Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #18 in Genesis 36, and we will read Genesis 36:31-39:

And these are the kings that reigned in the land of Edom, before there reigned any king over the children of Israel. And Bela the son of Beor reigned in Edom: and the name of his city was Dinhabah. And Bela died, and Jobab the son of Zerah of Bozrah reigned in his stead. And Jobab died, and Husham of the land of Temani reigned in his stead. And Husham died, and Hadad the son of Bedad, who smote Midian in the field of Moab, reigned in his stead: and the name of his city was Avith. And Hadad died, and Samlah of Masrekah reigned in his stead. And Samlah died, and Saul of Rehoboth by the river reigned in his stead. And Saul died, and Baalhanan the son of Achbor reigned in his stead. And Baalhanan the son of Achbor died, and Hadar reigned in his stead: and the name of his city was Pau; and his wife's name was Mehetabel, the daughter of Matred, the daughter of Mezahab.

I will stop reading there.  In this passage, we see that God tells us of the kings of Edom who reigned before there reigned any king over the children of Israel.  It is interesting that God would give us that bit of information.  He gave us their names, and He listed eight kings of Edom who reigned over the descendants of Esau during the time period when Israel did not have a king.  That is all we are told, so we do not have very much information concerning when this was happening, but we do know that Jacob met his brother Esau as Jacob was coming out of the land of Haran in 1907 B. C.  At that time Esau had 400 men with him, and it would appear that there was no king at that point.  Esau was not a king over Seir or the land of Edom.  He is not listed (as a king).  The kings reigned in the land of Edom before Israel had a king, and then when Israel had kings, there would have been other kings reigning over the land of Edom. 

We know that Israel’s first king was Saul, and we know the year was 1047 B. C.  So there are eight kings listed, and there could have been others, but these are the eight God is telling us about.  Again, we do not know much information, and the Lord is not giving us the length of their reigns.  So thus far I have not been able to place any of these kings into some kind of historical context where we could get a time reference like, for example, if we found one of the kings in a context that coordinates with a period of time in Israel’s history, like a reference to a king of Israel or a judge of Israel.  But so far I have not been able to find anything like that, so we have this wide perimeter in which these eight kings reigned.  It had to have been after 1907 B. C., and it was probably a few hundred years after because even if one of these kings reigned a long time, it would have not been more than 40 or 50 years, and that would have been a very long time for a king to reign. And sometimes a king would have reigned a couple of years, or another short period of time.  But even if each of these kings reigned for 50 years, that only covers 400 years.  And again, from 1907 B. C. to 1047 B. C. is 860 years, from the time from when Jacob had his name changed to Israel until the first king of Israel was anointed, who was Saul.  (And it is interesting that 460 is  “2 x 430, but that would not have anything to do with these kings.)

We cannot get much of a time fix, except that we can kind of figure out that the last king mentioned, who is Hadar, may have reigned right up to the time that Saul became king of Israel, so that is about as close to any timeline we can get concerning this series of kings.  And that is pretty typical in the Bible concerning the heathen, or the line of the unsaved and unregenerate that God had not predestinated to salvation, or not included in the outward representation of His kingdom, like the nation of Israel.  God does not give us much of a timeline concerning these people, and I think that is because God’s timeline for the world revolves around His elect people.  It says in Deuteronomy 32:8-9:

When the most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel. For JEHOVAH’S portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance.

God divided to the nations their inheritance, and the nations here would be the peoples of the world, and that is also stressed when He said, “…when he separated the sons of Adam,” and all humans are the sons of Adam.  And God divided to them, the sons of Adam, their inheritance, and He separated them according to inheritance.  The Lord’s portion is His people – Jacob is the lot of his inheritance.  We inherit eternal life through Christ.  We inherit the Promised Land of the new heaven and new earth.  That is our “lot,” and it is a goodly inheritance.  We cannot get anything better.  We have the greatest inheritance imaginable.  Forget about a billion dollars, or even a trillion dollars, or all the money in the world.  What good are the riches of this world?  God is actively taking the riches away from the people of the world in the Day of Judgment, and soon He will take it all away.  The Bible says that man comes into this world with nothing, and he will leave the world with nothing, and that is the lot of the unsaved.

The elect will leave with a spiritual inheritance, and we will take nothing from this world, but we have much waiting for us in the next world.  But for the people of this world, their inheritance was temporal, and only while they lived.  It was only for a season, and they could enjoy the pleasures of sin and the things of the world, and whatever thing they could possess in their allotted time.  But that is it.  That is how God divided to the nations their inheritance.

Again, it says, “when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel.”  This ties in with His election program, and His salvation program, as God worked it out over the history of the world to accomplish the saving of a people for Himself.  And He did accomplish that by the date of May 21, 2011.  And now there is just a short little season of Judgment Day as God works out the finishing touches for everything.  He will accomplish the pouring out of His wrath while the elect await the salvation of our bodies.  So it still has to do with salvation, and everything in God’s timetable has to do with the salvation of His people.  But the bounds were set according to the number of the children of Israel.  And that number may have been 200 million elect, and His salvation program continued until that last elect person was saved, and that would have happened just before God shut the door on May 21, 2011, and then we entered into the time of the end of the world and Judgment Day itself, a prolonged period of time.

But this is also a reference to the tribes of Israel.  The number of the children of Israel can be understood to relate to the number of the elect, spiritually.  But it can also relate to the number of the physical tribes of Israel.  There were twelve tribes, but the Bible actually reveals thirteen tribes.  So the world should have lasted 12,000 years, but it actually lasts (approximately) 13,000 years.  There were 11,000 years of Old Testament times.  Satan was bound for a figurative 1,000 years, but he was actually bound for the actual 1,955 years of  the church age.  So that 2,000 years brings us to 1988 and a total of 13,000 years.  Instead of 12,000 years of earth’s history, there are actually 13,000 years.  It is just like there were 12 apostles, but actually 13 apostles because the Apostle Paul was the thirteenth Apostle.  So that is the second way of understanding it.

One other thing here is that it says, “…when he separated the sons of Adam,” and that would have taken place in eternity past.  God speaks of predestination, and this same word translated as “separated” is found in Genesis 25 concerning the twin sons that Rebekah would bear.  It says in Genesis 25:23:

And JEHOVAH said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger.

There are two manner of people, as typified by Jacob and Esau.  God said, “Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated,” or the elect, and the non-elect, or the saved and the unsaved.  There are two nations and two manner of people that were separated from the bowels, and that is when God made choice before the foundation of the world.  And that is what God tells us in Romans 9:10-13:

And not only this; but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac; (For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;) It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.

The children were not yet born, having done neither good nor evil.  God made choice in order that His election program might stand.  By relating it to His election program, He is relating it to the things we read in Ephesians 1:4-5:

According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,

This is what is in view with the selection of Jacob to be loved, and Esau to be hated.  It fits in with God’s salvation program. That is when He separated the sons of Adam, and it also says in Deuteronomy 32:8:

… he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel.

He knew the number when He predestinated them, and Christ bore the sins of that certain number of people, and He paid for their sins (before the foundation of the world), and then it was just a matter of finding those elect over the course of human history.  Then through His word He applied the blood of Christ, saving them.

God knows the end from the beginning – He knew the timetable.  So it is ridiculous when people say that Christ does not know the “day or hour.”  Of course He knows.  He knows everything.  He is the One who planned it all and accomplished it all.  It is all according to the will of the Lord Jesus Christ.

So this is one of the reasons God tells us the names of the kings of Edom in our passage.  He is giving us that much information, but notice that we do not read the details like when God speaks of the kings of Israel and Judah, especially the kings of Judah.  For example, God says, “Jehoshaphat was thirty and five years old when he began to reign; and he reigned twenty and five years in Jerusalem.”  Then He tells of the next king, and how long he reigned.  We are given so much excellent time information concerning these kings, to the point that it can be laid out precisely.  And the Lord opened up this information to the understanding of Mr. Camping, and he wrote a booklet about the reign of the Hebrew kings.  But all the times and the length of reigns of all the kings are known to us.  But in Genesis 36 we just get a bare minimum of information regarding these kings of Edom.   And that is fine because God is not going to waste words.  He is not going to give us vain and empty information if it is not significantly related to the overall timeline of His salvation program.  He does not do that.

Lord willing, when we get together in our next Bible study, we are going to look at some of the other details we are given in this passage, such as some of the places.  You may have noticed them before, like Bozrah in verse 33, or Temani in verse 34, as well as some other bits of information that we will look at in our next Bible study.