"And these are the kings..."

“And these are the kings that reigned in the land of Edom,

before there reigned any king over the children of Israel.”

Genesis 36:31

Recently I was kind of struggling as I read through Genesis 36…  There were a lot of names…  Lots and lots of names… Names of men who were “the sons of”, and names of men who were “Dukes”… all of them related to Esau…  “And these are the generations of Esau the father of the Edomites in mount Seir:” Genesis 36:9

Yes, we know Esau.  The son of Isaac, the older twin brother of Jacob.  Esau, who sold his birthright.  And yes, God had some real issues with Esau because he served himself and did what he wanted to do rather than serve God.  Yes, and then reading through the lists of names I read verse 31 and I was struck by something that I had never seen before:

“And these are the kings that reigned in the land of Edom, before there reigned any king over the children of Israel.”

I quickly turned in my Bible over to 1 Samuel 8.5… “Then all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together, and came to Samuel unto Ramah, And said unto him, Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways: now make us a king to judge us like all the nations.” 1 Samuel 8:4-5

Esau had no time for God.  His children (the Edomites) had no time for God.  In fact, they would go on to “rejoice” when the Jews were conquered, they would join in the looting of Jerusalem.  “…thy violence against thy brother Jacob… neither shouldest thou have rejoiced over the children of Judah in the day of their destruction;” Obadiah 1:10-12

Yet Israel wanted a king like the Edomites had..?  Yes…  “And the LORD said… they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them.” 1 Samuel 8:7

So we learn, that in a sort of, obscure passage of scripture, God can show us an important truth:  He is everything we need – may we never want to have what others… what others seem to have!