Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #4 in Genesis 36, and we will read Genesis 36:6-8:

And Esau took his wives, and his sons, and his daughters, and all the persons of his house, and his cattle, and all his beasts, and all his substance, which he had got in the land of Canaan; and went into the country from the face of his brother Jacob. For their riches were more than that they might dwell together; and the land wherein they were strangers could not bear them because of their cattle. Thus dwelt Esau in mount Seir: Esau is Edom.

We see that Esau has packed up and moved out of the land of Canaan.  He took his wives, his sons, his daughters, and all his servants, and all his cattle and beasts.  He took all his substance which he had gotten in the land of Canaan, and he went into the country from the face of his brother Jacob.  We should keep in mind that this did not happen at the point that Jacob came back from Haran.  Remember that Jacob had been gone for 40 years, so when Esau took his family, servants, and all that he owned and left the land of Canaan, it had to have been during the time that Jacob was in Haran.  It was not after he came out of Haran.  That is definite because we have that account back in Genesis 32 when he left Haran, and it says in Genesis 32:3:

And Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau his brother unto the land of Seir, the country of Edom.

Esau was already in mount Sier, the nation of Edom, when Jacob came out of Haran.  Also, we read  that Jacob said to Esau, in Genesis 33:14-17:

Let my lord, I pray thee, pass over before his servant: and I will lead on softly, according as the cattle that goeth before me and the children be able to endure, until I come unto my lord unto Seir. And Esau said, Let me now leave with thee some of the folk that are with me. And he said, What needeth it? let me find grace in the sight of my lord. So Esau returned that day on his way unto Seir. And Jacob journeyed to Succoth, and built him an house, and made booths for his cattle: therefore the name of the place is called Succoth.

So Esau’s move had to have been much earlier than when Jacob came out of the land of Haran.  How do we explain what it says in Genesis 36:6? “And Esau took his wives, and his sons, and his daughters, and all the persons of his house, and his cattle, and all his beasts, and all his substance, which he had got in the land of Canaan; and went into the country from the face of his brother Jacob.”  Yes, Esau did do this.  Keep in mind that Genesis 36:1 tells us, “Now these are the generations of Esau, who is Edom.”  So it is recounting the history of Esau, which also serves as the history of the nation of Edom.  It is telling us that this happened, and we should not think that everything we read in chapter 36 is chronological in following chapter 35.  This statement is going back to an earlier time.

So if Jacob were in Haran at the time that Esau took his family and possessions and left the land of Canaan and went into the country (which is not named here) from the face of his brother Jacob, would that not mean that it was because of Jacob and would require Jacob’s presence?  Yes, as far as leaving Canaan, it was because of Jacob, due to Jacob receiving the blessing.  Esau was very troubled about that to the point of contemplating the murder of his brother.  That is the reason Jacob went to Haran.  Over the course of time, Esau settled it in his mind to leave Canaan.  Why would it say that he went from the face of his brother Jacob because their riches were more than that they might dwell together?  If Jacob was not there, and if Jacob is only now bringing his cattle and riches out of Haran, then what is in view with these “riches”?  It would be the riches of Isaac that had already been designated for Jacob.  He would receive the blessing of the firstborn son.  He would receive the “double inheritance,” so the cattle of Isaac would become the cattle of Jacob, and Esau understood this, and that is the reason that he moved away. 

We read in Deuteronomy 2:12:

The Horims also dwelt in Seir beforetime; but the children of Esau succeeded them, when they had destroyed them from before them, and dwelt in their stead; as Israel did unto the land of his possession, which JEHOVAH gave unto them.

This indicates that God had given mount Seir to Esau.  We also read a similar thing in Joshua 24:4:

And I gave unto Isaac Jacob and Esau: and I gave unto Esau mount Seir, to possess it; but Jacob and his children went down into Egypt.

This is the Lord speaking.  The Lord gave Esau mount Seir, and he deposed the Horims that had dwelt there, and that is where the nation of Edom took root and began to grow.  That would be their land.

Let us go back to Genesis 36:6-8:

And Esau took his wives, and his sons, and his daughters, and all the persons of his house, and his cattle, and all his beasts, and all his substance, which he had got in the land of Canaan; and went into the country from the face of his brother Jacob. For their riches were more than that they might dwell together; and the land wherein they were strangers could not bear them because of their cattle. Thus dwelt Esau in mount Seir: Esau is Edom.

When we read that Esau packed up everything and went into the country from the face of his brother Jacob, we can see a spiritual picture because the Hebrew word translated as “country” is “Strong’s #776.  It is translated as “earth” hundreds of times, and also as “land.”  And remember that Esau is Edom, as we are told twice in the first few verses.  Esau is “Adam,” or “mankind,” going from the face of his brother Jacob.  What does that remind us of?   We read in Genesis 3:6-8:

And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. And they heard the voice of JEHOVAH God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of JEHOVAH God amongst the trees of the garden.

The Hebrew word translated as “presence” is the same word translated as “face.”  We find that throughout the Old Testament.  This Hebrew word can be translated as “presence” or “face.”  When we are speaking to someone face to face, we really get a sense of the individual’s presence. 

After sinning and losing the blessing of eternal life, Adam and Eve hid themselves from the face of JEHOVAH God among the trees of the garden.  Likewise, Esau lost the blessing of the firstborn, and that loss of blessing points to the same thing as Adam’s loss of blessing.  Esau is “Adam,” and “Adam” was the firstborn; he was the one who should have received the blessing, and he would have lived forever if he had obeyed God.  But he transgressed the Law of God, and he lost the blessing, which allowed the “usurper,” the “second Adam,” who was the Lord Jesus Christ, to receive the blessing, as well as all that were counted for the seed in Him.  The elect children of God received that blessing of eternal life, and we will live forever as Adam should have, but for Adam, it was conditional, and he lost the birthright and blessing that the elect people of God were then granted and freely given.

So when we read that Esau (Edom, or “man”) packed up everything and left the land of Canaan, remember that the land of Canaan was similar to the Garden of Eden.  The Garden of Eden was a special designated place in the earth where God dealt with His newly created creatures Adam and Eve, but then they were cast out of the garden.  That garden represented the kingdom of God on earth, and they lost it.

And Esau left Canaan, which is also a representation of the kingdom of God on the earth.  It can point to the corporate church, just as national Israel was a historic representation of God’s kingdom in its day.  In both instances, it points to the spiritual reality of the eternal kingdom where God dwells, but only those who became truly saved from Israel of old or within the New Testament church could enter into that eternal spiritual Israel, or eternal spiritual church.  One cannot leave the eternal church, or eternal spiritual Israel, because once a person becomes saved, they are saved eternally, so Esau leaving Canaan must represent his leaving the external kingdom of God.  Therefore Esau is leaving Canaan, and he is going into the country, a Hebrew word, Strong’s #776, that can be translated as “earth.”  He is leaving God and His kingdom, and he is going out into the world from the face of his brother Jacob.  He had been offended, just as Cain was offended when God accepted his brother Abel’s work, but did not accept Cain’s work, and it caused Cain to rise up and slay his brother.  And Esau had hatred in his heart, and he desired to slay his brother, but the Lord prevented that from happening.  So   he went out of Canaan into the ”world.”  That is the picture.

That is the nature of anyone who is not one of God’s elect, and whose sins were not paid for by Christ.  There is the desire to leave the light and that which reminds him of God, and which has anything to do with God.  They would leave the churches during the church age, or leave wherever the Bible is, and leave wherever the Word is shining its light.  It is too troubling and disturbing, and the ungodly flee; they flee the light for the darkness, as the Bible tells us in many places.  That is what we can understand is happening here with Esau, and with all that belonged to him.  In a sense, we can understand it as similar to Adam and Eve coming out of Eden, and starting the world.  Then the nations of the world developed, and the nation of Edom developed, and it was “away from” Israel and away from the Promised Land.  It is outside of it, and yet there is a relationship between the two, just as there is a relationship with the elect to their fellow man, as we were children of wrath even as others.  We were also made in God’s image, and we have many similarities.

That is how God summed up His salvation program in this world when He said, “Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.”  There was no difference between the two, as both were conceived in sin and born speaking lies.  But before either had done good or evil, God made a choice in His election program, and He decided to love the nation of the elect, and not the other who represented the nation of the world, the non-elect.  Yet they were twin brothers, and every closely related.  They shared the same parents, and they shared the same womb at the same time, and they were born just moments apart.  Yet that is the case, and it is the case with those God has saved over against those God has not saved.

Lord willing, when we get together in our next Bible study, we will look a little more at this idea of the “country,” and the opposite idea as far as God’s people living in the world, but desiring to leave the world to go to the kingdom of God.  It works both ways.