A History of Edom

The Value of Genealogies in Genesis

For those of you who are new or we are in a lengthy study of the book of Genesis and today we are at another of the genealogies which are in Genesis and it is very common when we come to long lists of names that we would simply Skip those portions people are very apt when they're reading their bible to come to these portions and simply either glance over them or just simply skip this portion and uh I'm not able to do that because of a commitment to verse by verse preaching.

I believe every verse matters and so. Uh, we're not going to skip this chapter, but we are not going to read the whole thing in our opening. This is one of the longest chapters in Genesis it is literally a list of just name after name after name.

And uh, you don't need to hear me stumble through some of these very difficult ancient names, but this is going to be the subject of today because what we have in this text is a genealogy of the history of the edomites.

And we need to understand the value of Genealogies because they do two things for us one they remind us of the history of important biblical figures, but they also Provide for us an authentication of the bible's claim to being truth.

Because the bible does not claim to be a book of myths. The bible claims to be a book of truth and therefore when it speaks of history when it gives us historical Information it's giving us true historical information.

And it authenticates that by giving us lists of names of men who were the families that came out of these different lines. This is important. Think about jesus when we come to the new testament two of the gospels have genealogies for jesus.

One goes back to abraham one goes back to adam. And why do we have genealogies for jesus. Because it's Authenticating that he was a true and living man in a specific period in time and he was born to a specific family.

And it tells us who that family was well in genesis. There are many genealogies as you for those of you who've been here for the last three or four Two or three years however long we've been doing this, uh, you know.

We've gone through several genealogies and each time I like to remind you that each one of these breaks up the book of genesis into Its 10 parts. We have 50 chapters in our english bible, but the original writing of genesis did not have 50 chapters.

It had 10 generations. Or what were known as the toledos. And what we see is with every generation it begins a new part of the book. So we go all the way back to genesis chapter 2. These are the generations of the heavens and the earth and then we go on to the generations of adam.

Then we go on to the generations of seth and to the generations of noah and the sons of noah and on and on. Each one of those toledos the word toledo is the hebrew word for these are the generations of each one of those creates for us A new division within the book marking out 10 divisions in the book of genesis and I want to show you something Very specific about today's toledo because the way it falls in the history of the bible.

It tells us something if you would, uh bring up the next screen. This is how this breaks down for us and this is important because what we see there is a The generations of abraham when abraham dies. His two sons come together.

Remember abraham had two sons isaac and ishmael. Isaac and ishmael come together in chapter 25. And then immediately after that we get the generations of or the toledo of ishmael. And then we get the toledo of isaac which lasts 10 chapters.

Notice the generations of ishmael only last a few verses. But the generations of isaac lasts 10 chapters. Then isaac dies and this is what we learned last week. Isaac dies and we get jacob and esau coming together in a very similar way that isaac and ishmael come together.

Jacob and esau come together and immediately after jacob and esau come together. We get the toledo of esau one chapter and then the rest of the book is about the generations of jacob. So you see how that breaks out it follows a consistent pattern.

So where we are today is on the generations of esau. But notice it's focused on the death of the patriarch abraham dies. His two sons come together. We focus on first the non-elect Ishmael. Notice that.

The first one that we focused on was ishmael. He's the non-elect and then we focus on isaac. He's the elect and notice him he gets 10 chapters. Then we get to isaac. We focus on his two sons. Which one do we focus on first the non-elect esau?

He gets a whole chapter but when compared to his brother 10 chapters or more 37 through 50 13 chapters are devoted to Ishmael or to uh to isaac rather. And what we're seeing here really is we're seeing the two seed motif that i've been talking about ever since the beginning beginning of genesis.

I've mentioned that there is a two seed structure to the book of genesis the seed of the woman in the seat of the serpent. Remember in genesis 3 15 God spoke to the serpent and he said that there's going to come one who is going to crush your head and you're going to Strike at his heel.

And we said that is a promise about the lord. Jesus christ. That's what we call the proto Evangelium or the first mention of the gospel in the bible that one would come one day who would crush the head of the serpent.

But the seed of the serpent would nip at the heel of the seed of the woman. And so we have a two seed Motif that runs throughout not just genesis, but throughout the bible. It is always the seed of the woman who is at war with the seed of the serpent.

It is the ones who are of god who are at war with those who are ungodly. Brother andy's been preaching through proverbs. And he talks about the two seed it will not he didn't call it the two seeds. But the two the two lines in proverbs the wise and the fool.

Right the righteous and the unrighteous the godly and the ungodly. That is the way the bible is broken out. There's two seeds. There's two lines and in you know, we're calvinist so we can say it the elect and the non-elect.

So we use those terms. So this chapter really is about the non-elect. This is about Esau. Which will give rise to the edamites. Who will become a nation? That god will use throughout the bible to be a watchword or a byword for all the evil nations.

Edom is not just one evil nation, but edom becomes the analogy for all evil nations. I'm going to show you that today as well. I'm going to show you how. This genealogy doesn't end with the last verse.

But this genealogy continues through the history of the edamites all the way to the lord jesus christ. And we'll see all that when we get there. All right, so let's uh, let's do this we're going to read we're going to read the whole chapter but we will read verses one to nine.

Then we're going to stop we're going to jump down to verse 40 and you're going to thank me later. And we'll read verses 40 to 44. So let's stand together. Boy I do smell that food. It's it's wafting pretty strong.

These are the generations of esau. That is edom. Esau Took his wives from the canaanites ada the daughter of ilan the hittite and a whole obama. The daughter of ana the daughter of zibion the hivite and basamat Ishmael's daughter the sister of nabioth.

And ada bore to esau eliphaz basamath bore rayuel. And a holy bama bore jayush jalem and korah. These are the sons of esau who were born to him in the land of canaan. Then esau took his wives his sons his daughters and all the members of his household his livestock all his beasts.

And all his property that he had acquired in the land of canaan. He went into the land away from his brother jacob for Excuse me for their possessions were too great for them to dwell together. The land of their sojournings could not support them because of their livestock.

So esau settled in the hill country of syria. Esau is edom. These are the generations of esau the father of the edomites In the hill country of syria now moving down to verse 40. These are the names of the chiefs of esau according to their clans and their dwelling places by their names the chiefs timna alva jatheth a holy bama elah pinan kinaz timan mibzar magdiel and iram.

These are the chiefs of edom that is esau the father of edom according to their dwelling places in the land of their possession. Our father and our god as we seek to understand today's text and moreover lord to understand the bible's Structure in regarding the elect and the non-elect those who are of god and those who are not Lord.

I pray that we would have a Truly a mind to understand what your word says and a heart to receive it. But lord you must give that you must give us eyes to see and ears to hear. You must give us a mind that can understand and a heart that can receive.

And I do pray lord for those who are here who do not know christ. Lord as this message is not it's not truly about the edomites, but lord is about christ. Because as we will see That as the enemies rise up against the lord the lord shines even greater as he vanquishes his enemies in the end.

And lord, we know that your word tells us you will make your enemies your footstool. So lord help us to trust in you as the world gives way to war as there are throughout the nations Wars and rumors of wars lord.

Let us not lose heart. But trust that you oh god are the god of the genealogy. The god who raises up nations. And will bring them love in jesus name amen. It is my Normal Methodology of preaching to read the text and explain it and then continue with an application but today it's going to be more interwoven because Rather than reading each verse of this text and giving an explanation.

I want to instead Look at it as a whole and talk about how it is structured and why it is structured the way it is because again most of it is just names and as you heard me Stumble my way through just a few that I did read.

Uh, you're probably thankful that i'm not going to try to do the whole chapter. So let me pull up another screen for you. I made a few screens this week because I knew this chapter was long and we wanted to look at it.

The next screen is the outline of the chapter and the outline is actually fairly simple. It is a genealogy, but it still has a structure. It's not just this one. We got this one and this one we got that one.

It actually has a structure. The first five verses talk about esau and his wives and his children that were born to him in canaan. Now remember esau lived in canaan while jacob was in padana ram. Jacob his brother had run away because esau had threatened to kill him.

And so he ran away to his uncle's house laban's house in padana ram and he lived there for more than two decades. Well during that two decades uh Esau had chosen two wives from among the canaanites and one wife from his uncle ishmael.

And he had taken them as his wives and he'd had children with him. Well verses one through five gives us those Children and who they are the next few verses verses six to eight. We see esau moving from canaan to syria.

Now syria is an important place because syria would eventually be known as edom. Syria mount syria is where the edomites would have their land so he moves out of the promised land south of the promised land to syria where he Claims the land and he Builds his family there and that place eventually becomes called edom and notice by the way when we read the text.

Notice what it kept saying edom. This is the father of edom. This is it says esau edom. It makes that connection for us because it wants us to understand who this is and what it's about. Verses 9 to 14 give us an expanded list of his sons and grandsons.

Verses 15 through 19 gives us a list of the chiefs we're going to talk about them in a moment. And then in verses 20 to 30 something interesting happens. It stops talking about Ish or esau for a minute.

It actually doesn't but what happens is it's it it stops talking about the descendants of esau and it says oh. And there were also the descendants of syria and verses 20 to 30 give the descendants of syria.

And we'll talk about why that's important in a moment as well. And finally the last few verses verses 31 to 43 gives an extended list of the kings and the chiefs of edom. And so what I want to show you I want to show you five points of consideration from this genealogy.

I'm going to make these relatively quick because I want to go we're going to go past the genealogy into later history. But I want to show you five points of consideration if you bring those up for me, please.

Thank you number one the wives of esau. If you notice in the text if you look with me in the text says these are the generations of esau. That is edom edom took our esau took wives from the canaanites.

And it lists two canaanite wives. And one ishmaelite wife. Here's the problem. That's not the same ones that we get back in chapter 25. If you go back to where it talked about and by the way this if you want the verses for this.

This is actually genesis 26 34. It says in genesis 26 34 when esau was 40 years old. He took judith the daughter of berei basimath the daughter of elon. And they made life bitter. For isaac and and and rebecca y 'all remember that we talked about that.

He took two canaanite wives and it made his parents unhappy. By the way, can I say this children? Or anybody unmarried. If you go out and take a wife or a husband that's an unbeliever. That's not good.

It's not good to marry an unbeliever. You might say well, that's not the point of this text. Well, we don't know why it made them unhappy, but I can tell you the paganism didn't help. And marrying pagans is not a good thing.

And so we see in the text whatever was the reason these children marrying pagans did not do good by their family so Esau decides. Well, I want to make mom and dad happy. So i'm going to go get a wife from uncle ishmael a good choice.

But they run from one one Group to another that isn't exactly in the line of of uh a blessing. So he goes from the canaanites. He goes over and uh, he chooses a wife in genesis chapter 28 verses 1 to 5.

He chooses a wife from the ishmaelites. But here's the here's the thing I want you to notice in genesis 26. The names are judith daughter of beriai. And basemath the daughter of elon. But when you get to 36 It's ada daughter of elon and a holy bama daughter of ana.

And you say wait a minute. That's that's not the same names. And that's right. And I could have totally not mentioned that by the way I could have made this sermon a lot easier if I just overlooked that and just because probably y 'all wouldn't have gone back to chapter 26 and back to 28 and double checked it, but I couldn't help myself.

Because as soon as I noticed the names were different it bothered me. So I started I said now wait a minute. Is this you know because the atheists are all the time trying to get us to? Believe that there's errors in the bible and one of the things that they try to point out is factual errors.

Right and so they try to point at things like this say here is a factual error you've got two women mentioned in genesis 26 judith and Basemath and in chapter 36, you've got ada and you've got a holy bama, which if you're from the south, it's oh, holy bama.

Anyway, uh, no I was I was actually brian boardman's joke, but I thought i'd steal it. Uh, the oh, holy bama, uh. Oh, holy bama. And so you see the names are not the same and even the name of the ishmaelite is not the same.

In genesis 28 the ishmaelite is named. Um, uh, uh, mehaloth and in 36, it's basimoth. So how do we reconcile this? Well Ibn isra who is a jewish commentator not a christian but still a student of old testament history and and Jewish literature he says it's the same people.

They just had different names now. Is that possible? Absolutely, it's possible because abram became abraham sarai became sarah, uh, esau became edom. I mean, it's. The names are uh subject to change and so that's not a problem.

If that is the case the other Possibility and this is also in some jewish literature is that he had six wives. He could have had 20 wives that we just didn't have a list of the only issue I take with that one.

Is it seems relatively complicated that they would mention two canaanites and one ishmaelite in the latter chapters? Or the former chapters and then they would name two canaanites and one ishmaelite it would be like it would be like he.

He doubled down on what he already knew was wrong because he knew the canaanites had bothered his mom. So if it's not the same, I think it's I think it's just the same person with a different name. That's my that's my interpretation.

Take and do what you want with it because it's not doesn't matter anyway. But at the end of the day, it's either that or he's got more than the three wives and either way it's fine. But understand this what's most important about this whether it's three wives or whether it's six wives.

These wives are a point of content contention in the household of esau with his family. It's a point of contention with his parents. Now we're not told why all we're told is it makes he made life difficult for them by marrying these women.

And so now these women become the matriarchs of the edomic society. I just made up a word. We just say the edomites. They become the matriarchs of the edomites these three women. And that's another reason why I think it's the same three women because it doesn't mention children from anybody else.

And the two canaanites and the one ishmaelite. So we get these three women. They become the matriarchs of all of edom. And then we see the next point and that's the move from canaan. Which I believe establishes the promise of god.

You said what do you mean by that? Well, let me explain. The text says they moved from canaan to syria, which is what would become edom. Why did they move? Well, the text tells us why they moved it says then esau verse 6 says then esau took his wives his sons his daughters.

And all the members of his household his livestock and all his beasts and all his property. That he had acquired in the land of canaan. And he went up to the land away from his brother jacob for their possessions were too great for them to dwell there.

The land of their sojournings could not support them because of their livestock. So so here's here's what the text is saying. It's saying that esau and jacob somehow came to an agreement. That jacob was going to get his father's land.

And esau was going to move out of his father's land because they were both too large to live together. Now does this bring up a story in your mind? Maybe about a man named lot. Remember lot and abraham had the same problem lot and abraham.

They were getting so large and both of them were getting so large that they weren't able to share the Drinking places or the watering holes and they weren't able to share the the pasturing fields. And so one day abraham comes to lot and he says to to to deal with this division between us.

You get to choose if you go right i'll go left if you go here i'll go there and we'll divide. We'll divide amicably. We'll divide in love. But we're going to divide because we both can't dwell together.

That's okay. Sometimes that happens. Sometimes you can love somebody and not live under the same roof. I love you dad, but I think it would be tough to live at home with dad. Because we're two grown men.

Living under the same roof. That's tough. Right i'm not saying it wouldn't be all right for a time. But after a while you you know, you gotta you gotta get out. So there's this need for division. Now the only thing I I want to mention I think there's more to it than the text tells us now I'm, not saying the text is not being honest.

Obviously, I believe in every word of the bible. I believe the text is being honest, but sometimes there are underlying things that the text simply forgoes mentioning. And here's the thing. The promised land is big y 'all.

The promised land is is is very large. And even though jacob is by this time a large nation in in himself. He's got 12 sons. He's got a large nation in himself. The shechemites felt like they could live together.

If you remember last week the shechemites wanted them to come and live with them. So the idea that the land wouldn't hold them and that was the only reason it's sort of difficult. So here's what I think and again take it for what it's worth.

Earlier in chapters 32 and 33 esau Had already been in syria. By the way, I think this is where the the issue of the the verses 20 to 30 come in. He's already been there. He's already scoped it out. And in my opinion, he's already taken his plot.

He's already come in and intermarried and made his place. He knows where he wants to be. So here comes jacob. Jacob has what jacob has the blessing. Jacob has the authority because it's been given to him by his father.

He sold his birthright he'd lost his blessing. I don't want to live with this guy who's in charge of me. I don't want to live this guy who's got this authority over me. I've already taken control of the southland.

I've already taken control of syria. All I got to do is go down there and I can have my place in my land where I am in charge. So we can't live together. Our places are too big. No problem. I already got a place.

I've already chosen a spot. So i'm going to go down there. But again, you say well, how does all this factor into the real story and that's the story of god's promises. What is the promise that god gave to jacob?

The older will serve the younger right. Jacob is the younger esau is the older. The younger one's going to have the blessing. The younger one's going to have the promise. And the younger one is going to be the one who receives the land.

Do you remember the covenant that god made with abraham about the land. He renewed it with isaac and he renewed it not with esau. But with who? With jacob. So as jacob comes into the land god sends esau out of the land.

So this establishes the promise that god had made to the mother of jacob and esau when he said to her. The older will serve the younger. This is the establishment of that promise. He is going to receive this land.

Now number three points to consider this is a big family. When we read through the text, this is an enormous Family and what we see in an enormous family is we see all kinds of prosperity. In fact I want to point this out.

And I almost named this sermon something different when good things happen to bad people. Because a lot of people ask. Oh, why do bad things happen to good people? I always say because there aren't any there are no good people.

You're all sinners. I'm a sinner. We're all sinners. Bad things happen to us because we're sinners. That's just the rule. But why do good things happen to bad people? That's really the question. Not why do bad things happen to good people, but why do good things happen to bad people?

I didn't I didn't name it that because i'm doing history of edom. But but honestly what we're seeing here, we're seeing massive prosperity in the line of the non-elect. Why? Two things to consider. Number one.

Esau is Still a descendant of abraham and the bible promises to all the descendants of abraham that they're going to prosper. So even though he's not the elect. Even though he's not the son of the promise simply because of his connection to abraham.

He received certain blessings ishmael got the same thing. Remember? Remember ishmael was given 12 sons and all those sons were blessed. They were given blessings why and we are told this by the angel of the lord because he is a son of abraham.

So if esau gets a blessing because he's a son of abraham, but also this and here's the thing I really want to point out. I hope you understand this and I hope this makes sense y 'all. Unbelievers prosper all the time.

And it happens. Unbelievers get rich. Unbelievers take advantage of other people they get richer. It happens. See one of the things the prosperity gospel gets wrong. Is the prosperity gospel says that just because you have something that means god has blessed you.

Sometimes prosperity is a curse. Sometimes the more you have the more you want and you never have enough. And you become like a well that is just so deep that it can never be full. And we see prosperity after prosperity after prosperity in the family of esau and you know what we don't see in this whole genealogy.

We don't see anything bad. You know where we do see stuff bad in the line of the elect. We're going to see the next chapter joseph's brothers are going to sell him into Into captivity the chapter after that judah is going to take a prostitute and have a child with him.

That child's going to end up in the line of the messiah. And then we're going to go on down through the line and we're going to see over and over and over again god's people suffering. You say wait a minute.

It seems like it's backwards. No, it's not backwards. Understand this the devil is not in the business of attacking his own. But the devil will always be in the business of attacking god's people. And god is not in the business of sanctifying the unbeliever.

But he is in the business of sanctifying the believer and he does that through trials. So why do bad things happen to good people? I just answered. Why do bad things happen to the elect? Because we have an enemy who is like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.

That's number one. And number two god is sanctifying us through those trials. God's not in the business of sanctifying the unbeliever. So, yeah, we see prosperity in the line of esau but to what end. To what end is the prosperity of edom?

Nothing, they become no people after the new testament. There's no more edomites. People today talk about all russia's the edomites or ukraine's edomites or these are the no. No. There are no more edomites.

They became the idomians during the intertestamental period and then they went out of went out of existence. You trace your line back to edom. I'll be very impressed. And then worried for you. But the point is this enormous family does indicate prosperity.

But does not indicate the blessing of god. You can't always equate prosperity with the blessing of god. And i'm pointing to several billionaires. Who don't know jesus. And the bible says what does it profit a man?

If he gains the whole world. And yet loses his soul. All right, uh number four. We see the uh. The change in focus to sire the horite. Just just look look with me at verse 20. Because right before that verse 19 it says these are the sons of esau that is edom.

And these are the chiefs and by the way, that's another way it shows prosperity it shows chiefs. It shows one person in the line who's like a like an explorer. They found the hot springs and like a Entrepreneur they raised mules, which is like, you know cross breeding horses and donkeys like there's a lot in the story.

That kind of tells us there's a lot of prosperity going on here. But then it stops with that and it gets to verse 20. It says these are the sons of sire. Who is sire? Well, this is obviously the one who the area of sire is named after he is a horite.

And he is the inhabitants of the land and it gives his son's names. Why would it give us the sons of horite? Why would it mention them? Well, it mentions them because esau overtook them. Esau overtook the land of the horites.

You want proof i'll give you proof. Go to deuteronomy chapter 2. I always seem like you're challenging me. I know you're not i'm just saying you want proof. No, I didn't mean it that way. I'm just saying you want to i'll show it to you deuteronomy chapter 2.

Now this is in the context of A longer sentence. So this is going to seem like we're coming in mid-sentence. We are because this is in the context of something greater. But look at verse 20. Because it's talking about the the sons of laud talking about possession verse 20.

It says it is also counted as a land of rephaim. Rephaim formerly lived there. But the ammonites called them zamzumim. A people great and many as tall as the anakim. But the lord destroyed them before the ammonites and they dispossessed them and settled them in their place.

Look at verse 22 as he did for the people of isaw or esau who lived in syria. When he destroyed the horites before them and they dispossessed them and settled in their place even to this day. Notice what it's saying.

Esau dispossessed the horites and took their place. So when you go back to chapter 36, why does it mention the horites because they got connected to the esau? Or to the edomites because esau went in and dispossessed them but notice what deuteronomy says it says god did this for esau.

Read it look at it again. He says as he did for the people of isaw. Who is he in the context? That's god. God is doing this. God is Dispossessing syria and giving it to esau. So the whole reason going back to chapter 36 the whole reason why verses 20 to 30 are there.

Is because verses 20 to 30 tell us about syria who was dispossessed by esau when he came in took the land. Intermarried with them and basically took control.

The Prosperity and Limits of Esau's Line

All right number five.

The kings of edom Are juxtaposed that means set apart from? The kings of israel notice verse 31. We're back in chapter 36. Look at verse 31. These are the kings. Speaking of the kings and of edom it says these are the kings who reigned in the land of edom before any king reigned over the israelites.

Now I want you to just think about this from a historical perspective who's writing genesis moses, right. Did moses live before or after king saul? Before. Which means moses is writing at a time when he Was in in one sense unaware That kings were coming except for by prophetic god's prophetic illumination.

He he he didn't know That there would be a king saul or king david except for by divine providence, right? Because he didn't live in that time. He lived before that time. This is why y 'all all of y 'all should took the old testament history class.

This is important understanding where things fall because moses is writing Before King saul before there was ever a king. But he mentions in this verse That the edomites had kings before israel did. So we have to interpret that one of two ways either.

Somebody else later entered in that sentence into the text like a scribe somewhere wrote that in. Or moses is speaking prophetically. About the kings of israel. I tend to think it's the second one. I tend to think moses is speaking prophetically saying There are coming kings of israel, but guess who got kings first.

Esau. Guess who had kings coming through his line first? Esau. See israel is going to go through 400 years of bondage. Then they're going to go through several hundred years of judges. Before they ever come to the point where god raises up a man named samuel and samuel will be the prophet who anoints the first king.

Who is saul? But way before that the edomites have kings again, it's showing the prosperity of this line. They automatically I mean again Israel's going to go through slavery. They're going to go through the judges.

And by the way, the judges is just a constant circle of failure and and redemption failure and redemption thousands of your failure and redemption hundreds of years. But esau's got this land kings and dukes, by the way, king james has dukes.

I like the word duke. Makes me think of john wayne. But dukes in the esv is chiefs, uh, it's translated captains and somebody so he's got captains. He's got kings. He's got all this prosperity. Did you know what he doesn't got?

He doesn't got god. You have all the prosperity in the world but not have the lord it won't matter at all. All right. Now let's move on a little bit more history. We're going to sort of move out of the text now and start going our way down.

Because now I want you to notice something that's not in the text. You can look all the way down to verse 43 and you know what you won't find Esau's death. Esau's death is not mentioned. In fact, you can look through all of genesis and you won't find esau's death.

Which is a very interesting Absence. Because of course we hear about the deaths of so many others, but we don't hear about the death of esau. You say well, how did he die? When did he die? We don't know but There is an extra biblical story from the book of jasher.

Now if you've ever read first samuel or you've or excuse me joshua or second samuel. You've heard the word the book of jasher because the book of jasher is mentioned there. The book of jasher is not in the bible.

The book of jasher is not a biblical book. But the book of jasher was a historical book which was held among the jews in high esteem was not scripture. There are other books that are not scripture, but they were still held in high esteem.

I talked about this in my course on the book of jude because jude mentions the book of enoch. Wasn't held as scripture, but it was still held in high esteem. Well, the book of jasher tells us. A story about how esau died now, you may come to me later and say do you believe this story?

I don't know. Because it's not biblical. I don't have to believe it. But it's interesting because what it says is this. It says when isaac, i'm, sorry when jacob died. Remember jacob and esau brothers.