Esau is Edom - Genesis 36:1-43
INTRODUCTION:
This morning we are going to do things a little differently as we come to Genesis 36, this chapter is a record of the generations of Esau, the genealogy of this man. This is another one of those chapters that I come to and have no idea what I am going to preach from it, no idea of what kind of application I can pull from it that would apply to me and to you. I grappled with this text and prayed that God would give me some insight and finally on Wednesday morning the Lord gave me a break through and so I now share what I learned with you. As Isaac moves from the scene with the record of his death in chapter 35, Esau also moves from the scene and is after this chapter not mentioned again in the book of Genesis. The rest of the book of Genesis deals with the record of the generations of Israel, God’s covenant people, and specifically with Israel’s son Joseph.
Rather than read through this whole chapter and try and pronounce all the difficult names I will pick out a few of the verses and read them and we shall build the message from there. Let’s pray and then get into these verses.
--PRAY--
SCRIPTURE:
Turn in your Bibles to Genesis 36. This is our passage this morning and I will read verses 1-9, 20-21, 31 and 40-43. Please stand as we read God’s Word.
Genesis 36:1-9,
“Now these are the records of the generations of Esau (that is, Edom). Esau took his wives from the daughters of Canaan: Adah the daughter of Elon the Hittite, and Oholibamah the daughter of Anah and the granddaughter of Zibeon the Hivite; also Basemath, Ishmael’s daughter, the sister of Nebaioth. Adah bore Eliphaz to Esau, and Basemath bore Reuel, and Oholibamah bore Jeush and Jalam and Korah. These are the sons of Esau who were born to him in the land of Canaan. Then Esau took his wives and his sons and his daughters and all his household, and his livestock and all his cattle and all his goods which he had acquired in the land of Canaan, and went to another land away from his brother Jacob. For their property had become too great for them to live together, and the land where they sojourned could not sustain them because of their livestock. So Esau lived in the hill country of Seir; Esau is Edom. These then are the records of the generations of Esau the father of the Edomites in the hill country of Seir.” (Genesis 36:1–9, NASB95)[1]
Genesis 36:20-21,
“These are the sons of Seir the Horite, the inhabitants of the land: Lotan and Shobal and Zibeon and Anah, and Dishon and Ezer and Dishan. These are the chiefs descended from the Horites, the sons of Seir in the land of Edom.” (Genesis 36:20–21, NASB95)[2]
Genesis 36:31,
“Now these are the kings who reigned in the land of Edom before any king reigned over the sons of Israel.” (Genesis 36:31, NASB95)[3]
Genesis 36:40-43,
“Now these are the names of the chiefs descended from Esau, according to their families and their localities, by their names: chief Timna, chief Alvah, chief Jetheth, chief Oholibamah, chief Elah, chief Pinon, chief Kenaz, chief Teman, chief Mibzar, chief Magdiel, chief Iram. These are the chiefs of Edom (that is, Esau, the father of the Edomites), according to their habitations in the land of their possession.” (Genesis 36:40–43, NASB95)[4]
ESAU LEAVES CANAAN (Genesis 36:1-8)
This chapter begins by telling us we are about to read the records of the generations of Esau. Then we are told that Esau is Edom. If you remember Edom was the name given to Esau by his family, a sort of nickname that means “red” because he had sold his birthright to Jacob for some red lentil stew. Next we are given the names of Esau’s wives and where they came from. Two were descendants of Canaan, the first Adah was the daughter of Elon the Hittite, the second was Oholibamah the daughter of Anah, the granddaughter of Zibeon the Hivite. The third was a daughter of Ishmael, the son of Abraham, Basemath, the sister of Nebaioth. These three he married while living in the land of Canaan. The first two he married and they brought grief to Isaac and Rebekah, when Jacob was sent to Rebekah’s family to get a wife, Esau realized that his Canaanite wives displeased his father, so he took the third wife from the daughters of Ishmael, his father’s half-brother. All three of these wives bore sons to him in the land of Canaan.
This record tells us that Esau moved with everything he had out of the land of Canaan, and went to another land away from his brother Jacob. We know from the previous chapters that he had already moved to Seir before Jacob returned, but he knew what Jacob was to inherit from Isaac and he knew what Isaac had and what he had was too great for the land to sustain them both. This was God sovereignty at work moving Esau to make way for Jacob’s return and the eventual possession of the land by the sons of Israel. So we are told that Esau lived in the hill country of Seir, and again we are told that Esau is Edom.
In verses 9-19 we are given the grandsons of Esau, the sons that were born to him by his sons. These grandsons became chiefs of their clans in the land of Seir, which was renamed Edom. Take note that Esau’s son Eliphaz had a concubine named Timna, as this is key to the land becoming Edom. Verse 19 tells us again that Esau is Edom. Three times already in this chapter we have been told this, so it must be important.
THE SONS OF SEIR (Genesis 36:20-29)
The next section of this chapter, verses 20-29 is the partial genealogy of the sons of Seir. Seir was a Horite and he and his descendants were the inhabitants of the land when Esau came to Seir. It may have been because they were living here that Esau came to this place. I say this because in verse 25 we read that Anah, a son of Seir, has a daughter by the name of Oholibamah, the wife of Esau. So it is possible that Esau moved here to be close to some family that he had already made an alliance with through marriage. Esau must have grown greater than Seir because they were absorbed into Edom. To strengthen the alliance between Esau and Seir we must remember the concubine Timna that Esau’s son Eliphaz had, she also is a descendant of Seir, we are told in verse 22 that Timna is the sister of Lotan, the son of Seir. The sons and grandsons of Seir also became chiefs of their clans in the land of Edom. Edom and Seir were allied to each other by marriage.
THE KINGS OF EDOM (Genesis 36:31-39)
The third section of this chapter is a list of the kings that ruled in Edom before any king reigned over the sons of Israel. From this we learn that Edom grew fast and desiring to be like the other nations wanted a king to rule over them. It is not clear from the text how the king was chosen, but when one king died another took his place. There was not a royal family because the kings came from different families and backgrounds. Only two of them may have been from the sons of Esau: the second king Jobab was the son of Zerah, a grandson of Esau, and the third king was Husham of the land of the Temanites, named for Timan another grandson of Esau. The rest of the names have no clear connection to Esau.
ESAU IS EDOM (Genesis 36:40-43)
This chapter ends again describing the clans that came through Esau, they are named according to their families, and their localities or where they settled in the land of Edom and again we have a list of the chiefs of the clans and the closing statement of this genealogy is: “These are the chiefs of Edom (that is, Esau, the father of the Edomites), according to their habitations in the land of their possession.” (Genesis 36:43b, NASB95)[5] So for the fourth time we are told that Esau is Edom, that he is the father of the Edomites. Why is this important?
EDOM IN THE BIBLE (Deut., Joshua, Obadiah, Malachi, the Gospels, Romans, Hebrews)
Although Esau and Edom are not mentioned again in the book of Genesis, they are mentioned throughout the rest of the Bible directly or indirectly. In Deuteronomy the children of Israel come to the border of Edom and ask the king of Edom permission to take the kings highway through the land of Edom. He forbids them and they must turn back and go around Edom. In Joshua we are told that God gave the hill country of Seir to Esau as his dwelling place. In the psalms we are told how the Edomites rejoiced over the destruction of Jerusalem and told the Babylonians to level it to the ground. Four of the prophets: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Obadiah speak oracles against Edom. The book of Obadiah is devoted only to the oracle against Edom and how judgment has been declared for them and they will be destroyed because of how they rejoiced over the destruction of Jerusalem. Malachi speaks of God loving Jacob and rejecting Esau. In the Gospels we find Edomites ruling in the land of Israel, the Herods of the New Testament are all descendants of Esau. Both the book of Romans and the book of Hebrews mention Esau. In Romans Paul is quoting Malachi concerning God’s sovereign choice of Jacob. In Hebrews we are told not to be immoral and godless like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. So running through Scripture we come across Edom and Esau time and again, and I only gave you some of the times they are mentioned. They were enemies with Israel since the time that Israel asked to cross through their land on the king’s highway. This is why we were told 4 times that Esau is Edom, so that we would remember when we come across the name elsewhere in the Bible.
CONCLUSION:
With the passing of Isaac, we also have the passing of Esau from the rest of the book of Genesis. He will no longer play a part in the history of the covenant recorded for us in Genesis. That history, beginning in chapter 37 will deal only with the sons of Israel, God’s covenant people and specifically with Israel’s son, Joseph.
Three times in Genesis 36 we are told that Esau is Edom and once that he is the father of the Edomites. This is important because as we learned Edom appears again in the history of Israel. The question we must ask is: What is the spiritual lesson we learn from Edom? It must be understood that Esau (Edom) and Israel stand for something more than just two brothers and two nations. They represent two opposing forces—the flesh and the Spirit of God. Outwardly, Esau is a man’s man; good looking, active, healthy, outgoing and athletic. Israel (Jacob) was a home body, full of deceit and selfish plans. If you were to choose one of these boys, no doubt you would have selected Esau, but God in His sovereignty and by His mercy and His grace chose Jacob, who became Israel. Throughout the Bible God is known as “the God of Jacob.” This is God’s grace. Salvation is not by works, it is not by something that we do to merit God’s favor, it is by His grace and grace alone, God granting to us what we do not deserve. God used Israel to father the tribes of Israel, God gave His covenants and promises to Israel, not Esau. That is God’s sovereign choice.
The man Israel represents the child of God, chosen by God’s grace, often sinning and failing, but ultimately gaining his inheritance. He represents the struggle that each child of God has between the flesh and the Spirit of God who indwells us.
Esau (Edom) is the picture of the flesh without the Spirit of God—attractive, powerful, proud, grasping, rebellious and always seeming to be on the winning side. Yet God has pronounced judgment on the flesh, and one day that judgment will come. The prophet Obadiah tells us that Edom was proud, rebellious and rejoiced when Jerusalem fell. According to the Word of the Lord through the prophets Edom fell five years later also to the Babylonians—and where is Edom today? Gone, the nation no longer exists. The world boasts of the flesh, what the flesh has accomplished, how strong the flesh is; but one day all flesh will fall before the triumphing Lord Jesus Christ.
The struggle between Esau and Jacob, between Israel and Edom, between the flesh and the Spirit runs all through the Bible. The Herods in the New Testament were Edomites. One of them killed all the Jewish babies in the vicinity of Bethlehem in an attempt to destroy Christ. Another of the Herods murdered John the Baptist and another killed James the brother of John, the apostle.
Flesh vs. Spirit, pride vs. submission, man’s way vs. God’s way: the struggle will go on until Christ returns and establishes His kingdom. The records of the generations of Esau represent the way of the flesh. What more do we know about Esau or Edom? Nothing, because they are no more. How do we escape the judgment that will come upon the flesh? By agreeing with God that you are a sinner and that there is nothing you can do to make yourself acceptable to God, then believing that Jesus Christ did everything necessary by paying the punishment for sin by dying on the cross and by being buried and raised from the dead three days later. When you believe this you are immediately indwelt by the Spirit of God who seals you until the day you go to be with the Lord forever. You have escaped the judgment of the flesh through the forgiveness of your sins, believing in Christ death, burial, and resurrection on your behalf makes you acceptable to God, you are justified and declared righteous before God because the righteousness of Christ has been given to you.
[1]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. LaHabra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995
[2]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. LaHabra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995
[3]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. LaHabra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995
[4]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. LaHabra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995
[5]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. LaHabra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995