GENESIS
November 04, 2017
By: Pastor Kim Hickcox
(All Scripture taken from One New Man Bible unless otherwise noted)
Chapter 36 of Genesis consists of the descendants of Esau. Why? Well, obviously because the Lord thought it was important. So let’s discover why.
Although we know that Esau was born first (Genesis 25:24-26), his twin brother Jacob received Isaac’s blessing of the first-born, which was the lion’s share of the estate. This we also know was the Lord’s plan as He told their mother Rebeccah, “Two nations are in your womb and two kinds of people will be separated from your body, and the one people will be stronger than the other people and the elder will serve the younger.” (Genesis 25:23)
Esau, as the Lord knew before hand, totally disrespected his birthright more than once. He sold it to his brother Jacob for a bowl of stew of all things (Genesis 25:29-34) and he also married into the heathen Canaanite people, totally disrespecting God and his parents. And his mother seemed to take it especially hard. “And Rebeccah said to Isaac, ‘I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth. If Jacob takes a wife of the daughters of Heth, such as these of the daughters of the land what good will my life do me?’” (Genesis 27:46) Now this may seem a bit melodramatic at first, but when you consider the religious connotations, I’m sure it was quite disconcerting.
Esau took three wives; the first two were Canaanite and the third was one of Ishmael’s daughters (perhaps an attempt to ease his mother’s trauma).
“Now these are the descendants of Esau, who is Edom. 2Esau took for his wives from the daughters of Canaan; Adah the daughter of Elon the Hittite and Ohoibamah, the daughter of Anah the daughter of Zibeon the Hivite, 3and Basemat, Ishmael’s daughter, sister of Nebajoth.” Genesis 36:1-3
Now the Hittites and the Hivites are common names to those familiar with the Old Testament, as they are often listed as Israel’s enemies; and this is why I love the book of Genesis; we can see how things started and get back to the origins. Not only do we now know that Israel and Edom have family ties, but so do the Hittites ad Hivites!
It makes the term the Family of Man so much more literal, or real (at least to me) when we can see that, even though as believers we know that we ALL came from Adam and Eve and then all nations branched out from Noah’s three sons, but I love tracing civilization back to its origins, and where else can this be done except in the book that its Creator wrote for us?
So then; the daughters of Heth descended from Ham (Genesis 10:15) as did the Hivites (Genesis 10:17) and of course the Canaanites (Genesis 10:6).
Verses 6-8 of Genesis 36 tell us that after Esau and Jacob met up again, Esau travelled so they wouldn’t crowd each other and they seemed to have a very amicable relationship while the two patriarchs were alive. However, we know that as the centuries went by, this was not to last. It is no wonder that Proverb 17:17 says that “A friend loves at all times and a brother is born for adversity.”
“And Esau took his wives, his sons, his daughters, and all the people of his house, his cattle, all his beasts, and all his possessions, which he had gotten n the land of Canaan, and went into the country from the presence of his brother Jacob. 7For their wealth was too great for them to stay together and the land in which they were strangers could not bear them because of their cattle. 8So Esau lived in Mount Seir. Esau is Edom.” Genesis 36:6-8
Note that even though they were the third generation to live in the land they were still considered strangers. Land was not solely inherited in ancient times, it was conquered and/or integrated. The Promised Land (which was Canaan) remained in the hands of its ancestors until the Hebrews, under the leadership of Joshua came in and conquered it. So unless you could trace your family back to where there were no inhabitants in the land at all, which would have been when the Tower of Babel stopped and “the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of the entire earth…” (Genesis 11:8), anyone else was a stranger.
So Esau went to Mount Seir to settle which was just south of Moab and obviously where he was comfortable, perhaps even where one of his wives came from.
The rest of the chapter is devoted to the Chiefs of Edom and ends with his legacy: “And these are the names of the chiefs who descended from Esau according to their families, after the places, by their names; Chief Timnah, Chief Alvah, Chief Jetheth,41Chief Oholibamah, Chief Elah, Chief Pinon, 42Chief Kenaz, Chief Teman, Chief Mibzar,43Chief Magdiel, Chief Iram: these are the chiefs of Edom, according to their settlement in the land of their possession: he is Esau the father of Edom.” Genesis 36:40-43
The Horites were mentioned also, but due to all the intermarrying between Esau’s sons and daughters and the natives of the land, they eventually blended. And it was because of the spiritual strain this [should] cause, that the Lord didn’t want His people to intermarry. If you’ll remember, Jacob’s father-in-law was an idol worshipper, as Rachel stole his household idols when she left and he came in hot pursuit after them.
But Rachel worshipped her husband’s God, YHWH (Yah Weh, the One True God, our Father) and did not keep the idol worship she grew up with. Obviously her cousin Rebeccah did not worship the idols of her brother either, at least not after she married Isaac. The Lord, knowing this, did make a few exceptions over the years, and two of the women are mentioned in Y’shua’s human genealogy: Rahab of Jericho (Joshua 2 & Matthew 1:5-6) who married Salmon, had Boaz who, following in his father’s footsteps married Ruth, a Moabitess (Ruth 4:13-17) and both women were of course ancestors of King David, which eventually led to Y’shua. But of course with His omniscience, there are no accidents, no mistakes and no confusion. He KNEW. And His grace toward ALL of mankind is shown through these women who put their faith in Him and were blessed by Him with such honor as being part of their Savior’s heritage!!
Edom however, had no such revelation, so their story does not intersect the New Testament.
Throughout the remainder of chapter 36 of Genesis, Midian and Amalek were mentioned as well as Uz, which is the name of the land that Job was from. And one of Esau’s descendants was named Baal-Hanan. So we know who was worshipped. The Canaanites worshipped a total of 360 idols, but Baal was the common denominator so to speak, of idols among all of the heathen nations in the middle east.
I only found one other OT reference of Esau’s descendants via their tribe’s name: in Job 4:1, we see that Job’s friend Eliphaz was a Temanite, fitting as we also just learned that the land of Uz was in Edom also, so Job was probably an Edomite too, although we are never told one way or the other. We just know that “There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was honest, unsophisticated, and upright, and one that revered God and turned aside from evil.” (Job 1:1) And now that we know were the land of Uz was that was probably a rare thing!
Anyway, I’m going out on a limb and suppose that Esau’s family finally just solidified into the Edomites, as they are mentioned en masse, as it were, 107 times in the Old Testament – and none of them in good light once Esau left the scene.
So why did the Lord want us to see the descendants of Esau? To learn that Job was an Edomite? To learn that brothers, even twins, are not alike in every way, even though they were raised in the same home and in the same environment? To see that Esau was loved and blessed also?
What did the Holy Spirit give to you? I was reminded that God’s grace and love extent to ALL Mankind. I never realized that Job lived in Edom. I’m going to read that book again. I can now get a greater insight as to how or perhaps why nonbelievers formulate their opinions about our God. I hope today’s message spoke to you too. Let me know.
SHALOM
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