Genesis 24-31

Abraham gets his servant to swear to him that he'll find a wife for his son.  Specifically, he wants his servant to go back to Abraham's country to find a wife there, not from the land in which they are currently living.  They do this thing where they put their hand under the other person's thigh, which is kinda weird.  Anyway, the servant heads out to find a wife for Isaac and asks the Lord to show him a sign regarding this person who he is to find for Isaac.  She is to offer to water his camels when he asks her for a drink.  And guess what, this happens.  Excited, the servant gives her a bunch of jewelry and asks her a bunch of questions.  He tells his story to the girl and her family and they agree to allow the girl to go with him.  Lots of gifts are given and the they eventually are on their way back.  So, she goes back and they get married.  They even go into the Sarah's tent and the chapter ends saying how Isaac was comforted after his mother's death.

Abraham dies at 175 years old and gives all he has to Isaac.  We read about Abraham's descendants and then about Esau and Jacob.  Rebekah, Isaac's wife was barren, so Isaac prays to God regarding this.  She gives birth to twins, Esau and Jacob.  It would be expected for the older to do well, but this is not the case.  This is an example of the younger succeeding the older.  This is also an example of favoritism, where Isaac favors Esau, but Rebekkah favors Jacob.

Well, as they grow up, we learn what kind of man Esau is.  He despises his birthright, selling it for bread and a bowl of stew.  He didn't really care for it and didn't value it as it should be valued.  It was definitely worth more than a meal.  He was probably exaggerating to say that he was about to die.  He may have been hungry, but he could've survived long enough to find food some other way.

Moving on, we see God makes a promise to Isaac.  It moves on down the line and God decides to establish his oath he made to Abraham to Isaac.  Because of Abraham, his children are blessed and we see this through the life of Isaac.  Unfortunately, we also see similar failings.  Isaac follows in his father's footsteps by lying about his wife and saying that she is his sister.

Isaac prospers in the land and is sent away from the land because of how great he has become.  We read about these wells he re-digs and quarrels over with the people.  Eventually, they find a spot and a well where there aren't people to quarrel over.  Eventually, the people who sent him away find him to make them swear an oath.  The recognize that Isaac is so great that they should try to agree to some sort of treaty.  I guess this is pretty smart on their behalf.  We also read about how Esau takes for himself two wives, both Hittites.  The last verse in the chapter shows that things aren't going well for the family, "and they made life bitter for Isaac and Rebekah".

We finally get to the story where Jacob deceives his blind father to give him the blessing and not Esau.  I always wondered the difference between the birthright and the blessing.  The birthright is the double inheritance that the firstborn receives, as well as the position of leadership over the family line.  I'm not entirely sure, but the blessing is given by the father to the children.  I guess a special blessing is given to the eldest.  Anyway, it is stolen by Jacob and Esau wants to kill Jacob, so he flees to Rebekah's family.  Rebekah also hopes that he will find a wife there, unlike Esau who has Hittite woman for wives.

Esau realizes how his wives are not favorable in the sight of his parents, so he goes to find a wife from the descendants of Ishmael.  There's actually a weird bit about the different wives that Esau has.  It's a bit confusing, but you can go try to look it up for yourself.

Jacob has a dream about a stairway to heaven (not related to the rock song) and God speaks to Jacob through the dream and blesses him.  He builds an altar to God there and decides to follow God as his God and also decides to tithe a tenth to God.

He finds Laban, his relative and wants to marry his daughter, Rachel.  He works for Laban for 7 years for Rachel, but he is tricked and given Leah instead of Rachel.  He works another 7 years for Rachel and now has two wives.  Rachel is barren and Leah isn't loved by her husband, since Jacob wanted Rachel in the first place.  Also, Leah has weak eyes.  Anyway, God sees this and blesses Leah  with children.  He gives birth to Reuben, Simeon, Levi and Judah.  Rachel has Jacob sleep with her servant, Bilhah, to have children through her.  Bilhah bears Dan and Naphtali.  Leah uses the same trick and tries to have children through her servant, Zilpah.  Zilpah bears Gad and Asher.  Later, in some weird exchange we read that Rachel allows Leah to sleep with Jacob for Rueben's mandrakes.  So, Leah bears Issachar and later Zebulun.  It is also noted that she bears Dinah, the only daughter mentioned so far.  Finally, after all this, God finally opens Rachel's womb and she bears Joseph.