Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #3 in Genesis 36, and we will read Genesis 36:1-4:

Now these are the generations of Esau, who is Edom. Esau took his wives of the daughters of Canaan; Adah the daughter of Elon the Hittite, and Aholibamah the daughter of Anah the daughter of Zibeon the Hivite; And Bashemath Ishmael's daughter, sister of Nebajoth. And Adah bare to Esau Eliphaz; and Bashemath bare Reuel; And Aholibamah bare Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah: these are the sons of Esau, which were born unto him in the land of Canaan.

Before we get into the discussion of a timeline having to do with Esau when he was 40, we should notice that there are three wives named in these verses.  When we read earlier from Genesis 26, there were only two wives, as it says in Genesis 26:34-35:

And Esau was forty years old when he took to wife Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Bashemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite: Which were a grief of mind unto Isaac and to Rebekah.

I mentioned before that the name “Judith” is not mentioned in Genesis 36, but it must be the same woman, just going by another name.  But in Genesis 28, we read of a third wife, in Genesis 28:7-9:

And that Jacob obeyed his father and his mother, and was gone to Padanaram; And Esau seeing that the daughters of Canaan pleased not Isaac his father; Then went Esau unto Ishmael, and took unto the wives which he had Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael Abraham's son, the sister of Nebajoth, to be his wife.

This matches with what we read in Genesis 36:3:

And Bashemath Ishmael's daughter, sister of Nebajoth.

Again, the name does not match.  In Genesis 28, she is called Mahalath, and Mahalath is a word that apparently identifies with “sickness.”  It is also used in a couple of the Psalms.  For example, it says in the title of Psalm 53:

To the chief Musician upon Mahalath, Maschil, A Psalm of David.

It has a slightly different Strong’s number, but it is basically the same word used of this woman that Esau married, who was said to be daughter of Ishmael, and the sister of Nebajoth.  It must be this same woman who is called “Bashemath” in Genesis 36:3.

So Esau married these three women in the land of Canaan, and they were all displeasing to his parents.  As a matter of fact, in Genesis 28, when he saw that the daughters of Canaan did not please his parents, what did he do?  He married another daughter of Canaan that was from that area, and at that point he was intentionally trying to displease his parents.  He was probably still upset about losing the birthright and blessing, and how it had happened. 

Later we will look at these women and try to understand what we can learn about them because one of Esau’s wives, Aholibamah, is mentioned seven times in chapter 36, so there must be something significant that the Lord is emphasizing, but we will save that for a later study.

Right now, let us go back to Genesis 26:34:

And Esau was forty years old when he took to wife Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Bashemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite:

This was a major disaster.  It was a major failure in the life of Esau.  Remember, God stresses in the Bible that Esau is “Edom,” especially in Genesis 36 where we are told twice that Esau is Edom.  And “Edom” is the word that is the same word as “Adam,” the first man.  It is a related word in Strong’s Concordance as far as the number is concerned, but it is the same word translated as “man.”  Esau is “man,” and he is “Adam” because Adam was the firstborn son of God.  God created Adam.  When we read the genealogy in the Gospel of Luke, it goes all the way to the beginning of history, and when it gets back to Adam, it says that he is “the son of God.”  Adam was God’s firstborn as far as this world is concerned in that he entered into the world first, but then the Lord Jesus Christ would enter over 11,000 years later from Adam’s creation, and He would faithfully and obediently go to the cross and suffer.  The Scripture tells us, “Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered.”  And He was “obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.”

So Christ was the “second man,” and He is called the “second Adam” in the New Testament.  He is the One that supplanted Adam, just as in the womb of Rebekah, the two brothers fought together, and Esau came out first.  He was the first man.  He was the firstborn.  He was Edom.  Then came Jacob.  But it was Jacob, “the supplanter,” that ultimately received the birthright and the blessing of the firstborn, and that is because Jacob, a type of Christ, obtained the blessing.  He is a figurehead for all that are in Christ, as typified by Jacob.  We are counted for the seed in Christ.  Christ is our figurehead.  And the Lord Jesus is also called God’s elect.  We read of Him in Isaiah that God calls him “mine elect.” 

So this is the spiritual picture, and this is why it is very significant when Esau (at age 40) fails the test by marrying these two women, Judith and Bashemath.  He had not only displeased his parents and gave them grief of mind, but he displeased the Father God, God the Creator.  As God looks down upon mankind, Esau represent mankind that has rebelled against God and gone contrary to the will and Law of God, and failed the test.

In the Garden of Eden, after God created Adam, the first man, H set forth a testing program by applying a Law to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil: “Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”  That was the test, and Adam and Eve failed the test.  God constantly tests His people, the creatures made in His image, and man failed at the beginning.  And Esau is typifying mankind as he fails this test by being unequally yoked.  So we can see why God pointed this out.

It just so happens that we can know the exact year that Esau failed the test by taking these two wives of the land of Canaan.  It was the year 1967 B. C.  We know that because we have been given the biblical calendar of history that the Lord has opened up to the understanding of His people, and it goes all the way from the year of creation down through history, and we are given many dates that are linked to the lifespans of biblical calendar patriarchs such as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  Of course, if we know the lifespan of Jacob, it is the same for Esau because they were twins that were born probably moments apart.  Esau came first, and Jacob followed.

According to the biblical calendar, Isaac was born to Abraham in the year 2067 B. C.  Isaac married Rebekah when he was 40, which was 2027 B. C.  Then when he was 60, Rebekah had twin sons in the year 2007 B. C. when Jacob and Esau were born.  Forty years after that was the year 1967 B. C.  That is the year that Esau failed the test.  The year 1967 B. C. is a very special year, especially as we look forward to the end of time, and we will get into that later.

But is it also a very important year in its positioning by God in His overall timetable for His salvation program, and for His judgment program, and for all biblical history.  It is a very key date in the whole scheme of the time program God has laid out in the Bible.  Why do I say that?

First, the year 1967 B. C. fits in a very interesting way with the flood date of 4990 B. C.  In 4990 B. C., which was 6,023 years from creation, God brought the flood. And we can calculate that.  The creation date was 11,013 B. C., and when we subtract 4990 B. C., it equals 6,023 years, and then the flood came and destroyed the world.

From the flood date of 4990 B. C. to 1967 B. C. (when Esau was 40 and failed the test), it is a period of time covering 3,023 years.  And that identifies with the time from the creation to the flood of 6,023 years.  So we see the fulness of the number (in 1,000s) and then there is the same 23-year period attached.

It is the same thing if we go from the flood in 4990 B. C. to the “laying of the foundation” in  the year 967 B. C.  That was the year David died, and the foundation of the temple was laid, and that is 4,023 years from the flood. 

So we are seeing a pattern.  In 6,023 years from the creation, the flood occurred.  And from the flood, which was like a new, or second earth, to the year of Esau failing the test was 3,023 years.  And from the flood to the laying of the foundation in 967 B. C. was 4,023 years.  And from the flood to the year 33 A. D. when the Lord was hanging on the cross, how many years was that?  (When we go from a date in the Old Testament to a date in the New Testament, we add the dates together.)  So from the flood in 4990 B. C., plus 33, because Christ was crucified in the year 33 A. D., equals 5,023 calendar years.  Again, it is a major milestone in God’s history of the world, and in His unveiling of time across the ages.  Again, we see that from the flood date to Esau failing the test was 3,023 years; to the laying of the foundation was 4,023 years; and then to the Lord Jesus Christ going to the cross, dying, and resurrecting, it is 5,023 calendar years.  And if you go from the flood date of 4990 B. C. to the year 2033 A. D., it is 7,023 calendar years.  Now you can see why that is a significant date.  At least I hope you can see it. 

These are proven dates – every one of them – including the flood date, the date that Esau was 40; the date for the foundation of the temple; and the date that Christ went to the cross.  And then we see the interrelationships between the dates, and this linking together by thousands of years, plus 23 years.  And when we project it to 2033 A. D., which is just a few years off, there are 7,023 calendar years.  It not only fits, but it is a perfect match for the “pattern” that God has put into place with these events.

There is another pattern here.  If we go from the creation date of 11,013 B. C. to the year 1967 B. C. when Esau was 40 and failed the test, it is 9,046 years.  You are probably thinking, “I do not see the significance of that, except that I can see that “46” is “2 x 23,” plus there are 9,000 full years.”  But also from creation in 11,013 B. C. to the laying of the foundation in the fourth year of Solomon, the year David died…and it worked out that way because they had a coregency for four years.  But from the creation date in 11,013 B. C. to 967 B. C., it is 10,046 years.  So we are seeing another “pattern.”  There were 9,046 years from creation to Esau’s failure; and 10,046 years from creation to the laying of the temple foundation.  And from 11,013 B. C. to the cross, we must add 11,013 and 33, and it equals 11,046 calendar years.  Is this a coincidence?  Is this happenstance?  No.  it would be astronomical if we were to try to calculate the possibility of all those time patterns falling together. 

If anyone thinks, “Oh, it was just Mr. Camping.  He put together the calendar.”  But if you check it out, it all came from the Bible if you read “Adam When?” and the various studies done on this.  It all comes from the Scriptures, and it is a very proper way of approaching the Bible, as the numbers all come from the Bible, and it does not come out of the minds of men.  Also, it has to do with uncovering the secret of the Bible revealing dates “end to end.”  That is, upon the death of one patriarch, the next calendar patriarch would be born.  That is the key that unlocks the biblical calendar.  Coming down through history, one would expect that adding so many years (to the calendar) would cause us to be “off” by quite a bit by the time we got to the life of Solomon, as many archeologists date his death to 930 B. C.  And if we follow the biblical calendar, we see his death was in 931 B. C., which is only a one-year difference.  But it should have been off by thousands of years if the hidden biblical calendar proved to be wrong, but it is not.  It is right on target. 

And these dates are God’s, and the confirmation that they come from the mind of God (and not the minds of men) are these built-in relationships and design, as God wrote of one event, which seemingly had no relationship to another event, and yet there was a relationship as far as God’s timeline is concerned.  This is God verifying His calendar.

So from the creation to the cross was 11,046 calendar years.  That means that from creation to Esau’s failure in 1967 B. C. was 9,046 years; and from creation to the laying of the foundation was 10,046; and from creation to the cross was 11,046; and from creation to the year 2033 A.D. is 13,046 calendar years.  And this matches the pattern of the calendar perfectly.

It is wonderful biblical evidence matching the pattern that has proven correct for the first coming of Christ that touches upon the laying of the foundation.  You can see the tie-in between the laying of the foundation and Christ going to the cross because His death (in history) demonstrated His death at the foundation of the world.  God refers to it as “the foundation,” and Christ is the foundation for salvation; He is the foundation that His spiritual house is built upon, all those that God would save.  So we can see that the focus of history is on those things.

It also means that 1967 B. C. is a very central piece.  It is like a “hub.”  And 967 B. C. also fits well with the year 33 A. D., which is 1,000 calendar years later; and 1967 B. C. going to 33 A. D. is 2,000 calendar years.  Again, it just fits so perfectly.  These are puzzle pieces falling into the one place they fit.  You cannot fit a puzzle place anywhere else except for where it was cut out to be by the design of the puzzle maker.  And this was God’s design for time, and He is the One whose brilliant mind is behind it all.  He knows the end from the beginning, so He has arranged history and the unfolding of time over the ages to work out in such a way that these major events took place at certain times, having a relationship and connection to other major events.

Most significant to us is the relationship to a year that is fast coming upon us, the year 2033 A. D.  And if you go from 1967 B. C. to 2033 B. C., it is 4,000 calendar years; and from 1967 B.C. to the cross in 33 A.D. is 2,000 calendar years.  But do not discount it because it is calendar years.  The cross did take place.

In 1967 B. C., Esau was 40, and he failed the test, and 4,000 years later is 2,033 A. D.  And the number “4,000” is “10 x 10 x 40,” the super-completeness of the testing program of God for mankind and of judgment, as the number “40” also relates to God’s judgment.  It is the completeness of the test that mankind has failed throughout history, but now is the time of the last bit of history and the end of the world.  “In the day that thou eatest thereof, ye shall surely die.”  That is what God told Adam.  The failure of Esau’s (Edom’s) test points to the death of man 4,000 years later in time.