Genesis 36 Unholy Like Esau

Esau’s Birthright, Appetite, and Apostasy

All right. Pastor Tim, would you open us in a word of prayer? Sure. Father God, thank you so much that we can come here and learn from your Word. Thank you for choosing us and loving us even before we were born, even before the earth and the foundations of the earth were made.

We thank you that you sent your Son to die on a cross for us and then sent your Spirit to us later on to convince us and convict us of sin and point us to your Son to believe in Him, believe in His name and the death and the resurrection of your Son Jesus.

We pray now that you would speak through Pastor Jeff to teach us more about that and more about your Word and that we would come to love your Son and the Word of God. So we thank you in Jesus name. Amen.

Amen. Today we study Esau. Remember Esau, how he struggled in the womb with his brother Jacob, the heel grabber, grabbing his heel. What are some of the physical characteristics of Esau? He's hairy, he's strong, he smells, yeah he does smell and he's red.

You know one time I actually had some black Hebrew Israelites in inner-city Philly call me Esau and they said because I had led this kid named Christian to the Lord a little while before and these Hebrew Israelites were banded around him trying to convince him he was from one of the lost tribes of Israel of ethnic descent and that's how their kind of religion works and so I came walking through and I was talking I got to wrapping with these guys and one of them was really aggressive towards me he said put out your arm I was like all right so I put on my arm and he put out his and he said look at the difference of the skin color and I was like yeah there's a shade difference we're all brown you know and he's like no you're red you're red that means you're Esau God hates you and so do I yeah so that that's black Hebrew Israelite theology that it's no we kind of went on from there but it got even more ridiculous but the characteristic of Esau's red skin right the struggle between Jacob and Esau remember when Jacob dressed up like Esau he made himself smelly I think that was you that said that Bob he put on a fake fur and he went in and tricked his father for the blessing but Esau himself sold his own birthright remember this.

Story. That's right. What happened there. He needed porridge so that red stew. Yeah he sold it out. That's kind of cheap. It could have gone.

To McDonald's or something. Yes now Esau sold his birthright when it came time for Jacob to bless Esau. I'm sorry for Isaac to bless Esau. Was there any blessing left for him. Or was it too late for the birthright.

He did. Get a blessing. Yeah the birthright was gone when a when a person who's been offered the gospel of Jesus Christ again and again and again who's been called to repentance and faith rejects to the point of their death is there a choice after death.

No no done. There comes a time what is it possible even in this life for opportunity to repent to come to an end. According to Hebrews 6 it says land that drinks in the rain often falling on it but is always hard to it it is only fit to be burned.

In fact in that context of someone who's been so exposed to Christianity has tasted the goodness of the Word of God the powers of the coming age if they fall away if they apostatize it is impossible to renew them again to repentance.

Now we don't know when someone has reached that point. So for our part what do we do. We witness we keep talking we keep calling for repentance. But the principle is here God knows there comes a point when a person is so hardened and dead in their sin that he gives them over.

I think that Romans 1 it mentions that phrase that he gave them over. He gave them over he gave them over. It mentions it three times. There is a kind of sinning unto more sin that hardens and deadens the heart.

This is a very strong warning in Romans. Some kinds of sexual immorality are a result of being given over to the lusts of the flesh. Right. Remember Romans 1 26 and 27. Because they did not retain the knowledge of God he gave them over to sexual sin and then he gives gives them over again to more unnatural sexual sin.

So lack of repentance can result in being given over hardened. And the time for repentance can run out when the New Testament comments on the life of Esau in Hebrews chapter 12. And we'll get to this in a minute.

But I'm going to read it now just to set the stage. He says see to it that that you have peace with everyone and for holiness without which no one will see the Lord. Now listen about Esau that first of all you have no root of bitterness and then secondly that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau who sold his birthright for a single meal.

Now here's the point of Esau for you know that afterward when he desired to inherit the blessing he was rejected for he found no chance to repent although he sought it with tears. That's what the New Testament wants us to remember about Esau.

One this is from Hebrews 12 verses 14 to 17. It's in your notes. Right here we're gonna we're gonna read it down there. I just wanted to set the introduction though using that verse because the New Testament teaches us what we are to remember about Esau.

So now let's go back Genesis chapter 36. And today we're not going to read all 43 verses but we are going to read the first 8 verses 9 to 43 are a genealogy of the sons of Esau and how they become the chieftains the Kings the leaders of a nation called anybody know Edom very good.

You ever heard of Herod. He was an Edomite one of the last Edomites. We're gonna understand how the Edomites are given over to destruction. The book of Obadiah is only one chapter long but it's about the Edomites all.

Right. So let's read beginning now with Bob why don't I go to your side cuz I usually go right to left. This I'm gonna go left to right. Change the the orientation of the clock here. So Bob would you read verses 1 to 5 for us.

Now these are the records of the generation of Esau that is Edom. Esau took his wives from the daughters of Cain the daughter of Anna and the granddaughter of Zibion the Hivite also Basimath. Ishmael daughter.

Ishmael's daughter the sister of born to him. Okay even though I was not tempted to name my daughter Oh Holy Mama or my son Elon although is there a famous Elon in the world right now there's where you get that name.

The main point of this section is not the obscurity of the names. What is the main point of this section. Well you have to remember some context prior to this. Back in Genesis 26 35 who made life bitter for Isaac and Rebecca.

Esau's wives the Hittite the Hivite these Canaanite women who did not regard Yahweh. So they made very bad daughters-in-law. They were not making life pleasant for Esau's parents. They were like a thorn in the flesh probably very rebellious and mean and ungodly and immoral all of these things.

They did not worship God. And they also probably worshipped idols which was a real grievance to the righteous.

Hearts of Isaac and Rebecca perfect examples of that in the modern times. Yes.

This is why I know a few of them raise your kids and your grandkids to marry the right person. Tim teaches the youth it is the second most important decision of your life. The first is to take Jesus as your Lord and Savior.

The second is who you marry. That makes such a difference in your life. So but here in verse 27 46 Rebecca said to Isaac I loathe my life because of the Hittite women. So what does she say about Jacob at the end of Genesis 27.

Last verse of Genesis 27 she says. Don't let Jacob marry a Hittite woman or a Canaanite woman. Send him back to find from our family tree. And that's what ends up happening that he goes and eventually finds Rachel and Leah and two of their handmaids and maidens.

Which is not good. But this is the the effort to escape the the problem the trap of Canaanite women. Right. And here's the picture of Canaan. Canaan pictures the world and the world wants to press us into its mold to be like the world in how the world thinks and and moves.

What was Esau's original problem. Remember the stew. It was his stomach and the stomach is a picture of appetite. Appetite lust desire cravings of the flesh. The world the flesh the devil are our enemies.

His flesh and the world of Canaan offered him many pleasures. Remember Sodom and Gomorrah is already functioning there and lots gotten tangled up there it got destroyed. But that kind of culture is pervasive in the land.

Sexual immorality all kinds of desires to please the flesh. And Esau is a fleshly man. Give me that stew. He sells the very birthright of God. Which is a picture of our birthright our inheritance in Christ.

He sells out the spiritual things for the earthly the worldly the carnal. He's a carnal mind. So Esau is a picture of a man controlled by appetite. And that's a warning for all of us. There are many people in our lives whose appetites are controlling them.

You looked at me for that I explicitly looked away. So you wouldn't think I was targeting all. Right Bob. So that's the original problem. Now you would think maybe he would repent. But the New Testament makes the point that not only is he a man controlled by appetite.

He doesn't repent though. Eventually he seeks it with tears. He can't repent. He can't bring himself to repent. Time runs out. Let's read now verses six to eight. Maybe Barbara would you like to read.

That for us okay. Esau took his wives and sons and daughters and all the members of his household as well as his livestock and all his other animals and all the goods he had acquired in Canaan and moved to a land some distance from his brother Jacob.

Their possessions were too great for them to remain together. The land where they were staying could not support them both because of their livestock. So Esau's that is Edom settled in the hill country of Seir.

This is the account of Esau the father of the Edomites in the hill country of Seir.

Very good and notice. Parenthetically it says Esau is Edom and that's the point of this section. It is how the nation of Edom comes to be originally they're dwelling in the promised land with Israel and presumably had they believed in the God of Israel and kept covenant they would have fallen sort of under the blessing of Isaac through Jacob who is Israel.

Right if he had stayed with his brother. But does he stay with his brother under that covenant blessing. No he goes out. He goes out. And this is a very strong warning in 1st John 2 19. They went out from us but they were not of us.

For if they had been of us they would have continued with us. But they went out that it might become plain that they all are not of us. That's a New Testament context of people who were in the church visible not necessarily part of the invisible church which is the true church that's a theological term.

Visible church refers to the gathering the outward assembly. What's ostensibly the church. Not the building but the people. But even within the visible church there are some who are not regenerate and in time they go out.

And that's what's happening here with Esau. Although he is in the community gathered under Isaac's tent and with his brother he goes out. And what happens here is the formation of a nation called Edom.

This nation goes out from Israel because they are not of Israel right. Genesis 25 34 Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew and he ate and drank and rose and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright.

That appetite of the flesh that overtook him was more than just mere indulgence. It also said something about the birthright God and the eternal things he sold out. What was lasting and eternal the future city for this city.

Did you notice at the beginning of verse 6 when Esau takes his wives plural. How many wives should he have had one. And with them with these wives all these sons and daughters what else does it mention livestock and peace and property.

You see he had become so wealthy that he couldn't even coexist with his brother. They were clashing over goods and fighting over who gets to graze the land here or there. And so it's partly his own possessions and his outward appearance of success that drives him away from that covenant blessing in the promised land.

So there it's the love of the world. Again his possessions are too much for him. He doesn't regard the covering of Isaac and the blessing of God more than the things of this earth. And so Edom is born as a nation.

Now if you look just glancing with your eyes chapter 36 verses 9 through 43 it lists the descendants. These are the generations. Then it mentions the chiefs and the kings who were Esau's sons. I say despite their possessions because these are chiefs they're kings.

They're mighty men living up in their hill country. Sadly from this breakaway they have irrecoverably lost their standing with God. Irrecoverably lost their standing with God. They have possessions. There's kings and chiefs in their number.

But they've lost what was truly valuable they're. They've broken away from Israel. They would have done much better to have been a pauper. What's the saying. I'd much rather be a gatekeeper a doorkeeper in the house of the Lord.

Then you know a king somewhere in a palace. They chose the kingdom of this world over the kingdom of God. It's a breaking. That's that's the idea here. So we we then see Edom pop up again coming out of the the captivity in Egypt as they're wandering the wilderness.

Edom has some interaction there. You'd think they'd be friends with Israel. Are they. No even though they're brothers they resist. They don't let them pass. They're against and oppositional always. The next major occurrence is an entire book of the Bible.

Turn with me to the book of.

Obadiah Obadiah. I give you a page number but it's different in all of our Bibles.

What's that Amos. Obadiah. Yes and it's very hard to find because it's literally only one page. It's one chapter. But hey how great is it. We can study an entire book of the Bible just in one sitting like this.

This is only one page. Rick would you mind reading for us just the first five verses the vision of Obadiah.

Thus says the Lord God concerning Edom we have heard a report from the Lord and a messenger has been sent among the nations rise up. Let us rise against her for battle. Behold I will make you small among the nations.

You shall be utterly despised. The pride of your heart has deceived you. You who live in the cliffs of the rock in your lofty dwelling who say in your heart who will bring me down to the ground. Though you soar aloft like the eagle though your heart though your nest is set among the stars.

From there I will bring you down declares the Lord.

That's you can stop there. Yeah that's the end of four but that works. How many of you have seen Indiana Jones. And he goes to Petra and there's that big rock.

Opening that he has to enter that's in the land of Edom. A rose-red city half as old as time. What is it. A rose-red city half. Is that from Indiana Jones you know. That's an actual. Yeah. Yeah. That's a historical quote of Petra.

Yeah because.

It's red. Yeah. So this is. It's founded by Edom. This nation is in the cliffs of the rocks. That means that mountain range that is to the east of Israel. It was inhabited by the Ammonites the Moabites and the Edomites.

Edomites to the south of that mountain range they live up in the rocks. Now are they a big nation. Or a small nation. Small but they're prideful. They're lofty. They're high like the eagle's nest. They're exalted.

And in their mind they're above Israel. They're up in the mountains. And that physical picture is an example of of how they think of themselves. They're puffed up. And they are meant to be a friend of Israel as all of us are called to be friends of Israel.

But instead what's happening in the book of Isaiah of Obadiah is that when the Assyrians came to crush Israel Edom from their lofty position right next door was in a position where they could have helped.

They could have come to their brother's aid. Right. Did they do that. Now what do they do. Bob they watched it happen. You're exactly right. And more than that they gloated. They delighted in the destruction of Israel.

It's like this rivalry the sibling rivalry where you would think a brother. What's. What should a brother do. Help. Love. A brother should have a brother's back. Right. That's what we say in tearing down high places.

If you see a brother down pick him up. You see a high place like Edom tear it down. Because on the high places that's where they would build altars to bail. That's where the bails were. You got to smash the bails.

That's what Gideon found out. He had to smash his father's idols in the high place. But for of a brother what are you to do. Be their keeper. Am I. My. That's right. Where I was going. Am I my brother's keeper.

And what did Cain and Abel discover. Yeah. Cain was not his brother's keeper. He was his brother's killer. Yeah. And the Edomites were of the same heart murderous toward their brothers. So when Assyria was wiping them out they're up there eating the popcorn.

They're sitting up from their perch looking down seeing these swarms of troops going against Israel. And they are clapping cheering him on. Go get him. Meanwhile there's blood in the streets. There's toddlers wandering around and falling down.

It happens again with Babylon over and again time and again. Edom is no brother to Israel. The book of Lamentations is about Jeremiah's weeping over that when the Babylonian captivity takes place. And it's hard to even read Lamentations chapter 3 the kind of things that are happening on the ground.

Meanwhile the Edomites up high are gloating. So Obadiah 3. You don't have to say 1 3 because there's only one. So Obadiah 3 verse 3 the pride of your heart has deceived you. You who live in the cliffs of the rock in your lofty dwelling.

Who say in your heart. Who will bring me down to the ground. Though you soar aloft like the eagle though your nest is set among the stars. From there I will bring you down. You see the answer to the question.

Who will bring me down to the ground. He who exalts himself will be humble. He who humbles himself before Almighty God God will exalt. This is the the upside-down kingdom in which God rules the world.

It seems like this is a very secure people. Because how can you attack a cleft dwelling people. They have the high ground. Right. Militarily that's very difficult. And they've lived there. They've probably got encampments all throughout.

They know every cave they have every position. It is very difficult to attack Edom. If you were to go to Edom today what would you discover. Yeah. Ruins destruction time and truth. Walk hand-in-hand.

Time determines who God approves. It is shown out in time with the Edomites. What do you have. A prideful people who felt secure. But what God says in the book of Obadiah. And if we had time to read the whole chapter you can do that later.

It's only one chapter. God will utterly destroy this people. Many people think that Herod the Edomite was one of the last Edomites. What happened to Herod's family line. Remember Herod Antipas. We know Herod the the king who killed all the babies of Bethlehem.

His descendant Herod Antipas. What was his end here. I think the original Herod might have been killed that way. But Antipas he put on a shiny robe and he stood up on in in the city and declared it the glory of the kingdom.

And what happened. Yes. And it even says that they said the voice of a God and not a man. And he received that praise. And the Bible tells us in Acts the chapter is this. The Bible tells us in Acts that the worms ate him and he died.

So he was eaten from the inside so that that infestation of parasites had become so destroying of his body that they completely overtook him would have been gruesome and resulted in him dying right there.

So the Lord punished that. That's it. That's a gruesome picture. Isn't it terrible way to go. Horrible way to go. Herod the Edomite. He exalted himself over God and over the gospel and took that glory as if he himself were a God.

And God humbled him in a most remarkable way. That's what. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Remember that story Nebuchadnezzar when he received glory that way God reduced his mind to that of an animal. Anybody see the sight and sound of that.

By the way I wonder if it's still it was so good. Like amazing. How they depicted that it was. Yeah. That one was. Well that was Daniel. Yeah. But it was remarkable. Yeah. Anyway so the the prideful nation of Edom exalts themselves and God brings them down ultimately.

So nowadays when you look out at the political landscape when's the last time you saw Israel in the news. This morning this morning. Right. Every single day they just got the hostages back. God is still protecting them from hostile enemies all around.

When's the last time you heard about the Edomites in the news. It's been 2 ,000 years since they made the front page. Yeah. And the idea here is that God's Word is true. What he said in Obadiah came to pass.

Everything God says comes to pass. So then Esau. Esau is Edom. We learned today. That's the phrase from Genesis 36. Edom is a lesson for us. What is that lesson. Yeah. Love your brother. Don't get puffed up.

Pride goeth before the fall. Yes. That's a picture of Edom. Now what about Esau in his worldliness. What would that say to any of us. There you go. There's a golden rule if there ever was one. So the the lust of the flesh the pride of life.

These are a temptation for anybody living in the world. Right. And sometimes these things can become entanglements and people get caught up in it. And they even leave the church. They they go out from them among us.

Is there time to repent. Yes. Yes. We don't know. Yeah. We don't know if God ever comes to that Hebrews 6 place with anybody. We don't know that point. You went too fast. She said something. I didn't get it.

It was very good. Well say it again. Barbara. What. Well you just said something. Oh do unto others as you would do unto you. Yes. Yeah. So don't take the quick gain. Yeah. Yeah. The phrase I like to use there is delayed gratification.

Delayed gratification. The world is offering all of this instant gratification. You know especially in the culture we live. It's much more like Canaan than it used to be in America. All of these ways to satisfy the flesh.

Don't choose that easy road. It becomes a snare. It's entangling. Esau's great sin was his appetite his his lust. And he gave into that to the point where it controlled him he became a slave. And what is so jarring about this story is that there came a point and let's read this verse now because this is the big idea where I started and where we're gonna finish.

There came a point where there was no more opportunity to repent. So in the notes there Tim would you read Hebrews 12 verses 14 to 17. Sure strive for peace with everyone and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.

See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God. That no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble. And by it many become defiled. That no one is sexually immoral or unholy. Like Esau who sold his birthright for a single meal.

For you know that afterward when he desired to inherit the blessing he was rejected for he found no chance to repent though he sought it with tears. It's a scary verse isn't it. What does it mean. It means that there's a time for repentance.

Now we know repentance is also a gift of God. We're to pray that God would in his kindness grant repentance. But to the person maybe listening in the video or any of us if you've been allowing sin in your life any of these sins a root of bitterness springing up and causing trouble which causes the defilement of many sexual immorality unholy indulgence in appetites could be actual food.

For some it's it's the drink. A lot of people have a taste for alcohol and that becomes enslaving to them. Yeah yeah. What do you mean by that. Because I think you're right. I'm thinking when we look at sex it's like it's overpowering.

Right. Like you mentioned the appetite. Right. It can be an appetite for anything can be sexually anything that's against God's will. Well I would say like so the the word there pornea refers to a sexual immorality of various kinds.

But I think it would be within the category of sexual things. So it could be thoughts. Jesus says that if you even look at a woman with lust in your heart you violated the deeper meaning. Nowadays there's this movement called um revoice Sam Albury and is God anti-gay.

It's his book and his argument there is that a person can identify as gay in their identity their own heart. But as long as they're not like you're saying physically practicing anything they're okay. That's not biblical.

The very appetite itself is disordered. Right. And sexual thoughts outside of God. Maybe those thoughts come into someone's mind. We have to take captive every thought and make it obedient to Christ. So just to daydream or fantasize or anything like that that's also sexual immorality.

It's it's in that same category. That's yeah that's right. No I don't know if I said it better but but it's a great point because nowadays there's even a movement within evangelicals that's endorsed by Tim Keller and the Gospel Coalition Sam Albury Preston Sprinkle Vaughn Roberts Rebecca McLaughlin these are very prominent teachers with the Gospel Coalition they all hold to this idea of gay identity you can take and so they'll say like well guys if you have a gay identity you can cuddle with other men but just don't touch and perform.

And I'm saying that is that's still gay that's still ungodly. Right. Exactly that's what that's the verse where he says if a man and even take it out of the homosexual area if a man lusts after a woman or yeah or anything.

Yeah I guess nowadays people are you know talking about we don't even want to go the different directions that the world is gone but anything can become a sexual sin mentally. The big point here is Esau's problem started in the heart with inordinate appetites.

The appetite for that red stew. Right. And here the author of Hebrews I think it's Paul writing through Luke as his Emanuelson kind of guy who is recording the sermon that Paul preached. But whoever wrote Hebrews here's the connection he makes with Esau that no one is sexually immoral.

There's not even a reference to the sexual immorality of Esau. Right. But it does say or unholy like Esau so any kind of inordinate appetites which is idolatry. Right. Two together. Yeah. Oh yeah. I think there is a separation there in terms of the conjunction or like I think because there's actually a list going before it so it says see that no one obtains fails to obtain the grace of God.

The first issue is a root of bitterness. That could be one problem springing up and causing trouble. Or here's another example that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau. So I think those are kind of two separate categories but they're related.

What you see there's a list. Yeah. You see a lot more in it. Yeah. You can get rid of the verses. Yeah. Okay it's really written right. And you see it as a real list. Look let's just land the plane this way.

Any kind of sexual or other sinful desire appetites that become entangling and own a person. They can bring you right down to the pit of hell. But God has given us a day of repentance. Now is the time to repent.

So don't hold on to those things or your your situation could be just like Esau. You will run out of time. Today is the day of salvation. Now is the day of the Lord. Take these things seriously. Don't just say oh you know what.

I'm gonna get right with God and become a Christian when I get older. But right now I want to have some fun. Esau never got to the point of repenting. That's scary. But it's a good morning. We need to take first of all that warning to ourselves and then lastly understand this and give that warning.

When you're witnessing all of us have people in our lives who have gone out and they're in the world. They're in Canaan like Esau and they think I'll be fine. I have plenty of time and they kind of know what you're saying is right.

But they're dabbling in the world and they don't realize how dire that situation is. How do you know the day of your death. How do you know that you don't get hit by a bus. Today it could be over. Just like that I remember doing the funeral of my dear my dear friend Fred.

You know Bonnie's husband both Messianic Jews and he just goes out for a bike ride out of Holiday Village and next thing you know he doesn't see a car coming at a trailer and and he's gone. Now we were with him in the hospital for a month visiting and just spending time with him before he actually passed.

But here's the good thing about Fred. He had come to believe in Christ before that moment he was Messianic. Yeah exactly yeah. But none of us know when we get hit by a car or cancer just overtakes you or something.

Too many people think there's always time. There's not always time. And the reason that God gives this warning is not to be mean or harsh but because of love he's saying you know that afterward when he desired to inherit the blessing doesn't everybody want to go to heaven.

Everybody wants the blessing. They think they have plenty of time. But it says he was rejected for he found no chance. Is there another chance after you die. There's no chance after you die. Now this day is the day.

So this is how we should think as witnesses. You know both Tim and I had the chance to witness to people over at stacks individually. And we've seen people actually coming here and getting baptized. That's right.

The mom and the daughter. But well that happened again yesterday just witnessing to somebody there that Rod Chandler had witnessed to and it's like you have to have this urgency that you never know how much time we have left.

You can't give.

The good news without giving the bad yes and most people don't give the news.

Because they're afraid of being rejected or being made fun of. But I know you do. You've shown me the tracks that you give out and all that you do. And I know everybody here does. But witnessing this should motivate us to say look there's not infinite time the person that I've had this happen before.

Where people that I've witnessed to the next time I see him is at their funeral. And I'm just thankful I had a chance. And other times I'm sure I've missed chances. So this is Esau's warning is just a reminder about the brevity of life the shortness of time.

He ran out. He ran out of time. No chance it says. That's how the New Testament interprets it. By the way when we're preaching and teaching and thinking through the things of God always look for how the New Testament author who's an inspired Apostle uses the Old Testament.