As we've been looking at the past few chapters of Genesis and we've been focusing on the life of Jacob, we've seen the life of a family that was dominated by sibling rivalry. Actually, that even goes further back, if you remember. It was in the life of Ishmael and Isaac, the generation before this. But that rivalry, it grew even more fierce with Jacob and Esau. Remember these two boys? They were born twins. And it was actually written that Jacob, as he came out of the womb, the first thing he did was he clung onto his twin brother Esau's heel. And it was a symbol, it was a sign of this rivalry that grew and grew and grew as they grew older. In Genesis 25 verse 28 we read about this favoritism, actually that kind of fed into that rivalry. It was Esau who was favored by his father and it was Jacob who was favored by his mother. Rebekah loved Jacob and from their earliest days as little boys it was this rivalry that grew, this competition. became even a feud that would dominate their whole lives. You remember they fought over almost everything it seems. There was that competition and there was that time that Jacob or that Esau sold his birthright for a bowl of stew. And it got so dark that Esau actually, because his brother Jacob seemed to be taking over in the family and was getting the blessing, Esau threatened to kill his brother. Now you might think, that a brother killing another brother over the position in the family or wanting to kill another brother, doesn't that seem exaggerated? Doesn't it seem too much mythological or something? Well, it's interesting. I just read in the news the other day about two brothers in Florida that were fighting, one 25 years old, one 28, fighting over some food, and the 25-year-old brother shot and killed the 28-year-old. It still happens. And some of us probably know from our childhood that brothers and sisters, there can be this rivalry, there can be this dark fighting that can go so far. And that's why a chapter like this one matters. You see, Esau is this covenant son, this child of good parents growing up in a blessed family. And over his life, he turns his back on his heritage and he goes his own way. And there's much to learn from that. You see, that history and that choice of Esau, the direction he decides to go and rebel against his family, it has consequences that weave through the whole Old Testament and right into the new. Edom becomes, the children of Esau, really one of the key and one of the main enemies of the Israelites. This rivalry where they want to fight to the death, it continues for thousands of years. And even perhaps to a degree it continues to this day when you look at some of what goes on in Palestine and Israel. Well, if we're to understand the real problem with humanity, if we're to understand the problem we have in our own heart as we slip into sins and into selfishness, we have to look at people like Esau. We have to think about them also and why they ended up where they ended up. And so today we're going to learn from the life and the lineage of Esau. That's going to be our theme or our title. We're learning from the life and the lineage of Esau. First we'll look at his character and his choices. Then we'll compare Esau to Jacob. And then we'll compare Edom to Israel. Well first we begin with remembering who Esau is. You remember Esau in verse 1, he was called Edom. Edom means red. And he was named that because of the bowl of red stew that he had sold his birthright for. Remember in chapter 25, it was the defining moment of Esau's life in the end. He came home from a long day out in the fields, probably out hunting. He's weary, he's exhausted, he's very hungry. And as Esau comes home, he comes home to this smell of this stew that his brother Jacob was cooking. Remember, Jacob was the homebody. Jacob was the brother who had a close relationship with his mother, who was at home, he's in the tents, he's cooking. Esau is the hunter, Jacob is the one with the sheep and the goats, and he's around the home. And there Esau, he was out, he was tired, he was hungry, and he came in and he wanted that food so badly, he was so hungry, and probably legitimately very, very hungry, he was willing to sell out his birthright to his little brother. Now in ancient times, to be the oldest brother, that meant everything. That meant by far the largest portion of the inheritance and of the blessing that was on that family. And Esau said, at that moment, yeah, just give me the bowl of stew. I don't care about my position in the family. I don't want it. He was impulsive. He saw the food he wanted. He said to Jacob, I'll trade it for my birthright. I'll become the little brother. You become the big brother. Just give me the food now. Becomes his legacy. He's remembered for being impulsive. And remember, that birthright of the oldest son, that was more than just some land and some tents and some animals. It was being God's favored one. That's what he sold out ultimately, his position in a covenant family, in having God's blessing on him and being the seed. And so that's the first mistake of Esau. when he exchanged his birthright, he said, you can be like the older one, you can have it. And that's why he was called Edom in verse one. And that becomes his legacy. But then, there's the next part of his legacy. Remember, after he stole the birthright for the bowl of stew, there was that growing feud with his brother. His brother deceived and took his blessing in the end, and then Esau threatened to kill Jacob. But there was also another thing he was remembered for in his life, and that's for also being impulsive in taking wives. Now it had been in the families of Abraham and Isaac that the right place to get a wife was from the old country back in their homeland in the east. You see, the people of Canaan, they were far gone into sin. These were the people of cities like Sodom and Gomorrah. And to take women, to take wives, and to socialize, and to interact with those people of cities like Sodom and Gomorrah, and last few weeks ago we looked at Shechem, that was dangerous. Those were people who were far gone. That was a culture that was in its last dying breath, so to speak. Far given over to sin. No sense of law and order. Selfishness. But Esau simply goes and he takes what's easy. He goes to the neighbors, he finds some wives, not just one wife, multiple wives, which is always a problem in the Bible. By the way, every time you see polygamy in the Bible, it's never approved by God and it always causes problems. And in Genesis 26, when Esau, he goes and he picks these wives from among the neighbors, We know they were wicked women from Genesis 26 verse 35. They were a grief of mind to Isaac and Rebekah. And then he added even another wife, an Ishbalite. And so in these first two verses of chapter 36, you have two reminders. Esau is a sellout for a bowl of stew, that red stew. and he just took whatever wives he could find. He was impulsive, he lived by his emotions, his lusts, his appetites. Here he was, he was born in a family of blessing, and he was willing to sell out that privilege and to join with their enemies, and it's the beginning of a separation. Starts with the bowl of stew, it may seem like a small thing, and it goes on and on and on until he finally moves away. He moves to a whole different land. He's separated from his family. It starts a whole new nation. It's important to look at Esau and to remember how he lives. He lives by his impulses. He lives by his emotions, or we could say by his flesh. or by the lusts of the flesh. He sees the things of this world and right away he's willing to take them and he'll sacrifice anything for them. His life is a cautionary tale. It's a reminder, especially for children. See, Esau grew up in a believing family. He grew up with a believing father and mother. It's a reminder for any covenant child, any child in a believing family. There's all these blessings that come with a family of love and of God's faithfulness. And it reminds us that when a child who's born in that kind of family goes in the wrong direction, there can be a point that it's too late for them. It's a hard reminder, but Hebrews 12 brings that reminder. Hebrews 12, verse 15, it reminds us that we should take Esau as an example of somebody whose life he followed his impulsive selfishness, he rejected God, and there's a warning in Hebrews chapter 12 that it's possible to turn away from the church and from the blessing of the position of being in God's family and to end up going too far. You have to think of Esau, who's one who goes past a sort of tipping point. He goes too far, and it's too late for him. He's like a man who jumps on a one-way train that's headed for disaster, and it's too late at some point to get off. Hebrews 12, 17. Afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected. For he found no place for repentance, because though he sought it diligently with tears." You see, Esau, he did regret at some point the bad choices he made. He wished he could have his inheritance back. He even wept over it. But Esau came to this point. Even though he wept over it, he didn't repent. You know, the pattern of Esau is that he did not blame himself. Remember his reaction. When he loses the birthright and the blessing, what does he do? All he can do is point the finger at his brother and say, it's all his fault. It's Jacob's fault. It highlights really the difference. When you think of Esau, he's a picture of really an unrepentant sinner. See, he's a slipping sinner. A repentant person, a person who's convicted that they've done some wrong in their life, and even as they examine themselves more and more, they see all their words and their deeds so tainted by sin, they weep over their own choices. They're humbled in the sight of the Lord. they pray, be merciful to me, a sinner. But then you have a sinner like Esau who's slipping away from God, going their own way, and he also has his regrets, and yes he cries his tears and he wishes he could undo some of the past parts of his life, but mostly what Esau does is he points the finger at his brother Jacob. He says, it's Jacob's fault. He lashes out. It's not humble repentance, it's selfish rage and even regret. And the pattern of his life becomes one of slipping further and further from God, moving out of the promised land, moving away from God's people, going his own way. It's the pattern of first marrying who he marries, and then disobeying his parents, and then there's a rift between his parents and him, and eventually, because he has so much even, he moves away into another land. And the question that needs to be asked is what's the pattern of your life? Is it an Esau pattern? Remember Esau, he points the finger and he says, my problems are his fault. And indeed, there's a lot of truth to that sometimes. A lot of our problems are other people's fault. But is that our main emotion when it comes to the problems in our lives, to the sins in our lives? Is it a selfish anger? Is it a resentment? That's the pattern of a person who chooses their own way. In our day, it's very popular to blame the problems in our life on our childhood, or our environment, or on past effects. Those things can be very hard. We should have sympathy and compassion for those that had hard childhoods. But we don't want to be on that path, like Esau, where he pointed the finger at others, and he could only blame his brother for all the problems, and he could never look in at his own heart. And here's the question. Do you look at your own heart? Do you confess your own sin? And do you leave the sins of others between them and God? Trusting that vengeance is mine, says the Lord, that the Lord can take care of it in His time and in His way. See, that's not the path you want to be on. You don't want to be like Esau, who goes over this tipping point where he can't see himself anymore. He can't look in the mirror. He goes his own way. And thank the Lord, if that's the path you've been on, and that's the direction you've been going, that you're in His house today. Not looking at the sins of others. The call is, repent of your sin, plead for God's mercy, confess your own sin. Colossians 3 verse 1 and 2 warns us, if you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on earth. You see, Esau is the exact picture of somebody who spent his life setting his mind on things on the earth. He goes after everything he sees around him. And believers are called, let go of that pattern. Let go of that Esau pattern. Don't look at all the things in the world around you. Don't put your hope in them. Look to Christ. Set your mind on things above. Store up your treasures in heaven. And so that's the first contrast that we have to look at. Esau's character and his choices. Thinking back, now that we have this opportunity to review his whole life, thinking, you don't want to be like him. Who goes to that point of no return and keeps going. And eventually fades off in the long run. He's gone. Well now though, let's compare Jacob and Esau. See it's this chapter that really finally proves how unnecessary Jacob's sin was. You see, Jacob really didn't sin any less than Esau. He had his own sins, though he was supposed to be the good son and the covenant son. In chapter 25, Jacob thought he had to manipulate Esau. He thought he had to get Esau to sell his birthright. He had to get the covenant inheritance. And later in Genesis 27, Jacob had deceived his father to get the blessing. Remember, his father was growing old. He was going blind. And basically, Jacob, he deceived his father, he pretended he was Esau before a blind man, and he got the inheritance, he got the blessing that way. Now on the one hand, God had said that Jacob the younger would become the covenant heir. That prophecy was always there. But that didn't mean that Jacob ever needed to lie or manipulate or cheat to get that blessing. The end never justifies the means if the means are sinful. And there's a lesson here in this chapter. You see, sometimes we think, I need to tell some little white lies to get what is right. Or I need to manipulate. As long as what I get in the end is good, that must be okay. You see, Jacob never needed to do that. Look at verse 6, Esau takes his family and all of his possessions and he moves on voluntarily. Because they're so blessed by God. Both of them are so blessed they can't live close together. And we know from earlier chapters that Esau is moving back to a territory that he's chosen for himself. And here Jacob, he lived his life in fear of his brother Esau, and he did all this manipulating, and this lying, and this fearing, and all these dark nights where he was worried about what might happen to him. And here we see it was all unnecessary. He didn't need to be afraid for a moment. He didn't need to worry about his inheritance. He didn't need to lie. He didn't need to manipulate. He's been blessed. If Jacob had trusted God, if he had sat back and waited, he would have inherited everything anyways. See, Esau was already going down that path. And now Esau, he picks the poorer inheritance for himself. He chooses it. He moves on by his own choice. And thinking back, Jacob could have avoided the whole mess, simply served God, gone about his business. He could have had a servant go pick a wife from the East. Remember that situation? He ended up 14 years in slavery over in the East. There would have been none of the slavery, none of the baggage, none of that hard history. And yes, it's a little bit hypothetical. The point is, Jacob didn't need to deceive. He didn't need to lie. He didn't need to cheat. He didn't need to be scared. He didn't need to be afraid. All those things we saw him go through. He could have simply believed God is in control. And God uses such an unusual way to move His brother away from Him. Remember, Esau is a dangerous man. He's a man of the sword. He's somebody that Jacob so easily fears. And the question we have to ask is, do you believe that God is in control? As believers, we need to trust this. God can use the most unusual circumstances. Here He's God's blessing. Jacob's sworn enemy, this dangerous brother who's even vowed to kill him, and God blesses him so much he moves on. God is able to take care of his people. There's nothing to fear. There may be hard paths, there may be those valleys, there may be those difficult times to go through, but this proves Jacob did not need to sin. Now there's no threat, there's no competition from his brother. He's free to live in the promised land. And there's really a great contrast when you think about these twin brothers now. Esau has this family with Canaanite wives and Ishmaelite wives, but if you go through the list of the names of Esau's children, it's very clear that they don't follow the one true God. There's many names in those lists of different gods and hints at different backgrounds and a very mixed worship. Perhaps some of them knew something of the Lord God for a time, but they went their own way, while Jacob follows the one true God. Jacob, though his family is a mess, he hasn't married with the peoples of the land. He hasn't mixed. He stays separate. And then the other contrast is, Esau moves away from the promised land, Jacob stays. Esau becomes the nation of Edom. Jacob becomes the nation of Israel, the people that God chooses to bless. And Israel is a name that reminds Israel, he's clung to the Lord in faith. Remember, he's wrestled with the Lord and prevailed. And so you have Jacob and Esau, both sinners. Both very weak in their past. But one's moving on. He's going his own way. He's choosing his own direction. He ends up in Edom. The other is called again and again by the Lord. It's good to be reminded of that. You see, when Jacob slips into his sins over and over, he doesn't pick himself up by his own bootstraps. He's really no better than Esau. in all of his sin and his foolish choices. What happens to Jacob, the difference between Jacob and Esau, is God keeps coming back to Jacob and keeps calling him back and saying, come back to me. Come back to Bethel, as we looked at last week. Come back to me, Jacob. And as believers, we need to value that when we come into church and we hear in the preaching or we read in the Bible or we read in good books and we're convicted of our sin and we're called back to the Lord. You see, Esau is the picture of one who's been allowed to go his own way, to make his own choices, to live on his own terms. Jacob is one who keeps getting called, keeps getting reminded, keeps getting pointed back to the promises, keeps coming back to the Lord. He keeps having those reformations. Which pattern is it in your life? Going your own way? Or is it God calling you back again and again to His Son, Jesus Christ? The call is, come to His Son. Don't go the way of Esau and Edom. Well now we'll do one more contrast, and that's the two nations. The nation of Edom and the nation of Israel. These two brothers become the fathers of two very big countries. Nations. Esau is a very blessed man. It's interesting in Genesis 27, though Isaac wasn't able to give a full blessing on Esau, he still did prophesy that Esau would be prosperous. Your dwelling shall be of the fatness of the earth and of the dew of heaven from above. in the description of Esau's large and his growing family, having all of these children, having all of these possessions, all of these animals and these flocks, it's a sign that God is blessing him materially. Even though he's left the Lord's ways, even though he's gone in his own direction, materially speaking, he's still very blessed. And sometimes that's still true. You know that everything that God gives to a person, or everything that a person has, sorry, is actually a blessing from God. John the Baptist says that in the end of John chapter 3. Everything somebody has is a blessing from God. And you see the Lord God can bless and give many things to an evil and to a wicked nation. That's what happens here. You can look at our own nations. We've turned our back on God. in a generation or two, at least largely. We've gone our own way. It's all about my choices and what I want to do and how I want to live my life. It's no longer about how God wants us to live our life. And yet there's still a sort of, you could say, a residual blessing. There's a leftover blessing on nations like Canada and America. There's leftovers to live on. And we may be prosperous for a time yet. Edom certainly was prosperous for many generations. There's foundations also in Christian families and nations like ours. There's a certain wisdom and a hard work and a discipline that comes from our Christian history and our Christian past. There's a sense that Esau would have had much of that. He's a capable, he's a strong leader, he's at the head of a large and growing nation. And the same can be true for many people who have certain blessings of God, whether it's growing up in a Christian family or growing up in a Christian nation. They have wisdom, they have love, patience, teaching. They receive perhaps a good education, a certain self-discipline. But instead of using that background and that energy and that blessing to build the Kingdom of Christ, they use it for selfish means. They become very profitable and very wealthy. And the amazing thing is, sometimes, especially in business or in leadership, there are very wicked people, like Esau and his sons, that do very well. Notice verse 31. They have kings ruling over the land before Israel does. in the race to become an established nation and a strong and a powerful sovereign nation of their time with a territory and with borders and being able to govern themselves. If that was a race, Edom wins. Esau wins. Israel ends up in slavery in Egypt. And it's true in our day, the evil, they seem to rise up so quickly, don't they? Those that have wealth, and those that have power. Those that want nothing to do with God's Word, and those that lie and cheat. They seem to rise up, they seem to even be able to make themselves kings. And then the history of Israel. It's so uncomfortable. It's dangerous. The people who are supposed to be blessed, they end up slaves, and they end up in hardship, and they end up going through the furnace, as it were. And that's happening in our day too. We're not so different. It seems like the church of Jesus Christ, at least the faithful church it seems, to shrink at times and to have hard times ahead if it's going to, to continue to follow the Word of God. And it seems like the people that rise to the top. You just look at the election in America. Two people rising to the top who you could go back and you could find 50 examples of where they've lied and where they've cheated. And it's on the public record. And people like that, they seem to rise to the top and they seem to be blessed and they seem to be in power. See, it still happens. Just because God's people are, so to speak, on the bottom, doesn't mean that God is not powerful and that He's not working all things for the good of those that love Him. Just like in the New Testament. God's people, in the book of Acts, they become persecuted. It's hard. 11 out of the 12 disciples are murdered for their faith. It's been happening since the beginning. Often for believers things are hard in this world, and yet the blessings in the end are abundant. They are beyond compare. Well, actually, these two nations, Edom and Israel, they'll continue to struggle. There'll actually be a sort of a wrestling that goes through the whole Old Testament. Numbers 20, the Israelites are leaving Egypt, and you might remember that, they've just received the Ten Commandments, and then they're crossing the wilderness, and they come to the land of Edom, and they actually ask very politely, in Numbers 20, can we go through your land? And the king of Edom comes and he says, no, if you even set foot on my land, we will destroy you. Detour around us or else there'll be war. And Israel turns around and they go the other way. And it's costly and it's hard. They have to take a detour because Edom persecutes them. And then the struggle continues. Actually in 2 Samuel 8, finally King David conquers the Edomites. And so it's like Jacob is back on top. The Israelites, they're winning again. David is like a Messiah. He's like a savior. He breaks the power of Israel's enemies all around. He conquers the nations all around them. And under King David, they have peace and they finally have security. But then, the latter part of the New Testament, the Edomites gain power again. And in the time of the prophets, Some of the minor prophets, all they can write about is these Edomites who keep persecuting them and keep stealing their things and even killing their children. One of the most dangerous, one of the most disheartening enemies of Israel. They're always this thorn in the side of Israel and they seem to prosper and grow until the time of the New Testament. It's interesting that the family of Herod, who was king over Israel, in the time of Jesus Christ. Herod was an Idumean. He was an Edomite. That's the Greek word for Edomite. They ruled over Israel as representatives of the Romans in a time that led up to the time of the Lord Jesus and through the New Testament. And the Herods were known for their brutality. Remember, it's Herod who oversees the slaughter of the innocents in Matthew. He tries to kill all of the babies in Bethlehem to wipe out the King of Kings, the Lord Jesus. So you see this struggle between the Edomites and all that they symbolize, it continues all the way through the Bible. As long as this world continues, not just the Edomites, but evil people, they seem to prosper, they seem to be in power, they seem to rise up again and again. But our hope must be that in the New Testament, even though Christians, they end up being weaker, it seems, and more scattered, and poorer, and more despised, they have no political power at all anymore. The hope must be that Christians are strangers and pilgrims on the earth, and yet that they look forward to an incorruptible inheritance, a living hope in Jesus Christ, 1 Peter 1. That they can rejoice in trials, that they don't need to fear, just like Jacob never needed to fear, even though they might have brutal enemies like Edom ahead. There's nothing to fear. But there's even a greater hope in the Bible. And you know, the hope is, even though Edom becomes so wicked, and even though Edom becomes the kind of nation that they're really like terrorists, if you read through the prophets and you look for all the references to Edom, they're like today's ISIS. These are terrorists who would come in and they would kill children and women and destroy and rape and loot and pillage. But the greater hope is in the Bible. in the New Testament that even Edomites, no matter who people come, no matter what nation they come from, no matter what their background is, Revelation 7 verse 9, it's clear that people from every tribe, every tongue, every nation will stand before the throne of King Jesus and they will worship Him. And so we live in a great day of hope. A day when the hatred and the barrier that existed between peoples, that that should be cut through. That as we sit in church together, in God's house, that no matter what background we are from, we are one in Christ Jesus. That the gospel cuts through, not just national boundaries and barriers, but also, even especially, those histories. And that hurt and that pain of the past. There's the hope that Jesus Christ brings. That no matter where somebody's come from, no matter what their history is, whatever nation they're from, what their upbringing was, we live in a day of salvation. See, this chapter is actually sort of a...it would have been a frightening one for a Hebrew to read. They would have been reading here about lists of the names of the chiefs and the military commanders and the kings of their enemies. You see the hope we have in Jesus Christ. There is nothing to fear. Perfect love casts out all fear. The gospel still goes out to the ends of the earth. The call to repent and to believe in Jesus Christ. Amen.