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Genesis 35:27 – 36:43
Genesis 35: 27 Then Jacob came to his father Isaac at Mamre, or
Kirjath Arba (that is, Hebron), where Abraham and Isaac had dwelt.
28 Now the days of Isaac were one hundred and eighty
years.
29 So
Isaac breathed his last and died, and was gathered to his people, being old and
full of days.
And his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.
Time (and geography) has a way of
changing your perspective: your personal perspective and our historical
perspective.
On a personal level, look at Jacob and
Esau. They were rivals from the womb. Literally.
But, when their father died, they reconciled and, for a while, even moved
their clans together to live on the same land.
However, as had happened with their Grandpa Abraham and Great-Uncle Lot,
the brothers’ respective success and the growth of their extended families forced
them to split up and look for more land.
Then
Esau took his wives, his sons, his daughters, and all the persons of his
household, his cattle and all his animals, and all his goods which he had
gained in the land of Canaan, and went to a country away from the presence of
his brother Jacob. For their
possessions were too great for them to dwell together, and the land where
they were strangers could not support them because of their livestock (Genesis
36:6-7).
Time and geography turned the sibling
rivals into friends and, for a time, co-heads of their households.
Time and place have an equally profound
effect when you move from the personal to the historical,
Genesis chapter 36 is a genealogy of
Esau’s descendants covering several generations well into the next couple
hundred years in Canaan.
A history may cover hundreds of years
across a region spanning thousands of miles, but it is written in a single
place from the perspective of a single historical moment. The time and place of the scholar skews the
perspective and the conclusions of their history.
15 These
were the chiefs of the sons of Esau. The sons of Eliphaz, the firstborn son of
Esau, were Chief Teman, Chief Omar, Chief Zepho, Chief Kenaz,
16 Chief Korah, Chief Gatam, and Chief Amalek. These were the chiefs of Eliphaz in the land
of Edom. They were the sons of Adah.
. . . 31 Now
these were the kings who reigned in the land of Edom before any king reigned
over the children of Israel: (Genesis 36: 15, 16-31)
Genesis 36 says that Esaus’ descendants
became tribal chiefs and eventually kings in Canaan. Meanwhile
his brother’s family relocated to Egypt where their descendants were enslaved
and kept in bondage for 400 years.
Imagine if the history of the two sons of Isaac been written by a Canaanite observer living in the time between the end of Genesis and the beginning of Exodus.
Esau would have been the successful
twin. His offspring, the Edomites, would
have been the chosen people, the “superior” nation and some clever historian,
looking “objectively” at the historical evidence would have pointed out that the
Israelites were descendants of a Jacob the usurper, a known liar. Therefore, this hypothetical scholar might have
argued, the Israelites were a cursed race, genetically predisposed to service,
fit only for second-class citizenship, unlike the noble Edomites.
But if you let history run a few more
centuries, Israel becomes a great kingdom, Edom is wiped out, and the greatest
religion in the world (I’m not even pretending to be objective about that) is literally
born from the descendants of Israel. Now who’s the cursed and who’s the chosen?
Five hundred years ago Africans were
colonized and enslaved by Europeans. Today,
the African continent is stereotypically synonymous with famine, poverty, AIDS,
and political chaos. From this history,
generations of Eurocentric scholars have concluded that African people and
their descendants are cursed, inferior, and genetically suited to slavery and second-class
citizenship.
But imagine if the history had been
written by a Spanish observer between 700 and 1492 A.D. The medieval Spanish historian would have
known Africans as Moors, the conquerors and rulers of Spain. The Moors essentially ended the Dark Ages in
Europe by introducing such innovations as personal hygiene (like deodorant and
regular bathing), universal education, street lighting, hydraulic engineering,
advanced agriculture, the first paper-making factory, and algebra. A medieval Spanish historian writing in a new
library built at the height of the Moorish era might have called Europeans filthy
savages who should be grateful that their Black-skinned masters had colonized
their backwards land and brought them civilization.
 |
History is the big picture, but
depending on which years, which locations, and which events you crop out of the
picture ---- the remaining image can make any group of people look way too good
or way too bad.
The valid lessons of history teach us about
contexts not character. History doesn’t
define certain nations or ethnicities as always good or always evil. History can only tell us who did what in a
given time and place. In any given time
and any given place, the right conditions can push any given people to become
either heroes or villains. The predictive
parts of the historical record are the contexts and conditions.
The Bible is a book for all times and all
places. How can such a relatively small
anthology apply universally? Because God
in His infinite wisdom filled Scripture with stories of the contexts and
conditions that make a people kings followed by the contexts and conditions that
make that same people extinct. The Bible
shows us a people united and that same people divided. It breaks down how a free community finds
itself enslaved and how an enslaved people gets free. Scripture lays out the contexts that make for
great national leaders and the conditions that promote tyranny, corruption, and
apostasy.
Through Scripture, God teaches us to talk
less about the TIMES in which we live.
God teaches us to not to define ourselves
by our geographical boundaries and national affiliations.
And do not think to say to yourselves,
‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For
I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones
(Matthew 3:9).
Therefore understand that the Lord your
God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness,
for you are a stiff-necked people
(Deuteronomy 9:6)
Times and places change. Our actions create the conditions of our time
and place and those conditions define how chosen or how cursed our history will
be.
--Anderson T. Graves II is a
writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural
leadership development.
Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles Chapel CME
Church in Fairfield, Alabama. He writes a blog called A Word to the Wise at
www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com
Email atgravestwo2@aol.com
Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves
Follow me on twitter @AndersonTGraves
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