The Edomite Dividend: When Earthly Blessing is a Gracious Divorce Text: Genesis 36:6-8
Introduction: Two Kinds of Success
We come now to one of those chapters in the Bible that many modern readers, in their haste, are tempted to skim. It is a genealogy, a long list of names, the descendants of Esau. It seems like a dusty appendix to the main story, a diversion from the high drama of Jacob's life. But in the economy of God, there are no throwaway lines, and there are certainly no throwaway chapters. Genesis 36 is a crucial, theological hinge. It is the formal closing of one line and the definitive clearing of the stage for the line of promise. This chapter is the record of a worldly success story, and we must learn to read it with sanctified eyes.
The world measures success in a straightforward way: wealth, power, influence, and progeny. By every one of these metrics, Esau was a staggering success. He has wives, sons, daughters, a massive household, immense herds of livestock, and he becomes the progenitor of dukes and kings. He is a self-made man who leaves Canaan and carves out a kingdom for himself in the hill country of Seir. From a purely secular standpoint, Esau is the one who "made it." Jacob, by contrast, is the one who is constantly in trouble, wrestling with God and men, limping his way toward the promise. Esau gets a kingdom quickly; Jacob gets a promise that will take centuries to fulfill.
But this is precisely the point. God often gives the consolation prize of earthly prosperity to those who are not heirs of the ultimate prize. The psalmist puzzles over this very thing, how the wicked prosper in the world. And here, in this quiet, almost anticlimactic separation, we see the outworking of God's sovereign election. This is not a hostile split; there is no fighting. It is a practical separation, a kind of gracious divorce, necessitated by the sheer abundance of God's common grace blessing on both men. But in this practical separation, a profound spiritual reality is made visible. The two seeds, the two nations that struggled in Rebekah's womb, are now formally and geographically distinct. One will be the nation of the covenant, and the other will be a nation of the world.
The Text
Then Esau took his wives and his sons and his daughters and all his household, and his livestock and all his cattle and all his acquired goods, which he had accumulated in the land of Canaan, and he went to a land away from his brother Jacob. For their possessions had become too great for them to live together, and the land where they sojourned could not sustain them because of their livestock. So Esau lived in the hill country of Seir; Esau is Edom.
(Genesis 36:6-8 LSB)
The Great Migration (v. 6)
We begin with the simple, historical record of Esau's departure.
"Then Esau took his wives and his sons and his daughters and all his household, and his livestock and all his cattle and all his acquired goods, which he had accumulated in the land of Canaan, and he went to a land away from his brother Jacob." (Genesis 36:6)
Notice the inventory. This is the manifest of a prosperous patriarch. Wives, sons, daughters, a whole household, livestock, cattle, and all his acquired goods. The text emphasizes that he had "accumulated" all this in the land of Canaan. This is important. Esau was not driven out by poverty or failure. He prospered in the very land that was promised to his brother. This is a clear display of God's common grace. God allows His sun to shine and His rain to fall on the just and the unjust. God had a quarrel with Esau concerning the covenant, but He did not withhold temporal blessings from him. In fact, He blessed him so much that it precipitated this very move.
This is a pattern we must recognize. The reprobate are not always destitute. Often, they are quite the opposite. The world is their inheritance, their portion. They seek their reward here, and God, in a sense, gives them what they want. Esau sold his birthright for a bowl of stew, and in return, God gave him a whole kingdom's worth of stew. He chose the tangible and the immediate over the spiritual and the future, and his departure from Canaan is the geographic ratification of that choice. He leaves the land of promise for a land of possession. He cashes out his chips, so to speak, and moves to a place he can call his own.
His move is "away from his brother Jacob." This is the key phrase. The narrative of Genesis has been defined by the interaction, the strife, and the reconciliation of these two brothers. Now, that story is over. They will no longer inhabit the same space. The stage is being cleared for the story of Jacob's sons and the formation of the twelve tribes of Israel. Esau's story is not unimportant, he is the father of a nation that will interact with Israel for centuries, but his role in the central drama of redemption is now concluded. He exits stage left.
A Problem of Plenty (v. 7)
The reason for this momentous separation is not animosity, but abundance. It is a logistical problem, not a personal one.
"For their possessions had become too great for them to live together, and the land where they sojourned could not sustain them because of their livestock." (Genesis 36:7 LSB)
This should ring a bell for any careful reader of Genesis. This is an exact echo of what happened between Abram and Lot. Genesis 13:6 says, "But the land could not support them while they stayed together, for their possessions were so great that they were unable to stay together." In both instances, God's blessing of material wealth forces a separation between the man of faith and the man of sight.
Lot looked up and chose the well-watered plains of the Jordan, which led him to Sodom. He chose based on what his eyes could see. Esau does the same. He sees that Canaan, as a land of sojourning, cannot support his ambitions and his vast wealth. He needs a place to put down permanent roots, a place to build his own kingdom. So he leaves the place of promise, where he must live as a stranger, for a place he can possess immediately.
This is a profound spiritual lesson. Material blessing can be a great danger. It can make a man feel that this world is his home. It can make the pilgrim mentality of a "sojourner" feel cramped and restrictive. Esau's wealth made him feel that Canaan was too small for him. He had outgrown the promise. In reality, he had simply demonstrated that his heart was not set on the promise in the first place. The promise was for a future inheritance, a heavenly city. Esau wanted his city now. The blessing of God, ironically, revealed the orientation of his heart. He loved the gifts more than the Giver and the land of sojourning more than the land of promise.
The Land of the Unchosen (v. 8)
The final verse of our text tells us where Esau went and gives us a theological summary of his identity.
"So Esau lived in the hill country of Seir; Esau is Edom." (Genesis 36:8 LSB)
Esau settles in the hill country of Seir. This is a rugged, mountainous region southeast of the Dead Sea. God explicitly states later in Deuteronomy that He gave this land to Esau as his possession (Deut. 2:5). This was Esau's inheritance. God is sovereign over all nations, not just Israel. He appoints the boundaries of their habitation. God provided for Esau. This was a real, tangible, earthly inheritance. But it was not the inheritance. It was not Canaan.
The text concludes with the stark, definitive statement: "Esau is Edom." This name, Edom, means "red." He got the name when he sold his birthright for a bowl of red stew (Gen. 25:30). His entire identity, the name of the nation that would descend from him, is forever tied to that profane act of despising his birthright. He is the man of the red stew. He is the man who traded the eternal for the temporary. Every time the name Edom is mentioned, it is a reminder of his foundational choice.
And so the separation is complete. Jacob, the heel-grabber, the supplanter, remains in the land of promise as a sojourner, clinging to a promise that seems distant. Esau, the mighty hunter, the successful rancher, leaves the land of promise to become a king in his own land. One lives by faith, the other by sight. One receives the blessing, the other receives the consolation prize. And God orchestrates it all through the mundane pressures of animal husbandry and limited grazing land.
Conclusion: Your Edom or Your Canaan
This passage forces a question upon us. What is our inheritance? Are we living for Edom or for Canaan? It is very easy for Christians, particularly in a prosperous nation, to become functional Edomites. We can become so comfortable, so successful, so "blessed" with earthly goods that the land of our sojourning begins to feel like home. Our possessions can become too great, not for the land to support, but for our pilgrim hearts to sustain. We can accumulate so much stuff in this world that we have no real longing for the next.
Esau's move was not, on the surface, a sinful act. It was a practical business decision. It was amicable. But it was the result of a heart that had long ago abandoned the covenant. His priorities were earthly. His treasure was on earth, and so his heart went there, to the hill country of Seir.
God's election is what makes the difference. "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated" (Romans 9:13). This doesn't mean God was filled with petty animosity toward Esau. It is covenant language. It means God chose Jacob for His own special, saving purposes, and He did not choose Esau. He gave Esau a kingdom, but He gave Jacob Himself. That is always the great divide.
Therefore, we must not envy the prosperity of the Edomites. We must not be discouraged when the world seems to be winning, when those who despise the birthright seem to hold all the cards, build all the kingdoms, and possess all the land. Their portion is in this life. But we, like Jacob, are sojourners. We are looking for a city whose builder and maker is God. Let God's earthly blessings be fuel for our pilgrimage, not an anchor in a foreign port. Let us hold our possessions loosely, lest they become too great and convince us to leave Canaan for the comfortable hills of Seir.