Read with Me
Genesis 36:1-8
These are the family records of Esau (that is, Edom). Esau took his wives from the Canaanite women: Adah daughter of Elon the Hittite, Oholibamah daughter of Anah and granddaughter of Zibeon the Hivite, and Basemath daughter of Ishmael and sister of Nebaioth. Adah bore Eliphaz to Esau, Basemath bore Reuel, and Oholibamah bore Jeush, Jalam, and Korah. These were Esau’s sons, who were born to him in the land of Canaan.
Esau took his wives, sons, daughters, and all the people of his household, as well as his herds, all his livestock, and all the property he had acquired in Canaan; he went to a land away from his brother Jacob. For their possessions were too many for them to live together, and because of their herds, the land where they stayed could not support them. So Esau (that is, Edom) lived in the mountains of Seir.
Listen with Me
Before Moses proceeds with the history of Jacob and his family, he sets down the genealogical record of Esau. This is important because even though Esau did not receive the birthright or the blessing of the Promised Land, he was still a descendant of Abraham and Isaac, and thus an heir of God’s general promise to make Abraham the father of many nations. And Esau did indeed become a nation, founding the whole kingdom of Edom south of the Dead Sea.
Moses goes back to the fact that Esau had married two Canaanite women, Adah and Oholibamah. When he overheard his mother decrying that choice to Isaac, actually part of a ruse to get Jacob to flee from Esau’s wrath over the stolen blessing (Genesis 27:46, 28:7-9), he married Basemath, his cousin, the daughter of Ishmael.
Moses then lists the five sons born to Esau in Canaan, before including the fact that after Jacob returned, Esau left the area and settled to the south, in the land that would later be known as Edom, but which was known at that time as the hill country of Seir.
Even though Esau sold his birthright and lost the blessing through deception, God still brought great blessings into his life. At the time he left Canaan, he was very wealthy, with vast flocks and herds, as well as numerous slaves. God did this not because Esau was a man of great moral character and spiritual purity (he wasn’t), but purely because he was a descendant of Abraham and Isaac whom God had promised to bless.
Pray with Me
Father, thankfully, Esau’s anger subsided during the twenty-plus years that Jacob was away in Haran. Thus, he was in a position where he was able to receive the great blessings that You poured into his life. I’m afraid that, far too often, we let our own anger against others burn, moving us out of the path of Your blessings, and then we wonder why so few of the good things we want are able to come into our lives. Lord, help me to keep short accounts, to never let my anger burn so long that it begins to steal away Your blessings from my life. Amen.
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