Value in the Names Genesis 36

When we read the Bible, we come across certain passages that make us think I'm going to skip over this. You may have guessed that I'm talking about genealogies or historical records with lots of names.

Most of these names you can't pronounce and you would never name your children any of them and. The temptation on our part is to skip over these and think what value is this going to be to my life? But to skip these historical records or even just to quickly glance over them is a mistake.

We must be reminded about what what second timothy?

3.

16 and 17 says all scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching for reproof for Correction and for training in righteousness that the man of God may be competent equipped for every good work.

So what this means is that every sentence in scripture from Genesis to Revelation? Has value for us. There is treasure for us everywhere if we will just only look and see. The value in a genealogy is not that we would know facts.

To be trivial pursuit type people, but the value is that even these verses will help us in our walk with the Lord. So these list of names teach us something and as we just read in 2nd Timothy chapter 3 every verse in scripture will train you in righteousness so that You may you may live a life pleasing to God.

So today We are going to look at one of those historical records with lots of names. And we are going to look at what we need to see as 21st century Christians in this text. There will be important application for us.

The historical record we're going to look at is in Genesis 36 so I encourage you to turn there. With me it is the record of Jacob's brother Esau's line. This is the end of the road of the story of Esau and we must learn from this tragic man's life.

If you're using a red Bible the pews is on pages 35 and 36. We're going to be looking at this whole chapter and the sermon is titled value in the names value in the names and our big idea our proposition is This important historical record in scripture must not be glossed over.

This important historical record in scripture must not be glossed over. We're gonna see two vital instructions from this text. The first vital instruction is Churchgoers must learn from the lessons of Esau.

We'll see this in verses 1 through 8. But before we jump into our text, I'm gonna give a little recap of last week's sermon. We looked at the end of two lives Rachel and Isaac. Jacob said goodbye to them for now.

Since they both belong to the Lord and he knew that he would see them again and by burying them. He was showing his faith that these bodies would rise from the dead. So our big idea that we saw in the text last week is that death no longer is an impressive enemy.

Oppressive enemy for the believer and we saw two reasons why death is no longer this enemy. The first reason is that believers are able to grieve as those who have great. Hope as I just mentioned Jacob buried the body with the great Hope that he would be reunited with his beloved wife Rachel again.

So we too as believers not only have the firm confidence that this life is just the beginning but we also know that we will see our loved ones who knew the Lord again and When we say goodbye, it's only goodbye for now.

We also saw the end of Isaac's life. Genesis 35 29 said that Isaac breathed his last and he died and was gathered to his people old and full of days and His sons Esau and Jacob buried him. We focused in on the phrases that Isaac was gathered to his people and that he was old and full of days.

To be gathered to his people meant that his soul went to be with the Saints and by extension the Lord. The second phrase old and full of days meant that Isaac lived a faithful life to the Lord at the end of his life.

He did not hold on to his life in this world like an unbeliever would not wanting to die. Rather he was at peace and longed to depart from this life and be with the Lord. Which is what the believers approach should be.

He had this confidence because he knew the Lord and lived a life pleasing to him. Every believer has the same confidence as you leave this world. You will have peace and the feeling of comfort that the Lord is coming to take you to be with him.

And this happens when you know God and live a life closely following him. This leads us to our text today in Genesis 36. You may have noticed that at the end of the passage last week. It said that Jacob and Esau buried their father.

So this was a segue to an entire chapter devoted to Esau and you might wonder Why would an entire chapter be devoted to this man? Esau who was not chosen. The Lord prophesied in Genesis 25 23 to Rebekah.

Jacob and Esau's mother. Two nations are in your womb and two peoples from within you shall be divided. The one shall be stronger than the other. The older shall serve the younger. So the Lord predicted that Isaac's son Jacob would be blessed.

Would be the blessed one through whom these great Abrahamic promises would continue. Therefore Esau is not the blessed one to continue the chosen line. In order to understand Genesis 36, we need to understand this prophecy that I just read.

Genesis 25 23 says the older shall serve the younger. Esau is the older. He's the one who's going to serve the younger Jacob and by the way, I joked that's my life verse because I'm the younger of two brothers, but that's another story.

An entire chapter is devoted to Esau to describe his offspring and their powerful growth as we will see.

However.

Chapters 37 through 50 are devoted to telling Jacob's offspring as that story will focus on the twelve sons of Jacob. So in the remainder of Genesis and the Old Testament Jacob's line are the main characters in the story and Esau and his line are in the background.

So today we are going to see the power of Esau's line but we must understand that their power will pale in comparison to the power of Jacob's line. Indeed, we will see the prophecy of 25 23 is fulfilled that the older shall serve the younger.

Now in chapter 36 We are going to start by looking at Esau's genealogy that started when he lived in the land of Canaan. The remainder of the chapter as we will see in point number two will describe the power of Esau's line.

But these first eight verses are going to tell us much about the story of Esau and not in a positive light. So let's look at these first eight verses of chapter 36. These are the generations of Esau that is Edom.

Esau took his wives from the Canaanites Adah the daughter of Elam the Hittite. Olabamah the daughter of Anna the daughter of Zibion the Hittite and Basemath Ishmael's daughter the sister of Naboeth and Adah bore to Esau Eliphaz.

Basemath bore Ruel and Olabamah bore Jeyush Jalom 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 their possessions were too great for them to dwell together. The land of their sojourneys could not support them because of their livestock.

So Esau settled in the hill country of seer. Esau is Edom. What we just read is the line that goes through Esau. You will notice in verse 1 that another name for Esau is Edom. That's because in Genesis 25 25 We are told that Esau came out red and the word for red in Hebrew sounds like Edom.

So the nation predicted in Genesis 25 would be known as Edom. These are the people that came from Esau and we saw several months back in in Genesis 2634 that Esau took wives from the Canaanites. Remember the Canaanites were the wicked people of the land that the Lord would later have his people drive out in order to inherit the promised land and We already know that Esau was not chosen of God and the fruit of this would show and that he married the wrong women.

The holy thing to do would have been to marry from the relatives. That that's what Jacob did but Esau didn't do that. He married from the wicked Canaanites. And Esau not only married from the Canaanites, but he also married Ishmael's daughter.

Do you remember why?

Esau.

Married Ishmael's daughter. Genesis 28 8 and 9 said that when Esau saw that the Canaanite women did not please Isaac his father Esau went to Ishmael and took as his wife besides the wives. He had Mahala the daughter of Ishmael Abraham's son the sister of Naboth.

So in other words He wanted to win the good graces of his parents. Specifically his father Jacob. And so he figured well if I marry from a the other line from Abraham remember Hagar and Ishmael that was the other line from Abraham.

He says if I marry from that line that I will please my father Jacob, but of course He was just people-pleasing. This wasn't true morality. Verse 4 tells us that through these three women two Canaanite women and the Ishmaelite five children were born to him Esau when he lived in the land of Canaan.

But when Esau was not mentioned for quite some time in Genesis, we didn't hear from him Again until Jacob was returning from the 20 years. He spent with his father-in-law Laban up in Padan Aram way to the north.

When Jacob was returning to the land that's when he meets Esau again. So that's when Esau enters the story. And when we heard from Esau, he lived east of the land of Canaan east of the Dead Sea in the land of Seir.

What's fascinating is that we don't find out how Esau? Ended up in Seir outside of the land of promise until our text today. The text says in verse 7 that their possessions were too great for them to dwell together.

There weren't enough resources in the place. They were living in the land of Canaan to support the line that came from Isaac and the new line that Esau started. We have some farmers in this church, of course and Imagine if someone came to your property and said I don't know how they would do this.

Just for the sake of the illustration here. They said we're gonna use part of your land. I mean that would cause problems right. Because you need that land. You need all those resources to be able to make a living to be able to support yourself.

And so in this situation here, what happens is there's Esau and Isaac's line. They're all there. Remember the Canaanites are also in the land at this time. So they didn't have all this land to themselves.

So they're thinking I can't support my family on this land. And so they went east east of the Dead Sea. He was forced to go to a new land and start a new life there. But we must see is that the Lord Providentially moves Esau away from the land of Canaan.

This land did not belong to him and his offspring. This land would go to his brother Jacob because Jacob is the child chosen to belong to the Lord his family would be the ones who would enjoy these earthly blessings of many offspring and Inheriting the land occupied by the Canaanites.

This narrative in these first eight verses of this chapter detail Esau's rejection. The fulfillment of Genesis 25 23 is happening before our eyes the older will serve the younger. And as he moves east.

This means that his blessing is blessing that was once his remember. This was his as the firstborn child to have all of this to have the chosen line go through him to have the land be.

His.

All of this is now behind him never to be his again. So as he so symbolically here as he walks away, he's walking away from this blessing. And and the opposite happened with Jacob's family. Remember last a couple weeks ago When the Lord told him you need to leave these gods behind.

Remember Jacob was worshipping Yahweh the Lord. But his he had some family members who were kind of torn between the Lord and they had these figurines these false gods that they were Worshipping and the Lord told them you need to leave these behind never to return to them again.

And what did they do? They left a mind and they went towards the promised land. The opposite is happening here. He's leaving the promised land never to be blessed again. So this is this is a tragedy playing out before our eyes.

Now the tragedy of Esau is not only that he misses out on physical earthly blessings, but infinitely more important. Scripture teaches that he missed out on eternal life. He was cut off from God. So his permanent move east is symbolic of his departure from God.

To go from the land of promise to the land of seer the life of Esau Describes many people in our world Once thought to be believers. They were once in the church and were surrounded by the things of God.

People even thought that they were sincere believers. But the test of time proves the authenticity of those who are real or fake in.

The faith.

First John 2 19 says they went out from us, but they were not of us for this 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.

It is true that God did not choose Esau, but it is equally true that he himself rejected God. Willingly rejected him. Esau forfeited his birthright for a single meal. He forfeited something heavenly for something earthly.

He forfeited the things of God for the things of earth in our day. This is what people who once appeared to follow Jesus have done. In the New Testament, the Apostle Paul had a former friend in the faith that walked away from God.

In 2nd Timothy 2 10 he describes his friend Demas who was once a partner in ministry. And he says Demas in love with this present world has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica. We're talking about this yesterday in the men's breakfast.

There's two ways you either choose the sinful world That Satan rules or you choose.

God.

There is no in-between there's either one or the other and a lot of people like to have a foot here and a foot there. You know, they like they like the things that you know, they like eternal life. They like what Jesus said.

They like that he died for their sins, but you're thinking you know what? I'm more in love with the world. So who are you more in love with? Are you more in love with Jesus Christ and in that which is eternal or are you more in love with the things that are?

Passing away. That's what pulled Demas away. That's what pulled Esau away the things of this world. And it happens to everybody. I should say everybody it happens all the time around us. It happens to too many people.

And if you look at the world, it seems like more people go this way than this way and that's what Jesus said, right? The wide path leads to destruction and it's wide because so many people are traveling down it and he says the narrow path leads To life good because so much so many fewer people are going to that way and it's so true.

And you may wonder how can I prevent this from happening to me? The Bible tells us to persevere in the faith and not be like Esau. Hebrews 12 16 and we do this through the team effort between the Holy Spirit and us.

Galatians 5 16 says walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

2nd Peter.

Chapter 1 verses 3 through 11 is so helpful for us when we look at perseverance and assurance of salvation. The Apostle the Apostle Peter wrote this. Listen closely to what he says here in these eight verses.

His divine power. So God's divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness Through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence by which he has granted to us His precious and very great promises so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature.

Having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. For this very reason make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue and virtue. With knowledge and knowledge with self-control and self-control.

With steadfastness and steadfastness. With godliness and godliness. With brotherly affection and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are.

Increasing.

They keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ for whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind. Having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins.

Therefore brothers. Be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election for if you practice these qualities You will never fall for in this way. There will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

So what Peter is saying is as we live out the Word of God By the Spirit we start to reflect him. We start to look like God and As we see his fruit shown in our lives. We have confidence that we will never fall.

The text actually says you will never fall. We will never walk away like Esau from the things of God and settle for short unsatisfying things that the sinful world offers you. My old pastor what I've heard him say this and it's totally biblical.

Nobody Runs away from the faith. It's not like one day. You're following passionately after the Lord and then the next day you're gone. People walk away it happens slowly over time. I had lunch with him this week, and we were talking about this this theologian from the 70s and And the 80s who's still alive today?

Who's still teaching? He was a rock-solid doctrinal Christian in 1970. Today, he's barely holding on to any semblance of Christianity and It happened little by little day by day over time he was going in the wrong direction, and it's hard.

It appears that he doesn't even know the Lord anymore. We want to be moving in the right direction. Running towards Christ and if you do that you will never fall. It's just proving your genuine faith in Jesus Christ.

And so as we see here as we see the story of Jacob and Esau. We see a story of triumph on one end and a story of tragedy on the other. Jacob received fullness of joy and Esau received eternal misery. So verses 1 through 8 Are a fulfillment of Genesis 25 23 that Esau would not be the blessed one.

But Jacob would be and it's equally true to say that Esau chose his own way away from the presence of God. So an important historical record as this one in Scripture must not be glossed over. This is the first vital instruction that churchgoers must learn from the lessons of Esau.

Namely not to be like him, but to be those Who persevere in the things of God over the long haul. The second vital instruction? That we that we must see from this important historical record is that churchgoers must understand the precision of the Bible verses 9 through 43.

Now as we move on to the second point We are going to see the expansion of the line that came from Esau known as the Edomites. This nation is going to grow powerful. But not as powerful as Israel the line that came from Jacob.

And what I'm going to do in this second point is read each paragraph and then make a few comments. And once I'm done reading these sections I'm going to tie this second point together to show you what we need to see here because you might be thinking 9 to 43.

Don't we have a potluck today? Yeah, we do and we will get to that. So we're just going to do kind of a breeze through here, and I just want you to get the main point here. So once Esau moves away from the promised land east to seer.

He has more children verses 9 through 14, and there's a lot of crazy names here, so please pray for me.

This.

These are the generations of Esau the father of the Edomites in the hill country of seer. These are the names of Esau's sons Eliphaz the son of Adah the wife of Esau Ruel the son of basemath the wife of Esau the sons of Eliphaz were Timon Omar Zepho Gautam and Kinas.

Timna was a concubine of Eliphaz Esau's son she bore Amalek to Eliphaz. These are the sons of Adah Esau's wife. These are the sons of Ruel Nahath Zerah Shammah and Mizzah. These are the sons of basemath Esau's wife.

These are the sons of Olabama The daughter of Anna the daughter of Zibion Esau's wife. She bore to Esau Jayush Jalom and Korah. Okay, so these are the children who came with him and some were added to his family after moving.

And you can see that the population of this nation Edom is growing and as they grow. They get big enough to have chiefs over the people. Okay now. Let me take a breather here. We go again verses 15 through 19.

These are the chiefs of the sons of Esau the sons of Eliphaz the firstborn of Esau the chiefs Timon Omar Zepho Kinas Korah Gautam and Amalek. These are the chiefs of Eliphaz in the land of Edom these are the sons of Adah.

These are the sons of Ruel Esau's son the chiefs Nahath Zerah Shammah and Mizzah. These are the chiefs of Ruel in the land of Edom. These are the sons of Baseth Esau's wife. These are the sons of Olabama Esau's wife the chiefs Jayush Jalom and Korah.

These are the chiefs born of Olabama the daughter of Ena Esau's wife. These are the sons of Esau that is Edom and these are their chiefs. So Esau's sons and grandsons to make up 14 chiefs and what this tells us is the Edomites had 14 tribes.

That goes that's in contrast to Jacob's line which had 12 tribes. So it's good for us to know that about this nation. So the sons listed in verses 9 through 14 are the ones who were chiefs over the people you might even notice a repetition of names there.

So Edom gets big enough to have their own rulers known as chiefs and as this happens. They are getting as big as those who lived in this land before they got there. In Verses 20 through 30 we will read about the people who were in the land of Seir before them verses 20 through 30.

These are the sons of Seir the Horite the inhabitants of the land of Lotan, Shobel, Zibion, Anna, Dishon, Ezer, and Dishon. These are the chiefs of the Horites the sons of Seir in the land of Edom. The sons of Lotan were Horai and Hemim and Lotan's sister was Timnah.

These are the sons of Shobel, Elvin. There's a name I recognize different spelling though Menahoth, Ebel, Shepho, and Onam. These are the sons of Zibion, Eyi, and Anna and Is the Anna who found the hot springs in the wilderness as she pastured the donkeys of Zibion his father.

These are the children of Ena, Dishon, and Olobam on the daughters of Ena. These are the sons of Dishon, Hemdan, Eshban, Ithran, and Cheran. These are the sons of Ezer, Bilhan, Zavan, and Achan. These are the sons of Dishan, Uz, and Aran.

These are the chiefs of the Horites the chiefs Lotan, Shobel, Zibion, Ena Dishon, Ezer, and Dishon. These are the chiefs of the Horites chief by chief in the land of Seir. Okay, if you don't think names matter the Bible tells us that names Matter it's funny.

We have a downstairs we have Some some records of our church, and there's just members going back. You know hundred years ago, and we're thinking you know what's what's the point of it? You know what's the point of it?

These are people who lived right? This is important. If our think about a hundred years from now if Christ hasn't returned yet our names will be on the on the directory. And we're gonna be grateful that our names are on there right and so we need that we need to Remember people and and scripture does that by listing people and we do that by listing people as well.

Now after listing these people the Edomites become more powerful than the natives of the land of Seir. That's that's what the author is doing here. He's showing us This and he's going to show us this in verses 31 through 39.

These are the kings who reigned in the land of Edom before any king reigned over the Israelites. Bala the son of Beor Reigned in Edom the name of his city being Dinhaba. Bala died and Jobab the son of Zerah of Bozah reigned in his place Jobab died and Husham of the land of the Temanites reigned in his place Husham died and Hadad the son of Bedad.

Who did who defeated Midian in the country of Moab reigned in his place the name of his city being Abbot? Hadad died and Samlah of Masqueray reigned in his place. Samlah died and Chal of Rehoboth on the Euphrates reigned in his place.

Chal died and Baal-Hanan the son of Akbor reigned in his place. Baal-Hanan the son of Akbor died and Hadar reigned in his place the name of his city being Pau. His wife's name was Mehetabel the daughter of Matrid the daughter of Mesaboth.

Okay, so I probably got about half those names wrong as far as trying to pronounce them. And thankfully these people aren't here right now because they'd be like you just messed up every name. But you know but no one here knows how to pronounce these names, so we're good.

Now the fact that Kings are listed here tells us that the Edomites took control of the land of seer. Furthermore you may have noticed in verse 31 that the name of the land changed from seer to Edom. The Edomites have become powerful and taken over this region that was once occupied by the people we just read about in verses 31 through 39 and.

In the last section verses 40 through 43 list chiefs over the dwelling places in the land of Edom, okay, so this is the last reading here. These are the names of the chiefs of Esau according to their clans and their dwelling places by their names the chiefs Timna Elva Jetheth Olabama Elah Pinnan Kinez Timan Nibsbar Magdiel and Eram these are the chiefs of Edom that is Esau the father of Edom.

According to their dwelling places in the land of their possession. So why is the rise of Esau's people important in the larger narrative of Genesis and the larger narrative of Scripture? That's what I'm going to show and what I want you to see in this second point.

Now while verses 1 through 8 sum up nicely the prophecy of Genesis 25 23 that the older Will serve the younger that Esau and his people would serve Jacob and his people. This section fits better with the prophecy of Genesis 27 40 39 and 40 the prophecy that Isaac made about his son Esau and.

And the experience that his people would have in the future. So I'm going to read this prophecy here in a second and then explain how this played out historically in what we need to see here. But let me first explain this.

Once Isaac gave the blessing to Jacob He told the Abrahamic promises to him in in chapter 27 verses 27 through 29 That a dominant nation would come from him the nation of Israel. This was a prophecy of blessing that that was given by Isaac to Jacob and after Isaac gave the blessing to Jacob He gives what's been called an anti blessing or a curse to Esau.

This is what he says to him and this is a prediction that he's Isaac is making about the Edomites. Esau's descendants. Behold away from the fatness of the earth. You shall your dwelling be and away from the dew of heaven on high by your sword.

You shall live and you shall serve your brother. But when you grow restless, you shall break his yoke from your neck. Stop right there. So the first part of this prophecy is fulfilled in verse 6 of our chapter specifically that Esau would not be blessed.

And his brother Jacob would be. Jacob's descendants would live in the land full of milk and honey the promised land while Esau Would live in an arid wilderness east of the Dead Sea. But verse 40 is pointing to what happened in verses 9 through 40.

The prophecy in 2740 says that by your sword you shall live and you shall serve your brother. So in the land they would live in they would live by the sword. We can see that there would be a lot of war happening here.

They would be using the sword to maintain their existence there. Now Isaac also prophesied to Esau that when you grow restless you shall break his yoke from your neck. What this symbolizes is the power of the Edomites.

They will be known for the sword and will attempt to break free from their stronger brother Israel. What this is this is a struggle for superiority as Israel rules over Edom or Israel's on the West. Edom is east of the Dead Sea as They rule.

Edom is going to try to break free from Israel many times and the Prophet Amos condemned Edom in Amos 111 because they use their sword against God's chosen people Israel and Throughout the history of the Old Testament There would be a seesaw battle between these two peoples with Israel being more dominant as the prophecy foretold the little brother Edom.

However, always longed to be free from their big brother Israel. This might sound familiar to us. This sounds a lot like How our country was birthed? Great Britain was arguably the most powerful nation in the world at that time they had colonies all over the world and one of the colonies they had was us the 13 original colonies and Of course there was a number number of reasons why the colonies wanted to break free.

One of them was taxation. They were being unfairly taxed and they said We need to pursue independence from Great Britain and of course we know the story. That's that's what started the Revolutionary War and they broke free.

And what's interesting is that over the last 250 years? America has become the most powerful nation arguably in the history of the world. Now Edom does break free later in Israel's history however, they would never be stronger than Israel and they would always have this rivalry, but there's a day in the future and We need to understand that there's a big picture here.