Genesis 36

To understand the importance of Bethel we need to go back to how Jacob ended up being there the first time he went there. At that time he was running for his life from his brother Esau who was out to murder him.

He’d taken nothing but the staff in his hand. We need a sort of recap summary of the last 11 chapters of Genesis, from chapter 25.

Jacob was one of the twins born to Jacob and Rebekah. God said that two nations were to come out of this family, and two nations did come from these two boys, Jacob and Esau.

Not only can we trace the history of these two nations, but we’re given the spiritual application to the life of the believer. You see, the seed of all truth in the Bible is sprouted in Genesis.

The Book of Genesis is the seed plot of the Bible, it begins there and most of the Bible from there on is simply the Book of Genesis unfolding.

In Esau and Jacob, we have a picture of the two natures in a believer today. If we are a child of God, a believer in Christ, we have a new nature — but we didn’t get rid of our old nature, and because of this, there’s conflict. The new nature and the old nature are opposed to each other.

The Apostle Paul said that the flesh wars against the Spirit, and the Spirit wars against the flesh. Esau is a picture of the flesh, and Jacob is a picture of the spirit.

Esau, the man of the flesh, is outwardly far more attractive than Jacob. He was an outdoor man, the athletic type, popular, tough and physically attractive.

In contrast, Jacob was the man of the spirit, although it’s not apparent at the beginning. He’s less attractive than Esau. He’s clever, self-opinionated, manipulating and cunning. And he’s a mummy’s boy.

These boys were born into a family where both parents have their favourites, which creates friction. God said before they were born, “I have chosen the younger, and the older will serve him” that’s Genesis 25:23.

Jacob, knowing God’s promise, still connived and plotted for the right of the firstborn.

The birthright may not seem very important to us, but it actually meant that the one possessing it would be the priest of the family, and it guaranteed that the promises made to the father would be confirmed to him.

In the case of this family, it meant that the ultimate promise was that the Messiah would come through the line of the one having the birthright.

Esau, the man of the flesh, didn’t care about what might happen a thousand years from his day. He wasn’t concerned about anything beyond his present life. His philosophy was “Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die.” He couldn’t have cared less about the birthright. Jacob used Esau’s utter disregard for the birthright and bought it in exchange for a bowl of stew.

But, Jacob didn’t stop there. When old Isaac was about to do something which he should not have done, that is, bless Esau, Jacob and his mother schemed and plotted. They stole the blessing by an act of cunning deception using Isaac’s age and poor eyesight. They deceived Issac into thinking he was giving the blessing to Esau when he was actually giving it to Jacob.

This caused Esau to hate Jacob deeply and he planned to murder him as soon as his father Isaac was dead. They all believed Isaac was close to death, which he actually wasn’t.

Rebekah hears of these threats to her favourite son and sends him away, supposedly for a very short time. She uses the fact that Isaac was opposed to the boy’s finding wives amongst the Canaanite tribes who surrounded them, to send Jacob to her brother Laban to find a wife from her own family just as Isaac had found her.

So, Jacob leaves home and spends his first night away at Bethel. That night he dreams of a ladder set up on earth with angels on it.

At first glance, we might miss something important here. We would think that the angels come from heaven descending and then return, ascending.

But the Bible doesn’t say that at all. It states that the angels were ascending and descending. It’s the other way around. What does that mean? God’s telling Jacob that He would answer prayer. The ascending angel is prayer going from man to God; the descending angel is the answer to the prayer, and the ladder is our Lord Jesus Christ.

He is the link, the mediator between man and God and He’s the One and Only Mediator.

You see, though down deep Jacob has a spiritual nature, he’s a conniver and a schemer, depending on his own wits and his own strength. He’s far from God. We can imagine him leaving home saying, “Goodbye, Esau. Goodbye, God.” He honestly thought he’d left God back home. But the first night out, at Bethel, God has appeared to him and let this lonesome, homesick, scared fellow know that there is grace and mercy with God, that he still has access to God, and that his prayers will be heard and answered. God had not forsaken him.

You and I don’t have to bring Christ down a ladder today. He is available to us, right where we are.

Such is the gospel that we preach today, the gospel of a ladder reaching to heaven. God is available.

We don’t go through a religious system, a church, or a preacher. There’s nothing between our soul and God.

The Lord Jesus says, “I am the way, I am the ladder to God the Father.”

This is why we pray to God in Jesus’ name.

In John 16:23-24, Jesus Himself said,

And in that day you will ask Me nothing. Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you. 

Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full. 

You see, Jesus Christ is the ladder, the connection between man and God. There’s no other way. He IS the way.

Romans 10:9 tells us

that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart, one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth, confession is made unto salvation. 

There’s a ladder let down from heaven right where we are at this moment. All we have to do is bring our mouth and our heart into harmony so that they say the same thing.

Trust Christ as your personal Saviour today. Believe that God gave Him for your sin and that God raised Him from the dead, and you will be saved. The way is wide open for you today.

No man is able to open it, but Christ opened it for you about two thousand years ago. Christ is the ladder.

God says to Jacob, “I will NOT leave you, I will NOT forsake you. You didn’t run away from Me. I’m going to continue to deal with you.” Believe me, God certainly dealt with him.

Notice Jacob’s reaction. He was afraid, and said, How awesome is this place! This is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven. We see this in Genesis 28:17.

This is Bethel. This was Jacob’s first encounter with God, and now he makes his vow in Genesis 28 verse 20,

And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, so that I come again to my father’s house in peace; then shall the LORD be my God.

He’s had an encounter directly with God and yet he still can’t help but trade. He makes a deal with God! Even after God promises to do it for him, he turns right around and says, “If God will do this for me, then He will be my God”.

He’s always hustling, always trading, always depending on himself to work something out. However, this experience at Bethel is the high point in his life. In a nutshell, it’s his conversion.

However, as we saw in the last episode Jacob still is nowhere near the point of trusting God. He’d met Him in an awesome encounter but there’d be a long road ahead to a complete trust.

It’s the journey all of us take. The journey away from self toward complete trust in God. It’s a journey toward faith and we learn from Hebrews 11:6,

But without faith, it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. 

We need not be afraid that we can’t make it or that we’ll somehow miss the mark because God is with us always and He never leaves us or forsakes us. Jacob’s whole life is proof of that.

Hebrews chapter 11 tells us the wonderful accounts of those down through the ages who walked by faith, not by sight, that is not by what they could see, feel or touch, but by the Words that God had spoken.

We as individuals can take great encouragement from Jacob’s Bethel experience. We have a hope and a destiny in God that’s much bigger than our sin. Jacob’s life proves that.

Now let’s go back to Genesis 36 and the geneology of Esau.

This chapter deals entirely with the family of Esau which became the nation of Edom.

Although it may not be too interesting for the average reader, but I’d say it would be a great study for anyone who wants to follow through on these names and the peoples who came from them.

We find that some of the names mentioned here are names that are still common in the Arabian desert today.

The descendants of Esau are still located out in that area.

The family of Esau settled in Edom, which is to the south and east of the Dead Sea.

It’s a mountainous area, and the capital of Edom, the rock–hewn city of Petra, stands there today.

Prophecy in the books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Obadiah concerning Edom has been remarkably fulfilled.

The nation of Edom came from Esau. Three times in this chapter that’s made very clear that Esau is the father of Edom. In fact, the names are one and the same especially in Genesis 36:8, for example.

Is there a difference between Esau and Edom? Well, when we first met Esau, we saw him as a boy in the family of Isaac. He was the outdoor, rugged type. Outwardly, he looked attractive, but if there ever was a man of the flesh, Esau was that man.

We all know people like that.

Outwardly they appear to have it all, they’re people of the world system who live in and for what this world and this current life offers.

They haven’t given the slightest thought to where they came from or where they’re going on that fateful day of their death.

Sadly some of these people go to church every Sunday but it’s part of the act of presenting an image to the world of a good, upstanding citizen. Of course, most wouldn’t go near a church in a fit.

Well, that’s Esau, also.

If you’d been an attractive young lady in Esau’s day and had seen him there in his home and his hunting expeditions, the chances are that you would have been glad to date him. He was an attractive young man, but he was a man of the flesh.

Perhaps someone would disagree with God about His choice of Jacob over Esau. Esau looked so good on the outside that maybe God made a mistake.

Well, over in the little prophecy of Obadiah, we see Esau unveiled. One little Esau has become about one hundred thousand Edomites by that time and each one of them was a little Esau.

Here we see that nation under a microscope and we see what came from Esau. So, What do we see? We see a nation filled with pride.

God said to Edom in Obadiah 1 verses 3 and 4,  The pride of your heart has deceived you, You who dwell in the clefts of the rock, Whose habitation is high; You who say in your heart, ‘Who will bring me down to the ground?’

Though you ascend as high as the eagle, And though you set your nest among the stars, From there I will bring you down,” says the LORD.

Then in Obadiah 1:6 God says, “Oh, how Esau shall be searched out! How his hidden treasures shall be sought after!

The pride of their heart was a declaration of independence, a soul that says it can live without God and does not have a need for God. That’s Esau.

In the last book of the Old Testament, Malachi, in chapter 1 verses 2 and 3 God says, “Jacob have I loved and Esau have I hated.”

God never said that until over one thousand years after these men lived, but God knew the heart of Esau at the beginning. After they worked their way out in history, it’s obvious to us all that God was accurate.

Edom and the Edomites are mentioned some 130 times in the Bible. They were an important group of neighbours to Israel.

When the Israelites came through the wilderness to the Promised Land in the time of Moses, the Edomites refused them passage through their land and we see that in Numbers 20:21. This was a source of great discouragement for the nation as we see in Numbers 21:4.

Even so, God commanded special regard for the Edomites among Israel: You shall not abhor an Edomite, for he is your brother He says in Deuteronomy 23:7.

In the days of King Saul, Edom was made subject to Israel as we see in 1 Samuel 14:47, and King David established garrisons there in 2 Samuel 8:14. Later on, in the days of Joram, the son of Ahab, the Edomites revolted and became independent of Israel. That’s in 2 Kings 8:16-22.

Edom is very often mentioned in prochecy both directly and indirectly. Several of the prophets spoke about and against Edom, including Jeremiah in Jeremiah 49:17-18 and Ezekiel in Ezekiel 25:12-14.

From the time Islam conquered the Middle East, the region has been mostly unoccupied, except for a few Bedouins and military outposts. It has been brought to nothing, as Obadiah had prophesied. By the way, the entire book of Obadiah records an extended prophecy against Edom.

The Edomites also held the rock city of Petra in Mount Sier, or at least its early version. This city can only be reached through a narrow, winding gorge. Petra was so defensible that it was said that a dozen men could protect Petra against a whole army.

To Genesis 36:1 where it’s confirmed that Esau is Edom.

Now this is the genealogy of Esau, who is Edom. 

Then verses 2 and 3,

Esau took his wives from the daughters of Canaan: Adah the daughter of Elon the Hittite; Aholibamah the daughter of Anah, the daughter of Zibeon the Hivite; and Basemath, Ishmael’s daughter, sister of Nebajoth.

Esau had married two Canaanite women and also an Ishmaelite woman.

We read verses 6 and 7,

Then Esau took his wives, his sons, his daughters, and all the persons of his household, his cattle and all his animals, and all his goods which he had gained in the land of Canaan, and went to a country away from the presence of his brother Jacob. 

For their possessions were too great for them to dwell together, and the land where they were strangers could not support them because of their livestock. 

Remember that Abraham and Lot had had that same problem. There wasn’t enough grazing land for them. Each one had too many cattle. They had separated and now Esau leaves the Promised Land, leaves it on his own, due to economic circumstances.

Verse 8,

So Esau dwelt in Mount Seir. Esau is Edom. 

Now Esau moves from “the land of Seir” in Canaan where he lived when Jacob returned from Padan–Aram, to “Mount Seir”.

Genesis 3:12,

Now Timna was the concubine of Eliphaz, Esau’s son, and she bore Amalek to Eliphaz. These were the sons of Adah, Esau’s wife. 

This is the beginning of the Amalekites who became notable enemies to Israel.

Down through the centuries, those tribes which were there in the desert pushed out in many directions. Many of them pushed across North Africa. All the Arab tribes came from Abraham through Hagar, the Egyptian, and through Keturah, whom he married after the death of Sarah, and there’s been intermarriage between the tribes. They belong to the same family that Israelites belong to.

So this chapter is important as it shows these relationships. The Spirit of God is at pains to tell us about this.

To verse 15,

These were the chiefs of the sons of Esau. The sons of Eliphaz, the firstborn son of Esau, were Chief Teman, Chief Omar, Chief Zepho, Chief Kenaz, 

These were the chiefs of the sons of Esau: When we see the kings and chiefs among the descendants of Esau, we see more clearly what God meant when He said, Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated Esau was obviously a blessed man, but he was hated and rejected in regard to being chosen to inherit the covenant God made to Abraham.

Genesis 36:19,

These were the sons of Esau, who is Edom, and these were their chiefs. 

Now we’re not going to attempt to read the next few verses because, well franky it’s a challenge to my ability to pronounce these names but it’s interesting to note the meanings of just a few of them.

Dishon means gazelle.

Alvan means wicked.

Ithran means advantage.

Aran means mountain goat and Baal-Hanan. His name embraced the false god Baal.

Now to verse 31,

Now these were the kings who reigned in the land of Edom before any king reigned over the children of Israel: 

This business of having kings was not God’s plan for His people. God Himself rather wanted to be their King.

But this was the lifestyle of Edom.

They had chiefs and kings over them. If you’d belonged to the family of Esau, you’d probably have needed a title, or a hyphenated name because that’s the type of folk they were. They thrived on their pride.

It’s interesting to note that the people of Esau had kings long before the people of Israel had kings.

In fact, later on the people of Israel will say to Samuel, the prophet, “… make us a king to judge us like all the nations” That’s in 1 Samuel 8:5.

In effect, they said, “Our brothers down south, the Edomites, have kings. We’d like to have kings like they do.”

Genesis 36:40-43,

And these were the names of the chiefs of Esau, according to their families and their places, by their names: Chief Timnah, Chief Alvah, Chief Jetheth, Chief Aholibamah, Chief Elah, Chief Pinon, Chief Kenaz, Chief Teman, Chief Mibzar, Chief Magdiel, and Chief Iram. These were the chiefs of Edom, according to their dwelling places in the land of their possession. Esau was the father of the Edomites. 

Notice the finishing line? Esau was the father of the Edomites.

So, this is the family history of the rejected line.

When the chapter gives the final resumé, it lists again the chiefs that came from the line of Esau.

A chapter like this gives a family history which probably extends farther back than any other source could go.

So the chapter closes with a list of the chiefs and mentions again that their habitation is in the land of their possession which is Edom. Esau was the father of the Edomites.

We see the working out of this in the prophecies of Obadiah and in Malachi. This is quite remarkable, friend, and something we couldn’t just pass by.

Next time As we resume the story of the line of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, we come to the fourth outstanding piece in this last section of Genesis.

From here, all the way through the Book of Genesis, the central figure is Joseph, although we are still dealing with the family of Jacob.

More chapters are devoted to Joseph than to Abraham or Isaac or to anyone else for that matter.

More chapters are devoted to Joseph than to the first whole period from Genesis 1–11.

This should cause us to ask why Joseph should be given such prominence in Scripture.

This is definitely one of the all-time great stories of the Bible.