God's Goodness-Enough To Go Around

Take your Bibles now, if you would, and let's turn to Genesis chapter 36. Genesis chapter 36. Let us hear God as He speaks to us in this chapter. These are the generations of Esau, that is, Edom. Esau took his wives from the Canaanites, Adah, the daughter of Elan, the Hittite, Oholibah, the daughter of Anna, the daughter of Zibion, the Hivite, and Basimath, Ishmael's daughter, the sister of Nebaioth, And Adah bore to Esau Eliphaz, Basemat bore, Ruel, Ohilabama bore Jerush, Yalom, and Korah.

These are the sons of Esau who were born to him in the land of Canaan. And Esau took his wives, his sons, his daughters, and all the members of his household, his livestock, all his beasts, and all his property that he had acquired in the land of Canaan. He went into a land away from his brother Jacob, for their possessions were too great for them to dwell together.

The land of their sojournings could not support them because of their livestock. So Esau settled in the hill country of Seir. Esau is Edom. These are the generations of Esau, the father of the Edomites, in the hill country of Seir. These are the names of Esau's sons, Eliphaz, the son of Adah, the wife of Esau, Reuel. the son of Basamat, the wife of Esau, the sons of Eliphaz were Timan, Omar, Zepho, Gatham, and Kanaz.

Timna was a concubine of Eliphaz, Esau's son. She bore Amalek to Eliphaz. These are the sons of Adah, Esau's wife. These are the sons of Ruel, Nathan, Zerah, Shammah, and Mizah. These are the sons of Basamat, Esau's wife. These are the sons of Aholibamah, the daughter of Zivana, the daughter of Zibion, Esau's wife.

She bore to Esau, Yerushalem, and Korah. These are the chiefs of the sons of Esau. The sons of Elahaz, the firstborn of Esau. The chiefs, Temnon, Omar, Zepho, Karnaz, Korah, Gatham, and Amalek. These are the chiefs of Eliphaz in the land of Edom. These are the sons of Adah.

These are the sons of Ruel, Esau's sons. The chiefs Nahat, Zerah, Shammah, and Mizah. These are the chiefs of Ruel in the land of Edom. These are the sons of Basemath, Esau's wife. These are the sons of Aholibamah, Esau's wife. The chiefs Jeush, Yalom, and Korah.

These are the chiefs born of Ohelabama, the daughter of Anna, Esau's wife. These are the sons of Esau, that is, Edom, and these are their chiefs. These are the sons of Ser, the Horite, the inhabitants of the land, Lotan, Shebal, Zibion, Anna, Deshan, Ezar, and Deshan. These are the chiefs of the Horites, the sons of Ser in the land of Edom. The sons of Lotan were Horai and Hamam, and Lotan's sister was Timnah.

These are the sons of Shobal, Aldna, Manatta, Ebel, Shephu, and Onam. These are the sons of Zibion, Aya, and Ana. He is the Ana who found the hot springs in the wilderness as he pastured the donkeys of Zibion the father. These are the children of Ana, Dishan, and Ohalabama, the daughter of Ana. These are the sons of Dishan, Hamdan, Eshban, Athron, and Cheran.

These are the sons of Ezar, Bilhans, Avon, and Achan. These are the sons of Dishan, Uz, and Aran. These are the chiefs of the Horites, the chiefs of Lotan, Shobal, Zibion, Anna, Dishan, Ezar, and Dishan. These are the chiefs of the Horites, chief by chief in the land of Seir. These are the kings who reigned in the land of Edom before any king reigned over the Israelites.

Bela, the son of Beor, reigned in Edom, the name of his city being Dinhabah. Bela died, and Yobab, the son of Zerah of Basra, reigned in his place. Yobab died, and Husham of the land of the Temanites reigned in his place. Husham died, and Hadad, the son of Bedad, who had defeated Midian in the country of Moab, reigned in his place, the name of his city being Avit.

Hadad died, and Samia of Masraqah reigned in his place. Samlah died and Shaul of Rehoboth on the Euphrates reigned in his place Shaul died and Baal Hanan the son of Akbar reigned in his place Baal Hanan the son of Akbar died and Hadar reigned in his place the name of his city being Pow his wife's name was Mehedabel the daughter of Matred daughter of Mezahab these are the names of the chiefs of Ezah according to their clans and their dwelling places by their names, the chiefs Timnah, Alvah, Jetheth, Aholibamah, Elah, Pinan, Kenaz, Timan, Mibzar, Magdiel, and Aram. These are the chiefs of Edom, that is Esau, the father of Edom, according to their dwelling places in the land of their possession.

Jacob lived in the land of his father's sojournings in the land of Canaan. Let's pray. Father open our eyes now to the richness of your word we're thankful for your word we pray now that you would speak to us and help us so that we can serve you and love you and see the worth of our Savior the Lord Jesus We ask this in his name Amen Already you're saying to yourself, what kind of a sermon is he going to preach?

I know that's what you're thinking because when I come to these genealogies, that's the question I ask. And we always think when we come across these scriptures, oh man, I'm just going to skip over this. I'm just going to read it as fast as I can, get through it. I've got to read every word you say to yourself, because I know I've got to read the whole Bible.

And so you skip through it as fast as you can. You read every word that's there. And yet the Apostle Paul says to us in 2 Timothy 3, verses 16 and 17, all Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, convicting, correcting, and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. And all scripture must include the genealogies.

There is something for us here, so let's take some time to try to understand it. Before we do that, let's review the pattern of the genealogies in this book. Recall that Genesis is composed of ten books. They're called Toledotes. That's the Hebrew word for generations. There are ten of them, and all ten of these compose the book of Genesis.

Every book starts out this way. These are the generations of. Those are the ten markers all the way through Genesis that gives you this book, this book, this book, this book. The book of Jacob, that is the book that tells us of Jacob's life, begins with this statement. These are the generations of Isaac. The book containing Joseph's story begins in chapter 37, verse 2, which says, these are the generations of Jacob.

And so, between the story of Jacob and the story of Joseph, we have the book of Esau. And, I'm sorry, the book of Esau's descendants. These are the generations of Esau. telling about his descendants and the birth of Edom, a nation that comes from him. Now remember as well the pattern of the two lines. You remember that you often have two competing lines, or maybe even more, of descendants.

We've seen this all the way through Genesis. You have Cain and Seth. Then you follow Cain's line for a little bit, and then Seth's line all the way down to Noah. Then you have the generations of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. So we hear about Japheth and Ham first, and then we follow the line of Shem, which goes all the way down then to Nahor. Then we have Abraham, Nahor, and Haran.

And we hear about those two genealogies, and then we follow that one line. That's the line of God's choosing, the line of God's elect, the line that gives us the history of salvation. The one that has little to do with the history of salvation, we hear a little bit about it, and it's God. And then we follow the line that tells us about how God is working.

It takes center stage and tells the story. And that's what's happening here. Before we get to Joseph, we've got to hear about this one line of Esau. What happened to Esau and his descendants? What can we learn about God in this short book of Esau's descendants? The non-elect line.

The line that isn't chosen by God. What could that be? Here's what I believe it is. Here's what I believe it is. Here you find that God blesses and showers his goodness even on the non-elect people of this world. God showers his good gifts and his blessings even on the people who care nothing for him now before we look at that let's or as we look at that the first of all we want to see is the recipients of God's goodness Esau is a marvelous picture of those who receive blessings from God And here's what I want you to see.

God is good to sensuous, rebellious people. The fact that Esau is that way can be found in verses 1 through 5. And there we read about what does the writer point this to? He points this to the wives that he took. He's saying something about his character. Esau contracts his own marriages with Canaanite women in direct opposition to God's covenant with Abraham.

You remember in Genesis chapter 15 that God says to Abraham, your descendants are going to leave here for four generations. Then they're going to come back and they're going to destroy the Amorites, he says, whose iniquity will have reached its fullness by that time. And so the idea here is don't get involved with the Canaanites. They are wicked people deserving of the judgment of God.

But for Esau, that doesn't make any difference. He's going to satisfy his appetites. He certainly knew about grandpa's efforts to prevent his dad from marrying a Canaanite. Isaac, he sent back to the old land to get a non-Canaanite wife for Isaac. He signals his lack of commitment to God by the choosing of his wives. The attitude is confirmed finally when we read earlier, you remember, when he finds out the heartache that his Canaanite wives are causing his parents, he goes and gets a daughter of Ishmael, Uncle Ishmael, and marries her.

But she's not from the line of God's people. And again, he chooses the rejected natural seed of Abraham. What's the point? God showers blessings on people who live like Esau who live for the moment people who do not reflect how their lives or do not reflect on how their actions line up with God Word people who live for the immediate gratification of their appetites.

Those are the kinds of people that God blesses. notice this as well God gives his kind blessings to faithless blind people look at verses six through eight verses six through eight it says here that Esau moves out of the land of promise he leaves Canaan now before now we saw already that Esau is a nomad right he's a nomad who lives by the sword before Jacob ever returned to the land he's already started making his movement into the land of Seir which would be east of what we consider Palestine or Israel today he had already started his movement there you remember when Jacob's coming home we already know that he's already started to move into Seir but he's not there entirely he's not there entirely now he did not have to move out of the promised land when their livestock became unsustainable. He could have moved north to Shechem within the boundaries of the promised land. But with Jacob's arrival, he vacates the land of his fathers completely.

Now what's the point? The writer wants you to see a pattern here, a confirmed lack of faith. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who stake their fortunes on God's promises are always seen as coming back to the land, right? Abraham goes to Egypt. He comes back. Isaac goes to where Abimelech is.

He comes back to Gerar. He comes back. Jacob goes all the way to Padamaran. And what happens? He comes back. They're always coming back to the land of promise, the land that God had promised them.

But the non-elect, those who have not been chosen by God. Those who are not his live by sight. They don't live by the promises of God. They're focused on the social and the political and or the economic ends. And they don't live by faith. Okay.

And because they don't live by faith, they're always moving away from the land. Now, remember, we've seen this earlier in this book. Remember Lot and Abraham, they're in the country. The land can't sustain both their flocks. God has prospered. Lot, as well as Abraham.

And so Abraham says we need to split up. What does Lot do? Lot looks merely at the economic advantages and the political advantages that come with moving towards the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Remember that? He's an Abraham. So here is Lot focused on the economic and political advantages as compared to Abraham who lives by faith.

You remember Abraham said, Lot, you make the choice, which is totally not their culture. He's the older one. He's the wiser one. He should, by nature, get the first choice. But he says, Lot, you choose it. Because Abraham lives by faith.

Lot does not at that point. Neither does Esau. Neither does Esau. He's focused on the immediate. So Esau continues in his faithless ways, living with a focus on worldly advantage as opposed to the promises of God. now obviously all the irreverent sensuous faithless people died with Esau right no you have your neighbor who lives for immediate gratification by living a life of drugs and alcohol so that he can escape the hardships and the troubles of life he wants gratification that's all he wants down the road is another another friend of yours who is totally a political animal because he's so involved in politics and if his man's not elected he despairs why because he believes the salvation of his community comes in economic policy not through the promises of god you have co-workers who have no other end but to live for pleasure and the only reason why they're really working is so they can enjoy the weekend.

They can have the money to finance their fun and their pleasure. And of course, there's always the sexual shenanigans that are going on all around us in life and in the media. We see irreverent people caring nothing for God's commands, unthinking people who aren't necessarily shaking their fist at God because God's not even on their radar. Right? They're irreverent.

They're unthinking. They're sensuous. They live for pleasure and fun and nothing more is important in life but to just have a great time. So, does God bring down his punishment on people like that? Does he punish them daily for their sins? Does he give them lives of unrelieved misery so that they'll learn their lessons?

Does he? No, he doesn't. Notice what he does with Esau. And here you see the nature of God's goodness. First you see the recipients, now you see the nature of God's goodness. God, first of all, blesses Esau with abundant material and family prosperity.

Look at verse 6. Notice all the things. That's the first thing that struck me as I began studying this passage was verse 6. All right. Notice what it says. Then Esau took his wives, his sons his daughters and all the members of his household his livestock all his beasts and all his property that he had acquired in the land of Canaan Look at how Esau has been incredibly blessed Look at his wives, sons, daughters, members of his household.

Not only does he have all kinds of financial and possessions, finances and possessions, but he has an incredible family as well. Are rebels and sinners always poor and miserable? No. You see them. They enjoy the laughter of children, the companionship of a loving spouse, the warmth and comfort of a house when the snow is blowing and the snow is piling up and they're in that house warm and comfortable eating popcorn with their family.

They have delightful times with their grandchildren. They know the satisfaction of doing a job well done. They have a vehicle that allows them to go all over the country and see the beauty of their nation. They have money to buy that place in the country so they can sit out in the backyard and enjoy the moon and the stars at night. They don't live miserable, wretched lives, do they?

Is such prosperity only the possession of God's people? No. No, obviously not. Obviously not. Notice as well, God blesses Esau with an advance in his status. Verse 9.

These are the generations of Esau, the father of the Edomites in the hill country of Seir. God takes one man and makes a nation of him. He makes a nation of Esau. please remember what God promised Abraham turn back to turn back to chapter 17 chapter 17 verse 4 then Abraham fell on his face and God said to him behold my covenant is with you and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations.

I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings will come from you. Esau is blessed as a man turned from a single person into an entire nation. And you know what's interesting? Here's what's interesting. the sons of the sons of Jacob are how many? 12 the sons of Ishmael are 12 and you will note here that the immediate sons of Esau come up to 12 by the way 12 seems to be an important number in scripture but there the idea is yeah he's blessed Abraham He's got his great-grandsons.

There's 12 of them. But guess what? Ishmael also has 12. Esau does too. Here's Esau with the nation by God's blessing. And it's interesting to me that Esau has this blessing because of a promise made to another.

A promise made to his grandpa. Not necessarily to Esau. But he's the recipient of the blessings of that promise. Notice this. Esau receives from God the blessings of kings and tribal chiefs. Look at verses 15 through 19.

All right, you've got a list of all these chiefs, chiefs of clans and so forth. And then you come to 31 through 43. These are the kings who reigned in the land of Edom. and I will not put you through the torture of reading through those paragraphs again. But you will notice that chiefs and kings come from Esau. Well, what's so great about that? I'll tell you what.

If Henry Parker, if I was able to watch Henry Parker walk into the Oval Office, what do you think that would do for Grandpa, right? Wow, that's really a blessing, right? Well, look at Esau. He's got all these tribal chieftains. He's got all these, eventually, all these kings. Why?

Remember what God said to Abraham in Genesis chapter 17. Not only a multitude of nations will come from you, but what? Kings. Kings will come from you. And what's interesting here, too, is that Edom becomes a powerful nation even before Israel achieves its greatness. you see that in verses 31 through 43 now i don't want to get into i don't want to cause any confusion but verses 31 through 43 were evidently inserted into the narrative during the time of david or solomon because then you know that's when they had their kings what's the point though what is the point the point is that while israel was still a loose confederation of these tribes who didn't get along with one another, who were led by judges here and there and everywhere.

During that time, Edom had already gained national distinction by having its own kings. God had blessed Edom greatly by giving him a nation. So you note, God not only gives Esau material and family prosperity, not only a nation and not only kings and rulers but he also gives him a land. Verse 20. Verse 20. As I read through this chapter and part of studying Scripture.

Flock, pay attention to this now because we're doing this in our flock. Observe. Always observe. Always ask why. Here's a question that occurred to me. Why do they have the genealogy of the Horites here?

See, the Horites, beginning in verse 20 and going through verse 30, are no relation to Esau. They're a different people. They're the original inhabitants of the land that Esau moves to. all right why is that there i'll tell you why because those horites no longer occupy the land because esau's descendants have obviously displaced them consider this the original audience that hears this story that hears this genealogy and probably the one who read it to them the first time did not stumble over one name alright the original audience who first heard this were on their way to a land where they were going to displace the inhabitants they're already on the way to a land where they were going to displace the inhabitants and what they hear is God has already done that for Esau the faithless sensuous man God has already given in him a land.

If you look over Deuteronomy 20, or I'm sorry, Deuteronomy chapter 2, it makes that explicit. God gave him this land. Deuteronomy 2, beginning in the last part of verse 20, Raphael formerly lived there, but the Ammonites called them Zamzumim. How would you like to be known as a Zomzumim. Anyway, but the Ammonites called them Zomzumim, a people great and many and tall as the Anakim.

But the Lord destroyed them before the Ammonites and they dispossessed them and settled in their place as he did for the people of Esau who live in Seir when he destroyed the Horites before them and they dispossessed them and settled in their place even to this day. It's explicitly stated God gave that land of the Horites to Esau's descendants. God blessed him with the land.

Please take careful notice that God did this for those who are outside of the covenant of promise. Can you comprehend the vast sea, the almost limitless ocean of the goodness of God? Are you getting a glimpse of that here? He loves. He cares for. He abundantly blesses people who care nothing for Him.

I want you to consider this scenario for a moment let's say you have a number of children they're yours and you provide for them and they care nothing for the rules that you lay down in your household they don't care anything about your rules in fact the only time they even going to obey them is when they think they might gain something from it I better obey mom and dad that way I can go to grandpa for a little while Most of the time they known for their flagrant disobedience and rebellion and hatred for the rules that you make In fact, they care nothing for you and they ignore you as much as they possibly can. But they'll yell for you when they get in trouble. That's when they'll care for you, when they get in trouble.

They want you to rescue them. And work? Well, they sit in front of the television all day long watching Netflix while they eat their ice cream with candy bars thrown in for good measure. And guess what? When they do find themselves in difficulty, you know what they do? They blame you for it.

Right? Now those are the kind of children that you just want to shower with gifts. You want to give them the best car you can buy, the best clothes. You want to take them on great vacations. You want to hug them and hold them and spend every moment of your waking time with them. You want to give them the best food and the most expensive, finest education anyone can offer.

That's what they move you to do, right? You go, no, not really. In fact, you say, are you kidding? I don't even know if I'd want to spend time with children like that. They don't deserve it. Exactly right.

They don't deserve it. Esau didn't deserve a bit of what he got. Not a bit. Yet that is what God did for Esau. And that is what God does to the rebellious, ungrateful people, children of this world. He showers them with good things.

He blesses them. He cares for those who care nothing for him. What you see here is the grace of God's goodness. It's all of grace. why was Esau the recipient of so many marvelous blessings of kings and rulers of a nation of family and possessions and a land why? there's only one answer God's gracious because God wanted to do it because God wanted to be kind to him out of his very being God was gracious to him he gave him all those good things even though he didn't deserve one of them why does anyone experience any good from God?

How is it that your co-worker, who is an atheist, has a wife who loves him like he's the last man in the world? And how is it that your neighbor, who is a violent man, has a really nice house. And why is it that that farmer who is so arrogant and so cantankerous that nobody in town hardly likes him has good crops year after year after year? And why is it that your boss, who has no patience with anyone, who will stab anyone in the back in order to climb the corporate ladder How is it that he goes home and has a marvelous time with his grandchildren God they don deserve any of this good stuff that you giving them God, they don't deserve it.

Can't you burn that house down maybe once? Can't you give that guy some marital problems? Right? Can't you make his crops fail maybe just one year? God, what's going on here? It's God's grace.

This is God's common grace. What do I mean when I use that term common grace? Here's what I mean. God's grace is given to all men everywhere in the good gifts that he gives them. It's a common grace. It's for everybody.

God is gracious to everybody in this way. it's grace because no one deserves any good gift from God and yet he showers them with blessings the question people often raise is this how can a loving God have all this tragedy and horror in the world and when someone asks that question assuming that they're not haven't just lost someone or something okay if someone's just asking you that question here's what you say That's the wrong question to ask. The question you need to be asking is this. How is it that with all our wickedness we have anything good from God?

God's common grace is shed abroad. It has been shed abroad for century after century, millennia after millennia. God has poured out his gifts on all men everywhere. Because that's the kind of God that he is. He's good. but you know what God is not satisfied with such extraordinary expressions of his undeserved goodness no as a matter of fact he even goes further than that you know what he does he sends his son the Lord Jesus Christ into the world Jesus is nothing less than the greatest expression of the goodness of God.

Everyone sitting here this morning knows the goodness of God. Everyone in this place has experienced God's common grace. All of you have had benefits for years from a God who gives you them because you're good, not because you deserve them. You know the kindness and the grace of God. every human being knows the kindness and the grace of God you didn't have to do anything to earn him being kind and gracious to you he's shown you all these years out of his out of his grace in fact you've done plenty to show that you don't deserve any of it and so now God takes one step further though he offers up his son for people who don't care for him he holds before you Jesus and says look I been good to you and gracious to you and I blessed you year after year after year after year You know my grace You know my kindness You know I am good Now look here.

Here is my son. My goodness goes beyond just giving you things. My goodness goes to your heart. you need someone to deal with your guilt and your shame you need to be forgiven and i'm good and i send you a savior and when you are tempted to blame god for all the pain and hardship that you've experienced remember this your pain and hardship is nothing compared to what god suffered Do you realize He crushed His own Son so that you could be His friend?

Just think about that. He gave up and then killed His own Son out of His goodness to deal with the issue that separates you from Him. That is the goodness of God. All of you here, without exception, have experienced the kindness and the goodness of God. But not everyone here has embraced His goodness that He gives in His Son. You know God is good.

You know God is gracious. You know it. He's been that way to you for years. but now he says to you here's my greatest good gift embrace him in faith and find that I'm even better than you ever imagined Father thank you for your word thank you for the story of Esau who is a mirror reflection of ourselves. Father, thank you that out of your goodness and grace, all men everywhere experience good things from you.

But Father, I pray now that you would help us to see that greatest expression of good and grace in the Lord Jesus. Father, for those who are here who have never said to Him, Lord Jesus, I believe that Your payment is sufficient. I entrust myself to You. I ask for Your mercy for those who have never said that. I pray today that they would see the magnificent goodness of you sending your son and would embrace Jesus by faith.

Thank you. Lord, thank you just doesn't seem adequate for all the goodness and all the grace you've showered upon us. Help us to love you even more. We pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.