These are the generations of Esau, that is, Edom. Esau took his wives from the Canaanites, Adah, the daughter of Elon, the Hittite, Aholibama, the daughter of Ana, the daughter of Zibion, the Hittite, and Basemath, Ishmael's daughter, the sister of Nebaioth. And Adah bore to Esau, Eliphaz, Basemath bore Ruel, and Aholibama bore Jeush, Jelom, and Korah. These are the sons of Esau, who were born to him in the land of Canaan. Then Esau took his wives, his sons, his daughters, and all the members of his household, his livestock, and all his beast, 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. Ruel, the son of Basemath, the wife of Esau. The sons of Eliphaz were Teman, Omar, Zepho, Gatham, and Kinez. Temna 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 Reuel, Nehath, Zerah, Shammah, and Mizah. These are the sons of Basemath, Esau's wife. These are the sons of Aholibamah, the daughter of Anah, the daughter of Zibion, Esau's wife. Shebor to Esau, and Jush, Jalam, and Korah. These are the chiefs of the sons of Esau, the sons of Eliphaz, the firstborn of Esau, the chiefs Timon, Omar, Zepho, Kinez, 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 Rual, Esau's son. The chiefs Nethanth, Zerah, Shema, and Mizah. These are the chiefs of Rual in the land of Edom. These are the sons of Basemath, Esau's wife. These are the sons of Aholibamma, Esau's wife, the chiefs, Jush, Jalam, and Korah. These are the chiefs born of Aholibamma, the daughter of Anna, Esau's wife. These are the sons of Esau, that is, Edom. These are their chiefs. These are the sons of Seir, the Horite, the inhabitants of the land, Lotan, Shobal, Zibion, Anna, Dishan, Ezer, and Dishan. These are the chiefs of the Horites, the sons of Seir in the land of Edom. The sons of Lotan were Horei and Hemen, and Lotan's sister was Temna. These are the sons of Shobal, Alvan, Manath, Ebal, Shefo, and Anam. These are the sons of Zibion, Ayah, and Ana. He is the Ana who found the hot springs in the wilderness as he pastured the donkeys of Zibion, his father. These are the children of Ana, Dishan and Holebama, the daughter of Ana. These are the sons of Dishan, Hemdan, Eshvan, Athran, and Shiran. These are the sons of Ezer, Bilhan, Zavan, and Akhan. These are the sons of Dishan, Uz, and Aran. These are the sons of the Horites, the chiefs Lotan, Shobal, Zebian, Ana, Dishan, Ezer, 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 Jobob, the son of Zerah, and Basra reigned in his place. Jobob died, and Husham of the land of the Timanites reigned in his place. Husham died, and Hadad, the son of Bidad, who defeated Midian in the country of Moab, reigned in his place, and the name of his city being Avith. Hadad died, and Samla of Masriqa reigned in his place. Samla died, and Shaul of Rehoboth in the Euphrates. Only 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 Mehetbel, the daughter of Matred, daughter of Mezohab. These are the names of the chiefs of Esau, according to their clans and their dwelling places, by their names, the chiefs Timna, Alva, Jetheth, Aholibama, Elha, Penon, Kinaz, Timon, Mizb, Mibzar, Magdal, and Arom. 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. Amen. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for your word. We thank you that you have inspired Holy Scripture and that you use it, Lord, to make us wise for salvation unto Jesus Christ. We pray that you would help us as we consider this passage of scripture this morning as we set our attention upon it together with the rest of your word. That you would help us, Lord, to see and understand, to be made wise in the gospel, Lord, that is pointed to and revealed, Lord, on the pages of scripture. Help us now as we come to you as your people, praying for your spirit as we consider this passage. We ask this all in Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. You might ask, what is the point of this chapter? Is this kind of like a throwaway passage? Is this one to skip? Does this passage, this chapter with all of these names, much repetition, does it have any real spiritual merit for us? I mean, it deals with Esau. and the people of Edom, which descend from Esau, and they're outside of the covenant line. They're very adjacent to it, because it's the brother of Jacob, but yet they're still outside of the covenant people of God, so why bother? Shouldn't we just skip them and get on to the story of Joseph and everything else that unfolds in Genesis? Well, I hope you know the answer is no. We shouldn't just throw away this passage of scripture despite its difficulty to read through, despite the names that are foreign to us. But we should recognize that this passage, just like some that have gone before, they're genealogies. They're very truncated. They're complex. They are dense. Really, in the Bible, genealogies serve a robust purpose. They're almost like cliff notes on entire people's existence, on their life. of their family's growth or their success or failures. They are, genealogies are like a microcosm of life under the sun. It is showing a people, a family who have been marrying and giving in marriage generation after generation and they serve a great purpose for us as God's people. They help us see in a particular family line Either an example of the grace of God, that we might be more aware of how God has saved us through succession of covenant peoples, or, as in the case of this chapter, they give us a warning of what life is like outside of the covenant, with all of its worldly blessings, but also with, in a way, much emptiness. We ought, as we consider this passage, learn much about worldly success. We should consider Esau and his family's outcome as an example of how we should flee from spiritual negligence. And we should consider this chapter as well as a source of instruction or a reminder of both judgment and its flip side, grace. That's how we'll go through this passage. You see there in the bulletin, three points that will bring us through chapter 36. First, we'll consider the genealogy of Esau here, which is a genealogy of worldly success. Now a bit of the context here. We've gone through Abraham's narrative in Genesis 12 on. We entered then into the generations of Isaac, which is a story told of his descendants, namely Jacob, and the covenant as it goes on and continues on through Jacob. We finished that last week in Genesis 35, and then we have one chapter here devoted to The other son of Isaac, Esau, this is his generations. Now remember that phrase that began in verse one of chapter 36, these are the generations of, or your version might say this is the family history of, like that's a code language in Genesis for like another chapter heading. Genesis is split into 10 of these various generations. The first one being the generations of the heavens and the earth, and the last one being the generations of Jacob. which will unfold in the story of Joseph, which we'll pick up with in a number of months. So this is just one chapter devoted to Esau. Like I said, it's a microcosm of life under the sun. It is a very dense, compact narrative in genealogical form of this family as it spread, beginning in the land of Canaan and ultimately in what is called the land of Seir. Now what we can say about this chapter, and what we should notice, is that this is, as the point says here, a genealogy that tells us a story of worldly success. Esau is very profitable. He is successful. He's profitable in people, in descendants. He has a lot of descendants named in this chapter that are more than just sons and daughters, that are chiefs and kings. And actually, even as you do have in verse 20 through 30, you have sort of an aside of the family peoples of the land where Esau went to settle, the land of Seir. Esau overwhelms them. He, in his peoples, like just by sheer number, takes over, you could say, expresses and receives dominance in the land of Seir. He does so because of his family, but also the great possessions that he has gained. We read in verse six that he took his wives, his sons, his daughters, all the members of his household, all of his servants, all those who worked for him, all of his livestock, all of his beasts, all of his property that he had acquired in the land of Canaan, and he went Across the Jordan, he went to the land of Seir. Why? Well, because his brother Jacob's possessions were too much for him. Now, remember, Jacob wasn't in the land at this time. This is a way of expressing the fact that everything that belongs to Isaac will become Jacob's. And given what Isaac has in the land, which is too much for Isaac and his son Esau to live together, that which would be Jacob's and that which is Esau's presently, it's just too much. and so he has to leave the land because of great abundance and worldly prosperity. He has much, and so he goes to the land of Seir, and he finds great success there in his dominance over the people of Seir. Now, this is much in contrast to Jacob. Jacob has, he has, yes, worldly success in a number of ways. God has been gracious to him, he's granted to him children in the land, 12 sons. Even Benjamin, who we saw in the last chapter, though his birth is tinged with the loss of Rachel, still here is a son that is born to Jacob, a very full number, 12, and a son who is born in the land itself. This is an expression of the fruitfulness of Jacob, all by the grace of God. Yes, Jacob has succeeded in that way. He also has many worldly possessions, flocks and livestock and servants. That's what calls him to leave Laban's household. And Jacob gathered much over the years after serving 14 years for Lalia and then Rachel. He, remember back in earlier chapters through God's direction, He gained much livestock, which is like currency in that day. He was wealthy, but he's in the land of Canaan, yes. But he's not dominant in the land. He's not exercising dominion over the peoples yet. That time has not yet arrived. It will in the future when God sends his people into the land of Canaan after a time of Egyptian bondage to take the land and to be the instrument of God's judgment against the peoples of the land, the very peoples who some of them find their provenance, their beginning in chapter 36. Like if you look at verse 12, Amalek. and others who will be a continual thorn in Israel's side together with Edom are those who will be conquered one day. But as it is today, in the time of this passage, whereas Esau is thriving, Jacob is, yes, growing in possessions, but in very real ways, Jacob is struggling. His children aren't doing that well. They are an unstable lot. Just in the last few chapters, Simeon and Levi have murdered an entire people, an entire village or city, from king down to peasant. They are themselves murderers. Reuben has humiliated his father, we saw in the last chapter in verse 22, in going and taking as his own wife in a way, Bilhah, the mother of two of his brothers, and his father's wife. It's an act of great humiliation unto Jacob. It's a way of trying to take his place, him trying to express dominance over his father by taking his father's wife. That's a messy situation in a family for sure. And then, in the chapters ahead, the brothers will conspire against one of their own, first to murder him, and then, after a bit of a change of heart, to rather sell him into slavery, to make a little bit of money off of him, and not have their guilt laid down by murder. It's a messy situation. Esau's success compared with Jacob's, at times, sort of wavering, floundering success, only by the grace of God, sort of, way up and sojourn up to this point is startling. It's a great contrast between worldly success and simple reliance upon, really, the promises of God, which take their time, which require patience. And that's what I want us to see first and foremost in this chapter, is that this chapter helps us to be patient. just like Jacob, as we await the full realization of God's promises. We, as the church, just like Jacob, as the people of God, the old covenant church of God in this passage, we might not be mighty or successful in worldly terms, for Christ's kingdom is not of this world, but we're promised the earth to inherit as we enjoy the benefits of life with God. We looked at 1 Corinthians 1 in our first reading of scripture very purposefully because that passage spells out for us the situation of the church in this present evil age as one that is built on a message itself that to the eyes and the ears and the philosophies of this world is foolishness, is folly, and is to be just pushed to the side because it's just, well, just foolish. and wrong, and childish, and bigoted, or whatever adjective you want to employ there. Paul labors to show that it is the church, that though the church is made up of those who are not wise, according to worldly standards, at least not all of them, some of them were, obviously, some famous and influential people became Christians, but the vast majority were slaves. They were nothing, they were seen as property in the eyes of the world. And so of course the church itself is a community of those who are nothings in a way, of those who, worldly speaking, generally speaking, are despised, are lowly, are unwise, are weak. But God chose what is low and weak and despised and nothing, like slaves even, to confound the wise and the strong and the powerful. This is the way God chooses to work. We see it in Genesis 36, Esau flourishes, whereas Jacob flounders in a way. This is, or at least doesn't flourish quite so quickly as Esau. This should teach us as God's people to remain patient. to be steadfast as we consider the spiritual kingdom of Christ to which we belong. Christ is reigning and ruling over the nations of the earth, but his rod is not yet a rod of power in the sense of power. subjecting people to himself, taking his enemies to the stocks, riding forth on a white horse in glory to slay all of his adversaries. That is not yet the case. Right now, his rod of power is seen in the gospel, which does subdue his enemies, you and I, to himself, which brings resolution and to the entity that exists between a people and God the Father, Christ comes and exercises his kingly power to bring about spiritual wealth, not yet worldly success. That means that as Christians we shouldn't find our hope in worldly gain, though it might be good, though it can be used for good, that we should seek to provide for ourselves and our families, that we should not see something like, as we considered in 1 Timothy, like riches, like money, as evil in and of itself, but it can be a very terrible temptation for all of us in ways that we perhaps don't even understand. The Bible is replete with commands, even as we gave attention to this morning from Deuteronomy, to when you have great abundance, don't forget the word. In many ways, God keeps us humble keeps us in a state of dependence upon him by our lack of great material abundance. But we should marvel at the spiritual riches that do belong to us by virtue of belonging to Christ and his kingdom. If we're outside of Christ, the only wealth and honor and riches that we get to experience are the measly ones we find in this world, which can take wings and fly away, which are ultimately not satisfying. But in Christ, we have, in the words of one of my favorite verses of all of scripture, verse 30 of 1 Corinthians 1, we have wisdom from God, we have righteousness, we have sanctification, we have redemption. In a sense, we have Jesus Christ himself. We have a beautiful inheritance as Psalm 16 accounts. we have all, spiritually speaking, in the Son. And so we should not be ashamed of our lack of worldly success, nor should we, if we experience it, and many of us do have worldly success, especially compared to the world stage, we should not let us cause our hearts to be led away from our Lord, but rather more and more to Him. in waiting and independence upon our Savior. So this chapter shows us a genealogy of worldly success, but it's success that, not in and of itself is bad, but it's success that is not lasting and is not eternal, and it is not a blessing if it's wedded to spiritual negligence, which leads us to our second point, how this genealogy is in many ways a sad genealogy of spiritual negligence. Now if you remember the prophecies made about Jacob and Esau at the well, not the birth yet, but while they were still in the womb of Rebecca. Remember, she is in turmoil and agony because the twins in her womb are literally fighting each other in utero, and so she goes to a prophet of the Lord, she inquires of the Lord, and the Lord says through a prophet to her, two nations are in your womb, two peoples from within you shall be divided. The one shall be stronger than the other, and the older shall serve the younger. Now, at the present state, we see, in many ways, Esau stronger than Jacob, and Esau not yet serving Jacob, and though they are reconciled as brothers, the peoples that come from them will be a continual war against each other. There will be, one day, a scenario in which Esau serves Jacob, but not yet. Let's consider Esau so far, what we know of him. That's at the foundation of his life. He will eventually, one day, his people will serve the people of God. But as Esau grows, as he lives his life, we find that he is by no means a holy man. He is actually the opposite. He is the biblical example of one who is spiritually negligent and one who neglects so great a salvation that is baked into his very family's blood. We should consider his past sin, which are no small infractions, but significant actions revealing a heart that isn't concerned with the Lord and his glory, the Lord's honor, and the Lord's ways. Remember, he sold his birthright for a pot of lentil stew, thereby despising and vacating the responsibility that he has as the firstborn to take up the spiritual mantle of his household and to lead and to care for and to provide for the household of Isaac. What does he do? He basically says, this responsibility that I have from God is worth as much to me as this bowl of soup. Now, granted, he was in a time of extreme poverty. a hunger and thirst, having come in from a hunt, that doesn't negate the abject folly of his heart in the way his action displays and betrays a heart that does not care about the Lord in his ways. And then also, as he continues to live his life, he marries a number of women who eventually end up being not only a humiliation for Isaac and Rebecca, but a thorn in their side Remember, in multiple occasions, Rebecca expresses that her life is miserable because of the Canaanite women that Esau has married, some of which are mentioned in these verses here. In other words, his marriages became a source of hardship for the covenant people, for his father and his mother. And let's not forget that he was, for a very real time, intent upon murdering his brother. Though years softened that desire, there was a moment in which he was ready to take a sword to his brother's neck. He was ready to end him, and it was only the providence of God and Rebekah's scheming that brought Jacob to safety. Esau, as well, in the fullness of the scriptures, as I said, serves as a reminder to us of the faithfulness that we're called to have. We've quoted these verses before, but the New Testament refers to Esau in Hebrews 12 and says this, verse 15, see to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God. That no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled. That no one is sexually immoral or unholy, like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he salted. with tears. This is the writer to the Hebrews way of saying, let us not be negligent spiritually like Esau. Rather, let us strive, let us see that no one fails to obtain the grace of God. Let us see that we, as God's people, seek to put to death sin and not to walk in bitterness towards our brothers and sisters. That we would not commit sexual immorality, which we're not told in Esau's story what that looked like, but he did marry multiple wives, and granted Jacob did as well. But let us not be unholy in our lives like Esau. Let us not consider our whole salvation not even worth a single meal. let us seek for true repentance, not a worldly grief like Esau displayed, which leads to rejection, not to salvation. In other words, these people of Esau, descendant from him in this chapter, who will continue to be a thorn in the side of Jacob's descendants, they serve for us here as a warning in our own times of spiritual negligence and to any who are tempted to be neglectful of so great a salvation. Let us hear these warnings as new covenant believers. Let these warnings be means that would spur us on away from an Esau-like spiritual laziness. and into a Christ-like spiritual zeal. Let us seek to serve with greater faithfulness. Let us remember our birthright, that we've been born again with the name of Christ attached to us, that we have the call to follow him as his disciples, not to earn our salvation, not to keep ourselves saved by our actions, but to walk in holiness, to walk in the path set before us, to please him, the one whom we love, the one who has saved us from our sins. Let us not neglect the salvation we've heard. and that we hear week in and week out of. May our marriages, unlike Esau's, be sources of godliness and strength for us and fruitfulness to others. You who are unmarried, may your desire for a spouse be met in a Christian spouse, for that's the way to apply the passages of Genesis here that speak of marrying in the Canaanites. Now there are places in the scripture where marrying outside the covenant works out for good. It will for Joseph. It did for Moses. But there are places where the Bible is crystal clear, especially in 1 Corinthians 7, that we ought to marry in the Lord, that our marriages would be a source of joy and humility and life as we rejoice in a common Lord together. So let each of us seek for purity of heart and mind with the same zeal, striving for holiness and for doctrine, for right teaching. Let us heed the warnings found here in Esau and seek humility before God as we strive for covenant faithfulness. Now Esau or Edom, the people who comes from them, is more than a simple biblical object lesson of warning or of success in a worldly way. We have in this chapter, as we consider in the light of the rest of scripture, an enduring reminder of God's judgment and his grace. And that's our final point I want us to consider Alongside Esau being a warning not to neglect the covenant mercy of God, Esau and Edom functions as a reminder that God will judge and he will bring about the glory of his name. And we don't find it as much as in chapter 36 as we consider Esau's descendants in the light of the rest of the Bible, especially Edom as a nation and the unfolding of God's redemptive history throughout the old covenant itself and even into the new. Edom's success, as all worldly success is, was merely temporary, just like the success of the Romans and the Persians and the Greeks and all empires that have come or will come to pass, such worldly success is only temporary. And yet in its worldly success, Esau exercised great enmity towards the people of God. They were a constant enemy of Israel. Esau and Jacob may have reconciled in wonderfully beautiful ways, but their descendants would continue to be at war with one another. And Esau especially, or Edom especially, would continue to attack, and persecute, and threaten, and kill the people of Israel. And for that reason, Esau as itself, or Edom itself, is a subject of many prophetic announcements found throughout the Old Testament. just to name a few. One is the whole book of Obadiah. Small as it is, it's against Edom, the people of Esau. You have passages in Ezekiel chapter 25, and then three chapters in Ezekiel, Ezekiel 35, 36, and 37, deal with the judgment coming against Edom. Why? Because when Nebuchadnezzar came against Jerusalem, or would come against Jerusalem, when God's people, his city, was ransacked and razed to the ground, yes, has judgment against them, but an event that is unrivaled in its terribleness in the old covenant, an absolutely memorable event for the people of Israel that they, in a way, never recovered from, the exile. When that was leveled against Jerusalem, what did Edom do? Even as they were under the thumb of Babylon, they rejoiced. They saw it as a moment of great joy over the loss of Jerusalem. They themselves participated in it. They hated God's people. They rejoiced at the defeat of them. They sought actively their harm. They sinned greatly in not blessing the children of Abraham as it's promised that those who bless Israel of old would themselves be blessed, Esau as an example. of those who curse and find the curse leveled against them. And so what happened to them? They were held bondage as well under the Babylonians and eventually they just fizzled out as a distinct people, as a distinct nation. Some would eventually flee the land of Seir in there and they would themselves resettle in Jerusalem and even continue on in a way having a sort of identity, though many of them kind of just were absorbed into the Jewish people when they came back from bondage, the ones who came back to rebuild Jerusalem. Some of the Edomites just absorbed into them, but then some of them maintained their own like sort of cultural heritage. They're called Edomians, and so if you ever heard that language in the New Testament, Herod, the Edomian, Herod the Great. was a descendant of Esau, who himself continued to persecute not the Jewish people as much as Christ. Herod, who is the one who called for the slaughter of infants in Bethlehem, so that ultimately the Messiah himself would be, hopefully in his mind, snuffed out. Herod, who himself met a tragic but rightfully deserved end. In other words, the biblical story of Edom is a tragic story. It's a nation that finds its beginning here in Genesis 36, becomes a chief example of the judgment of God upon evil, and a foreshadowing of the judgment that is to come against all who set themselves against the Lord and against his anointed. So it's a reminder of judgment, absolutely. But also, there is still a measure of hope for Esau, and especially for you and me. Revelation 4 and 5 gives a sight of the throne room of God, and it tells of people from every tribe, and tongue, and language, and nation gathered there, giving praise and adoration to God. And we assume Esau, or Edom as a nation, would have faithful covenant of God representatives there, even now before that throne, awaiting the resurrection, but yet singing still the praises of the Lord. We're not told their stories in scripture. It's outside of what we find in scripture, but if God has promised that people from every tribe and nation are there, surely there are some with Esau's blood. But even more than that, there's a passage in Jeremiah that helps us understand all judgment as you find in the scriptures. Though this passage in Genesis 36 isn't an oracle of judgment, Edom would be the receiver of judgment from nearly every prophet of God. So it would do well, it'd be well for us to remind ourselves in light of Jeremiah chapter 18, verses seven and eight, that when there is a pronouncement of judgment upon a people, there is always the reverse call for repentance and a promise of blessing. Listen to Jeremiah 18, verses seven through eight. These are very key verses to understand all the biblical prophetic judgment, says, if at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, and if that nation concerning which I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I intended to do to it. You see, God's promise is saying that any time there is judgment, it is wedded to, it's joined to, it's accompanied by, sometimes just implied, but nevertheless, their call for repentance and to seek salvation. I am, to use the language of, Isaiah 45, turn to me and be saved all the ends of the earth. That comes with each announcement of judgment as well. You see this especially clear in Jonah, as he goes to the Ninevites, reluctantly. And what does he do? He preaches a message of judgment. 40 days and Nineveh will be overthrown. And what happens? They repent. They turn to the Lord. They receive the mercy of God, even with a word of judgment. Now if that is true for Edom, if that's true for Nineveh, how much more is it true for us here today? Where we hear not just a word of judgment, but a word of grace and pardon. Week in and week out, even if I fail to do my part as a preacher in preaching the gospel of God, which God forbid I would, it's in our service, It's in the hymns we sing. The gospel is placarded before you each Sunday. You have no excuse to be negligent before it. May we all heed the call of the judgment of God and the grace of God to humble ourselves before the God of all grace. That we would flee from all sorts of Esau-like spiritual negligence as we find it in us still. That we would not rebel like this son of Isaac. That we would turn to the Lord and be saved. to find our names counted among the citizens of Zion, that our family heritage would not be among peoples like Esau and Edom, but our name would be changed to Christian, to a follower of Christ, to a descendant of the Lord of glory, the son of Abraham, that we would be spiritual sons and daughters of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob by the very nature of sharing the faith that they have in their covenant Lord. May we flee from any sort of negligence, of ungodliness, of impurity, of pride, of any Esau-like behavior and cling steadfast, wholeheartedly to Christ Jesus and find life in him. He's the one who has died for our sins, taking the judgment that we have deserved, and he's the one who reconciles us to God freely and fully for all eternity. So let us consider this passage in light of the grand scheme of scripture. Let us flee from any ideas of worldly success as where our salvation and security are found. Let us look to the Lord himself, to the covenant God of Israel, to Jesus Christ who makes him known. Let us find life in him and his kingdom, which might be small now, which might be insignificant now, but which is eternal in its glory and spiritual significance and good. Let's go to him in prayer. Lord, we thank you for your mercy. We thank you.