Gen 36:1, Now these are the records of the generations of Esau (that is, Edom). We have just read the generations of Esau as listed in scripture. He became the father of the Edomites, with whom the Children of Israel would eventually contend when they returned to the Promised Land. There are several elements that we should consider as we proceed forth in our deliberation of this chapter of Genesis. 
The first is that we were introduced to Esau, with the connotation of the name Edom, at his birth as recorded in Gen 25:24+25. When her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb. Now the first came forth red, all over like a hairy garment; and they named him Esau. His surname, according to the majority of commentators was given at that point as Edom, which means red, his distinctive color at birth. 
Then, later in Gen 25:29-34, we are formerly given the record of that name, in what some believe is a literary juxtaposition. Gen 25:29-34 if you would read with me. And when Jacob had cooked stew, Esau came in from the field and he was famished; and Esau said to Jacob, "Please let me have a swallow of that red stuff there, for I am famished." Therefore his name was called Edom. But Jacob said, "First sell me your birthright." And Esau said, "Behold, I am about to die; so of what use then is the birthright to me?" And Jacob said, "First swear to me"; so he swore to him, and sold his birthright to Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew; and he ate and drank, and rose and went on his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright. That red stuff, being the lentil stew correlates with his secondary name, Edom, again stressing the redness of his skin. 
The second thing that we need to note in this Genesis chapter is that when the two brothers again separated, this time it was on friendly terms. Gen 36:6-8, 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 goods which he had acquired in the land of Canaan, and went to another land away from his brother Jacob. For their property 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. 
The fact was that both brothers were very successful with large flocks and herds and families that the land could no longer sustain. With the need for greater pastures, Esau traveled east to Seir, leaving Jacob in the land of God’s promise. Thus the brothers did as reminiscent of Abraham and Lot as detailed in Gen 13:8-11. Gen 13:8-11 for those reading along in your Bibles.  Then Abram said to Lot, "Please let there be no strife between you and me, nor between my herdsmen and your herdsmen, for we are brothers. Is not the whole land before you? Please separate from me: if to the left, then I will go to the right; or if to the right, then I will go to the left." And Lot lifted up his eyes and saw all the valley of the Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere —  this was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah —  like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt as you go to Zoar. So Lot chose for himself all the valley of the Jordan; and Lot journeyed eastward. Thus they separated from each other. 
	The separation in both these cases was with the blessed one receiving the promise by staying in that land, while the other traveled to the east, away from the Promised Land. It was by choice that they removed themselves from the blessing. This is a sad commentary, in several aspects. Just as with Adam and Eve, when they were forcibly removed from the Garden of Eden, they traveled east, away from the blessing and the fellowship with God. So it was with both Lot and Esau. They chose to remove themselves to the east, away from the fellowship with the blessing of God. 
	Second, both of these men chose to seek their way in the path that led away from spiritual life and God’s bountiful manifestation of joy and peace. Each one chose to seek after the goodness of the land’s treasures rather than after the goodness of the Lord. This is a type of that separation that is part of every Christian decision. Do we seek after God and His way and His will and His manifest glory in our lives? Or do we, like Lot and Esau, seek after those things that we think will serve to benefit us and make our lives more comfortable and filled with earthly delights and stuff? 
	Again, returning directly to Esau and Jacob’s relationship, they were brothers who did separate for their mutual benefit, without animosity or strife between them. They proceeded forth, each with his heart seeking that which was important within the framework of his desire and his understanding. Jacob sought the blessing of the Lord and Esau sought the expanse of territory in which to become a great people. While Jacob inhabited the Land of Promise, fully desiring the blessing of the Lord, Esau inhabited the fertile, physical land as God gave it to him. 
	It is often overlooked that even though Jacob’s was the lineage through which God would bring forth the Messiah, His Christ, still God went before Esau and gave him land in which to spread forth and multiply. Esau was not to inherit the promise or the blessing, but he did, as did Ishmael, have the operating hand of God directing his growth and his posterity. 
	In this course, consider what God stated in Deut 2:2-5, And the Lord spoke to me, saying, 'You have circled this mountain long enough. Now turn north, and command the people, saying, "You will pass through the territory of your brothers the sons of Esau who live in Seir; and they will be afraid of you. So be very careful; do not provoke them, for I will not give you any of their land, even as little as a footstep because I have given Mount Seir to Esau as a possession.
God gave Mount Seir to Esau as his inheritance from generation to generation. The Israelites were not to encroach upon nor to provoke their brothers, the offspring of Esau. God was at work, even in those so called gentile nations to do what needed to be done for His will to be accomplished. This is often an error that Christians tend to make in our thinking and our treatment of those who do not know the Lord in the manner in which we have been instructed and taught. We tend to forget that God so loved the world, all the nations of the world, including those non-Christian nations, that He sent His Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ to redeem any who will call upon His name.
	We tend to judge and to declare that they are lost and unworthy to be loved because they do not have the pedigree and the teaching and the gift of life that we have been given. However, as in this very example, from the beginning of this separation, God still had Esau and his posterity in His heart for all that He would accomplish in His great grace and mercy and love. Thus should we consider everyone who crosses our path with that same inclination of heart and mind! As God so loves them and works in and through them, so are we to treat them with the respect and the dignity and the grace as God has so shown unto us. 
	Again, in the Israelites proceeding into the Promised Land, God’s heart concerning the Edomites, the sons of Esau is very clear. Josh 24:3+4, 'Then I took your father Abraham from beyond the River, and led him through all the land of Canaan, and multiplied his descendants and gave him Isaac. 'And to Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau, and to Esau I gave Mount Seir, to possess it; but Jacob and his sons went down to Egypt. God gave Mount Seir to Esau and the Israelites were to recognize that and to consider the Edomites as the distant brothers that they were.
	The Children of Israel left the Promised Land, during the draught and were kept and protected through the beneficence of Joseph in Egypt. During that same period of drought, God maintained Esau and his family in the area of Mount Seir. God kept a watch over Esau and his heritage through the struggle for food and water that drove Jacob and his sons out of the Promised Land. God was still watching over both the members of Isaac’s family, even though Esau’s was not directly in the line of the blessing.
This is further stressed in Deut 23:7, as Moses instructed the Israelites as they are about to cross the Jordan River and enter into the Promised Land, "You shall not detest an Edomite, for he is your brother; you shall not detest an Egyptian, because you were an alien in his land. God makes it very clear that the Children of Israel are to regard the Edomites as their brothers, proceeding forth from the loins of Esau. 
As we continue to read through the Old Testament, we will find that the Israelites and the Edomites do war with one another. And God has some very severe things to say concerning the Edomites, lost in their idolatrous ways, but still there is something about them that holds forth the consideration of God.
The Prophet Obadiah paints a picture of Israel’s relationship with the rest of the nations including a most interesting statement concerning those who inhabit Mount Seir, the Edomites. Obad 19-21, Then those of the Negev will possess the mountain of Esau, And those of the Shephelah the Philistine plain; Also, they will possess the territory of Ephraim and the territory of Samaria, And Benjamin will possess Gilead. And the exiles of this host of the sons of Israel, Who are among the Canaanites as far as Zarephath, And the exiles of Jerusalem who are in Sepharad Will possess the cities of the Negev. The deliverers will ascend Mount Zion To judge the mountain of Esau, And the kingdom will be the Lord's. …the kingdom will be the Lord's.   
What is so interesting, according to many scholars, theologians, and commentators, is that the heritage of Esau represents the Gentile nations that will be brought into the Promise of God through Jesus Christ. In looking at Edom, we see the promise and the care and the love of God brought forth for the sake of all mankind in the giving of His Only Begotten Son. God’s keeping and protection of Esau, despite the fact that his was not the directly chosen lineage of blessing, represents the truth that each one of us was kept and protected by God in those years before we were brought face to face with Our Lord Jesus Christ. God works His plan and His purpose in the affairs of all mankind, in the course of revealing Himself in fullness and in grace and in mercy.
At the heart of this is the manner in which the Apostle James refers to the fact that the Gentile converts, during the early missionary journeys, should be dealt with in grace and in love. The argument raged in that early church as to whether those converts should be forced to take upon themselves all the Jewish laws and religious practices. Many argued that they should become, in fact, fully incorporated into the Jewish traditions and governances.
In Acts 15:13-20, James put forth the following claim, based on the writing of the Prophet Amos concerning the Edomites. Please turn to it and make note of it as the wisdom of God manifested for His heritage in the Gentile nations. Acts 15:13-20, And after they had stopped speaking, James answered, saying, "Brethren, listen to me. "Simeon has related how God first concerned Himself about taking from among the Gentiles a people for His name. "And with this the words of the Prophets agree, just as it is written, 'After these things I will return, And I will rebuild the tabernacle of David which has fallen, And I will rebuild its ruins, And I will restore it, In order that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord, And all the Gentiles who are called by My name, 'Says the Lord, who makes these things known from of old. "Therefore it is my judgment that we do not trouble those who are turning to God from among the Gentiles, but that we write to them that they abstain from things contaminated by idols and from fornication and from what is strangled and from blood. 
This is a direct quotation from Amos 9:11-15 in which the Prophet details how the Lord will become honored even among the Gentile nations, even the remnant of Edom. Amos 9:11-15, "In that day I will raise up the fallen booth of David, And wall up its breaches; I will also raise up its ruins, And rebuild it as in the days of old; That they may possess the remnant of Edom And all the nations who are called by My name," Declares the Lord who does this. "Behold, days are coming," declares the Lord, "When the plowman will overtake the reaper And the treader of grapes him who sows seed; When the mountains will drip sweet wine, And all the hills will be dissolved. "Also I will restore the captivity of My people Israel, And they will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them, They will also plant vineyards and drink their wine, And make gardens and eat their fruit. "I will also plant them on their land, And they will not again be rooted out from their land Which I have given them," Says the Lord your God.   
In Edom, we see God at work early in scripture to establish those nations who will be fully blessed by the Christ to come. This is why we must not just give up on those who seem to be so lost in their sin and shame. This is why we do not flaunt our Christian pedigree over those other nations of this world. It is not our place to try to determine who is called of the Lord and who is doomed to the agony of eternal torment. That was the heart of the Jewish nation as it promoted itself as placed above all the other nations. The Gentiles were good for nothing and were considered as but dogs doomed to be slaughtered. 
God, however, even in the separation of Esau and Jacob, held forth His love for all the world and provided for even those who did not immediately receive His direct blessing. He made a way of salvation and a means of coming into the joy and the peace and the living relationship with Himself for all those who would believe upon His Only Begotten Son. So be it!
Now these are the records of the generations of Esau (that is, Edom). Amen.

	This morning’s benediction is Ps 138:4+5, All the kings of the earth will give thanks to Thee, O Lord, When they have heard the words of Thy mouth. And they will sing of the ways of the Lord. For great is the glory of the Lord. Amen.