At the close of Genesis 26:34,35, we read:"And Esau was forty years old when he took to wife
Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Bashemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite:which
were a grief of mind to Isaac and to Rebekah."

This has much for us in the way of admonition, but to use it aright, I must look to things
connected with it or like it in the earlier history of Abraham and then in the future histories of
Jacob and his son, Judah.

The command to the nation of Israel at the very beginning was to keep the way of the Lord, very
particularly as to marriage. They were by no means either to give their daughters to the sons of
the Canaanites or take the Canaanites’ daughters for their sons (Deut. 7:3). If they did so, it would
be on the pain of being no longer owned of the Lord (Josh. 23). According to this, the apostate
days of Solomon are marked by disobedience to this very thing a Kings 11); and afterwards, no
real recovery of God could be admitted, without a return to the observance of this principle in
their marriages (Ezra 10; Nehemiah 10).

Obedience, therefore, in this thing was a peculiar test of the state of the nation. And it is thus that
I look at it in this earliest book of Genesis. For though divine law was not then published, divine
principles were then understood. It may be regarded as the witness of the state of family religion
then, as it was of the state of national religion afterwards.

ABRAHAM. Abraham in this matter, eminently keeps "the way of the Lord," (ch. 18:19) and so
Eliezer, one of his "household"; and so our Isaac, one of his "children." For Abraham sends a
special embassy into a distant land, in order to get a wife "in the Lord" for his son_Eliezer goes
on that embassy with a ready mind _and Isaac in patience waits for the fruit of it, not seeking any
alliance with the nearer people; and though sad and solitary, keeps himself for the Lord’s
appointed helpmate. Like Adam, he waited for a helpmate from the Lord’s own hand, though it
cost him patience and sore solitude. This his meditation in the field at eventide shows. He
endureth. He might have gotten a daughter of Canaan; but he endured. He will rather suffer the
sickening of his heart from the deferring of his hope, than not marry "in the Lord," or take him
a wife of any that he may choose. And all this was very beautiful in this first generation of this
elect family. The father, the servant, and the child, each in his way, witnesses how Abraham had
ordered his house according to God, teaching his children and his household the way of the Lord.
See Chap. 18:19.

But we notice a course of sad decline and departure from all this.

ISAAC. Isaac in his turn and generation, becomes the head of the family. But he is grievously
careless in this matter, compared with his father; as this scripture, the close of chapter 26, shows
us. He does not watch over his children’s ways, to anticipate mischief, as Abraham had done.
Esau his son marries a daughter of the Hittites. Isaac and Rebecca are grieved at this, it is true;
for they had righteous souls which knew how to be "vexed" with this; but then, it was their
carelessness which had brought this vexation upon them. This we cannot say was beautiful. But

still there was a happy symptom in it. There was a righteous soul to be vexed, a mind sensitive
of defilement. And this was well.

JACOB. Jacob, however, declines still further. He neither anticipates the mischief, like Abraham,
nor does he, like Isaac, grieve over it when it occurs. But with an unconcerned heart, as far as the
history tells us, he allows his children to form what alliances they please, and to take them wives
of all whom they chose. This is sad. There is no joy for the heart here, as in the obedience of
Abraham; there is no relief for the heart here, as in the sorrow of Isaac and Rebekah.

JUDAH. But Judah afterwards goes beyond even all this in a very fearful way. He represents the
fourth generation of this elect family. But he not only does not anticipate mischief, like Abraham,
in the ordering of his family, nor grieve over mischief when brought into it, like Isaac, nor is he
simply indifferent to it, whether it be brought in or not, like Jacob, but he actually brings it in
himself! For he does nothing less than take a daughter of the Canaanites to be the wife of his son
Er (chap. 38:6)!

This exceeded. This was sinning with a high hand. Thus, in all this, in this history of the four
generations of Genesis patriarchs, we notice declension, gradual but solemn declension, till it
reaches complete apostasy from the way of the Lord.

But if this be serious and sad, as it really is, is it not profitable and seasonable? Can we not readily
own, that it is "written for our learning"? How it does warn us of a tendency to decline from
God’s principles! What took place in the same elect family, generation after generation, may take
place in the same elect person, year after year. The principles of God may be deserted by easy
gradations. They; may first be relaxed, then forgotten, then despised. They may pass from a firm
hand into an easy one, from thence to an indifferent one, and find themselves at last flung away
by a rebellious one. Many have at first stood for God’s principles in the face of difficulties and
fascinations, like Abraham_then, merely grieved over the loss of them, like Isaac_then, been
careless about their loss or maintenance, like Jacob_and last, with a high hand, broken them, like
Judah. This is suggested by the scene at the close of chapter 26.