Our Choice’s Today will shape our Tomorrows
DBF 02/17/02
Genesis 36
Esau’s History
Esau’s Legacy
You know people often tell me about how blessed we are to have a son like Dominique and to have the privilege to be in fellowship with the nice young people who come to Dillingham Bible Fellowship.
I do feel blessed to be around these young Christians because as a bi-vocational pastor whose other job happens to be as a Juvenile Probation Officer whose jurisdiction is larger than any half of the lower 48 states combined, I do see the other kids that are being referenced here.
I feel blessed but I also know that it takes a lot of time, effort, nurturing, prayer, and prayer, and prayer…… It is not a mistake or an accident when a child turns out the way that Christ calls them to be. The kids I see mostly have not had a great deal of any of the above.
I often tell the kids that come into my Juvenile Probation Office that I would love for them to make the right decisions in life. I point out the fact that all of us have made mistakes, and as long as we learn and change our behaviors and learn, we can be OK.
Oh, you don’t remember making mistakes?
God’s word tells us that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. We are as filthy rags, unworthy, yet God still sent His only begotten Son to die for you and I on the cruel, cruel tree at Calvary—Praise be to our Risen Savior.
Here in Dillingham, you may know a few people who haves sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. But the reality is that we all fall short, and other than the grace of God and the direction we receive from God’s Holy Word we are nothing without Christ in our lives.
We will look at the history of Esau, if you remember Esau married two daughters of the land of Canaan. His mother then asked Isaac to send Jacob back to her homeland to marry a daughter of their people. When Esau heard this he married a daughter of Ishmael, Isaac’s step-brother. Let’s look to God’s word for wisdom as we walk with Esau through Chapter 36 of Genesis.
Esau’s History
Genesis 36
1Now these are the generations of Esau, who is Edom. 2Esau took his wives of the daughters of Canaan; Adah the daughter of Elon the Hittite, and Aholibamah the daughter of Anah the daughter of Zibeon the Hivite; 3And Bashemath Ishmael’s daughter, sister of Nebajoth. 4And Adah bare to Esau Eliphaz; and Bashemath bare Reuel; 5And Aholibamah bare Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah: these are the sons of Esau, which were born unto him in the land of Canaan. 6And Esau took his wives, and his sons, and his daughters, and all the persons of his house, and his cattle, and all his beasts, and all his substance, which he had got in the land of Canaan; and went into the country from the face of his brother Jacob. 7For their riches were more than that they might dwell together; and the land wherein they were strangers could not bear them because of their cattle. 8Thus dwelt Esau in mount Seir: Esau is Edom.
9And these are the generations of Esau the father of the Edomites in mount Seir: 10These are the names of Esau’s sons; Eliphaz the son of Adah the wife of Esau, Reuel the son of Bashemath the wife of Esau. 11And the sons of Eliphaz were Teman, Omar, Zepho, and Gatam, and Kenaz. 12And Timna was concubine to Eliphaz Esau’s son; and she bare to Eliphaz Amalek: these were the sons of Adah Esau’s wife. 13And these are the sons of Reuel; Nahath, and Zerah, Shammah, and Mizzah: these were the sons of Bashemath Esau’s wife.
These are the generations of Esau—Here we have the genealogy of Esau in his sons and grandsons, and also the genealogy of Seir the Horite. The genealogy of the sons of Esau, born in Canaan, is related in Genesis 36:1-8; those of his grandchildren born in Seir, in Genesis 36:9-19; those of Seir the Horite, Genesis 36:20-30. The generations of Esau are particularly marked, to show how exactly God fulfilled the promises he made to him, Genesis 25 and 27; and those of Seir the Horite are added, because the families became blended with that of Esau.
His wives—Esau’s wives are Aholibamah, Adah, and Bashemath. Remember that Esau had first taken Aholibamah and Adah from the Canaanite people, then after Rebekah asked Isaac to send Jacob away to marry from their own people, Esau married on of Ishmael’s daughters, Bashemath.
We know from our previous studies that this type of arrangement is not the preferred order by God. God called them man and woman that they might cling to each other. Adam and Eve were a singular family unit, we see no Evone, Evette, and Eva Jane.
We should always remember that for ourselves and our posterity God calls us to become a completion with our spouse and to raise Godly children from this union.
Esau took his wives, etc.—So it appears that Esau and Jacob dwelt together in Canaan, and at some points their herds became to blessed to be able to share the land.
What do you do when something like this happens in your life?
Do you complain and try to blame God for the blessing in your life or do you praise Him in any and all situations in your life?
We are called to do the later. We must praise God for the problems, when we have to much meat that we may share with our family and friends; when we have too much fish that we may share with our community and we need to buy a freezer to keep the rest. We should always remember that God is good—all the time.
So we find that Esau needed to move because of God’s blessings brought to he and Jacob/Israel and Esau moved from Seir, probably soon after the return of Jacob.
This again proves the greatness of God. The brothers reunion had been such that they had become great friends; and Esau showed dignified conduct as on other occasions, in leaving Canaan to Jacob, and returning again to Mount Seir; certainly a much less fruitful region than that which he now in behalf of his brother voluntarily abandoned, because of God’s abundant blessings.
Timna was concubine to Eliphaz—As Timna was sister to Lotan the Horite, Genesis 36:22, we see how the family of Esau and the Horites become intermixed. Again this is prior to the Law being given and thus far we have only observed wise stewardship in keeping the bloodlines apart. This might later give the sons of Esau a pretext to seize the land, and expel the ancient inhabitants, as we find they did in Deuteronomy 2:12.
Amalek—The father of the Amalekites, afterwards bitter enemies to the Jews, and whom God commanded to be entirely exterminated in Deuteronomy 25:17, 19. This was commanded because the Amalekites attacked Moses from the rear as he when the people of God were weary and “he did not fear God.” You see it is good to have a righteous, reverent fear are awe of God. We should if we only look around us and see what He has done and is doing in our lives. God is good—all the time.
We see that Esau’s children will turn and walk far from God—Is it any wonder why the chosen seed although not the firstborn was Jacob. The great “I am” has always been and ever will be in control.
Esau’s Legacy
15-43
15These were dukes of the sons of Esau: the sons of Eliphaz the firstborn son of Esau; duke Teman, duke Omar, duke Zepho, duke Kenaz, 16Duke Korah, duke Gatam, and duke Amalek: these are the dukes that came of Eliphaz in the land of Edom; these were the sons of Adah. 17And these are the sons of Reuel Esau’s son; duke Nahath, duke Zerah, duke Shammah, duke Mizzah: these are the dukes that came of Reuel in the land of Edom; these are the sons of Bashemath Esau’s wife. 18And these are the sons of Aholibamah Esau’s wife; duke Jeush, duke Jaalam, duke Korah: these were the dukes that came of Aholibamah the daughter of Anah, Esau’s wife. 19These are the sons of Esau, who is Edom, and these are their dukes.
20These are the sons of Seir the Horite, who inhabited the land; Lotan, and Shobal, and Zibeon, and Anah, 21And Dishon, and Ezer, and Dishan: these are the dukes of the Horites, the children of Seir in the land of Edom. 22And the children of Lotan were Hori and Hemam; and Lotan’s sister was Timna. 23And the children of Shobal were these; Alvan, and Manahath, and Ebal, Shepho, and Onam. 24And these are the children of Zibeon; both Ajah, and Anah: this was that Anah that found the mules in the wilderness, as he fed the asses of Zibeon his father. 25And the children of Anah were these; Dishon, and Aholibamah the daughter of Anah. 26And these are the children of Dishon; Hemdan, and Eshban, and Ithran, and Cheran. 27The children of Ezer are these; Bilhan, and Zaavan, and Akan. 28The children of Dishan are these; Uz, and Aran. 29These are the dukes that came of the Horites; duke Lotan, duke Shobal, duke Zibeon, duke Anah, 30Duke Dishon, duke Ezer, duke Dishan: these are the dukes that came of Hori, among their dukes in the land of Seir.
31And these are the kings that reigned in the land of Edom, before there reigned any king over the children of Israel. 32And Bela the son of Beor reigned in Edom: and the name of his city was Dinhabah. 33And Bela died, and Jobab the son of Zerah of Bozrah reigned in his stead. 34And Jobab died, and Husham of the land of Temani reigned in his stead. 35And Husham died, and Hadad the son of Bedad, who smote Midian in the field of Moab, reigned in his stead: and the name of his city was Avith. 36And Hadad died, and Samlah of Masrekah reigned in his stead. 37And Samlah died, and Saul of Rehoboth by the river reigned in his stead. 38And Saul died, and Baalhanan the son of Achbor reigned in his stead. 39And Baalhanan the son of Achbor died, and Hadar reigned in his stead: and the name of his city was Pau; and his wife’s name was Mehetabel, the daughter of Matred, the daughter of Mezahab. 40And these are the names of the dukes that came of Esau, according to their families, after their places, by their names; duke Timnah, duke Alvah, duke Jetheth, 41Duke Aholibamah, duke Elah, duke Pinon, 42Duke Kenaz, duke Teman, duke Mibzar, 43Duke Magdiel, duke Iram: these be the dukes of Edom, according to their habitations in the land of their possession: he is Esau the father of the Edomites
So we see here the “Dukes of the sons of Esau—The word duke comes from the Latin word dux, which means a captain or leader. The Hebrew word óåìà alluph has the same signification; and it is also the term for a thousand. It is very probable the alluphey or dukes had this name from being leaders of or captains over a company of one thousand men; just as those among the Greeks called chiliarchs, which signifies the same; and as the Romans called those centurions who were captains over one hundred men, from the Latin word centum, which signifies a hundred. The ducal government
was that which prevailed first among the Idumeans, or descendants of Esau. Here fourteen dukes are reckoned to Esau, seven that came from his wife, Adah, four from Bashemath, and three from Aholibamah. And Abraham’s descendant’s “shall be as the sand on the seashore…”
Duke Korah—“It is certain, from Genesis 36:4, that Eliphaz was Esau’s son by Adah; and from Genesis 36:11, 12, that Eliphaz had but six sons,
Teman, Omar, Zepho, Gatam, Kenaz, and Amalek. It is also certain, from Genesis 36:5, 14, that Korah was the son of Esau (not of Eliphaz) by Aholibamah; and as such he is properly mentioned in Genesis 36:18: These are the sons of Aholibamah, Esau’s wife: Duke Jeush, Duke Jaalam, Duke KORAH.
Next we look at what could be considered a tragedy of stewardship on Esau’s part--These are the sons of Seir the Horite—These Horites were the original inhabitants of the country of Seir, called the land of the Horites, and afterwards the land of the Idumeans, when the descendants of Esau had driven them out. These people are first mentioned Genesis 14:6. God would later give the command to remain a separated people unto God. This intermixing was bad because it brought in other religions and other Gods.
These are the dukes of the Horites—It appears pretty evident that the Horites and the descendants of Esau were mixed together in the same land. There were princes of Seir in the country of Seir, and in that of Edom; and in comparing the generations of Seir and Esau, we see that the princes were equals.
This was that Anah that found the water in the wilderness—The words eth
kaiyemim, here translated to water has also been translated mules. The Syriac renders it mayeñ, waters; the author of this version having read in the Hebrew copy from
which he translated. íéî mayim, waters, for íîé yemim, the two first letters being transposed.
The Enetae or Henetae, who were a people contiguous to Paphlagonia, Cappadocia, and Galatia, might have derived their origin from this Anah.
Before there reigned any king over—Israel—only in and under God’s divine purview can we look forward to see the Monarchy’s of Saul and David. Moses had gained divine knowledge and it is very possible that at a very early point in time this was
written in the margin of an authentic copy, to make out the regal succession in Edom, prior to the consecration of Saul.
Esau, after his dukes, had eight kings, who reigned successively over their people, while the nation of Israel was in affliction in Egypt.
These are the names of the dukes that came of Esau—These dukes did not govern the whole nation of the Idumeans, but they were chiefs in their respective families, in their places, city or cities—the districts they governed, and to which they gave their names. These were probably dukes in Edom or Idumea at the time of the exodus of Israel from Egypt.
He is Esau the father of the Edomites— The preceding list contains an account of the
posterity of Esau, who was the father of Edom. Thus ends Esau’s history; for after this there is no farther account of his life, actions, or death, in the Pentateuch.
As we look back on Esau’s life it can be noted:
Esau sold his birthright; then purposed to destroy his brother—both in his youth.
He came back to his brother in peace under God’s protection of Jacob, showing all humanity and affection.
He was a dutiful son returning and assisting in the burial of his father.
He is indeed called in Scripture the profane Esau; and it is written,
Jacob have I loved, and Esau have I hated. This shows that God has no partiality as we see in man.
The sentence against Esau is founded, not upon his actions, for it was determined before the children had done good or evil. God’s hatred of Esau was not a hatred which
induced him to punish him with any evil, for he was as happy in all the blessings of this life as either Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob; and his posterity had a land designated by God to be their possession, as well as the children of Jacob, and they were put in possession of it much sooner than the Israelites; and God was pleased to protect them in the enjoyment of it, and to caution the Israelites against invading them with a remarkable strictness, Deuteronomy 2:4, 5. God was pleased thus to bless Esau and his children in the blessings of this life, even as much as he blessed Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob.
The punishment inflicted on Esau was an exclusion from being heir to the blessing promised to Abraham and to his seed, which was a favor not granted to Lot, to Job, to several other very virtuous and good men.
Paul, in previous passage, only intended to show the Jews that God had all along given
favors that led to the Messiah where he pleased; to Abraham, not to Lot; to Jacob, not to Esau; as at the time Paul wrote these words the Gentiles were made the people of God, not the Jews.
Esau is indeed called profane, but not wicked or immoral. Esau was called profane for not having that due value for the priest’s office which he should have had as firstborn; and therefore, He did not first seek the things and call of God in his life as Jacob did.
The plain truth is that the Messiah must spring from some ONE family, and God chose Abraham’s through Isaac, Jacob, etc., rather than the same through Ishmael, Esau, and the others in that line. This does not mean that the first were all necessarily saved, and the others necessarily lost.
Genealogies as we have noted previously can be boring to some, but it bears the truth of God’s word, and guaranteed to these descendants as to you the Promises of God in their lives. It is as necessary to register the generations of Esau as to register those of Jacob, in order to show that the Messiah did not spring from the former, but that he
did spring from the latter. Even though to some extremely boring and tedious the genealogical tables, often little regarded by Christians in general, are extremely useful as standing proof of the truth of the prophecies, which stated that the Messiah should come from a particular family, and which were clearly fulfilled in the birth of Christ. They also testify to the conviction of the Jews that the Messiah thus promised is found in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, who incontestably sprang from the last, the only remaining branch of the family of David.
These same registers were religiously preserved among the Jews until the destruction of Jerusalem, after which they were all destroyed.
In the early first century there was no attempt by any to rebut the claim that Jesus was a descendant of David. There were clear records kept until 70 AD and the destruction of Jerusalem. Even with the excess of their malice against Christ and his followers; and because they did not do it, we may safely assert no Jew could do it. Thus the
foundation stands as sure today.
Again as glorious as God’s promises to care for us are, we can only claim them when we become a child of God. We must first come and accept that we are but sinners deserving of death. If you are convicted of this now, all that Christ and God ask you to do is to confess that you are a sinner, repent of your sins, and believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God promised through the Abrahamic Covenant and ask Jesus into your heart. If you have made this commitment today or would like to make this decision or any other decisions we ask that you come forward at this time.
We would also ask for any prayers or concerns that anyone might have. We would love to pray for you and your needs. Jesus loves you and so do we.
Closing prayer.
