Genesis 26:35 Daily Devotional & Meaning – Esau’s Wives Bring Grief to Isaac and Rebekah
- Benjamin Michael Mcgreevy
- 4 days ago
- 8 min read
Daily Verses Everyday! Day 134
“Which were a grief of mind unto Isaac and to Rebekah."
This verse shows the painful result of Esau’s marriages. Genesis 26:34 told us that Esau, when he was forty years old, took two Hittite wives: Judith the daughter of Beeri, and Bashemath the daughter of Elon. Now Genesis 26:35 tells us what those marriages produced in Isaac and Rebekah: they “were a grief of mind.”
That phrase is heavy. Esau’s decision did not merely disappoint his parents. It troubled them deeply. It brought sorrow into their home. It weighed on their hearts. It became a source of bitterness, anguish, and spiritual grief.
This is important because Esau’s marriages were not just ordinary family tension. The issue was not simply that Isaac and Rebekah disliked their daughters-in-law on a personal level. The deeper problem was spiritual. Esau had married women from among the Hittites, one of the peoples of the land. This was directly contrary to the covenant concern that Abraham had shown when he sent his servant to find a wife for Isaac. Abraham had made it clear that Isaac was not to take a wife from the daughters of the Canaanites (Genesis 24:3). The covenant family was not supposed to be shaped by the worship and values of the surrounding pagan nations.
But Esau did not seem to care.
That is why this verse is so painful. Esau was not ignorant of his family’s history. He was Isaac’s son. He was Abraham’s grandson. He grew up near the stories of God’s promises. He knew that his family was not like the surrounding nations. He knew that God had made covenant promises to Abraham and Isaac. Yet his choices showed that he did not treasure those promises the way he should have.
Earlier, Esau had despised his birthright by selling it to Jacob for bread and lentil stew. He treated a sacred inheritance as though it were less valuable than a meal. Now, in his marriages, he again shows that immediate desire matters more to him than covenant faithfulness. He takes the wives he wants, but his choice brings grief to Isaac and Rebekah.
This teaches a sobering lesson: choices made without regard for God often bring sorrow to others.
Esau may have thought his marriages were his own personal matter. He may have thought, “This is my life. These are my wives. This is what I want.” But sin and foolishness rarely stay private. His decision affected his parents. It affected the household. It affected the spiritual atmosphere of the family. It brought grief to those who loved him and cared about the promise of God.
That is one of the lies of self-centered living. We imagine that our choices only belong to us. But our lives are connected to others. A son’s rebellion can grieve his parents. A husband’s choices can wound his wife. A parent’s sin can damage children. A leader’s compromise can hurt a church. A believer’s carelessness can bring sorrow to the body of Christ. Esau’s marriages remind us that when we live by appetite instead of wisdom, other people often suffer the consequences with us.
The phrase “grief of mind” also shows the sorrow of godly parents when their children make spiritually destructive choices. Isaac and Rebekah were not perfect parents. Their family would have favoritism, deception, and deep conflict. But their grief here is understandable. They saw Esau moving away from the covenant priorities of the family. They saw him joining himself to women from the land without regard for the Lord’s promise. They saw his heart becoming visible through his choices.
There are few pains deeper than watching someone you love treat holy things lightly.
Isaac and Rebekah had both experienced God’s faithfulness. Isaac was the child of promise, born to Abraham and Sarah when it seemed impossible. Rebekah had been brought to Isaac through God’s providence. Isaac had prayed for Rebekah when she was barren, and the Lord answered. They had heard the prophecy concerning the twins before their birth: “The elder shall serve the younger” (Genesis 25:23). They knew their family stood within the unfolding plan of God.
Yet Esau lived as though that spiritual inheritance did not matter.
This is what grieved them. It was not merely that Esau had made an inconvenient choice. It was that he had made a spiritually careless choice. He had taken his life in a direction that showed little reverence for the promise. His marriages were a visible sign of an inward problem.
That is often how life works. Big decisions reveal hidden values. Marriage, money, work, friendships, worship, and priorities show what we truly treasure. Esau’s marriages revealed that his heart was not governed by covenant faithfulness. He was a man of the field, a man of appetite, a man of impulse, and now a man whose household choices grieved his parents.
This verse also helps explain some of what follows in Genesis 27. The family tension does not appear out of nowhere. Esau has already brought grief into the home. Isaac loves Esau, and Rebekah loves Jacob, but the household is spiritually strained. Esau’s marriages deepen that strain. They become part of the larger sorrow surrounding this family.
That is another warning. Sin often creates an atmosphere before it creates a crisis. By the time a major family rupture happens, there are often earlier patterns of grief, compromise, favoritism, resentment, or spiritual carelessness already present. Genesis is honest about this. The covenant family is chosen by grace, but it is still full of broken people. Isaac, Rebekah, Esau, and Jacob all need the mercy of God.
There is also a contrast here between Isaac’s peace with Abimelech and Esau’s grief to his parents. Earlier in the chapter, Isaac made peace with those outside his family. Abimelech came, recognized that the Lord was with Isaac, made a covenant, and departed in peace. The chapter showed external conflict being resolved. But now, at the very end, conflict and sorrow arise inside the home.
That contrast matters. Sometimes the hardest griefs are not outside the household but within it. Isaac had peace with Abimelech, but grief through Esau. He could make covenant with a foreign king, but he could not make his son treasure the covenant of God. He could dig wells and find water, but he could not dig faith into Esau’s heart.
That is a humbling truth for parents, leaders, and believers. We can teach, guide, pray, model, and warn, but we cannot force another person to love God. Faith cannot be inherited like property. A child can receive the stories, the household, the instruction, and the outward privileges, yet still despise the substance. Esau stands as a warning that nearness to holy things is not the same as treasuring them.
This should make us pray.
It should make parents pray for their children. It should make churches pray for the next generation. It should make believers pray that we would not only be near the things of God, but love them. It should make us ask the Lord to guard us from an Esau-like heart that treats eternal things as common.
Hebrews 12:16 later warns believers not to be like Esau, “who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright.” That warning belongs with this verse too. Esau’s life shows the danger of despising what is sacred. He sells his birthright for food. He marries without covenant concern. He brings grief to his parents. Step by step, his choices reveal a heart that prefers the immediate over the eternal.
But this verse is not only a warning to children. It is also a word to parents and families who carry grief. Isaac and Rebekah’s sorrow is named in Scripture. God does not ignore the grief that comes when loved ones make painful choices. He does not treat that sorrow as small. He records it. He allows us to see that the covenant family had real anguish.
That matters because many faithful people know this pain. They have prayed for a child, a spouse, a sibling, or a loved one who seems to be walking away from the Lord. They know what it is to feel grief of mind. They know what it is to watch someone choose relationships, habits, priorities, or paths that bring spiritual sorrow. Genesis 26:35 reminds them that God sees that grief.
But it also reminds them that God’s promise is not destroyed by human failure.
Esau’s choices grieved Isaac and Rebekah, but they did not cancel God’s covenant. The Lord had already spoken before Jacob and Esau were born. His purpose would stand. The family would suffer consequences for sin and deception, but God would continue His plan. That does not make Esau’s choices less serious, but it does show that God is greater than the grief.
This is important for anyone who feels sorrow over a loved one’s decisions. Their choices may be painful. Their choices may have real consequences. Their choices may grieve you deeply. But their choices are not greater than God. You cannot control another person’s heart, but you can entrust your grief to the Lord. You can keep praying. You can keep walking faithfully. You can keep trusting that God is able to work even in broken families.
This verse also points us forward to Christ. Esau brought grief to his parents by despising the covenant. But Jesus, the true and faithful Son, perfectly delighted in His Father’s will. He never treated holy things lightly. He never chose temporary appetite over eternal obedience. He never brought grief through rebellion. At His baptism and transfiguration, the Father declared, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
Where Esau grieved his parents, Christ pleased the Father.
And yet, in another sense, Christ entered into grief to redeem sinners like us. He bore sorrow. He carried the weight of sin. He came into a world where sons and daughters rebel, where families break, where holy things are despised, and where human choices bring anguish. He went to the cross to save people who have acted more like Esau than we want to admit.
That is the gospel hope. If we see ourselves in Esau’s carelessness, we should repent and come to Christ. If we see ourselves in Isaac and Rebekah’s grief, we should bring that sorrow to Christ. He is able to forgive the careless and comfort the grieving.
Genesis 26:35 is short, but it is deeply sobering. Esau’s wives “were a grief of mind unto Isaac and to Rebekah.” His choices wounded those closest to him. His disregard for covenant faithfulness brought sorrow into the household. His life warns us not to treat spiritual inheritance lightly, not to make major decisions by desire alone, and not to forget that our choices affect others.
But this verse also reminds us that grief does not have the final word. God’s covenant purpose continues. His mercy remains. His faithfulness is not undone by the failures of men.
May we learn from Esau’s warning.
May we treasure holy things instead of despising them.
May we make choices that honor God and bless those around us.
May we pray for those whose decisions grieve us.
And may we look to Christ, the faithful Son, who brings joy where sin has brought grief.
If you would like to explore Genesis in a sustained, verse-by-verse way with space to reflect, journal, and trace how these foundational truths unfold through Scripture the Verse by Verse book expands these reflections into a unified reading experience. The book gathers these meditations into a structured journey through Genesis, designed to help readers linger in the text and engage God’s Word more deeply over time.