BLOODLINES

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

In Christ, Mark

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

** Become a Follower of The Christian Walk at http://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Jacob had twelve sons:

The sons of Leah:

Reuben the firstborn of Jacob,

Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar and Zebulun.

The sons of Rachel:

Joseph and Benjamin.

The sons of Rachel’s servant Bilhah:

Dan and Naphtali.

The sons of Leah’s servant Zilpah:

Gad and Asher.

These were the sons of Jacob, who were born to him in Paddan Aram.

Jacob came home to his father Isaac in Mamre, near Kiriath Arba (that is, Hebron), where Abraham and Isaac had stayed. Isaac lived a hundred and eighty years. Then he breathed his last and died and was gathered to his people, old and full of years. And his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.

This is the account of the family line of Esau (that is, Edom).

Esau took his wives from the women of Canaan: Adah daughter of Elon the Hittite, and Oholibamah daughter of Anah and granddaughter of Zibeon the Hivite—also 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 the sons of Esau, who were born to him in Canaan.

Genesis 35:23-29, 36:1-5

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

It had been quite a life.

Isaac, the only son Abraham had with his wife Sarah, had been born miraculously when his parents were well past their childbearing years, escaped sacrifice by God’s grace and intervention, inherited the special covenant given to his father by the Lord, received the blessing of a wife who was a relative, and had two twin sons who brought more than just a little angst into his life.

But now, like what happens to all mere mortal humans, he had reached the end.

For at the end of Genesis, chapter 35, we read this:

Jacob came home to his father Isaac in Mamre, near Kiriath Arba (that is, Hebron), where Abraham and Isaac had stayed. Isaac lived a hundred and eighty years. Then he breathed his last and died and was gathered to his people, old and full of years. And his sons Esau and Jacob buried him. Vv.27-29

It must have been a great comfort for Isaac to know that his twin sons had settled their differences before he passed away. You may remember that at one time after Jacob tricked Isaac into giving him the special blessing that rightfully belonged to his older brother, Esau allowed his anger over the matter to fester into murderous thoughts and intentions. This prompted Rebekah to send Jacob away to her brother Laban and in the 20 years that passed, Esau’s heart changed and he found his way to forgive his brother. Their reconciliation culminated in their father’s burial after he had lived 180 years.

It’s interesting to me (and maybe to you as well) that the death of Isaac is sandwiched between the genealogy of his two sons with Jacob’s coming first. As God had promised Rebekah when she was pregnant with her two boys:

“Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you will be separated; one people will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger.” Genesis 25:23

Indeed, the nations of Israel and Edom with their associated people would be separated and as we will see, Israel was the stronger of the two nations resulting in the older (Esau and his descendants) serving his younger brother (Israel) and the twelve tribes which originated with his sons who we see detailed in chapter 35, verses 23 through 26:

Jacob had twelve sons:

The sons of Leah:

Reuben the firstborn of Jacob,

Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar and Zebulun.

The sons of Rachel:

Joseph and Benjamin.

The sons of Rachel’s servant Bilhah:

Dan and Naphtali.

The sons of Leah’s servant Zilpah:

Gad and Asher.

These were the sons of Jacob, who were born to him in Paddan Aram.

Of interest, we’ve seen the story of these births covered in great detail by the scriptures, particularly in chapters 29 and 30 but when we turn the page in Genesis to chapter 36, we see a condensed version of Esau’s family tree which became known, not as the Esauites but rather the Edomites. You may recall this verse that explains the origin:

Once when Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau came in from the open country, famished. He said to Jacob, “Quick, let me have some of that red stew! I’m famished!” (That is why he was also called Edom.) Genesis 25:29-30

And going back earlier, this from Esau’s birth:

When the time came for her to give birth, there were twin boys in her womb. The first to come out was red, and his whole body was like a hairy garment; so they named him Esau. Genesis 25:24-25

Esau emerged from the womb red and later developed a taste for red stew. When translated, Edom simply means “red” or “reddish” so now you know the back story to the Edomites and their progenitor, Esau who was also known as Edom. Here’s the initial summation of his family line from the first six verses of chapter 36:

This is the account of the family line of Esau (that is, Edom).

Esau took his wives from the women of Canaan: Adah daughter of Elon the Hittite, and Oholibamah daughter of Anah and granddaughter of Zibeon the Hivite—also 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 the sons of Esau, who were born to him in Canaan.

Of note here, we know that Esau’s first two wives, Adah and Oholibamah) were Canaanites and this didn’t sit well with either of his parents because the culture of Canaan was ungodly, immersed in paganism and idolism. We find this in the very last verse of Genesis, chapter 27:

Then Rebekah said to Isaac, “I’m disgusted with living because of these Hittite women. If Jacob takes a wife from among the women of this land, from Hittite women like these, my life will not be worth living.” v.46

And this led Isaac to give Jacob this command in the opening two verses of the next chapter:

“Do not marry a Canaanite woman. Go at once to Paddan Aram, to the house of your mother’s father Bethuel. Take a wife for yourself there, from among the daughters of Laban, your mother’s brother.”

After hearing this, it’s believed that Esau sought to get back in good favor with his father and so he took a third wife, who just so happened to be the daughter of Abraham’s first son, Ishmael, who you’ll remember was born to Sarah’s slave, Hagar. We read where her name was Basemath.

Now Esau learned that Isaac had blessed Jacob and had sent him to Paddan Aram to take a wife from there, and that when he blessed him he commanded him, “Do not marry a Canaanite woman,” and that Jacob had obeyed his father and mother and had gone to Paddan Aram. Esau then realized how displeasing the Canaanite women were to his father Isaac; so he went to Ishmael and married Mahalath, the sister of Nebaioth and daughter of Ishmael son of Abraham, in addition to the wives he already had. 28:6-9

The irony in this is that we find that Ishmael’s daughter also had two names, Mahalath and Basemath, something that wasn’t uncommon in biblical times. I guess that made them compatible, right?

Anyways, Esau’s three wives bore him five sons, Eliphaz (Adah), Ruel (Basemath), and Jeush, Jalam and Korah (Oholibamah) all who were “born to him in Canaan”.

So if you’re keeping score, Jacob (Israel) had twelve sons while Esau (Edom) had five. The Israelite nation under the younger would become greater than the older as the bloodlines had been established to fulfill God’s promise made to Abraham.

Tomorrow, we’ll finish looking at Esau’s genealogy and how it bridges us to the story of Joseph which spans the remainder of this first book of the Bible.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.