Theological Commentary: Click Here
Discipleship Focus: Identity
- Identity: Our true identity comes from God. Only when our identity comes from God can we be obedient in ways that satisfy our person to our core.
At the surface level, Genesis 36 seems to have much in common with
a genealogy. Often, we read chapters
like this and think that there isn’t much that we can glean from the
content. As I’ve learned over the past
few years, I’m always grossly mistaken when I think along those lines.
If we look within this passage, we’ll notice that Esau had at
least three wives, maybe as many as six.
(See the the link above for the theological commentary regarding this
point.) He has abandoned God’s identity
for him with respect to marriage.
Furthermore, notice that Esau leaves the Promised Land when it becomes
obvious that his wealth and prosperity cannot abide with the wealth and
prosperity of his brother Jacob. Esau
abandons God’s identity of His people dwelling in the Promised Land much like
he already abandoned his birthright.
Esau’s identity is not wrapped up in God.
It is always sad to see worldly prosperity get in the way of
people and their identity. Here we
clearly see Esau doing his own thing and living his own dream. His identity is coming from his wealth, his
fame, and his status in the land. His
identity is not from God. Therefore when
it come to obedience, we see Esau making decisions that will increase his
wealth, fame, and status rather than making decisions that will allow him to
draw closer to God. That’s the real
danger of having identity come from anywhere but God.
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