Year 7, Day 35: Genesis 36

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Genesis 36 is devoted to the nations and leaders who come from Esau.  We could just chalk this chapter up to the author of Genesis desiring to tell the full story of Abraham and his people.  Perhaps that is all that is going on.  I think we can find more in this, however.

What this chapter does tell us is that Esau prospered.  I’m going to resist the urge in this post to account that prospering to God, although it certainly could have been at God’s hand.  The thing is, though, the Bible doesn’t make that claim.  We simply know that Esau prospered.  He prospered enough to need to leave Jacob because they were so wealth that the land couldn’t support both of their families.

I’m willing to bet that Esau was a bit skeptical of Jacob.  After all, Jacob had already taken Esau’s birthright and blessing.  He no doubt heard how he took Laban’s wealth, too.  If I were Esau, I would have cut bait and run, too.

With Esau, though, we can get a great perspective on life.  I am sure that when Jacob took Esau’s birthright that Esau was furious.  When Jacob stole Esau’s blessing I’m sure he was even more furious.  In the moment, life looks like it is conspiring against Esau.  But here at the end of the story we can see that things worked out just fine for Esau.  He dies a wealthy man, a leader in his own right.  When life gets us down, we need to remember to see past the moment.

I think we can also learn something from the absence of God in this chapter, too.  Yes, it is a genealogy.  We wouldn’t expect God’s name to be mentioned all over.  But we can expect it to be mentioned at the beginning or the end.  We might expect it to be mentioned sporadically in the middle.  It isn’t there, though.  Esau’s life – his decision making, his choice of wives, etc – shows us that he really isn’t all that concerned with God.  From what we can gather of the people who come from Esau, they aren’t really concerned with God, either.  They will have their own gods, different from the one’s of the people who come from Jacob.  We need to be careful to pursue God our whole life.

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