Over the years I’ve found some passages in the Bible as extremely boring. You know them: Genesis 5, Genesis 10, the first ten chapters of the book of Numbers, 1 and 2 Chronicles, Ezra and even the opening of Matthew and Luke. They contain genealogical lists of names, many of which are too hard for us to pronounce like Oholibamah. It sounds like a former president! Anyway, it’s much easier just to acknowledge that they’re there and move on! But God didn’t make me that way, darn it! I have to ask why. Why? Why? God, what is the purpose of all these genealogies? Let me mention some things. First of all, the lists, especially those in the line of David have been verified as historically accurate. It supports the fact that these are real people who really lived as recorded in the Bible. It helps dispel the myth that the bible is just a myth. Furthermore, genealogies focus on the importance of the family. The stories in the Bible are about families, not so much individuals. Also, only those of certain genealogies could perform certain functions such as Aaron’s offspring were priests and Levi’s offspring’s were servants in the religious sense. Only through Judah could the ruling scepter be passed. Much more could be said but let me focus on the genealogy of Genesis 36.
Genesis chapter 36 lists the genealogy from Esau, Jacob’s brother. Why would we be interested in that? It’s difficult to wade through all these names as they’re found in this chapter. By the way this is the longest chapter in the Bible!! What was God thinking? It’s hard enough for me to keep track of my own genealogy even with the technology and the help of the Danish Heritage Society I can’t trace my line back before about 1850 when Louis Larsen came from Copenhagen to the United States. Generally speaking, the listings of Esau’s and, to a greater extent, Ishmael’s descendants have nothing to do with the flow of covenant promises (after all, all these descendants were born to pagan wives). Yet, the author wanted to show bridges that tied the past to the future. The genealogy of Esau in Chapter 36 contains the 8 kings of Edom. Edom is Esau’s land and Esau’s descendants are the Edomites. As superfluous as these lists seem to me, I can’t help but notice that their names indicate the first fulfillment of the promise made to Abraham of kings ultimately coming from him (see 17:16), a promise subsequently given to Jacob (see 35:11). Also detailed in that promise was the fulfillment of the prophecy of “two nations” given to Rebekah (see 25:23–26).
Furthermore, the relationship between Esau’s descendants, the Edomites, and Jacob’s descendants the Israelites will be ongoing. When Moses Led Israel out of slavery, Esau’s descendants would not permit them to pass through their land. And from generation to generation the animosity between Esau’s descendants and Israel’s descendants continued. The reputation of the naming of all the successive kings in Edom is interesting because the historical hatred between these two finds its final expression in the confrontation of two Great kings. One was a descendant of Esau. His name was Herod Antipas. He was the son of Herod the Great who, as King of the Jews, slaughtered the infants in Bethlehem to protect his throne. The second king is Jesus Christ, the descendant of Jacob, who was born King of the Jews, and was called King of Kings. Two kings. One, the descendant of Esau, the representative of those who chose the temporal over the spiritual. The other, the descendant of Jacob, the one who ruled over a spiritual kingdom. When Jesus said, you cannot serve two masters, I wonder if this was in his mind. We all have the same choice. We can trade our spiritual heritage for a bowl of “red” stew. Don’t do it!