So Isaac called for Jacob and blessed him and commanded him: "Do not marry a Canaanite woman. Go at once to Paddan Aram, to the house of your mother's father Bethuel. Take a wife for yourself there, from among the daughters of Laban, your mother's brother. May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and increase your numbers until you become a community of peoples. May he give you and your descendants the blessing given to Abraham, so that you may take possession of the land where you now live as an alien, the land God gave to Abraham?" (Genesis 28:1-4)

How great it is when parents bless their children despite their faults and shortcomings. Some parents always keep chiding their offspring’s to such an extent that they get desperate, depressed and despondent.

Isaac here is blessing his son Jacob who deceived him. He is giving him instructions for wise living and blessing his future.

Jacob had deceived his father and brother by disguising himself as his brother and had forced his blind father to bless him with the blessings that rightly should have been his brother’s.

He suffered much because of his deceiving nature but finally was blessed by God after he passed through several trials that changed his character.

From “deceiver” he became “one who strives with God and wins”. His father’s blessings came true.

So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreakWhen the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob's hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. Then the man said, "Let me go, for it is daybreak." But Jacob replied, "I will not let you go unless you bless me." The man asked him, "What is your name?" "Jacob," he answered. Then the man said, "Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome." Jacob said, "Please tell me your name." But he replied, "Why do you ask my name?" Then he blessed him there. (Genesis 32:24-29)

Notable in the Word of God, in this context is a verse in Colossians. “Fathers do not embitter your children, or they will become discouraged. (Ch.3, v.21)

We must teach our children to live a disciplined life and also discipline them when needed but also keep the limits which God has kept for parents.

Posted by Dr. Johnson Cherian