SPEAKER_03 0:07

Genesis 36 is the kind of chapter most of us skip after the high drama of Bethel, the grief of Rachel's death, and the passing of the patriarch Isaac. We hit a wall of names, wives, sons, chiefs, and kings. It feels like a pause in the main story. But in the architecture of Genesis, this chapter is doing something vital. It shows us what happened to Esau. Now Esau is the man who traded his birthright for a bowl of stew. He's the one who wept with a great and exceeding bitter cry when the blessing passed him by. Yet Genesis 36 reveals that Esau did not vanish into the desert to die. He actually flourished quite well. He became a nation. Chapter 36, verse 8. So Esau settled in the hill country of Zayr. Now there is a profound lesson here in what the theologians call the common grace. Common grace. God did not forget Esau. Despite his disregard for the covenant, he was a son of Isaac, and God's kindness extends even to those outside the line of promise. Families, culture, and social order are a genuine gift from a gracious creator. Genesis records Esau's prosperity with a straight face. There is no mockery here. Only the reality of a life that looks by all worldly standards like a massive success. Then comes the sentence that stops the reader cold. Genesis 36, verse 31. These are the kings who reigned in the land of Edom before any king reigned over the Israelites. Do you see the irony? The irony is piercing. Edom had an established monarchy while Jacob's family was still a fractured group of nomads. Esau had a palace, Jacob had a tent, Esau had political stability, Jacob had family wounds and wandering gate. Esau looks finished while Jacob looks like a work in progress. If we are honest, this bothers us. We have an underlying assumption that the blessed life should look more stable and impressive than the unbelieving life. We want our faithful faithfulness to translate into immediate advancement. But the history of redemption regularly subverse this. The line of promise rarely looks impressive in real time. It often looks weak, delayed, and messy. While Esau was busy building a kingdom of this world, Jacob was still sojourning, waiting on promises that offered no visible proof of arrival. Now this is where Genesis 36 searches the heart. Do we envy Esau with speed more than we trust Jacob's God? We often mistake the common grace, the prosperity of this world, for the special grace, the favor of God. You see, we look at the kings of Edom in our own lives, the colleagues who bypass ethics to get the promotion, the neighbors whose lives look curated and unshakable, and we feel the sting of Jacob's delay. But the gospel reminds us that God's deepest work is often hidden under its opposite. The true king did not come through the polished, established halls of Edom. He came through the wounded, messy, and often failing covenant family. He came through Judah, the man of compromised character. He came through David, the shepherd boy. And when that king finally arrived, he did not come with the glory of Seir. He came in the humility of a manger and died in the weakness of a cross. To the watching world, Jesus on the cross looked like the ultimate unfinished man, even failure. But in that hiddenness, the power of God was defeating death itself. The kings of Edom are long gone. Their names are now just ink on a page we usually skip. But the king who came through Jacob reigns forever. The gospel frees us from the exhausting need to build our own seyer, our own versions of visible, impressive stability as proof of God's love. We belong to a king whose kingdom cannot be shaken, even when our current circumstances feel like they are falling apart. You may feel unfinished, but you're not forgotten. You may feel delayed, but you're not abandoned. You may not have the visible kingdom the world demands, but you belong to the one to whom every kingdom will eventually bow. Well, that's it for today. Um I do have some questions for reflection on our website, jubileecoach.com. One word, jubileecoach.com. And if you click on the blog section, live blog section, you will find today's meditation with the questions for reflection there. Once again, thank you so much for joining us. And to all who love the Lord with an undying love, may the grace and peace of our loving Lord Jesus Christ abound in you today and forever.

unknown 6:32

Amen.

SPEAKER_01 6:37

Great is thy faithfulness, O God, my Father. There is no shadow of turning with thee, thou changest not thy compassions, they fail not, as thou hast been, thou forever wilt be.

SPEAKER_02 7:05

Great is thy great is thy morning by morning.

SPEAKER_01 7:29

I and have provided great is thy faith on us unto me. Pardon for sin and the peace that endureth, thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide strength for today, and bright home for tomorrow. Blessings are mine with ten thousand.