August 26, 2004

Reading through the Bible in one Year: John 10-12

Weekly Memory Verse: John 1:12

Good Evening Brothers and Sisters,

I realize the genealogies are probably the hardest thing to read in the Bible, this chapter is copied and pasted as normal.  We will talk about a few of the issues, but we won't go deep into this chapter. 

Genesis 36:1-43 (NASB95)
¹ Now these are the records of the generations of Esau (that is, Edom). ² 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; ³ also Basemath, Ishmael’s daughter, the sister of Nebaioth. ⁴ Adah bore Eliphaz to Esau, and Basemath bore Reuel, ⁵ and Oholibamah bore Jeush and Jalam and Korah. These are the sons of Esau who were born to him in the land of Canaan. ⁶ 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. ⁷ 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. ⁸ So Esau lived in the hill country of Seir; Esau is Edom. ⁹ These then are the records of the generations of Esau the father of the Edomites in the hill country of Seir. ¹⁰ These are the names of Esau’s sons: Eliphaz the son of Esau’s wife Adah, Reuel the son of Esau’s wife Basemath. ¹¹ The sons of Eliphaz were Teman, Omar, Zepho and Gatam and Kenaz. ¹² Timna was a concubine of Esau’s son Eliphaz and she bore Amalek to Eliphaz. These are the sons of Esau’s wife Adah. ¹³ These are the sons of Reuel: Nahath and Zerah, Shammah and Mizzah. These were the sons of Esau’s wife Basemath. ¹⁴ These were the sons of Esau’s wife Oholibamah, the daughter of Anah and the granddaughter of Zibeon: she bore to Esau, Jeush and Jalam and Korah. ¹⁵ These are the chiefs of the sons of Esau. The sons of Eliphaz, the firstborn of Esau, are chief Teman, chief Omar, chief Zepho, chief Kenaz, ¹⁶ chief Korah, chief Gatam, chief Amalek. These are the chiefs descended from Eliphaz in the land of Edom; these are the sons of Adah. ¹⁷ These are the sons of Reuel, Esau’s son: chief Nahath, chief Zerah, chief Shammah, chief Mizzah. These are the chiefs descended from Reuel in the land of Edom; these are the sons of Esau’s wife Basemath. ¹⁸ These are the sons of Esau’s wife Oholibamah: chief Jeush, chief Jalam, chief Korah. These are the chiefs descended from Esau’s wife Oholibamah, the daughter of Anah. ¹⁹ These are the sons of Esau (that is, Edom), and these are their chiefs. ²⁰ These are the sons of Seir the Horite, the inhabitants of the land: Lotan and Shobal and Zibeon and Anah, ²¹ and Dishon and Ezer and Dishan. These are the chiefs descended from the Horites, the sons of Seir in the land of Edom. ²² The sons of Lotan were Hori and Hemam; and Lotan’s sister was Timna. ²³ These are the sons of Shobal: Alvan and Manahath and Ebal, Shepho and Onam. ²⁴ These are the sons of Zibeon: Aiah and Anah—he is the Anah who found the hot springs in the wilderness when he was pasturing the donkeys of his father Zibeon. ²⁵ These are the children of Anah: Dishon, and Oholibamah, the daughter of Anah. ²⁶ These are the sons of Dishon: Hemdan and Eshban and Ithran and Cheran. ²⁷ These are the sons of Ezer: Bilhan and Zaavan and Akan. ²⁸ These are the sons of Dishan: Uz and Aran. ²⁹ These are the chiefs descended from the Horites: chief Lotan, chief Shobal, chief Zibeon, chief Anah, ³⁰ chief Dishon, chief Ezer, chief Dishan. These are the chiefs descended from the Horites, according to their various chiefs in the land of Seir. ³¹ Now these are the kings who reigned in the land of Edom before any king reigned over the sons of Israel. ³² Bela the son of Beor reigned in Edom, and the name of his city was Dinhabah. ³³ Then Bela died, and Jobab the son of Zerah of Bozrah became king in his place. ³⁴ Then Jobab died, and Husham of the land of the Temanites became king in his place. ³⁵ Then Husham died, and Hadad the son of Bedad, who defeated Midian in the field of Moab, became king in his place; and the name of his city was Avith. ³⁶ Then Hadad died, and Samlah of Masrekah became king in his place. ³⁷ Then Samlah died, and Shaul of Rehoboth on the Euphrates River became king in his place. ³⁸ Then Shaul died, and Baal-hanan the son of Achbor became king in his place. ³⁹ Then Baal-hanan the son of Achbor died, and Hadar became king in his place; and the name of his city was Pau; and his wife’s name was Mehetabel, the daughter of Matred, daughter of Mezahab. ⁴⁰ 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, ⁴¹ chief Oholibamah, chief Elah, chief Pinon, ⁴² chief Kenaz, chief Teman, chief Mibzar, ⁴³ 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.^[1]

Esau developed into a great nation of people.  They were called Edom, or the Edomites.  There is a great study just on the names of the people in his tribe, but it gets into mundane details that loose interest quickly.  The interesting thing about this is that the people of the land have a custom of renaming people to commemorate events in their lives.  It is not unusual for a person to have his name changed.  This is the case with Esau's wives, their names are different than the ones that were first recorded.

One thing that is different between Esau and Jacob was that he never left the land.  His family was born in the land, and stayed in the land until the return of Jacob.  After Jacob returned to the land, Esau moved to a new land. 

Notice that Edom had chiefs and kings before Israel did.  I wonder if Israel modeled the idea of having kings after Edom.  God allowed the Jews to have kings when they demanded one, and it is interesting that they followed the ways of Edom. 

In closing a quick note from one of the commentaries:

“But the long insertion of 36:9–43 puts Esau and the Edomites in a different light. If it is right to see this passage as a later addition to Genesis, possibly dating from the time of David when Edom was conquered and incorporated into the Israelite empire, it may represent the hope that the two brothers, Israel and Edom, would indeed be reconciled in one nation. Certainly this long list of names, some of which were familiar Israelite names, stresses the consanguinity and common tradition of the two nations. That Esau became a nation recalls the promise to Rebekah that she would mother two nations. That Edom became part of the Davidic empire, though it was older, having kings before Israel, shows that the older did serve the younger (25:23). So whenever it was written, 36:9–43 does reinforce the message that the promise was fulfilled, even its less important aspects concerning other nations. So if these points came true, it is reasonable to expect the greater promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to be fulfilled as well.

Later history tended to illustrate the divisions between Esau and Jacob rather than reconciliation. Fierce wars between the two sides fed the fires of mutual hatred (2 Sam 8:13–14; 1 Kgs 11:15–16; 2 Kgs 14:7; Amos 1:11–12), culminating in some of the most bitter prayers of the old covenant (Obadiah; Lam 4:21–22; Ps 137:7–9) and summed up in Malachi’s pregnant phrase, “I have loved Jacob, but I have hated Esau” (1:2–3).

For Paul, the election of Jacob and the rejection of Esau is a great example of God’s free and unfettered choice (Rom 9:10–12). Yet he too looks for a day of ultimate reconciliation, when those who have long rejected the gospel will find mercy (Rom 11:25–32), a day when, as Rev 7:9 describes it, “a great multitude which no man could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and tongues” will stand before the throne and the Lamb. And it is these two themes, the present rejection of Esau and his ultimate reincorporation into the people of God, that Gen 36 juxtaposes.”^[2]

Father, as we puzzle over this chapter, teach each of us diligence in studying the word.

In Him,

Joe Turner