Descendants of Esau

 Read Genesis 36

Read 2 Kings 3

It’s easy to preach about the descendants of Jacob, who we know as Israel.  That’s who God gave the Promised Land to and that’s who the Law of Moses would come through.  That’s who would spend over 400 years as Egyptian slaves.  That’s the line through which the Christ will come.

But what do we do with the descendants of Esau?

Let’s look at a couple of places where we see them in our Bibles.  One is when Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt. Edom denied those who were with Moses passage through their land.

The harmonious reunion of Jacob and Esau had somehow given way to this less-than-hospitable state of affairs. The Israelites had to take the long way around, but they would take 40 years to enter the promised land, so maybe it was no harm, no foul.

Let’s look farther down the road to a time after Solomon and when the Kingdom of Israel was a divided kingdom.  This will come from 2 Kings 3.

The King and the land of Edom was involved, though the message of this passage is mostly about Israel.  It is interesting to see that both Judah and Edom allied themselves with Israel in this endeavor. The descendants of Jacob and the descendants of Esau unite in this effort.

Moab owed tribute to Israel. It was a big annual payment of 100,000 rams and the wool of 100,000 sheep.  That’s a big-time payment.

When the king of Israel—Ahab—died, Mesha, the king of Moab, decided to test his successor.  Ahab was succeeded by his son, Joram. How did he test the new king?

Moab stopped the tribute.  How would this new king respond?

We are told that Joram did evil in the sight of the Lord, but he wasn’t as bad as his parents.  Now there’s a bullet to put on your resume.  At least I’m not as bad as my mother and father…

Joram wasn’t going to let Moab’s insubordination pass.  He rallied the support of the kings of Judah and Edom and set out to make war with Moab.  That’s what you did when somebody didn’t pay their tribute.

That was politics long ago.  When you defeated someone in battle or just had the upper hand on them, you wanted to keep it that way.  Those were the politics of the world probably until the end of WWII when the United States introduced the Marshall Plan.  After that, it was profitable to lose a war to the U.S.

Let’s get back to these 3 armies marching toward Moab.

Now to get to Moab, you had to cross a lot of desert.  After a week, there was water for neither man nor beast. You want to see an ancient army or a modern army come to a halt?  See what happens when there is no more water.

You can have diesel fuel and ammunition galore, but if you are out of water, you are not going to defeat anyone.  In fact, you become a very vulnerable target for your enemy.

The king of Israel asked, has God called us together just to let Moab kill us?  Evidently, Joram had some regard for the one true God.

It seems that there wasn’t a logistician among them who would have figured out this water problem before embarking on this campaign, but there was a prophet.  Elisha was summoned by King Joram. 

Elisha didn’t care for Joram.  He was still doing evil, even if he wasn’t as bad as Mom and Dad.  He told Joram if it wasn’t for King Jehoshaphat, he wouldn’t give them the time of day.

In fact, Elisha told Joram, why don’t you just seek a prophet from those who worship false gods, like your parents did?  You have to love Elisha’s directness and lack of tact in dealing with these heads of state.

Because the King of Judah was there, Elisha agreed to seek God’s direction.  He needed a harpist.  There are a lot of unanswered questions here.

Why was Elisha going on this trip?

Why wasn’t he summoned before Israel decided to declare war on Moab?

Why does an army run out of water but happens to have a harp and a harpist available?

Those are rabbit trails for another day. Elisha got his music and delivered directions from the Lord to the kings.

He said to have your men dig ditches—trenches if you will.  You will not see a cloud or a drop of rain, but God will fill these ditches with water and deliver your battle with the Moabites to you.

In today’s world, the leaders would have just asked for another prophet.  This one is bonkers.  Get me one that won’t cause my army to rebel.

Why would the army rebel?  They are out of water and you want them to dig ditches. You can imagine that the army is in hunker-down mode, seeking shade, and conserving what water they still have in their bodies.

But the kings did as instructed and ditches were dug.

The next morning water began flowing from the direction of Edom and it filled all of the ditches.  There wasn’t a rain cloud to be seen but the ditches were filled and the army—man and beast alike—was replenished.

If you have ever gone by Lake Lugert—the one by Quartz Mountain State Park—you have seen what I am talking about.  The lake will be down.  It doesn’t rain anywhere in Greer County but somewhere miles and counties away, the rain falls and heads south to fill the lake.

Those ditches--dug in the heat of the day when the army was already out of water--were filled.

Now Moab got wind that the armies of 3 kings were headed their way.  You have to figure if you don’t pay the tribute that you owe, there might be someone headed your way to make you change your mind.  I would expect that Moab had some scouts out looking to see if trouble was heading their way.

So early in the morning, the army of Moab approached the encampment of these invaders.  It must have been about sunrise and the armies of Israel, Judah, and Edom must have been sleeping in because the encampment did not appear to be well guarded. No activity was detected.

The sun hit the water in such a way as to make the ground appear red like blood.  The Moabite commander assumed the 3 armies had fought each other and that most everyone was dead.

All that was left now was the plunder.  The Moabites could claim the spoils of war without having to win a major battle. The men were turned loose to claim the spoils from the battle they never fought.

The problem was that the soldiers of the 3 armies were not dead.  They were watered and rested and ready to fight.  They easily defeated the disorganized Moabites and quickly turned this victory into the first of many and the 3 armies went into Moab and destroyed anything of value and fouled the land.

God had delivered Moab unto Israel, Judah, and Edom.

The battle was won not in the early morning but in the hot sun when the men were out of water but the ditches were dug.  The battle was won by faithfully following the instructions of the Lord delivered by his prophet.

This was a story of faith.  Think of ordering your very thirsty army to dig ditches in the heat of the day with no rain clouds in sight based upon words that came from a prophet who didn’t like you.

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen.

Genesis 36 is about the descendants of Esau, some of whom were involved in this story of faith. Some of these descendants claimed victory over the Moabites delivered by God through their faithfulness.

The descendants of Jacob and the descendants of Esau would share in this victory because they were faithful to the command of the one true God.

The lineages had separated.

Geography separated the people of Jacob and the people of Esau.

In this moment, faith in God united them in victory.

How do I connect this with our present situation? 

Faith is always connectable to your situation, but the lesson here is that God may call us to do something where we cannot connect the dots.  He may ask us to dig ditches in the heat of the day without a cloud in sight.

What do we do?

Trust in the Lord without all our heart.  Lean not on our own understanding.  In all our ways acknowledge him. Take the path that he gives us.

What do we do?

Break out our shovels and start digging. Trust that God delivers on his promises.

When God tells us to do something and our own understanding tells us that he is crazy, we do what God tells us to do, even if it’s digging ditches in the hot sun when we are completely out of water.

Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen.

Keep your shovels at the ready.  We might just have some ditches to dig this year.

Amen.