Genesis 36:1-43: The Earthly Greatness of Esau

Genesis 36:1-43: The Earthly Greatness of Esau

We’ve been working our way passage by passage through the book of Genesis, and today the next passage we come to is Genesis 36:1-43, so I’ll be reading a selection of verses from that passage. It says,

¹ These are the generations of Esau (that is, Edom). ² Esau took his wives from the Canaanites: Adah the daughter of Elon the Hittite, Oholibamah the daughter of Anah the daughter of Zibeon the Hivite, ³ and Basemath, Ishmael’s daughter, the sister of Nebaioth. ⁴ And Adah bore to Esau, Eliphaz; Basemath bore Reuel; ⁵ and Oholibamah bore Jeush, Jalam, and Korah. These are the sons of Esau who were born to him in the land of Canaan. ⁶ 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 a land away from his brother Jacob. ⁷ For their possessions were too great for them to dwell together. The land of their sojournings could not support them because of their livestock. ⁸ So Esau settled in the hill country of Seir. (Esau is Edom.) ⁹ These are the generations of Esau the father of the Edomites in the hill country of Seir. ¹⁰ These are the names of Esau’s sons: Eliphaz the son of Adah the wife of Esau, Reuel the son of Basemath the wife of Esau. ¹¹ The sons of Eliphaz were Teman, Omar, Zepho, Gatam, and Kenaz. ¹² (Timna was a concubine of Eliphaz, Esau’s son; she bore Amalek to Eliphaz.) These are the sons of Adah, Esau’s wife. ¹³ These are the sons of Reuel: Nahath, Zerah, Shammah, and Mizzah. These are the sons of Basemath, Esau’s wife. ¹⁴ These are the sons of Oholibamah the daughter of Anah the daughter of Zibeon, Esau’s wife: she bore to Esau Jeush, Jalam, and Korah. ¹⁵ These are the chiefs of the sons of Esau. The sons of Eliphaz the firstborn of Esau: the chiefs Teman, Omar, Zepho, Kenaz, ¹⁶ Korah, Gatam, and Amalek; these are the chiefs of Eliphaz in the land of Edom; these are the sons of Adah. ¹⁷ These are the sons of Reuel, Esau’s son: the chiefs Nahath, Zerah, Shammah, and Mizzah; these are the chiefs of Reuel in the land of Edom; these are the sons of Basemath, Esau’s wife. ¹⁸ These are the sons of Oholibamah, Esau’s wife: the chiefs Jeush, Jalam, and Korah; these are the chiefs born of Oholibamah the daughter of Anah, Esau’s wife. ¹⁹ These are the sons of Esau (that is, Edom), and these are their chiefs.

May God bless the reading of his Word.

Let’s pray: Father, we read in Psalm 19 that your law is perfect, reviving the soul. Your testimony is sure, making wise the simple. Your precepts are right, giving joy to the heart. And your commandments are pure, enlightening the eyes. So, please, as we dig into your Word this morning, revive our souls, give wisdom to our minds, impart joy to our hearts, and enlighten our eyes. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.

D.L. Moody once said that “Our greatest fear [in life] should not be of failure, but of succeeding at something that doesn't really matter.” So often, of course, people are afraid of failing at what they set out to do. Yet, imagine what it would be like to pour all of your energy into something throughout your life and perhaps to be viewed as very successful in that endeavor only to discover, as you’re looking back over all you’ve done, that none of it really mattered. Or picture this: imagine spending your entire life climbing an insanely high mountain and persevering through all the various difficulties and struggles and straining with all of your energy to get to the top of that mountain only to discover, once you finally reached the peak, that you’ve been climbing the wrong mountain that whole time—and you’re now at the end of your life and can’t do anything about it. That, D. L Moody says, should be our greatest fear—not a fear of failure but of succeeding at something that doesn’t really matter. So how can we make sure that’s not us? How can we make sure we don’t end up succeeding at something that doesn’t really matter?

That’s what we’ll be discussing this morning in our examination of Genesis 36. This chapter tells us about a man named Esau and some of the decisions he made and the legacy he left in the form of his descendants. And unfortunately, as we’ll see, Esau seems to have been much more interested in earthly greatness and prosperity than he was in seeking any kind of blessedness in God.

Now, in order to understand this chapter, it’s important for us to have a little bit of background information. Way back in Genesis 12, God promised Abraham three things: that he’d become a great nation, that’d possess the land of Canaan, and that he’d ultimately be an instrument of God’s blessing for the entire world. Those promises were then passed down to Abraham’s son Isaac. And after that, one might assume those promises would subsequently be passed down to Isaac’s son Esau. After all, Esau was Isaac’s firstborn son, which was a huge deal in that culture. So, typically, the expectation would be that he’d be the natural heir to those promises.

 However, Esau appears to voluntarily give up his privileged position in Genesis 25:29-34. It says, ²⁹ Once when Jacob [Esau’s younger brother] was cooking stew, Esau came in from the field, and he was exhausted. ³⁰ And Esau said to Jacob, “Let me eat some of that red stew, for I am exhausted!” (Therefore his name was called Edom.) ³¹ Jacob said, “Sell me your birthright now.” ³² Esau said, “I am about to die; of what use is a birthright to me?” ³³ Jacob said, “Swear to me now.” So he swore to him and sold his birthright to Jacob. ³⁴ Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew, and he ate and drank and rose and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright.

Now, in ancient times, a birthright was a set of valuable privileges that was typically given to the firstborn son. These privileges included exercising unique authority in the family and receiving a double portion of the family inheritance. So, for Jacob to gain the birthright, as he does in these verses, is a really big deal. And notice how verse 34 lays the blame for this on Esau. It tells us that “Esau despised his birthright.” Of course, Jacob was pretty devious in the way he took advantage of his brother, but ultimately the blame is assigned to Esau. Esau has remarkably little regard for his birthright and is willing to sell it for bowl of stew. He obviously doesn’t even come close to grasping the significance of what God had promised to fulfill through the line of descendants coming from Abraham. Esau would have been the natural heir to those promises, but he instead foolishly pawns them off to Jacob. And that’s the first indication that Esau’s more committed to earthly ambitions and priorities than he is to God’s blessings.

Then, as we come to our main passage of Genesis 36, we see some additional examples of the path Esau chose for himself. In verses 1-3, we see that Esau married Canaanite women. It says, ¹ These are the generations of Esau (that is, Edom). ² Esau took his wives from the Canaanites: Adah the daughter of Elon the Hittite, Oholibamah the daughter of Anah the daughter of Zibeon the Hivite, ³ and Basemath, Ishmael’s daughter, the sister of Nebaioth.  

Now , you have to understand that the Canaanites were thoroughly pagan. They had no knowledge of God or devotion to God and were therefore not suitable spouses at all. Because who you marry makes a tremendous impact on the trajectory of your life. By the way, that’s a good principle for those of you who are single and looking for a spouse to keep in mind. Whoever you marry is going to have a greater spiritual impact on you than almost any other single factor in your life. You’ll find yourself naturally forming your perspectives on things based on their perspectives on things. You’ll find it natural for their attitudes and habits to become your attitudes and habits. That’s why some of the best advice I’ve ever heard about finding a godly spouse is to run as fast as you can toward Jesus and then look to see who’s running beside you. Don’t settle for someone who’s not truly devoted to the Lord.

Yet, that’s exactly the mistake Esau makes. He does exactly what his grandfather Abraham had expressly forbidden back in chapter 24 and takes wives from the Canaanites. And that says a lot about where Esau’s heart was in relation to God and the things of God.

Then, lastly, Esau essentially seals his fate when he moves out of the land of Canaan. Look at verses 6-8: ⁶ 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 a land away from his brother Jacob. ⁷ For their possessions were too great for them to dwell together. The land of their sojournings could not support them because of their livestock. ⁸ So Esau settled in the hill country of Seir. (Esau is Edom.)

Now, you’ll recall that the land of Canaan was the land God had promised to Abraham. So, by leaving Canaan, Esau was cutting himself off from any portion of blessing from God he might have otherwise received. His departure made it quite clear that he wasn’t a part of God’s chosen people. Of course, we see in verse 7 that Esau and Jacob had too many possessions for them to dwell in close proximity to each other. However, Esau could have dealt with that problem simply by going to another part of Canaan. It was a vast land. Yet Esau instead left Canaan and went to Seir—because, at the end of the day, Esau wanted to live his life apart from God.

The rest of chapter 36 then traces out Esau’s descendants, including the numerous tribal chiefs that would come from him in verses 15-19 and even the line of kings that would come from him in verses 31-39. It’s mostly a list of names, so I’m not going to read the whole thing. But just know that the point of all of these names and this genealogy as a whole is to demonstrate how great Esau would become—at least when it comes to earthly greatness. Yet, of course, this chapter also reminds us that, sadly enough, Esau’s life and legacy didn’t really have a whole lot to do with God. 

So, to bring all of this together into a single main idea, we see that although Esau achieved significant earthly greatness, he was ultimately excluded from God’s covenant blessings. By the way, the word “covenant” simply refers to the sacred agreement God had made with Abraham to bless him in the various ways we discussed. So, although Esau achieved significant earthly greatness, he was ultimately excluded from God’s covenant blessings.

And we see this trajectory confirmed throughout the subsequent generations of Esau’s descendants. Esau’s descendants would grow in number and eventually take control of the land of Seir where Esau settled and rename it “Edom.” They would then become known as the Edomites. And the Edomites would become bitter enemies of Israel. If you fast-forward about 500 years to the time when Moses was leading the Israelites out of Egypt, Numbers 20:14-21 records Moses reaching out to the Edomites in a very peaceful and diplomatic way and requesting their permission to pass through their territory in order to get to the Promised Land. However, for no good reason at all, the Edomites refused his request and actually sent out their army to make sure the Israelites didn’t pass through their land. Then, several hundred years after that, King Saul—the first Israelite king—had to fight against the Edomites, who are listed in 1 Samuel 14:47 as Israel’s enemies.

Yet perhaps the most shocking instance of Edom’s hostility toward Israel is recorded in the book of Obadiah. In Obadiah, which consists of a single chapter, God says to the people of Edom in verses 13-14, ¹³ Do not enter the gate of my people in the day of their calamity; do not gloat over his disaster in the day of his calamity; do not loot his wealth in the day of his calamity. ¹⁴ Do not stand at the crossroads to cut off his fugitives; do not hand over his survivors in the day of distress. So, understand what Edom had done. When the Israelites were in the process of fleeing for their lives from the Babylonian army, the Edomites actually stood at the crossroads to cut off their escape and apprehend them and hand them over to the Babylonians as slaves. Therefore, God says to Edom in verse 15, “As you have done, it shall be done to you; your deeds shall return on your own head.” He then says in verse 18: “The house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau stubble; they shall burn them and consume them, and there shall be no survivor for the house of Esau, for the Lord has spoken.” And that prophecy was indeed fulfilled in the first century. Specifically, in the year 68 AD, Edom was destroyed by the Roman army. The greatness of Esau lasted for a long time, but it eventually came to a tragic end.

And that’s the nature of all earthly greatness. It’s all just temporary. Kind of like building a sandcastle at the beach. You could build the most elaborate sandcastle that’s ever been built. But what’s eventually going to happen? Something, right? Something’s going to happen to that sandcastle. Either the tide will come in and wash it away or some children will decide it’s been there long enough and have a lot of fun destroying it or, if by some miracle the sandcastle manages to survive those kinds of things, natural elements such as the sun and wind and rain will gradually take their toll on the sandcastle and destroy it. Sandcastles are temporary. And so is all earthly greatness—as we see with Esau and the nation of Edom that came from him. And our main passage of Genesis 36 makes it clear that that was Esau’s trajectory. He chose earthly greatness and earthly prosperity over God’s covenant blessings and thereby excluded himself from those covenant blessings.

And all of this should lead us to ask some very important questions about our own lives. What’s the focus of your life? What’s the central thing you’re seeking? Is it some form of earthly greatness? That would include material wealth, earthly possessions, a successful career, professional prestige, educational achievements, a large following on social media, physical beauty, and various kinds of attempts to live and achieve things vicariously through your children. Now, of course, there is a God-pleasing way to pursue a lot of these things. For example, you can seek to excel in your career in a way that glorifies God. That’s entirely possible. That would involve approaching your career as a way of making a positive impact on other people and contributing to the common good of society—so, essentially, viewing your career as a means of loving other people. That’s a very good and godly mentality.

But the problem is that what people are often seeking through the kinds of things I just listed doesn’t have anything to do with loving other people or, for that matter, loving God. Instead, it’s all about self-advancement and achieving earthly greatness. And that’s the mentality Genesis 36 addresses. The rise and fall of Esau reminds us that material wealth is temporary, that possessions wear out, that careers inevitably end, that professional prestige will soon be forgotten, that educational achievements will one day be irrelevant, that a large following on social media will eventually disband, and that physical beauty fades away. In other words, all the things that so many people dedicate so much of their lives to pursuing are astoundingly temporary. They’re here today and gone tomorrow.

I mean, think about it like this: regardless of what you accomplish in any of these areas, who’s even going to remember you 20 years after you die? Maybe a few people, but not many. Now think: who’s going to remember you 30 years after you die, or 40 years, or 50 years? I can pretty much guarantee that nobody’s going to be thinking of you 50 years after you die. You’ll be utterly forgotten, and anything you accomplished  of an earthly nature will be ancient history. So, why would you devote your life to things that don’t last? Why would you spend your entire life building a sandcastle that’ll soon be destroyed?

Instead, God invites us to set our gaze on what’s eternal—on an inheritance that’s imperishable, undefiled, and unfading. That’s the way Peter phrases it in 1 Peter 1:3-4. Listen to what he writes, speaking to Christians: ³ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, ⁴ to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you. That’s what our hearts should be set on—a heavenly inheritance that’ll never perish and never fade.

And notice in verse 3 how this inheritance is obtained. It’s obtained first of all by God’s mercy. We have this inheritance “according to his great mercy.” When we deserved eternal punishment because of our sinful rebellion, God had mercy on us. He mercifully withheld the wrath we deserved and instead gave us something we didn’t even come close to deserving. As Peter says, “he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” So, “born again.” That means we’ve experienced a transformation that’s so radical, it’s as if we’ve been born a second time. We’re new people. Instead of being condemned, we’re forgiven. Instead of being alienated from God, we’re his children. Instead of loving sin, we love God. And, as Peter specifically says, we now have “a living hope.” We’ve been “born again to a living hope.”

And all of this has come about, Peter says, “through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” Jesus’ resurrection, of course, implies his crucifixion. The Bible teaches that Jesus allowed himself to be crucified on a cross in order to make atonement for our sins. He suffered the punishment our sins deserved so that we wouldn’t have to. Then, three days later, he triumphantly resurrected from the dead and thereby paved the way for us to share in his victory and enjoy eternal life in heaven.

So, the first question—and, really, the question above all questions—that we should be asking ourselves is, have we obtained that? Have you ever been “born again” to that “living hope”? Are you confident you’ll receive that “inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading”? If not, then I have some really good news for you. You can actually have that hope and that confidence even this very day if you’ll put your trust in Jesus to rescue you. That involves renouncing all of your misguided attempts to earn God’s favor on your own and instead looking to Jesus alone as your only hope of rescue. If you want to live for what’s eternal instead of what’s temporary, that’s step number one. After all, if you don’t have hope for eternity, then what do you really have?

I appreciate the way Jesus himself phrases the question in Matthew 16:26. He asks, “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?” Dear friends, the soul is infinitely precious. The question of where you’ll spend eternity is supremely important. So, what good will it be if you gain the whole world but forfeit your soul? So, again, step number one is to make sure your eternal future is secure by putting your trust in Jesus Christ.

Yet, that’s not the end of living for eternity—it’s only the beginning. After putting our trust in Jesus, we’re then called to live the rest of our lives with eternity in view. And thinking back to Genesis, that’s precisely what Esau didn’t do. Throughout his life, Esau never seemed to be able to see beyond what was right in front of him. He saw a bowl of stew, so he sold his birthright to get it. He saw attractive Canaanite women, so he went off and married them. He saw a land that looked like a better place to live than the land God had promised to Abraham, so he moved there. He never showed much concern at all for the things of God or what would make a difference for eternity.

By contrast, Jesus tells us to live in a way that’s the exact opposite of that in Matthew 6:19-21. He says, ¹⁹ “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, ²⁰ but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. ²¹ For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” So, Jesus says, instead of laying up temporary treasures on earth, lay up eternal treasures in heaven.

And here’s what that looks like, practically speaking. To start with what’s probably the most obvious thing, laying up treasures in heaven involves using earthly wealth for heavenly purposes, contributing of our finances generously for the advance of the gospel. It also involves using earthly possessions for heavenly purposes. Some of the clearest examples of this that come to my mind in our church are those who open up their homes to host a Community Group or who use their vehicles to drive people to our Worship Gathering here on Sundays.

Yet, these are by no means the only ways we lay up treasures in heaven. All things considered, I believe perhaps the greatest way we lay up treasures in heaven is by investing our lives in the lives other others and seeking to have as great of a spiritual impact as possible. For those who are parents, that starts with your children. God calls you to be the primary disciple-maker of your children. That involves having family dinners and family devotions. It also involves being very deliberate about having conversations with your kids about the things of God and modeling in your own life what you desire for their lives.

Then, of course, investing your life in the lives of others involves reaching out to those outside your immediate family as well—especially those who are far from God. It involves praying for them on a daily basis, building meaningful friendships with them, taking advantage of opportunities to talk about things of spiritual significance with them, and doing Evangelistic Bible Studies with people. Obviously, doing all of that requires a significant investment of time and energy. Because, many times, it does take a while for people to become receptive and responsive to the gospel—so you’ve got to be in it for the long haul. But…isn’t that why God has us here? Think about it. Have you ever asked yourself, why doesn’t God immediately take people up to heaven when they become Christians? Why does he leave us here on earth? It’s because there’s something he wants us to do that can only be done on earth. And that “something” is to share the gospel with those around us and lead them toward faith in Jesus. That’s why we’re here. And that’s the greatest way in which we lay up treasures in heaven.

So, if I had to sum up the way I believe we should respond to everything we’ve discussed this morning—and specifically to Genesis 36—I’d say it would be to live for what’s eternal. Live for what’s eternal. Stop making your life all about things that don’t really matter, and instead start ordering your life in light of eternity.

Because the fact is that our lives here on earth are very short, and eternity is very long. I heard an illustration one time that I thought was quite helpful. It involved a rope. This rope represents eternity. As you can see, it’s pretty long. And this part of the rope right here in between my hands represents the time that we spend on this earth. We’re born, we grow up, we live as an adult, and then we die. All of that happens within this part of the rope right here. And it’s such a tiny part of the rope, yet, so often, we live as if this part is all that matters. So many people live most—if not all—of their lives ignoring the rest of the rope that goes on and on and that represents the vast majority of our existence, and instead spend all their time thinking about this little piece right here. It’s pretty crazy when you think about it, but that’s the way many people think. Unfortunately, it’s the way we think more often than we’d like to admit. We’re so fixated with life in this present world. But God wants us to live in light of eternity.

And when you have that eternal mindset, it leads you not to only engage in the mission Jesus has given us of sharing the gospel but also to sacrifice for the sake of that mission. Because Jesus tells us that, whenever we sacrifice for his name’s sake, we’ll gain exponentially more in the future than we ever gave up in the present. Jesus actually says we’ll receive back a hundredfold. He states, in Matthew 19:29, “And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life.” So, you’ll get back a hundred times as much as you gave up. For those of you who like numbers, that’s a 10,000% return on your investment.

I think David Livingstone express quite well the perspective we should have. David Livingstone was a missionary to Africa in the 1800’s. And he was one of the first Europeans ever to navigate through the African interior. No European had ever before set foot in many of the places where David Livingstone set foot. And to say the least, it was quite dangerous. This guy was attacked over thirty times by lions and other wild animals. His life was constantly threatened also from illnesses like malaria and dysentery. At one point, he completely lost contact with the outside world for six years and was presumed to be dead. But the reason he did what he did and went where he went was because he understood that Jesus has called us to take the gospel to the ends of the earth. He believed in advancing the gospel so much that he was even willing to die in the course of doing so.

And many of us would look at David Livingstone’s life and admire him for the sacrifices he made as he worked to spread the gospel. But listen to what he says about that. Listen to what he says about the idea of him making a sacrifice: “For my own part, I have never ceased to rejoice that God has appointed me to such an office. People talk of the sacrifice I have made in spending so much of my life in Africa…. Is that a sacrifice which brings its own blest reward in healthful activity, the consciousness of doing good, peace of mind, and a bright hope of a glorious destiny hereafter? Away with the word in such a view, and with such a thought! It is emphatically no sacrifice. Say rather it is a privilege. Anxiety, sickness, suffering, or danger, now and then, with a foregoing of the common conveniences and charities of this life, may make us pause, and cause the spirit to waver, and the soul to sink; but let this only be for a moment. All these are nothing when compared with the glory which shall be revealed in and for us. I never made a sacrifice.”

In other words, Livingstone says, when you consider the immeasurable riches stored up in heaven for those who serve Jesus well, nothing we do here on earth—no matter how dangerous or costly—could ever be considered a sacrifice. And eventually, Livingstone did end up dying in a remote African village from a combination of malaria and internal bleeding caused by dysentery. But in line with what he said, don’t think for a moment that even his death was a sacrifice. I have no doubt that David Livingstone received back a hundredfold in heaven. And so will you if you’re faithful to follow Jesus in going wherever he calls you to go and doing whatever he calls you to do.

So, instead of pursuing earthly prosperity and earthly greatness like we read about Esau doing in Genesis 36, let me challenge you to give yourself entirely to God without reservation. Let your life be marked by an all-consuming passion for the Lord and for his glory and his purposes.