Genesis 36 - The Nation of Edom: Esau's Legacy - They Mysteries of God's Word

We explore the genealogy of Esau, examining the significance of his lineage and its implications for the nation of Israel. Through discussions about key figures like Amalek and the historical context of Edom, we uncover the deep-rooted conflicts and legacies that emerge from this narrative. 
• The significance of Esau’s genealogy in biblical history 
• Esau’s separation from Jacob and his move to Seir 
• The cultural implications of Esau’s wives 
• Amalek’s role as a notorious figure against Israel 
• Understanding the title of chiefs among Esau’s descendants 
• The historical context of the Horites in Seir 
• A prophetic look at the kings of Edom and their influence 

Chapters

• 0:14 Esau's Descendants and Seir's Lineage
• 15:31 Esau's Clan and Location Chiefs

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:15

Grace and peace to you from God, our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, jesus Christ. Welcome again to the Mysteries of God's Word. Today we're in Genesis, chapter 36, where we're looking at Esau's descendants, and this looks like another one of those genealogy lists. As you know, normally when we go through our Bibles we go verse by verse and word by word, but when we come to these lists of genealogies, we often look at the bigger picture. And so we will do today as we look at Esau's descendants, rather than going verse by verse, we will be looking at the bigger picture as these genealogies in Scripture are given to us for both historical value, to recognize the historical significance of these family lines as well as to highlight some of the people within these lineages. So, starting at verse 1, we see that these are the generations of Esau. Now, similar to how we saw a genealogy of Abraham's unchosen son, ishmael, back in Genesis 25, 12-18, so also we have here a lineage of the unchosen son, esau. This summary of Esau is important to biblical history. It also includes the people of Seir, whom Esau came and conquered, and all of this information becomes very relevant, especially when Israel comes into the Promised Land later on. In addition, this lineage also shows the promise of God to make Esau into a nation Genesis 25-23. However, there is a contrast to Ishmael, whom God promised to make into a great nation in Genesis 17-20. This nation of Esau, which is known as Edom, will eventually be wiped out because of their constant opposition to God's people, while the great nation of Ishmael will continue to flourish.

Speaker 1: 2:50

In verses 2 through 5 of chapter 36, we begin to see how Esau took wives from the Canaanites, and we learned that also back in Genesis, chapter 26, verse 34, and Genesis 28, 9. It's interesting to note here that the names of the three wives mentioned are not exactly the same as those mentioned in the previous verses, and while this might seem to be a strange mess with no easy solution, we've already seen how the names of people have changed in Scripture. Esau is now called Edom, and Edom may have very likely changed the names of his wives. As we examine the scripture here in these four verses, we begin to see that these are in fact the same women. Adah from this verse is the daughter of Elan, and that's who Basemath was in Genesis 26-34. While Basemath in this verse is Ishmael's daughter and the sister of Neboeth, and in Genesis 28-9, mahalath was Ishmael's daughter and the sister of Neboeth. Elath was Ishmael's daughter and the sister of Neboeth. An interesting note about this woman is that, while she was considered a Canaanite because of her residence in Canaan, she's ethnically an Egyptian, as Ishmael's mother came from Egypt and Ishmael took an Egyptian wife, took an Egyptian wife. Finally, we see that Oholobama, in this verse goes down two generations of women to a Hivite man and it's only reasonable to conclude that this was Judith. In Genesis 26-34, whom had the father of a Hittite man? Oholobama was the only wife of Esau to bear more than one son.

Speaker 1: 5:02

In verses 6 through 8, we see that Esau took all of his wives, his sons, his daughters and every one of his household, all of his livestock, all of his beasts, all of his property that he had acquired in the land of Canaan, and he went into a land away from his brother Jacob, for their possessions were too great for them to dwell together. The land of their sojourning could not support them because of their livestock, so Esau settled in the hill country of Seir. Esau is Edom. These three verses give us a large context to this entire chapter. We see that one of Esau's primary motivations for permanently leaving the land of Canaan was to be away from his brother, jacob, and he took all that he had acquired in the land of Canaan. The issue that perhaps helped prod the timing of Esau's move into the land of Seir permanently was that the land where Jacob and Esau had been living after Isaac's death could no longer support both of their herds. Could no longer support both of their herds, and this wording is very similar to the tone that we heard when Abraham and Lot separated back in Genesis 13, 6 and 7. Finally, esau makes the decision to permanently make his residence in Seir, and he had already established a home there years prior. We learned that back in Genesis 32.3 and 33.14. But considering how we know that Esau had four sons while he was in the land of Canaan from three wives, which means he must have been there for a minimum of at least two years after Isaac's death, which was in 1716 BC, also considering it says he had daughters and much wealth, it was likely much longer. However, we also know that the famine that consumed this land began around 1708 BC and Jacob would leave for Egypt to join Joseph in 1706 BC. Therefore, this timing of Esau leaving for Seir is somewhere between 1714 and 1706 BC. I would somewhere estimate this departure for Seir somewhere around 1709 BC.

Speaker 1: 7:49

And then, in verses 9, we start to get into the genealogy of Esau. Perhaps the greatest person of note here is Amalek, the son of Eliphaz, the son of Esau. Perhaps the greatest person of note here is Amalek, the son of Eliphaz, the son of Esau. Now, the mother of Amalek was Timnah, the daughter of Seir, and Amalek came from this early union of the tribe of Esau and the tribe of Seir. Now, if you know your biblical history, you know that Amalek would oppose God's people at every turn. Some references to this are Exodus 17.8, numbers 24.20, and Deuteronomy 25.17, just to name a few.

Speaker 1: 8:38

And Amalek fathered what became known as the Amalekites, and the Amalekites were completely at odds with Israel. The Amalekites of Edom might rightly be considered the sworn enemy of Israel, and if there was ever a feud between two families like the Hatfield and McCoys, that was it. The depth of the conflict between those two nations, israel and the Amalekites, it is hard to overstate. The Amalekites blocked Israel's pathway into the promised Land in Exodus 17. They would oppose Israel at key times in their history. In fact, in Exodus, chapter 17, the Lord tells Moses that he will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven. Later, when the anointed King David was hiding from Saul, the Amalekites plundered his camp and then David and his men pursued them and eventually killed them. That's in 1 Samuel 30. And finally we see in the book of Esther that Haman, who's called an Agagite, is actually a descendant of the Amalekite king that was spared by Saul and Haman would put forth a decree to kill all of the Jews. And all of this feud comes from Amalek, the son of Eliphaz, the son of Esau, and a union with the daughter of Seir.

Speaker 1: 10:24

In verses 15 through 19, we read about the chiefs of the sons of Esau. Now, this title for chief could be translated duke, and the Hebrew word has the same significance as a captain or a leader in a military sense. Captain or a leader in a military sense. It's also the same word that's used for 1,000, as these chiefs were the captains over a company of a thousand men. This militarized order of Edom signifies the warlike nature of Esau's descendants.

Speaker 1: 10:58

Then, in verses 20 through 30, we learn about the sons of Seir, the Horite. This list of Seir's descendants is important as it helps us, the reader, to understand the narrative that is taking place over the time of the patriarchs. Even back in Abraham's time, back in Genesis, chapter 14, we learned that this region was known as the hill country of Seir. Now we see Abraham's grandson, esau, come and live in this land and through this list of Seir's descendants we learn that Esau, after he settled here, became dominant over the inhabitants that lived in Seir. Seir is also identified here as a Horite, and the root word Hor means cave. Many early commentators believed that the Horites were cave dwellers and in fact interpreted the word Horite as cave dweller. Finally, in these 11 verses we learn that some of Esau's descendants intermarried with the descendants of Seir, as we learn that Timnah, who had Bor Amalek, was the daughter of Seir. In verse 22, we also learn through this list that one of Esau's wives, oholabama, was a great-granddaughter of Seir, as Seir gave birth to Zibion.

Speaker 1: 12:41

We learn in verse 20, who we come to verses 31 through 39, which is a list of kings, kind of sandwiched in this genealogical order. Genealogical order, this list of kings is prophetically pointing to how kings would one day come from Israel, just as God had promised the patriarchs Abraham, isaac and Jacob. And now he continues to declare it through the writings of Moses, for example in Genesis 17.6, of Moses, for example in Genesis 17.6,. God had told Abraham that he would make him exceedingly fruitful and he would make him into nations and that kings would come from him. This promise is continued throughout Genesis, throughout Numbers and Deuteronomy, and these kings of Edom are a foreshadow of how kings will one day reign in the promised land in Israel. The kings here of Edom would have coexisted, of course, with the chiefs or dukes that we read about earlier, and this list of kings also doesn't describe any dynasties, because each ruler is not the son of the predecessor. The list does appear to be a succession, with one king replacing another, but that's about all we know about these kings. That's about all we know about these kings.

Speaker 1: 14:24

Finally, in verses 40 through 43, we see another list of chiefs. This time it's according to their clans and according to their dwelling places. This list of chiefs appears different from the previous list, as there were 14 in the previous list and in this list we have only 11. Furthermore, this list again focuses on how the chiefs have influence over specific clans and locations. Finally, some of the names here in this listinez and T-Man are the same, while others have changed. Furthermore, it seems interesting that one of the names, oholabema, was the name of one of Esau's wives and Timnah, a concubine of Esau, both women being descendants of Seir of Esau, both women being descendants of Seir.

Speaker 1: 15:32

This list of chiefs would appear to be another way of listing chiefs of Edom, but not in a military order as the previous list did, but rather according to the clan and location. Perhaps it's as simple as the previous list being commanders in the military and this second list being, like, mayors or governors over the towns. And finally, we see in verse 42 that Esau is the father of Edom, again calling our attention to the promise of the Lord that he had given Rebekah at the birth of her two sons, that two nations were in her womb and this was the nation of Esau, the father of Edom. Thank you for joining me today as we looked at this genealogy and short summary of Esau. God bless you this week.