Latest / Reformed Thinking / Before Israel Had a King: Edom’s Monarchy, Covenant Distinction, and the Hope of the True King (Genesis 36:31–39)

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Before Israel Had a King: Edom’s Monarchy, Covenant Distinction, and the Hope of the True King (Genesis 36:31–39) · Reformed Thinking

• 0:00
  Imagine holding the winning lottery ticket, a ticket worth
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  billions of dollars. But there is a massive catch.
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  You cannot cash it in for 400 years.
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  It is a promise for your great, great, great grandchildren.
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  Meanwhile, your fiercest business rival finds a crumpled
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  stack of cash on the sidewalk, walks into a casino, hits the
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  jackpot and immediately buys the city.
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  Yeah, they. Get it all right away, right?
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  They have the mansion, the cars, the societal status like today,
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  and you are living in a tent holding a piece of paper,
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  waiting. Welcome to Reformed thinking.
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  This is a special deep dive into a historical record that
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  confronts this specific scenario.
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  Yeah, it really does. We are examining an ancient text
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  that forces us to ask a very uncomfortable question.
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  You know, what do you do when the enemies of God seem to win,
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  and they win early? It is a highly relevant question
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  and well, it resonates with anyone who has ever tried to
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  live faithfully while watching the unfaithful prosper.
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  The text we are analyzing today comes from the Book of Genesis,
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  specifically chapter 36 verses 31339.
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  To the casual reader, it looks like a dry, dusty genealogy of
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  ancient Edomite kings. But as our source material
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  reveals, it is actually a theological master class.
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  And a quick note for you listening right now, we are
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  going to tackle some heavy concepts today, everything from
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  ancient geopolitics to post reformation theology.
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  And to do that properly, we have established a rhythm for this
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  conversation. We are taking our time.
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  We will let each other finish our thoughts completely,
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  avoiding those quick sound bites, because understanding the
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  weight of this ancient list of names requires serious,
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  deliberate analysis. I am really looking forward to
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  it. Rushing through the historical
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  context would strip the text of its immense gravity.
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  We have to visualize the reality on the ground to understand the
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  spirit friction taking place. So paint that picture for us.
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  Yeah, Let's set the stage on one side of this historical Ledger.
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  We have the original audience, right?
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  The nation of Israel. They are wandering in the
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  wilderness of the Sinai Peninsula.
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  They are completely nomadic. Right, living out of backpacks,
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  basically. Yeah, they are landless.
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  Yeah, they do not have a king, just Moses leading them from one
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  temporary encampment to another. They are eating manna, relying
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  on daily supernatural provision just to survive.
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  And then we look across the geographical divide at their
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  cousins, the descendants of Esau, known as the nation of
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  Edom, and the contrast is staggering.
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  Staggering is the accurate word. While Israel is living out of
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  literal tents in the dust, Edom has already established A
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  fortified, settled monarchy. Wow.
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  You have to understand the geography of Edom to grasp how
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  they achieved this so rapidly. Edom occupied a territory known
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  as Mount Cyr, stretching South and southeast of the Dead Sea
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  down toward the Gulf of Aqaba. This was a rugged, highly
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  defensible mountainous region. It is a natural fortress made of
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  red sandstone cliffs. An invading army would look at
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  the topography of Seer and realize that mounting a
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  successful siege would be a logistical nightmare.
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  So they have absolute physical security right out of the gate.
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  But I mean security alone does not build a Kingdom.
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  No it does not. You need an economy.
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  How did they fund this rapid rise to a monarchy while Israel
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  was wandering around with nothing?
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  Well, they possessed 2 massive economic engines.
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  First, their geographical location placed them directly
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  astride at the King's Highway. This was the primary ancient
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  trade artery connecting the Arabian Peninsula to the Levant,
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  stretching all the way up to Damascus.
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  Spices, incense, precious metals and textiles all moved along
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  this route. That is a lot of wealth moving
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  through 1. Place.
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  Oh absolutely. And Edom controlled the toll
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  booths. They controlled the vital water
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  sources in that arid landscape. They could tax every caravan
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  that passed through. 2nd. The region, particularly the
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  Arabah Valley, was abundant in copper.
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  Historical evidence from areas like the Timna Valley shows
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  massive industrialized copper smelting operations.
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  So they are not just scraping by with subsistence farming then?
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  Not at all. They are the trade brokers and
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  industrial magnates of the ancient Near East.
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  They have the wealth to build infrastructure, raise armies,
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  and formalize a government. Precisely, they attained a level
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  of civil sophistication and economic dominance that far
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  outpaced Israel's outward condition.
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  This creates a massive, glaring disparity.
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  Theologians often refer to the tension of the already in the
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  not yet. In this historical moment, the
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  reprobate line, the descendants of Esau who despised his
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  birthright, are living in the already.
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  They have attained recognized national coherence.
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  They have administrators, fortifications, and monarchs.
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  Meanwhile, the elect line, the descendants of Jacob, are
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  agonizingly stuck in the not yet.
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  Stuck in the waiting room. Yeah, exactly.
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  They're a tribal confederation holding onto a promise from God
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  about a lamb they do not yet possess.
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  That brings me back to the lottery ticket analogy.
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  It is one thing to know you have a promise for the future.
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  It is another thing entirely to actively watch someone else
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  enjoy the spoils of victory right in front of you.
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  It is incredibly difficult. Put yourself in the sandals of
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  an average Israelite. You are walking through the
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  desert. Your feet are blistered.
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  You look up toward the red heights of Mount Cyr and you see
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  the walls. You see the wealth.
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  You see the established order of the Edomite Kingdom.
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  The psychological friction must have been agonizing.
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  The world's systems have always rewarded rapid development,
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  aggressive expansion and visible might.
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  That is true. Edom played the world's game and
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  won early. Israel was forced to operate
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  under a completely different paradigm.
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  And that is where the supreme test of faith occurs.
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  The Israelite looking at the glass headquarters of Edom to
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  use a modern business equivalent would feel a severe sense of
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  inadequacy. Oh, for sure.
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  The human mind naturally equates material prosperity and
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  organized ability with divine favor.
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  When we see someone succeeding rapidly, we assume God must be
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  smiling upon their methods. Wait, I have to stop you there
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  and play devil's advocate regarding God's role in this.
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  Go for it. If God genuinely loves Jacob's
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  line, why give Esau the quick win?
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  If Jacob is the child of promise, the one chosen to carry
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  the covenant, why does Esau get the crowns, the cities, and the
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  established nation first? That is a very fair question.
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  To a skeptic, this looks like God is playing a cruel joke on
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  Israel. Why subject his own people to
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  the humiliation of wandering while blessing the line that
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  rejected Him? That is a brilliant challenge,
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  and it cuts to the core of how we understand divine Providence.
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  The authors of our sources address this by clarifying that
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  God's sovereign hand is not confined strictly to the
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  covenant line. He governs all families of the
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  earth. He assigns lands, boundaries,
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  and seasons according to his own wisdom.
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  Back in Genesis, God explicitly promised that Esau would become
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  a nation, that he would live by the sword, and that he would
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  have a territory. Right.
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  Isaac's blessing to Esau. Yeah, God is faithful to His
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  Word, even to those outside the saving covenant.
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  However, we must draw a razor sharp line between temporal
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  blessing and redemptive inheritance.
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  Meaning God gives them stuff, but he does not give them
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  salvation. Right, that is spot on.
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  Esau gets the quick win, but the win is strictly confined to the
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  realm of earthly passing history.
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  Our sources point out that God frequently allows the line
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  outside the covenant to advance rapidly and outward form,
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  specifically to test the faith of His people.
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  It is a refiner's fire. Yes, it is.
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  It forces the Israelite and it forces the modern believer to
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  answer a fundamental question. Do we want a temporary Kingdom
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  of dust or the eternal Kingdom promised by God?
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  Wow. God delays Israel's
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  gratification to teach them that their true life is not found in
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  geopolitics, but in the Word of God.
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  That completely alters the metric of success.
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  You look at the billionaire with a massive empire, but you
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  realize their foundation is rotting because it's completely
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  disconnected from eternity. It is a totally different
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  perspective. Establishing this historical
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  disparity forces us to look closely at how Moses, the author
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  of Genesis, strategically framed this information for the
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  Israelites. He did not just casually drop a
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  list of Edomite names into the text.
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  He wrote it with a very specific targeted phrase.
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  The phrasing is absolutely vital, verse 31 reads.
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  These are the kings who reigned in the land of Edom before any
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  king reigned over the Israelites, right?
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  That single sentence functions as the interpretive key for the
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  entire section. Moses is deliberately holding up
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  the Edomite monarchy as a contrast to Israel's future
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  destiny. And our sources highlight that
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  this specific phrase, before any king reigned over the
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  Israelites, is an absolute magnet for controversy among
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  certain academic circles. It is the epicenter of a major
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  debate regarding biblical authorship.
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  Liberal critical scholars, specifically those operating
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  under the Documentary Hypothesis popularized by men like Julius
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  Welhausen in the 19th century, point to that exact phrase and
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  claim it is an anachronism. Let's unpack the documentary
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  hypothesis briefly so the listener understands the
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  opposing view. Sure, the Documentary Hypothesis
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  is a framework that argues the first five books of the Bible
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  were not written by Moses, but were pieced together much later
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  by various anonymous editors over centuries.
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  When these scholars read the phrase before any king reigned
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  over the Israelites, their philosophical presuppositions
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  kick in. They argue that Moses, living in
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  the wilderness long before Israel ever had a king, could
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  not possibly have written this. Because he would not know about
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  it. Exactly.
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  They assume a later editor living during the time of King
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  Saul or King David must have inserted this verse to explain
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  Edom's history to a later generation.
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  Their fundamental assumption is that predictive prophecy is
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  impossible. Because if predictive prophecy
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  is impossible, then Moses couldn't know about future
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  Israeli kings, so someone else must have written it after the
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  fact. It is a conclusion driven
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  entirely by an anti supernatural bias.
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  Spot on. Our sources categorically reject
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  that view, arguing that it undermines the inspiration and
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  authority of the text. Mesis was not writing an
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  anachronism. He was writing with clear
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  prophetic foresight. We have to look back at the
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  patriarchal promises. God explicitly told Abraham, and
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  later Jacob, that king shall come from you.
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  This was bedrock covenantal expectation.
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  So Moses knew it was coming. Yes.
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  Who is this new the theological trajectory?
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  He knew Israel was destined for a monarchy.
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  So when he writes this verse, he is not recording a historical
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  surprise. He is deliberately setting up a
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  theological contrast between Edom's current carnal reality
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  and Israel's promised holy destiny.
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  Imagine the psychological weight of hearing this text read aloud
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  in the wilderness. You are an Israelite sitting in
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  the dust at Kadesh Barnia. You are tired, the man is
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  getting old, and Moses stands up and reads this genealogy.
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  Yeah, just imagine that. These are the kings who reigned
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  in Edom before any king reigned over the Israelites.
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  The sources pose A fascinating question.
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  Would this sound like a taunt from a rival nation or a divine
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  promise calling for patience? It depends entirely on the
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  spiritual condition of the listener.
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  For the fleshly mind, the carnal mind that judges entirely by
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  sight, it would absolutely sound like a tongue.
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  Oh, for sure, it would sting. It would highlight their current
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  vulnerability and their lack of outward glory.
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  The weary Israelite would hear that list of powerful kings and
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  feel the crushing weight of the delay.
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  They would think, Why are we out here eating dust while Esau
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  wears a crown? But to the spiritual mind.
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  To the spiritual mind, the mind attuned to the covenant, it
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  functions as an ironclad promise.
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  It is Moses saying, look at the descendants of Esau.
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  God kept His word to them regarding temporal things.
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  He gave them these earthly kings.
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  If God is that faithful to a reprobate line regarding
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  temporary matters, how much more certainly will He keep His
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  covenant word to you, giving you the true lasting king?
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  Wow. It was a severe test of faith
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  demanding that they stop equating outward development
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  with actual divine blessing. It forces them to look past the
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  immediate horizon. Having grasped that prophetic
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  tension in Moses words, we need to examine the specific
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  vocabulary he uses to describe Edom's rule.
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  Because, as our sources point out, the words reveal the true
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  violent nature of their Kingdom. They really do.
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  There is a linguistic shift in the Hebrew text that we cannot
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  ignore. The linguistic shift is a
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  brilliant indicator of how Edom developed politically.
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  In the earlier parts of Genesis 36, the leaders of Esau's line
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  are referred to with the Hebrew word aloof.
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  OK, This translates roughly to chief Duke or clan leader.
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  It describes A decentralized tribal, nomadic structure.
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  It is a society based on extended family units rather
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  than a centralized state. Right.
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  But when we hit verse 31, the text abruptly shifts to the word
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  melik. Melik, meaning king, the
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  absolute monarch. Yes, Melik is the standard
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  Hebrew word for a soft king. This signals a formal structural
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  transition in Edomite society. They have moved away from
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  tribalism. They have adopted A formalized
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  secular statecraft. Do they have courts and armies
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  now? Yes, they have an organized
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  administration, a standing military and centralized
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  authority. The authorial decision to use
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  Malik here highlights that Edom has eagerly adopted the
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  political structures of the surrounding Pagan nations.
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  They have built a Kingdom of man relying entirely on human might
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  and coercion. And when you look at the men who
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  actually held that title of Melek, the men who wore the
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  crown, the picture gets incredibly dark.
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  Very dark. The text lists 8 specific kings.
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  We have Bella, Jobab, Husham, Haddad, Samla, Saul, Balhanan
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  and Haddar. Our sources draw a lot of
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  attention to the details surrounding these names.
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  What was most striking about this list is what is missing.
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  There is absolutely no dynastic succession.
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  Not at all. In a stable, divinely sanctioned
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  monarchy, you expect to see a crown pass from father to son in
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  a continuous, unbroken line that provides national stability.
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  But these eight men do not follow that pattern.
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  They come from entirely different lineages.
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  Moreover, they rule from entirely different cities.
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  We see the text specifically mentioned in Haba, Bozra, Aviv,
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  Mazreka, Rehoboth and Pao. So a new king rises to power and
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  he completely moves the capital to his own hometown.
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  Yeah, that's a great way to put it.
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  This indicates a Kingdom characterized by extreme
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  instability and internal warfare.
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  It strongly suggests that these kings took power through
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  military crises, violent usurpation or aggressive
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  political assassinations. Wow.
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  We even have a brief historical note embedded in the text about
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  Haddad, who struck down Midian in the country of Moab.
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  This proves Edom was a formidable, warring state
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  engaging in regional conflicts, right?
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  But the utter lack of dynastic continuity reveals the
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  fractured, brutal nature of a Kingdom built on human pride.
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  It is a system built on ruthless ambition and the survival of the
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  fittest. I'm going to play devil's
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  advocate again here because a secular historian looking at
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  this data might draw a completely different conclusion.
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  We are framing the fact that these 8 kings came from
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  different cities as a sign of violent instability, but
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  couldn't someone argue that this was actually a highly functional
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  meritocracy? If a dynasty passes strictly
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  from father to son, you often end up with incompetent, weak
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  rulers. But if the Crown goes to the
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  strongest, most capable military leader in the region, regardless
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  of which city he comes from, maybe Eden was actually
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  utilizing a superior, decentralized method of
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  selecting the best possible executive.
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  Right, I see where you're going. Why do our sources assume it was
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  chaotic usurpation rather than a calculated functional system of
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  government? That is an excellent pushback,
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  and from a strictly utilitarian sociological standpoint, a
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  meritocratic oligarchy can indeed produce short term
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  national strength, right? We see that in various ancient
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  empires where military generals seized power and expanded
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  borders. However, the linguistic cues in
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  the Hebrew text, along with the broader theological context of
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  Genesis, push back against that theory of peaceful meritocracy.
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  Oh so. The Hebrew narrative
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  deliberately utilizes a specific grammatical construction to
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  highlight the relentless terminal nature of these reigns.
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  Oh, you're talking about the rhythm of the text, The law
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  consecutive. Yes, the Washington consecutive
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  is a specific syntactic tool in biblical Hebrew.
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  Generally, when you attach the conjunction Washington, which
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  means and, to a verb and change the vowel pointing, it flips the
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  tense and creates a chain of sequential actions.
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  It creates A narrative velocity. Action A happened and then
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  action B and then action C In Genesis 36, Moses uses this to
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  create a relentless, suffocating drum beat.
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  The word used over and over is waiama, which means and he died.
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  The text literally reads Bella reigned.
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  Well wait, let me phrase it properly.
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  Bella reigned and he died. Jobab reigned in his place and
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  he died. Husham reigned and he died.
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  It is an obituary structure. It echoes the genealogy of
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  Genesis chapter 5, the line from Adam where the repeated refrain
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  is. And he died pointing out the
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  universal curse of sin. Wow.
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  Yeah, Moses applies that exact same structural rhythm to the
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  glorious kings of Edom. It creates the feeling of a
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  frantic, lethal game of musical chairs played by ruthless
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  politicians. That is a great analogy.
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  The music plays, someone scrambles for the throne, they
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  grab the power, they build the walls of Bosra or Dinhaba, and
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  then the music stops at the grave.
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  Wyoming, over and over again. Yeah.
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  No matter how high the throne in Edom, no matter how fortified
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  the city in Mount Cyr, the scepter is continually shattered
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  by the curse of death. Which completely dismantles the
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  illusion of their strength. The world looks at Edom and says
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  wow, look at all those kings. Look at all those capital
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  cities. They are an economic and
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  military powerhouse. Right.
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  But Moses is pointing out that having to constantly replace
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  kings from different cities is not a sign of stability.
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  It is undeniable proof of failure.
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  Exactly. Every time a new king from a new
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  city takes the throne, it simply highlights the fact that the
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  previous king succumbed to mortality.
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  They could conquer Midian, but they could not conquer the
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  grave. Their kingship was purely
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  horizontal. It was carnal.
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  It was completely disconnected from the source of eternal life.
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  They were men of dust, building Thrones of dust.
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  The rapid ascent to political power was matched by an equally
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  rapid descent into the dirt. The.
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  Inescapable reality of death for these earthly monarchs demands
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  that we zoom out. We have to look at the broader
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  theological framework of how God governs the rise and fall of
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  nations. Yes, we do.
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  How do we make sense world where God allows violent carnal men to
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  build temporary empires? Our sources bring in the
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  Westminster Confession to answer this.
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  Yes, our sources lean heavily on post Reformation theology,
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  specifically the Westminster Confession of Faith Chapter 5,
• 18:56
  which deals extensively with the doctrine of Divine Providence.
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  A crucial chapter. It is essential for
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  understanding the text. The Confession teaches that God,
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  the Great Creator of all things, upholds, directs, disposes, and
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  governs all creatures, actions and things, from the greatest
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  even to the least. Meaning nothing operates outside
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  of his control. Not a single Edomite king took
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  the throne without God's explicit decree.
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  Precisely, the Confession states that God governs all things by
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  His entirely wise and holy Providence, according to His
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  infallible foreknowledge and the free and immutable counsel of
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  His own will. This means Edom's rapid rise to
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  political dominance, their control of the copper mines,
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  their usurpation of the trade routes, all of it was decreed by
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  God. He permitted the reprobate lion
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  a season of earthly glory. But the question is why?
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  Why give the wicked the corner office?
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  Why give the unrighteous the billionaire valuation?
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  To accomplish His holy, unsearchable ends, the authors
• 19:54
  of our material point out that God sometimes grants immediate
• 19:57
  worldly prosperity to those outside the covenant.
• 20:00
  To demonstrate the fleeting, hollow nature of such wealth, He
• 20:04
  gives them the crown to show the universe how useless a crown is
• 20:07
  if it ends in the grave. Simultaneously, he uses that
• 20:11
  very reality to discipline, test, and refine His chosen
• 20:15
  people. The text makes a razor sharp
• 20:17
  distinction between temporal greatness and covenant
• 20:20
  inheritance. Edom had the visible success,
• 20:24
  but they did not have the promise.
• 20:26
  Israel had the promise, but they lacked the visible success.
• 20:29
  The challenge for the believer is learning to value the
• 20:32
  invisible eternal promise over the visible temporary success.
• 20:36
  And let's be honest, that is incredibly difficult to do in
• 20:39
  practice. We are wired to judge by sight.
• 20:41
  It is the defining struggle of the Christian life.
• 20:43
  The carnal mind judges by sight physical strength, speed of
• 20:46
  acquisition and social influence.
• 20:48
  The Israelites in the wilderness looked up at the red heights of
• 20:51
  Sere, saw the established order, and felt intense envy.
• 20:55
  When we envy the wicked, we are essentially saying we prefer
• 20:58
  their temporary dying portion over our eternal living
• 21:01
  inheritance. We are forgetting the refrain.
• 21:03
  Weiama and he died. Let's apply this directly.
• 21:07
  The sources pose a really uncomfortable question for
• 21:10
  anyone listening. How should a believer handle the
• 21:13
  frustration of watching the wicked prosper today?
• 21:15
  It is a great question. Go to work.
• 21:18
  You try to live faithfully, ethically, honoring God in your
• 21:20
  business practices, and the person in the cubicle next to
• 21:23
  you who lies, cheats and steps on people gets the promotion.
• 21:28
  The secular company, ignoring every biblical principle, makes
• 21:31
  billions, while the faithful Christian business struggles
• 21:34
  just to keep the lights on. How do we stop our minds from
• 21:37
  acquitting that immediate, visible success with God's
• 21:40
  blessing? Our sources argue that we must
• 21:43
  anchor our minds in a terrifying theological truth.
• 21:46
  Rapid, unchecked success is often the most severe form of
• 21:49
  divine judgement. Wait, success is judgement.
• 21:52
  Explain that mechanism. Theologians refer to it as being
• 21:54
  given over to 1's own desires. When God allows the unrighteous
• 21:58
  to prosper without restraint, without the discipline of
• 22:01
  failure or hardship, He is allowing them to build a
• 22:04
  monument to their own mortality. Oh wow.
• 22:07
  He is giving them exactly what they want, the world at the cost
• 22:10
  of their souls. To stop equating success with
• 22:13
  blessing, the believer must immerse themselves in the
• 22:16
  reality of eternity. We have to view the corner
• 22:18
  office, the billion dollar valuation, and the cultural
• 22:21
  dominance through the lens of the grave, right?
• 22:24
  If a success does not survive death, it is not a true
• 22:27
  blessing. It is a temporary anesthesia.
• 22:30
  So the delay in the believer's life is actually a grace.
• 22:32
  Absolutely. God's delay in your life is not
• 22:34
  divine forgetfulness. He is actively training your
• 22:37
  faith to rest in His eternal Word, not in your temporary
• 22:40
  circumstances. He withholds the Edomite crown,
• 22:43
  so you will desire the Heavenly Crown.
• 22:46
  Recognizing that God sovereignly ordains these temporary kingdoms
• 22:49
  of dust leads to ask a much larger question.
• 22:52
  If the kings of Edom are temporary, what kind of king is
• 22:55
  God preparing for his own people?
• 22:57
  The tree king, right? This brings us to the most vital
• 23:00
  part of our deep dive, the Christ connection.
• 23:03
  We are contrasting the eternal scepter with the Thrones of
• 23:07
  dust. The contrast here is the
• 23:09
  absolute heartbeat of redemptive history.
• 23:12
  Edom had a monarchy, an impressive political structure,
• 23:16
  but our sources highlight a glaring, fatal absence in their
• 23:20
  society. What?
• 23:21
  Was missing. They had kings, but they had no
• 23:23
  priests to intercede for their sins.
• 23:26
  They had no prophets to declare the unchangeable word of the
• 23:29
  living God. Their entire Kingdom was a
• 23:32
  purely horizontal secular enterprise.
• 23:34
  It was a machine built to manage human affairs, but it could not
• 23:37
  address the root problem of humanity, which is sin and
• 23:40
  death. The kings of Edom could win a
• 23:42
  localized battle against Midian, but they were entirely powerless
• 23:45
  against the curse of Genesis Chapter 3.
• 23:48
  This theological vacuum in Edom points us directly to the
• 23:51
  absolute necessity of Jesus Christ.
• 23:53
  The authors argue that Christ is the definitive answer to the
• 23:56
  Edomite obituary. He fulfills the offices that
• 23:59
  Edom entirely lacked. The reformers called this the
• 24:01
  Munis triplex, the Threefold Office.
• 24:04
  Yes, Christ is the true prophet, speaking the final authoritative
• 24:08
  word of God. He is the great High Priest,
• 24:11
  offering himself as the perfect atoning sacrifice for sin, and
• 24:15
  He is the eternal King, possessing the authority of an
• 24:18
  endless life. He defeats the very death that
• 24:21
  claimed every single name on the Edomite list.
• 24:24
  The relentless rhythm of way a mock and he died stops
• 24:28
  permanently with the resurrection of Jesus.
• 24:30
  The grave could not hold him. Unlike the Edomite rulers who
• 24:33
  passed their fractured Kingdom to violent usurpers, Christ's
• 24:36
  reign is completely unchangeable.
• 24:38
  His obedience, his suffering, and his victorious resurrection
• 24:41
  provide the bedrock for a throne that cannot be shaken.
• 24:45
  Now our sources bring in a fascinating theological nuance
• 24:48
  regarding the future scope of this Kingdom.
• 24:50
  The text notes a dispensational and premillennial perspective
• 24:53
  held by some scholars. Yes, that is an interesting
• 24:56
  angle. This view suggests that the
• 24:57
  physical Kingdom promises made to the nation of Israel, the
• 25:00
  literal earthly reign, are not simply spiritualized away.
• 25:04
  Rather, these scholars argue that those promises will find
• 25:07
  literal fulfillment in the future millennial reign of
• 25:09
  Christ on earth. That perspective highlights the
• 25:12
  vast difference in methodologies between the Kingdom of man and
• 25:16
  the Kingdom of God. Edom tried to build an earthly
• 25:19
  Kingdom through human will, military might, and political
• 25:22
  strategy, and it crumbled. But the true physical Kingdom,
• 25:26
  the one that actually lasts and brings true justice to the
• 25:29
  earth, is reserved solely for the Messiah.
• 25:32
  Christ returns to establish a Kingdom that brings all nations
• 25:35
  under righteous subjection. The worldly crowns we see today
• 25:39
  are currently being cast into the dust, but the crown of
• 25:41
  Christ will shine with literal glory.
• 25:45
  If we look at the broader flow of Genesis, there is a brilliant
• 25:47
  literary connection we can make. We are in Genesis 36 right now
• 25:51
  looking at Edom's early kings, right?
• 25:52
  But just a few chapters later, in Genesis 49, the patriarch
• 25:56
  Jacob gathers his sons to give them his final prophetic
• 25:59
  blessing, and he gives a massive promise regarding a royal
• 26:02
  scepter. He says the scepter will not
• 26:04
  depart from Judah. It is a stunning shift.
• 26:06
  So Edom gets the kings early in historical visibility, but the
• 26:10
  true royal promise, the redemptive destiny, is
• 26:13
  decisively and permanently given to the line of Judah.
• 26:17
  The contrast between Edom and Judah is a master class in
• 26:20
  biblical theology. Edom's kingship is immediate.
• 26:23
  It is highly visible and it is entirely earthly.
• 26:27
  Judah's promised kingship is covenantal, it is
• 26:30
  forward-looking, and it is inextricably bound to the saving
• 26:33
  purpose of God. The Holy Spirit is teaching the
• 26:36
  reader to differentiate between massive political structures and
• 26:39
  actual messianic significance. Not every throne is the throne
• 26:43
  of promise. And think about how Christ, the
• 26:45
  Lion of the tribe of Judah, flips the Edomite model
• 26:48
  completely upside down. The kings of Edom seize power.
• 26:52
  They take cities by force. They strike down their enemies
• 26:54
  to secure their throne. Yes, very violent.
• 26:57
  But the King from the line of Judah comes in humiliation.
• 27:00
  He comes in perfect obedience to the Father.
• 27:02
  He submits to an agonizing, atoning death on a cross.
• 27:05
  He doesn't take life to build his Kingdom.
• 27:07
  He lays down his own life. And through that humiliation, he
• 27:11
  secures a Kingdom that the Edomite warlords could never
• 27:14
  even fathom. That is the staggering beauty of
• 27:16
  the gospel. The true king does not arrive in
• 27:18
  the splendor of worldly triumph or military conquest.
• 27:22
  He comes to bear the curse of sin.
• 27:24
  Right. The carnal world expects a king
• 27:26
  who conquers by shedding the blood of his political enemies.
• 27:29
  Christ conquers the cosmos by shedding his own blood for his
• 27:32
  enemies. This completely shatters our
• 27:35
  human assumptions about what true might and authority look
• 27:38
  like. Understanding Christ as the true
• 27:40
  eternal King demands A radical shift in how we function today.
• 27:45
  It completely alters how the Church operates in the present
• 27:48
  age, because we are constantly tempted to look at the world's
• 27:52
  success and copy it. We really are.
• 27:54
  Our sources take this historical contrast and apply it directly
• 27:58
  to a massive debate happening in the modern church.
• 28:01
  They argue that many congregations today are actively
• 28:04
  utilizing what we could call the Edomite strategy.
• 28:07
  The authors of our material are fiercely critical of modern
• 28:10
  ecclesiastical pragmatism. The Edomite strategy is a severe
• 28:13
  temptation for church leadership.
• 28:15
  Absolutely. We look at the massive secular
• 28:17
  corporations, the successful marketing campaigns, the
• 28:20
  cultural influencers with millions of followers and the
• 28:22
  thought process becomes if we just adopt their corporate
• 28:25
  methods, we can build the Kingdom of God faster and more
• 28:28
  efficiently. It is the driving philosophy
• 28:31
  behind the seeker sensitive movement.
• 28:32
  Yes, it is the temptation to measure spiritual vitality by
• 28:36
  rapid numerical expansion, by cultural relevance, by the size
• 28:40
  of the campus, or by how much influence a church has in the
• 28:43
  secular public square. Right.
• 28:45
  It is an attempt to build a spiritual Kingdom using the
• 28:48
  blunt tools of the flesh. The sources specifically
• 28:51
  identify this reliance on human ingenuity as an Armenian error
• 28:55
  in methodology. Let's unpack that term Armenian
• 28:58
  error, because some listeners might hear that and wonder how a
• 29:01
  historical theological debate about free will connects to
• 29:05
  modern church marketing. What is the mechanism connecting
• 29:08
  those two concepts? It connects fundamentally at the
• 29:10
  level of human agency. Arminianism, broadly speaking,
• 29:14
  places a heavy emphasis on human free will and the decisive
• 29:17
  ability of the individual to choose or reject grace.
• 29:20
  Right. The choice is king.
• 29:21
  The sources argue that if human choice is the ultimate decisive
• 29:24
  factor in salvation, then the logical, pragmatic conclusion is
• 29:28
  that the church must utilize every possible sociological,
• 29:32
  psychological, and marketing tool to persuade that choice.
• 29:35
  The Sunday service ceases to be a gathering for the worship of a
• 29:38
  sovereign God and becomes an optimized production designed to
• 29:42
  generate a specific human response.
• 29:44
  So you start acting like you need to usurp a city just like
• 29:47
  the kings of Edom, using lights, smoke, and marketing
• 29:50
  demographics rather than trusting the quiet work of the
• 29:54
  Holy Spirit through the Word. Exactly when the Church adopts
• 29:58
  the Edomite strategy, it may gain a massive crowd.
• 30:00
  It may build the ecclesiastical equivalent of bozra or dinhaba,
• 30:04
  but it loses the covenantal presence of God.
• 30:07
  It trades the divinely ordained means of grace for the hollow
• 30:11
  metrics of the corporate world. Let's pull a Westminster
• 30:14
  Confession back into the conversation, specifically
• 30:16
  Chapter 19, which focuses on the law of God.
• 30:20
  The authors use the third use of the law to change our motivation
• 30:23
  for action entirely. How does this correct the
• 30:26
  Edomite strategy? The third use of the law teaches
• 30:29
  that the moral law functions as a rule of life for believers.
• 30:32
  We are justified by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ
• 30:36
  alone. Therefore, our obedience to the
• 30:38
  law is not a frantic attempt to earn a Kingdom or build an
• 30:41
  empire. We do not obey God to gain a
• 30:44
  crown the way an Edomite king fought for a city.
• 30:47
  We obey out of profound well, out of immense gratitude,
• 30:50
  because we are already secure citizens of a heavenly Kingdom.
• 30:54
  Our motivation is completely inverted.
• 30:55
  Yes, the Edomite kings labored and killed for a throne of dust
• 31:00
  that they would inevitably lose, the Christian laborers and quiet
• 31:04
  faithful obedience because they belong to the eternal King who
• 31:07
  has already secured the victory. The sources pose a really
• 31:10
  piercing application for the listener.
• 31:12
  Based on this, we have to look closely at our own lives, our
• 31:15
  career trajectories and the goals we set for our families.
• 31:19
  The question we have to ask ourselves is are we using
• 31:22
  worldly, pragmatic strategies to build our own little Kingdom of
• 31:25
  dust? Are we exhausting ourselves
• 31:27
  trying to secure a legacy that is just going to end with an
• 31:29
  obituary? It is a sobering thought.
• 31:31
  Or are we resting in the ordinary means of grace?
• 31:34
  Are we finding our identity in the Word, in the sacraments, in
• 31:38
  quiet, faithful obedience? It is the difference between
• 31:41
  acting like an Edomite trying to grab the nearest passing crown
• 31:45
  and acting like a secure heir to an eternal promise.
• 31:48
  Those are the questions that expose the true affections of
• 31:51
  the heart. The authors point out that the
• 31:53
  definitive antidote to worldly envy, the absolute cure for our
• 31:57
  relentless desire to build Edomite kingdoms, is found in
• 32:01
  our corporate worship. Yes, specifically it is found at
• 32:05
  the Lord's Supper. Connect that for us.
• 32:07
  How does taking Communion defeat the Edomite strategy?
• 32:10
  The elements of the Lord's Table, the bread and the cup,
• 32:13
  are tangible, physical refutations of earthly power.
• 32:17
  When you come to the Lord's Table, you're participating in a
• 32:19
  visible word that shatters the illusion of carnal dominion.
• 32:23
  At the table, we do not commune with a dead Prince.
• 32:26
  We do not celebrate a military conqueror whose reign ended in a
• 32:29
  grave in the desert. We feast with a resurrected and
• 32:32
  currently reigning Lord. You are holding a symbol of a
• 32:35
  broken body which the world views is absolute failure, but
• 32:39
  which is actually the source of all life.
• 32:41
  The Edomite kings would look at a crucifixion and mock it.
• 32:44
  They would say that is what happens when we do not build a
• 32:47
  fortress and raise an army, but the Lord's Supper lifts our eyes
• 32:51
  away from the temporary geopolitical and corporate
• 32:54
  struggles of our day and fixes them on the permanent reality of
• 32:58
  Christ's eternal Kingdom. It is the definitive rejection
• 33:01
  of the Edomite strategy because it publicly declares that our
• 33:04
  life, our strength and our future comes solely from the
• 33:07
  crucified and risen Christ. It reorients our entire value
• 33:12
  system. We stopped looking at the red
• 33:14
  heights of Mount Seir and we look to the holy hill of Mount
• 33:17
  Zion. As we wrap up this deep dive,
• 33:20
  let's summarize the massive historical and theological
• 33:23
  tension we have been analyzing from our sources.
• 33:25
  Sounds good. On one side of the Ledger we
• 33:27
  have the rapid, glittering, but in the end terminal glory of
• 33:29
  Edom. They got the kings, the cities,
• 33:32
  the wealth, the trade routes, and then the music stopped and
• 33:34
  they died. On the other side, we have the
• 33:36
  delayed, patient, eternal glory of Israel, a glory that is not
• 33:41
  found in political structures but is decisively and
• 33:44
  permanently fulfilled in the person and work of Jesus Christ.
• 33:48
  The tension resolves fully in the resurrection.
• 33:50
  The delay Israel experienced was not a denial of God's love.
• 33:54
  It was a necessary preparation for a glory that outlasts the
• 33:58
  physical world. Which leaves us with a final
• 34:00
  thought to ponder based on the material we have unpacked.
• 34:03
  We talked earlier about that agonizing feeling of being stuck
• 34:06
  in a tent while the world speeds ahead and builds mansions,
• 34:08
  right? What if the frustrating delay in
• 34:10
  your life right now is actually the mercy of God?
• 34:13
  What if He is sovereignly protecting you from achieving
• 34:16
  the terminal hollow success of Edom specifically so that your
• 34:20
  heart remains hungry for the eternal Kingdom of Christ?
• 34:23
  A staggering thought to take with us as we evaluate our own
• 34:25
  definitions of success. Thank you for joining us on this
• 34:28
  deep dive. Keep your eyes on the true King.
• 34:31
  We will catch you next time.