“These are the generations of Esau (that is, Edom).”
– Genesis 36:1
The rest of this chapter, after Genesis 36:1, just is a list of names of the family line that comes from Esau. As I read through it, all these different names, I can’t help but to think about how all of them are in some sense affected by the decisions that Esau made. As you read through Genesis, and you see him sell his birthright to Jacob, for example. In that moment of weakness, that sin would not just affect him. It would affect all of the descendants that would come after him in some way. I just think about that in my life.
Genesis 36:1 Reminds Parents That They Affect Their Kid’s Faith
I’m a dad to four kids, and I know my life, my relationship with God, has an effect on those four kids. How I walk, or don’t walk, with God will have an effect on them. I’m not naïve enough to think that I can guarantee what’s going to happen in every one of their lives, if I live this way or that way, but I know that there’s a direct affect correlation between my relationship with God, and the way I parent them. And, the way they will grow up and be raised to be the men, and the woman that they will be.
Oh, that just drives me to my knees in prayer. I hope you are the same when you realize your life, whether you’re a mom or dad with kids, grandparents with kids and grandkids, or just in any one of our lives. Our relationship with God affects the people around us. Let’s not forget that. It’s not just about you and me growing in personal relationship with God, but our relationships with God have bearing on the way others perceive God, on the way others grow, or don’t grow in God.
Genesis 36:1 Leads Us to Pray For Our Faith To Be Strengthened
We have an effect on others, so we pray, God, help us. Help us, we pray, to grow in holiness. In all the ways we’re praying as we walk through Genesis, help us to walk in purity with you. Help us to worship you, not just for ourselves. Not just so that we might know you, but God, so that others might know you. So that others might walk with you. God, I pray for this for myself, for Heather my wife, for all kinds of husbands, wives, moms, dads, grandparents who have kids. God please help us to walk with you in a way that helps our children and grandchildren know how to walk with you. Oh God, we want them to walk in holiness, so help us to walk in holiness. We want them to experience abundant life in you, so help us to turn from sin, and experience abundant life in you. Help us to make wise decisions, good godly decisions toward that end. God, I pray for that, for every single one of our lives.
This Verse Leads Us to Pray For Our Lives To Point Others To God
We are influencing people around us every day. God help us to point them to you with the way we are living. Help us to live not just for our sake, and for our own growth in Christ, but for other’s sake. For others to grow in relationship with you. Even those who are not Christians. God, we pray for our non-Christian friends and family members, God, that you would draw them to yourself through our lives. God, may there be fruit in other’s lives as a result of our growth in relationship with you. Our growth in likeness to Christ. God, may it be so, we pray. In Jesus name, amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
