We begin this week with a partial genealogy of Esau’s descendants, and it’s quite heavy going with all the unfamiliar names of people and places.

One or two names may jog your memory though. Esau’s oldest son had a son called Amalek, whose descendants became the Amalekites. They feature again and again in the Old Testament, mainly in battles with the Israelites. Both Saul and David would go on to defeat this tribe in battle.

Why is this genealogy here? We are about to move away from the histories of Jacob and Esau, and start to focus more on Jacob’s sons. It is Jacob’s line which is the heir of the promise of God, not Esau’s, and yet this genealogy at the end of Jacob’s story reminds us that, although Esau had disregarded his birthright, God would still fulfil his promise through him.

God had promised Abraham that his descendants would be more numerous than the stars in the sky. This meant that all of Abraham’s children and grandchildren would be included in this promise, including those who were not the inheritors of it. Esau had five sons and ten grandsons. His family became so large, and so prosperous that the land would not support both Esau and Jacob’s people.

In the land of Seir, where they migrated to, Esau’s descendants would become rulers and chiefs. They would multiply, overtake and dispossess some tribes, and incorporate others into their clans. Just as the conflict between Esau and Jacob has dominated this part of Israel’s history, so the conflict between their descendants would come to dominate again in centuries to come.

God is faithful, and his purposes are not to be thwarted. All along, we have seen how both Jacob and Esau have failed in so many ways to live up to their high calling, and yet God keeps his promises to both of them, as well as the promises he made to Abraham long before. Esau, despite missing his father’s blessing, does receive God’s, at least as far as being prosperous and the father of many descendants. It is reassuring to know that God has his hand on the whole scope of human history.

next devotional >>

 

 

NEWBOLD COMMUNITY CHURCH