About Jesus Steve Sweetman

About Jesus Steve Sweetman

Chapter 36

Esau's Descendents (ch.36:1 - 30)

Chapter 36 is the genealogy of Esau. I will not go into detail concerning this genealogy I will leave that for others more qualified than I. I will just make a couple of comments.

Verse 2 tells us that Esau took his wives from the daughters of Canaan, something we already knew from earlier chapters. This obviously was not the will of the Lord. God told Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that those in their family must find wives in their extended family to keep the descendents pure from other cultures. Israel was meant to be a distinct society among the other nations of the world. They were to be a godly example of how a nation should live, but for the most part, Israel was never a good example. So Esau, like Ishmael in earlier years, married outside of the extended family.

The church in many respects have done the same as Israel in Old Testament times. Israel constantly disobeyed their God, and one way they disobeyed was marrying women outside of Israel. They mixed themselves with women of the world. As Israel mixed themselves with the world, so has the church. God was not happy with Israel in this respect, and He is not happy with the church in this respect. Just read what Jesus says to the seven churches of Revelation and you will see that to be true. The church has adopted worldly ways of thinking and worldly ways of doing things. In my thinking, this is similar to Israel of old, adopting worldly ways and marrying worldly women.

If you remember, when Jacob first returned to Canaan and saw his brother with four hundred men, Esau wanted Jacob's people to live with his people. Although Jacob agreed, Jacob went the opposite direction. So they did not live together. Here in verse 7 the text seems to suggest that they were living together when it says that Esau departed from Jacob because the land could not support both groups of people. So that suggests to me that they were living together at that moment of time. It's only my guess, but it might be possible that they moved along side each other after Isaac died. Both Jacob and Esau buried their father. They were both together at the grace site. It is quite possible that the death of Isaac brought them together.

Verse 8 tells us that Esau settled in Seir. Well Seir is where Esau lived when Jacob returned home. So if he settles in Seir now, that means he must have left Seir at some point in order to return to Seir at this point in time.

Verse 8 also tells us something that we have already learned, and that is, Esau is also named Edom, from which the Edomites came. The Edomites were always in opposition to Israel all through history. Some scholars say that Herod the king, in Jesus' days was an Edomite.

If you want to see the fate of Edom , the prophecies of Obadiah are exclusively about Edom. According to Daniel 11:41, there are three countries that will not submit to the anti-christ, and one of them is Edom. The other two are Moab and Ammon. Why this is the case is beyond me. Many scholars have debated the meaning to this over the years.

Next Section - Chapter 37

Previous Section - Chapter 35

Home Page