Genesis 36, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

 
Max Lucado Daily: Let Jesus Be Human - August 27, 2021

For thirty-three years Jesus felt everything you and I have felt. He grew weary. He was afraid of failure. He got colds, he burped, he had body odor. His feelings got hurt, his feet got tired, his head ached.

To think of Jesus in such a light is…well, it seems almost irreverent, doesn’t it? It’s uncomfortable. It is much easier to keep the humanity out of the incarnation. Clean the manure from around the manger. Wipe the sweat out of his eyes. He’s easier to handle that way. Something about keeping him divine also keeps him distant, packaged, and predictable.

For heaven’s sake don’t do it. Let him be as human as he intended to be. Let him into the mire and muck of our world. For only if we let him in, can he pull us out.

Genesis 36

This is the family tree of Esau, who is also called Edom.

2-3 Esau married women of Canaan: Adah, daughter of Elon the Hittite; Oholibamah, daughter of Anah and the granddaughter of Zibeon the Hivite; and Basemath, daughter of Ishmael and sister of Nebaioth.

4 Adah gave Esau Eliphaz;

Basemath had Reuel;

5 Oholibamah had Jeush, Jalam, and Korah.

These are the sons of Esau who were born to him in the land of Canaan.

6-8 Esau gathered up his wives, sons and daughters, and everybody in his household, along with all his livestock—all the animals and possessions he had gotten in Canaan—and moved a considerable distance away from his brother Jacob. The brothers had too many possessions to live together in the same place; the land couldn’t support their combined herds of livestock. So Esau ended up settling in the hill country of Seir (Esau and Edom are the same).

9-10 So this is the family tree of Esau, ancestor of the people of Edom, in the hill country of Seir. The names of Esau’s sons:

Eliphaz, son of Esau’s wife Adah;

Reuel, son of Esau’s wife Basemath.

11-12 The sons of Eliphaz: Teman, Omar, Zepho, Gatam, and Kenaz. (Eliphaz also had a concubine Timna, who had Amalek.) These are the grandsons of Esau’s wife Adah.

13 And these are the sons of Reuel: Nahath, Zerah, Shammah, and Mizzah—grandsons of Esau’s wife Basemath.

14 These are the sons of Esau’s wife Oholibamah, daughter of Anah the son of Zibeon. She gave Esau his sons Jeush, Jalam, and Korah.

15-16 These are the chieftains in Esau’s family tree. From the sons of Eliphaz, Esau’s firstborn, came the chieftains Teman, Omar, Zepho, Kenaz, Korah, Gatam, and Amalek—the chieftains of Eliphaz in the land of Edom; all of them sons of Adah.

17 From the sons of Esau’s son Reuel came the chieftains Nahath, Zerah, Shammah, and Mizzah. These are the chieftains of Reuel in the land of Edom; all these were sons of Esau’s wife Basemath.

18 These are the sons of Esau’s wife Oholibamah: the chieftains Jeush, Jalam, and Korah—chieftains born of Esau’s wife Oholibamah, daughter of Anah.

19 These are the sons of Esau, that is, Edom, and these are their chieftains.

20-21 This is the family tree of Seir the Horite, who were native to that land: Lotan, Shobal, Zibeon, Anah, Dishon, Ezer, and Dishan. These are the chieftains of the Horites, the sons of Seir in the land of Edom.

22 The sons of Lotan were Hori and Homam; Lotan’s sister was Timna.

23 The sons of Shobal were Alvan, Manahath, Ebal, Shepho, and Onam.

24 The sons of Zibeon were Aiah and Anah—this is the same Anah who found the hot springs in the wilderness while herding his father Zibeon’s donkeys.

25 The children of Anah were Dishon and his daughter Oholibamah.

26 The sons of Dishon were Hemdan, Eshban, Ithran, and Keran.

27 The sons of Ezer: Bilhan, Zaavan, and Akan.

28 The sons of Dishan: Uz and Aran.

29-30 And these were the Horite chieftains: Lotan, Shobal, Zibeon, Anah, Dishon, Ezer, and Dishan—the Horite chieftains clan by clan in the land of Seir.

31-39 And these are the kings who ruled in Edom before there was a king in Israel: Bela son of Beor was the king of Edom; the name of his city was Dinhabah. When Bela died, Jobab son of Zerah from Bozrah became the next king. When Jobab died, he was followed by Hushan from the land of the Temanites. When Hushan died, he was followed by Hadad son of Bedad; he was the king who defeated the Midianites in Moab; the name of his city was Avith. When Hadad died, Samlah of Masrekah became the next king. When Samlah died, Shaul from Rehoboth-on-the-River became king. When Shaul died, he was followed by Baal-Hanan son of Acbor. When Baal-Hanan son of Acbor died, Hadad became king; the name of his city was Pau; his wife’s name was Mehetabel daughter of Matred, daughter of Me-Zahab.

40-43 And these are the chieftains from the line of Esau, clan by clan, region by region: Timna, Alvah, Jetheth, Oholibamah, Elah, Pinon, Kenaz, Teman, Mibzar, Magdiel, and Iram—the chieftains of Edom as they occupied their various regions.

This accounts for the family tree of Esau, ancestor of all Edomites.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion    
Friday, August 27, 2021
Today's Scripture Numbers 21:4–9 ; 2 Kings 18:4–7 (NIV)

The Bronze Snake

4 They traveled from Mount Horb along the route to the Red Sea,c c to go around Edom.d But the people grew impatient on the way;e 5 they spoke against Godf and against Moses, and said, “Why have you brought us up out of Egyptg to die in the wilderness?h There is no bread! There is no water!i And we detest this miserable food!”j

6 Then the Lord sent venomous snakesk among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died.l 7 The people came to Mosesm and said, “We sinnedn when we spoke against the Lord and against you. Pray that the Lordo will take the snakes away from us.” So Moses prayedp for the people.

8 The Lord said to Moses, “Make a snake and put it up on a pole;q anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.” 9 So Moses made a bronze snaker and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, they lived.s

He removedt the high places,u smashed the sacred stonesv and cut down the Asherah poles. He broke into pieces the bronze snakew Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to it. (It was called Nehushtan.b)

5 Hezekiah trustedx in the Lord, the God of Israel. There was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, either before him or after him. 6 He held fasty to the Lord and did not stop following him; he kept the commands the Lord had given Moses. 7 And the Lord was with him; he was successfulz in whatever he undertook. He rebelleda against the king of Assyria and did not serve him.

Insight

Second Kings 18:3–7 describes how Hezekiah “did what was right in the eyes of the Lord” by destroying idols. The Israelites had transferred worship from the Creator to something created by worshiping the bronze snake, the symbol of miraculous healing at God’s hand (v. 4). The episode of the golden calf is another blatant example of idolatry (Exodus 32). Romans 1:25 spells it out for us: “They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised.” By: Alyson Kieda

The Ultimate Healer
[Hezekiah] broke into pieces the bronze snake Moses had made.
2 Kings 18:4

When a medical treatment began to provide relief for a family member’s severe food allergies, I became so excited that I talked about it all the time. I described the intense process and extolled the doctor who had created the program. Finally, some friends commented, “We think God should always get the credit for healing.” Their statement made me pause. Had I taken my eyes off the Ultimate Healer and made the healing into an idol?

The nation of Israel fell into a similar trap when they began to burn incense to a bronze snake which God had used to heal them. They’d been performing this act of worship until Hezekiah identified it as idolatry and “broke into pieces the bronze snake Moses had made” (2 Kings 18:4).

Several centuries earlier, a group of venomous snakes had invaded the Israelite camp. The snakes bit the people and many died (Numbers 21:6). Although spiritual rebellion had caused the problem, the people cried out to God for help. Showing mercy, He directed Moses to sculpt a bronze snake, fasten it to a pole, and hold it up for everyone to see. When the people looked at it, they were healed (vv. 4–9).

Think of God’s gifts to you. Have any of them become objects of praise instead of evidence of His mercy and grace? Only our holy God—the source of every good gift (James 1:17)—is worthy of worship. By:  Jennifer Benson Schuldt

Reflect & Pray

How has God shown you His goodness through other people? Why is it so easy to give people credit for what God has done in your life?

Dear God, I worship You as the all-powerful God who hears my prayers. Thank You for sustaining my life and caring for me.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, August 27, 2021
Living Your Theology

Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you… —John 12:35

Beware of not acting upon what you see in your moments on the mountaintop with God. If you do not obey the light, it will turn into darkness. “If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!” (Matthew 6:23). The moment you forsake the matter of sanctification or neglect anything else on which God has given you His light, your spiritual life begins to disintegrate within you. Continually bring the truth out into your real life, working it out into every area, or else even the light that you possess will itself prove to be a curse.

The most difficult person to deal with is the one who has the prideful self-satisfaction of a past experience, but is not working that experience out in his everyday life. If you say you are sanctified, show it. The experience must be so genuine that it shows in your life. Beware of any belief that makes you self-indulgent or self-gratifying; that belief came from the pit of hell itself, regardless of how beautiful it may sound.

Your theology must work itself out, exhibiting itself in your most common everyday relationships. Our Lord said, “…unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:20). In other words, you must be more moral than the most moral person you know. You may know all about the doctrine of sanctification, but are you working it out in the everyday issues of your life? Every detail of your life, whether physical, moral, or spiritual, is to be judged and measured by the standard of the atonement by the Cross of Christ.

Wisdom From Oswald Chambers

God engineers circumstances to see what we will do. Will we be the children of our Father in heaven, or will we go back again to the meaner, common-sense attitude? Will we stake all and stand true to Him? “Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.” The crown of life means I shall see that my Lord has got the victory after all, even in me.  The Highest Good—The Pilgrim’s Song Book, 530 L

Bible in a Year: Psalms 120-122; 1 Corinthians 9

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, August 27, 2021

Smoke in the Cockpit, Souls in the Cabin - #9035

Sometimes if you're a commercial flyer, maybe it's best if you don't watch the news. Because there could be, you know, some plane incidents that are kind of disconcerting. I remember one where there was a hole in the roof, and then they found cracks in other planes like it after that. Then there was the plane with the bullet hole in it.

And then there was the flight where the cockpit began to fill with smoke, followed by a shutdown of the plane's electrical systems; systems that power the critical systems of the plane. That's an Uh-oh! On the news they played the cockpit recording of a pilot radioing the emergency to the tower, and he sounded amazingly calm and unafraid. And you know what? He brought everyone in safely. I couldn't help but notice his description of the people he was carrying. He told the flight controller, "we have 106 souls on board." Not passengers - souls.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Smoke in the Cockpit, Souls in the Cabin."

I first heard that perspective when our family was flying across Alaska with a missionary pilot. As we sat on the runway, waiting to be cleared for takeoff, he said, "Six souls aboard." We weren't passengers, we were souls.

You know, after all is said and done, a "soul" is what we are. It's wrapped in this "earth suit" that we need for our relatively brief journey on this planet. Remember the astronauts saying that they had a "moon suit"? They didn't need it all the time; they needed it for a short time to survive in an environment that required it, but it was temporary. The real person? The real person's inside our "earth suit." Even after you take off that suit, the real you is still there.

We spend so much time buffing, and beautifying, and gratifying our earth suit. And, too often, we neglect the real person inside - our soul. The Bible's Creation account actually says, "The Lord God formed the man...and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living soul" (Genesis 1:7). And Jesus revealed how much one soul is worth when He asked that haunting question in our word for today from the word of God, from Mark 8:36, "What shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul?" You can cruise for a little while and be lost for all eternity, because you neglect the one part of you that will be around forever and that is your soul.

I'm looking through God's glasses when I look at the people around me and I see souls. Not just neighbors, or coworkers, or teammates, or family members, or customers, or friends. I want to look past the superficial "packaging" and see who they really are. They are ever-living, never-dying souls; people who are future inhabitants of eternity in a place God calls heaven or a place God calls hell.

And we have nothing more important to do with these few earth-years than to prepare for eternity; to make sure our soul is right with God. In fact, it's not. The Bible delivers the bad news that "the soul who sins is the one who will die" (Ezekiel 18:5). That's "die" as in being separated from God forever. And the problem is again as the Bible says, "all have sinned and fallen short of God's glory" (Romans 3:23). Even us religious folks, our soul is headed for an unthinkable future.

But God gave us good news that's "gooder" than the bad news. Speaking of Jesus, He says, "Everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins through His name" (Acts 10:43). Jesus did the dying for my sinning. So at the moment I, or you, put all our trust in Him, our soul is, in God's words, "saved." The alternative? That's what Jesus said, "losing my soul."

Tell Him today, "Jesus, I'm Yours." And I hope you'll go to our website. You'll find so much helpful information there about getting started in a relationship with Him. The website is ANewStory.com.

See, when you've turned the controls of your life over to Jesus, you're flying with the Pilot who will always bring you in safely. When Jesus counts the souls on board, oh I hope you'll be with Him.