Genesis 36 -- The Important Unimportant Chapter

My commentary gave only a short two-paragraph summary of this chapter which details Esau’s family, and that’s because the covenant blessing went with Jacob, not Esau.  By caring so little about his rights as a first-born son and the inheritance it brought with it, and by selling those rights to Jacob for a bowl of soup, Esau had shown utter disregard for his own future.  He’d then married two Canaanite women in an act of rebellion before subsequently trying to circle his way back into the family by marrying a daughter of his uncle Ishmael.  In doing so, the covenant line became even more diluted.

Esau’s sons and grandsons became leaders of the Edomites and one – Amalek – became the father of a second nation that would trouble the Israelites.  That spirit of uncooperation with God’s plan would eventually lead the entire line out of God’s blessing and into oblivion.

Father, what an important picture this chapter paints as it reveals to us the utter cost of rebellion against You and self-centeredness and lack of carrying for one’s own position before You.  I want my sons to be men after Your own heart, who will carry on what You began in my own heart, and who will treasure how You intervened in their own lives to bless them.  Let them not lose sight of it, Father.  Remove blinders as fast as Satan tries to put them on them.  Stoke within them the utter amazement they once felt the day You stepped into each of their lives by bringing me to them.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford