Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #17 in Genesis 36, and we will read Genesis 36:24-30:

And these are the children of Zibeon; both Ajah, and Anah: this was that Anah that found the mules in the wilderness, as he fed the asses of Zibeon his father. And the children of Anah were these; Dishon, and Aholibamah the daughter of Anah. And these are the children of Dishon; Hemdan, and Eshban, and Ithran, and Cheran. The children of Ezer are these; Bilhan, and Zaavan, and Akan. The children of Dishan are these; Uz, and Aran. These are the dukes that came of the Horites; duke Lotan, duke Shobal, duke Zibeon, duke Anah, Duke Dishon, duke Ezer, duke Dishan: these are the dukes that came of Hori, among their dukes in the land of Seir.

I will stop reading there.  In our last study we started to look at verse 24.  I will read it again.  It says in Genesis 36:24:

And these are the children of Zibeon; both Ajah, and Anah: this was that Anah that found the mules in the wilderness, as he fed the asses of Zibeon his father.

I may have mentioned this before, but the name “Anah” is Strong’s #6034, and it comes from Strong’s #6030, which is a word that is translated as “witness,” “bear witness,” “give account,” and so forth.  So he has a name that identifies with “witness.”  And we are told that this Anah found the mules in the wilderness, and the word “found” is the usual word in the Old Testament for finding something.  It is used many times.  He found the mules in the wilderness. 

Now we are going to take a closer look at the word “mules.”  I mentioned last time that this is an unusual word, and it seems like a very odd translation.  I am trying to think why the King James translators would have translated this word as “mules,” and I do not know why they translated it this way.  This word is Strong’s #3222.  (And I hope you will look it up and check it out.)  It is the Hebrew word “yêm.”  There are similar words, which are #3220 and #3221, and they are pronounced like “yam,” the vegetable.  And both these words are translated in English as “sea” or “seas,” as in the waters of the sea.  If we go back to Genesis 1:10:

And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.

That is basically the same word, although the vowel pointing are different.  It has the alpha vowel point, but the consonants are identical.  Also, we read in Genesis 1:20-22:

And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.

Again, the word “seas” in verse 22 is, for all intents and purposes, our word that was translated as “mules.”  And notice that the seas are made up of waters: “…and fill the waters in the seas…”   So we are trying to understand this word translated as “mules” in the wilderness, and if we translated it as “seas in the wilderness,” we can get somewhat of a picture.  But once we realize that seas are made up of waters, we get a much clearer understanding, and we can also see the relationship to these verses in Isaiah 43:19-20:

Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert. The beast of the field shall honour me, the dragons and the owls: because I give waters in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert, to give drink to my people, my chosen.

God’s chosen are the elect.  So as soon as we read this, we understand that this is the Gospel.  This is imagery that God uses often, and He pictures the world as a desert, a wilderness, or a dry land, and then He opens up the “waters.”  When Israel was wandering in the wilderness, the Lord commanded Moses to smite the rock, and the waters gushed out.  So very clearly, waters in the wilderness pictures the sending forth of the Gospel unto salvation, in this case, giving drink to His people, His chosen.

Keep in mind that Anah’s name means “witness,” and it is God’s people who bear witness, although Christ is The Witness of the truth of the Gospel.  But, again, it was that Anah that found the “seas,” or the “waters,” in the wilderness as he fed the asses of Zibeon his father.  So we can see spiritual activity of finding “the waters in the wilderness,” and it does paint a Gospel picture.  But what about the fact that it says, “…as he fed the asses in the wilderness of Zibeon his father”?  When we look up the word “fed,” it is the typical word we find in the Old Testament that is used to speak of feeding sheep, and it is actually translated as “shepherd” at times.  It says in 1Samuel 17:15:

But David went and returned from Saul to feed his father's sheep at Bethlehem.

Or we can read Psalm 37:3:

Trust in JEHOVAH, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed.

Also, we read in Micah 7:14:

Feed thy people with thy rod, the flock of thine heritage…

Here, it is used in feeding the people of God, His chosen.

We read in Isaiah 40:11:

He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young.

Here, both the word “feed” and the word “shepherd” are our word translated as “fed.”

So we can see that the word “feed” identifies in a similar way with the idea of finding waters in the wilderness.  But our question regards the fact that it is one thing to feed the sheep, but Anah fed the asses of Zibeon his father.  Can we understand that to picture the elect of God receiving spiritual nourishment, or spiritual drink?  When we look up the word “asses,” we find that they definitely represent men, and they can represent men that God uses, if we go to Judges 15 where we read of Sampson, and it says in Judges 15:14-17:

And when he came unto Lehi, the Philistines shouted against him: and the Spirit of JEHOVAH came mightily upon him, and the cords that were upon his arms became as flax that was burnt with fire, and his bands loosed from off his hands. And he found a new jawbone of an ass, and put forth his hand, and took it, and slew a thousand men therewith. And Samson said, With the jawbone of an ass, heaps upon heaps, with the jaw of an ass have I slain a thousand men. And it came to pass, when he had made an end of speaking, that he cast away the jawbone out of his hand, and called that place Ramathlehi.

Here, Sampson is a type of Christ, and as a type of Christ He took the jawbone of an ass.  If it were a human jawbone, we would reason, “Yes, people speak, and the move their mouth and jaw, and they speak.”  And that is the spiritual picture of the Lord Jesus taking sinful men…you know, the jawbone of an ass necessarily means that the ass is dead.  And using that as a weapon, he overcame a thousand enemies (the completeness of enemies).  Historically, it was an incredible miracle that one man could do that.  God gave him strength.  But, spiritually, it is instructing us that the Lord Jesus Christ takes those who are “dead” in trespasses and sins, and He used their mouths, as He uses His people to bring the Gospel: “How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!”  They carry the Word, and the Word of God cuts both ways.  It can cut to judgment, and slay a thousand, as it were, and it could also cut to grace and accomplish God’s salvation program.  So the jawbone of an ass can picture the people of God.

Also, if we go to Exodus 13, we see a statement that signals that God does use an “ass” as a type and figure of a man, and also of someone that could be saved.  It says in Exodus 13:13:

And every firstling of an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb; and if thou wilt not redeem it, then thou shalt break his neck: and all the firstborn of man among thy children shalt thou redeem.

Do you see how God is joining the redemption of an ass with a lamb?  And the Lord Jesus is the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world.  If the ass was not redeemed, its neck was broken, and to have one’s neck broken is a sign of being under the judgment of God, just as Eli fell backward and broke his neck (and died).  So without question, Exodus 13:13 indicates that an ass can typify the people of God.

Let us look at one more verse in John 12:12-15:

…when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, Took branches of palm trees, and went forth to meet him, and cried, Hosanna: Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord. And Jesus, when he had found a young ass, sat thereon; as it is written, Fear not, daughter of Sion: behold, thy King cometh, sitting on an ass's colt.

That is taken from the book of Zechariah, and it is the same word translated as “ass” that is used in Genesis 36, and in these other places.  Christ “sitting” on the ass is a picture of Christ ruling as King.  “To sit” means to rule, so it is a figure to indicate He is ruling over the lives of His people, as typified by an “ass.”  Christ is our Lord, and we seek to do His will.

Going back to Genesis 36, we looked up the word “mules,” and we saw how it relates to waters in the wilderness; and we looked at the word “fed,” and the word “asses.”  And we also looked at Anah’s name, which means to “witness.”  And everything seems to line up as a spiritual picture of the Gospel.  But is this not the line of Esau and the Edomites?  Yes, but keep in mind that God has redeemed millions that were out there in the world, and the Edomites would typify the ungodly out in the world.  So this verse may be here as a little “oasis in the desert,” where the Lord is indicating that even in the land of the ungodly out there in the world, from time to time the Word of God would come, and it would deliver some.  It would rescue and save certain ones that are counted among God’s elect people.  That is the only explanation I can see.  I do not see this verse really connecting us to other places that much, but it is just a little “portrait” in God’s portrait gallery.  And as we go through Esau’s genealogy, it takes a lot of study to go through this, and it may not seem like very exciting material, but then it is saying, as it were, “Have a nice, cool drink of water,” and then it immediately takes us back to these names and titles.  So this was “a little break,” as it were.