November 22, Genesis 36
Then Esau took his wives, his sons, his daughters, and all the members of his household, his livestock, all his beasts, and all his property that he had acquired in the land of Canaan. He went into a land away from his brother Jacob. - Genesis 36:8
Esau is a tragic figure in the story of Abraham's descendants. Although he was a twin, he was technically the firstborn and would have been considered the legitimate heir to the role of covenant patriarch that his grandfather Abraham and his father Isaac had held before him. But before the twins were born, God predetermined that the older would serve the younger. We know how Jacob sold Esau a bowl of stew for the price of his birthright. We remember how Jacob deceived his father to get the blessing. Esau's lack of respect for spiritual matters such as the birthright and bloodline led him to marry Canaanite women and later one of Ishmael's nieces. We saw a violent side of Esau when he vowed to kill Jacob, and a more tender, matured Esau when he warmly welcomed Jacob back home twenty years later. His family grew into a nation as did Jacob's. But Esau’s family was not the bloodline through which God would keep the promises he made to Abraham.
This chapter is a record of Esau's generations. It's one of those chapters mostly composed of lists of hard to pronounce names. We know a lot about Israel as they developed from 12 sons of a renamed man into a great nation of the same name. That's part of the main story of the Bible. But this chapter is almost all we know about this branch of Abraham's family tree.
The text described Esau's separation from his brother Jacob. Let's think about three reasons why this was necessary. First the text tells the practical reason for the separation. Reminiscent of Abraham's separation from Lot, it was necessary because there were not enough resources (grazing land and water) to support the large herds and flocks. Remember these wealthy men of old had much of their capital in livestock. There were too many animals between the two brothers for them to dwell together. Jacob was under God's direction to be where he was. So Esau moved away.
The separation also reminds me of how Sarah persuaded Abraham to send Ishmael away. She may have been only looking after her birth son's best interest. But God affirmed Sarah's advice, and Abraham sent his beloved Ishmael and his mother Hagar away. God promised Hagar and Abraham that he would bless and make Ishmael a father of nations, and it came true. Esau became the father of the nation of Edom, a name derived from Esau. They would be Israel’s nearby rivals and bitter enemies in years to come. The book of Obadiah was written to denounce Edom’s pride and announce their doom.
We should also view Esau's departure as predetermined by God's design. Before the boys were born, God in his sovereignty and foreknowledge had determined who would be the blessed, birthright heir to Isaac. All the human wrangling, scheming and trickery we saw back in the boys' younger days did not change God's predetermined outcome. God's redemptive purpose lay along the bloodline of Abraham, Isaac and then Jacob (not Esau). Paul used this fact to illustrate God's sovereign election in Romans 9. It is not our place to question or criticize God's righteous and perfect design. We are blessed as are all the families of the earth to be invited to be God's covenant people. He accomplished this through Christ, who was born of this bloodline to become our Savior.
With this chapter's close, the focus shifts away from Esau (for good) and comes back to Jacob and his family. The next great hero of faith will not be Reuben the firstborn, nor Levi through whom the generations of Israel's priests would come. It will not be Judah, the man through whose line our Lord Jesus would be born. Instead it will be Joseph who becomes God's man to serve God's purpose and save Jacob and his family in the years to come. His improbable journey toward that destiny will begin in the next chapter.
Copyright © 2021 by Michael B. McElroy. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Today in God's Word—November 2024
East Tallassee Church of Christ
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