledgeable about children who bring pain to their parents.   God is the one who cares for that.