Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #19 in Genesis 36, and we will read Genesis 36:33-43:

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. And these are the names of the dukes that came of Esau, according to their families, after their places, by their names; duke Timnah, duke Alvah, duke Jetheth, Duke Aholibamah, duke Elah, duke Pinon, Duke Kenaz, duke Teman, duke Mibzar, Duke Magdiel, duke Iram: these be the dukes of Edom, according to their habitations in the land of their possession: he is Esau the father of the Edomites.

We are continuing to consider some of the things the Lord has spoken here in Genesis 36, and we are going to look at a couple of things that were mentioned which I am sure you will find familiar.  That is, you have read of them in other places.  Hopefully, as we go through this chapter, you and I should become much more familiar with the nation of Edom.  We know there are various ways of referring to Edom, and Esau himself is Edom.  We also find Bozrah, and Teman are sometimes used to represent the nation of Edom.  By the way, the word “Bozrah” is Strong’s #1224, and it comes from Strong’s #1219 which means to “be fenced,” “to fortify,” or “to have a wall.”  This would have been a fenced city of some kind, a good place for a king that would offer protection.  Bozrah is mentioned in Jeremiah 49, and it is in a passage of a chapter where God pronounces judgment on Edom.  I will read Jeremiah 49:7:

Concerning Edom, thus saith JEHOVAH of hosts; Is wisdom no more in Teman? is counsel perished from the prudent? is their wisdom vanished?

The land of Temani in Genesis 36 is the same as Teman.  Teman means “south.”  It comes from a word that means “south,” and our word “Temani” in Genesis 36 is also translated as “south.”  Then it say sin Jeremiah 49:8-12:

Flee ye, turn back, dwell deep, O inhabitants of Dedan; for I will bring the calamity of Esau upon him, the time that I will visit him. If grapegatherers come to thee, would they not leave some gleaning grapes? if thieves by night, they will destroy till they have enough. But I have made Esau bare, I have uncovered his secret places, and he shall not be able to hide himself: his seed is spoiled, and his brethren, and his neighbours, and he is not. Leave thy fatherless children, I will preserve them alive; and let thy widows trust in me. For thus saith JEHOVAH; Behold, they whose judgment was not to drink of the cup have assuredly drunken; and art thou he that shall altogether go unpunished? thou shalt not go unpunished, but thou shalt surely drink of it.

That language should sound familiar because it is very similar to what we read in Jeremiah 25, a chapter in which the Lord dictated to Jeremiah those that would drink of the cup of His wrath, as we read in Jeremiah 25:17-18:

Then took I the cup at JEHOVAH'S hand, and made all the nations to drink, unto whom JEHOVAH had sent me: To wit, Jerusalem, and the cities of Judah…

So judgment began at the house of God (the New Testament churches), and then a little further down we read in Jeremiah 25:21:

Edom, and Moab, and the children of Ammon,

Then it continues with a long list of nations.  So Edom is also mentioned as those called upon by God to drink of the cup of His wrath.  Then it says in Jeremiah 25:28-29:

And it shall be, if they refuse to take the cup at thine hand to drink, then shalt thou say unto them, Thus saith JEHOVAH of hosts; Ye shall certainly drink. For, lo, I begin to bring evil on the city which is called by my name, and should ye be utterly unpunished? Ye shall not be unpunished: for I will call for a sword upon all the inhabitants of the earth, saith JEHOVAH of hosts.

Going back to where we were reading in Jeremiah 49, let me read again in Jeremiah 49:12:

For thus saith JEHOVAH; Behold, they whose judgment was not to drink of the cup have assuredly drunken; and art thou he that shall altogether go unpunished? thou shalt not go unpunished, but thou shalt surely drink of it.

That helps us to understand that what we are reading here about Edom has to do with judgment on the entire world.  The language of “not going unpunished” is language the Lord uses in Jeremiah 25 to refer to the nations because His point is that if He has given the cup of His wrath (judgment) to His own people, should the nations that are not His people utterly go unpunished?  No, they will not go unpunished, and they will surely drink of that cup as well.  So Edom is Esau, and remember that “Edom” is the same word as “Adam” or “man.”  Unsaved man will not go unpunished.  They will, indeed, drink of the wrath of God.

Then it goes on to say in Jeremiah 49:13:

For I have sworn by myself, saith JEHOVAH, that Bozrah shall become a desolation, a reproach, a waste, and a curse; and all the cities thereof shall be perpetual wastes.

Four awful things are listed: a desolation, a reproach, a waste and a curse.  The number “four” points to universality because Bozrah is synonymous with Edom (Adam or man), so the judgment on Edom is the judgment on all the nations in the world.  So that is why the Lord mentions those four things.  So Bozrah is also a type and figure of the world.  Then it says in Jeremiah 49:14:

I have heard a rumour from JEHOVAH, and an ambassador is sent unto the heathen, saying, Gather ye together, and come against her, and rise up to the battle.

(This sounds like what we read in Joel 3.)  Then it says in Jeremiah 49:15-18:

For, lo, I will make thee small among the heathen, and despised among men. Thy terribleness hath deceived thee, and the pride of thine heart, O thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, that holdest the height of the hill: though thou shouldest make thy nest as high as the eagle, I will bring thee down from thence, saith JEHOVAH. Also Edom shall be a desolation: every one that goeth by it shall be astonished, and shall hiss at all the plagues thereof. As in the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighbour cities thereof, saith JEHOVAH, no man shall abide there, neither shall a son of man dwell in it.

The reference to “no man” and “a son of man” is Christ Himself; He is not in the world in the sense of there being a possibility of salvation, so it is as though He is not here.

The verses in Jeremiah 49:14-16 match in a very similar way to things we read in the book of Obadiah.  It says in Obadiah 1:1-4:

The vision of Obadiah. Thus saith the Lord JEHOVAH concerning Edom; We have heard a rumour from JEHOVAH, and an ambassador is sent among the heathen, Arise ye, and let us rise up against her in battle. Behold, I have made thee small among the heathen: thou art greatly despised. The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee, thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high; that saith in his heart, Who shall bring me down to the ground? Though thou exalt thyself as the eagle, and though thou set thy nest among the stars, thence will I bring thee down, saith JEHOVAH.

This also points to God’s wrath upon the people of the world, especially the unsaved within the congregations, or the Gentiles that Satan brought into the churches to infiltrate and overcome the churches during God’s judgment on the churches.  But Edom also represents the whole world, and that is why as we follow the name “Bozrah,” we can also go to Isaiah 34, another chapter that describes the wrath of God upon the world.  Just read the first couple of verses, in Isaiah 34:1-4:

Come near, ye nations, to hear; and hearken, ye people: let the earth hear, and all that is therein; the world, and all things that come forth of it. For the indignation of JEHOVAH is upon all nations, and his fury upon all their armies: he hath utterly destroyed them, he hath delivered them to the slaughter. Their slain also shall be cast out, and their stink shall come up out of their carcases, and the mountains shall be melted with their blood. And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll: and all their host shall fall down, as the leaf falleth off from the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig tree.

Again, God is describing the final judgment of the world.  You know, the Bible is difficult to read until we begin to understand various “types and figures,” and as we understand the spiritual definition of words.  So now we should be seeing that “Bozrah” is synonymous with “Edom,” and “Edom” is “Adam,” or “mankind.”  Then it says in Isaiah 34:5-6:

For my sword shall be bathed in heaven: behold, it shall come down upon Idumea, and upon the people of my curse, to judgment. The sword of JEHOVAH is filled with blood, it is made fat with fatness, and with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams: for JEHOVAH hath a sacrifice in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Idumea.

Again, we see Bozrah, where JEHOVAH has a sacrifice, and it is speaking of Judgment Day.  By the way, what does “Idumea” mean?   This word is found only four times in the Old Testament – twice here – and one time in the New Testament in Mark 3:8.  Idumea is Edom.  So is Idumea another place like Teman and Bozrah that represents, or is synonymous with, Edom?  No.  The word “Idumea” itself is the word translated as “Edom.”  It is Strong’s #123, and it is translated four times as “Idumea” in the Old Testament, but it is translated dozens of times as Edom or Edomite.  In other words, if you look up the word “Edom” in numerous Scriptures, you will find it is Strong’s #123, and that is the same Hebrew word that the King James translators translated as “Idumea.”  Why did they do that?  I have no idea, but they did, and God allowed it because it complicates the Bible even further.  And these complications, from God’s perspective, served to hide truth, and it is the glory of God to hide a word, so it glorifies Him. 

So we could read this verse to say, “For my sword shall be bathed in heaven: behold, it shall come down upon Edom, and upon the people of my curse, to judgment.”  Edom are the people of God’s curse: “Jacob have I loved, but Esau I have hated.”  Again, it says in Isaiah 34:6:

The sword of JEHOVAH is filled with blood, it is made fat with fatness, and with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams: for JEHOVAH hath a sacrifice in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Idumea (Edom).

And the sacrifice is the death of the wicked in their “atoning death.”  It is just like on the Day of Atonement when sacrifice was offered for sin in order to point to what the Lord had to do in order to make payment for sin.  There must be death, and the death of the sacrificial animal pointed to the death of Christ.  But the other side of that is the (unregenerate) sinner must pay for his own sin.  Atonement is payment, and in the Day of Judgment the wicked make payment for their sin, which is death.  They are offering up themselves, as it were, for the sacrifice to pay for their own sins, but they will remain dead forever.  That is why God’s sword is filled with blood.  That is why we have all this language that relates to sacrifice.   There is “a sacrifice in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Idumea.”

Let us look at one last verse that I am sure you are familiar with in Isaiah 63:1:

Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah?...

Do you see how Edom and Bozrah are often used together?  Again it says in Isaiah 63:1-3:

Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? this that is glorious in his apparel, travelling in the greatness of his strength? I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save.  Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth in the winefat? I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with me: for I will tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury; and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment.

Another reason God speaks of a sacrifice in Bozrah in the Day of Judgment is because that is how He likened the sacrifice of Christ – He came from “Edom,” or from “man.”  The Lord Jesus was suited with a “body” that bore the sins of His people at the foundation of the world.  He became “man,” and then He offered up Himself as a sacrifice, and He tread the winepress alone, and so forth.  So it is related to mankind, as the reference to Bozrah ties in with Edom, and Edom to man.

Lord willing, we will look at a couple more things we covered back in Genesis 36 in our next study.  We are close to closing out this chapter, and I hope you can join us when we get together in our next Bible study.