Genesis 36: God's Blessing Upon Us
One of the central tenets of the story of Genesis is God’s faithfulness to His promises even though the people who follow Him are flawed. We are not perfect. God knows that. Fortunately for us, He is perfect.
Genesis 36 is a summary chapter to Esau. Comparatively speaking, his genealogy is massive when put next to the simple genealogy previously given for Jacob. This feels odd; Jacob is the bearer of God’s promise! However, this is the last time Esau’s family are mentioned in the Bible as major figures. On the other hand, the entirety of the remaining story in the Bible focus of Jacob’s descendants. Jacob doesn’t need a huge genealogy because his story continues!
The Bible says Esau moved to Seir because his wealth and Jacob’s wealth was too much for the land to bear. What is going on here is more likely that Esau moved to Seir because his wealth was too much for the land to bear in addition to Isaac’s wealth. After all, Esau was already in Seir when Jacob returned. The Bible refers to Jacob’s wealth because Isaac just died and Isaac’s wealth is now Jacob’s wealth. When Jacob adds Isaac’s wealth to his own, it is substantial.
The point is God’s blessing upon Esau. Even though he sold his birthright and even though Rebekah had Jacob use questionable means to obtain a blessing that was Jacob’s anyways, God cared for Esau. God allowed him to prosper, which is why Esau is so forgiving upon Jacob’s return. Esau originally thought he would be left with nothing. While that may be true and feel painful in the moment, with God Esau is still richly blessed. Esau becomes a highly skilled, prosperous, and power man in the end. It is easy to lose sight of God’s blessing in our own life when we spend too much time focused on God’s blessing upon others.
Returning to the descendants of Esau, Esau’s people become the Edomites and the Amalekites. God fulfills his promise that Isaac would be the father of many nations. However, the Amalekites and the Edomites are highly adversarial to the Hebrew people once they return from their Egyptian exile. God fulfills the blessing Isaac gave to Esau in saying that Jacob may rule over Esau, but one day Esau’s people would rise and have their day.
In the end, God is with Esau even though Esau chose the more worldly path. We don’t know Esau followed God all that closely, although the Edomites worshipped a deity called Qos – which some scholars argue is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob by another name – as well as Ba’al and Asherah. God is faithful to His promises to Abraham and Isaac regardless of how faithful Esau is to Him. That’s not a surprise, though. One of the central tenets of the story of Genesis is that God is faithful to His promises even though the people who follow Him are flawed.
