Gen. 36 Wrapping up by Studying Bible Truths and Teachings on Thursday, February 17, 2011 at 12:21am ·

In our last study of Genesis, we began wrapping up loose ties regarding Jacob in preparation to focus the remainder of Genesis on studying the life of Joseph. We looked at the birth of Benjamin, the death of Rachel, and the incest of Reuben. Today, we’ll move forward to look at

Esau’s legacy.

Turning our Bibles to Gen. 36, we see the only chapter in the Bible devoted to Esau. It’s not surprising though considering he rejected the things of God. However, his legacy would be so prominent and interwoven with the history of Israel, God gave a complete chapter to it.

Many would have skipped over this chapter as it seems to be difficult to determine its purpose in scripture, but as we go through it, hopefully, its value will be seen. While genealogies are often hard to follow, they do always serve a purpose. Remember, ALL of God’s Word is inspired and is profitable, even when we don’t always know what for.

I will also go on and warn you this chapter can get a little confusing, because a few different people have the same names. We’ll see Esau’s wives have 2 names each, with 2 of them having the same name. Then, there’s Anah and for example, who also bring confusion.

As we move on into verse 1, we see it says Esau is . Both of these names mean red. One importance of establishing that here is as you look at Israelite history later on, we see the Israelites will have a lot of conflict with the Edomites. Physically, these groups are nothing more than distant relatives. Spiritually however, they had nothing in common and couldn’t stand each other. This goes back to the very beginning of our discussion of Jacob and Esau. Esau went after the things of the world while Jacob sought things above.

As we continue into verse 2, we see Esau’s 3 wives mentioned – Adah, Aholibamah, and Bashemath. When were these wives first mentioned? Adah and Aholibamah were mentioned in Gen. 26:34-35. Bashemath was mentioned in Gen. 28:6-9. If you turn to those passages, you’ll notice different names given there than what we’ve noted here.

What seems to be the case is the wives have their given names and their new names. We’ve talked in the past how this was a common thing in Bible times to go by more than one name. It was normally in regard to a change in character though. That doesn’t seem to be the case implied with these though.

It’s believed Esau’s wives were given new names more as a way of appeasing his parents. Does anybody remember what Isaac and Rebekkah thought of their daughters-in-law? They didn’t like them (26:35, 27:46, 28:8). Rebekkah even used them as the excuse to send Jacob away to Padan Aram.

All this goes back to what we know about Esau. He followed after secular things, the things of the flesh. God’s will was for the Jews to be separated from the world. Esau wanted the opposite, to be a part of the world, and to fulfill the lusts thereof. He didn’t seek after the things of God. He went after the things of the world.

Even after Jacob left, Esau still lived in Canaan with Isaac and Rebekkah. So, at some point, probably when Jacob left, he gave the women more acceptable names. He probably did it at that time, because scripture tells us that’s when he found out his parents didn’t like them.

As we get to verse 4, we see wife 1 and 3 referenced, then it comes back to wife 2, Aholibamah. Based on this, the fact she gave him 3 sons, and her family’s prominence, she’s believed to be Esau’s favorite. Verse 5 says all his sons were born in Canaan. It’s interesting that all Esau’s sons were born in Canaan, THE PROMISED LAND, but all left to make a name for themselves elsewhere (in Seir). While at the same time, all the sons of Jacob except 1 (Benjamin) were born outside of the promised land, but all chose it for their home. It’s awesome how God uses imperfect people to accomplish His perfect plan.

Turning to verses 6-7, we see the final straw for Esau. Jacob has come back home after about 30 years. He basically came back and took up where he left off, as the son of blessing. So, once Esau saw that Jacob was back for good, he packed up and left. The official reason? There wasn’t enough room for his flocks and Jacob’s. Their wealth is that large.

We’ve seen this same thing some time back with who? Abraham and Lot. Verse 8 tells us Esau moved to Seir. Is that his first time going there? No. We don’t know when he went there first, but it was probably at least back when he was about 40 or younger (over 60 years prior). That is where Aholibamah was from. We’ll talk about that more in a minute.

At this point in scripture, Esau is about 107 years old (same as Jacob), so basically for about 60-70 years, he’s gone over there, but he hadn’t moved there permanently until now. He may have even had a place to stay there. Why would we say that? Remember when Jacob returned? He sent word to Esau that he was coming home. He sent the messengers to Seir. Then, when Esau left Jacob, that’s where Esau went back to. And, that’s where scripture tells us Jacob said he’d meet Esau, although that never happened.

Verse 8 then wraps up like verse 1 started. Esau is Edom. This statement reinforces what we’ve said about Esau already: his worldliness, his disregard for spiritual things, and his lack of concern for the people of God. But that all points us to future events. All this culminated through his lineage. Esau’s descendants were thorns in the flesh of Israel for centuries to come, and some were even bitter enemies of Israel as time moved forward.

For example, with the Edomites, when the Israelites were wandering in the desert (after leaving Egypt) and wanted to pass through the

Edomites’ land, the Edomites refused them passage (Num. 20). Because of that and other horrible treatment, God prophesied judgment against them in the books of the prophets (like Ez. 25).

The Amalekites, another group of descendants from Esau, also would be thorns in the flesh of the Israelites. In Ex. 17:8-16, we see the first mention about them after Moses lead the people out of Egypt. They would do battle with the Israelites. Then, later during the kingdom age,

God took the kingdom away from Saul for making a deal with them (1 Sam. 15:26).

The descendants of Esau essentially followed the same path as the descendants of , another person raised in the house of Abraham, but who also turned his back on the things of God. That’s why it’s not surprising that Esau married into Ishmael’s lineage. Unfortunately, later on, we’ll see Joseph’s brothers sell him to some of that line.

Moving on to verse 9, we’ll look into Esau’s sons and grandsons and their rise to power. Let’s first remember Esau’s second wife, Aholibamah, is believed to be his favorite. Here’s a little more depth to support that view. Her family was likely very prominence, because her father,

Adah, had discovered springs in Beeri. She was believed to be a temple priestess (her name means “tent of the High Place”), a positive name for temple prostitutes in actuality, so this would have afforded her more position. Verse 41 tells us she was a female duke (not duchess, but duke), so she had attained political power. The fact she gave Esau 3 boys as opposed to 1 son each from the other 2 wives normally spoke highly of the wife. Then lastly, the way scripture segregates her apart from the other 2 wives points to her higher position within the family.

You’ll notice Esau’s sons are mentioned initially, but then repeated as some form of royalty. It’s not clear if it’s simply a royal position or actually a military leadership type role, but both have been suggested. In any case, that leads us to an important point about the location

Esau’s chosen to live.

Esau lived in Seir. In Seir, there is a place known as Petra. It also goes by the name, Bozrah.

Has anyone ever heard of this place? This was a strategic place, because of the pass that went through the mountains. Basically, whoever controlled it, controlled the passage through it. As you can imagine, if you controlled it, you could require fees to pass through, similar to a toll gate.

Likewise, because of the geography, it was difficult to overcome this area militarily (at least from without that is). The fate that befell the

Horites, the group through who Esau gained power in this area, is the same that befell the Romans, and what many say is going to happen to

America. They weren’t destroyed from without. They were destroyed from within. That’s how Esau and his descendants came to power in the region. They acquired it from within. That’s also how they would lose it centuries later. For sake of time, we won’t go into that here, however.

Verses 20-30 go into the lineage of Seir. Seir was the original person to settle the land. It’s through verse 25 and following that Seir’s lineage begins to intertwine with Esau, and it actually occurs through 2 individuals that the 2 families combine - Aholibamah (Esau’s 2nd wife) and

Timna (we’ll talk about her in just a minute).

This passage backtracks to talk about the inhabitants of the land before Esau got there. Seir was in the land prior to Abraham’s arrival in

Canaan (14:6). The passage also talks about Seir’s descendants. They’re referred to as the of Mt. Seir. The region was said to be occupied by Hittites, so it is possible Seir was a Hittite, and the following generations were named after his grandson, Hori (v. 22, 30).

Either Seir or his kids were the same generation (age range) as Abraham. It’s not clear how they came into the region, whether they conquered it or if they were the original inhabitants. At any rate, the passage tells us all 7 sons of Seir and his daughter, Timna, were dukes. Timna’s actually mentioned as a duke in verse 40. It’s probably through the prestige of Aholibamah’s father, Anah, that she too became a duke. Being a temple priestess could have helped in that as well though.

In turn, her position likely lead to her sons becoming dukes. That’s why her sons are dukes, but the other sons of Esau aren’t. But then, we see Oholibamah’s sons either didn’t have kids or for some reason they are not mentioned in scripture. If they didn’t have any, that would point to why all of Esau’s grandsons became dukes. Somebody had to carry on his royal line.

As we continue on into verse 31, this passage leads with an important fact, that Esau’s line fulfilled God’s prophecy LONG before

Jacob’s. Remember, God promised kings would come from Abraham. Physically, both Jacob and Esau had kings descend from them. Spiritually, the dual intention of God’s prophecy only referred to Jacob though.

We’ll skip forward to verse 40. Verses 32-39 mainly tell us who was king when. Very little is known about these. In verse 40, we see more dukes mentioned from those above, but not all. Here is where we see both Timna and Aholibamah were dukes. We’ve talked about

Aholibamah a little already. Let’s look a Timna for a minute.

Timna is first mentioned in verse 12, then in verse 22. She’s mentioned as the concubine of Eliphaz, so what we don’t know is if she was a duke first and married Eliphaz, or if she married Eliphaz then became a duke. What’s the difference? If she was a duke first, her power made her sons dukes and explains why Eliphaz was NOT a duke. If she was NOT a duke first, she got her power and her sons’ power from

Aholibamah.

Let’s mention just a few other things from the passage before closing. We talked about Amalek a little earlier. Remember, his descendants ended up being bitter enemies of Israel. See Ex. 17:8-16 and 1 Sam. 15: for example. Teman is another one of Eliphaz’s sons. Either his father, Eliphaz, or one of his descendants is believed to be one of Job’s “friends” (see Job 2:11 for ref. to Temanites).

Lastly, we’re not completely clear on the lineage between Seir and Aholibamah. The context of verses 20-30 points to the passage giving the children of Seir, but when you get to Anah, Dishon, and Aholibamah, it’s hard to tell if it’s saying Anah was Zibeon’s son only or if Seir had a son named Anah AND Zibeon had a son named Anah (compare verses 20-21 to 24-26). It doesn’t have much bearing on our lesson today, but

I did want to mention it. Also, Titus 3:9 specifically tells us not to argue about genealogies, so we definitely won't do so.

As we wrap up, there’s a lot of speculation about this chapter. Since roughly 4000 years have passed since the timing of the events here, it’s impossible to note much with great certainty. However, there are a few things we know for sure. Esau is Edom. Again, this statement reinforces what we’ve said about Esau already - his worldliness, his disregard for spiritual things, and his lack of concern for the people of

God.

Again, all this culminated through the lineage of his descendants. Esau’s lineage were thorns in the flesh of Israel for centuries to come. They essentially followed the same path as the descendants of Ishmael, another who was raised in the house of Abraham, but turned his back on the things of God.

I know this study tonight was more historical than applicable, but again, every word in the Word of God serves a purpose. One of the purposes of this passage is to show the transfer of power in the region and the future impact it would have, shifting from the descendants of

Seir to the descendants of Esau.

That leads to the way the passage ends. Earlier in 2 locations, God said “Esau is Edom”. This statement points back to the bargain that Esau made to SO CHEAPLY give up the things of God. The passage ENDS though with Esau is the FATHER of the Edomites. In other words, he is responsible for what became of his line. They were just like him.

I don’t know if you’ve ever heard it, but it’s been said that the end of Christianity is only one generation away. What does that mean? We have a responsibility to not only live our lives for Christ but to also teach our families to do the same, to teach our kids the things of God and even help them pass it on. The passage we looked at tonight shows the consequences of not doing so.