Jacob Part 24: Jacob and Esau Part Ways

Jacob and Esau Part Ways

Today we are gonna read the conclusion of the Yaaqov story.

This final part of the final act. It began with Yaaqov going back to the place where he began his journey in and out of exile to Bethel. He got a new name. He got the blessing, the prediction of kings of many nations.

Then everybody started dying.

And then the family turns on itself again with firstborn rivalries. And it's all swirling in our minds at this point. And then the last person to die is his father.

And it was precisely Yaaqov's story, the first sentence of Yaaqov's story was, "These are the birth generations of Yitskhaq." He was 40 years old when he became a father to his sons. And now his father has died.

The last part of the last part of the story of Yaaqov is not really a story at all.

It's a short narrative combined with mostly a long genealogy of the non-chosen.

You already know the genealogy of Yaaqov.

He has 12 sons. And now three wives.

But Esau, so what's interesting is this is gonna be a long, long list and exploration of the lineage of Esau. And then we're just gonna usher him off the stage. And then the sons of Yaaqov will take the stage for the fourth and final movement of the whole book of Genesis. 

So we're at a major threshold moment in the design of the book of Genesis as a whole. And we'll see that coming out everywhere.

Genesis 36:1–37:1 CJB

1 This is the genealogy of ‘Esav (that is, Edom). 2 ‘Esav chose Kena‘ani women as his wives: ‘Adah the daughter of Eilon the Hitti; Oholivamah the daughter of ‘Anah the daughter of Tziv‘on the Hivi; 3 and Basmat Yishma‘el’s daughter, sister of N’vayot. 4 ‘Adah bore to ‘Esav Elifaz, Basmat bore Re‘u’el, 5 and Oholivamah bore Ye‘ush, Ya‘lam and Korach. These were the sons of ‘Esav born to him in the land of Kena‘an. 6 ‘Esav took his wives, his sons and daughters, the others in his household, his cattle and other animals and everything else he owned, which he had acquired in the land of Kena‘an, and went off to a country distant from his brother Ya‘akov. 7 For their possessions had become too great for them to live together, and the countryside through which they were traveling couldn’t support so much livestock. 8 So ‘Esav lived in the hill-country of Se‘ir. (‘Esav is Edom.) 9 This is the genealogy of ‘Esav the father of Edom in the hill-country of Se‘ir. 10 The names of ‘Esav’s sons were Elifaz, son of ‘Adah the wife of ‘Esav, and Re‘u’el the son of Basmat the wife of ‘Esav. 11 The sons of Elifaz were Teman, Omar, Tzefo, Ga‘tam and K’naz. 12 Timnah was the concubine of Elifaz ‘Esav’s son, and she bore to Elifaz ‘Amalek. These were the descendants of ‘Adah ‘Esav’s wife. 13 The sons of Re‘u’el were Nachat, Zerach, Shammah and Mizah. These were the sons of Basmat ‘Esav’s wife. 14 These were the sons of Oholivamah, the daughter of ‘Anah the daughter of Tziv‘on, ‘Esav’s wife: she bore to ‘Esav Ye‘ush, Ya‘lam and Korach. 15 The chieftains of the sons of ‘Esav were the sons of Elifaz the firstborn of ‘Esav and the chieftains of Teman, Omar, Tzefo, K’naz, 16 Korach, Ga‘tam and ‘Amalek. These were the chieftains descended from Elifaz in Edom and from ‘Adah. 17 The sons of Re‘u’el ‘Esav’s son were the chieftains of Nachat, Zerach, Shammah and Mizah. These were the chieftains descended from Re‘u’el in the land of Edom and from Basmat ‘Esav’s wife. 18 The sons of Oholivamah ‘Esav’s wife were the chieftains of Ye‘ush, Ya‘lam and Korach. These were the chieftains descended from Oholivamah the daughter of ‘Anah, ‘Esav’s wife. 19 These were the descendants of ‘Esav (that is, Edom), and these were their chieftains. 20 These were the descendants of Se‘ir the Hori, the local inhabitants: Lotan, Shoval, Tziv‘on, ‘Anah, 21 Dishon, Etzer and Dishan. They were the chieftains descended from the Hori, the people of Se‘ir in the land of Edom. 22 The sons of Lotan were Hori and Hemam; Lotan’s sister was Timnah. 23 The sons of Shoval were ‘Alvan, Manachat, ‘Eival, Sh’fo and Onam. 24 The sons of Tziv‘on were Ayah and ‘Anah. This is the ‘Anah who found the hot springs in the desert while pasturing his father Tziv‘on’s donkeys. 25 The children of ‘Anah were Dishon and Oholivamah the daughter of ‘Anah. 26 The sons of Dishon were Hemdan, Eshban, Yitran and K’ran. 27 The sons of Etzer were Bilhan, Za‘avan and ‘Akan. 28 The sons of Dishan were ‘Utz and Aran. 29 These were the chieftains descended from the Hori: the chieftains of Lotan, Shoval, Tziv‘on, ‘Anah, 30 Dishon, Etzer and Dishan. They were the chieftains descended from the Hori by their clans in Se‘ir. 31 Following are the kings who reigned in the land of Edom before any king had reigned over the people of Isra’el. 32 Bela the son of B‘or reigned in Edom; the name of his city was Dinhavah. 33 When Bela died, Yovav the son of Zerach from Botzrah reigned in his place. 34 When Yovav died, Husham from the land of the Temani reigned in his place. 35 When Husham died, Hadad the son of B’dad, who killed Midyan in the field of Mo’av, reigned in his place; the name of his city was ‘Avit. 36 When Hadad died, Samlah of Masrekah reigned in his place. 37 When Samlah died, Sha’ul of Rechovot-by-the-River reigned in his place. 38 When Sha’ul died, Ba‘al-Chanan the son of ‘Akhbor reigned in his place. 39 When Ba‘al-Chanan died, Hadar reigned in his place; the name of his city was Pa’u; and his wife’s name was M’heitav’el the daughter of Matred the daughter of Mei-Zahav. 40 These are the names of the chieftains descended from ‘Esav, according to their clans, places and names: the chieftains of Timna, ‘Alvah, Y’tet, 41 Oholivamah, Elah, Pinon, 42 Kenaz, Teman, Mivtzar, 43 Magdi’el and ‘Iram. These were the chieftains of Edom according to their settlements in the land they owned. This is ‘Esav the father of Edom. 1 Ya‘akov continued living in the land where his father had lived as a foreigner, the land of Kena‘an.

You remember how the Yaaqov story began? "These are the generations of Yitskhaq."

"And these are the generations of Esau. Remember his other name from the bowl of red red, Edom."

Now, in case you forgot, 'cause it was a long time ago that we talked about this, "Esau took his wives from the daughters of Canaan, Adah, the daughter of Elon the Hittite, Oholibamah, the daughter of Anah, daughter of Zibeon the Hivite, and Basemath the daughter of Yishmael, sister of Nebaioth." So his two Hittite wife, Hivite wife, and a Yishmaelite wife. 

"Adah births for Esau a guy named Eliphaz." And yes, that is the same spelling and name of one of Job's friends.

"Basemath, who's from Yishmael, birthed Reuel." And yes, that is the same name as the man who will become Moses' father-in-law.

Now, Esau took his wives and his sons and his daughters and the people of his house and his herds and his beasts and all of his possessions that he accumulated in the land of Canaan, and he went to the land opposite the face of Yaaqov his bother because their possessions were too many for them to dwell in a single unified place.

And the land of their migrations was not able to carry them." They just had too much stuff. Sounds like Abraham and Lot.

"And so Esau went to dwell in the mountains of 'Hairy,' Seir.

Esau, remember he is Red Man, Edom."

So we open and close with a reminder that's totally unnecessary. We know Esau is Edom. So we have this little literary frame repeating his name. And in the middle is a story of his wives, and then what he did with his wives, he took them all, and he goes somewhere. Why does he go somewhere? 

And here's the only new piece of information in this whole section, is that brothers, they can't dwell together in unity in the land of Canaan.

Now, think back to the story from earlier when Yaaqov reconciled with Esau. And then Esau was like, "Hey, come live with me in the land of Hairy." And Yaaqov said, "Yes, I'll meet you there." And then he just goes in the opposite direction. So there, the brothers not dwelling together is because of Yaaqov's, you know, scheming.

But then here's an additional reason that we weren't told earlier, but now we're told, is it's too much stuff.

They have too much stuff.

You remember, did Esau want any of Yaaqov's gift of all this stuff? He didn't want this, "'Cause I already have much." But he gave, he took it all nonetheless. So part of why Yaaqov is loaded with too much stuff, and some of what Esau has, is because it's ill-gotten gain.

There's a particular word in Hebrew, "betsa'," it's wealth that you've accumulated through dishonesty. That's a particular word. There's a word for wealth, ill-gotten gain is how King James translates it.

Yaaqov has too many, in other words, the land can't support these two brothers because they have too many possessions. How is it that Yaaqov got so many possessions? Through his deceit and treachery. 

And we don't know how Esau got his, but we know that some of what he has is, remember all those animals that Yaaqov gave to his brother, that makes up at least some of what is Esau's abundance. So the point is that this lack of unity is, on Yaaqov's part, almost entirely, on Esau's part, partially, a result of all this treachery that's happened, that's happened in the past. Ill-gotten gain catches up with them and prevents them from living together in unity. 

Now, have I been here before? Brothers who can't dwell together in unity in the land, 'cause they have too much stuff. 

it's all the exact same wording of why Avraham and Lot couldn't live together.

Avraham calls Lot his brother and says, "Why can't we dwell together in unity? We are brothers." "Well, the land can't carry us." Their possessions are too many. Oh yeah, how did Avram get all those possessions in the first place? Well, when he lied to the Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. So it's the same, later generations replaying the failures of their ancestors.

But this seems particularly tragic. This is the final note of the story.

This is the last narrative of the Yaaqov story. It's just genealogies after this. And it's of, once again, the sins of the past begin to haunt and continue to like, you know, produce effects in the years that follow.

What follows is four genealogies, or at least four lists of names. 

The first is you go through the generations of Esau, and you kind of got a short list up above, and you get a super elaborate list in verses 9 through 19. 

The second list is the sons of Hairy, Seir. Hairy the Horite.  Remember Seir means Hairy, and he's called a Horite. 

So what you learn about here are the inhabitants of the region that Esau went to go live in. These are like the inhabitants of Edom before Esau went there. So just like the descendants of Yaaqov are going to intermix with and connect with the people of the land of Canaan, so their counterpart through Esau is gonna go mix with all of these pre-Edomite inhabitants of the lands. And they're called the Horites. And there's seven of them. And the first one's name is Lotan.

Actually, the letters of the word "Lotan" are also the same letters that spell the word "Leviathan."

Which is, you know, the terrible sea serpent. 

What you're told is that one of those, long ago, one of the sons of Zibeon, Aiah and Anah- Oh yeah, you know, Anah, he was out in the wilderness one day, and he just found these fresh hot water springs. "Why am I being given this information?" Well, he was shepherding the donkeys of his father.

God's in the business of giving Eden water.

He's got a whole thing going on with the other nations. And over there in Edom, He's providing the Eden waters for people. They're not the main characters on the stage, but just know, like, just 'cause the camera's on Israel doesn't mean he is not active in all of the nations. 

The third list

"These are the kings who reigned in the land of Edom before the kings reigned as king for the sons of Israel." And then it gives a whole long list, like many generations of kings that would long, outlive Esau and Yaaqov by like many, many generations down the line. 

This chapter has attracted the interest of people for a long time.

what was the final round of the blessing given to Yaaqov just a couple chapters ago?

Father of many nations and kings will come from your line.

And then you hear about that guy's brother who goes off and, he's the non-chosen, but you know, God gives him some little Eden gifts over there. And you know, they actually had kings long before there were any kings in Israel.

It's as if what God is gonna do for Israel is special. They're the chosen lineage of the snake crusher. But let's not mistake them as, like, the only people in the world.  God's at work, and things are happening in the other nations. 

So this fits into a handful of passages in the Torah that were called, it's given a Latin name 'cause this, from when this was a hot debate in the period of the Reformation called the Post Mosaica. Passages in the Torah that speak from a perspective way after Moses, Post Mosaica. And so the whole story about the death of Moses and about how no one knows where he's buried to this day, that's the end of the Torah.

This is one of them right here.

IN GENESIS 22:14 The comment after Avraham surrenders Yitskhaq over and receives him back again. And then Avraham calls the name of the place Yahweh Will Provide.

"Just as we still say to this day, 'On the mountain of Yahweh, it will be provided.'" And then you keep on going. The mountain of Yahweh.

There's only one mountain that's ever called by that name in the Hebrew Bible, and it's Jerusalem. And where are the firstborn of Israel being covered by the substitute? We're like at Solomon's temple era down the line. So passages like this are what make the debates about the authorship of the Torah so interesting.

'Cause the Torah itself doesn't seem to hide or try to pull any, trick you into thinking that Moses wrote all of it in its final form, even though Moses is depicted as writing within the Torah itself. But then you also have these post mosaica that show that the shape of the Torah as we encounter it is the Torah that was made to fit within the larger TaNaK Hebrew Bible, which has its own formation for a long period of time.

This is a reflection on the common grace accessible to all images of God—to rule with wisdom, to organize peoples, and to discover Eden gifts.

the biblical story isn't focused on that, 'cause it's not, the story's not about that. The story's about this unique family that was chosen by the creator. 

To be the chosen ones is actually to be signed up for even more trouble in your life. 'Cause now you're accountable, you know, in a way that Eliphaz, you know, over in Edom, you know? I mean, he's supposed to love his neighbor and like, you know, do good, but he's nowhere near as accountable as a Yaaqov.

we're meditating on kings who rule, hopefully, with justice in the land. And when you get to the prophets, the prophets are gonna be very interested in holding the kings of the nations around them, including the kings of Edom to task for allowing injustice and neglect of the poor. And the prophets won't care what nation it is. If it's full of images of God, there's like, there's a standard of behavior. 

The final bit here is a list of names of the chiefs of Esau alongside the kings. 

Genesis 37:1–2 CSB

1 Jacob lived in the land where his father had stayed, the land of Canaan. 2 These are the family records of Jacob. At seventeen years of age, Joseph tended sheep with his brothers. The young man was working with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father’s wives, and he brought a bad report about them to their father.

What's interesting is the opening began with Esau taking wives and going to dwell in the mountains of Hairy, Seir. Genesis 37:1 provides the counter. 

If Esau was dwelling in the mountains of Seir, "Yaaqov was dwelling in the land of the migrations of his father, in the land of Canaan." The next sentence is what we call Genesis 37, verse 2. And it begins, "These are the generations of Yaaqov," just how the Yaaqov story started with, "These are the generations of Yitskhaq." And it was of the generations that came from Yitskhaq. And now with 37:2, we're at a hinge and we turn. 

we went from the Avraham narratives, and the moment Avraham died, we were told of Yitskhaq and Yishmael. Yitskhaq is blessed. Yishmael is the non-chosen, but he's blessed, and he goes to live in the east, and then you get a genealogy of the non-chosen. It's like he's ushered off the stage. You carry on with the story of Yitskhaq and Yaaqov, long complicated story that we just went through. 

Then the death of Yitskhaq. You have the the filing off, kind of the shuffling to the side of Esau, long genealogy. And then you pick up with the story of the next generation.

So this is the architecture of the whole scroll here. So this whole story is constantly interested in telling you the stories of Adam to Seth, to Noah, to Shem, to Avraham, to Yitskhaq, to Yaaqov. And then it will single in on Judah, the fourth-born. And every one of those will have a counterpart or like an anti-type of the one who, the non-chosen one and who just wasn't happy about it. 

The snake, Cain, Ham, the brothers of Avraham, Yishmael, Esau, and then the other sons of Yaaqov.

when you really back up and you look at the design of the Genesis scroll, it really is all about the seed of the woman. Focused on tracing the lineage of the hoped for messianic king who will crush the snake. And then all these narratives are constantly filled with somebody set up and chosen.

They blow it, the rivalries, in all the generations that cause escalating violence, conflict, sexual abuse, at which point God has to respond. And he allows the terrible consequences to catch up with people to bring these moments of total disaster. But then he always brings, whether they deserve it or not, he always brings his chosen one through it, out the other side, to give them another chance or to give the next generation another chance. 

And this is how all the parts of the Genesis scroll work together. 

And you can start to see Jesus'

every generation is just playing through the melody, but the melody itself is Jesus' little summary. 

Luke 24:44–49 CSB

44 He told them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you—that everything written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” 45 Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. 46 He also said to them, “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead the third day, 47 and repentance for forgiveness of sins will be proclaimed in his name to all the nations, beginning at Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses of these things. 49 And look, I am sending you what my Father promised. As for you, stay in the city until you are empowered from on high.”

This is a post-resurrection Bible study. 

"And he says, 'These are my words. I've been trying to tell you this for the years that we've been cruising around Galilee. But listen, everything that just happened, this is what the Torah is about, this is what the Prophets is about, this is what the Psalms are all about.' He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and he said, 'Here's a summary in case you need it, the anointed one,'" So the title messiah became focused in on two figures, the high priest and the kings. But they are narrative images of all of these chosen representatives,

So the messiah is put into a position of honor and blessing, and something happens that leads to suffering and death. Think of the many ways that suffering and death was brought about just in the Yaaqov story.

Evil committed by the representative anointed one or evil done to them, or evil catching up with them. But one way or another, it always leads to some element of suffering. And then through that de-creation of escalated suffering that leads to death, there's resurrection from the dead on the third day. It's the third, usually it's these third days that are these pivot test moments. 

And why? So that, a chance to turn around.

A chance to turn around and discover a different way to be human so that the opportunity for that becomes available so that our failures can be forgiven.

And that that opportunity to turn around and be human and live different way, to be forgiven of our failures, that that message would be proclaimed in the name of the anointed one to all of the nations, starting right here at what was supposed to be the new Eden, Jerusalem. 

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